The first collection in the “Adventures of Little Red Bear” series of short stories is moving right along.  From the beginning, I have thought six stories would be a good number for the first collection.  Half a dozen.  It’s a good number.  Red and I have finished with four of his first adventures, are nearing completion on the fifth story, and have had the sixth and final story for the first collection planned for awhile now and are ready to get busy on it.

But that’s the problem.  Story ideas usually come to me somewhere around 5am.  I wake up from sleeping and BAMM!  A new story idea is writing itself in my mind, or new story characters are chattering away in my head.  But the ideas don’t always arrive with the morning sun.  Sometimes they come out of nowhere, like yesterday afternoon.  Without thinking about it, a new story idea popped into my head that would make a very nice ending story for the first collection, too.  It involves this guy.

Honey Bee Carrying Pollen Back to the Hive

So now, what to do?  Hold it over for the next story collection?  It’s one of those that is almost writing itself, wanting to be told.  Hold what was previously planned for the final adventure over, and go with the new one?  Red and I already have more than enough adventures planned for the second collection of stories, so holding either one over creates a cascading domino effect of which adventure gets pushed out of the second collection then?  Or, include both and expand the first collection to seven stories?  Good grief.

I love it when new ideas and story characters come to mind, although sometimes it can be problematic.  But like we always say, there’s always room for one more.  Guess Little Red Bear and I need to sit down later over some biscuits and honey and figure this out.