And then as I was getting the kids ready for bed, I started thinking about the next story. (Not the sex bits -- trying to write erotica while Diego is on is just...bad. Very bad.) But I very quickly had a bit of plot, and a strong sense of the character (intensely frustrated graduate students are a terrific source of tension, god love 'em), not to mention the urge to write the thing. Which I'm going to go do in a minute. And I had the linkage to the previous story, and then, moments later, I had the linkage to the next story, with the protagonist and the basics of that plot, and then the linkage to story number four, and a character for it too.
All of which is just -- whew. Four stories in a day! This is making me think that maybe it will actually be a ton of fun to write this science fiction erotica thingamadoodle. Yay.
Have I mentioned I LOVE linked story collections? Maybe I will just write nothing else from now on. (Reading Olive Kitteredge now. One story in, good.)