Sorry to hijack the high praise you've gotten here (I agree with it!) But I want to knooooow - have you shared anything in the past on self-publishing? I'm going to finish my anthology of speculative fiction at some point, and after doing research into the domestic market, literary agents, publishing houses interested in my content, and the sheer timeframes involved, I wanna put staples and glue into paper myself.

Years ago, I did a thing where I used KDP to publish a novella, but never got any traction. It flew silently into the night like so much creative effort. Then I took it down, its still somewhere in my blockchain history.

The importance of connection you speak about here is something that I am mildly obsessed with. Story is how we connect with others, and I've never felt better about my writing than when I get to read (or hear) people's reactions to it.