The Great Transfer - Speculative Separation

When it comes to my writing, I have two very different spheres of interest; I use my Horror sensibilities to write short stories and my Fantasy and Sci-Fi leanings in order to write my novels (yes, I've managed more than 1 now, technically).

I don't know why it's separated so. It could be the affects that H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King have had on my literary growth; Lovecraft wrote almost entirely in short stories or novellas and King placed great importance on them as well, having likened them to a kiss in the darkness from a stranger.

I came across them in reverse-chronological order, really; I have been reading King, including his short stories, since my library card first allowed me to take out adult books. My childhood was filled with the demons and creatures of his imagination, as well as many other's.

I've wanted to be a writer for so long now and I had always thought that I would be a Horror writer and getting into Lovecraft after having played a game of the Call of Cthulhu Tabletop RPG only reinforced this. I had started writing a novel already but that went ignored whilst, in any spare writing time I had, I worked on short stories.

However, something seemed to happen to me at about the age of 20; I started to stretch my imagination much more than I had done previously and started to design entire worlds and grand plots. It could have been the affect which playing in several, interesting Roleplaying games had on me, but I'm not exactly certain what it was.

Anyway, this splinter of my imagination began to grow and grow and I picked up the ignored novel again, to improve it and expand upon the basic ideas that I'd set out as a teenager. This would become my first novel, as twisted and pathetic as it is.

My imagination has, therefore, split amoeba-like into two equal parts. Every idea which I write down in my journal is qualified with an idea of where it would fit; tens of short stories and at least 4 novels lay in that journal, hoping like sub-writers to be published by the process of my writing.

I'm getting this out primarily because I've started to get comments on my work on the website Authonomy and am part of a strange little Cabal (the title of one of my short stories, oh how witty I am) of other, primarily short story writing, people on there and I feel as though I may almost betray them when I eventually put up my latest novel for their perusal, savaging or praise.

So, if any of them read this, at least they'll know that I feel a little guilty. Either that, or they'll think me an over-sensitive twat.