Update on the short story collection

  My wife and I have finally decided which eight stories to publish and even have a theoretical order to put them all into. Over the next several weeks, as each story nears completion (which means being completely rewritten at least 3 times), one of us will be posting about the story and giving a sneak peak as to what exactly the story is about, what inspired it, and how it fits into this collection. We will also need a few beta readers when we've put the almost-final draft of the collection together, so let us know if you're interested.
  Here is the list of stories (though neither their location in this list nor their names may actually by final):
1 - Neverland (his)
2 - Middle of the Desert (hers)
3 - Lifeblood (his)
4 - Slip (hers)
5 - Nyctophobia (his)
6 - The Bathtub (hers)
7 - On the Wing (his)
8 - The Boy (hers)
  This collection's genre will probably be considered Modern Realistic Fiction, which basically means the stories are written in the modern style (preset day grammar, comparisons, literary devices, etc), and all the stories could theoretically happen in real life, though some are a bit more far fetched than others.
  Some of the stories are more whimsical than others, and some are certainly darker than others, as the subjects addressed in a few concern heavily disturbed people or very traumatic circumstances. The reason for some of these darker stories is thus: My wife and I are enthralled with the idea of moral fiction and the fact that everyone has a choice, which basically means that on occasion we explore exactly how far someone can go before they break. And if (usually rarely) the person(s) are able to redeem themselves or not. Thus some of the stories explore a darker side of humanity that is not always child friendly. However, we attempted to balance out all of the stories as much as possible so they hopefully are still enjoyable. Please feel free to ask questions and comment as you like.

Profession: Novelist

     I have always wanted to tell someone that my occupation/profession was a novelist, but that time hasn't come yet. I'm still more or less unpublished when it comes to creative fiction (meaning I've been published in newspapers and magazines as part of nonfiction stories). My wife always had the goal of being published before she was twenty, and she reached that goal on May 29th, 2015 when she self-published a short collection of poems through Amazon. I turned twenty over a month ago, and am still yet to be really published. I have goals however, and I am hoping to self-publish before I start college classes again at the end of September.
    My wife and I are working together to publish a collection of eight short stories. At this point, we have titled it "What It All Means: The Red Collection". She will write four short stories, and I will write four. The themes are: Love, Guilt, Honor, and Blood. At this time, we have a number of short stories written and are trying to decide which ones to include in the collection, as well as rewrite a few of the rawer ones.
     I know this isn't a novel, but this is a sure start. I'm also creating a website from scratch to publicize our work. Then I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it all takes off from there. And even if it doesn't, I have other stories in the works, and can always shoot to be professionally published by the time I'm thirty.