PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING MARCH 30, 2019

Okay...
It took me a couple of days thinking, but I believe I have a NEW plot to base a SHERLOCK HOLMES tale on!

Now usually, I like to keep my plots fairly open so that if a new idea occurs to me while I'm writing, that there is the possibility of using it in the current project.
However, I have found from past experience working on HUGH MONN, PRIVATE DETECTIVE that when it comes to mystery stories, you need to have an even more detailed plot than you would on any other type of adventure because you need to have all your clues, suspects, motives, alibis, etc; organized for the reader to solve the case with the detective(s).

A plot's plotting

This seems to be especially true with Sherlock Holmes.
Maybe it's from working with such a prestigious character.
Maybe it's just because, since I'm writing such a well known character, that I feel that every word of every sentence has to be as perfect as humanly possible.
After all, regardless of the job and the task, who wants to willingly commit a mistake and make an @$$ out of themselves?

Readers, writers, other creative people. We're all human.
Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself "killed off" Sherlock Holmes once because he found the challenge of writing the Victorian era consulting detective difficult.

In any event, I do have a new plot now, so back to writing!
See you around the Internet.
Lee Houston, Junior
31 March, 2019

PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING MARCH 23, 2019

OKAY...
Have run into some problems of both a professional and personal nature.

Square 1, duh.

The professional ones involve the plot of what was to be the Sherlock Holmes adventure I was working on.
Basically, as is, it just isn't going to work, let alone be worthy of the famous Victorian Era consulting detective, so back to Square 1 on that.

The personal problems concern a friend, and are something I do not want to discuss publicly even if I had permission to do so.
I myself am alright. Just want to help someone through a tough period in their life right now, just not sure how.

Either way, I will try to get some writing done this coming week.
I am just uncertain on what at the moment.

In any event, take care, and I'll see you around the Internet.
Lee Houston, Junior
24 March, 2019

PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING MARCH 16, 2019

THIS AND THAT

Today is not only Saint Patrick's Day 🍀, it is also Saint Gertude's Day, the Patron Saint of Cats. 🐱
Whichever one you celebrate, please party responsibly.

My thanks to everyone who might have voted in the 2019 Pulp Factory Awards, but before you ask, I won't know who won until the results are made public. Like I said, I know several of the contenders and am keeping my fingers crossed for my friends, so we're just have to wait and see how it turns out.

Am working on a new Sherlock Holmes adventure for Airship 27 right now, but that project's still in the early stages.
I know basically what course the tale will take, but I don't even have a title for it right now.

Also have a couple of other ideas I am considering, but prefer to work on nothing without a specific deadline at the moment while I wait to hear if Jim Beard needs anything else from me concerning either "Zephyr Lily" or the 1970s anthology in general.

In any event, I better get back to writing now.
See you around the Internet.
Lee Houston, Junior
17 March, 2019

THE 2019 PULP FACTORY AWARDS BALLOT

I am foregoing my weekly Progress Report in favor of a

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

After much consideration and debate among its membership, the finalists for the 2019 Pulp Factory Awards, honoring the best Pulp material of 2018, have been announced.

The actual ballot is open to the public until the end of voting on FRIDAY MARCH 15!

You can make a selection in any or all of the five categories: Best Pulp Novel, Best Pulp Cover, Best Pulp Short Story, Best Pulp Interior Illustrations (and yes, some publishers are carrying on this classic pulp tradition of spot pictures to add an extra layer of detail to their products), and Best Pulp Anthology.

BUT ONLY ONE BALLOT PER PERSON!

Considering I know several of the candidates involved, I'm not saying anything else except you can click on the link in the original press release below to vote and I'm going back to writing now.
Take care.
lh,jr.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BALLOT FOR TENTH ANNUAL PULP FACTORY AWARDS OFFICIALLY RELEASED; VOTING NOW OPEN UNTIL 3/15/2019

AWARDS TO BE GIVEN OUT AT WINDY CITY PULP & PAPER CONVENTION, APRIL 12

With April’s Windy City Pulp and Paper Con approaching fast, the ballot for the 2019 Pulp Factory Awards – the Tenth Annual, to be handed out at the conference – has just opened up for voting by the reading public.

The ballot can be found online at https://goo.gl/forms/SnofAQANqFmOLW1l1

Voters have until Friday, March 15 to vote. You may vote in as many or all five of the categories as you wish, but you are limited to one vote per category. We are again using electronic ballot via Google forms.

Nominees in each category are as follows:

BEST PULP NOVEL

·         The Bay Phantom: Feast of the Cannibal Guild - Chuck Miller (Airship 27)

·         Jezebel Johnston: Mourning Star - Nancy A. Hansen (Airship 27)

·         Premium Delivery to the Centre of the Earth - I. A. Watson (Chillwater Press)

·         Vegas Heist - Van Allen Plexico (White Rocket Books)

BEST PULP COVER

·         Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Vol 12 – Rob Davis (Airship 27)

·         The Moon Man, Vol 2 – Mike Fyles (Airship 27)

·         Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Vol 11 – Laura Givens (Airship 27)

·         Jezebel Johnston: Mourning Star - Ted Hammond (Airship 27)

·         The Bay Phantom: Feast of Cannibals - Adam Shaw (Airship 27)

BEST PULP SHORT STORY

·         "Glass Devil" - Mel Odom - Bass Reeves, Frontier Marshal Vol 3  (Airship 27)

·         "The Hangman's Daughter" - I A Watson - Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective Vol 12 (Airship 27)

·         "Knights of the Silver Cross" - Gordon Dymowski - 1950s Western Roundup (Pro Se Productions)

·         "The Scotland Yard Murder" - I A Watson - Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective Vol 11 (Airship 27)

BEST PULP INTERIOR ILLUSTRATIONS

·         Ed Catto - The Adventures of Captain Graves (Airship 27)

·         Rob Davis - Jezebel Johnston, Mourning Star (Airship 27)

·         Rob Davis - Secret Agent X, Vol 6 (Airship 27)

·         Rob Davis - Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective, Vol 11 (Airship 27)

·         Rob Davis - Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective, Vol 12 (Airship 27)

·         Clayton Hinkle - Pulp Mythology (Airship 27)

BEST PULP ANTHOLOGY

·         The New Adventures of Richard Knight, Vol 3 (Pro Se Productions)

·         Secret Agent X, Vol 6 (Airship 27)

·         Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Vol 11 (Airship 27)

·         Tales of the Interstellar Bartenders Guild (Pro Se Productions)

After March 15, the committee will tally all of the electronic votes via https://goo.gl/forms/SnofAQANqFmOLW1l1

and the winners will be announced at the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center, outside Chicago, IL, on April 12, 2019.

Thank you for your interest, and looking forward to your votes!

PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING MARCH 2, 2019

CELEBRATE!

ZEPHYR LILY IS IN JIM BEARD'S HANDS NOW AS PART OF HIS UPCOMING 1970s ANTHOLOGY PROJECT!

I sweated over every word and punctuation mark in that tale, finishing close to 9,700 out of a 10,000 word limit and feel it's some of my best work to date.

Now, don't get me wrong.
I try to do my human best on EVERYTHING, but this one was near and dear to my heart, being based in the period when I was growing up and first discovered comic books.
I've previously mentioned both my love of the comic book genre and my wish that I could be a writer of them too, but this is about as close as (unfortunately) I'm gonna get for the foreseeable future.
While a straight prose story (no images), "Hunter/Prey" harkens back to the early days of Len Wein's Swamp Thing, Marv Wolfman's Tomb of Dracula, Sheldon Mayer's Black Orchid, and much more.

I hope I don't get whiplash as I "time travel" from the 1970s back to the far flung future to finish going over HUGH MONN, PRIVATE DETECTIVE, BOOK 3: FEMME FATALE next.
Unfortunately, I haven't gotten very far into that as I post this, so that will probably be most (if not all) of this week, especially since I'll be taking Tuesday off to celebrate my birthday!


So take care everyone, and I'll see you around the Internet.
Lee Houston, Junior
3 March, 2019