Sunday, September 26, 2021

PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 25, 2021

What can I say?
Sometimes the words come fast and furious. Other times it's more like the drip of a leaky faucet. They're there, but not at the rate/progress you'd prefer.
Basically, what the above boils down to is that while I'm still on the SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL, I'm not as far along as I would like to be.
I am blazing new trails on a new chapter and about to break the 50,000+ word mark though.
Wish I had more to say, but at least I'm writing.

Take care.
STAY SAFE!😷
And I'll see you around the Internet.

Lee Houston, Junior
26 September, 2021


Sunday, September 19, 2021

TWO NEW BOOKS FROM NANCY A. HANSEN!

You read the headline right folks! My Friendly Neighborhood Beta-Proofreader has had not one but TWO new books released lately.

FIRST...
Nancy teamed up with writer Roger Stegman to present MYSTICAL MAGICAL WAXY.

The mischievous little rainbow striped Companion Dragon is back.
Now that she lives with Roger 'Rusty' Rustman, a part time mage and story idea generator who Waxy calls Bubblehead, her presence in his life presents some interesting problems. Rusty travels often to places that have no name and he would prefer not to have anyone know his secrets. Unfortunately, there's an awful lot of trouble a curious little dragon can get into in a home where magic fills the air and can animate just about anything a young mind can imagine. Having Waxy around makes it that much harder for Rusty to remain an anonymous man minding his own business.

In the first tale, once she figures out how to follow Rusty through the computer-generated portal, Waxy finds herself on her own in the magical resort world of Atlantis, where not everyone is friendly or has her best interests at heart. Can Waxy turn a rival into an ally to fight back against an even worse enemy? In the second story, when Bubblehead brings home some pastries that are past their prime, those Bad Cookies decide they are going to conquer the otherworlds one at a time, and it's up to Waxy to stop them before they get to the portal. And then Waxy gets herself into even more mischief when she encounters a scary closet monster who is holding some innocent creatures hostage, and she winds up getting locked in with all of them in the dark.

How will poor Waxy get herself out of these troublesome and often dangerous situations? Pick up a copy of MYSTICAL, MAGICAL WAXY, the fifth volume in the COMPANION DRAGONS all ages fantasy series and find out.
Featuring a delightful cover by Larry Nadolsky, MYSTICAL MAGICAL WAXY is available via Amazon. It and the first four COMPANION DRAGONS TALES volumes are available in print and digital format.

ALSO...
Nancy solos in THE KEENER EYE! A new mystery series!

Katherine Mary 'Kate' Keener is the newest private investigator in the shoreline town of Rockport, Connecticut. She's opened her own business on the second floor of a building that houses a bakery on the ground floor, and her little apartment on the third. She's up against some tough competition, so Kate has been surviving on the more mundane cases and leaving the hard stuff to her rivals. Brewster and Sons Private Investigators is well established, and the patriarch, Morey Brewster, never much liked Kate. He considered her an interloper who dated his younger son just to get inside information on their business. But now Morey is dead, the Brewster partnership is all but bankrupt, and it seems like Kate Keener will be the sole inheritor of all the hard-boiled investigations they used to handle.
So how does a young woman who refuses to carry a gun handle herself with a tougher variety of sordid characters and a far more dangerous workload?
Better than you would ever believe.
Kate Keener is fast thinking and well prepared, with a variety of skills and knowledge, and she has some very loyal friends and associates. In this day and age of electronic gadgets galore and cell phones everywhere, private investigation work is still a very viable asset to those who have nowhere else left to turn for answers. In these three thrilling stories, watch Kate and her crew succeed in untangling the crimes and mysteries that surround the New England countryside and often spread tentacles of intrigue and culpability into the greater world at large.
THE KEENER EYE, a trio of short stories by Nancy A. Hansen with a haunting cover by Jason Wren is also available on Amazon in either print or E-format.

PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 18, 2021

WELL...
Technically I'm still stalled on SHERLOCK HOLMES.
I know WHAT I want to do, just not how to get to the next major plot point in the story.
But I'm doing great on the SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL! 😀😎
Finished reviewing all the material I had previously written.
Added some more details here and there before moving on into the unknown both figuratively and literally.
Am now on Chapter 27 (not counting the Prologue) and have broken the 49,000+ word mark on this project.
Not sure what the final Chapter (counting the eventual Epilog) and word count will be but sometimes that's part of the fun of being a writer when even you're surprised how things turn out! 😉

Thankfully there's no deadlines on either but in any event I better get back to it now.
Take care.
STAY SAFE!😷
And I'll see you around the Internet!

Lee Houston, Junior
19 September, 2021


Sunday, September 12, 2021

PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

My muse
For some reason, my muse seems strangely silent on SHERLOCK HOLMES this past week, preferring instead to concentrate her wisdom and advice on the SCI-FI PROJECT.
I'm going back over the last couple of completed chapters to that manuscript now and wondering where I missed the proverbial left turn in Albuquerque, for something seems off about them to me.
When I have them fixed, I'll pick up where I left off on the novel unless she decides to speak to me about the doings in and around 221B Baker Street again.
Either way, at least I'm writing!

In any event, take care.
STAY SAFE!😷
And I'll see you around the Internet.

Lee Houston, Junior
12 September, 2021


Sunday, September 5, 2021

PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 4, 2021

"Elementary?" You try writing one!
Well, I did at least start what will eventually be a new Sherlock Holmes adventure.
I spent roughly a day and a half researching events to correspond with the basic plot and managed almost a full page of manuscript text.
In the end, I have what is now roughly the beginning and know who does what and why in regards to subsequent events, but since then...
BUMPKUS.
My muse, let alone Doctor Watson, have been strangely silent on the matter.
Oh well.
Thankfully there's no deadline on eventually submitting this story to a potential publisher, but I can see why even creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had difficulties at times writing adventures worthy of the great Victorian Era Consulting Detective, even going to the point of having Holmes allegedly die at the end of "The Final Problem" in hopes of going on to other projects.




I have gone back to my SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL.
Still in the reviewing what I've already wrote stage, for I think I totally have to rewrite, or at least heavily edit, the last two completed chapters before I can truly pick up where I left off.
UNFORTUNATELY, not sure how much writing I'm actually going to get done this week because my personal schedule is heavily booked as it is Tuesday through Thursday.
But one day at a time.

Take care.
STAY SAFE! 😷
And I'll see you around the Internet.

Lee Houston, Junior
5 September, 2021

HAPPY LABOR DAY!
DON'T WORK TOO HARD.😉