LOOKING BACK AND FORWARD
Last year was rough.
TWO MAJOR computer crashes, knocking me offline and out of work for a couple of months between them. The loss of a beloved pet was bad enough, but losing my father was another matter. 😢
Looking back over 2024, while I completed the manuscript to SOLITAIRE 2: THE AGENDA, unfortunately the only work that actually got published last year was "Operation Colossus", my short story that appeared within the third volume of the CODE NAME: INTREPID CLASSIFIED anthology series for Robert J. Mendenhall via Blue Planet Press.😊
Even though what you're reading right now covers December 29, 2024 through January 4, 2025; unfortunately nothing got done creatively before New Year's Day and for better or worse, I've only managed to proofread another page of the SOLITAIRE 2: THE AGENDA manuscript since then. 😞
Pending projects for the beginning of this year are:
*Finish proofreading S2 before submitting it to Airship 27.
*Proofread the Science Fiction novel I finished in 2023 before attempting to find it a publisher.
*Get back to work on the ZEPHYR LILY novel at some point, but that is currently delayed because...
*It has been suggested by my friendly neighborhood beta proofreader Nancy Hansen that I write another SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY before Airship 27 goes into semi retirement.
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT HEARD...
At the end of their 96th podcast on YouTube, Ron Fortier and Rob Davis, the co-founders and main employees of Airship 27, announced that they are going to start scaling back production to enjoy their Golden Years more.
They will NOT be closing the Hangar completely, just that by 2027 at the latest, neither them nor the company will be going full tilt releasing titles on a regular/monthly basis.
Both gentlemen have had long and distinguished careers professionally and personally, so I wish them well in all their current and future endeavors. Yet that also leaves me with the unanswered question of
WHAT NEXT?
Airship 27 will definitely take SOLITAIRE 2 once I finish proofreading it and SHERLOCK HOLMES once I finish writing it.
But ZEPHYR LILY, let alone the Science Fiction novel and any future SOLITAIRE adventures?
And there is still the enigma of trying to figure out the future of HUGH MONN, PRIVATE DETECTIVE and ALPHA the Superhero because I haven't heard a word from Pro Se Press in years, hence my concentrating on SOLITAIRE and other works for Airship 27.
Yet while I don't have all the answers at the moment, the one thing I do know is that: no matter what happens, I WILL KEEP WRITING!
So with that in mind, I better try to get back to it.
Take care.
STAY SAFE!
And I'll see you around the Internet.
Lee Houston, Junior
5 January, 2025
