PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING APRIL 18, 2026

 I truly wish I had more to report than the fact that I'm still on Chapter 15 and within the 28,000+ word
neighborhood working on the HUGH MONN, PRIVATE DETECTIVE prequel manuscript PRIVATE BATTLES.

In past PROGRESS REPORTS I've detailed dealing with life, the universe and everything as a solo act while trying to take care of household responsibilities, errands, doctor appointments and the other assorted parts of life and also trying to make the best out of whatever writing time I might have available; so there's no point in going over old ground.

Suffice to say that I do have a couple of pages of handwritten notes I've jotted down over the course of the last few weeks, so I have a basic road map of how this prequel novel is going turn out, let alone an agenda of my plans to restart the series once the prequel novel is finished and I've found a new publisher for HUGH.

Those have also been discussed to some extent in past PROGRESS REPORTS too, but I will go over everything again in the future when appropriate.

With that I better get back to writing now.

Take care.

STAY SAFE!

I'll see you around the Internet and HAPPY EARTH DAY APRIL 22! 🌎

Lee Houston, Junior

19 April, 2026

PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING APRIL 18, 2020

A LOT OF GROUND TO COVER THIS WEEK, so let's get right to it!

First and foremost...
Hope everyone is still safe and sound as the pandemic continues!😷
I'm about as well as can be expected and taking every precaution humanly possible.
Even wearing a mask and gloves whenever I go out, which is actually as little as possible, but geez!
Those long lines at the store and you're not even guaranteed total fulfillment of your grocery list even when you get up at the crack of dawn and are one of the early birds waiting in line to enter when the store opens!

But that's not why you came here to begin with.
I've almost finished the first draft of SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE ADVENTURE OF THE UNIMAGINABLE.
Currently at 24,000+ words, the novella (for there is no way I can call this a "short" story any more) will be under 30,000 words, but afraid I don't have an exact word count for you at the moment.

Waiting in the wings...

Once Holmes is done, including being reviewed by my Friendly Neighborhood Beta-Proofreader and off for publication consideration, I will be going back to SOLITAIRE
.
After that novel is finished?
Strongly thinking about the plot for whatever becomes PROJECT ALPHA 3, but am also mentally kicking around ideas for a science fiction novel in the classic style of Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Tom Corbett, etc.
And if you get the references, you have an idea of the style I'm contemplating.

For those wondering, the deadline for my audition story to that major publisher was April 30. Submitted the tale with time to spare, although when/if I'll hear back from them is anybody's guess at the moment.
Best I'm hoping for right now is for them to like my audition and wonder what else I have/am capable of.
That last part I'm wondering about myself.
With each new project, I do think I'm improving as a writer.
I'm certainly not the person I was back in high school, let alone a decade ago before I started getting published.
And obviously you folks like my efforts. Otherwise you wouldn't be here reading these words right now, wondering how things are going and what I've been up to since the last Progress Report.

In any event, take care.
Stay strong.
STAY SAFE!

And I'll see you around the Internet.
Lee Houston, Junior
19 April, 2020

PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING APRIL 18, 2015

Okay. Let's see what's been accomplished this past week.

*Had to put my editor's hat on for a while and go over a revised short story for that superhero anthology I'm helping Jim Beard with for Mechanoid Press.

Things are going pretty smoothly with that project, although there is no official release date yet.

*I'm approaching the halfway point on that short story I was asked to write for Airship 27.

Barring anything unforeseen, that should be done by the end of the month.

*I'm in-between chapters on ALPHA, BOOK 2: WAYWARD SON.

My friendly neighborhood beta/proofreader is unavailable at the moment, so I've been concentrating on the aforementioned short story because I'm racing toward the climax and the finish line on the novel, and I certainly don't want to make any mistakes this late in the game.

So overall, things have been pretty good this past week.

Hope they were for you too.

I better get back to writing now.

See you around the Internet.

Lee Houston, Junior

19 April, 2015