PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING JANUARY 10, 2026

 This is the first Progress Report of 2026 and there HAS been progress!

I am on Chapter 9 and over 16,700+ words into the HUGH MONN, PRIVATE DETECTIVE PREQUEL NOVEL: PRIVATE BATTLES.

There is one pretty intense flashback sequence concerning how Hugh's medical condition happened.

For those who came in late, he can't stand cold temperatures (anything below 70 degrees Fahrenheit!) after being caught in a cryobomb blast during Universal War One.

I've also got other scenes planned along the way to reveal how he became the man he is in the far flung future where all his adventurous mysteries take place.

Readers and fans of the original series already know those answers and a whole lot more, but it's time for a restart and bring everyone back to the fold starting from Page 1.

The entire cast, including fan favorites Big Louie the Primoid, Attorney Mau Mynx and Sandra Bunnae, Hugh's girlfriend at the time when Pro Se Press folded WILL be reestablished and returning, but the first novel in the new series deals with Hugh trying to figure out his personal future while earning his private detective license.

However, I don't think I'll be going the Self-Publishing route after all because it's just too much work for one person.

If I was at least 30 years younger, maybe.

But I'll be 64 this coming March and don't always get as much writing time in any given day as I would like, so you can see how all the business end matters in regards to selling and promoting a book would tie up a lot of anyone's time.

Best to leave that to the professionals and just let me concentrate on the writing.

Ted Hammond cover

Who HUGH MONN's new publisher will be is something I will have to figure out after I complete the manuscript to PRIVATE BATTLES.

Yet before I return to writing, A FRIENDLY REMINDER that SOLITAIRE 2: THE AGENDA is available from Airship 27 on Amazon in both print and e-book formats.

A Ted Hammond cover and Chuck Bordell interior illustrations accompany the second adventure of the Secret Samaritan written by yours truly.

So on that note♫, take care.

STAY SAFE!

Have a great week and I'll see you around the Internet.

Lee Houston, Junior

11 January, 2026

PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING JANUARY 10, 2015

What is it about the number 13?
People have been superstitious about it for countless generations.
In my case, I will make sure the first reading session of a new book stops after page 13, and I will not stop in the middle of a writing project on page 13.
WHY?
Dang if I know, but I bring this up because Chapter 13 to ALPHA, BOOK 2: WAYWARD SON seems to be my main stumbling block at the moment.
It is kind of an intermission period between the big event in the first half of the novel, and what is to come in the latter pages.

Alpha

I've rewritten it twice already to make the information more interesting than just a standard "info dump" chapter, yet I don't want events in this section to either contradict what has already happened, nor do I want to tip my hand about what will happen in the future.
Then again, maybe what they say about "The third time being the charm" will come true in this case, because I have sent the third revision of this chapter back to my friendly neighborhood proofreader Nancy Hansen for review, and should get it back with her thoughts later this week.

Meanwhile, I've been privileged to read three more short stories in that upcoming superhero anthology I've been teasing everyone about in some of my more recent progress reports. Lisa M. Collins, Thomas Deja, and Jim Beard himself have now submitted their stories.
I've reviewed them and sent Jim my thoughts on each. Until the remaining tales arrive, I'm back at work on ALPHA.

See you around the Internet!
Lee Houston, Junior
11 January, 2015