PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 24, 2020

OKAY, A COUPLE OF PIECES OF IMPORTANT BUSINESS TODAY,

SO LET'S GET RIGHT TO IT.

First and foremost, the first draft to the SOLITAIRE novel is done!

The manuscript came in at 67,000+ words between 34 chapters.

Game plan now is to put on my editor's cap and go back over the manuscript to see where I can tighten and/or polish it up a bit before sending it on to My Friendly Neighborhood Beta-Proofreader for her review and input.

Second, but by no means least:

SHERLOCK HOLMES, CONSULTING DETECTIVE VOLUME 16 has been released by Airship 27!😀

Featuring the creative talents of

*I. A.—no known relation to Doctor—WATSON's 

"The Adventure of the Anarchist's Apprentice" (Who's raging havoc and destruction on London?)

*GREG HATCHER's two short stories

"The Adventure of the Disappearing Diplomat" (a race against time to save Mycroft and a foreign dignitary) and "The Adventure of the Man Who Died Twice"  (did a widow really lose her husband twice?)

*ROB DAVIS' interior art, cover (based upon an illustration from the Italian adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four), and formatting

*Along with MY NOVELLA "The Adventure of the Unimaginable" (can Watson solve a mystery alone when Sherlock's on holiday?)

Who could ask for anything more between the covers of this amazing volume?

The book is out now via Amazon in PRINT or KINDLE E-BOOK format.

More on Holmes in the coming days.

I've got to get back to writing proof-reading now.

Take care.

STAY SAFE!😷

And I'll see you around the Internet.

Lee Houston, Junior

25 October, 2020

NOW AVAILABLE: SHERLOCK HOLMES, CONSULTING DETECTIVE VOLUME 11

I'm proud to announce that the eleventh volume in Airship 27's long running Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective series has just been released!
Under a beautiful cover by Laura Givens, I have been privileged to join a trio of talented authors to help Doctor John Watson chronicle the latest cases of the Victorian Era's greatest sleuth.

In "The Scotland Yard Murder" by I. A. Watson, a woman's remains are discovered at the construction site for the Yard's new headquarters.
In "The Adventure of the Manhunting Marshal", Peter Basile teams Holmes and Watson with a lawman from America after a wanted criminal.
Holmes' fabled intellect is challenged by Greg Hatcher's "The Adventure of the Conundrum King" as a sadistic killer leaves baffling clues before committing his crimes.

And in my story (and I'm honored to find it second in the volume), "The Adventure of the Artful Forger" finds Holmes and Watson discovering that the theft of a painting leads to a devious conspiracy.

Each tale is accompanied with beautiful interior illustrations by Rob Davis.

After all the hard work and long hours I put into creating "The Artful Forger", I will be the first to admit that it is difficult to craft an adventure worthy of one–if not the most important–of history's greatest detectives.
Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself took a lengthy sabbatical from the character when everyone believed Holmes to have perished during a final showdown against Professor James Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls in "The Final Problem".
But like Doyle I will return, for working with Holmes and Watson, along with Airship 27 founders Ron Fortier and Rob Davis, is a whole lot of fun too!

Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective Volume 11 is currently available in print, with other formats pending, via Amazon.