Update July 27

 Things have been productive. I have several stories completed and in the pipeline to be published on Vella. Actually they have been even more productive than I anticipated. So I've been reworking my plans and changing things ups somewhat. Within the next couple of weeks this should all take affect.

Monday - Stories set in The Silver Gauntlet Barony. I have three more of them planned and they should run until January or February of next year. They will be leading up to a stand alone novel to come out later next year.

Tuesday - I am writing some one shot stand alone stories which will be published on this day each week.

Wednesday - The Harvester will continue to run this day It remains an ongoing story with no planned ending at the moment.

Thursday - Like Tuesday this will be a day of having a stand alone or one shot story. Some of these may lead to something more, some won't.

Friday - The W.A.R.D. stories will continue, and like the Harvester these are ongoing. 

Saturday - I have a new sci-fi space opera story planned with the working title of Dawn Seekers. I'll talk about it a little more once I've ironed out a few more of the details.

Sunday -  I think six days a week will be enough so there will not be anything today.

Anyway that's my new plan. Of course it could change, but for now I am sticking to it.

Update July 7th

 It's been awhile. Time for an update.

Writing has been going good. I have the latest Silver Gauntlet tale still running on Vella. And I'm off to a good start on The Harvester. The first four chapters have been written and tonight I uploaded them to Vella to publish on Wednesdays starting next week.

After I finish this first Harvester story I think it will be time to start work on the W.A.R.D. stories. I get them going and I will have them publishing on Fridays. If I can keep this up it would be great. I am getting better word counts every night. It helps that I am truly enjoying what I'm writing. The Harvester is one I am really feeling good about.

In between the three stories I am planning out some essays I think I'd like to write that I'll post here. I have a few ideas but nothing set just yet. I'll see how that goes.

Update June 6

 Well, I had to scrap the Starr Siren story I started last week. I found another series of books with nearly the same story and even the same main character name. Disappointed but something like this has happened to me a couple times before. I'll just move on to The Harvester which I was pretty much ready to start anyway.

And I do still have more stories from Silver Gauntlet to write. So this is only a minor set-back. And I'm glad I discovered it before I'd gotten much writing done and before I published it. I only had one chapter written and was about halfway through the second. So not much time or effort was wasted.

I am still doing well with everything and this isn't stopping me.

Update May 30

 I finished the last chapter of Dark-Thorn Spire last night. Now I just need to edit the chapters before I can publish them on Vella.

Next up I'm moving on to Starr Siren which I'll begin writing tonight. Not much else to update today.

Flash Forward Friday! # 1

 It's time for my first Flash Forward Friday. Lets get right into it. 

We'll start with The Harvester. I made a few aborted attempts to work on this a few years ago but I was just never happy with it so I set it aside until I could work out what I was doing wrong with it. Now I think I have it.

The Harvester is a mysterious pulp crime fighter. Set in a medium size Mid-western town during the 1930's he wields a cursed scythe that while giving him powers is also slowly driving him insane. Fun stuff.

Crawford came to town to collect his inheritance from his late grandfather. He had no idea it would include a family curse .

Next up I have Starr Siren. Another one I came up with a few years ago but side aside. I didn't make any attempts to start this one. I liked the concept but just didn't want to work on it then.

Starr was once a princess on her home world but renounced her throne. Now she travels the space ways in search of adventure in her rocket ship The Siren's Call. Sometimes this makes her an outlaw, but she's okay with that.

Nanny was originally Starr's robot nursemaid as a child. Now her only trusted friend and companion on her adventures. She can still be a bit protective, it's hard to get past that old programming after all.

And that is two of the projects I've been working on to follow up the current one. I haven't decided which one I'll work on first but I'm leaning towards Starr Siren.

That'll be it for this time. Until next week take care and I'll talk to you later.

Update May 25

 Writing has been going well. I finished two more chapters of Dark-Thorn so far this week. Chapters 7 & 8, leaving only one more to go. Tonight I'll edit them and have them ready to go. That will just leave tomorrow night's writing. I think I'll do some prep work on the next story. That way I'll be ready to start on it next week after I finish chapter 9 of Dark-Thorn.

Check back here tomorrow as well for my first Flash Forward Friday. I'll give a little preview of two of the stories I've been getting ready. Some character sketches and a little on what they're about. Until then take care.

Update May 22

 Plans for the week. Last week was good and productive and i want to keep that going. I've had the weekend off but I kept thinking about my writing the whole time. I still haven't made up my mind on what to work on next but I do have some new ideas to add.

This week I want to finish two more chapters in Dark-Thorn Spire. Both writing and editing them. Then one night will be for prep work on another of my planned stories to follow up Dark-Thorn. I do have one more I haven't done any prep on so that will have me ready to go with whatever I do choose as my next project.

I have also been sketching out some drawings of the characters from my upcoming story ideas. In a few days I'll try to scan those and post them here as a preview of what's to come. Until then have a good week and I'll talk to you later.

Update May 19

 Despite some personal difficulties I have been keeping up on my nightly writing. I finished another chapter in my current story, Dark-Thorn Spire. And I spent one night prepping for one of my other stories to follow up after I finish the current one. The plan for tonight is to edit and spell-check the work I finished this week. Then I'll be off for the weekend and be back at it next week. Planning on two chapters on the story and prep for one more planned upcoming story.

I want to go ahead and start one these other stories, but I've tried that in the past and it didn't work out for me. I need to stay focused on one project at a time. I'm just not wired to do otherwise it seems. So I'll finish off Dark-Thorn and then decide what to move on to next.

Until next week.

Update May 16, 2023

 Well, it's been a long time. Longer than I realized. But my life has been a mess for a time. Now I am getting some stuff back in order. And this blog is something I cannot neglect anymore.

I've been on track with my fiction writing and I plan on posting updates on here as to my progress. Sort of a way to keep up with where things are going. Last summer I started a series of stories set in the Barony of Silver Gauntlet. Inspired by my Castles & Crusades games I'd played. Basically they serve to introduce characters and do some world building for later stories I have planned. Three of them have been published on Kindle Vella so far. Two are finished and the third is half done with the remaining chapters posting each Monday. And I am just past the halfway mark on the fourth. I have three more planned to do in the series.

 I have also been doing some prep work on other stories as well. Not new ones, but ones I'd set aside because I wasn't happy with what I had and wanted to change some things. I finally figured out what was wrong with them recently and I am getting them ready to start on. Which I plan on doing when I finish the current story. I'll go into more detail about them once I start on them. Plus I think this will be a good place to add supplemental material as well. But that's for a future post.

My writing schedule these days is Monday through Friday from 11:30 PM until I reach a good stopping point. No set word count or such. Usually when I reach the end of a chapter but not always. As for when I'll be updating this blog, eventually daily with the weekends off like with my writing. But to start it may only be two or three days a week until I can get into the routine. It will mainly be updates on where I am with my stories as I haven't been doing as much drawing or painting lately. Though if I do I may add some of that here as well.

Anyway I believe that is all for today. I will talk to you later.

J. L. LaMastus