July Writing Exercise

 The other day while at the park I was doing a little writing. I had some prompts to go off of and I wrote the following short piece. It isn't much, but it was a fun exercise.

PROMPT: It's the middle of the night. There's Light snow falling. You're in the countryside. There's a charming feeling to the place.

Why am I still awake? On a chilly winter night like this, I should be all wrapped up in my blanket next to that cozy fire inside. Instead I find myself out here, in the snow. And the dark, can't forget it's dark. I came here to get away from all of the noise, the people, the distractions. I needed the rest. And I'm trudging through snow in the middle of the night. Not exactly restful. Or is it?

It is quiet. Snows like that, quiet I mean. And there are no other people around at the moment. The other guests at the lodge are inside. Wrapped up and warm. Probably enjoying hot cocoa as well. But I need this right now. I take another deep breath and watch as I exhale. It is a soothing sight, seeing my breath drift out of my mouth. I walk down to the edge of the woods. That's about as far as is safe this late at night. I hear faint sounds of the forest. Not any closer I remind myself. I don't want them sending a search party from the lodge in the morning.

Ha, that would be something. But no, I'm fine here. And I should head back shortly anyway. But I'll enjoy it for a little longer. Tomorrow is my first full day at the lodge. I arrived pretty late this evening. I'm here for a full two weeks. I'll have plenty of time inside. And out here in the countryside.

Two whole weeks of not having to deal with co-workers. No more neighbors blasting their TVs or music. No revving engines when I'm trying to go to bed. Not wondering if that plane flying over head is going to come crashing down on my house. No, I don't really believe that would happen. Don't be silly. Still, one never knows.

I hear a train whistle in the distance. Back home, that would have bothered me. Here I really don't mind. Whelp, time to head back in. Just from this little experience, I can tell I'm going to enjoy my vacation.

Until next post, I hope you enjoy.

July 2025 Update and a short story.

 My word processor died several months back and I had not been able to do much writing other than in notebooks. But yesterday afternoon I was finally able to fix the "Typewriter" and to try it out I typed up the following short little story. Enjoy.

The Derelict

By J.L. LaMastus 07/2025

The ship was a derelict, floating in the asteroid field. How long it had been there, none could say. The crew, they were long dead. So the ship just floated along, waiting to be discovered. Though it wasn’t to wait much longer.

A small cruiser entered the field. “This seems like a good place to lay low for a while.” The pilot observed. “At least until those scaly goons take a break.” He glanced at his monitors and noticed some odd readings. Grinning, he examined them more closely. His instruments had detected the derelict. A perfect hiding place, just waiting for him.

Drawing close to the ship, he could make out the name, The Harpy. He also noted the large hole in the hull. Quite big enough for his little cruiser to enter. “Williams my friend,” speaking to himself, “you just found yourself a new home.”

As the cruiser settled in, Williams donned his space-suit. “Time to do a little exploring.” The ship’s interior was lit by beams from the two shoulder lamps on his suit as he drifted across the gap deeper into the ship. What had happened here anyway? That breach in the hull was no accident. Ahead of him it seemed there was a glow. Could there be some life here after all?

He advanced to see if he could find out. Cautiously, of course. No signs of life, be he couldn’t be for certain. Turning a corner he discovered the source of the light. There was a control panel that still functioned. This could prove enlightening. He stopped at the controls and typed in a command. Soon the ship filled with light. No life perhaps, but power at least.

Tapping in a few more commands he called up the ship’s records. Maybe they would hold some clue as to what had happened here. His eyes grew wide with shock, then fear as the last video entry played back. Quickly he shut off the power and turned to get his butt back to his cruiser. As fast as he possibly could.

It wasn’t fast enough. In the dying light he saw them now. “I shoulda taken my chances with those scaly freaks.” He lamented. Too late he learned that this derelict, The Harpy, was to truly be his home. His last home.

 2025

January the 1st

It being a new year I am reviving this web-site. I haven’t written here in too long. July of 2023 to be precise. But I am going to do better about that.

Mainly due to the changes going on with my writing. Some things are still up in the air. But there are others to be discussed.

The main thing right now is a book that was just published. An unexpected, answered prayer for me. To go back to the beginning, in 2019 I started writing a story for an upcoming anthology. The Moon Man Vol. 3 from Airship 27. While I was writing it Mom passed away and I nearly gave up and didn’t feel like finishing the story. But I pushed through and got it done and turned it in. Unfortunately one of the other writers didn’t turn in his story and the book didn’t get published. That hit me pretty hard and took the wind out of my sails for a couple years.

Fast forward to 2024. I found out that Amazon would be shuttering the Vella program. That being how I’d been mainly publishing my writing I was hit hard once more. I am still searching for an alternative that I feel will work for me. But on December 5th, the last day to upload episodes for the Vella, I received an email from Ron at Airship 27. It let me know that the Moon Man book was going to be published at last. After five years the story I wrote was finally going to see the light of day. A week later I got a proof copy to review. I went over it and was happy with it, so I responded that it was fine. Then it was time to wait once more.

I didn’t have long to wait however. Last night, on New Year’s Eve, I got another email informing me that the book had been published and was now available on Amazon. What a great and blessed start to this new year. I am thankful to God for this and now am feeling pretty optimistic for the year to come.

I still need to figure out how I’ll be publishing my stories going forward. But I have faith that when the time comes the answer will be there.

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.

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

Thoughts on my Writing

Just a few random thoughts and observations on where I'm at with my writing these days.

• I'm still not writing as much as I used to. Years ago I would get in nearly two thousand words a day. For the past few months I've been topping out at one thousand a night. Usually closer to five hundred. The trade off is that I've been writing consistently for a much longer time. I'm closing in on a year now. Before it was only for about a month or so then I'd stop writing for a few months. I seem to be pacing myself a little better.
• I have multiple stories in progress at the same time. Usually three different stories going on. Right now that is the pulp hero story I'm working on for an upcoming anthology. Another Challenger Rangers story for the next collection of those I self-publish. And I just started a new series of Junior Challenger Rangers spin-off stories. At other times I have my sword and sorcery tales I'm telling. I've also done some writing on my own pulp horror/hero story. I'm working on a science fiction styled story as well.
• I find having different things to write about is good. If I get stuck on one, I can take a break and work on one of the others for a little while.
• I also don't see myself writing any actual novels. I'm most comfortable with the short story format. I've written novels in the past and I've never been happy with any of them. So for the time being I think the shorter stuff is what I'll stick to.

If you're interested in checking out my stuff it can be found at Amazon

J.L. LaMastus

I'm also looking into setting up a Patreon Page, but that is still in the future.