L.J. McLean

The first real post of the new year. So hi. Been a long couple of months.

To bring up to speed, five chapters of Ghost Factor are out in the wild since last Sunday. If you haven’t yet, go a read them here. And if you did read them, please leave a comment on Royal Road. Any chance to know what worked and what doesn’t helps a lot. Really, this story has been in my head for over a decade, and knowing where I stand craft-wise is terribly needed.

This schedule is making me a little nostalgic. Early in this writing hobby, I’ve done the same thing for the Tyler Ingert stories out on DeviantART, except they were not novel-length stories but novella-length ones. Sometimes I was consistent with my release schedule—same-day really—and some days I wasn’t ready to post them for honest reasons.

I did take one break from the book posting with my recent weekend trip to Seattle. This was needed. It’s frightening that nearly two years ago, I did the exact same trip, only it was a 24-hour travel stunt than the three-day, two-night escape just last month. I stayed at the same hostel across from Pike Place Market and just attached myself there, eating clam chowder and smoked salmon chowders in bread bowls, tried out crumpets for the first time, picked up a travel book, visited an aquarium, and joined a group from the hostel to do my first pub crawl (my god I was buzzed).

But Back to Ghost Factor for a minute.

As of right now, my chapter buffer is getting low. This is the cue where chapters are written and either edited or ready for edits.

So far I’m still struggling with a writing routine and my day job workload is getting a few projects down the line. And I haven’t updated my website to add the Royal Road links. The recent WordPress version announced is getting me curious so I’m waiting for mine to get updated and see how broken it could get.

Also, haven’t done it in years, I have to re-build my note collection. Fifteen years of Mana Pool notes. It’s like a…hoarder’s back closet in the guest bedroom long ignored while everything else is a minefield of half-finished ideas and food scraps. Nasty.

Kinda like this mess.

It’s hard to say this, but I’ll have to take a break from posting again. Like I said before, Ghost Factor is still a work in progress, and making sure I have a solid writing and editing schedule is important. Having the day job swallow most of my time and brainpower ain’t helping much. Got to do some early spring cleaning first.

So, on 2/20/2022, Ghost Factor’s Chapter 6 will be released. This is the chapter I’ve been going back and forth on for a long time, and I want to get it right.

Talk to you all later.