Just a quick update for all of you, I’ve added a third scene to Chapter 6. This scene has been in development hell for a decade, right when this book was being outlined, among other things, and countless drafts. It’s a small bit of what I have wanted to share for a long time. One day I’ll talk about the over-arching narrative with this reveal, but not right now.
Go check it out. Now.
I’m taking a week off from the novel before I work on the next chapter. I have to take a wider stance on my habits and motivation before I dive back in.
Hello, all. A new chapter in my life, it seems. I chose a new theme with the new “full-site edit” direction WordPress is taking. Not sure how I feel about it. So many chances to change and fix things. I added links for Ghost Factor on this page and cleaned some words in other pages, but nothing significant yet.
Basically, again, my mind has been burned. Big time.
For starters, the move. Ho boy.
Last March, I got the notice from the office the apartment lease was up for renewal. This was unexpected because I never knew when it was coming up (the last day was today). Later I asked my former roommate what she was thinking, and she decided to not renew the lease.
That put me in a week-long anxiety attack, panic searching for a new home. The cheapest apartment. An available room-for-rent. However, it came at the worst time when rent rates have jumped 3x than normal, houses were being bought in cash, and all cheap apartments were all rented out. Rent assistance was out of the question.
Amongst that, before my mom went to Alaska for a manager job for the tourist season, she put out feelers on Facebook. One person offered a room for rent. This person is an old family friend back in the Big Bear years working for my parent’s B&B. She’s practically family. It was an option but I wanted to search a little more and see if I could stay in California a little longer.
The room is in Henderson, NV. Southeast of the Las Vegas Strip. If you ever went to Las Vegas in the middle of the summer, you know what I felt because man, the weather is no joke.
Spent two more weeks searching through Facebook, Twitter, Craiglist, and one sketchy roommate service; no favorable prospects. Nobody I was speaking to I was jiving with. Around the beginning of May, I called it and chose to move to Henderson in mid-June. Note that from that anxiety trip, I didn’t eat well and lost four pounds. Thank goodness my WFH job can let me move out of state.
And so, for two months up to the move, I consolidated my possessions, packed a 5’ x 5’ storage until of unimportant items (my entire library in six boxes cries), pulled my lower back getting those books packed, packed my Prius Prime to the brim with the necessities, drove through the desert, unpacked my stuff in the room, and just passed out from exhaustion.
It was 111 degrees Fahrenheit outside when I parked the car at the house. Sweats-ville. It will fluctuate between 95 to 110 for the rest of the summer until after Columbus Day. Sometimes I heard it gets to 120.
Waking up with a dry throat for the first two weeks was no fun. I’m used to it now, along with copious amounts of drinking water. Yet with the recent federal warning water restrictions will hit several states using the Colorado River, I stopped having reading baths.
That set aside, the writing bit.
Expect to see an added scene to Ghost Factor Chapter 6 in the next couple of weeks. I’ll share later when Chapter 7 will come out. The day job is still the same, but I now have a dedicated writing spot at a nerdy coffee shop after work. A lot of art, a plush chair with an ottoman, and enough chai lattes to relax with.
But will the words flow in the hot desert climate? I’ll see what happens.
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.
The best pic of the second night
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.
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.
I hope the first two chapters on Ghost Factor are to your liking. Man, hearing the comments is what I needed after a decade of writer’s block.
This weekend there won’t be a new chapter for Ghost Factor. I’m on hiatus for a weekend vacation to Seattle. No laptop, ebooks to read, and some darn good clam chowder. With that, Chapter 3 will be out on January 16.
So this was not a big update post I wanted to write. Like, reflect on the last year, what I’ve been doing, and all that. I’ll save that post once I get back from vacation.
L.J. McLean 