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I wanted to update everyone about my progress, or lack thereof, on Coming Home, Book 4. My muse has been frustratingly quiet for too many months and my progress has been halting. I am roughly 50% done with the book, but have a lot of gaps in the plot line.
Just to get my juices flowing and to get into writing again, I picked up an old, unfinished story a few weeks ago and worked on it. It worked. I ended up writing another short story that has nothing to do with the Life in Paradise series. Writing helped me break the logjam with Book 4. I was stumped for months on how to handle one particular plot line. I had a breakthrough last week, and figured out who to handle the plot line. In just four days, I had the parts of that plot line written and incorporated into Book 4.
Hopefully, I am ready to continue working on Book 4 in the future. I will not predict when I may finish it, but I am encouraged that I am actively working on it again.
My method of working has always included me writing short side stories as inspiration hit while I am working on my main book. I have quite a collection of these works sitting around waiting to be posted. I decided to post these now.
Starting today, I will post four short stories belonging to the Life in Paradise series, followed by three other stories, unrelated to Life in Paradise. The first story up features Kyle’s Uncle David as a seventeen-year-old lifeguard at a local campground where he meets the future Aunt Linda. It is called “A Week in Paradise.”
“The Day After,” which covers what happens to Kyle’s cousin Ian the day after Uncle John caught him in flagrante delicto with his girlfriend. That was the start for “Memories from Down Under,” where Uncle David recalls his first time with the Dutch girl. It also introduced Colin Weaver’s step-dad, Mark Weaver to the series.
“Wedding Reception Luck” covers what happened after Kyle and Penny’s wedding reception many years ago. I hinted in “Lost and Found” about the hookups that night. This story follows Ethan and Cody Henry, Will’s half-brothers.
The last Life in Paradise story is “Double Trouble” featuring Billy Baer and Brian Miller’s loss of innocence as well as their first steps to football stardom and eventually to the NFL.
The non-Life in Paradise stories include “A Fateful Afternoon,” “With a Little Help From my Friend” and “Robbing the Cradle.”
I will post twice a week, typically Sundays and Thursdays until the seven stories have finished posting. “A Week in Paradise” will appear in two postings. “The Next Day” and “Wedding Reception Luck” will go up in one post each. “Double Trouble,” a longer short story, will go up in three postings. “A Fateful Afternoon” and “With a Little Help From my Friend” will go up in one posting each. “Robbing the Cradle” will go up in two postings.
I am also posting a “Life in Paradise Short Stories Collection” on Bookapy. That eBook will include the four new stories along with “Memories from Down Under” and “A Man from My Past.” The two already posted stories have been cleaned up a little and typos corrected. It will be available for $4.99.
I hope you enjoy what I post for you. I will keep working to get Coming Home, Book 4 finished. Thank you all for your patience.
Doug Fox
It is time to play “The World Turned Upside Down” (Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown, 1781). Last night, Garden Spot High School (a.k.a ‘Eastern” in my stories) beat Manheim Central 28-9. This victory represents the second time in the past 54 years of Garden Spot football that Garden Spot prevailed over Central. The game was tied 7-7 at halftime. Garden Spot opened by returning the second half kickoff for a 92 yard touchdown and never looked back after that.
Manheim Central is having an uncharacteristic down season. They are 3-6. Garden Spot’s season is about average, being 4-4. They opened with a shocking game, losing to Notre Dame-Green Pond (Easton, PA), losing 71-64. Yes, that is a football score, not a basketball score. I think each team scored on every possession and ND-GP had the ball last. Garden Spot still has trouble with the power teams in their league, including Wyomissing, Cocalico and Conrad Weiser this year. Congratulations Garden Spot. Maybe you have gotten the “Central” monkey off your backs.
Real Score: Penn State-33, USC-30
The Nittany Lions won with a field goal in OT, kicked by Ryan Barker, a kicker from Landenberg, PA. I kid you not.
I want to give a shout-out to Tyler Warren, TE, who caught 17 passes for 224 yards and a TD. QB Drew Allar earned a shout-out too, going 30 for 43 for 391 yards. WE ARE... PENN STATE!
In fiction, I continue to work on Coming Home, Book 4, albeit slowly. Be patient with me. I am working as fast as I can.
Doug Fox
I continue work on Coming Home, Book 4. Don't look for anything before winter, at the earliest.
I converted two of my completed stories into book form. "Will You be our Mommy?" and "Coming to Nuremberg" are now available on Bookapy. I hope you enjoy them
Doug Fox
It felt funny clicking on the "Story is Finished" button as I posted Chapter 22. I hope everyone enjoys this tale. I will continue to work on Book 4 as I have done since I began posting Book 3.
I have 67 pages done of the 450-500 pages I expect Book 4 to be. I will keep plugging away at it. Don't expect anything to be posted before late 2024 or early 2025. By the way, that is a guess, not a promise. Life happens and I will get the next book out when it is ready.
I want to thank the many readers who wrote to me. I have not had time to answer all your posts, but I have read every one.
Doug Fox
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