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