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These are the first words I’ve written in almost three months. I did the thing writers aren’t supposed to do… I stopped writing a book mid first draft because I didn’t think it was good enough.

The first rule of writers club is finish your first draft no matter how bad you think it is. First drafts are supposed to be shit. Finish it, then polish that turd up in later drafts. 

I stopped, didn’t think it was good enough, which just so happened to be bad timing. I’d finished another writing project at the same time I stopped the previously mentioned. 

I normally like to have two things I’m writing at the same time. I try to offset the start and end of each to not coincide with each other. That way I never get stuck outlining two things at once. I love outlining, for me it requires more mental bandwidth than actually writing. I did two at the same time once, the world nearly ceased existing, but I pulled through and the world continued to turn… you’re welcome. 

Only this time things didn’t go well… I finished one and quit the other. Then started questioning all my future planned books. Were they good enough? Was my writing getting worse? Did I even want to do this anymore? I asked those questions over and over again in my stupid writer brain… I know not the best idea. 

Now here we are, my first words in months… so, now what? Now I move on… dragging you behind me alive or dead… to the next stage of my writing adventure? Career? Phase?. Yes, I’m going to continue, not sure who I thought I was kidding about quitting? I know it wasn’t really ever an option.

What does that look like? Well first off… I start writing again. First up, a new book called The Death Bureau… which might lead into a series. I have it outlined to about five books. Which is probably a good manageable length. Second, like I said I like to write two at a time… do I go back and finish what I was working on before? Or do I start new? Or do I work on the next Wonderful World or Zombie Job books? So many choices…. I’ll have to get back to you on that. A week on just writing anything is a good start. 

And then there is this… which is new. A blog slash writing journal slash place to work on other writing ideas slash a place for you and me to connect. Writer to reader. A place to reach out to touch each others… we should move on. I’m planning on doing this weekly for now. We’ll see how much work it ends up being.

There we have it, the end of post one. I can already feel the motivation building. The need to write throbbing? Pulsing? Bulging? Not sure about that word choice but I’m going to roll with it. Uncle Ash is back… feel free to take your pants off and say hello 🙂

So… I sort of forgot I didn’t put the fourth Zombie Job book out yet. In all the not writing-ness that I recently went through I totally lost track of it. So… sorry 🙂

I’m going to put the preorder out soon, but first I need a blurb. Which I always find painful to write, as is the case with most marketing stuff. What do you write for a fourth book in a series blurb??? “You read the first three… you know you’re going to read this one too… come on don’t be a dick!”

Complete the job, save the world… if only it was that simple.
With Angie’s head anything but stable, the team attempts to pull off their biggest job to date… The Data Job.
The Rubicon building sits in the middle of The Hoard… capital T capital H, both capitalized for a reason.
The job is simple…
     Get into the building surrounded by a million or so zombies,
     Turn the Power to the building on without getting noticed by said zombies,
     Gain access to the databases, they don’t have access to, on a floor way too high to just climb up to,
     Survive whatever is waiting for them in the building,
     Trust that Gillian… or is it Olivia… no it’s Gillian, has everyone’s best interests at heart,
     Get out… preferably alive,
     Did I mention the zombies? The taint-tightening number of zombies?
     Simple… if only.
To cap it all off the team learns more about The Event than they could ever have imagined… well most of them anyway.
Welcome to the Aurora Wasteland and the zombie-filled end of the world that it occupies.

Thoughts? What do you think? I’m not totally sold on it yet. But so far it’s the best I could come up with. Toss me your feedback, I’d love to hear it.


That’s it… the end of the first whatever these things are.
I think it went ok, and if not… whatever it will get better.
Oh, I almost forgot about the space strippers. well… that’s for another day, don’t worry we’ll get to it.
Thanks for reading, this and the books, truly I mean it.

Love Uncle Vaughn