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Week one of writing is done. I focused just on the one single writing project… The Death Bureau. I managed to squeak out around 8000 words in the week. Which is pretty decent. Normally I’d do about 10000 a week, but that would include an entire second project. So overall, I’d call it a success. 

It sounds stupid and cliché, but it feels good to be writing again. I think for myself there are certain things in life I need to be doing frequently in order to feel balanced as a human. Writing is definitely one of them for me. I knew this before, I know it better now. I just feel extra… I’m not sure what the word is, but extra me? Extra Ashby? I’m not certain that is a good thing for the world… so please hold tight while the world balances itself, and brace yourself.

So, those space strippers I mentioned before. I figure you’ve waited long enough, it’s time to tell you about them…

The book I was working on that triggered my recent writing stoppage or writer’s block, whatever you want to call it, the book that caused me to question if I should be doing this at all, I was calling “Space Book Thief” as a working title. If I ever finished it, I was rolling “The Books Your Mom Used to Read Before Bed” as the actual title in my head. I’m still not certain about the title… or the book itself. So I figured why not tell you about it?

The book centers around a man named Pargin, who is as the working title suggests a Book Thief who just so happens to live and work in space. The book is set in the future, after the events of The Axe. Pargin and his crew, who go by my old author’s names as covers, get hired by various groups to steal books, which are outlawed by the future governments, The Circle.

Not to go too far into the whole backstory, Pargin who once had a family but lost them in dramatic fashion, stumbles across one of the books he used to hear his wife read to his kids each night. Finding the book triggers a desire to find the other books, which leads him to take a job that he’d normally not take, and well… galaxy-wide shenanigans and consequences ensue. Oh, and there are space strippers, the chapter I stopped writing was set there. So, there you go my writing career almost died mid-chapter at the futuristically enhanced space strippers.

I’ve been noodling with the idea of just trying to finish the damn thing, it was going to be a trilogy. What do you think? Move on? Or dive back into the sweet deep cleavage of the space strippers scene? Maybe next week I’ll give you a sample of the book 🙂

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

by Gabrielle Zevin

I assume since you’re here on my mailing list (Thank you by the way) you must like to read, can’t imagine you’re here for the mediocre beard. I’ve had a long up-and-down relationship with reading.

Flashback to young Vaughn… When I was really young I hated it. Pretty sure I had an undiagnosed reading something. Even now I feel like I’ve just memorized all of the words (boobs) I care to repeat. When I was a teenager I stumbled across Desperation by Stephen King, the book hooked me on reading and King. I remember walking home from school reading Desperation as I walked excitedly to see where the story was going to go. 

From there I dove into the rest of King’s library. Eventually, my love of reading faded, I’d hit the end of King and didn’t know there were other writers like him out there… I know… I was young and stupid and the internet wasn’t really a thing back then, yes I should have just gone to a library and asked but… I’m going to need you to get to the shutting up about that.

Eventually, I found audiobooks and Goodreads and since then I haven’t looked back. Some people don’t count audiobooks as reading… those people are terrible humans and should be removed from your life as soon as possible, they are nothing but demons who aren’t from this Notch, please consider buying them a one-way ticket to an uncomfortable place of your choosing wishing the Aurora Wasteland…End of Flashback by the way.

One of my favorites so far this year has been Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I’m not sure I’ve read a book like it before. I don’t want to spoil much, but the story follows two young people who connect over video games, from there it progresses to telling the story of their lives, in which they aren’t really romantically connected, but partners in video game creation. They develop a few video games over the span of their lives as their worlds change around them. I really liked it a lot, can’t recommend it enough. If you haven’t read it you really should, if you what did you think?

Link to the GoodReads for the book…
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58784475-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow

While you’re there you might as well follow me too. GoodReads…
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19117585.Vaughn_Ashby


That’s it… the end of the second whatever these things are.

Love Uncle Vaughn