ARRRRRRGH, MATEYS!!!!! I be Four-Eyes the Fabulous, and this be my color-changing pumpkin friend, Jack O’Lantern! We be takin’ over this here website!
Just kidding! It’s me, Matt! Happy Halloween, readers!
If I’m being honest, I didn’t used to like Halloween (sensory overload), but I’ve grown to it. I just have to avoid anything that would cause me to freak out, shut down, or have nightmares. But I’m getting better! In fact, I am even watching the 1978 John Carpenter classic slasher: “Halloween!”
Now, onto the news:
The Vikings of Vancouver: More TVOV coming underway! I will only post a few more comics on WordPress, before shifting distribution exclusively to Webtoon and Tapas. Most likely, I will stop posting TVOV on here after the New Year.
Parker and Luca: I am getting started on Parker and Luca comics right now. I will try to create a character sheet for them as well.
Matt (Comic): I will be starting work on this comic soon.
Mason and Eric: I am one of those people who tries not to get all “Christmassy” (or “Winter Holiday-y” overall) until the Saturday after American Thanksgiving, but what the heck! I’ll announce this year’s Christmas Special! The 2021 Christmas Special is: “Mason and Eric!” More information to be coming next week. [Postponed, not canceled]
The Waterfall: Don’t worry! I haven’t forgotten about The Waterfall. Updates will resume sometime in December.
Tales of Human Nature Serial Killer: Coming May 2022!
Blurred Lines:Well, the story is coming along now, and will be updated as much as I can through November.
Max Fields #1: Coming February 2022!
Blue City Mysteries: I am in the process of writing stories for the series right now, but I’m still trying to figure out the characters, plotlines, and each individual story. I have some of my fictional version of Lakewood, Washington built up right now, but it’s not complete yet.
Also, I am not trying to put Lakewood in a negative light. I just wanted to set the series somewhere that is a) A diverse, medium-sized suburbia in the Pacific Northwest and b) close and near to my heart. I love that city. I lived there for a few years as a young kid, I have family and friends there, and I have a lot of memories there.
Voldensfjordian Murders:If you follow my work on “Chapters” I am so sorry I haven’t updated “A Voldensfjordian Murder” or its sequels and spin-off in a while! I am trying to get back on track, but it’ll be easier when I’m out of school for Winter Break.
If you haven’t seen them, please be sure to check them out!
Other Works:I have so many ideas in my mind, I can’t keep track of them! But I will be sure to keep you updated, and whenever I start truly working on a new project, you, dear readers, will be the first to know!
Personal: I am doing well in the Geosciences Major, and can’t wait for my winter quarter Screenwriting Class. I am also doing better, mentally, now that I am doing in-person classes. I am excited for what comes next for me in college, on this website, and in life! Also, my brother turned 15 years old TODAY! A Halloween birthday, how about that?!
P.S. Yes, those are real earrings. My Ears have been pierced since February of 2019, and earrings are one of my weird, random interests. The strange part, though? I’m not a fan of piercings elsewhere. Just ears. Not sure why.
Bone-us: Here’s a picture of my dog, Pizza, in 2019, dressed in his Halloween Costume.
The Waterfall will be on hiatus until I can get enough of “Blurred Lines” written to post later this month, as well as getting some TVOV comics drawn for the remainder of 2021. I have learned the hard way not to do too many projects at once, so I am taking a few things off of my docket.
The nine muses of Ancient Greece were the inspiration for the poetry prompt from Gage from the Instagram page @impromptuwriters: “Choose a muse and write a poem based on their domaine of inspiration. Be sure to start it off by invoking them!”
I decided to write haikus about each of the muses. After sending them in, he gave me some feedback, before posting some of my haikus on his page. I was pretty excited to be featured on another writer’s page, and I shared that excitement with some close friends and family members. Below, I have embedded the two posts I’m featured in, which together have seven of my haikus. I have also posted as the ones for Polyhymnia and Euterpe. Please enjoy, and be sure to check out Gage’s page for writing prompts and featured writers!
The Waterfall: Chapter Three will be posted on Wattpad and Tapas on Sunday at 4:30 PM PST. I am introducing some new characters.
Comics:The Vikings of Vancouver‘s first strips are underway.
Other than the plot and characters, there is another difference between TVOV and Parker and Luca.TVOV will have standalone comics (with a few exceptions), while Parker and Luca will have more story archs, with a few standalones mixed in.
Halloween: I have a few ideas for TOHN’s ‘substitute’ while I get the details for TOHN ironed out. You will get a Halloween story, mark my words!
Other Projects:The Aviary of Henry Weston, Tales of Human Nature, and Max Fields.
The Waterfall: The second chapter of The Waterfall will premiere on Tapas and Wattpad on Sunday, but no further chapters will be posted on this website. I’m sorry, but I made the decision to only post the first chapters of my books on this website, to save space on the homepage for other posts. After the second chapter is up, the schedule will go down to every other Sunday, so that I have more time to prepare the story, and figure out it’s direction. I already know how it’s going to end (no, I won’t tell you, sneaky!), but it’s the middle I’m trying to figure out. To be fair, unlike The Aviary of Henry Weston, the decision to make The Waterfall a full-lengther was a whim decision. The idea for this story didn’t even exist until two weeks ago!
However, I do hope you’re enjoying The Waterfall. If you’re wondering what happens next, please keep an eye out for the second chapter this upcoming Sunday, and following chapters every other Sunday, on Wattpad and Tapas!
Reedsy: I’m hoping to challenge myself more witht the prompts sent by Reedsy each week. I may not be a weekly writeer for them, but I hope to up my pace in the future. You can find my Reedsy profile here, or in the “links” section.
Even though The Aviary of Henry Weston was written in December of 2020, my Reedsy profile was created in May of 2020, predating this site by six months. I found Reedsy while trying to get started in writing, but before I really got into a ‘writing groove,’ so to speak. They’re quite the resource for writers. This is not a paid endorsement, just genuine compliments!
Blue City Mysteries: The ball is rolling on the writing of the much-awaited Blue City Mysteries. Here’s the plan for the series: fifty stories, published in five volumes of ten. Not every book will focus on a murder. Some will have other crimes, such as kidnapping, or it may focus on the re-opening of a cold case.
Here is the summary for the first story, “The Mortality of Fame:” Warburton and Bankole’s relationship is immediately tense, as they both struggle to adjust to each other’s investigative styles, and Bankole has second thoughts about accepting the job in Lakewood. The new partners must put aside their differences, however, when they’re called in to solve the murder of a young tennis star.
I would love to talk more about Blue City Mysteries, and Lakewood itself, so keep an eye out for a future post focused entirely on them.
Comics: I hope you all read the info cards about The Vikings of Vancouver characters! I am in the process of creating the first few comics right now, and also the info cards for Parker and Luca. Later this month, I may do a “work in progress” post for my comics, with sketches for TVOV,Parker and Luca, and Matt.
Max Fields: I am putting together an outline for the first story starring Private Eye Max Fields, a character of my own creation.
Max Fields was a detective for the Chicago Police Department in the late 50s and early 60s. In 1962, the same year Illinois became the first U.S. state to decriminalize homosexuality, he was fired from the CPD when his sexual orientation was found out. He decides to become a private detective, and starts a new life in (the fictional) Wyvern, Illinois, where his cousin, Alex, lives and works as the Sheriff for Lakeshire County.
Max teams up with two locals, Isaiah Barrow and Patrice Wendall, to set up a P.I. agency in Wyvern, and buys a house where he shares a rear fence with Alex and Alex’s family. He inserts himself into Alex’s cases, against his cousins’ wishes, during which he acquaints himself with Deputy Johnathan Zhukov, who is in the closet.
More information will come in a future post.
Personal: I recently had my wisdom teeth out, and I will be going on vacation next week, but things will be picking up soon after, even with school coming up.
Comics will be available on Tapas, Webtoon, and this website (for select strips only).
The Vikings of Vancouver follows Norwegian-Canadian chef and restaurateur Marcus Halvorsen, his wife Mary, a retired police officer who currently works in retail, fraternal twin sons Marcus Junior, a musician, and Marvin, an autistic Food Science student at Davie University, daughters Trina, who plays for numerous collegiate sport teams, younger daughters Green, founder of the Eco Club at every school she’s been attended since preschool, and grandson Mark, Junior’s son from a high-school relationship. They live in a fictional version of Davie Village, Vancouver, in a large townhouse across from Voyager’s Landing, the Scandinavian cuisine restaurant Marcus co-owns and operates, along with the Halvorsens’ Norwegian Buhund, Gjørmete (“Muddy” in Norwegian), and Marcus’s American sous chef, Frankie Morales, who is also Marvin’s Boyfriend.
The Vikings of Vancouver primieres on 9/20/2021, which also happens to be my 20th Birthday!
TVOV is rated 14+ for strong language, social commentary, sexual references, suggestive dialogue, slapstick humor, and references to alcohol, gambling, pot, and adult media.
Parker and Luca: The shortest way to describe my second comic, which premieres on New Year’s Day 2022, would be “Baby Blues meets Husband and Husband.”
Parker Johannsen and Luca Braz have been married for years, and have been raising two daughters and a son in the fictional Monroe District of Spokane, Washington. Luca works as the athletic director for Hell’s Canyon University, while Parker works from home as a graphic designer and podcaster. Their children are 12-year-old Xylon, 8-year-old Ruby, and 5-year-old Morgan.
Parker and Luca is rated PG for mild language, suggestive content (involving the adult characters, not the kids!), social commentary, and alcohol references.
Matt is just some “slice of life”/social commentary comics I draw about my life, including my expiriences with ADD, Asperger’s, body image issues, social awkwardness, navigating college during COVID, and my coming out.
There will be many characters featured here, but mainly, the comic will showcase me and Blue, a baby blanket with a plush dog head who I have held dear since my uncle Mike gave him to be when I was born.
Matt premieres on Valentine’s Day 2022.
Matt is rated 14+ for language, social commentary, suggestive dialogue, and references to mental health issues and adult media.
If you are subscribed to SLS on WordPress, you may have gotten an email showing you the first chapter of my new story, The Waterfall.
However, that was not supposed to be seen by ANYONE until August 1st at 4:30 PM PST. It was accidentally published due to an error on my part. Please do not share the story!
The Waterfall Ch. 1, now that the scheduling is fixed, should premiere on the above date, like planned, on Tapas, Wattpad, and here. The following chapters will be uploaded on Sundays on Wattpad and Tapas, but not here. Sorry about that, but I don’t want to crowd the homepage with all the chapters of my longer stories.
Sorry about the mixup!
If you are not yet subscribed to this blog, please do, but also, please read the first chapter of The Waterfall on Sunday!
If you are subscribed, and received the email with the first chapter, then please, again, don’t share it! Let it be our little temporary secret 😉.
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