Tag / Writer's Digest

by sixlakesstudios

First Anniversary!!!!!

November 17th-18th, 2020: Gay, Autistic college student Matt Slater starts up the Cascades Stories website, with the first post, “Introduction,” Being posted at 9:59 PM on the 17th. HOWEVER, the website is officially registered on the 18th.

December 9th-11th, 2020: The Social Media Pages for Cascades Stories are created on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

December 24th, 2020: Matt submits “The Aviary of Henry Weston,” a short story, to the Reedsy weekly Prompts contest.

January 3rd, 2021: “The Aviary of Henry Weston” is the first original story posted on Cascades Stories.

January 3rd, 2021: “The Aviary of Henry Weston” also marks the beginning of the Wattpad/Tapas collection “Short Stories by Matt Slater,” featuring short stories and poems from SLS too small for their own book. After a few months of being unposted during the judging for the Writer’s Digest Short Story Competition, “The Aviary of Henry Weston” has been re-added to the collection.

February 2nd, 2021: “The Friend Lock,” also a Reedsy story, is posted on CS.

March 28th, 2021: “Carousel, Carousel” is posted. This is the first poem posted on CS, as well as the first writing by Matt Slater to not have come out of a prompt.

July 11th, 2021: “The Curious Store (AKA Tracing Patterns)” is posted on CS. While originally written for a Creative Writing assignment at Matt’s college, there was no prompt for this story, either. Rather, Matt wanted to write a story from the perspective of a gay, autistic man, and better explain what “stimming” is.

July 13th, 2021: Cascades Stories becomes Six Lakes Studios, as a tribute to his hometown, Lakewood, Washington (neither he nor his family live there anymore), and to his grandmother.

July 30th, 2021: Matt mistakenly publishes the first chapter of The Waterfall two days early. He later unpublished the post, and rescheduled it for the planned premiere on August 1st, 2021.

August 1st, 2021: Matt’s first multi-part story, The Waterfall, gets its first chapter published here, on Wattpad, and on Tapas. However, further chapters are only posted on Tapas and Wattpad.

September 20th, 2021: Matt turns 20 years old.

September 20th, 2021: The Vikings of Vancouver, Matt’s first comic, premieres here, on Webtoon, and on Tapas.

September 18th-24th, 2021: @impromptuwriters features Matt’s haikus about the Greek Muses. Matt later posts these on SLS. Thanks, Gage! 🙂

September 10th and 25th, 2021: Turning into darker works, Matt writes “The Runaways” for the Reedsy Weekly Prompts Contest for September 10th, 2021. Posted on SLS on the 25th of the same month, the Runaways did not win that contest, similar to the other stories submitted to past contests. However, “The Runaways,” as of November 18th, 2021, turned out to be Matt‘s most popular story on Reedsy, with 13 likes. “The Aviary of Henry Weston” is in second place, at nine likes, while “The Friend Lock” has five, and the original version of “The Waterfall,” which was disqualified, has one.

October 25th, 2021: The First Chapter of Blurred Lines #1: The Choir is published, and, sticking to his personal rule, Matt only published the first chapter here, while further chapters will arrive on Wattpad and Tapas.

November 18th, 2021: Six Lakes Studios turns one!!!!

November 18th, 2021: Matt Slater posts SLS’s anniversary video, thanking everyone who has supported SLS in its growth. This is the first video from SLS.

December 2021: Mason and Eric, the 2021 Christmas Special, will premiere. [Postponed, but not canceled]

December 31st, 2021: After this day, The Vikings of Vancouver, will only update on Tapas and Webtoon.

January 1st, 2022: Parker and Luca, Matt’s second comic, will premiere.

January 1st, 2022: “Formerly Cascades Stories” will be dropped from the site title.

February 14th, 2022: Matt, Matt’s third comic, will premiere.

February 2022: Max Fields #1 will premire.

April 15th, 2022: After this day, Parker and Luca will only update on Webtoon and Tapas.

May 2022: Tales of human Nature: Serial Killer will premiere.

May 31st, 2022: After this day, Matt will only update on Webtoon and Tapas.

October 2022: The Nightman of Bellingham Bay will premiere.

2022: SLS will be on Patreon!

2022: Matt will begin drafting the full-length version of “The Aviary of Henry Weston.”

2022: Matt will begin drafting the full-length Graphic Novel (yup, Graphic!) adaption of “The Runaways.” He will not illustrate it, however.

2022: Blue City Mysteries will premiere.

by sixlakesstudios

Update 11/12/21

Personal: Eric Horsted, sitcom writer and producer, came to speak at my college about a month ago! I was pretty stoked because it was pretty cool to hear about his work in the industry, how he got started, and the challenges of being a screenwriter. It was also very cool to meet a gay man who had worked his way up in the industry to earn a resume that includes shows like Futurama, the Simpsons, and Reba. After taking this picture, he said “I hope to see your name on the screen someday.” This was amazing. I am now even more inspired to pursue my writing and screenwriting goals. Of course, I will stay in college as a Geoscience major, but I am keeping my Screenwriting minor, and will take his advice of finding time every day to just sit down and write. Thank you for coming, Eric!

The Runaways: Stay tuned for more information regarding an expansion of this story. Hint: It will be a novel, but not the kind of novel you might be thinking of… 😉

The Aviary of Henry Weston: The novelization will be commencing over winter break, and I’m setting a goal to have the first draft ready by next year’s winter break.

Unfortunately, the short story didn’t make it past judging at the Writer’s Digest Contest, but don’t worry, I’ll be reposting it on Tapas and Wattpad. I’ll also be writing something for the upcoming contest. 🙂

Comics: TVOV, Parker and Luca, and Matt are being drawn, but some delays are expected with the rest of fall quarter coming up.

Also, I just got the new Windows 11 upgrade, and Paint got the biggest update it’s gotten in years! It finally doesn’t look like it’s stuck in the mid-aughties! So, I may have a smoother time drawing, but I have yet to try it, so let’s see how it goes.

There is also a fourth comic in the works, but more information on that later.

Oh! And make sure you follow TVOV on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

Blurred Lines: Updates will be slow. Forgive me.

Other Projects: More work is underway, but the biggest project right now:

The First Anniversary!

Thank you all so much for viewing my work over the past year. Since SLS’s debut (as “Cascades Stories”) on November 12th, 2020, I have started a comic and a few books, gotten my poems shared by Impromptu Writers, and worked up the nerve to submit to the WD contest.

So, please, keep an eye out for the SLS First Anniversary Video, premiering Thursday, November 18th, 2021 on YouTube!

Thanks for reading!

-Matt

by sixlakesstudios

Update 5/9/2021

Sorry for not updating in a while. School.

Anyway, I have some exciting news: An edited version of “The Aviary of Henry Weston” has been submitted to the 90th Annual Writer’s Digest Competition! Wish me luck!

Also, I will do my best to be more active in the Summer, but I just need to get through the rest of Spring Quarter. I do have ideas for upcoming projects, though:

Comic Strip: “The Vikings of Vancouver.” The comic strip follows a Norwegian-Canadian family and their interactions with other people. If you think this sounds like a wholesome family strip, it is not. It won’t be crass or overtly inappropriate either, though. Let’s just give it a “TV-14-DSL” rating. It will be uploaded to Tapas and Webtoon later this year.

Tales of Human Nature: “Volume 1: Rhododendron Heights.” My Halloween Treat to you, as mentioned in a previous update, will be the first volume of Tales of Human Nature. Every volume follows a different story with different characters. TOHN: RH follows an Ryker Whitman, autistic teenager whose family moves to a small, oceanside town in Southwestern Washington from Los Angeles in August 2007, after his dad loses his job due to the Late Aughties Financial Crisis. The Whitmans learn from a local carpenter that a small yet dangerous cult has been active in and around the town since the 1930s. Ryker attempts to learn more about the cult, but he keeps encountering obstacles, and strange things start happening to anyone who tries to help him. TOHN: RH will be all typed over the Summer, and released on Wattpad and Tapas, with a new chapter every Sunday between September 19th (the day before my 20th Birthday) and Halloween. [Postponed until further notice]

Blue City Mysteries: Volume 1 (Stories 1-10). I am working on the first few stories. The series will be set in Lakewood between 2028 and 2033. The first story will introduce the main characters, Detective Carl “Earrings” Warburton, who has been part of the Lakewood PD for nine years, and Detective Zaria “Banker” Bankole, a recent transfer from the Seattle PD, as they investigate the murder of a tennis star, whose body was found in a storage unit.

The Aviary of Henry Weston: Full-length book is under way!

“The Curious Store”: An illustrated short story I will be posting this summer. More details to come later.

Name change: On November 17th, 2021, the first anniversary of this website, Cascades Stories will no longer be “Cascades Stories.” I am changing the name. More details to come later!

Until then, thank you for reading!

~ Matt

P.S. Happy Mother’s Day!