Here is the video/audio version of The Man Next Door story I published here earlier this year. I hope you enjoy the story!

You may have noticed that I removed the previous version of my novel, The Holy Fire of the Comanche Moon. I have created a new version here with my voice as the narrator and I have set the story to music, images, and sound effects. This is chapter 1, additional chapters will come out every one to two weeks. What I’ve done is combined five episodes from my House of Lytton YouTube channel into one single file for you here. If you’d like to watch it as individual episodes on YouTube, here’s a link to the YouTube Podcast that will play it as individual episodes.

House of Lytton Podcasts

There’s a few other podcasts that are set up there with videos that cover additional themes you might find interesting.

Thanks as always for taking the time to engage with my work. I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoy the story!

I’m pleased to release the audio version of my story, The Weight that I published here earlier this year. This audio version has music, sound effects, and I narrate the story. I’m trying hard to convert all my stories into audio versions that will be released here in the coming months, and video versions that I’m releasing at the House of Lytton channel on YouTube.

I hope you enoy the story!

Today’s story is a little different.

The young girl at the center of this story is my granddaughter. I originally wrote it for her, taking something very personal to me, someone I love, and turning it into a story she can keep long after I’m gone. She loves longhorn cattle, so I wrote her a little story with a young calf at the center of it. I have seven grandchildren and will soon have a personal little story for each one of them.

As I was putting together the video you’re about to watch, something occurred to me - every family has stories. Over the past year I’ve done a few commision jobs where I’ve written the story and produced a video production set to music, sound effects, and narration either they supplied or I supplied. I’ve done a few videos for individuals, churches, nursing homes, and garden clubs. Through the end of the year I have a little capacity to help you tell a story if you have one that needs told.

Maybe it’s the story of your parents and how they met or something your father did when he was young that your children have heard a hundred times around the dinner table. Maybe it’s the life of a grandparent whose grandchildren are still too young to understand what an extraordinary person he or she was. Or perhaps there is simply someone you love whom you would like to give something more lasting than another thing wrapped in a box.

So, I’m going to open a small number of commissions to readers who would like me to help turn one of their own stories into a short film like the ones I make here. Check out my HouseofLytton YouTube channel here to see some of the commision videos I’ve done as well as video versions of the stories I’ve published here at the The House of Lytton. By mid next year, I hope to have nearly one hundred my short stories converted into videos!

You can bring me an idea and tell me about the people involved, and I can write the story for you. Or, if you already have a story written, I can help edit and shape it.

From there, I’ll turn it into a finished video with narration, music and visuals. I can narrate the story, or, if you would rather tell it in your own voice, or have a child, spouse, parent or grandparent tell it, we can build the film around that recording instead. You own the story - it is yours.

Think of it as a story for someone you love. A birthday. An anniversary. A wedding. Christmas. Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. A retirement. The story of someone who has passed away. Or perhaps no occasion at all beyond wanting to preserve something that matters before time carries it away.

Email me at [email protected] if you have some interest and we can discuss your project, pricing, and timing.

The video below will hopefully give you some ideas. I’m doing a special story video for all my grandchildren and children so they know how much their grandfather loves them.

I hope you enjoy the story! Let me know if you have a story you’d like me to help you tell!

Here’s a little story I recently completed that I’ve posted here as an audio podcast for you. It’s a short, sweet, little tale about an old man who loves to tell stories. I hope you enjoy it! I’ve got several other things I’d like to update you on as well.

In my last post I mentioned that I’ve been working on several projects. I’ve been collaborating with my friend Tom Bulling on a science fiction novel that' we’ve been working on for the better part of six months. We’re over 120,000 words in and our plan is to have it finished and ready to publish by the end of the year. I’ve had a blast working on this with Tom and I think we’ll have a very good book for you to see when it comes out. Tom is an engineering and creative genius and I’ve really enjoyed working on this with him. He came up with some fascinating technology and world building ideas that we explore in the novel that I’ll think you’ll really enjoy.

I also started a new novel called the First Men back in February. I work on it in between writing sessions with Tom and that book explores the time frame From Adam in the bible up through the birth of Noah. That’s a fascinating period of time and I’ve used story lines from Genesis, The Book of Enoch, and John Milton’s Paradise Lost to build a world that involves not only the bible characters you may have learned about in sunday school, but also the Nephalim and the Watchers, those fallen angels that were cast out of heaven. I’m trying to give it the feel of a western, and I’ve enjoyed working on it. That period of time from the bible and humanity is full of great story potential and I’m trying my best to tap into that! I’m at about 140,000 words and I hope to have it done by early next year.

I’ve also launched a new Youtube Channel called the House of Lytton. Lytton is the original spelling of our family name from England. I thought it looked pretty cool and I wanted to start to branch out a bit and try to broaden the audience to a wider group of folks. I’m taking all my stories and creating video’s with me narrating and with music where it makes sense. You can find the channel here: @lyttonhouse. I’ll continue to post here under the Texasgrit brand and I’m so appreciative to all of you for taking the time to read and listen to my work. The House of Lytton channel already has about a dozen videos up so take a look if you like and please subscribe! I’ve hired an assistant who is helping me expand our reach into all the social media platforms and we’ll post links to those as well once they’re ready.

I’ll continue to publish short stories and I may even put out a few chapters of the First Men novel in the coming months her on Texasgrit. I need to talk to Tom as well, perhaps we’ll do the same for the Sci-Fi novel.

I was telling my wife the other day that I have nearly one hundred short stories stored in my computer at various stages of completion. Some of them will get finished, and some will just sit there. But I will continue to produce these stories that are mostly Christian/Spiritual themed that involve everyday people thrust into unique situations that challenges the way they see the world.

I want to thank you all again for coming on this journey with me here at Texasgrit! I look forward to writing and producing stories in the years to come and sharing them with you here as well as the new platforms that we’re expanding into. I hope you enjoy the story!

A neighbor asks a broken down old cowboy to move a herd of cattle just hours before the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 strikes. Can the old man and the herd survive? This is a story of grit, determination, and mercy found in the hellish depths of a storm.

Moses is the luckiest man to ever live and his brother-in-law secretly despises him for it. But he get's an idea, one designed to humiliate Moses in front of the world. This light hearted tale shows that envy can often backfire in spectacular ways.

After the Alamo and Goliad, General Santa Anna comes across a Texas rancher living along the Brazos River who has aided the Texas Army. Santa Anna gives the man a chance to save himself - the play a game of cards to decide his fate.

In a case of mistaken identity, a Texas woman's husband is killed by a band of Texas Rangers. The man the Rangers were really after hears of her husband's fate and pays the woman a visit. Will she seek revenge?

I published this story several years back but just now got around to creating an audio version that is included here. This story was inspired by the song “Boots of Spanish Leather” by Bob Dylan.

I hope you enjoy the story.