A Call to Action: Beta Reading

Hello Space Cadets, I bring you some important news from the field!  The Sleeping Legion is rousing… As I type these words, REVENGE SQUAD: After War, the first book in the forthcoming Revenge Squad series by Tim C. Taylor is due to be launched in about a month.  Is he nervous?  You bet!  Excited?  Oh, yes!  And if you join the Legion you can be a part!  As a Legionary, you can read the recon team edition today.

 

Tim would be very grateful for any Legionary Bulletin members who can spare the time to look over the recon edition.  The novel has been edited and proof read, but Tim has two particular concerns:

After War features a hero who is also something of a grumpy old soldier.  He claims personal experience in two of those conditions, but he hasn’t been a soldier so he may have written something that doesn’t sound right to someone with that background.

Donna the Editor and Tim are both English.  This means they wear powdered wigs, commute to work on a red bus, and only take off their bowler hats when bathing.  In full disclosure, I will quote Tim’s perfectly British attempt to defend his countries honor.

“Despite scurrilous rumors spread by JR Handley, it most definitely does not mean we drink warm beer.  Damn you, rest of the world!  British beer is served at cellar temperature, I tell you.  As God intended!”

All joking aside, they both worry that they might fail to spot something that seems off to their North American and Australian readers.

 

How to download After War: Recon Edition

The book is available in Kindle and ePUB format (the latter for Nooks, iBooks, Kobos and other devices). To distribute them I use a service called BookFunnel. You should be able to get the book loaded wherever you want by clicking or tapping the button. If you have trouble getting this book, just tap the Help Me link at the top of the book download page and BookFunnel’s friendly support team will help you get your book.

 

What does the Book Recon Team do?

 

Recon Team volunteers help by scouting ahead for hazards and highlighting dangers in a draft of a forthcoming book.  If you read a passage and it makes you whistle, curse, or throw your book (and the device you’re reading it on) across the room because something isn’t right, then I would like you to tell us about it.

 

What I’m asking volunteers to do is to read the Recon Edition as if you were reading any other book and make a note of anything that strikes you as wrong.  This could be characters acting in a way that doesn’t make sense, passages that are confusing or have spelling mistakes, sex scenes that make you cringe, combat scenes that don’t ring true, heathen Britishisms (that’s highly unlikely with me [JR Handley]), though Tim is confident that he will corrupted me at some point) or anything else that feels wrong.

 

We can’t promise to agree with or act on everything you tell us, but we do promise we’ll read and consider everything you bring to our attention.

 

How do I communicate what I’ve found?

 

This time we’re doing things a little differently, opening things up and turning it into a wider discussion.  If you have something you want to say, add a post to the BattleNet forum on humanlegion.com.  There’s a forum specifically for the Legion Awakes Recon Team, which you can find here.  Be aware that other members of the team may read and comment on what you say.

 

You will need to register for BattleNet first.  Instructions are in the forum itself.  It’s as quick and painless as I can make it, but should hopefully prevent endless posts telling us how we need more Viagra.  In fact, I’ve already managed to identify and ban some spambots trying to register, so it’s working so far.

 

To help us know which part of the book you’re referring to, it’s useful to do the following.

If you’re reading the Kindle edition, tell us the Kindle location (or give the chapter number if the comment is not specific to a line).

Please copy the first 3-4 words of the sentence (because the Kindle location is not enough by itself to know which line you’re referring to).

 

So if the opening paragraph started at Kindle location 80, and read something like this…

I always get the shakes before a drop. I’ve had the injections, of course, and hypnotic preparation, and it stands to reason that I can’t really be afraid.

 

…And you were of the opinion that injections and hypnosis didn’t sound futuristic enough and something really ought to be done to jazz them up, then you might put as your forum post:

 

Chapter1. Loc 80. [I’ve had the…] The med tech sounds too 1950s!

 

That’s all there is to it.  Remember that this is meant to be an enjoyable experience, so have fun and if there’s any danger of becoming onerous, then stop commenting.

 

BTW: if you can’t place that classic opening paragraph, there’s a short article on it here.

 

Recon Team Benefits

 

Many people have told me over the past few years how much they have enjoyed the sense of playing a part in creating a book.  We at Team Human Legion hope you do too.

 

Other than reading an advance copy before anyone else (and for free), and being able to chat about it directly with the author, there are a couple more little bonuses.

Everyone who comments will be named and thanked in the final edition.

Everyone who comments will join our pool of Redshirts.  The books in the Human Legion Universe get through a lot of characters, and most of them need names.  Where we can we’ll use names from our Redshirt list.  We might mangle your name a little if the story demands it, but you should recognize yourself.  Redshirts have a habit of not surviving for long, but despite the name not all Redshirts are doomed to a brief and bloody literary existence.  Who knows?  You might wind up doing duty as a romantic interest.  If you would rather not risk ending your literary alter-ego’s existence falling into a volcano or as a casualty when the pirates board your ship, then mention that in your BattleNet comment and you’ll be safely excluded from the Redshirts.

 

OK, I’m Sold. How do I get my book?

The book is available in Kindle and ePUB format (the latter for Nooks, iBooks, Kobos and other devices).

 

To distribute them I use a service called BookFunnel. You should be able to get the book loaded wherever you want by following the link on the next line. If you have trouble getting this book, just tap the Help Me link at the top of the book download page and BookFunnel’s friendly support team will help you get your book.

 

Here’s the link:  RECON EDITION: THE LEGION AWAKES

 

Thank you for your support. Now go read the book and have fun…

 

What next for Human Legion Books?

December 2016 will be a busy month.  All being well, we will release five books:

 

The Sleeping Legion

The Demons of Kor-Lir: carnage as a green Marine squad encounters a hidden foe. The eBook edition will initially be exclusively available to Legionaries.

The Legion Awakes: A Marine is awoken centuries after his time and has to turn around the worst squad in the regiment or die. Meanwhile, a civil war that will rip apart the galaxy is about to kick off…

Fortress Beta City: After Tranquility-4 is immolated in the civil war, the Hardit New Order reigns unchallenged under Supreme Commander Tawfiq… until a Human Legion task force under Colonel Nhlappo arrives to retrieve the Sleeping Legion. But there are more secrets buried under Tranquility’s soil than even Nhlappo and Tawfiq know…

 

Revenge Squad

After War: Retired onto a frontier planet and told he’s now a colonist, NJ McCall is lost in every sense when a filthy alien penetrates the perimeter of his farm. What happens next will change the world.

Hurt U Back: NJ McCall’s first assignment is to Port Zahir, and it does not start well. The Revenge Squad HQ is abandoned, its personnel assumed slaughtered. But NJ’s new family will not let him give up. Battling through dockside rivalries, revolutionary intrigue, police harassment, and an ex-fighter pilot turned bishop with an eye on his soul, NJ must face overwhelming odds if he is to deliver his revenge. The eBook edition will initially be exclusively available to Legionaries.

 

That should be plenty for one month.  We’re not idle though.  We will be back with more releases in 2017.  The next Sleeping Legion novel, Operation Breakout, is well underway.  The next Revenge Squad novel, Second Strike, has been outlined, and the opening scenes written of the final Human Legion novel, The Battle of Earth.  Deeper into 2017 will see more Sleeping Legion and Revenge Squad novels and exclusive content as part of the first Human Legion box set (which will be available on Kindle Unlimited, so anyone with a subscription can get it free).

 

Well, I’d say that’s about enough for one day!!  Hope it finds you well, especially going into the Thanksgiving Holidays!  But remember, when in doubt, drink more beer!

 

 

Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!

 

 JR

 

–> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section or are personally owned by the author of the Human Legion Universe.