Hello Space Cadets, I wanted to bring you some updates. I recently signed contracts with two small presses for two separate series that I’m co-writing with Chris Winder. One of these is a series we’re calling The Cyborg Corps. We signed with JN Chaney’s Variant Press for this. We also signed with Continue reading “AMERICA’S TOP SECRET WAR: Atropia”
Hello Space Cadets, I’m sorry for the delay in posting lately. I AM still alive; my alien overlords haven’t called me back yet. I took a few days off for Thanksgiving, and then had to play a crazy game of catch up to finish the NaNoWriMo event. It has been insane! Long days, longer nights and loads of coffee.
Okay, as for the NaNo… let me give you a recap. I finished the rewrites for book two, Fortress Beta City. It’s now with my copy editor for the last pre-publication pass. This was a lot of work, hours of conference calls giggling over pizza, but it is done. It is, hands down, the favorite book I’ve written. My former editor, and boss, was so close to the story that together we missed some ways it could’ve been better. I imagine that many authors who let outsiders play in their sandbox experience these issues. I think book one, The Legion Awakes is good, but I’m even happier with book two. And let’s face it, there is also the element of my improving skill at storytelling.
In addition to Thanksgiving, I had my 35th birthday just after Thanksgiving and it was wonderful. My wife is very supportive of my work, so she bought me a fancy dancy ergonomic desk chair. Stand back boys and girls, she’s mine and I’m keeping her!! My birthday present to myself was finishing book two, Fortress Beta City. Like I said earlier, the final structural/content editing pass is done, and I don’t tend to worry about the copy editing!! Hey, I’m just not too overly attached to the commas and whatnot. Now we wait for the final formatting before it’s off to the presses!!!!! Okay, maybe beta readers too…. but IT IS DONE!!!!
Now that I’ve mentioned the editing, I need to pretend my momma taught me some manners. I’m not an ungrateful frakker, so thank you Corey Truax!! You do good work, glad we hired you!! Tim C Taylor will love the finished product!!
Sorry literary world, he can’t be your editor…. HE’S ALL MINE!!!!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Continuing on my NaNo writing journey, I also pushed past book two and wrote over 36,000 words into book three, Operation Breakout. I’m loving this book too, it’s full of action and has improved upon the mistakes I made in earlier novels. I feel like Operation Breakout is the fulfillment of the promise of high action that was made in Fortress Beta City, and as a writer I always want to honor the implicit promises I make.
Growing, always growing (and not just my belly) towards being a better novelist. That’s what I hope I’m doing anyway. Hopefully readers will agree; I’m sure I’ll find out soon. I’ve not done it alone, I’ve had great mentors and support. I won’t list those mentors today, but I will write a post about who they are since they are so very supportive of new writers. They host podcasts, webpages and Facebook groups that are very supportive environments. Another noob would be welcome, the Fire Marshal just extended our digital capacity! Again, more to come!!
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.
Hello Space Cadets, today I wanted to tell you about a NaNoWriMo kick off party I attended at my local public library. The meeting included a brief overview of what NaNoWriMo was and then a quick introduction to navigating their website. We quickly jumped into a few fun writing prompts and I wanted to share mine.
First we got a blank comic strip and we had to write the dialog for ours. Here is what I came up with in the three minutes provided.
Then we were told to pull several plot points out of a bucket; an action, a character and a location. We were given these plot points and told to write a short story in under three minutes. Here is what I pulled out of a bucket.
And without further ado, here is the story I came up with!
Not much else to say here, but if you wanna have fun you could use the prompts and write your own story? Would love to read them in the comments section!!!
Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!
JR
—> As usual, the two images I used today can be found under Google’s “labeled for reuse” section.
Okay all, I found this hilarious original song about the NaNoWriMo journey and I had to share! Let me know what you think, we can talk about it together!
There were way to many more hilarious videos to post, but I will leave todays post with this.. So who’s almost ready to start?
J.R. Handley's Blog 