Satellite navigation is such a vital part of day-to-day life that other countries of the world are planning to build up their own network of navigation satellites and move away from total reliance on the American system, GPS.
America
As mentioned in my previous post, the GPS system is operated and funded by the US government. The first GPS satellite was launched in 1978 and, over the following years, more were launched – covering more and more of the Earth’s surface. In 1993 the system become fully operational when it had a full set of 24 satellites covering the entire surface of the globe. However the GPS signals were scrambled, making them available only to US military users who had the equipment to unscramble the signals. In 2000, following a decision by president Bill Clinton four years earlier, the signals stopped being scrambled and since then have been available for civilian use anywhere on the…
For the grammar fanatics among us! For the record, I’m only 35 and I was still taught these ‘old people’ rules. She needs to adjust that but otherwise it is a great article!
Here’s a fair and honest review from a friend who doesn’t normally read my genre. Her review reflects that, but it is interesting to see how different fan groups react to your work,
I absolutely love to read. Like, I love it. I have read nearly 30 books already since the beginning of the year. That’s almost a book a day.
That’s pretty much impossible for someone like me who works full-time has a wife and a two year old—not to mention I am an author and we have a novel being released next month (Brother Dust: The Resurgence). So how?
Audio Books!
Some of you just checked out of the conversation because audiobooks are super-dang expensive. Right? When have you last looked on Audible? Some of those jokers are like $25! For a book!
So, I am a pastor and an indie author which means I’m not banking. So clearly, I’m not spending $20-25 for books 30 times a month.
I’m not selling anything other than the joy of reading. I have found gold and I wanna share it. If…
32 covers came in, and your votes have cut them down to 16. And BOY DID YOU VOTE! I’m thrilled! Last month, the bracket received a total of 137 votes, and I was over the moon. This month has already received ten times that number in the first round. As I type this (a few hours from midnight), there were 1,054 votes cast.
Let’s go over some numbers:
The Closest Contest:
That would be Upside Down vs Indelible. Only five votes separated Upside Down from Indelible. This was my personal favorite bracket. I honestly feel guilty for putting those two up against each other in the first round. I assure you, this wasn’t by diabolical design. Honestly, I was just tossing them in the bracket as I came to them. Still, it was a great contest.
Hey Space Cadets, how are you doing?I’m doing good, rolling through the main battle sequence for Operation Breakout and excited to get it to my editor.I know I need to make a blog post, lest the raving fans storm my trenches and seize my flag… wait, or was that a game?Hmm, capture the flag anyone?Anyway, what was I saying?Right, I wanted to give you a blog post worth reading.
Today, I decided to give you a snippet from one of the many battle segments of the book.In order to understand it, you just need to know that the main character is Colonel Lance Scipio and he’s about to mess up some enemy Hardits.Or is he?I dunno, I’m feeling kind of stabby, so maybe I kill the main character and go back to the drawing board for book four!Mwahahaha, I guess you’ll have to read and find out!Anyway, on to the snippet!
Hope you enjoyed the fragment of my unedited manuscript!If you’re feeling friendly you could leave a comment, start a conversation!
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 owned by JR Handley.
Hey Space Cadets, I hope you’re all doing well. Today I plan on keeping my post short, I’m not where I want to be with Operation Breakout. Here we’ll give an update on the blog, and some of what I see as my basic policies. Nothing too sexy, but it had to happen eventually. Especially with the big plans I have for 2017, which I can’t wait to be able to tell you about.
First, I have several interview series I’m running because they’re fun for me. Hope everyone else enjoys them as well! If you want to see anyone specific, just post a comment or contact me and I’ll try to make it happen. If you hate this series, let me know and I won’t do as many of them. I can never tell which posts are well received and I’m still learning to read the WordPress analytics. Regardless, I’ll continually seek to keep the interviews fun and personable but please do sound off in the comment section.
Warrior Weekend Interview Series
Family Friday Interview Series
Sci-Fi Shenanigans Interviews
Mental Health Matters Interviews
Now, onto a topic that has been fun for me to do! Book reviews!! I love books, I love to read and I love talking about what I’ve read. I do need to explain some of my personal policies on this. I won’t review books I don’t like or couldn’t finish. My intent is to only review stuff I can give at least three, maybe four, grenades (stars) too. I’ll freely admit to my tendency to support other military veterans, but that alone won’t make me blow smoke up your six. You have my word on it. I hope that I’m as transparent as glass, and if you need clarification please ask. This is why I list if I was given the book as an ARC read etc. This desire to be transparent is why I won’t review Boss Man’s books. I love them, or I wouldn’t write in his world, but I’m not impartial enough to review them.
Another topic I wanted to cover was a YouTube vlogger I found, Keystroke Medium. The hosts, Josh Hayes and Scott Moon, are pretty friendly and the live events are a blast! They’ve discussed a wide variety of topics and interviewed a lot of authors. If it’s entertaining and about the written word, they have either covered it or will be soon. It’s a lot of fun, and worth a moment of your time. I’ve mentioned before, and I don’t want to harp on it, but I really do enjoy this team. Further, their crazy style has spurred some interesting ideas for new books. As an author, this is always a good thing!
Finally, speaking of new ideas, I wanted to recommend one last source for story ideas. The Stuff You Missed in History podcast is a great place to mine ideas. This umbrella venue has a wide variety of podcasts for you to enjoy. I will freely acknowledge the need to be able to tune out politics this, I sometimes they wear their extreme left ideology on their sleeve. Regardless of their politics, their topics are diverse and generate loads of ideas. I mentioned this, not because I’m getting political (I intentionally avoid doing so here) but to forewarn you. If this isn’t something you could tolerate, you might want to let this ship pass by. The history podcast tends to be pretty neutral, and has lead me to a multitude of plots for future works.
Hopefully, you found this housekeeping session to be entertaining! If not, then I hope that it was at least informative. If you have any ideas for resources for writers, feel free to share them in the comments below! Tomorrow I’m sharing another Warrior Weekend Interview with Sarah S. Reida, an attorney who advocates for veterans and right middle grade fiction. She became a family friend after she stood up and helped me slay the goliath that is the VA process. My wife and I call her our “Court Room Warrior Princess,” after the TV show ‘Xena’ that I watched growing up. It’ll be a hoot, so pop back over tomorrow!
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 screen shots taken by JR Handley and used under the Fair Use Doctrine.
The Sweet 16 is here!
J.R. Handley's Blog 