Category: Writing

Interviewed by Boss Man

On By J.R. HandleyIn Human Legion Series, Sleeping Legion Series, Writing22 Comments

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Hey Space Cadets, I hope everyone is having a spectacular day!!  I’m doing great, I had a moment on release day where The Legion Awakes was #27 in the Hot New Releases for Military Science Fiction (Space Marine) and #44 in the broader Hot New Releases for Military Science Fiction.  Thank you, sincerely, for being a part of my team and joining me in the trenches!  To be honest, we don’t plan to be a flash in the pan.  The plan for The Sleeping Legion Series is one of a slow burn, as we build an awesome series.  We hope the readers agree, and join us on this adventure.

 

Moving right along to the topic at hand, today Boss Man posted an interview he conducted with me and I thought I would share the link.  If you want to learn more about the craziness behind my shenanigans, click here.

 

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

brown_bess 

JR

 

 –> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section.

What it’s like to make books — The Human Legion

On By J.R. HandleyIn WritingLeave a comment

Hey Space Cadets, here’s a quick look into how the sausage is made from Boss Man!  Take a peek and leave some love!

 

Our book mobilization is almost complete. Here are the dates: The Sleeping Legion book1: The Legion Awakes will be launched tomorrow (Dec. 19th). Revenge Squad book1: After War goes live on Tuesday (Dec. 20th) The Sleeping Legion book2: Fortress Beta City is launched on Wednesday (Dec. 21st) If you’ve joined the Legion then you should…

via What it’s like to make books — The Human Legion

 

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

brown_bess

JR

 

 –> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section.

Marine Monday: Infopedia’s

On By J.R. HandleyIn Marine Monday, update, Writing2 Comments

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Hello Space Cadets, how are you today?  I’m doing outstanding, getting ready for the launch of my debut novel The Legion Awakes and hoping everyone loves it.  Paying back my mom for what we spent in the pre-publication stage wouldn’t hurt either!  To do that, people have to find me, so that lets me justify my time playing on my blog.  Shh, if anyone asks it’s for work (nods vigorously).

 

Today I wanted to talk to you about a feature of Tim’s website that has a metric frakk ton of information about his world building.  He labels these Infopedia’s, and they read like an encyclopedia entry.  They’re written in from the perspective of future historians studying the past, the eras we both write in.  It was a lot of fun to read when I was first introduced to his world as a reader.  I often refer to it as I write as well, and since I started this World Building Series Tim has been inspired to update this section on his own blog.

 

In addition, these posts serve as additional cannon support for the Universal Codex that my editor posted about over on his blog.  Sometimes they’re called other things as well; Universe Bible, World Building Style Guide or their brain dumps.  If you don’t follow him, and you love reading and writing, you should check him out.

 

I’m sorry this wasn’t a more exciting post, but I felt that I needed to point everyone in the right direction to see the building blocks of my works.  From here on out, I’ll be focusing on the things I added to the universe and will let Tim embellish his own idea babies.  Hopefully this helps, and wasn’t too disappointing.  As you know, I’ve been handling the pre-publication details of my first two novels.

 

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

brown_bess JR

 

 –> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section or are owned by JR Handley.

 

The Legion Awakes

On By J.R. HandleyIn Sleeping Legion Series, Writing9 Comments

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Hello Space Cadets, how are you today?  I’m doing outstanding, biting my nails as we launch my debut novel The Legion Awakes.  I’m anxiously waiting, hoping everyone loves it, because I’ve poured my soul into it.  Paying back my mom for what we spent in the pre-publication stage wouldn’t hurt either!  It’s officially out in the world, so mosey on over to the Amazon link and take a look! 

 

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

brown_bess

JR

 

 –> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section or are owned by JR Handley.

Playing with Legos

On By J.R. HandleyIn Blogging, Writing21 Comments

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Hello Space Cadets, how are you today?  I’m doing good and going through my interweb folders and finding older posts that nobody read.  I want to bring them into the light of day now that this is a real blog, so bear with me.  This was my fourth post, so climb with me into the wayback machine and let’s go!  I won’t even edit the errors, so you can see how far we’ve come!

 

Beep, bop, boop, beep…..

 

Looking back in time!

 

Today I was, in fact, playing with Legos.  My wife came home to find me playing with Legos after a long hard day at work housewifing.  Naturally she was curious, as there was real work to be done.  Dishes to be washed, Christmas presents to be wrapped, good ole fashioned adulting.  My answer was simple, “I’m building sand-tables.”  What are sand-tables you ask?  Well, they are places where you use sand that can be molded to accurately represent the topography of a specific battlefield.  Basically, you use a sandbox to plan your battles.  When I used this in Army ROTC, we sometimes even used little green army men!  I seem to remember those little troopers being the same color my face turned after I ate my first MRE!!!  I am using Legos (as well as army men, yay!) for this purpose, allowing me to plan out a battle that makes sense and can be clearly explained.  Hopefully this means I write better battle scenes, but at a minimum this helps me clarify things in my own head.  That’s an important factor if I’m going to tell that story to my audience.  Let’s just say she wasn’t convinced, but finally my puppy dog eyes paid off.

 

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

brown_bess

JR

 

–> This image is under available under the free creative commons and was originally posted to Flickr.com.  It was uploaded to Commons using Flickr upload bot on 15:22, 25 July 2007 (UTC) by Ranveig (talk). On that date it was licensed under the license linked to above.

A Moment of Silence

On By J.R. HandleyIn Blogging, Human Legion Series, Sleeping Legion Series, update, Writing6 Comments

Hello Space Cadets, today I’m the bearer of bad news.  Today we mourn the loss of one of my closest friends and a staple of the first two Sleeping Legion novels.  Additionally, I had the unpleasant duty of killing off several Red Shirts and my heart breaks.  My spouse might call them imaginary, but I know they’re real.  She also likes to point out that it was I who killed them.  Yes, cold hearted bastard that I am, I killed them all.  Almost an entire regiment had to die today, so that Serendine might be free of the New Order heathens.  I know the truth, they were cold heartedly murdered by those Hardit scum.  In memoriam, I would like a moment of silence as we celebrate those poor young lives cut drastically short by the ravages of war. 

 

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Thank you for your kind considerations.  Please make all bereavement donations to the Human Legion Widows and Orphans Fund.

 

 

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

brown_bess

JR

 

 –> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section, are owned by JR Handley or are being used under the Fair Use Doctrine.  The image of the statue can be purchased at the Mainely Urns and Memorials website.  It’s called the Battle Field Cross Memorial Sculpture and no copyright infringement is intended.  We at Team Handley fully credit this company for their masterful artistry and value the intellectual property rights of our fellow artists.  Seriously, check out their stuff if you are ever unfortunate enough to need to commemorate fallen loved ones.

The Line in the Sand: Discussing the “traditional” hero in comparison to the “flawed” hero

On By J.R. HandleyIn Writing3 Comments

An insightful look into what makes a hero! Follow the rabbit trail and take a look! 🙂

M.L.S.Weech's avatarM.L.S. Weech

new-1If Quintessential Editor could use a few of those greens he consumes so readily to help apply better terms, that would be amazing, but when discussing the contrast between the traditional hero and the flawed hero, I felt inspired (thanks Rough and Ready Fiction!) to offer a few case studies and offer my thoughts and opinions.

There are a lot of sources that describe a lot of hero archetypes.  The reason I didn’t narrow down to one source is more because I don’t feel there’s a TON of consistency out there, so I’ll use the terms that make the most sense to me and you can decide on what terms you like best.  I’m more interested in discussing my thoughts than I am determining the best terms in this regard.

The Traditional Hero:  He’s the nice guy’s nice guy.  He’s the white knight.  The man of principle.  He’s the…

View original post 1,410 more words

Prompting Creativity

On By J.R. HandleyIn Blogging, update, Writing9 Comments

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Hello Space Cadets, how is everyone today?  Just a quick update, I have finished my short story for the Roswell Anthology from Tickety Boo and will be sending it to my editor today!  Once I submit it, I’ll keep posting updates on the process.  If you like science fiction, why don’t you write something and submit it!  It was a lot of fun and sparked about two dozen or so novel ideas that I fully plan on exploring.  We would all love to hear about your process, your final project and whether or not it got picked up.

 

For today’s blog, I decided to share a fun little writing prompt I found.  This challenge came from high school, somehow, I never started it.  Shh, don’t tell my teachers.  I decided to give it a shot and set some ground rules for myself.  I needed it to be flash fiction, to practice my abilities at writing the shorter stuff as well.  I wanted to keep it around 125 words and I only had one extra word I couldn’t cut.  And I had to do it in under 5 minutes.  Here is the results of my efforts, feel free to point and laugh!  And if you’re feeling especially froggy, jump on in and write your own reply to this prompt!  Can’t wait to read it if you do!

 

Writing Prompt: What started a centuries-old blood feud?

 

The Banpiro Clan and the Lupo Clan attended their neighborhoods weekly shad planking, and were enjoying a hearty meal. The beer was flowing, wine was in every glass and the kids were joyfully playing in the adjacent meadow. When Lordette-Chief Banpiro and Lord-Chief Lupo got to the buffet line there was only one slice of pecan pie left. Deciding to strike a blow for equality, Lord-Chief Lupo ate the last slice of pie.

Undone by the lack of civility, Lordette-Chief Banpiro slapped the Lupo Clan Chief and challenged him to a dual. History never knew exactly who fought whom, but the feud that followed has lasted eons and stood the test of time, while the battle that followed has been lost among the ravages of time.

 

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

brown_bess

JR

 

 –> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section.

World Building Wednesday: Sand Tables

On By J.R. HandleyIn Blogging, Infantry, Sleeping Legion Series, update, Writing7 Comments

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Hello Space Cadets, how is everyone doing today?  What’s that?  I can’t hear you, sound off like you got a pair!  And if you don’t, fake it till you make it!  So, now that I have your attention, let’s have a little chat over coffee!  Today I decided to give you get a sneak peek into how I wrote my battle scenes.  Let’s dive into the world of sand tables, sometimes called Recess for Soldiers!

 

So where to start, first let me start by discussing what a sand table is.  In a nutshell, a sand table is a surface bearing a three-dimensional map of a given piece of land.  According the Merriam-Webster, it’s “a table bearing a relief model of a terrain built to scale for study or demonstration especially of military tactics.”  Basically, I a super special map!  The military has used them since forever, long before Christ was even a Corporal.

 

Now that I’ve explained what a sand table is, I’ve decided to show you the one I made for my first novel.  Yes, The Legion Awakes, which will be published on December 19th, 2016.  It’s an improvised sand table for a combat scene in the novel involving a battle that my main character is involved in.  Wanna know more, read the book!  You’ve probably already read this, but please let me be prideful for just a few words!  I’m currently writing The Sleeping Legion Series set in the military science fiction world of Tim C. Taylor.  That book will be out soon, so I wanted to share some of how I got here.  Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let us return to our regularly scheduled programing.

 

Anyway, the key to a successful sand table is that they provide you with the opportunity to visualize the battle space in three-dimensions.  This allows you to better describe the field as you’ve envisioned it.  It allows you to envision all of the obstacles which might get in the way of the armies you are describing, though this could work for any type of writing, combat or otherwise.  I supposed I would be remiss if I didn’t also tell you that these can be used to model towns, and other generic settings for your works in progress.  Not as exciting, but certainly necessary.  They are used by the military for strategic visualizations, are extremely helpful with strategic planning, but can be used by everyone!!

 

Without further adieu, my masterpiece!

 

My Sand Table

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LEGEND:

Cups: Akoni Mountains

Green Sponges: Dense forests

Brown Building Blocks: Old Government Tower and Akoni City

Blue Paper: Water Features; Dynia River and Lake Charon

 

Now that we’ve covered this in depth, feel free to sound off in the comments below!  And if this tickled your fancy, click the follow button and never miss out on the insanity or shenanigans from the Handley Trenches!

 

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

brown_bess

JR

 

 –> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section or are owned by JR Handley.