Hey Space Cadets, I hope all of you had an outstanding Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate at this time of year! As the new year approaches, I figured we could collectively wave goodbye to 2018 and look forward to a better 2019!
Tag: author
The Odera Chronicles
Hey Space Cadets, how is everyone on this fine day? I’m doing well, and wanted to bring you my news! My former editor, Corey D Truax, and I have signed our next series with a small publishing house, Theogony Publishing. This umbrella publishing house is a part of the larger and more dynamic Chris Kennedy Publishing. Corey and I scoped him out together, in a totally non-stalker kind of way, and liked how he operated. He’s professional, and another veteran of America’s Armed Forces. I think Corey liked that he was a sailor too, but I forgive them both for their imperfections
So, what to say about The Odera Chronicles without giving too much away? This story tells the tale of Alexis Monroe, one of the first female infantrymen in the US Army. Alexis was an only child, her dad was a Seabee and veteran of the wars in Mesopotamia. After her mother died, it was just the two of them, so she became the son he wanted. Alexis strove to please him and honed her inner tomboy. Shortly after she graduated college, females were being allowed to join the combat arms of the military. Alexis enlisted into the infantry. Alexis did well at training, very well. When those scores were combined with her college degree, she was quickly advanced to the rank of sergeant. Despite how well she did, her fellow grunts always assumed she was promoted because she was female. When she graduated from training at the NCO Academy, she was given an out of the way assignment. Out of sight, out of mind, or so the Army thought. Her job was simple; guard a warehouse, don’t look inside. Of course, she looked – and a grand adventure ensued. To find out more, you will have to read the book.
As you all know, I will keep you up to date with our plans for the series, but for now, less really is more! I really enjoyed working with Corey as he edited The Sleeping Legion series, so I think this collaboration will be a blast. I really hope that the fun we have translates onto the page. We both really want our readers to enjoy this little tale of galactic woe. So, if you’ve enjoyed the shenanigans over here in the Handley Trenches, then re-enlist on the insanity train!
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.
World Building Wednesday: Sand Tables
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
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!
JR
–> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section or are owned by JR Handley.
Beta Reading Recon Team
Hello Space Cadets, do you yearn for action and adventure? Does your soul beg to shake free from the shackles of Mother Earth? Do you love reading, diving into fictional universes and then discussing it in depth? Basically, there’s a call out for all of the Geeks, Nerds, Fan boys/Fan girls and all around science fiction fanatics. If this sounds like you, and you want to help an author launch his debut novel, head on over and join the Legionnaires!! Be a part of the adventure, shape it and mold it until it is a piece of literary perfection that Heinlein would be proud of! 🙂
If you want to join the recon teams, you need to first join the Legion, which you can do here. You can then discuss your thoughts on the BattleNet, but you don’t need to do so to chat away. You can find join the discussion here.
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
Why your editor admires you (and why you might not realise this)
Hello Space Cadets, I wanted to share a post which has touched me personally. As I slog through the edits of book two, Fortress Beta City, I find that I need to continually remind myself that this is for the better. As I scrolled through blogs I follow, this jumped out at me. I definitely needed to hear this today. A brief discussion has me wondering about the quality of what is about to go live. If they let me, I’d polish it until nothing was ever published. Because I’m currently anxiously awaiting the return of my second novel from my editors, with another in the final beta review. I’m in the thumb twiddling, nail biting stage of WAITING. I pass the time writing book three and hoping the first two are good enough to warrant publishing this. Reading this post, when the revisions for book two are so massive, was exactly the pep talk I needed. Thank you to the lovely writer, follow her blog, it is worth it!!
Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!
JR
–> I reblog this on the assumption that the author of said post used all images are used in accordance with copyright laws. She’s a smart cookie so I’m sure they did!
When I write a report about an author’s novel, it usually runs to at least 25 pages of detailed notes and developmental suggestions, plus annotations on the manuscript. Sometimes I’ve written 60-page reports. Although I make my responses constructive and helpful, and discuss strengths as weaknesses, I know it’s daunting to receive such a screed. I know my writers think ‘crikey, she needed to say all that? Did I get it so wrong?’
And this: ‘I thought the book was perfect. What kind of shambolic half-wit does she think I am?’
Well today, I’d like to let you know how the editor sees your book.
My open letter to the edited
Although it may be hard for you to believe when you see the size of my report, I know your manuscript represents aeons more time than the hours it takes me to glide through with my editorial eye…
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Author Update
Hello Space Cadets, how is everyone doing? It has been too long since I’ve written a blog post, and for that I’m truly sorry. First, my wife got sick with the dreaded flu, so true to my husbandly duty I provided care. This involved making loads of chicken noodle soup, manning the fort, and not burning the house down! Then I got sick—thanks to her generous nature. Ugh, I hate being sick but I made it through the other end alive. I would love to tell you I soldiered through it and worked the whole time…but mamma said I shouldn’t tell lies. I spent several days where I got ZERO done. Ugh, I was hoping to have book two done so I could be working on book three but it wasn’t meant to be.
Finally, at the same time I was sick, Hurricane Matthew hit my locale hard. We had a lot of flooding, which caused a few local electrical fires when water got into houses. People lost entire houses when flood damage forced the city to condemn them.
My own personal vehicle flooded, so I’ve had to deal with insurance to get it repaired or replaced. Luckily, State Farm has been awesome and is even upgrading my rental car to a truck since my injury makes tiny cars painful and no mid-range vehicles were available. My contract only requires a car, but they are going above and beyond. I should know in a few days whether they’ll repair it or total it.
All I know at the moment is that they categorized the damage to my vehicle as Class 2 Flood Damage. They found water in my gas tank, mixed in with my oil and sitting inside the cigarette lighter/power port things on my floorboards. To be honest, I forgot they were there so I missed them when I did my best to clean the water out of the inside. Oh, and they found nasties inside my engine itself; things like leaves, trash and other debris from the storm. I back up to our cities water drainage system and it overflowed. It is basically a ditch that connects to a lake, which the city made deeper so rainwater had a place to run off. When we flooded, my car sucked in some of the litter which is sadly in it and it apparently is the opposite of helpful for your engines.
On top of all that, my mother’s house flooded and took on several inches of water. They’ll likely have to gut and redo the entire first floor to account for the water damage. I’ve spent time over there, as much as I could while being sick, helping pull up carpet and other things which have to be done. It definitely could have been worse, so for that we are grateful. All told, Team Handley weathered the storm and came out smiling on the other end. Some did not, AND didn’t have any flood insurance. They’ll be struggling, but it taught us a valuable life lesson: BUY FLOOD INSURANCE if you live in a flood zone!! Sigh, should have been common sense but I guess not.
But all that aside, my mother has been busy getting the corporation ready for the launch of our books. We will have an official bank account tomorrow, and as a gift, she hired someone to do our webpage. Within the month it will be ready, though likely sooner. She hired Matthew from MWS Media Creative Services to do a kickass website for us! When the page goes live, I hope to jump into my previously stated plan for the website. That means I need to get off my arse and come up with questions for my military veteran authors, and for authors in general, about how you manage your writing life with your home life. If you guys have any questions along those lines you’d love to see answered, put them in the comment box.
And since I called this an update, I guess I’ll tell you where I’m at with book two. I’m currently editing it, but I’ve solved all but one of the major plot holes. I’m currently on page 138 of 202 and hope to get even further than that before the day ends. My editor is following close behind me cracking the whip. No really, that wasn’t a metaphor… that crazy Navy bastard has a whip. I think he used to be an Indiana Jones fanboy. I never judge, but those Navy boys are sometimes hard to understand. Me, I preferred Rambo and GI Joe! Of course, that was back when he was an All American Hero, before the remake made him some sort of UN Merc, but I’ll save that rant for another day.
Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!
JR
–> As usual, all images are found under Google’s “labeled for reuse” section.
J.R. Handley's Blog 