Hey Space Cadets, today I will postpone my usual Marine Monday for a Christmas recap! I spent the morning opening gifts with my kids, enjoying their reactions to the gifts; ours and Santa’s. My youngest is thrilled with the Master Chief Helmet from the Halo Universe, and given the difficulties required in wrapping it, we let Santa claim that victory. We also got him several Halo 12-inch action figures, which were also a hit! My oldest got a plethora of art supplies, as he is gifted at turning nothing into something with paint, crayons and the like. My wife got the usual, clothes and boots. What can I say, she has an addiction! And I, I got one of the best-worst gifts ever!! Skyrim for my Xbox One!!! (Pardon me, book three will not be postponed until 2020!)
My other favorite gift, given to me by the wonderful inhabitants of the Amazonian Jungles, was that my debut novel, The Legion Awakes, has been in the top 40 of the Hot New Releases in Military Science Fiction (Space Marine) since it was launched. It was even ranked number 97 overall for a brief 12 hours!! I feel like it has to be a dream, but I don’t want to wake up. Book two, Fortress Beta City, has also been in the top 50 of the Hot New Releases in Military Science Fiction (Space Marines) as well which is mind blowing. Not sure whether this trend has legs, but even if this is the pinnacle of my writing career I can die happy. It’s official, I’m an author and have two published novels. This, I believe, is as close to immortality as humanity might strive. We last forever in the what we leave behind; paintings, pictures, words and music.
So truly, I’m humbled and I will strive to make every book even better than the one before it. I will commit to working as fast as possible to get book three, Operation Breakout, finished in January and off for the pre-publication reviews. I’ll bribe my editor, Corey, with the naval equivalent of Scooby Snacks so he works fast enough to keep you happy!! Oh, and I’ll also gift his lovely wife the coffee to sober him up when he over indulges in his snacks!! Hopefully we can keep this war wagon trucking down the path to world domination with a loyal army of Space Cadets toasting us into oblivion and beyond!!! FORWARD TO VICTORY!!!
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.
