Hey Space Cadets, I hope everyone is doing fine!I am doing great, though a little under the weather.If you live in Southern Virginia (USA), then you’re likely feeling my pain.Summer weather one day, snow the next.Ugh, take your meds already and stop being so crazy! Also, I finally broke the 50,000 words mark on Operation Breakout!!If the multiple exclamation marks didn’t clue you in, I’m ecstatic to cross that line! My original goal was to hit 90,000 words by January 31st, which means on 56% done with 10 days to get the other 44%. I’m still going to try for my February 1st turnover date, but I might be a little off.A turnover date is when I have the finished product to the next link in the assembly line of production.If you want to check my editor, he’s here and would love for you to say hello!
While taking a realistic look at the numbers, I would need 3,584 words a day to make that happen.Not sure if I’m there yet but I hope it’s a feasible word count for me down the line.Ultimately, if I started getting 2,500 useable words a day I will gladly call it a win!Heck, I’d be so happy I’d throw a party!Ideally, I’d love to reach 3000 words a day or more but I’ve learned that I can’t set unrealistic goals because it stresses me out, which is bad for my creative process.
Moving right along, sorry I didn’t post yesterday.It’s the second day I’ve missed since December 1st but it was a much-needed day off. I was busy working my way through the Dragon Training Tutorial.I’m not sure I’ll get all of the functionality out of the program, but if I can merely produce a usable first draft, one my editor won’t kill me over, I’ll call it a win. I’m already getting faster with the dictation than I can currently type. While the learning curve means less time actually working on the story, in two hours I’m getting as I did with five to six hours of typing. If I can get more proficient, and tweak my outlining process accordingly, I can see myself finally reaching pulp speed.
Speaking of editing, I recently watched a video by Keystroke Medium on the subject. I found it very informative, and wanted to share it with you. I really think it’ll have a lot of actionable advice, most of it from the practical and less on the theoretical side. While you’re in the video browsing mood, you should check out the other videos as well. They’ve got loads of good stuff, seriously, just click here.Come on, I double dog dare you!! Anyway, in this video you’ll also see mention of a contest that benefits a worthy charity.They’ve teamed up with Parkinson’s UK to help research towards a cure, a worthy endeavor. They’re auctioning off 3 Tom Edwards book covers, which are amazing works of art! Definitely worth looking into, but I don’t want to spoil it so watch the video already!
After watching that video, if the fine folks at Keystroke Medium seemed right up your alley, check them out on Facebook, or on YouTube. Josh and Scott, the hosts, are extremely friendly so you won’t regret it!
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 images owned by JR Handley.
Hey, Space Cadets. I hope this fine Tuesday finds you well! I’ve hit an impasse on Operation Breakout. Namely, managing this blog takes more of my time than I really have. While I love the collaboration, writing stories needs to be my top priority. Soon, if I can’t find a solution, I might cut back to every other day posting. Either way, for today, I wanted to try something different. I’ll be doing a series of writing prompts, and today’s will use the image below as the starting point. My goal is to improve my ability to write shorter works, and you get to be my lab rats! I hope you enjoy the insanity that follows! Feedback is welcome. Negative, positive, grammatical, whatever you want to post. Ultimately, a writer grows by seeing their flaws and honing their craft.
She opened the door to her storage closet and braced herself for the horror that would come. Her normally ruddy complexion turned an ashen white as a hoarse voice whispered to her, imploringly.
“Just let me explain.”
It wasn’t how she expected to spend her Saturday morning, after a glorious Friday evening with her friends. She’d met up with members of her Imperial Space Fleet Academy graduating class, to reminisce about old times.
With long deployments, spread across Imperial Space, she hadn’t seen several of them in years. Many of them had exited the Navy, and entered the private sector. Enjoying lucrative jobs in the Imperial City, which allowed them to meet with their classmates.
The rest, well their time in service meant most were ready for their own class on ships captaincy. It was only their return to attend the Ship’s Captain Course, after so many good officers died in the insurrection that just ended, that brought them all together.
After so long apart, she’d just gotten through telling them how happy her marriage was. Droning on about how they’d stood the test of time and were still together after all these years. College sweethearts even.
What she didn’t expect was to go into the storage closet to find her husband joined in coitus with her best friend. The fact that he was wearing her high school prom dress and ‘that woman’ was wearing a tux only added fuel to the rage that followed. She knew she only had a few seconds to decide her next move.
Is the prison time worth killing them? Would it be better to take a picture, humiliate them both? What do I do?
Hope you all enjoyed this science fiction short, and I’ll try to do more of them in the future! Again, feedback is welcome. Heck, if I get an idea doing this that I like, I might just turn it into something more. If your feedback helps make that happen, you’ll get a mention in the acknowledgements. Or, I’ll make you a redshirt in the book and you can meet death with glory (in the story, of course).
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 images owned by JR Handley.
Hey Space Cadets, how’re you all doing this fine Monday?Here in the States it’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day so we’ve enjoyed the three-day weekend.Played games with the kids, went for walks and enjoyed the nature around us.I didn’t post a blog yesterday, and for that I’m sorry.I had to get my computer fixed, and then got lost in the sauce working on Operation Breakout.I really feel like you’re going to love this one, it has more action than the first two and we explore the culture of the Human Legion Universe even more.
Another quick update, there is an official Facebook page for fans of the Human Legion Universe.Right now it’s new and only includes Tim C. Taylor, Corey the Editor and yours truly!If you want to join, hop on over to the new page and start a conversation or two.And speaking of hopping… let’s talk about rabbits.No, seriously, today’s post is about the Sangurian species.They’re humanoid rabbit warriors, who came close to annihilation after a failed revolution against their capricious White Knight Imperial Overlords.Like in many cases, when you revolt and fail it goes badly for you and yours.In this case, very badly.
Because I know you’d rather see how the sausage is made than hear me bloviate, here is a look at the Sangurians.I have it on good authority from that mysterious LegionLeak warrior – these documents are true and were stolen from the deepest digital vaults.Don’t believe me?Take a look and see for yourself.I even hired the best translators in the metaverse since I don’t read White Knight Imperial Standard.
Also, in case you were curious about what I visualized when reading these purloined documents, I grabbed a screen shot from Google.I own none of the rights to these, so I’m only showing you what you could see in the same search I made.Hope it sparks some creative juices for everyone!If you’ve got similar creatures in your works, or read of them, please start a conversation here or on the Facebook fan group.
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.
Hey Space Cadets, how are you doing today?I’m doing good, a slight delay on Operation Breakout, but I still hope to finish it before the end of the month.I plan on doubling down now that my wife is back in college after the holiday break.Taking advantage of the quiet during the day will be my sweet spot, or at least I hope it will.I took advantage of the snowy weather we’ve had and played with my sons.Snowball fights, hot chocolate, the usual wintery goodness.Here’s hoping I can get back on track real fast and in a hurry like.
As an update from yesterday’s post, I also managed to go for a walk this morning!!I took a half mile circle around the lake behind my house and enjoyed the serenity of what passes as nature in suburbia.Someday I would love a more rural setting, but I need to be close to the VA hospital, and my wife enjoys the malls a bit too much for life in the sticks.I love the idea of waking up to a view, letting the surroundings serve as inspiration.Obviously, upkeep would be an issue but I hear they have riding lawnmowers these days so maybe I can convince the War Department?Who knows, but I can at least try!
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As you can see, the walk was both scenic and saddening. I can’t stand to see this litter everywhere and when my back is up to it, I carry a trash bag to pick up what I can. Litters beware, Big Sarge is watching you! Anyway, I need to keep this blog short because I need to get back to work but I didn’t want to get out of the habit of my daily blogs so I figured a quick update was in order.Tomorrow I’ll post an interview with another small science fiction publishing house, so come back and check it out!!And Saturday I’ll write another one of my book reviews, so don’t miss that either!!
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 everyone is surviving the snow which has blanketed most of the United States.For those of you not in the States, well we hope you survived too!The Sleeping Legion Series books are doing well, and I’m continually amazed by that fact.I’m halfway through writing book three and hope to have it to the editor by the end of the month.I’m still excited about this project, and the next two afterwards so never fear I’ll disappear and leave you hanging!
So for today’s World Building Wednesday I’ve decided to talk about something that acts as a companion to your writing plan. Today I want to talk about our health, there is a proven medical correlation between physical health and mental agility.I’m not going to lie, the Army over prescribed me cortisone shots while I was deployed to keep me the field.They continued this as I transitioned into the VA (Veterans Administration) for my medical care.The excess cortisone combined with decreased physical activity due to my injuries resulted in my gaining weight.Lots of it.While my body was wounded and no longer as active as I wanted it to be, my lifestyle choices didn’t keep up.I kept drinking and eating like I was still running 5 miles a day, though given the delicious microbrews available these days, can you blame me?
A quick side tangent; unlike my misinformed Boss Man, I drink my beer in a cold frosty mug as God intended it to be drunk.Those wacky Brits seem to think we should drink beer warm!I mean, didn’t anyone go over to the island and tell them we had refrigeration?Next, they’re going to tell me they still cook with fire, instead of on the stove.Sigh, it’s a shame but I shall continue to persevere with my 5-Step Plan to educate him on the ways of the beer world.Wish me luck!
Okay, rant over… and now we resume your regularly scheduled programing!Since I started tracking my daily word counts, I noticed a trend.On the mornings where I got an early start with a walk, my writing improved.My neurologist tells me this is because blood flow, oxygen levels, as well as other medical sounding stuff that I didn’t even bother remembering.Due to this insight, and the knowledge that I can’t keep writing if I let myself spiral into an early grave, I’ve decided that 2017 is the year of the healthier me.I might never fit back into my Class A’s, but I can get down to a place where my doctors and wife aren’t worried.I’m 5’9” and weigh in at 341 pounds, this can’t continue.I promised I’d still be writing when my youngest son is older.He has it in his head that he’ll write a book with me someday.To do that, I have to turn this ship around.
And I shall, because my kids are worth it.As writers, we tend to spend a lot of solitary time in front of our monitor clacking away on our keyboards.This lifestyle of professional daydreaming can lend itself to inactivity and general unhealth.Let us all endeavor to turn that around so that we might live longer and write more.
We can do it.We HAVE to.
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.
Hello Space Cadet, today I wanted to muse about some parts of my time in the Big Green Weenie.It inspired this Marine Monday post, as I tackle the role that cadences and martial music in the development of military culture and mores.I hope you enjoy my ramblings, feel free to join the conversation afterwards!Without further ado, let the ramblings begin.
Everyone who has ever served in the military knows a universal truth: the value of music. You’re taught to march through music. Yes, I know they stopped using marching bands to train with years ago. Yes, I also know that they don’t even have lone buglers or drummers leading the charge. However, we were all taught to march via the musical stylings of our sergeants or petty officers. Shh, I won’t let on that I know your age (spies be spying) if you let me pretend everyone was smart enough to go Army! Hey, it keeps it simple because I can say sergeant instead of remembering petty officers and whatever the heck the Coasties and the Air Force had.
Think back, dust off that fuzzy sounding eight track and start running through your memories.Do you remember them? The marching cadences used to keep you in step? The sing-songy sound of your sergeant’s bellow? Something about yellow ribbons, Chuck Norris and ladies in multi-colored dresses. I had the rare privilege of having seen these cadences at all levels, the ones used for boot recruits, sergeants at the NCO Academy and officers in training. Yes, I know they’ve changed the name of the NCO school many times…. But hey, if I tried to keep current with that fiasco I wouldn’t have time to write this wee post or book three in The Sleeping Legion Series so go with it.
Yesterday I was using music to soothe the soul of several wild animals, most notably my two children, and the music they requested from Dad’s YouTube DJ Services took me places. My eldest asked for the soothing sounds of 1990s heavy metal, though you might call it light rock today, so much has the market changed. Guns-N-Roses, Metallica, Motley Crew…. The usual for kids these days, and if it isn’t it dang well should be. I was instantly taken back to my youth, rebellious thoughts of parental mutinies and my daring but unfulfilled plans to woo that special girl. To protect the innocent, I will call her Kimberly, but since I’m the writer here you’ll have to trust me when I say it isn’t important.
Anyway, after walking down the primrose path of my pubescent mental mausoleum, my eldest son’s turn was over and number two got his shot. What did he request? Ugh, he chose Army marching cadences. I know you’re asking yourself why my son might request the cool marching cadences of HAIL OH HAIL OH INFANTRY, but that’s probably not important. Had nothing to do with daddy’s gross lacking of musical depth, namely knowing zero lullabies, which led to some hypothetical person singing Army cadences to his colicky son. Hey, it was the ots! I mean, the double zeros excuse everything, that crazy post-Y2K time in our history.
So I kept my word, much to my wife’s chagrin, and I hit play to a few Army cadences. My seven-year-old joyfully marched in place to the sounds of unseen sergeants extolling the joys of war. “Off to battle we will go, to live or die, hell I don’t know” seemed perfectly rational when an 18-year-old Private Handley sang it on his way to the nastiest DFAC this side of Hades… but out of the mouth of my grinning cherub? I shuddered, I cringed, my wife bopped my head! I watched Kentuck drink out of the Euphrates fricken River, and then shared a bottle of Gatorade and cigars with him. (Note to self: brush teeth a few extra hundred times.)I did a multitude of other gross stuff, just to fit in with my fellow grunts.Somewhere, my doppelganger is still screaming to his buddies “Hey yall, watch this!” But all that paled when listening to my sweet boy, my little buddy, sing of death and war. It shook me to the core.
I’m not one of those apologists who throw medals over political fences. I won’t say I’m sorry for fighting my country’s wars, my job was to fight.I was good at it, and many of us came home because of the skilled riflemen I had the privilege to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with.While it was my job to fight, it was my fellow citizens and the politicians they elect, whose job it was to determined when and where they unleashed the beast. Not a perfect system, but it beats the alternatives. But, unlike my Handley predecessors, I will gladly surrender the mantel of ‘military family.’ We’ve done enough, let the Jones have the ball for a few generations. My sons, I want them to be patriotic, but maybe with a slight contrarian hippy bent? A few peace signs and tie dyed shirts to add to the effect?Maybe even a dreaded pair of Birkenstocks? For you Brits reading this, think along the line of Guy Fawkes…. And if I mangle that geopolitical reference, I can blame Tim! Hey, blaming your predecessors is practically cannon over here!
Right, back on track… sorry, the wife had to beat me about the head and shoulders so the hamsters knew I meant business. Rest easy, they are back on that spinning wheel and we’re back on course. After I got over the shock of seeing a babe singing a violent military cadence, I realized something. We modern soldiers, those raised in a more genteel time, we NEED those cadences. Why? They prepare us for the idea of death; ours and theirs. They teach us to dehumanize our enemies and make us more comfortable with the idea of killing them first.It reminds me of the quote from Karate Kid, the motto of the Cobra Kai Dojo. “Strike fast, strike hard, no mercy sir!”
One author, a Mr. Dave Grossman, wrote a book ON KILLING about how the military used systematic approaches to accomplish the goal of preparing soldiers to kill and possibly die in war. Some have argued that this was a seminal book on the subject, and while I’ve not read it since my head injury, I instinctively realized how those cadences from long ago shaped my world view. I learned to hate the dreaded commie as I humped the hills of Fort Benning, GA. I learned of vaunted Airborne Rangers left dying in the mud, though I always thought Patton had it right, better let them die for their country instead. I remember fondly a cadence where the mythical soldier is asked how he earns his living, to which he replies: “with a cold kind of nod, I earn my living killing commies for my God.” We later learn that an acceptable way to do this is with your K-bar (combat knife). To save you from hearing me give you all the examples, I’ve posted links to a few at the bottom of the article.
So, I’ll assume you’re still with me because otherwise you’d have left the thread already. Now that we have shown how a largely peaceful civilian culture prepares warriors to fight and die, let us consider the world created by author Tim C. Taylor. Okay, I really do love his work but I’ll end my fanboy stuff here, I swear. So, in the universe of Tim’s Human Legion Saga there are no civilians, everyone’s a combatant. At least, the Marines in the Human Marine Corps are only exposed to militarism from birth, it’s possible that the culture of the White Knights is different… Maybe we’ll learn more in Book 6, The Battle for Earth?
Now that we’ve established the universe, how would their teachings differ from ours? Would these crèchelings/novices/cadets even need cadences to accustom them to their new reality? And what does one sing about when you have no non-martial references from which to draw upon? Who would be their mythical Jody, the bogyman who steals your girl or guy, while you’re gone when it’s likely your lover would deploy with you? And on a broader subject, how would their purely military society differ from ours? I’d bet their food would be worse, military cooks are the pits! I remember a DFAC at Fort Hunter-Ligget that even screwed up a burger! How do you mess up a burger? Ugh, but I digress. Seriously though, in what ways would daily life be different in world free of civilians? Do they trade in their humanity in the name of efficiency?And what would such a world produce for the lullabies which we take for granted when we’re singing them to our young? What kind of fairy tales exist in this militaristic society? I won’t pretend to have any answers, but the questions are intriguing. Let’s be honest, it is what makes science fiction so great in the first place!
Anyway, this was all just food for thought but let’s talk about it in the comment section!
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, how’s everyone today? All’s going well in my neck of the of the woods. Sorry this blog is going up late, had to deal with a slight family emergency. Seems my erstwhile keeper locked her keys in her car on the way home from her sisters, several hours away. Luckily the keys were in the car, one less expense! As for The Sleeping Legion Series, I’m making adequate progress on book three. Just shy of 40k words and with the wife home, and shedding the geographic single dadhood, I should be able to rock-n-roll. Hopefully I can tame the Dragon, and make the dictation method work for me to speed up this spaceship!
Today I wanted to talk to you about the biggest part of my world building, the authors platform. I’m not the most tech savvy guy out there, I’m practically a technological troglodyte. When we decided to get a professional website, Team Handley picked what we could afford. We were pre-revenue with the writing, but wanting to build everything up so we were prepared for launch day. Ultimately, we went with WordPress because I already had a presence there and I didn’t want to lose that. In the future, I’m not sure which hosting platform I would use but I love the friends I’ve made on WordPress so I think I’d keep that too, even if only the free part as a mirror to whatever follows.
After we set up our new website, we ran into struggle after struggle trying to figure it out. When we realized that we would need help, we shopped around the best person for the job and found Matthew Wayne Selznick through my membership in The Listeners of the Dead Robot Society group on Facebook. He first reached out with a few free tips, just one author helping another, until it became clear to me that he was the guy we would be hiring. A few phone calls later, contracts were signed, initial deposits paid and our website was quickly assembled. Seriously, in under two weeks we were ready to go. Obviously making the site from scratch would take him longer but he was very forthright about everything.
If this strikes your fancy, if you’re interested in more, check out Matt’s websites! Tomorrow’s post will be a follow on interview with Matt, so check back for more!
Hey Space Cadets, how are you this fine Monday? Still feeling the effects of the New Years Hangover? I’m sober, and even have some blood in my whiskey stream. My wife is out of town, so I spent a quiet night writing after the kids went to bed. The Legion Awakes and Fortress Beta City are continually surprising me and I have you guys to thank.
First, let me give you a little bit of backstory about Fortress Beta City and Operation Breakout. Those two stories started as one novel, until Boss Man caught on that I was about to write a Tolkien worthy novel. After we split the two, Fortress Beta City became the story of the Marines of the 6907th TAC RGT struggling to survive in a doomed city. The next half of what I plotted became Operation Breakout, where two task forces must fight to secure the continent of Serendine from the New Order.
I felt like the build-up in the second book made a lot of promises for the third, so I want to deliver. Operation Breakout will be as high octane as I can make it, and then my editor will help me add on some dynamite for that little bit of something extra. As I developed these plots, one of my secondary characters, whose whole purpose was to show how the lost Kalino City was different from Beta City and Detroit City. The Auxies were treated a bit better and the culture was different, which likely led to Kalino City being lost to the ravages of time. One of those characters was Auxiliary Technician Basil Terloar.
Basil was a cowering wreck, a pacifist in a world where the gun ruled. He wasn’t like the other boys and girls, resulting in his being shipped off to the Aux Pens (slave pens) to be tasked with the manual labor needed to keep the cities alive. That is, until that fateful day he met Veteran Sergeant Lance Scipio. For a sneak peek into him, a look at how the sausage is made, here is his character sheet.
I hope you found this peek into my process enlightening, and the character compelling. If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask!
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.
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!
JR
–> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section.
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.
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.
J.R. Handley's Blog 