I’m lifting my head above the writing and publishing trenches for a few moments to share some exciting news about an imminent new Sleeping Legion book launch, a new audiobook deal, and more. If you follow JR Handley’s blog, you’ll already know about a novellete he’s been working on called No Marine Left Behind. Well,…
via No Marine Left Behind: a new Sleeping Legion novelette — The Human Legion
Hey Space Cadets, how’s everyone doing today? I’m doing amazing, trying to be more disciplined in my outline for Maternal Vengeance, hoping it pays dividends in the amount of time it takes to write. I’ve also started some of the editorial reviews for Operation Breakout, which should be out ‘soon.’ I’ll have you a date once Boss Man decides when we’re going to publish it. Stay tuned, or join my mailing list for regular updates.
Now, let’s get right to the point of my latest blog posting! Yes, I’ve gotten bit by the interview bug! I’ve started the Warrior Weekend Series, the Family Friday Series, and now the ‘SciFy Shenanigans’ series that only serves to talk with other authors of science fiction! Here goes nothing!
As I’ve mentioned, I created a template to talk to authors about their latest books and their process. They’ll be able to pitch the other stuff too, of course, but when authors have deep back catalogues it’s hard not to get into the weeds with them. Those weeds have grown too high, so I took a weed whacker to the mess. Here’s the final results! Now grab your popcorn and enjoy the ride!
Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Children of All Ages,……
First, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
My name’s Yudhanjaya Wijeratne. I’m a 25-year-old writer and a data scientist from Sri Lanka. For the past two years I’ve been working on a very Orwellian novel, tentatively titled This is Society. Some elements of this are actually going to come true in this decade (they’ve already started). In the past, I’ve designed and programmed games, built news media properties, covered tech as a journalist, even worked retail selling custom gaming rigs…I’ve dabbled in quite a few things, most of them involving tech and wordsmithing.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/yudhanjaya
Twitter: @yudhanjaya
Blog(s) www.numbercaste.com | www.icaruswept.com
What is something people would be surprised to know about you?
I’m entirely self-taught. I’ve put my 10,000 hours into writing, and I take courses online – everything from data science at Johns Hopkins to Greek myth from Upenn. There’s really nothing you can’t learn with a proper online learning model.
I’ll go out on a limb and assume that if you write books you also enjoy reading them. What other genres do you enjoy reading, and how have they affected your writing?
I read almost anything except romance, but I’d have to say fantasy, sci-fi and biographies. I initially started reading biographies to understand how to convey detail about a person, and for a long while I found that I would default to interview mode when writing something – even the current novel was written from the point of view of a journalist exploring his subject. It’s a dance I’m familiar with.
Who are your biggest writing influences?
I’m not entire sure. People who read my work sometimes say I have a touch of Terry Pratchett about my words, but I’d be deluded to compare myself to his magic. I’d count Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta), Dianna Wynne Jones (Chrestomanci, Howl’s Moving Castle), Stephen King (Dark Tower, the Stand, Christine) and Sol Stein as my influences. I’ve certainly made a conscious effort to pattern myself after their advice.
Who are your favorite authors and books?
Terry Pratchett – the entire Discworld series. I really can’t pick. Okay, maybe Night Watch, Going Postal, Small Gods and Reaper Man.
Dan Simmons – Hyperion. Few books – especially sci-fi – can come close to Hyperion for me. It’s a very philosophical novel, with equal parts science and religion, and the narrative structure is genius.
Stephen King – Wizard and Glass. It’s everything every fantasy book tries to be. It’s grand, it’s surreal, it’s dystopian beyond measure, and it still breaks your heart a little bit before the end.
Phillip Pullman – I read His Dark Materials as a child. To this day I cannot think of the Christian heaven without thinking of Pullman’s version of Heaven and of humans laying siege to it. It’s perhaps the finest alternate reality ever written, because Lyra’s worlds seem so close, and yet so different from our own.
Daniel Mason – the Piano Tuner I credit for my obsession with the Ulysses myth.
Dante Aligheri – the Inferno. It’s a masterful work, not just of imagination, but political commentary.
The Signal and the Noise – by Nate Silver
Gormenghast – by Mervyn Peake for the sheer gothic beauty, scope and invention.
Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Matthew – by Shehan Karunatilake, a Sri Lankan author, and I’ve never read a book that captured the essence of Sri Lanka as well as this.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. I find that almost of today’s quack wisdom was essentially plagiarized from the last great emperor of Rome.
Watchmen by Alan Moore, for looking at the dark underbelly of the superhero myth.
What is your preferred writing style?
First-person.
When did you get serious about your writing?
When I was about fifteen, I believe. Like every other naïve writer, I sat down and thought right, I’m going to create my epic. My magnum opus.
The result is a 130,000 word monster that sits on my desk as a testament to how not to write. It swung widely between sci-fi and fantasy, between chapter-long descriptions of cities and the hero going through a stupid amount of existential angst. I showed it to some publishers but they all laughed me away, which, in hindsight, was a good thing. It’s got some good ideas in it, but I need to take a blowtorch to it before it’s decent.
The good thing is that built up my writing discipline to the point where I could crank out regular articles and blog, and by the time I was done with school I was already known for my blogging and had a few journalism gigs lined up. I basically just made a career out of writing, and with the tech I drifted into working for a Silicon Valley middleware company.
About two years ago, I decided it was time to shelve the 1000-word sprints and go for the marathon, as it were, so every Saturday and Sunday I’d lock myself in my room and write.
What is your current novel? Tell us a little bit about the premise?
It’s called This is Society. It’s about a startup that figures out how to any human’s socioeconomic worth and standing in the social ladder, and sort of starts selling this as a very utopian, very Silicon Valley dream. And it’s really about how things change when you start quantifying people this way.
It’s not far out. I believe we’re already heading this way. The average degree of separation is now down to 3.1 (from 6). And we voluntarily share personal information to the point of being George Orwell’s wet dream – good data analysts can now predict your preferences better than your friends can (Click Here). As Yual Noah Harari pointed out, we’ll get to the point where Google might even be able to choose who you should marry – and because of the data it has on each person, it’ll know better than you yourself can.
Where did you find the inspiration for This is Society?
A combination of things. 1984. David Egger’s the Circle. And Experian, a company which does credit checking; after reading up on it, I realized that there really is this vast, multi-billion dollar industry, this empire that specializes in turning people into numbers, and it’s not just Facebook or Google. And it’s part of my job – and interests – to keep an eye on social media and search algorithms and developments, so after a while everything sort of started fusing in my head.
And on one fine day, I was sitting at a startup event at a café in Colombo. Entpreneurs entrepener’d. Investors sort of floated around the background. When two of the species met, they’d size each other up, trying to see how important this new person was. Who did they know? Where did they go to school? Everything clicked then. Not the whole plot, but the premise, the beginning and the end. The characters emerged from the story.
Your characters from This is Society are sent into a gladiatorial death match. Who wins?
That would be Julius Common. He wouldn’t fight, but he’ll bribe the guys opposite him, get them to attack the stadium, and end up buying the entire business.
What do you listen to while you write? Or do you prefer silence?
Silence is gold. A close second would be Ludovico Einaudi.
What is the most embarrassing thing you’ve looked up in the name of research – or what do you think the government has maybe flagged you for?
It’s either how to make napalm or Silicon Valley homeless. The searches were quite close together, so….
What was your favorite part of writing This is Society?
Learning. To write Society I threw into learning mode. It initially started with me studying the blockchain, and eventually it became a daily habit – listen to a podcast, read a couple of articles, go through two books a week – it’s really become this self-sustaining habit that’s been incredibly useful to me, not just in writing, but as a person.
Which actor/actress would you like to see playing your main characters from [Book Name]?
Mahershala Ali. Did you see his performance as Cottonmouth in Luke Cage? And Vincent d’ Onofrio, because that is Julius Common down to a T.
Do you have a special time to write or how is your day structured?
Well, I have my day job, so I structure my writing around it. Weekdays are spent taking notes, brainstorming, drawing out plot lines. On Saturday and Sunday I sit from 5 am to 5 pm and write, take a break, and polish what I’ve written from 8 till 10 or so. On average this produces around 4000 good words a week.
Do you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day?
No. I tried that and, while it undoubtedly works for a lot of famous writers, I just end up producing bloated drivel. Instead I try to get chunks of the story done per week.
When you develop your characters, do you already have an idea of who they are before you write or do you let them develop as you go?
I always have an idea of who they are, as in background detail, but once I get into the meat of the writing I find myself thinking ‘no, she wouldn’t do that,’ or ‘that’s not like him.’ And I end up pruning and tweaking back and forth until the characters themselves are different to what I imagine. Julius, for example, started out as a thin, obsessed neurotic before I decided that wasn’t working. And Patrick Udo, who is the main character, was always black, but initially a seasoned journalist; now he’s a marketer. People change.
If This is Society had a theme song what would it be?
‘Don’t get in my way‘ by Zack Hemsey.
This is Society is full of many amazingly talented characters and I imagine it was really fun to create some of them, but which one was your favorite and why?
Definitely Julius Common. Not only is he the centerpiece of the story, but he’s also the most complex. He genuinely believes that he is making the world better. He is the hero of his own story.
What advice do you have for writers who are just starting out?
Read Sol Stein on Writing.
Write.
Read William Zinsser on writing.
Write.
Find friends who will clap if you produce something good, and not just if you produce something.
Write.
Write wherever you are and whatever you do. Don’t wait for the perfect conditions – we all dream of that lovely writer’s cottage with the golden sunlight and all of that, but in reality, that’s a reward, not the fuel. The laptop and your own bed works fine. Use a computer, because despite the charming image of the writer hammering away at his typewriter, there’s really nothing more convenient than to be able to cut, splice and revise at will.
I hope you enjoy this little conversation, and if you want to find out more about Yudhanjaya, then follow the rabbit trail to their warren in the internet (www.icaruswept.com)! If they don’t like it, beat ‘em with a carrot and keep on truckin’!
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.
–> Some of these interview questions were inspired by my good friend TeacherofYA, and are used with her permission. If you have kids who love to read, she’s the girl who’ll make the literary introductions! You should check her out, after a lifetime of reading, your kids will thank you.
Hey Space Cadets, hope everyone is doing awesome! I’ve finished my short stories and am outlining my fourth novel in the Sleeping Legion Series today. Should be a barrel full of laughs, if by barrel you mean massive body counts. And if by laughs, you mean manically! Operation Breakout was high action and Maternal Vengeance will kick it up a notch! Speaking of high octane, the
ddshort story I’m co-writing with Corey D. Truax will be kick ass as well! Can’t wait to be able to share it with you, but until then let’s rise above that noise and get on with it!
For today’s World Building Wednesday, we shall talk about background noise. See what I did there in that last paragraph? LOL!! Okay, in all seriousness I wanted to talk about the use of background noise in your writing. Nothing too long and drawn out, just a brief discussion. I’m personally split on this one. With the use of my Dragon to dictate I can’t have background noise, but I don’t write with just the Dragon. I still write some scenes the ‘old fashion way,’ especially the more nuanced or complicated ones. For these scenes, I pick my music to help me create a mood.
So, for generic scenes I’m struggling with I like to use playlists of ambient sounds to keep my mind actively engaged. Nature sounds, campfires and the like. I’ve also found a few science fiction based ambient noise sites to help get me in the mood for my genre fiction. Sometimes, if I’m feeling lonely I’ll listen to a coffee shop or library soundtrack for my ambient noise. I will also listen to classical music and any other instrumental to keep the hamster spinning on his wheels. One place where I found a collection of mood setting sites was on author Kim Chance‘s blog. Check it out for some really helpful links. And of course, there is YouTube.
When I just need intense emotions, I’ve been known to listen to music that gets the blood pumping. Sweet beats, kick ass vocals, anything to set the stage for literary awesomeness. Depending on the mood of the scene, I can listen to ballads, country, folk and anything else light. When I want action and adventure, I’ll switch to rock-in-roll and heavy metal. This works when writing the combat scenes, when you want the blood to boil and heads to roll. Have you used any of these? Do you have some good ambient noises to suggest? Then throw a man a bone, leave a comment below!
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 everyone is doing great and voted in my friends Clash of the Covers contest! I’m still working on the Four Horsemen Anthology and hit a bit of a time snag. Try not to shudder, but I had to do something disgusting and unpleasant…. I filed my taxes today. I know, I cried too, there’s no shame in it! As for the next novel in the Sleeping Legion Series, well I’ll start outlining that this month and writing it as well. I will keep you posted on the progress as I try to bump up my production speeds! Pulp glory here I come!
Now, on to my World Building Wednesday topic!! Onward I say! Today we talk about how I figure out the technology of my futuristic worlds. Let’s start with your restrictions, which is especially important if you’re writing in someone else’s sandbox. In Boss Man’s universe there is no such thing as FTL because science doesn’t think it is viable at the moment. That doesn’t mean it is impossible, but because of the perceived improbability of this method, he decided against using it. Other limitations imposed on your technological development might come from your subgenre; is it space opera, military science fiction or hard science fiction.
A famous example of how this played out would be from Star Trek, where they got around the limitations of science as we know it by using warp drive. This used Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity. He speculated that the speed of light in a vacuum will be the same from any frame of reference moving at a constant speed. I won’t go all technical (Translation, I don’t know all of it), but basically it showed that FLT wasn’t possible. However, he speculated that you could instead bend space-time to traverse long distances in an expedited manner. Then Mexican physicist, and SciFy Nerd, Miquel Alcubierre theorized it might actually possible, without violating the theories of his predecessors. Way back in the dark ages of 1994! I mean, they didn’t even have Facebook back then. Or Myspace, for us old timers in attendance! If you want to know more, click the links at the bottom of this post.
When I write science fiction in my own universe I plan on running with the theory Dr. Alcubierre gave us and traveling faster than light, if not in fact, then in deed. So, now that you’ve considered your own limitations you need a starting point. I tend to look at science and technology as we know it and then postulate where it might go in the distant future. This is mostly guess work, lots of technical research and some good ole fashioned SWAG! Not that kind of swag, but a scientific wild arse guess! Okay, quasi scientific in my case but work with me here! This does require you to know your world so you can have the end points, since the starting points would be today.
How do I stay abreast, well I follow several science blogs that break it down for you Barney Style. I’ll work on collating it for you as soon as I can. Another way I use is to pick the brain of my father-in-law, a trained biologist and my dad who’s a mechanic who understands machines. Then I made friends with people way smarter than I, and let them prevent me from looking like an idiot. Well, more of an idiot than normal!
To recap, basically I do some research to know the limitations I’m starting with and then I guess where things might go in the future. But that’s how I do it, what is your process?
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 grabs taken by JR Handley for use under the Fair Use Doctrine.
Hey Space Cadets, today’s blog will be pretty short. I’m just started my first draft for my Four Horsemen anthology submission. Well, is it a submission? I was invited to submit, so I guess somewhere in between? My story in this universe is about a bounty hunter, sort of Barney Fife meets Judge Dred. More details will be coming, both here and on my co-author’s website. Finally, today I received the rough sketch of the “No Marine Left Behind” short story. It’s set between The Legion Awakes and Fortress Beta City. The cover has an extra Marine but is otherwise pretty close to what I expect to see for the final results. And yes, you’re not wrong to notice the similarities between The Four Horsemen covers and this one. Chris Kennedy is sharing his super-secret artist. I was blindfolded on the way to the bunker, so all I know was that the artist MIGHT be human!
Take a look!!!
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 grabs taken by JR Handley for use under the Fair Use Doctrine.
Hey Space Cadets, how is everyone today? I’m great, I’ve finished my first Sleeping Legion short story and am starting another in the Four Horsemen universe before jumping into book four. I’ll be co-writing with Corey Truax, my current editor, and fellow author and Mesopotamian Veteran. This story is the tale of an intergalactic bounty hunter, with loads of shenanigans and insanity to follow. If this co-writing works out, Corey and I will write a new series, which we’ve titled “The Odera Chronicles.”
Okay, so on to our regularly scheduled Marine Monday! Today I was leaked, by our friendly neighborhood LegionLeak source, the official bio of New Order Janissary Zempi Milisyen-Hoia. Now the important parts! Remember, destroy this message after reading it so the anonymous source can live long enough to continually feed us excellent intelligence! Without further ado, here is the leaked document!
Hopefully you enjoyed this sneak peek into our favorite Janissary’s official dossier. If you did, stay tuned for next week as we anxiously wait for the latest documents smuggled our way!
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 grabs taken by JR Handley for use under the Fair Use Doctrine.
Hey Space Cadets, for today’s post I wanted to do some general house cleaning. My third novel, Operation Breakout, is with my editing team. I’m 11k words into a short story, chronicling Sashala Kraevoi’s journey between The Human Legion series and my own. She has been a lot of fun to write, and I think you’ll get a kick out of it. Boss Man is releasing the rights to publish it so we can practice the process, preparing us for life after my current contract. I appreciate this, but I don’t know the specifics as my minions are handling those details so I can keep writing.
So, let’s elaborate my plans for life after The Sleeping Legion Series. I have one short story, “Civil Unrest,” which was submitted to an open call for an anthology with Tickety Boo Press. I was also invited to write in an anthology being organized by Chris Kennedy. It’s set in the Four Horsemen Universe, which currently has a four-book series written by Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy. It has been a lot of fun to prepare for, and I’ve already laid out the story, as Corey Truax wrote about here. Then we have two universes we have started outlining, with the potential for our anthology to turn into a series as well. I know, I know, everything I’ve written seems to scream SERIES to me. When I die in 100 years, I’ll likely still have stories I want to tell.
So, how did this collaboration happen? It started with a short story I wrote to practice my craft. It was for an anthology, but I missed the deadline and couldn’t get it under the 5k word cap. My editor, Corey Truax, had so much fun editing it he crossed the line from developmental editor to co-author. He rung me up, and said we could go one of two ways. The traditional editing process, or… we could play in the same sandbox and see what happens. Well, with the hive mind the genesis of my story was more exciting and dynamic. It went from MY story, to OUR story in no time flat. Our main character, Alexis Monroe, was more 3 dimensional and compelling. Our wives demanded we give them this story, one where the female lead was a real person who just HAPPENED to be female. I didn’t think that was as big of a deal, I mean I try to do that with all of my stories but when your wife orders, the smart husband obeys. Hey, I like Corey and all but I wouldn’t wanna bunk up with him cause our wives kicked us out!
What can you expect going forward? Great stories, and hopefully a continually engaging blog. As we develop this process of co-writing, ironing out the wrinkles, we will blog about our process. Some of this will be posted under the World Building Wednesday blogs. Let’s face it, most of my process has already be written so I will only add to those posts if it is something new and exciting to read. I will maintain a blog schedule of at LEAST every other day, and use the leeway to write more stories, and troll more blogs. Because we are self-publishing Sashala’s story, I will have my wife/mother team write a few posts about that side of things to keep everyone abreast of the comings and goings in the Handley Trenches. This includes choosing cover art and all the other minutia that both scares and excites me!
Now that I’ve bored you to tears, I’m proud to say that the next round of beers is on Corey! Honest, would I lie? I mean, I am SURE he would LOVE to buy everyone beers!! Cold beers, just as the gods intended. Sorry Boss Man, but someday I WILL convert you!
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 grabs taken by JR Handley for use under the Fair Use Doctrine.
Hey Space Cadets, today I missed my regularly scheduled World Building Wednesday because I’m deep in the trenches fighting the dreaded Man Flu. You, my dear comrades in arms, know how truly debilitating this can be. Many a great warrior was brought low by this grievous injury, but I shall endeavor to resist. I shall fight on in the name of Lance Scipio, Basil Terloar, Tirunesh Nhlappo and all of the other great Human Legion Marine warriors who went before us. While I’m at death’s door, I shall still honor our bond and entertain you.
Are you not entertained?
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 grabs taken by JR Handley for use under the Fair Use Doctrine.
Hey Space Cadets, how is everyone today? I’m great, I have my wife and mother just finished making their final pass through Operation Breakout before I send it out to my editors, Corey and Thomas. I’m VERY excited to get that to market and see what readers think of the book. I’m currently 6k words into a short story, which I’ve tentatively titled “No Marine Left Behind” and I’m very excited about it. It was my first attempt at a purposely written short story, and my writing progress has improved because of it. It’s been through one developmental editing pass, and if you need to know more about that you can read about it from my editor by clicking here.
After I finish, I’ll be co-writing another short story for an anthology with best-selling author Chris Kennedy. My new co-author will be Corey Truax, my current editor and fellow Mesopotamian Veteran. Yes, you are right to imagine the shenanigans which will follow! I’ll tell you more about it as we get closer but I will be finishing my Sleeping Legion Series before I jump into anything after my current two short stories. When I need a break from Maternal Vengeance, I’ll hop over onto a few short stories, but then I want to charge full bore towards the Sleeping Legion Finish Line!
Okay, so on to our regularly scheduled Marine Monday! Today I was leaked, by our friendly neighborhood LegionLeak source, the official bio of Marine Sashala Kraevoi. I’m currently working on a short story about her journey into The Sleeping Legion. It’s been hard for her, but you’ll appreciate her appearance in Fortress Beta City and later in Operation Breakout even more after this. Now the important parts! Remember, destroy this message after reading it so the anonymous source can live long enough to continually feed us excellent intelligence! Without further ado, here is the leaked document!
Hopefully you enjoyed this sneak peek into our favorite Marines official record. If you did, stay tuned for next week as we anxiously wait for the latest documents smuggled our way!
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 grabs taken by JR Handley for use under the Fair Use Doctrine.
Hey Space Cadets, today I wanted to bring you some awesome little science fiction films. They’re indie productions, but still worth the watch! I plan on posting one every Sunday to entertain you while I’m buried deep in my bunker working on Maternal Vengeance.
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 videos used by JR Handley for use under the Fair Use Doctrine.
J.R. Handley's Blog 