Author page of JR Handley, a veteran who writes military science fiction to excise the demons of his time spent fighting in the Late Unpleasantness in Mesopotamia.
Hey Space Cadets, I hope you’re having an awesome day! I’m doing great, I should have some new releases coming in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, I thought I would start the new year off with a week of posts highlighting various books that are on sale for the low – low price of $0.99 USD. Some of these books were already $0.99, but I liked them and decided to share. Others, however, are books whose sales I coordinated with the author to get these sales for you! I hope you like these books but check them out now if you’re interested because these low prices won’t last forever!Continue reading
Hey Space Cadets, I hope you’re all doing well. Today I plan on keeping my post short, I’m not where I want to be with Operation Breakout. Here we’ll give an update on the blog, and some of what I see as my basic policies. Nothing too sexy, but it had to happen eventually. Especially with the big plans I have for 2017, which I can’t wait to be able to tell you about.
First, I have several interview series I’m running because they’re fun for me. Hope everyone else enjoys them as well! If you want to see anyone specific, just post a comment or contact me and I’ll try to make it happen. If you hate this series, let me know and I won’t do as many of them. I can never tell which posts are well received and I’m still learning to read the WordPress analytics. Regardless, I’ll continually seek to keep the interviews fun and personable but please do sound off in the comment section.
Warrior Weekend Interview Series
Family Friday Interview Series
Sci-Fi Shenanigans Interviews
Mental Health Matters Interviews
Now, onto a topic that has been fun for me to do! Book reviews!! I love books, I love to read and I love talking about what I’ve read. I do need to explain some of my personal policies on this. I won’t review books I don’t like or couldn’t finish. My intent is to only review stuff I can give at least three, maybe four, grenades (stars) too. I’ll freely admit to my tendency to support other military veterans, but that alone won’t make me blow smoke up your six. You have my word on it. I hope that I’m as transparent as glass, and if you need clarification please ask. This is why I list if I was given the book as an ARC read etc. This desire to be transparent is why I won’t review Boss Man’s books. I love them, or I wouldn’t write in his world, but I’m not impartial enough to review them.
Another topic I wanted to cover was a YouTube vlogger I found, Keystroke Medium. The hosts, Josh Hayes and Scott Moon, are pretty friendly and the live events are a blast! They’ve discussed a wide variety of topics and interviewed a lot of authors. If it’s entertaining and about the written word, they have either covered it or will be soon. It’s a lot of fun, and worth a moment of your time. I’ve mentioned before, and I don’t want to harp on it, but I really do enjoy this team. Further, their crazy style has spurred some interesting ideas for new books. As an author, this is always a good thing!
Finally, speaking of new ideas, I wanted to recommend one last source for story ideas. The Stuff You Missed in History podcast is a great place to mine ideas. This umbrella venue has a wide variety of podcasts for you to enjoy. I will freely acknowledge the need to be able to tune out politics this, I sometimes they wear their extreme left ideology on their sleeve. Regardless of their politics, their topics are diverse and generate loads of ideas. I mentioned this, not because I’m getting political (I intentionally avoid doing so here) but to forewarn you. If this isn’t something you could tolerate, you might want to let this ship pass by. The history podcast tends to be pretty neutral, and has lead me to a multitude of plots for future works.
Hopefully, you found this housekeeping session to be entertaining! If not, then I hope that it was at least informative. If you have any ideas for resources for writers, feel free to share them in the comments below! Tomorrow I’m sharing another Warrior Weekend Interview with Sarah S. Reida, an attorney who advocates for veterans and right middle grade fiction. She became a family friend after she stood up and helped me slay the goliath that is the VA process. My wife and I call her our “Court Room Warrior Princess,” after the TV show ‘Xena’ that I watched growing up. It’ll be a hoot, so pop back over tomorrow!
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.
J.R. Handley Blog 