tctaylor

September 13, 2017

Sept 15th is LAUNCH DAY

Friday will be full of launch madness with four launches. Well, two-and-a-half plus relaunches. Second Strike, is the latest full-length Revenge Squad novel, the urban fantasy/ space opera crossover series set in the worlds of the Human Legion. Like my other launches, it will be initially available at a special launch price. I might have written the words (and Vincent Sammy painted the picture), but the story belongs to someone else, so I’ll let him explain what it’s about: It was supposed to be just another job: trash the cargo of a shipping line that had been messing with a Revenge Squad client. Honestly, I hadn’t meant to blow the ship sky high. And when it transpired that the ship was […]

September 6, 2017

Stream ‘Demons of Kor-Lir’ audiobook today

I’m back from a week’s camping and can confirm that my 2010 Kindle3 with Amazon leather case (with built-in light) still needs just a single charge to supply a week’s worth of reading at night in my sleeping bag. I read Explorations: War and Golden Horde, which (was) the latest in the 4 Horsemen Universe series. Great stuff. I didn’t listen to audiobooks, but if that’s your thing, then Demons of Kor-Lir is available to stream now. This is the prequel novella to JR Handley’s Sleeping series that we licensed to Podium Publishing, and it sounds great! To get to the audiobook, you need to register with audfans.com (which is free and doesn’t require credit card details) and then you […]

August 23, 2017

You got your ears on, Sleeping Legion fans?

The Sleeping Legion will arrive in audio over the next couple of weeks! Demons of Kor-Lir and The Legion Awakes are published by Podium Publishing and narrated by Jeffrey Kafer (who narrated Earthrise by Daniel Arenson, the Frontiers Saga by Ryk Brown, Blood on the Stars by Jay Allan, The Empire’s Corps by Chris Nuttall, War Eternal by M.R. Forbes, Starship’s Mage by Glynn Stewart and a whole host of other cool books that I can’t be bothered to type up.) I’ve heard the recordings myself and they are very classy. Demons of Kor-Lir is the prequel novella, and Podium will be releasing that around August 27th exclusively through AudFans.com. Now, this is a new place to me, as a […]

August 23, 2017

Damage Unlimited: Recon team seeks volunteers

NJ McCall’s gotten himself into deep trouble again in a new novelette called Damage Unlimited. Set in the Naddox Archipelago, some 800 miles from his Revenge Squad base at Port Zahir (and where the gun laws are considerably laxer!), a forestry client activates their revenge clause when an unknown assailant slaughters every living thing at a remote logging site. The forest around here is an extremely dangerous place to be, but so too is NJ McCall. Some battles, though, can’t be won by GX-Cannon and railguns alone… This story is going to be about 15,000 words (about an hour to read). It’s set between Hurt U Back and Second Strike, but is designed to be an introductory self-contained story. I […]

June 27, 2017

New artwork. New novels. New beard.

I’ve been quiet but busy. As you may have noticed, artist Vincent Sammy has been steadily supplying replacement artwork for the main Human Legion series. It’s not just the image on the front: the paperback covers have been redesigned, and some of the front and back matter of the books redone (which is fancy publishing talk for the bits that go before and after that actual story – the story hasn’t changed). It’s been a lot of work for both of us (OK, mostly for Vincent) but I’m pleased to say the work is finally complete and I can show it off in all its glory. Thanks, Vincent. I’d buy you a pint but it’s a long way to Cape […]

May 16, 2017

Marine Novice: cover reveal

Wanted to share some tasty artwork from Vincent Sammy for the Human Legion prequel novella due out early next year. That’s a young Arun McEwan and Springer on the cover. I’ve sketched out the story for Marine Novice in a fair amount of detail, but I’m not going to write it until the Legion climax: The Battle of Earth is completed. But spending time inside the head of this much younger version of McEwan is helping to tie up the end of the series more satisfyingly. It’s feeling natural as I bring the series to a close to be making reference to the first book, and to this prequel too. I’m stoked about how the new book is progressing. With a fair wind and strong coffee, I […]

May 5, 2017

A scene from ‘The Battle of Earth’

The final Human Legion novel is sketched out and I’m starting to write the scenes in detail. Here’s one I wrote yesterday. I hope you like it. Let me know what you think 😉 Concentrate. Concentrate! On his rookie combat tour, Marine-Grenadier Michael Rosenberg had imagined his first tactical assault would be the worst: that the experience would get easier with every time he flew into combat, strapped to the outside of a Tactical Unit warboat squeezing every last bit of juice out of its engines to avoid enemy fire. It hadn’t. Rosenberg tried to relax his mind into his training, but the assault was already way off course. They should have hit the Carbuncle head-on from space, but instead […]

May 3, 2017

It’s time to vote

JR Handley’s recent novelette, No Marine Left Behind, is up for a best book cover of the month competition, which is pretty gratifying. Artist Ricky Ryan certainly did us proud. The bad news is that we’re well behind in the voting and there are only a few hours left in round 1. The good news is that it’s fun to vote and you get to see lots of great art, so do it anyway! It took me a few moments to work out how to vote: you click on the cover contest on the top left where it says ‘View Matchup’ and then go through each one-on-one contest. Next round of the competition is tomorrow. Go over and vote.

April 28, 2017

JR Handley on his latest book, Operation Breakout

With the latest novel in the Sleeping Legion series fresh out this week, here are some calm and thoughtful reflections on his writing experience by its author, JR Handley. Writing book three, Operation Breakout, was definitely fun. It was definitely a learning experience, and I wrote with the intention of fulfilling the call for action that I set up in Fortress Beta City. I wanted to improve my writing because if we stop growing and improving, then we stagnate. Stagnation is death in any endeavor. With that goal in mind, I set out with the intention of focusing on the action, and limiting the need for meetings to organize the world. Instead, I played with the POVs and let you […]

April 25, 2017

Operation Breakout is underway.

Bloodied yet defiant, the Legion survivors emerge from the Hardit onslaught. THE FIGHT BACK STARTS HERE… Lance Scipio and the defenders of Fortress Beta City have emerged from the Hardit onslaught, but to liberate an entire continent is a far greater challenge. Costly mistakes will be made, and to survive Lance must rely upon the most dangerous soldiers in the Sleeping Legion — impossible warriors who should not exist. But whose side are they really on…? If you’ve been waiting for the latest installment of the Sleeping Legion by JR Handley, then your wait is over. It’s available now. What’s more, for a brief period Operation Breakout will be at the special launch price of 99c to help get us some […]