Uncategorized – Page 6 – The Human Legion

April 27, 2015

Sign up for the Human Legion Recon Team here…

The Human Legion Recon Team is recruiting now… [Update: the Recon Team is now operational and closed to new members for this book, but if you add your name below, I’ll add you to the list of interested people for the next book. Thanks.] Renegade Legion, the third Human Legion book is nearly ready for beta readers. Because I spent twenty years arranging beta teams for (relatively) dull corporate database software, I’ve decided it would be more fun to call this a Recon Team. What’s it all about? Recon Team volunteers help by scouting ahead for hazards and highlighting dangers in an early draft of the forthcoming book. If you read a passage and it makes you whistle, curse, or […]

April 22, 2015

Renegade Legion: a milestone

I wrote the last scene today in Renegade Legion. Not the one that goes at the end (I wrote that last month) but the last one to be written. Now I’m running through some sections that need readjusting or reconnecting for consistency (Such as the dialogue from a character who died in a battle a hundred pages earlier. Oops! That’s just plain disrespectful). And another full read-through. Then I’ve got to lay it out. So still plenty of work before I’m ready to put it out on beta (though I’m hopeful that could be next week) but today is definitely a milestone. Expect posts aplenty in the coming days on betas, trailers, sales, and maybe a short story from a character we’ve […]

April 17, 2015

A sad day for science fiction

I’ve been quiet these past few weeks. I have half-written several short stories, Infopedia entries aplenty, all sorts to say and discuss, but I’ve had my head down getting the last few scenes written for the third Human Legion book. I’m aiming to hit that milestone next Tuesday: 95,000 words of action, surprises, tragedy, and maybe a little romance. And plenty of dead fish. I will then give it another round of consistency checks and editing before offering it out to any beta readers who are generous enough to offer to help take a look and tell me all the things I’ve got wrong :-). More on beta reading very soon. But not today because today I’m too angry. It’s […]

January 14, 2015

Human Legion Story Arc and Book Lengths

Since the Human Legion books were launched a few weeks ago, a few people have commented on book lengths. Some have said the first book is too long, others the second book too short. Book length is very important to get right, and I am doing something unusual in not setting all books to the same length. So I’m going to spend a few moments to explain why they are the lengths they are and, more importantly, to set expectations to Human Legion readers about what to expect for the remaining books in the series. Actually, I’ve finished the first draft of this post and realize I’ve spent more than a few moments, so first of all here’s the summary. […]

January 8, 2015

A series on small support craft

Shuttle craft are commonplace in science fiction, so much so that it’s easy to let them be generic boxes. A notable exception, I always thought, was the Lambda-class shuttle from Star Wars (where the bad buys get the coolest ships). In the first two Human Legion books, we see three types of shuttlecraft, though not in great detail. They come center stage in the third book. So in celebration of the smaller craft, I’ve started a series today exploring them in a little more detail. The first installment is here. Further ahead there will be a HumanLegion.com exclusive short story coming soon written from the perspective of the Trogs, which makes for an interesting set of pronouns because the Trogs don’t have males and […]

December 31, 2014

Happy New Year… and thanks!

Happy New Year! I hope 2015 brings success and satisfaction for everyone reading this. In the closing hours of 2014, I also want to thank everyone’s support in making, reading, and, yes, buying the first Human Legion book. I’ve just checked the Amazon charts and still can’t quite believe the book is ends the year as the #1 bestselling space marine book in the US and #1 bestselling military science fiction book in Australia. The second book, Indigo Squad, will be available to pre-order very soon, and I’m planning the third book to come out around Easter time. Here’s to 2015. It’s going to be an exciting place to be.

December 25, 2014

Happy Christmas

Unfortunately for the characters in The Human Legion books, they don’t celebrate Christmas. Luckily for me, I do, so here’s wishing you a Happy Christmas and a most excellent New Year.

December 17, 2014

On getting around inside spacecraft

The bridge of the Starship Enterprise. CIC in Babylon 5. The Millennium Falcon’s gun blister that Luke uses to shoot down pursuing TIE fighters in Star Wars. And while we’re at it: Flash Gordon’s fizzing cigar tube rocket ship, the TARDIS control room, the entirety of Battlestar Galactica. These locations have been the backdrop to some perfect moments of science fictional movies and TV, but that’s not all that connects them. There’s something so fundamental that it affects every single aspect of the set layout, of the way the characters move… So basic that it’s easy to forget. Gravity. All the locations have an up and a down. Not only that but down is always pointing in the same direction, […]

December 17, 2014

Paperbacks!

I love the look of books designed to be in a series. Especially when they’re mine.

December 16, 2014

Mobilization Alert!

The Kindle version of Marine Cadet, the first Human Legion book, is available for pre-order from Amazon now: getbook.at/HLegion1 priced 99 cents in the US and something similar in other regions. This is the double-length feature that kicks off all six books in the series. (It’s 140,000 words, which is pretty big. I had thought of splitting it in two but that would be an artificial division for the purpose of selling more books). The second book, Indigo Squad, is going through final editing now for release January 2015. Writing has started on the third book: Renegade Legion. And since I seem to be discussing the series, the other three books are all sketched out in detail. I hope you’ll enjoy reading them […]