Hi all, I published a new Halloran’s War short story today – leap day!
It’s called “Retribution” and focuses on an adventure that Deacon, Creal and crew endure while they are delivering Halloran’s urgent message in the midst of Book Three “What Price Victory.”
I emailed it to my subscribers this morning…if you’d like a copy free of charge and haven’t yet signed up for my Sci-Fi monthly newsletter and bonus emails, do so here to be included!
Very excited to announce that Halloran’s War book three is officially up for pre-order on Amazon! Release date is 11/29/19 and I’m pretty excited to share the next installment for Thomas Halloran and his crew and allies.
To everyone who has been asking about Book 3 in the Halloran’s War series…it’s coming along! Closing up a trilogy is pretty exciting but I’m already thinking about all the myriad of directions I can go with books four and beyond. Get a grip, Geoghan, and finish the first story.
Yup, getting there.
Well, I’m so grateful to the readers who have picked up a copy of War Without Honor in the past three weeks…it’s been a great first month so far! But, I am in final editing of Book 2 Resolve of Steel and man, it really keeps the action moving! Tom Halloran and crew face new challenges as they try to (literally) navigate a galaxy and opposite factions within humanity in their quest to return to Earth. Resolve of Steel launches on April 5th and the pre-orders are coming steadily in – thank you so much. As I look to the dramatic conclusion of the first trilogy in the series, I’m salivating at the plot blossoming inside my devious little head. Um, more later.
War Without Honor, Book One of the Halloran’s War Series of time-travel military science fiction hit Amazon yesterday. Release date is February 28th, so be sure to reserve your copy!
Folks have been asking me about where I’m at with my new time travel military sci-fi series entitled “Halloran’s War.”
I’m in a good place. Just not moving too fast…
Book One “War Without Honor” is almost ready for release – I expect it to be published by the end of this month. Book Two is well under way and the story of Captain Halloran and crew has really heated up! I’ve got my outline of Book Three ready and am excited to lay down the dramatic conclusion to Halloran’s first big adventure.
Keep an eye out for more updates!
– JR
The month of November is National Novel Writing Month – NaNoWriMo. From 11/1 through 11/30, participants are to write to a goal of 50,000 words. The length of an average-to-short novel. But the event, which is billed as a competition against your own hangups and indecisiveness is also about collaboration if you do it right.
So I am at just over 30,000 words as of the 18th – right on the daily target. All well and good, but honestly I’m having more fun hanging out with the local writing denizens of central Lancaster County than anything else. For someone who sits in his closet-office each morning pressing the keys, it’s just plain fun to be in the company of other folks trying to go from point A to point B in their writing. We meet on Tuesdays at Panera Bread, Thursdays at the new Wegmans (first in the county) and Saturdays at the public library.
I am thankful (Thanksgiving theme cue) for the friends I have made in this business – and it is a business. But my NaNo buddies make November worth it. This is my 2nd NaNo and I expect it to be a November staple going forward. Even better, I hope to keep in touch with the local peeps and encourage each other in our writing journeys.
Do you NaNo?
The genesis of my “what if” premise for Halloran’s War was many years in the making, although I didn’t realize at the time that I’d eventually put a military sci-fi series together around the concept.
What concept, you ask?
“Competent crew and aggressive skipper get marooned on an enemy warship and have to figure it out in order to survive and win the day”
This idea has been in my head for literally four decades. I read a book by one my all-time favorite authors, Douglas Reeman, called “His Majesty’s U-Boat” in which an English Captain and seasoned sub crew are tasked with learning to fight in a captured German U-Boat in order to complete several missions of deception into enemy harbor in the Med during WW2. That book premise has stuck with me ever since.
Of course, I’m a sub movie fan as well. From Run Silent, Run Deep to The Hunt for Red October, there’ll all good to me – even the cheesy ones. Anyone remember Operation Petticoat? There was a more-recent called U-571 starring several interesting actors which featured a historical premise; the recovering of the Enigma code machine from a German U-Boat during WW2. Never mind the minor fact that it was actually the Brits who peached the prize during the war, this retelling has the intrepid American sub crew winning the day.
What I really loved about the movie’s premise, however, and what I think was the germ of the idea that is eventually becoming a far-future version Halloran’s War, is the way that the small band of surviving US crew are stuck aboard U-571 after their own sub is destroyed by a third sub, another German U-Boat. The crew have figure out how to operate their new best friend, foreign language and all, to stay alive and begin fighting back.
The movie is not a cinematic tour-de-force but it was a sub movie – and a WW2 one at that – so I’m good here.
When you get a chance to read Halloran’s War, in particular book one “War Without Honor”, let me know if you see the influences.
Dive! Dive! Dive!
Kingpin haunts Matt Murdoch/Daredevil (courtesy Marvel and Netflix)
I’m definitely a Marvel guy over DC. My favorite movies are Iron Man and the Captain America series, and I’m pretty sure that nobody really died in Infinity War. My favorite character is Ant-Man/Scott Lang because he’s a regular guy who gets sucked into the Big War and I can empathize for him.
So I’ll admit I’ve watched every episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. My favorite is Phil Coulson. I really wish they had reconnected him with Tony, Cap and the gang. Even though there’s apparently going to be a season six my hopes are dimming.
That brings me to the Netflix shows. I like Luke Cage. I’m not a huge Punisher fan; the story seems too repetitive to me. I really wish Jessica Jones wasn’t so full of bad language, because I love the character and the more gritty setting of the show.
But Daredevil.
This show gets Marvel right on the small screen for me. The grit of Hell’s Kitchen is just right, and I love the glimpses of the city life. The characters are almost all unpowered humans, and even Daredevil himself isn’t imbued with superpowers. Matt Murdoch’s power resides between his ears – in more ways than one. As a blind man, his ears create a sensory experience that he claims is even more rich than a sighted person could be a part of. Add in the martial arts and the premise is set.
But, we need a villain.
Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin is, in my opinion, the best and baddest Marvel antagonist. He literally gives me the heebie-jeebies when I watch him move and speak. You know that he’s already orchestrated the desired outcome and everyone else is playing into his hands. I can’t even imagine going up against him.
In Season 3, Matt Murdoch is back from the dead (not really) and in hiding, trying to understand why God spared him. That’s another thing I like about Daredevil; it’s the only Marvel series to talk openly about God as a real entity. Matt’s connection to the Catholic Church and the orphanage he was raised in is another of my favorite bits within the storyline. Now, though, Kingpin has engineering his own release from prison and the FBI is mixed up his plans. I like Season 3’s pitting of the NYPD against the Feds. Foggy is running for Assistant D.A. and Karen Page is getting in too deep again. All good, and I’m only four episodes in! Things are going to blow up. The prison riot sequence is one of the best fight scenes I’v seen in a long time. No holds-barred, homemade weapons and fists and knees. Daredevil is in over his head.
Daredevil Season 3, much like Season 1 before it, reminds me so much of the Batman movies. I mean the good ones starring Christian Bale. The societal chaos, the gritty Gotham, the police, Feds and reporters. And (almost) no superpowers needed.
I am looking forward to watching the rest of the season.
Last year I participated in my first NaNoWriMo – “National Novel Writing Month” is a worldwide collaboration among writing creatives that has gone on every year since 1999!
This year? To quote from their site:
On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel.
Last year I got to 55,000 words which became my third installment in the Immortal War Series, A Killing Time. I ended up at our local Panera Bread and met some fun Lancaster County writers working at their projects next to the fireplace. Good conversations were had and encouragement passed around throughout the month.
This year, I’ll be working on the second book in my Halloran’s War series of Military Sci-Fi. You interested in trying your hand at a novel? NaNoWriMo is a great way to challenge yourself and see how many words you can “let flow” in a month!
Maybe I’ll see you at the fireplace at Panera on Tuesdays in November between 7 and 9pm.