But they do hurt. Yikes. Taking ten days off comes with a price. :/
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Your comments about military Sci-Fi were very good. Have you tried the STAR FIST series by Dave Sherman and Dan Cragg. http://www.amazon.com/Starfist-First-Fight-1-ebook/dp/B000FBFOIC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1416603606&sr=1-1&keywords=starfist
About the Author
David Sherman is a former United States Marine and the author of eight previously published novels about Marines in Vietnam, where he served as an infantryman and as a member of a Combined Action Platoon. He is an alumnus of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and worked as a sculptor for many years before turning to writing. Along the way he has held a variety of jobs, mostly supervisory and managerial. Today he is a full-time writer. He lives in Philadelphia.
Dan Cragg enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1958 and retired with the rank of sergeant major twenty-two years later. During his Army service, Mr. Cragg served more than eleven years in overseas stations, five and a half of them in Vietnam. He is the author of Inside the VC and NVA (with Michael Lee Lanning), Top Sergeant (with William G. Bainbridge), and a Vietnam War novel, The Soldier’s Prize. In real life Mr. Cragg is an analyst for the Defense Department. He and his wife, Sunny, live in Virginia, where honest citizens are allowed to pack heat. Visitors after dark are strongly urged to call ahead.
Star Fist is a DelRey book. I don’t read that much mainstream pubs any more. I made an exception for Goblin Emperor .. that’s probably the only mainstream book I’ll read this year (or next).
1) Is “Every Richard is a Dick” the reason Otto’s father got that name?
2) I’m pretty burnt out on MilSF myself – especially every TD&H that thinks their mysteriously lost, nearly destroyed battleship limping home is a unique never before published plotline. But for the most part, the Baen MilSF writers I admire have been on the sharp end – especially David Drake. Still, I’ll give you that it can get a bit overly jingo-istic at time. John Ringo is… well, a unique case.
3) However, I was wondering if you’d ever lucked across the Man of War trilogy by H. Paul Honsinger. (Truth in advertising: I’ve known him since a summer enrichment program I went to in the early 80s where he was a Debate Coach [second warning: you may disagree with him on opinion and what you think should be done with facts, but on the facts themselves, beware the absolute Fukushima Tsunami of cites and quotes he’ll hit you with if you claim him to be lying about a fact]).
The Man of War series is one part Run Silent Run Deep, one part Aubry/Maturin or Horatio Hornblower, and one part “And this is where Star Trek makes absolutely no sense, even if it was a great show!”.
His wife writes some of those Romance/SF cross-overs, but his is solid SciFi. Except that while she’s stayed indy-pub, *HE* indy-pubbed his first two novels, and got an offer from 47N – and took it. I am feeling fortunate that I got his first two in the indy-pub editions, because I feel like a good bit of what made the story excellent got excised, in favor of a higher body count and larger booms. It was an eye-opening experience on just how … different the tastes of the professional publishing houses are from mine. He’s a friend, so I’ll give him an extra dollar over my personal e-book limit for the books, but … honestly, if the more booms and more bodies approach keeps up – I doubt I’ll buy past book 3.
Do you have sections of some of your books that you think the professional publishers would remove, but you feel make them better books? Do you occasionally have the urge, once you get all of the books out this time around, to go back and edit back in some of the things Robin convinced you to take out?
1. Not really but I knew he was going to be a pain.
2. Drake was one of my faves when I was reading mainstream. And I agree about Ringo.
3. This isn’t the first time you’ve suggested Honsinger to me. I’ve grabbed a sample…47N doesn’t usually grab me, but we’ll see.
The biggest problems with mainstream publishers is that my stories don’t have the right shape. I don’t have sufficient conflict or correct stakes. I’ve been replacing all the things that Robin made me change that I didn’t agree with. 🙂