The journey to here...

BOOM!!

It's done.

Or I think it is at any rate.

Holy shit, it's done... It's been edited, re-edited, looked over, picked at, and, on one occasion, given the middle finger.

I don't know what I'm supposed to do now. Do I keep looking it over? Do I keep trying to go through and make it better? Do I just say, "Fuck it!" and let it be done?

This has been a long time coming and now I almost feel like I can't NOT do something with it. I'm mildly terrified. Releasing my prologue last week about gave me an anxiety attack... but now... shit. Now we're looking at a full-on book release.

And I have no idea how to react to this.

This has been almost fifteen years in the making. My first short story about coming home from Iraq was called Alone In The Light and I wrote it in 2004. It was published in an arts magazine at Indiana University. The first version of this was... very personal. It drew far too much from my own life and was less a fictional piece and more of an autobiography.

Over the last fifteen years that story has grown and evolved.

The first major change came when I wrote another short story called Realities. It was a "what if" story... as in "what if I'd met my wife while deployed." The story took my actual deployment and dropped in the woman who is now my wife, A.J. Bass. It was a fun story to write. What would she be like had she joined the army? What kind of person would I meet in this alternate reality? Well... Mary Fischer more or less.

Then the two stories got combined in a random Livejournal entry a few years back... and, well... Here we are. With the finished version of Alone In The Light.

It's no longer the 5,000 word short story about a guy sitting through his first day of class after experiencing war. This is now 120,000 words about two people coming home and trying to rediscover themselves in a world that is somewhat the same as before... but also wildly different. It's been a way to explore and look at my own PTSD as a result of things, and has been very cathartic.

With that all said - today I submitted my proposal for cover art and formatting. I also finished my final edits. Or so I hope.

I am very excited about this story and the chance to share it with the world - for better or worse.

Thank you for being a part of this journey. Thank you for taking the time to follow me on social media and interact with me.  I hope you like this story when it finally launches in a few weeks.

All my best,
Benjamin

Book Recommendation - Junkers by Benjamin Wallace

A new feature I'm adding to this blog - any time I finish a book, I will promptly do a short write-up on it and either recommend it for reading - or for ignoring.

A few weeks back I finished Junkers by Benjamin Wallace - and it goes on the "Recommend List"

My rating system is as follows - and anything between 3 and 5 stars should be considered worthy of buying....
1 star – I didn’t like it - won't talk about it.
2 stars – It was OK - I probably won't re-read this book without a compelling argument.
3 stars – I liked it - The book was enjoyable and I might revisit in the future.
4 stars – I really liked it - Have probably read it twice already or will soon.

5 stars – It was amazing - Will probably re-read this title every year or so.

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The Robot Uprising is Here - And It's Hilarious
For such a short book, Junkers is a lot of fun. 

I read the "Robopocalypse" by Daniel H. Wilson and was so disappointed that I almost gave up on the genre as a whole. But along comes Benjamin Wallace with his team of Junkers - Jake, Kat, Mason, Savant and Glitch - and I'm back in the game!

Life is supposed to be easier when robots do all the work, right? Then why are they murdering people? The story starts out with a murder, is followed up by a murder, and ends with another murder or two... and, yet, I found myself laughing and eagerly consuming page after page of this story. 

It's fun, lighthearted, and full of characters that I couldn't help but like - and want more of in the future. Junkers is the Robot Uprising we should all be reading... and we should also be calling our movie representatives and asking for this to be optioned. Seriously, folks, Benjamin Wallace's wit and sense of humor make him a national treasure.


Disclaimer - I am in no way paid for my reviews - which you can probably guess by how poorly they are written... and all opinions are my own.

Book Recommendation - Trackers by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

A new feature I'm adding to this blog - any time I finish a book, I will promptly do a short write-up on it and either recommend it for reading - or for ignoring.

Earlier this week I finished "Trackers" by Nicholas Sansbury Smith - and it goes on the "Recommend List"

My rating system is as follows - and anything between 3 and 5 stars should be considered worthy of buying....
1 star – I didn’t like it - won't talk about it. 

2 stars – It was OK - I probably won't re-read this book without a compelling argument. 

3 stars – I liked it - The book was enjoyable and I might revisit in the future.
4 stars – I really liked it - Have probably read it twice already or will soon.5 stars – It was amazing - Will probably re-read this title every year or so.


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The Nightmare Scenario Done Right 

I am an apocalypse junkie. I've read almost everything I can get my hands on about stories involving life at the end of things... And the scariest of all scenarios, to me, is an EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse). Other books have touched on them and done a fair enough job making that scenario into a work of fiction - but they usually seem like a really over the top "how to" guide for Preppers - not saying it's a bad thing, just that it does make for good fiction. Nicholas Sansbury Smith, however, has made this into good fiction while still addressing the "how-to" aspect of being prepared. 

WWIII begins in the skies over the U.S. with the detonation of three nuclear devices resulting in an EMPs. If that wasn't bad enough, the attack is followed up by a secondary device that take out Washington DC. Dealing with the EMP is least of the problems for former Marine Sam "Raven" Spears and the man he's usually at odds with - Police Chief Marcus Colton... they are in the midsts of a manhunt for a potential serial killer who has come to the quiet, tourist town of Estes Park, CO.

It's good story showing the immediate fallout of life after an EMP mixed with a gripping murder-mystery. I look forward to the rest of the series to see where Smith takes us in the new, dark world. This one story is clearly the doorway into something larger and more encompassing just like Smith has done with The Extinction Cycle and Hell Divers. 

Disclaimer - I am in no way paid for my reviews - which you can probably guess by how poorly they are written... and all opinions are my own.