IN HER NAME: FIRST CONTACT - For Military Science Fiction Lovers

[Ann in Arlington]

Well, my son, to whom I gave a copy of the In Her Name omnibus -- and who is really enjoying it -- has met Stephen Colbert.  His wife and kids are involved in some theatre thing in the summers and the production is at the college theater he manages. . . . so, we're practically related. . . .

Ann

[Michael R. Hicks]

Well, my son, to whom I gave a copy of the In Her Name omnibus -- and who is really enjoying it -- has met Stephen Colbert.  His wife and kids are involved in some theatre thing in the summers and the production is at the college theater he manages. . . . so, we're practically related. . . .

Ann

LOL! Okay, how much is it gonna cost me to have your son slip in a good word...well, as long as Colbert doesn't lampoon it. Oh, heck, even if he does, I'm happy to be lampooned (Jan does it to me all the time)!   

[Ann in Arlington]

Hey. . .based on your posts here. . .you'd do great on Colbert. . . . . .his best interviews are with the guests who play the game with him!!

Ann

[Michael R. Hicks]

Hey. . .based on your posts here. . .you'd do great on Colbert. . . . . .his best interviews are with the guests who play the game with him!!

Ann

HA! True, I doubt I could ever be accused of taking myself very seriously...

[ScrappingForever]

No, any guy who proudly wears his whitey tighties on his head cannot be accused of taking himself very seriously!

[ljloula]

Way to keep him humble Jan!  

[Michael R. Hicks]

Way to keep him humble Jan!  

Hey, she doesn't need any help with that!

[AppleHeart]

ebc -

Glad you're enjoying it!

As for why you didn't hear of me years ago, the manuscript was sitting under my desk gathering dust (finished writing it around '94 or so) until the Kindle came out! So I published it myself (was too annoyed with the traditional publication process and I'm an inveterate do-it-yourselfer).

But ask any questions or whatever that you like! As Ann pointed out, there are threads for the book klub we did, or you can post it here, in a separate thread, whatever makes ya happy! 

I have no idea how to quote 3 different posts that I want to address in one post, so please bear with me.

Glad you finally decided to publish it yourself or we would not have been fortunate to enjoy it. I have been telling my friends about your book and kinda made my best friend, whom I finally got started reading mysteries and fantasy/light sci fi recently, order your book yesterday. She loved the Temeraire series and I told her that she would absolutely love IHN, if not more <-- keeping my fingers crossed!

Ann, I went to the Book Klub, too many different posts for each books for IHN so I just posted on the last discussion one. Hope it's OK still -- better late than never??

Anju, I wish!! Years ago over at the AOL screenwriting board, I 'met' several screenwriters whom I can say "I knew them when.." and who are now co-producers of their own show (i.e. Numbers), TV screenies who wrote for JAG, Millenium etc.. and one who got nominated along with 2 other writers for an Oscar for David Cronenberg's "A History of Violence". I learned a lot about writing from them, improved my English - I guess you could say,  and even though they could be a little nasty especially if they think you were BSing and not there to network, chat and/or learn, they were a very good group of people to learn things from like arts, music, writing, filming short films, etc... I wished I had saved some of the posts especially when AOL decided to get rid of the MBs.

ebc, off to read the chapters for IHN:CONTACT. 

[Michael R. Hicks]

ebc - hope your friend enjoys it! If she doesn't, just hit her with the book and she'll suffer short term memory loss and won't remember the experience!

But people who aren't sci-fi readers seem to enjoy it, so your friendship should survive! Yay!

And that's wild about your working with those TV folks. That'd be way cool! I'm just gonna keep writing until they call for a screenplay...   

And just post your questions and so on about the book in whichever thread - we'll find it!

[Michael R. Hicks]

Okay, IHN: First Contact chapter 4 is now available. The usual caveat that it's rough...

This brings us to a question: I probably shouldn't post too much more out for open public view, or there'll wind up being full bootleg copies of the book wandering around by the end! We'll have to sort something out on that - am open to suggestions! 

[Steph H]

Cool, new lunch time reading material!

Maybe Harvey would okay using the forum that's only for logged-in forum members for this, and moving the whole thread there? (can't remember the name offhand, the one that's for special offers)  An occasional reminder could be posted here about it, though I'm sure those of us reading it will find it.

[Ann in Arlington]

Maybe Harvey would okay using the forum that's only for logged-in forum members for this, and moving the whole thread there? (can't remember the name offhand, the one that's for special offers)  An occasional reminder could be posted here about it, though I'm sure those of us reading it will find it.

I was going to suggest that. . . .Mike, why don't you PM Harvey and see if it's o.k. with him.  I'm guessing he'll be fine with it and can move it for you.

Ann

[Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake']

Mike, as much as I'm enjoying reading and critiquing the first chapters, I think I'll stop at this last chapter you posted.  You're bound to make changes and the final book won't be what we're reading.  I want to dive into the whole experience, fresh and unspoiled, when the book comes out.  (I hate waiting)

[Michael R. Hicks]

Mike, as much as I'm enjoying reading and critiquing the first chapters, I think I'll stop at this last chapter you posted.  You're bound to make changes and the final book won't be what we're reading.  I want to dive into the whole experience, fresh and unspoiled, when the book comes out.  (I hate waiting)

Oh, okay, fine be that way - we'll see you staying up until 2 a.m. again when it debuts!

Actually, I'm hoping to be done with the first draft of this sucker in the next couple months if I can keep going at this rate (why the heck was I going so slow on the first book(s)??). Maybe I'll give myself a birthday present in July...   

[Michael R. Hicks]

Cool, new lunch time reading material!

Maybe Harvey would okay using the forum that's only for logged-in forum members for this, and moving the whole thread there? (can't remember the name offhand, the one that's for special offers)  An occasional reminder could be posted here about it, though I'm sure those of us reading it will find it.

Well, that's a possibility, but I thought about this some more today, and I think what I might do is just see if there are some folks who'd like to continue reading as sanity checkers (I won't ask anyone to proofread, but if anyone would like to - and I know you've done a lot Steph, along with some of the other folks - I certainly would welcome the help!). Then I'll just email them the chapter drafts to take a look at, with the understanding that past chapter 4 they can't send them on to anybody else. It's not so much a forum issue, but putting all the draft copies on an open FTP/web access point on my web server opens it up to anybody who knows where to look (it's not like stealing the next Transformers movie or anything, but still)...

So, if anybody's interested in being a sounding board and is willing to not send on any of the future chapters to anybody, PM me to let me know with your email address.

[Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake']

Oh, okay, fine be that way - we'll see you staying up until 2 a.m. again when it debuts!

With the greatest pleasure.  Hey, what we need is a midnight cyber-release party. 

Actually, I'm hoping to be done with the first draft of this sucker in the next couple months if I can keep going at this rate (why the heck was I going so slow on the first book(s)??). Maybe I'll give myself a birthday present in July...   

At the rate you're going, I wouldn't doubt it.  (I still hate waiting)

[Michael R. Hicks]

With the greatest pleasure.  Hey, what we need is a midnight cyber-release party. 

Hey, we could do that!

At the rate you're going, I wouldn't doubt it.  (I still hate waiting)

Well, I figure I should be able to average around 20 pages a week, and I'm just pecking away for an hour or two each night. Then we're taking a full week's vacation in early June, and I'm really hoping to hammer it to the end by the time we're ready to come home (can you say "finger aerobics"??). Then final editing, proofing, and - poof! - off to DTP for Kindle publication and CreateSpace for print.

Oh, well, that then brings up another question: if that's ready to go by - let's say - July, should I have the other original trilogy books out by then? I was thinking of spacing them out, but am not sure that makes sense now that I'm writing this one. Ow! My head hurts!!

[Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake']

Oh, well, that then brings up another question: if that's ready to go by - let's say - July, should I have the other original trilogy books out by then? I was thinking of spacing them out, but am not sure that makes sense now that I'm writing this one. Ow! My head hurts!!

Quick, put on the rah-rah shorts.  You'll feel ever so much better.

If you issue one of the trilogy per month, all three will be out before First Contact.  Then you might do some kind of special (kindle version, of course).  Buy the trilogy for regular price and get First Contact for half price.  Just a thought. 

[Michael R. Hicks]

Okay, just finished chapter 8 and wrapped up the first major segment of the story (just short of 100 pages). Yay! 

[Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake']

Okay, just finished chapter 8 and wrapped up the first major segment of the story (just short of 100 pages). Yay! 

I can't believe how quickly you're writing.  You must be spending every waking moment at he keyboard.  Does Jan know you're still alive?   

[Michael R. Hicks]

I can't believe how quickly you're writing.  You must be spending every waking moment at he keyboard.  Does Jan know you're still alive?   

Um. Well...I did all of chapter 8 - 2800+ words (which is a bit shorter than the others) - between around 7:00 and 9:45 tonight... 

[Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake']

Um. Well...I did all of chapter 8 - 2800+ words (which is a bit shorter than the others) - between around 7:00 and 9:45 tonight... 

Sheesh, and I thought I wrote fast.  You wrote all that in under three hours?  I'm going to have to find myself a pair of inspirational shorts. 

Maybe the Empress can wear this.

[Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake']

Woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, so I flipped on the TV.  P90X ... you're really doing that?  Is Jan doing it, too?  That really looks tough.  Good luck with it.

[Michael R. Hicks]

Sheesh, and I thought I wrote fast.  You wrote all that in under three hours?  I'm going to have to find myself a pair of inspirational shorts. 

Yeah, I hadn't realized how fast I was rapping things out last night, although I suppose that's pretty typical. I normally only have a couple hours a few nights a week to write, plus whatever I can cram in on the weekends. I just let my fingers do the walking!

Maybe the Empress can wear this.

Hmm, I have to say that this is probably not the best choice of hats - it looks like a bunch of old socks twisted together! Certainly not very, um, regal...

[Michael R. Hicks]

Woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, so I flipped on the TV.  P90X ... you're really doing that?  Is Jan doing it, too?  That really looks tough.  Good luck with it.

Yep! But that's not where we started - it's taken us about a year to get to where we can handle it (and we're still getting our butts kicked pretty good). Jan's finishing a second round of ChaLEAN Extreme, I've pushed on to P90X...

And this morning it's our 5K race/run! Woo-hoo!