I thought I'd write tonight about how and why I got into writing for fun (and a little profit).
I've been an avid reader since I was a kid. In fact, with the help of my mother and comic books, I learned to read before I started school. We had a library bookmobile that visited our small town and I would borrow new books with each visit. Later we moved to a larger town and the library was on our street between our home and my school. I would drop off books I'd finished on my way to school and pick up new ones on the way home. These books included histories, biographies, fiction, and my favorite...science fiction. I read whenever I had a free moment and I still do to this day.
I've also been a storyteller all my life; sharing what I'd read with my family and friends and creating new tales. Initially, I would write my stories down in long hand on legal tablets my folks would give me and put them into binders. By the time I was 11, Mom and Dad bought me a Sears manual type writer. Click, clack, clickety, clack...Ding! Ah, the joy of putting words down on paper. My first "sale" was a short (single page) story about a dog and his boy that the lady who watched us from time to time submitted to the Arizona Republic. I received a nice letter congratulating me on my story AND a copy of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Tarzan of the Apes". (This, of course, led me to becoming a huge fan of ERB and his many tales!)
During my teens, I wrote and submitted numerous story ideas to DC Comics and to one editor in particular, Julius Schwartz. Mr. Schwartz had mentored a number of my favorite comic book writers such as Cary Bates, Elliot S! Maggin, Martin Pasko, and Paul Levitz to name a few. These fellows submitted story ideas while in their teens and with Schwartz's mentoring became some of the best writers of DC Comics. Schwartz's motto was "Be Original" and he could (and would) point out if an idea or gimmick had been used before. His refusal letters were an art unto themselves with mixtures of praise and chastisement but always ending with encouragement to keep trying, don't give up!
Over time, I joined the U.S. Air Force, got married, and became a father; all of which took up much of my time. Still, I would share stories with my wife and children; again, some of what I read and some that I made up. From time to time, I would write some of them down and put them away in my notebooks, but I never completed them or tried to submit. I kept coming back to one particular story idea...a time travel story about humans creating a colony in the era of the dinosaurs.
Now, over time, what one author can dream up...so can another. Especially if the first author never completes the story and gets it published! I had it happen to a few of my story ideas where someone beat me to the punch (and the payola) by a couple of months. The big crush was when someone with the initials "SS" produced a short-lived television series about humans traveling through time to establish a colony in the Cretaceous Period. This was accomplished totally independently of my story but mirrored it none-the-less. (I enjoyed the program although it only lasted that one short season.)
My wife, Julie, finally told me I needed to finish my stories and submit them for publication. Wonder of wonders, around that same time, a number of self-publishing platforms came along for e-books (Smashwords, Kindle, etc...). With the support of my family, I dove into writing my first novel, which is itself a heavily revised version of my dinosaur story. Gone were the dinos...bring on Ice Age critters!
Foothold on Terra-Bravo was initially published as an e-book in August 2013 through Amazon.com's Kindle Direct Publishing. Since then, I've written and published seven other novels and one short how-to book. I've also released my two series (The Terra-Bravo Saga and The Arizona State Guard) as e-book compilations. Beginning in May 2017, my novels (minus the compilations) became available as paperbacks!
I have many other story ideas swirling around inside my cranium. A third book in the Camadin Station series, a new series for Young Adults, and a science fiction/spy thriller to name only a few. Sadly, I've been experiencing "writer's block" over the last several months. Hopefully, it will pass soon and I can get back to writing!
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Meanwhile, my current books are available through Amazon.com at www.amazon.com/author/jeffreyfortney. Please tell your family, friends, favorite dentist, least favorite neighbor, postal worker, local comic book shoppe owner, and just about anyone else you can think of about my books. I've tried to price them to be affordable in both formats. For those folks with Amazon Prime and Kindle Unlimited accounts, you can get great savings on shipping (for the paperbacks) and borrowing (for the e-books).
Arizona State Guard: Bloody Border (e-book: $2.99 / paperback: $6.99)
Arizona
State Guard: Target Terror (e-book: $2.99 / paperback: $7.99)
Arizona
State Guard: Freedom’s Forge (e-book: $2.99 / paperback: $8.99)
Arizona
State Guard Trilogy (e-book: $6.99 ONLY)
Chaos
on Terra-Prime (e-book: $2.99 / paperback: $7.99)
Foothold
on Terra-Bravo (e-book: $2.99 / paperback: $7.99)
Crisis
on Terra-Bravo (e-book: $2.99 / paperback: $8.99)
The
Terra-Bravo Saga: Volume 1 (e-book: $4.97 ONLY)
Camadin
Station One: Death Haunts the Stars (e-book: $3.99 / paperback: $7.99)
Camadin
Station Two: Last Stand (e-book: $3.99 / paperback: $8.99)
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The weather is starting to cool down a bit and Fall can't be too far away. Enjoy the final days of Summer!
Jeffrey
Jeffrey M. Fortney – 2018
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