Oh YES!!!

Hard to believe it's Tuesday already! I've been a mite busy the last few days between work, home, and life in general and remembered I haven't posted in a while.

We're very closed to wrapping up the editing on Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting 6th edition. We're working on the final four chapters! Now before you race out to try to buy a copy, we are still about 18 months from the street date on the new manual. Photography, videography, and curriculum work are in progress. We actually started this project ahead of schedule to allow me to clear my desk for my next project...writing Essentials of Fire Fighting 7th edition. And that project IS ramping up!

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Took part of the weekend off and was under the weather yesterday. To those who have lived in Arizona, particularly the Southern half of the state, Valley Fever is a well known term. It is a fungal disease caused by two pathogenic fungi found in desert soils. If you inhale its spores, you can come down with Valley Fever which causes flu-like symptoms. Most folks don't have any symptoms, others get mildly ill, and other get really sick. For some patients, it can be recurring over the course of their lifetime, like malaria. Yeah, lucky me...every so often it rears its ugly head and I lose a day or two. Comes with growing up and living in Arizona. 

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Still, the new novel is coming along nicely. One hundred and six pages! I'm following up the big battle with some downtime for the main characters as I set the stage for the next big action. More violence, death, and mayhem. I even had to consult with one of my readers today on the life or death of a major character! (Don't worry, Debbie, I won't tell!) I hope to reach 120 pages by the end of the week to include a big fight scene!

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On a down note, sales of the Terra-Bravo Saga e-books have dropped way off at the end of August and the first week of September. Guess I need to do some more advertising to folks. A gentle nudge here, as always, for you to share with your friends, wives, girlfriends, favorite uncle behind bars, best friend, worst enemy, or whoever else you can think of:


As always, I ask that you share information about the Terra-Bravo Saga with friends and family members who enjoy adventure, military, and science fiction stories. 

Chaos on Terra-Prime                    $2.99

Foothold on Terra-Bravo                $2.99

Crisis on Terra-Bravo                     $2.99

Honing Your Instructional Skills     $0.99

These book are currently only available as e-books through Amazon's Kindle Store or in a variety of e-pub formats over at Smashwords.com. They are also available through B&N.com (Barnes & Noble) and other online e-bookstores. 

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Kyle is working on the next sequel to the Terra-Bravo Saga. He's going to rough out the chapters this time and I'll do the final writing and polish. I hope (fervently) to be done with Tales of Arizona State Guard: Bloody Border by the time Kyle finishes his work, so I can jump right on that project.

What's next? Well, my dear friend, Jimmie Badgett, has suggested a murder mystery! I've got a story idea, one of several as a matter of fact, and think it will serve as part of a collection of science fiction stories I want to write. More on this later.

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Once again we are drawing close to the anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks upon our Nation. Please pause on Thursday to think and pray for our Nation, our leaders, our people, and those we lost that day. Stay mindful of your surroundings and stay safe!

Enjoy life!

Jeffrey 

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

Productivity!

Wow! What a productive weekend!

Between last Thursday and Saturday night, I wrote 15 pages in the new e-novel. By Monday evening, I'd added 8 more pages to that total! The new e-novel is coming along well. 

Just wrote a major battle scene and now in the resolution stage of that. I had some new ideas pop into my head last night to build on from here!

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I hope everyone had a safe and fun Labor Day Weekend! It was quiet here at the Fortney Hacienda.

Stay safe!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

Pressing On!!!

Wow! It's been kind of a weird couple of weeks since my last blog post!

First, let me apologize for falling off the blogosphere. Lot's of work on the work front and at home. 

- In trying to stay ahead of schedule with Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting 6th edition, I've realized that the bulk of the time scheduled for a photo/video shoot at DFW International will be focused (yeah, a bad pun!) on shooting the skill sheets. While this will give me many images for the chapter text sections, it wouldn't fill all of them. So I've been doing some deep image searches and illustration drafting to cover the bulk of each chapter.

- On the home front, it was time to get Gary ready to go back to college! (Huzzah! Cheers! and so on!) Last weekend, Julie, Gary, and I loaded up our vehicles for the trip to Arkansas with all of his stuff. Since he couldn't get into his dorm until 1:00 p.m. Sunday and Julie and I didn't want to drive down and back in just one day, we went to Camden on Saturday. We got to visit with Heather, Damien, and Aiden. Sadly, James was out of town so we missed him. Sunday we got to take Gary back to his dorm, drop him and his stuff off, then Julie and I hightailed it back home!

- In the process of all of this, my creative bug had gone into a mild state of shock. Instead of doing any writing, I did some reading. A friend highly recommended John Scalzi's Old Man's War so I picked up a copy and couldn't put it down! Thanks, John Konrad for recommending it!  

Secondly, after this fortnight (or more) of recharging, I hit the computer running the other night. In the past four days, I've written 15 pages on the new novel!!! (And, I'll probably do some more tonight after I finish this blog post and some online advertising!) I also finalized the integration of of the last of the information drawn from the Prologue of Chaos on Terra Prime, so everything I write in the new novel from here on is totally new material! As it stands this instant, I've written 87 pages for the new novel!

And I intend to keep hammering away at it until I get the first draft finished. I'll probably take a week off then to recharge then dive back in to edit and revise...polish it up a bit. I'm still wanting to have this one e-published by the end of October 2014!

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Sales on the Terra-Bravo Saga books started off good the first week or so of August then dropped by mid-month. I can trace it directly to not staying active in talking about them online so that is something I really need to focus on.

As always, I ask that you share information about the Terra-Bravo Saga with friends and family members who enjoy adventure, military, and science fiction stories. 

Chaos on Terra-Prime                    $2.99

Foothold on Terra-Bravo                $2.99

Crisis on Terra-Bravo                     $2.99

Honing Your Instructional Skills     $0.99

These book are currently only available as e-books (maybe in paperback someday???) through Amazon's Kindle Store or in a variety of e-pub formats at Smashwords.com. They are also available through B&N.com and other online e-bookstores.

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Well, I'm going to sign off so that I can send out invites to this post and do some other online advertising. I wish everyone a safe and fun Labor Day Weekend!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

Trying to Get Back on Track!!!

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows what an avid reader I am. They also know that I'm a fan of General George S. Patton, Jr. After years of trying to track down a copy of Ladislas Farago's "Patton: Ordeal and Triumph" I finally found one and got hooked on reading it. Then a new William W. Johnstone novel came out once I was done with Patton.

So what happens when Jeff the Reader overwhelms Jeff the Writer? Well...Jeff the Writer takes the back seat! That's what!

Now...with all that reading out of the way...it's time to get back to doing some writing!!!

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Sales were good in the month of July, not fantastic, but good. I've already had a number of sales this month and am a third of the way to another royalty check! I will be doing some additional advertising the rest of this week as well as working on the new novel. The new novel will definitely be a spin-off of the Terra-Prime world and storyline.

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I do want to take a moment and say Rest in Peace Robin Williams. I can't count the number of hours I've been entertained by his acting skills and his humor. Sadly, he was a victim of depression that afflicts so many. As bad as his loss is to his family, friends, and fans...there are worse things going on around this world that the rest of us are left to deal with.

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Enough for now. Time to write for fun and money!

Stay safe, everyone!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

July is Heating UP!

July 2014 has turned out to be a pretty good month for the Terra-Bravo Saga with numerous sales...including a set in Canada! Additionally, Kyle and I will soon be the recipients of our second royalty check! Please continue to share the word with those science fiction/adventure fans you know:

Chaos on Terra-Prime                    $2.99

Foothold on Terra-Bravo                $2.99

Crisis on Terra-Bravo                     $2.99

Honing Your Instructional Skills     $0.99

Between Amazon's Kindle Store and Smashwords, the books are available in multiple formats for a variety of e-readers.

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Work continues, albeit slowly, on the new novel. I'm on page 52 (of 62) with new or revised material. It's coming along nicely and the action should really start picking up soon. Preparing to re-introduce a key character who will play a major role later in this book (and, hopefully, in future books).

I've re-written the ads for the three Terra-Bravo books for K-Boards and got those posted today. Hopefully they'll bring more interest and sales!

Next weekend I plan to put together a Kickstarter package to see if I can generate some money to help get new covers drawn for the three current and one future book and then some advertising. I'd hoped to buy some paperback hardcopies for sale at author events and such, but I'm going to postpone that for now.

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I'm going to keep this short. Helped Sean, Hannah, Mara, and Jeffrey move into their new home this weekend. The spirit was willing but this 54 year old body just can't do what its 25 year old predecessor could. *sigh*

Stay safe!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

Making Progress!

Last weekend was the 81st Annual IFSTA Validation Conference. The Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting 6th edition Validation Committee met and validated the last three chapters of the new edition! An awesome job by an awesome group of true professionals! Now the project is back in the hands of Editorial and Curriculum to move the project forward even further!

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I took Thursday and Friday off this week to recharge the old batteries. Didn't do as much writing on the new project as I was hoping to but still, I wrote seven pages of new material with the revised page count sitting at 46 with 16 more pages awaiting modification to fit the new direction. Overall, it's coming along nicely.

I do believe I need to set a street date for the book to be available. You know, give myself a deadline to meet to keep me motivated. So, with that in mind, I just scoped out the calendar and...I plan to have the final draft done by October 1st, final edits done by October 15th, and posted to Amazon and Smashwords by October 31st! There are the goals to meet...now I've just gotta do 'em!

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Picked up some sales in July. Not a lot but some. Please share the word with those you know:

Chaos on Terra-Prime                    $2.99

Foothold on Terra-Bravo                $2.99

Crisis on Terra-Bravo                     $2.99

Honing Your Instructional Skills     $0.99

Between Amazon's Kindle Store and Smashwords, the books are available in multiple formats for a variety of e-readers.

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Y'all be safe out there now!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

And...I'm Off and Running!

So, since my last blog post, I've begun work on the revision to Roman's Legion, or Tales of the Arizona State Guard: Border War! as it is now being called.

First, I modified my file names and moved them into a different folder relating to Terra-Prime. Next, I developed a list of modifications and additions for the book. Then I copied the Preface to Chaos on Terra-Prime and pasted it into the new Chapter 1 of the new book. Half of this will be moved to a later chapter to denote the major shift in the U.S. of that world.

Then came modification of the previously written material. I added in some new characters, shifted some of the action, removed a major (physical) impediment to our hero, and tweaked the action. Oh, yeah, and cut some material that was no longer needed. Say goodbye to about 6 pages!

But in the past week, I've added the 6 pages for the new Chapter 1 (and later chapter) material, another 4 of pages in rewrites, and, today, 6 pages of new material!!! Not bad...not bad at all! With more to come in the days ahead.

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Picked up a couple of sales this month on Kindle...a Foothold and a Honing Your Skills! Plan to do some advertising this week to help get the word out to folks. Please share the word with those you know:

Chaos on Terra-Prime                    $2.99

Foothold on Terra-Bravo                $2.99

Crisis on Terra-Bravo                     $2.99

Honing Your Instructional Skills     $0.99

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Julie and I enjoyed a quiet, peaceful 4th of July here in Stillwater! Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014