The Terra-Bravo Saga

The Terra-Bravo Saga involves a mixture of military adventure, science fiction, and alternate history. It currently consists of three books:

- Chaos on Terra-Prime
- Foothold on Terra-Bravo
- Crisis on Terra-Bravo

Chaos on Terra-Prime
Chaos on Terra-Prime is set about a decade ago on an alternate Earth (Terra). There we meet Major Kent Morgan (U.S. Air Force) and Captain Cord Morgan (U.S. Army) who are trapped in South Korea when their version of the United States of America devolves into another civil war. The Morgans and other U.S. military personnel must escape a North Korean invasion into South Korea in order to return home. But home is not what it used to be.

Foothold on Terra-Prime
Several years later, the absence of the U.S. on the world stage has allowed a growing Global Islamic Caliphate to overrun much of Terra...and the U.S. is next. Military scientist discover number of alternate worlds in parallel universes, one of which is hospitable. Terra-Bravo is a world just coming out of its last ice age. Humans never colonized the North American Continent and have only a limited presence and civilization in Europe, Asia, and Africa. A crash program is created to send teams to Terra-Bravo to build a colony for a later influx of colonists. Brigadier General Kent Morgan and his brother, Colonel Cord Morgan, lead the teams to Terra-Bravo and battle time, the elements, and the local fauna to prepare a home for the colonists.

Crisis on Terra-Prime
After being cut off from Terra-Prime, the colonists continue to expand their foothold on Terra-Bravo. As the colony grows, a hidden plot is discovered. Sleeper agents have been with the colonists since the start and try to destroy the colony from within. Once again, Brigadier General Kent Morgan and Colonel Cord Morgan and their friends must fight to survive.

Future Books
Kyle and I currently plan at least one more book in the Terra-Bravo Saga. I'll probably begin the next sequel within a month and let Kyle work on it in late Summer 2014. I have another series in mind that I would like to work on after that.

Background
I first came up with the idea for the Terra-Bravo Saga over 25 years ago. It was originally intended to be about an alternate Earth in our time period that is still inhabited by dinosaurs. In those days, I would tell my children bits and pieces and their input helped guide the early development of the storyline. I initially worked on it on a typewriter then began to use computer word processing when it became affordable.

Over the (many) years, I vacillated between making it a kids' story, a teen story, and an adult story (you know: blood, guts, death!). In recent years, the option of e-publishing made me move closer to actually getting it written AND published, I began to zero-in on setting it as an adult story. Then along came a little television series called Terra Nova complete with dinosaurs and alternate history.

Frustration is a mild word for the feelings I had over years worth of work being blocked. Fortunately, the series was short-lived (Sorry, Steven Spielberg!) and calmer heads (Thank you, Julie!) suggested some minor changes that could save the day.

In talking with Kyle, we came up with a game plan of working together on the first book and I began pulling together all of the bits and pieces I've written over the (Did I already say "many"?) years. I even rolled in some elements of a couple of other short stories I'd written over the years. Along with the writing process, Kyle and I researched e-publishing options. We initially settled on Kindle Direct Publishing and then expanded to Smashwords.com to take advantage of other e-book formats.

The idea quickly grew beyond a single book. So Kyle and I planned for at least one sequel and a prequel. We finished and e-published the first book and sequel together. Sadly, Kyle was busy when time came to write the prequel, so I went it alone on that one.

Bit by bit, we've picked up sales. I'm using a variety of digital marketing. I'm hoping to expand this advertising to science fiction magazines and other media in the future.

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Stay safe, my friends!

Jeffrey


© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

Chaos on Terra-Prime - Prequel to the Terra-Bravo Saga

Ladies and Gentlemen,

May I proudly present...

Chaos on Terra-Prime 

The Prequel to the Terra-Bravo Saga is now available for $2.99 at the Kindle Store and in other formats at Smashwords.com and soon at other ebookstores!

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What could happen to the United States of America if one political party took the reins of power...and refused to give them up? What could happen to our people, our economy, and our way of life? What would become of our military personnel trapped overseas during a political upheaval in the U.S.? And what if the world's sole remaining superpower was removed from the world stage? 

Imagine a world much like our own but instead of being called Earth, it is called Terra. And imagine a United States of America much like ours that descends into socialism and ultimate collapse. This is the exciting prequel to the Terra-Bravo Saga! Learn of the terrible civil war and the adventures that made Kent and Cord Morgan heroes years before they led their fellow Americans to Terra-Bravo! 

Major Kent Morgan (USAF) and his younger brother, Captain Cord Morgan (U.S. Army), are stationed in South Korea when a civil war breaks out in the United States. With the U.S. pulled from the world stage, oppressive governments around the world attack their weaker neighbors. North Korea begins an all-out assault on South Korea endangering the Morgan brothers and their fellow Americans now trapped on the Korean Peninsula. Kent and Cord lead a daring escape with a few of the survivors only to return to a nation that they barely recognize. Can they protect their family from the Chaos on Terra-Prime? 

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Please get the word out to family and friends who are readers of science fiction/alternate histories!

Be safe!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

So WHAT Have I Been Up To, You Ask?

Greetings family, friends, and readers!

Sorry I haven't blogged recently. I've been a little busy...getting the prequel to Terra-Bravo ready for epublishing!

Yes! That's right...the prequel is going online very, very soon!

How soon you may ask? It should be on Smashwords.com by NLT midnight of June 13th, 2014. Once it passes Smashwords criteria, I'll get it posted on the Kindle Store at Amazon.com (hopefully by this Friday!).

Sooo...along the way, the prequel has undergone a name change. What started out as Terra-Prime: Civil War has evolved into...Chaos on Terra-Prime! After some market research and talking with other another author (Thanks, Brad!), I decided to keep the title in line with the format of the rest of the Terra-Bravo ebook titles.

So, I plan to post another blog post tomorrow with more news. Stay tuned!

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As they used to say on the TV, "Let's be careful out there!"

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

Time for Another Update from Your Author!

Greetings!

What a busy month...at work and at home! On the work front, I've completed my editorial responsibilities for Fire and Emergency Services Company Officer, 5th edition, and turned the final files over to Graphics for corrections and printing. A major task on this edition has been to trim the size of the manual significantly. The previous edition weighed in at 928 pages (not counting the front matter [table of contents, Introduction, etc...]). 

There was a lot of material not in NFPA (R) 1021, LOTS of repetition, and excessive verbiage throughout. Thanks to a great committee of subject matter experts, excellent editors, a talented graphics artist, and my stubbornness, we brought the new addition in at 514 pages (not counting the front matter). Now the project is in the worthy hands of our Curriculum and E-Products staffs to finish those products. The entire product line should be out in mid-Summer!

Next on the project list is Chief Officer, 3rd edition. As I've mentioned previously, I inherited this project from a fellow senior editor who retired a few months back. The Editorial and Graphics staffs have been most helpful in containing the size on this manual! Today, I received the technical review comments from our reviewers and spent the afternoon inputting their comments, as appropriate. Should wrap that up tomorrow and return it to Graphics for correction. Should finalize that project within a couple of weeks!

Finally, Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting, 6th edition, is coming along very well. Thus far we've validated six chapters, will validate two more in a couple of weeks, and today I posted the final chapter to Workspaces for the committee to review and comment upon! Will validate a total of three more chapters before the July IFSTA Conference Meetings and validate the final three chapters at conference!

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I've been busy on the homefront! Always things to do plus working on the prequel to the Terra-Bravo Saga. Tonight, I finished the last big fight scene!!! Need to write about more four or five more pages to transition from this story to lead into Foothold on Terra-Bravo. Tomorrow night...watch out!

After that, I need to edit and proof then do a final format. Then it'll be time to e-publish.

I've vacillating on the title a bit. Originally, I'd planned to call it Terra-Prime: The 2nd American Civil War. Now...I'm considering Terra-Prime: A New Revolution. Well, I still have a few days to decide. Thoughts, everyone?

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Well, time to call it a night. Let's be careful out there now!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

The Pros and Cons of Writing a Prequel!

If you've been following this blog and my Facebook pages, you are aware that I'm writing a prequel to the Terra-Bravo Saga. Part of the reason I wrote Foothold on Terra-Bravo before the prequel was to get people hooked on the action and characters. Another reason why I delayed writing the prequel was to see how current events play out in our universe before addressing them in the universe of Terra-Prime, the starting point of the Terra-Bravo Saga.

But I'm discovering the pros and cons of writing a prequel.

Pros:

1) Knowing where I want to lead the characters to!

2) I'm much more familiar with the characters than when I wrote Foothold or Crisis. 

3) Writing their dialogue is much easier.

4) I've left clues to their pasts in the other books so now I can expand upon those clues.

Cons:

1) Not getting ahead of myself.

2) Establishing the relationships between characters in the proper sequence.

3) Remembering minutia from stories I've already written and moved beyond! (Hey, I know I've got a pretty good memory but WOW!)

4) Not getting carried away with expanding the backstories beyond where the characters are in the future stories.

So, I'm making headway on the prequel, both excited by the chance to visit this storyline but also constrained by it. While allergies and work-related stressors are slowing me down somewhat, I'm still on target for a May e-release!

Marketing of Other E-books

I'm still marketing my three published works primarily by word-of-mouth; e-mails; and Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blog posts. As time and funding allows, I'll expand this marketing.

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Enough for tonight. I hope each of you remain safe and healthy!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

Yay!

I want to take a moment to give a shout-out to Brad McLelland, a good friend of mine. Brad told me late yesterday that he and his writing partner, Louis, had been offered representation for their Young Adult Western/Magic story that they have worked so hard on! This is an excellent opportunity for them to get their book (which would be the first in a new series!) out to publishers and ultimately in print! And their choice of such interestingly mixed genres is inspiring! We can't think of anyone writing the stuff they are!

Congratulations, Brad and Louis!!! Here is wishing you all the best!!!

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Now some of you may wonder why I haven't gone this route as well with my stories. The truth is, I've thought about it, quite seriously. But I'm not willing at this time to sacrifice sole editorial control over what I write. I've got something I want to say and by setting my stories in the science fiction/adventure genres gives me a way to say it! I may never get another opportunity to say it the way I WANT TO SAY IT otherwise and so I've decided, for now, to e-publish my stories.

If the future allows, I'll seek the means to publish the stories in other media (print!) but for now I'm content with my approach.

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I'm working on Chapter 14 of the prequel to the Terra-Bravo Saga and am building to some really cool (I think) action scenes! Chapter 16 should be the kick-off point for the action to start.

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Enough for tonight. Y'all have a good night!

And be careful out there!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

Allergy Season and the Writing and Book Selling Processes

Allergy season is in FULL bloom here in North Central Oklahoma! This state is home to millions of red cedar trees (which are in fact a type of juniper). During the Dust Bowl era thousand of these trees were planted along property lines because they were quick growing to make wind breaks. They also very invasive, drain the water table, and ruin pasture land but hey, nothing's perfect right?

So we moved to Oklahoma where I discovered to my chagrin...that I'm highly allergic to cedars! Each year at this time, I suffer through the clogged sinuses and itchy, burning eyes trying different allergy medicines until I get the right one. (It's different each year!)

Needless to say, this time of year does NOT find me at my best. Being tired, doped-up, bleary eyed, and generally miserable does not make for the best writing or editing at work or at home! Since work pays the bills, I've been focusing my writing/editing efforts there to ensure quality products go out to our fire fighters! Sadly, my writing output at home has dropped off somewhat.

But, for the last couple of days the allergy and medically induced haze has lifted and I've made some progress on the prequel to the Terra-Bravo Saga! I'm now 12 chapters and 112 pages into the story; setting the stage for the action in the second half of the book. Yep, I'm still on target to e-publish in May!

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Sales have slowed somewhat on Foothold on Terra-Bravo and Crisis on Terra-Bravo. Sales have yet to pick UP for Honing Your Instructional Skills. So, I've got to spend some real time and effort this month getting the word out, advertising as it were! I'll be trying out a variety of advertising opportunities; some old, some new. Bear with me over the next few weeks as I do this! (And don't forget to share my posts with your family and friends who are science fiction fans or instructors!)

All three books are available at Amazon's Kindle Store, Barnes & Noble (b&n.com), Smashwords.com, and several other online stores in a variety of formats for virtually every e-reader out there. Foothold on Terra-Bravo and Crisis on Terra-Bravo sell for $2.99 each while Honing Your Instructional Skills sells for $0.99 (it's not a very long e-book). The links above take you to the Amazon Kindle Store.

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I need to do some more advertising AND more writing on the prequel, so I'll close for now. Best wishes to all my family and friends who read this!

Remember, let's be careful out there!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014