H. Paul Honsinger's Blog, page 5

In comments, some readers have been asking for some kind of forum where people who are enthusiastic about my humble forays into the world of Military Science Fiction can discuss my work.  After some poking around, and after consulting with a few people I know who are savvy about such things (do people still say “savvy”?), I have decided to set up (actually modify a pre-existing) Discussion Group on Goodreads dot com.  Folks can navigate to this site:  https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/..., become members, and discuss to their hearts’ content.  Please abide by the group rules, which I consider entirely reasonable (as I wrote them, I suppose I would).  So, if you are so disposed, go, join, and discuss.  Have fun.

I receive a fair amount of email, blog comments, Facebook postings, and other communications from fans–roughly one or two a day. So far, every single one has been not only favorable, but effusive with praise as well as kind and generous.  The most common reaction from these writers when I respond to their communications is surprise that they received an answer and further surprise that I gave a thorough answer to whatever questions they posed.

Apparently, folks don’t have a clear understanding of who I am and where I am in the course of my writing career.  I get the impression from these emails that people think I am making buckets of money from my writing, I receive baskets of fan mail, and have a staff that screens communications for me.  

Maybe this is true of some of the “big names” in Science Fiction and Military Fiction, but it is certainly not true of me.  When I was self published, I made enough money from the publication of my first two books that, between my writing and my wife’s writing, we were able to support our family and close our law office at a solidly middle middle class level.  Our daughter attends public school.  We both drive Nissans.  We haven’t taken a travelling vacation in six years.  Now that I am published by 47North, a lot of books are moving but I haven’t earned out my advance yet, so I am not yet receiving any real income from book sales.  

As for staff, you’re looking at it.  I read every bit of fan correspondence.  I make a point of responding to every single one.  Of course, there may come a day when I get so much fan mail that I have to hire a staff to deal with it, but it is not this day.  [Shut up, Aragorn.] Further, I know that someday I will probably start getting fan correspondence that is “inappropriate” in one way or another (abusive, threatening, invasive, proposals of wild acts of sexual abandon, etc.) and that I won’t want to encourage by responding, but I’ve gotten nothing of that sort.  

I also get the feel that fans think I’m some sort of major player in the field with an ego to match.  I am not.  I am still what is considered a “minor author.”  I’ve made a few blips on the sales charts, but that’s about it.  I haven’t received any reviews from major Science Fiction critics, no media attention, and (as far as I now) my books are not in any libraries or brick and mortar bookstores.  While I have ambitions that, if achieved, would change all of that, I’m still a very small fish.  

My ego matches my status.  I make a lot of jokes about having an ego that gives me a head the size of a Zeppelin, but that’s really not true.  Unlike a lot of writers, I’m not a 24 year old former English Composition major who has spent four years of college being told that his or her writing is a luminous gift to the literate world, I’m a 54 year old retired attorney who went through three years of Law School being told by professors that he was an idiot (at my law school, the professors told everyone that they were idiots), and most of the 30 years after that being beaten up by clients and judges.  To Honor You Call Us is not only my first novel, it is my first fiction of any kind, and its reception has not yet convinced me that my writing is anything special.  

My editors are continually surprised by how little my ego is involved in editorial decisions.  What they don’t get is that I consider them to be the professionals in this process and that I consider myself an amateur.  The only place I really put my foot down is on the military and scientific terminology where some of the suggested editorial changes change correct nomenclature to incorrect or that change the meaning of the sentence.  

So, gang, I enjoy hearing from you.  Further, I enjoy engaging with you–exchanging ideas about the universe that I have created and that my characters inhabit.  The day may come when I am too busy, to important, or too conceited, but that is not this day.  [Dang, there's Aragorn, again.  Make him King of Gondor and Arnor and you can't shut the guy up!]

 

A very nice review of To Honor You Call Us just appeared in this well-done blog.  You guys might just want to hop on over there and check it out.

Review: To Honor You Call Us by H. Paul Honsinger.

paulhonsinger:

I’ve reblogged his earlier review of the first book. He likes the second one even more. Obviously, this blogger has excellent taste (grin). Go check him out!

Originally posted on PG's Ramblings:

For Honor We Stand

(

Man of War

, #2) by

H. Paul Honsinger





My rating:

10 out of 10 stars

In 2315, the Earth Union is losing a thirty-year-long war with the Krag Hegemony.

Having encountered the Krag before, Space Commander Max Robicheaux now faces daunting challenges aboard the USS Cumberland: the dangers from the enemy without…and clashes with crew and superiors within.

Meanwhile, Doctor Sahin receives a coded message summoning him to a secret meeting that aims to forge an alliance that could change the balance of power in Known Space. But first, he must circumvent the fighter ships and heavily armed troops of the traitorous emir bent on killing him before he reaches the negotiating table.

Both men must call upon their developing skills and growing friendship to bear the burden of carrying between the Krag Hegemony and the Earth Union a fateful…

View original 255 more words

paulhonsinger:

Some nice words from this blogger–and the blog looks good, too.

Originally posted on PG's Ramblings:

To Honor You Call Us

(

Man Of War

, #1) by

H. Paul Honsinger





My rating:

9 out of 10 stars

The Terran Union is engaged in a vast interstellar war against the Krag, ruthless aliens intent on exterminating humankind. In 2315, the wily Max Robichaux is given command of the USS Cumberland, a destroyer with state-of-the-art capabilities but a combat record so bad, she’s known as the “Cumberland Gap.”

Capt. Robichaux’s first mission: to take his warship to the Free Corridor, where the Krag have secretly been buying strategic materials, and to seize or destroy any ships carrying enemy cargo. Far from the fleet and under enforced radio silence, Max relies only on his determination and guile…and the support and friendship of his chief medical officer, the brilliant Dr. Sahin.

Because even as he deals with the ship’s onboard problems and the stress of carrying out…

View original 495 more words

Sales in the UK are still great, even though To Honor You Call Us has slipped from #1, 1, and 2 in its various categories to #3, 3, and 3.  Apparently, lots of people are taking the plunge enticed by the new lower price.  I’m getting very encouraging fan mail from that part of the world as well, indicating that the book is appealing to readers across the pond.  There is only one fly in the ointment–the book just got a one star review on Amazon’s UK site.  Sometimes, I wonder what possesses people to write stuff like this. It’s so vile, I’m goiing to let you read it in its entirety:

[One Star] Unreadable, 3 April 2014


By 
Time Traveller

 This review is from: To Honor You Call Us (Man of War, Book 1) (Kindle Edition)

Too badly written for the plot to be relevant imho. The author’s struggles with sentence construction made me wince. There are an awful lot of bad, cheap books on Kindle ime – especially in genre fiction – and often plenty of underserved five star ratings for them alas.

Now, I know that I am not the greatest prose stylist in the history of the English Language, but I’ve never struggled with sentence construction.  I would be very interested in seeing which sentences he thinks are badly constructed, especially since the text was worked over by half a dozen professional editors, including Michael Shohl, one of the best in the business.   And, to call it “unreadable” is nothing short of an outright lie.  Anyone who thinks a book that sold 10,000 copies in self publication even before it was professionally edited, and then got picked up by a major publisher, is “unreadable” is full of shit.  If he can’t read it, then he’s too illiterate to be writing online reviews.

By the way, none of the professionals who have read this book ever said anything about it being badly written.  Some of them had other issues, but none with the basic writing.  Maybe this guy just doesn’t get that he doesn’t know anything about English Composition.  Who knows?  In any event, it’s just a shame that people who are considering whether to buy this book will be confronted with the worthless opinions of this despicable troll as the most recent review, at least for a while.

Those of you who found the prose something other than “unreadable” might wish to lodge comments in response to this review.  Here’s the permalink to where you can find it.  http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3K1E0MG0C4EBS/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00DQUKZMY

Onthe first day of being featured with a special sale price, To Honor You Call Us has become one of the top selling books on Amazon’s UK site.  Here is its standing as of this hour, cut and pasted right from the book’s sale page–it’s also in the top 5 in several other categories, but Amazon shows only the top 3 on the page:

 

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #202 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

#1 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Action & Adventure
#1 in Books > Fiction > Adventure Stories & Action
#2 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Science Fiction > Space Opera


That’s #1, folks.  Wow.  Just wow.

 

The powers that be in Amazon land have decreed that To Honor You Call Us will be one of a select few books available on the Amazon UK site for just one pound through April 30.  Be aware that this special offer is valid only for those people buying in the United Kingdom.  If you try to buy it from another country, the computer’s location detector will disallow the purchase.  But, if you are in the UK and want to get this edition in eBook form, this is the time to get it.  After all, where else can you spend just one pound and get to go to the far reaches of the Orion-Cygnus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy?  Does a pound even get you across town on a bus?

Here is the special page for the special Amazon is offering for this special price.  I’m sure that, if you go there, you will feel very special as well. http://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=4379844031

Mack Meijers, who interviewed me for his podcast program back in October, had this to say about the Man of War books in relationship to SF writing in general.

“It’s a bit of a trend today, in many ways even a preferred trend. I recently had a bit of a discussion with some people at 47North and Tor, on the topic. One of the things which really popped up was that there is a strong preference for what is known as “consumable reading”, which follows the “evolution by action” format – mostly. I found it interesting that they made a distinction there in observations on published and self-published works, with the latter being more likely to get noticed if following that format, akin to screenwriting today in the science fiction genre.

“That said, it’s my observation that it is not a golden rule. As mentioned, I had that conversation with Mr. Gunn, as well as other authors, but it is also visible in the sales data from marketplaces like Amazon itself. There are exceptions. Even more, it is remarkable to see that when new writers don’t follow that general approach, they’re actually quite likely to rise to the top of the curves (and get picked up for publishing).

“Not to make a sales plug or something, but I had a conversation recently on a show with such an author (H. Paul Honsinger) in the sub genre of military science fiction, which turned out to be exactly such an exception to the “rule”. Not movie focused, or screenwriting focus, or action based evolution. Instead it was writing reminiscent of quite a few decades past. Rich atmosphere, decision based evolution, clear depth of field & character – and the authors books are quite the hit. I don’t know if it’s permissible to post the link, but to me it was quite a refreshing find.”

http://www.adventuresinscifipublishing.com/2013/10/clinging-to-the-wreckage-how-to-save-science-fiction/  (scroll down to his second comment)

I have just discovered (through my own Googling) that the audiobook version of my first novel, To Honor You Call Us” can be purchased through iTunes.  Here’s the link, which I will add to my “Buy the Man of War Books” page.  https://itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/to-honor-you-call-us-man-war/id797869079