H. Paul Honsinger's Blog, page 6

Yes, I know that’s a wretchedly long headline, but it is what it is.  Give me a shorter one and I’ll use it!

Andrew Liptak, a BuzzFeed Community blogger, has a regular feature highlighting what he believes to be the best Science Fiction book recommendations for the coming month.  He had 22 for this March and For Honor We Stand, to be released on March 11, 2014, was one of them. He says:  “this one looks as though it’ll have the right balance of action and intelligence behind it.”  Well, Andrew, that WAS the idea you know.

It’s good that these books are getting a little bit of attention in the SF community.

Here’s the link:  http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewliptak/22-science-fiction-and-fantasy-books-for-march-201-hclt

While sales of To Honor You Call Us continue to be encouraging, we are only ten days out from release of the second book in the “Man of War” saga, For Honor We Stand.  Of course, you don’t have to wait–you can pre-order the paperback, Kindle eBook, CD audiobook, or Audible.com download on Amazon.com right now, if you are so inclined.  Meanwhile progress continues to be rapid on the third book, Brothers in Valor which appears to be shaping up for a September 2014 release.  Ideas are churning away, as well, for future books in the series.  People who are interested in getting into a long, action-packed, testosterone-soaked, rip roaring Military Science Fiction series could do a lot worse than to pick up these books.

Here at Honsinger Headquarters we occasionally give ourselves over to whimsy, and were recently thinking about what a film version of the “Man of War” books would look like.  Here, presented in a totally off the top of our heads fashion, is the proposed opening credits for “To Honor You Call Us.”  There are lots of important roles open, Chief LeBlanc, for example, and others where the choice of actor is not very firm.  But, here’s our thinking.  What are your thoughts on this?  Any suggestions?

Jerry Bruckheimer Presents

A Paul Verhoeven Production of

A Christopher Columbus Film

H. Paul Honsinger’s To Honor You Call Us,

Episode I of the “Man of War” Trilogy

Starring

Armie Hammer as Lt. Commander Max Robichaux

and Gael Bernal as Dr. Ibrahim Sahin,

Co-Starring

                William Levy as Lt. Roger Garcia

                Martin Freeman as Chief Engineer Lt. “Wehrner” Vaughn Brown

                Kai Weisinger as Chief Petty Officer Heinz Wendt

Featuring:

Tommy Lee Jones as Vice Admiral Louis G. “Hit ‘Em Hard” Hornmeyer

And a special appearance by

Alexander Siddig as Ellington Wortham-Biggs

Music by James Horner

Special Effects by Industrial Light and Magic

To Honor You Call Us got a fabulous review today from an Amazon Vine Voice Reviewer.  I don’t feature many reviews here (we’re getting close to 400 now, overwhelmingly positive) but I think that this one is worth highlighting.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3F5J5O2ZGZ9DC/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1477848894&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=

All of the people who supposedly know about such things say that, at this point in my career as a writer, I am supposed to be busily and industriously engaged in promoting my books, mainly through “fan outreach.”  As my publisher is not interested in flying me around the country to place me at book signings and conventions, an immediate schedule of wide-ranging public appearances is not in the cards.

I am, however, interested in hearing from readers about what kind of outreach they would like to see and in which they would participate, from among those avenues available to me.  Some of the things I am thinking about are:  (1) making a series of Youtube videos in which I answer questions from fans, (2) appearing at a few conventions that are easy to reach from my home in Arizona, (3) engaging in live online chats with readers, (4) other modes that you folks suggest.  This is all in the exploratory stages right now, and I am intensely interested in input from my readers.  Let me hear from you, either in the comments to this post or by email to [email protected].  I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Notwithstanding the distractions posed by the impending release of To Honor You Call Us and For Honor We Stand, I’ve been getting some good work done on the third installment of the “Man of War Series,” Brothers in Valor, the last few weeks.  When I’m in the zone, these books practically write themselves, and that’s where I am right now.

Max has gotten out of the jam he’s in at the start of the book (this isn’t a spoiler–I’ve posted a draft of the first chapter on this site), moved through the plot setup for the bulk of the book, and is now in place for him and his ship to be doing what they’ll be doing for most of the novel.  I know what most of that is going to be, so we’re in good shape.  So, those of you who are worried about getting invested in a series that the author drops along the way should be reassured–I’m writing the third book and things are going well.

Besides, there is the small matter of a contract that obligates me to write the third book.  I used to be a lawyer.  I understand these things.

When things are going well, this doesn’t feel like work.  I’m in space, where I’ve wanted to go ever since I understood what it was.

There is no place I’d rather be.

I’ve completely updated the page that explains where and how to buy and/or pre-order each edition and format of the “Man of War” Books with the best information I have as of 21:12Z 16 February 2014 (that’s 2:12 Mountain Standard Time for you lubbers and squeakers).  So, get your ordering when the ordering is good.  Pre-orders are especially good for impressing the publishers and booksellers with hoe popular the books are going to be.

Here’s the link to the page.  You can also access it from the site’s top menu.

http://hpaulhonsinger.com/buy-the-man-of-war-books/

“To Honor You Call Us” Page on Barnes & Noble

Apparently, Amazon is doing a good job of placing my upcoming book with other booksellers, because here is the order page for To Honor You Call Us on the web site of Amazon’s biggest competitor, Barnes & Noble.  Those of you who don’t like to do business with Amazon can get the paperback and/or the audiobook here.

I recently received sample copies of the audiobook version of To Honor You Call Us. It’s 13 hours long, so I haven’t had a chance to hear all of it, but I’ve skipped around and listened to about a quarter of the recording and I’m very impressed.  Narrator Ray Chase does an excellent job. He has a knack for humor–the sarcastic banter between Max and Wehrner is especially well done. I also like the way he handles the Vaaach encounter.

One of the great strengths of this production is that Mr. Chase has distinct voices for most of the major characters, which makes it easy to keep straight who is talking.  He does some accents and does most of them pretty well (except the Cajun, but then no one who hasn’t spent a lot of time in Louisiana does a decent Cajun accent).

This is clearly a first class production, and it’s unabridged, to boot!. Kudos to Brilliance Audio and Ray Chase. If you like to consume books in this format, it is well worth checking out. You can get the audiobook either as an MP3 CD or as an Audible.com download. The links are reproduced below.

http://www.amazon.com/Honor-You-Call-Man-War/dp/1480572624/ref=tmm_abk_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1373102190&sr=8-3

http://www.amazon.com/Honor-You-Call-Us-Book/dp/B00HUDMD6E/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-3&qid=1373102190

Now, don’t break out the tissues, I’m not writing to report a death but to explain why the author credit in the upcoming 47North editions of the “Man of War” books is different from that of the self-published editions.  The self-published books are by “H. Paul Honsinger & Harvey G. Phillips” while the new editions are by “H. Paul Honsinger,” a fact which might prompt some people to ask “what happened to Harvey G. Phillips?”

Nothing, actually.  I am Harvey G. Phillips. 

Here’s what happened.  I am not the first author in our household.  In September 2012 when I sat down to start writing the story that grew into To Honor You Call Us, my wife, Kathleen, was already a successful self-published writer and, in fact, was doing well enough that we were able to close The Law Offices of H. Paul Honsinger without any decline in our standard of living.  She wrote, and still writes, under the pseudonym Laura Jo Phillips.  It was important at that time to keep her career as a novelist under wraps because her books have some rather racy content that we thought folks should not associate with a law office that did a lot of child custody and other family law work.  I was deeply involved in this enterprise as Kathy’s editor and was known to her fans through her blog, web site, and Facebook pages, as Harvey G. Phillips.

Accordingly, when it came time to publish To Honor You Call Us I wanted my own name on the book, but we also wanted to try to get some small boost from my association with the Laura Jo Phillips books.  Kathleen and I bounced ideas around for how to accomplish this and we came up with the idea of me being a co-author with myself–of publishing under my real name AND my pseudonym.

Then, much to my surprise, To Honor You Call Us and For Honor We Stand became hits and 47North knocked on my door seeking to publish the trilogy.  Early on, we came to the joint decision that there was no longer any need for “Harvey G. Phillips.”  He had served his purpose of helping my work obtain a little bit of initial visibility.  Now, with Amazon marketing the books, there was no need for the Laura Jo Phillips connection.  Further, having the name of a non-existent person on the cover page might muddy the waters, especially if the books became well known and interviews, public appearances, and books signings ensued.  People would wonder where Harvey was, and might suspect some nefarious conspiracy when he could not be found.  Everyone thought it better if the 47North editions were credited only to H. Paul Honsinger.

By the way, the “H.” in “H. Paul Honsinger” stands for Harvey, which is an old family name–for six generations my family named its first born sons Harvey Gilbert or Harvey Paul, alternating generations.  So, my father was Harvey G. Honsinger.  Having the name “Harvey G. Phillips” on the cover was a good way of having him along for the ride.  He was a novelist, too, although his books did not find the success that mine have enjoyed.  He’s along for the 47North editions, too.  If you look at the picture of me on this site (which is the picture of me published in the 47North books), you can see that I am wearing a string tie with a star-shaped slide.  That slide is a genuine antique Texas Rangers badge, cut from a silver Mexican coin, that I inherited from my father.  According to family tradition, one of my father’s ancestors (on his mother’s side–the Barbers from Mont Belvieu or “Barber’s Hill” Texas) was a Ranger.

And, as mentioned in the Acknowledgements to For Honor We Stand, my main protagonist’s nickname, “The Swamp Fox,” was my father’s citizen’s band radio “handle.”

I miss him terribly, and I wish he had lived to see all of this happen.  If you are interested in learning more about this colorful and talented man, you can read my memorial remarks about him here:  http://paulhonsinger.blogspot.com/2012/04/eulogy-for-harvey-g-honsinger.html.  I also made a different and shorter set of remarks at his interment.  You can read those here:  http://paulhonsinger.blogspot.com/2012/04/graveside-remarks-for-harvey-g.html.

Harvey G. Honsinger also has one novel in print.  You can read more about it and, if you are interested, purchase your copy here:  http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Hair-Harvey-Honsinger/dp/1466368373/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1391894045&sr=1-1.