Hunter Johnson: Blog

I call my books whatever number and then do a title at the end. For the life of me, I could not remember what I wanted to call book 4. I remembered today I did a cover. I liked the artwork but felt the title needed a bit of work. So the title is Saving the Coven Royals: A Tale of Deception, Corruption, and Betrayal. It will not change again. Chapters 2, and 3 are in the queue to drop at 8 am site time on 3rd and 4th. Book 8 is done and on the way to the editors. You will get a chapter a day until we finish book 7.
If any of you had interesting stories of corruption and villainy at military colleges I am looking for some ideas for book 9 which I am planning.

Book 4 is downloading on the site and you will get a chapter a day until completion. My editors Barneyr and Guy with Gunz have done a great job editing the book at high speed and with great efficiency.

I had finished up to Book 8 almost to the end by July 18 intending to publish the whole lot last year, but I was nonfunctional until October not great after that for some time.

Book 5 is done and edited as is Book 6 and even book 7 is nearly finished.
So I will compensate all of you who have written to me in support and those who complained I was too slow by publishing all of them one after the other. There is no Patreon and no requests for money orders to be sent to my account in the Empire. The Emperor has not remunerated me anything despite asking me to write this biography. I have to admit my stateroom on the battleship is pretty good and the food is stupendous. I have a great room in the palace with a view of the wall of the cavern on Porquenta. The croissants in New Paris with a hot chocolate are my new favorite breakfast.

Remember my editors work for free and you don't pay me. You get what you pay for. Please send comments as compensation if you will and if you are so inclined please vote.

I lost two editors along the way. That leads to delays. One was kidnapped by a pirate and was fed to a Zorg and the other died fighting in the campaign saving the Royal family. Their families have asked me not to mention their names on this site. I was wounded in a recent battle and could not write. The pod I was in was not working that well and I did rehabilitation in real time.

Lazeez has pointed out the text in italics is hard to read. I apologize if you find the first chapter hard to read. Telepathic speech is in italics and it is important you know when I use italics it is telepathic. Chapter 1 is the only chapter with extensive telepathic speech used. As you all know telepathy is language independent and the audience come from many species and translation would be awkward. It is indeed fortunate all the audience were telepathic. For those who would ask I can confirm the speaker did use a telepathic amplifier in the hall.
Several readers asked about the names used in my writing. I was forced to use names that resembled names unpronounceable in English. Unfortunately, insect names are clicks and scratching noises.
You can also understand as most of us don't have crystals, we can't recall long names. In civilizations where you have trillions of beings, names are often long and surnames are alphanumeric with characters in other dimensions. I was forced to leave out many of the third fourth and fifth names and planetary indicators used in many names.

I have enjoyed writing this book and I hope you enjoy reading it.
Book 8 was finished today and it soon goes to the editors. I have mapped out book 9 and I will soon start writing it.

A few people have noted they have seen a few things in the writings of others.
I am positive that is the case. I read a hell of a lot and I like and dislike all kinds of things, but I have tried not to plagiarize anyone. Despite heavy themes of man's interaction with AI and living forever I have tried to not lecture about it. Lot of people on the site have sent me ideas as well.

Al Steiner first wrote about Vampires and living forever. The biggest cause of death was suicide as they got sick of living so long. That got me going. What happens when we can live forever because healthcare is so good was an issue I wanted to think about.

What will be the fundamental difference between us and AIs in the distant future? Will we diverge or converge. I chose to explore convergence rather than divergence.

Should the hero struggle and battle and should every fight be horribly close and he or she lose and finally prevail?

I decided on a mix in different stories but I realized as I have got older I don't like as much tension and hanging on by my fingernails as I might have in the past.

Sometimes Jason is going to have a hell of a difficult time. He begins to face more and more advanced peoples and it gets rough. Our Universe is a tough place and there are some real bastards out there out to get us.

Anyhow have a great weekend. Happy reading. This book is about 120 000 words. An average novel is 60000 words. Many SciFi books are longer.

2 weeks ago I had excruciating back pain. My spinal canal was blocked by a stenosis . 2 discs were damaged. I had a lot of pain after the operation. I can sit for ten minutes. I have no feeling in my left foot and it's floppy. I pen this iPad in hand held up while I lie down. I am groggy from the medication and my thinking appalling. I can't find words. I was almost at the end of book 8.
Lucky I retired two weeks before this disaster as I need 3 months to recover. Books 4-5 are with the editors.
Regards
Hunter X.

I wish you all a happy new year and I am posting the last of book 3 to enjoy today and tomorrow.
Book 4and 5 are written and I cannot say how long it will take to be happy with them. I am halfway through book 6 and when it is complete I will start work on book 4. Please do not write and ask when they will be posted. It does not speed me up. I write for pleasure, not for a timetable.
I hope next year will be a good year for you. Mike Cropo one of my favorites bit the dust and I will miss the end of his books. I am sad to hear of many suffering illnesses this year.
Thank you to those who sent feedback, it is always appreciated. Some sadly are very demanding. This is a free site and the editors BarneyR and Jim7 worked very hard to help make the books a better read. Despite everything, they do errors do creep in. I thank my editors for the hours of work they put in. and the attention they paid to the work they accomplished. The books are as long as three standard novels and I appreciate the enormous effort they put in to make the books more enjoyable for the readers.
Prior to these books, I had only written technical stuff. I did not realize how much effort the move to fiction would be. Please be patient as I am sure it will take me many more books to tell the story as I wish it to be told.
Thank you to those of you who read the books. I was pleased my scores went up from the first two books, but I can see there is much scope for improvement.
I have often wondered if there is a fundamental difference between what is on free sites and the books published. I also wonder if the self-published books are changing the nature of what is real and what is appreciated by readers.
If I read free books on a site like Inkitt or Wattpad many books appear to be formulaic.
This is no time for philosophical ruminations. Eat drink and enjoy the entry to the new year!

Empire is done with some bits with the Editors. I have separated out the Universes and put the old books in a separate Universe. The Universe is now public.
Jason finally gets to the Empire. He has a really rocky start before he can get on with life. Book 3 is largely an exploration of life for Jason at an advanced University.
Books 1 and 2 are about warfare at a distance. Now a lot of the problems are in his face.
I have kept names reasonably easy. Empire standard sounds like French but names are really long. For the sake of my readers, I have truncated them. Names in Charassa are really a series of clicks and even with my experience, I find them hard to put on paper. In societies with trillions of beings three names doesn't do it but for our purposes, I have stuck to two for convenience.
Jason is not into the sociology or politics so he can miss the analysis of the society. It is there in the background as are the issues of Artificial Intelligence.
Thanks to all of you who wrote some suggestions about AI evolution. It is there constantly and becomes a more prominent theme.
What are concerns in an ancient society? What are Jason's people like, where are they and the issues?
I am open to suggestions. Are they humanoid in origin or insect or a collective intelligence like the Una? Are they a collection of microorganisms that cooperate like I saw in a Star Trek. Which galaxy were they from?
What disaster have they faced? Who is the current enemy and what are they doing? What do they want Jason to do?