Category Archives: The Juniper Wars

J.D. Stone’s Juniper Story of Salvage, Family, and Desperation

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When I first had the idea of inviting other authors to write stories in the world of the Juniper Wars, I was going for the biggest names I could find. My goal was to gather nos. And I got some really good nos from from really great authors. And I got a few awesome yeses as well.

But I wanted established people, or up and coming people. This project was about me giving back to writers who are awesome. But again, this was an invite-only situation and I wanted published authors.

Then J.D. Stone sent me his story. It would be his first published piece of fiction and I knew I had to say no. I couldn’t do it. It didn’t match my vision, right? But I was curious to see what he’d come up with.

I read the first paragraph, the first page, and then I felt myself swept away. I didn’t want to stop reading. It was long, but it was beautiful. It has this tragic sense of family and desperation, and the answer to the main story question made me cry. It was like Cormac McCarthy, in his early years, had written a Juniper Wars story.

I wanted to say no, but I couldn’t. I love this story so much. So here it is, the next story in The Juniper Tales Project. Enjoy.

Click here for Magpies by J.D. Stone (a zip file containing the *.mobi, *.epub, and *.PDF)
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The Yellowstone Knockout of 2029 forced a flood of refugees to pour out of the western United States. They got out with their lives, but left behind a wealth of copper and other materials. Those willing to risk the lawless bandits and bleak desolation of the Juniper could stand to make a fortune, but for fifteen-year-old Tymonee Cuevas, her greatest adversary might be her own father.

Stone’s high-stakes tale of family and desperation will leave you guessing until the very end.

As a kid, J.D. Stone carefully searched every wardrobe and rabbit hole and kept a weather eye out for fairies he could shake down for dust. Alas, he passed into adulthood without successfully crossing realms, save only in the daydreams that
never stopped. After years of denial, he finally agreed to record his fantasies for posterity. This is his first published story.

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Kevin J. Anderson and a Bundle of Science Fiction Adventure!

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All Covers Large

Kevin J. Anderson blogged about this amazing bundle of books and I’m re-posting it here about all the books! Click here for the bundle.

Science Fiction is the literature that always set my imagination on fire, sparking my sense of wonder, taking me on adventures into the future, off to the most distant parts of the universe, to alien cultures, and the frontiers of the human mind.

I’m curating a new Adventure SF bundle for storybundle.com that contains fourteen great books guaranteed to set your imagination on fire, and it launches today, June 22—for only a little more than a dollar a book.

If you like grand space opera, we’ve got DARKSHIP THIEVES by Sarah A. Hoyt, TIMEWEB by Brian Herbert, FIRE WITH FIRE by Charles A. Gannon, THE WORKER PRINCE by Bryan Thomas Schmidt, and even TALES OF DUNE, the previously uncollected Dune short stories written by Brian Herbert and me.

For hard SF, there’s LAUNCH PAD, an anthology of science fiction stories edited by Jody Lynn Nye and Mike Brotherton. In traditional fast-paced science fiction, the bundle has HER BROTHER’S KEEPER by Mike Kupari, MORNING SONG by Dean Wesley Smith, and BURIED DEEP by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

In post-apocalyptic adventure, Aaron Michael Ritchey’s DANDELION IRON fits the bill. For gritty cyberpunk, Todd J. McCaffrey has CITY OF ANGELS. Alan Dean Foster has the undersea epic OSHENERTH. And THE CAULDRON by Jean Rabe and Gene deWeese offers mind-bending, thought-provoking future speculation.

I’m also very pleased to include 2113, a new anthology edited by me and John McFetridge—a collection of stories inspired by legendary rock band Rush (and it includes my sequel to the classic epic “2112”).

With storybundle.com, you name your own price for this grab bag of Adventure SF books. For as little as $8 you get the basic bundle of seven titles, and for as little as $16 you get them all. A portion of the money goes to charity—the Challenger Learning Center for Space Science Education—and, other than a small admin percentage, the rest of the earnings is directly divided among the titles.

For this Adventure SF bundle, I’m adding an exclusive sneak preview for all customers—a first-hand look at the first few chapters of NAVIGATORS OF DUNE (due out September 13), the grand finale of the Great Schools of Dune trilogy, as well as the first few chapters of ETERNITY’S MIND, the climax of my Saga of Shadows trilogy.

This is available for a limited time only, running for three weeks.  The bundle ends on July 12.  Shoot for the stars!

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Sky Pirate! Ian Thomas Healy and THE LEASH

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I LOVE IAN THOMAS HEALY! If you wanna see an interview he did with me, Cody May, and the Colorado Author Interview Circle, bam, click it, baby, click it.

ITH and CAIC

I was so excited when he agreed to write a story set in the world of The Juniper Wars series. If you like sky pirates, well, we have ’em. Ian wrote a story called “The Leash” and it is sky pirate awesome!

Click here for The Leash by Ian Thomas Healy (a zip file containing the *.mobi, *.epub, and *.PDF)

 

 

     A young boy dreams of adventure away from the dreariness of ranch life. But in the Juniper, such dreams have a dangerous way of coming true. Especially when sky pirates are involved.

     Ian Thomas Healy has crafted a steampunk adventure and set it firmly in the world of The Juniper Wars where classic zeppelin battles have a gritty Mad Max edge.

 

 

Ian Thomas Healy is a prolific writer who dabbles in many different speculative genres. He’s an eleven-time participant and winner of National Novel Writing Month. His original superhero fiction series, the Just Cause Universe, is popular and always expanding, with the ninth book due in spring of 2016. He is also the creator of the Writing Better Action Through Cinematic Techniques workshop, which helps writers to improve their action scenes.

When not writing, which is rare, he enjoys watching hockey, reading comic books (and serious books, too), and living in the great state of Colorado, which he shares with his wife, children, house-pets, and approximately five million other people. Follow him on Twitter as @ianthealy and on Facebook as Author Ian Thomas Healy.

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Ian founded Local Hero Press in 2011. His ebooks can be found on Smashwords, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBook Store, and other online retailers, and print books can be ordered through Amazon, CreateSpace, Barnes & Noble, your local bookstore or directly from Local Hero Press.

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Just Cause, The Just Cause Universe

Mustang Sally has some speedy shoes to fill. This young superhero has waited her whole life to join Just Cause – the premiere team of American heroes. Now she’s hoping her super-speed will earn a spot on the same team to which her parents and grandparents belonged.

A chance encounter with the villain who killed her father changes everything. Even though she’s only an intern, Sally devotes herself to finding the man known as Destroyer. With the help of her eagle-winged best friend Sondra and her super-strong love interest Jason, her investigations uncover a sinister plot stretching all the way back to her grandparents’ era. Sally and Just Cause must risk everything to halt Destroyer’s plans and save the entire world.

Praise for Just Cause

“Just Cause is a pure delight from cover to cover . . . It is a most welcomed addition to our library and we recommend it highly. If you grew up with your nose buried in Marvel and DC comics, as we did, then you are going to love “Just Cause.” And as Mr. Stan Lee would say, “Nuff said.”
—Ron Fortier, Airship 27

”Ian Healy’s Just Cause really raised the bar to me of how good superhero prose fiction can be.”
—Scott A. Story, creator of Johnny Saturn

“Snatch this one up and devour it, boys and girls. Enter into the Just Cause Universe and you’ll find yourself wanting to stay just a little bit longer. That’s perfectly fine. There are more books.”
—Tim McCurley, creator of Firedrake

THE LATEST JUST CAUSE NOVEL!

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You can find Ian on Twitter as @ianthealy and on Facebook as Author Ian Thomas Healy. He has a website here and he founded Local Hero Press for all your superhero story needs. Click here to be taken away!

 And if you still need more SUPERHERO action, Jason Henry Evans and I wrote a story that is in CAPED: An Anthology of Superhero Tales!
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Pow! Bam! Excelsior!