Tag: indie author
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Types of Rockets
Like my posts in May and June about orbits and remote sensing respectively, this is a 100-level overview on the different kinds of rockets and how they can be used in sci-fi writing. Note that I’m only going to go through the four primary methods for a rocket to get out of a gravity well,…
Ryan Patrick
author, books, indie author, indie books, nasa, news, publishing, reading, rockets, science, scifi, self-pub, self-publishing, space, spacex, writing -
How I Outline
“How do you manage to write a book?” I get this question quite a bit, from mixed-experience writing servers on Discord to my own mother in a phone call. And, despite my best efforts to sabotage myself, I have written six novels – two of which are self-published, the other four in various stages of…
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July 2024 Goals
Going to be a busy month between work, my wife’s grad school, my older two on swim team, and a couple of vacations. Still planning on getting a lot done! Reading This month, I want to get through: A bunch of these are books I’ve either bought and put off reading, or am getting from…
Ryan Patrick
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End of June 2024 Wrap-Up
It’s been a weird, busy month and I’m honestly glad it’s over – it was both a marathon and a sprint. Reading This month, I read: Started some others (mainly a few that I mentioned in my beginning-of-month post) but haven’t finished them yet. Goodreads says I’m still on track for 100 books by the…
Ryan Patrick
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Remote Sensing for Writers
“Captain, we can see on our sensors that the alien ship is adrift.” How often do you hear something like this in a sci-fi book, movie, or TV show? There’s nothing wrong with that line of dialog; a softer/less-technical story would fit it in without any concern. But, it could be better – and, with…
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6 Months of Sales
As anyone who’s worked with me in a professional setting knows, I’m always open and honest, even to a fault. I’m going to be like that with my book sales too. I’m planning to give an update every 6 months, with all of my successes or failures highlighted for the world to see. It might…
Ryan Patrick
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June 2024 Goals
I didn’t quite meet my writing or reading goals in May, so I need to pick up the pace in June! Since my last blog post, I did finish Mongol Moon (great book, 5 stars, recommend to anyone who likes Tom Clancy) but I didn’t get Extinction done. For reading, I want to finish: In…
Ryan Patrick
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End of May Update
It’s been a month! I finally outprocessed from the military and joined Blue Origin as a senior engineer. Most of my time has been spent getting back up to speed on the program I worked on January through March, in addition to helping my wife finish her semester of grad school at UVA and my…
Ryan Patrick
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Orbits for Sci-Fi Writers
When I alpha or beta read, or when I see published works involving topics that I am well-versed in from my professional life – astrodynamics, space-to-ground communications, orbits, etc – I often cringe. Most authors at least try to get the high-level stuff right, but get lost in the details, while others simply don’t understand…
Ryan Patrick
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Alpha, Beta, and ARC Reading
I have a little more free time this week and I need a bit of a break from my current WIPs…so I decided to write a post about alpha, beta, and ARC reading and why they’re different. Alpha Reading Alpha reading for a less-polished work. It can be a first draft, but is generally a…
Ryan Patrick
Ryan M. Patrick 