The Hatchet Force eJournal Is Gaining Support

Just a quick update for my readers.

This week I announced my intent to create an eJournal dedicated to the sort of serial "men's adventure" action fiction popular in the 60's through the 80's, books like The Executioner, Death Merchant, The Guardians, Black Berets, Vietnam: Ground Zero, and so forth. The journal will contain reviews of books, movies, and television shows, as well as interviews, editorials, and essays, plus short fiction and excerpts from larger works.

After some struggling to find an appropriate title for this journal, I settled on Hatchet Force, a term that hearkens back to the days of MAC-V SOG operations in Vietnam. Hatchet Forces were large assault teams of SOG commandos leading indigenous troops against enemy strong points in quick, brutal lightning raids.

When I had the idea to create this journal, I e-mailed a number of bloggers who covered similar topics, and the result was largely positive; a good number of them agreed to send me materials for review. Several of these individuals have already submitted articles, and now that I'm past one of my deadlines for work, I'll be digesting these in earnest.

More surprisingly, I've already had several unsolicited offers for articles, which I feel is a sign that there is definitely interest in a periodical of this nature. Many thanks to both those who I contacted directly and those individuals who contacted me on their own initiative; your support is essential for this project to get off the ground.

Right now, I'm setting a semi-firm submissions deadline for the end of May, and I'd like to get the first issue of Hatchet Force out the door mid-June. Since this is going to be an eBook and not a print magazine, a lot of the layout headaches I'd encounter with print publishing will be a non-issue; formatting is intended to be "low drag" so it can be compatible with the greatest number of e-readers.

I intend to sell the eJournal through Smashwords first, then push it to the Kindle as soon as I know things are up and running. The price for the first issue will be $0.99, although I don't know if it'll stay there for later issues; time will tell.

And that's where we stand so far. I've received at least half of the submissions that will go into the first issue already, with others shortly to follow. I'm guessing the last articles to be ready will be my own. If anyone is interested in submitting an article for review, please feel free to e-mail me (my address is located in the "About Me" page).

Thanks again, and I hope to hear from many of you soon.