Birth, Books, NY Comic Con, Coffee, CYBERWAR SERIES Update is an apt description of my current life in less than 60 characters. That said: ‘Hel-LO!’ as Uncle Leo would enthusiastically say on Seinfeld. I have not enjoyed going MIA so often these past few months (and years), well for the most part I have not; sometimes solitude is truly bliss, and that is much harder to come across as this world grows more connected by the second. Please forgive my delays, but I have missed you, Eager Readers. And without further ado, the news! I had a baby girl, or rather my wife did with my help, not too long ago, and everyone is happy and healthy! I could not be happier. And that is not the sleep deprivation talking. I am a DAD! It is an indescribable feeling, all love, and she already makes me much more optimistic about the future of the earth she is inheriting. Her smile can move mountains. And since everyone always asks with concern, Indy, our Dalmatian, loves our baby girl. She guards her, attempts to play with her, and constantly alerts us to any unhappiness she seems to be having. I am still working, writing, editing, reading, scrawling, and who knows what else, because I damn well cannot remember. Largely because of coffee. Strong coffee. Ground Colombian bean and a french press and repeat. Do not thank me, thank the coffee, that any art is getting done this year. So the sequel to my novel, CYBERWAR, has been completed, but because of its massive size, 400-500 pages, it will need more time to be edited to as close to perfection as is possible. Thankfully, my publisher and I are looking to work with one of the most talented editors I know, and I am beyond thrilled. The only downside to making this a far better work is that it will not be coming out just yet and certainly not before 2020. But it will be worth the wait; it is a bold step forward for me and it makes CYBERWAR a prequel to a much larger storyline in the Cyberwar Series (meaning the new book will be acting as Book 1), and I have some very BIG plans. For the delay I apologize, but I hope this will make it up to you: SPY WOMAN SPY, my years in the making graphic novel, which had a brief appearance of its cover at New York Comic Con last year will be making noise at NY Comic Con 2019, as Issue #1 arrives. I can finally speak a little more about this. Rune Works small press is publishing SPY WOMAN SPY, initially, and for all of you CYBERWAR fans out there, this is a prequel to the novel starring Xera Finn and Fae Yu, and it will be first released at NYCC on October 3, 2019. Here is the premise so far: When a foreign agent named Xera Finn learns of her government’s involvement in human trafficking on Long Island, she goes rogue. Xera and her lover, a tech bootlegger named Fae Yu, race to Coney Island to free a truckful of young women. But their hacking and espionage skills are soon put to the test when Xera’s former handler tasks both the local authorities and an outlaw motorcycle gang to ruthlessly retrieve them before they can reach sanctuary. For those of you who have read CYBERWAR, this graphic novel series will be all about the backstory of the two badass rogue agents that were main characters of the novel. There will be lots of insight into the degradation of the Cyber US and the Wangluo society before and after hackers took over the governments for good. I will say no more, as the fun will be in the reveal on the page. But I will say that I love the further exploration of the world, this near future of ours, and this future continues to surprise me. I am thrilled to once again be at the Rune Works Productions Ltd. Booth in the Small Press section on the NY Comic Con main show floor to sign books and comics and to talk shop. The comic book will be a single-issue format to start off, and there are a few of these issues written already so more are coming after #1, with the plan to release a compilation trade paperback down the road. Cover artist Elizabeth Yoo will also be on hand to sign the comic book. Last, but certainly not least, my wife and I are hoping Rune Works Productions will have time to have on-hand a version of our new children’s book at New York Comic Con. We have an incredibly talented artist in Cheryl Huneke, and we are really looking forward to sharing this excellent and exciting book involving space and … I cannot say anymore just yet … but it is a TON of fun. And I hate rhyming poetry and still wrote ‘TON of fun’ – I must be tired. Speaking of poetry, if you have not kept up with my recent publications, I am thrilled to have been selected to have poems published in these 2019 anthologies: POETS TO COME: WHITMAN'S 200TH BIRTHDAY ANTHOLOGY, the 2019 Suffolk County Poetry Review, the BARDS ANNUAL 2019 anthology, and the National Beat Poetry Festival anthology We Are BEAT. Poetry is the most freeing form of art I know. No matter how frustrated I may be drawing, editing, writing, strumming a new tune on the guitar, I can always turn to poetry and release myself from all sense of structure and allow pure instinct and energy and strong of consciousness to take me to another place of bliss. If you did not know, I am a big fan of the beats. Feel free to check out the Bard’s Day or the National Beat Poetry Festival, as both are coming up next week, both will feature readings and fantastic books of poetry. I hope you are all well and your summer reading never falters. ~RJH
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NaPoWriMo Poetry Chapbook Contest Finalist To Be Published by Local Gems Press in a collection of 30 themed poems from R.J. Huneke titled American Political Asylum. I could not be happier to have been selected a finalist in the contest, I am ecstatic to announce that my first ever book of poetry will be published by Local Gems Press. The 2018 Local Gems Press NaPoWriMo Poetry Chapbook Contest was a challenge. I had never written poetry to a theme, even one as loosely interpreted as a I created for American Political Asylum, and to then write a poem a day for thirty days straight for April’s NaPoWriMo was a daunting, refreshing, and invigorating task. I regard poetry as the freest form of expression through writing. Whether mimicking Shakespearian sonnets or a stream of consciousness flow a la the beats, Ginsberg and Kerouac and Dylan, or simply divulging a work equally as visual on the page as it is said verbally, like ee cummings, I find writing poems liberating. Having written non-fiction and fiction for many publications over many years, even poetry’s sonnets have a freedom of verse, akin to song lyrics, that transcend standards of diction, grammar, and punctuation. Much as I enjoy breaking the rules in prose, poetry is all about making your own rules. You choose the rhythm, you write the song, and you write the letters in an order to show a smoking cigarette butt, whose poem’s title trails the top of the tendrils of smoke and ash (thank you Ed Stever for that example that will always stick with me). You can make your own ways to express stanzas, or go to one of the oldest and most challenging (to do it right and make it impactful with bite at the ending) of poetic structures and forms in the haiku. Yes, there are haiku in the upcoming book. And yes, friends and family, I am again working on my Holiday Haikus for the 2018 season (late as usual haha). But let us get back to the book, folks. American Political Asylum will feature works reflecting my feelings of America, from the past, the present, and the future. And in so doing this required some happy works of an American puppy named Indiana Jones, but also some grim works tackling the hostile political climate that has assaulted American society of late. As many around the globe flee their lands and war and atrocities they seek asylum in places like the US of A. So the ‘Asylum’ refers to that but also to the random madness seen around the world and especially here, in American, which I love and choose to live in. For me, the asylum inches closer around us, Americans, daily. And so, my thoughts, rants, philosophical views, my raving and morbidly dry sense of humor, and my love of the country I was born in take center stage amongst thirty very different poems. If nothing else, I believe they are different than what many have done before and I hope they are at least half as entertaining to you as they are to me. If so, let me know, and I will know my job, and my pen’s, was a success. Updates on release dates and the incredible cover art will be coming to you, Eager Readers, as soon as I have them. Happy New Year! ~RJH My voice is silenced. I do not know what or who cast the stopper, but I am practically mute. Only with the ink or the skeleton keys pounding can I evoke precious words. Pain slices at my throat failing feverishly, yet the semblance of ink carries on. And the coffee, O the coffee keeps me running like a misfiring 3.8L Camaro engine. We will be fixed in a day or two, but for now the rich scent of Colombian bean permeates me with the most exotically delicate flavorful scene. Silence me, you must be joking? I carry on. Write on. Always. Write. O Coffee How I Adore Thee.
By R.J. Huneke It is time to look back on the year that was, so that we can better look forward to the exciting year that is just a day away. 2010 was revolutionary for Rune Works Productions. Numerous art publications saw print and screen (on the internet). R.J. Huneke completed his fourth novel's manuscript, titled The Subliminal Religion, and it will undoubtedly be thrust into the speculative thriller fiction limelight in 2011. But next year is 2011, an odd year, and those are always the best!
Pictures, poetry, art, short stories and non-fiction articles have continued to be churned out by Rune Works, and many artists are currently working with R.J. Huneke to create more! The possibilities are endless, as is the media, and with the tremendous magazine, newspaper and internet publications that were successfully displayed in 2010, there is hoped to be even more spectacular and entertaining innovative works of words and art in the coming year. New announcements will follow as soon as there is enough Top Secret material to reveal to the world, but for now, just know that 2011 is going to be HUGE! Thank you to all who support Rune Works! And Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Well it would appear that December is a good month for Rune Works. R.J. Huneke has eight new publications in print that are available now.
The Stony Brook PRESS featured a Fall 2010 Literary Supplement highlighted by four R.J.H. poems, and the Stony Brook University Literary Magazine "Spoke the Thunder" has successfully launched with three R.J.H. photos and one short story, tilted "The Bottle". All of these pieces are in print and available in the Stony Brook University Union, among other places around Long Island, NY. Read more from them here. |
AuthorI have turned the tide and started on my journey. Words and Worlds hang in the balance and I am writing it all down before the RJ Tower! Read about my newest novel on CyberwarSeries.com Archives
March 2023
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