Robert Turnbull

As a science fiction buff I became so tired of remade or slightly different old plots I began to write my own fresh new ideas and put my novels on my free novel web site www.hawkslegend.com The free novels are complete novels, but only roughly edited.

My books on amazon are not professionally edited (yep, I know an author shouldn't say this) however, just to edit one book professionally, would cost more than all my books make in a year, now add that cost to everyone of my books...

That being said many have overlooked this problem (I hope I'm improving with each book) My stories seem to bring many readers to a point where they tend to overlook this problem, so I must be doing something right. Of course there are a few other problems as to why the typos happen (below), but I'm striving to find better ways to edit, so please bear with me, I hope to continue to improve.

Being a borderline dyslexic I was told to try writing as a way to help overcome this sometimes frustrating problem, that and I never had any formal typing created even a larger problem for my writing.

I created my first web site back around '03 and my 'free' novel website around '08 or '09. I posted my 'rough' edited books and they took off. As of date, I've had well over thirteen thousand downloads of my free novels. I never figured rough edited books would be so popular.

Even with the out pouring of positive mail, the cost of the site nearly caused me to shut down a few years ago, but I kept it going over the last few years due to hundreds of letters from our troops overseas that wrote to say how nice it was to have some escape from the danger they faced everyday. So I decided to keep the site up and running.

After several years of readers writing and telling me I should start publishing or at least start charging a nominal fee for my works, the costs of my domain and site convinced me to publish on Amazon to support my site.

Trying to keep in spirit with my 'free' novel idea, I decided not to be one of these authors that over prices my works and charged only what I figured would cover my overhead. Thus I became an "Indie" writer and 'Kindle only' sales have been great.

I am a 'story teller' and try to just give the readers a good story, mostly nothing too complicated, just some good old story telling I used to love so much, to give readers a little escape from reality.

One thing I've have been criticized for in the past, is I like to create characters that I personally would like to be with in a time of crisis. People that can keep a sense of humor without losing the fact that they are in a deadly/dire situation. I always liked characters that are strong, yet show their vulnerable side now and then. And as most of my stories have something to do with survival, I like to describe some of what had to be done to get to that point in the story.

(I always hated the old addage... "It's enough to say they walked into a cave you don't have to describe the cave".

I feel if your characters' are going to live in the cave...then describe it!

I love science fiction, but also gravitate toward the zombie horror and dinosaur survival stories lately. I did run one idea that I had several years ago and created the character "Logan Ross" (Satan's Tear) which was well received story & character wise. While the sci-fi/ super spy theme ran more towards the sci-fi, fan mail inspired me to bring Logan back in "Satan's Mist" which ran more toward the modern day 'Bondish' super spy. Some day there may be a sequel to this if the fan mail keeps coming in, we'll see.

I like to write sci-fi, adventure, action and added more romance after many of my female fans said they'd like more romance in my books.

Over the years readers have suggested various ideas they would like to see in my novels, some I have used... including more 'adult' situations, language, and according to the subject matter of the book, violence. (see, I do read your mail...good or bad)

I try to add enough to my works to make them believable, yet not enough to force the reader to take every word as gospel. A mix of realism and just plain and good story telling. I never claim to be a King or Asimov.

Reader comments/email I get from my web site, I try to respond to, but some months the e-mail is a bit overwhelming. So please be patient if it takes me a while to respond.

I also like to write books that give the reader their money's worth, which translates into 180 to 240 pages at 8x11... This translates to many hours/days of reading depending if you're a fast reader or not. I've had readers write to tell me they sat up all night reading my free "Hawk's Legend" book(s) It has been well received even though it was my first set of novels and only roughly edited. Even with the typos, I have had over 12 thousand downloads (of the Hawk's Legend trilogy) since it was posted and has a positive review rate. Several fans had said they have read it several times. (thanks fans!)

I strive to give readers a place to escape to, and live in worlds I create. So far by the fan mail, I think I'm succeeding. Of course one always gets detractors that seem to take great pleasure in trashing a book.

My works are not for everyone and I'll grant them that much, but after years of people reading my works and returning to download more, I must be doing something right.

As for my fans/readers... I thank you. Not so much for purchasing my works (although I do appreciate it), but for taking the time to share in the worlds I create.