Joe Vasicek

Joe Vasicek fell in love with science fiction and fantasy when he read A Wrinkle in Time and The Neverending Story as a child. He wrote several unfinished novels in high school and took Brandon Sanderson's writing class at Brigham Young University.

He first came onto the indie writing scene in 2011 with his debut novel Genesis Earth. Since then, he has written more than twenty novels and novellas, including Genesis Earth, Gunslinger to the Stars, The Sword Keeper, and the Sons of the Starfarers series. His stories have been published in Perehilion, Mirror Dance, Sci Phi Journal, Uprising Review, Kasma SF, and Leading Edge.

As a young man, he studied Arabic and traveled across the Middle East and the Caucasus Mountains. He has also traveled across the United States, and has lived in Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, California, Utah, Washington DC, and Iowa. Wherever he goes, though, he's always writing.

Website: http://onelowerlight.com/writing

• Smashwords Style Guide on June 14, 2011
  
  This book is only useful if you use Microsoft Word. If you use Open Office, the instructions are meaningless and extremely difficult to follow. I would appreciate an appendix for authors who use other word processing programs besides MS word and an executive summary that assumes a basic level of competence with html and basic document formatting (the current edition contains far too many step by step instructions for things that could be explained in much simpler terms--again, good if you're a complete beginner but very difficult to skim and use as a reference if you have even a basic level of experience).
  
• One Confirmed Kill on April 06, 2012
  
  Full disclosure: the author is a friend of mine from the Leading Edge slushpile, and I was one of the beta readers for this book. That said, I really enjoyed this novel, both the earlier draft that I read and the finished version that I bought as soon as it came out. It’s a lot like Catch 22, except I actually liked this one (whereas I could hardly get through the first chapter of Catch 22). The writing is witty and sarcastic, and the story, while far from honeycoated, ends on a note that makes the read worthwhile. If you’re happily employed by the military, this book will probably make you livid with rage…or it’ll send you roaring on the floor laughing your ass off. I can see my military friends taking it either way. But one thing is for sure: you won’t find it boring.