R.E. Johnston's Blog
March 3, 2021
League of Secrets Released (Finally)
League of Secrets, book two of RE Johnston’s Echoes of Past Lives series has been released in paperback and Kindle formats. (Yes, Kindle Unlimited too.) Hardcover will follow within days.
Check out Laura Boyle’s beautiful cover design as well as the “hooky” description by copywriting whiz Brian Meeks.
Echoes of Past Lives Book Two
They were hacking their brains…
…and created a mind loop.
Were they becoming too powerful too quickly?
In a world where reincarnation is not only the norm, but people can remember details of their past lives, those who can remember the most have an edge in life. Jay’s friend Carlos believes he’s figured out a way to learn more about their old lives.
But is there a cost?
Twila appears to be at a disadvantage. Her memories should be fewer than most, but she has a secret and it may give her an edge unlike anything they’ve seen before.
Are they all on a path to self-destruction?
From a bizarre dictator to a powerful talk show host, the cast of players in this twist filled adventure will keep you guessing. Everyone has an agenda. Nobody can be trusted.
Are Jay and his friends in danger?
You’ll love this second installment in the Echoes of Past Lives series, because the quest for knowledge is the ultimate race for power.
February 22, 2021
From the dustbin: Magda’s rescue
The “Authors’ Handbook of Oft-Misquoted Chestnuts” commanded me to kill my darling. I didn’t want to do it. But I did. I killed it. Dead.
Let me explain.
In Two Moons, the first book in the Echoes of Past Lives series, we learn in passing that main character Jay Shipman has an enviable record of success playing an online game, Defenders of Two Moons. When I was writing the series prequel (available free at re-johnston.com/#free) it seemed natural to include the details of Magda’s rescue. The scene was fun to write but, alas, Echoes of Past Lives is not a LitRPG series and the prequel has no business suggesting it is. I took scissors (OK, ctrl-X) and cut the scene, thus killing my darling.
But wait. The Echoes of Past Lives series is all about reincarnation! So here, just for you, freshly reincarnated from the dustbin:
After many minutes of concentrated effort on his homework, Jay turned to his singular vice: Defenders of the Two Moons. An MMORPG, massively multi-player online role-playing game, Defenders involved warriors based on Duorth’s twin moons endlessly repelling alien invaders. Players could rack up points on a cosmic leaderboard and earn the adoration of hotties they saved from fates worse than death. Jay was rapidly climbing on the leaderboard and now, among all the players in his nation of Ariana, was ranked 428. Uncool compared to Earth games? Maybe, but this was Duorth and this was Jay’s game.
Things on the moons were heating up and Jay thought this afternoon might present a particularly crucial battle. Supermodel Magda had gone missing. Based on the game’s long history of aliens being responsible for every last mishap, might Magda’s disappearance have been an alien abduction?
Yesterday, playing to his own strength, Jay analyzed the aliens as if they were vectors of a communicable disease. Ha! He backtracked their recent virus-like spread to a newly constructed stronghold on one of the moons, Lao Tzu. Jay was certain, at least he was pretty hopeful, this fortress was hapless Magda’s prison. Overnight he conceived a bold plan for a rescue mission from Aristotle, the other moon. Hottie-snatching aliens were going down!
Jay had been holding back a double-barreled hyper-strike cannon, a rare find he’d won in a particularly nasty scrape a few weeks ago. Only two shots, but no other weapon in the game was more powerful. Now was the moment to mount it on his interceptor. Along with a couple of laser obliterators. And a cloaking shield. Plus, just in case he got lucky, he paid five rubies to the Defenders store for an insulated cup of rose-infused tea and stored it in the cup holder of his copilot’s seat.
Jay, “Doctor J” to his squadron mates, launched from Aristotle into the void. He was quickly joined by his wing man, “StanMan,” better-known outside of computers as his best friend, Stan Craft. With full throttles they headed toward Lao Tzu. As they neared the moon, the stronghold’s location was pinpointed by the concentration of alien spacecraft darting like bees around their hive.
The boys flew directly into the swarm, both of them using laser obliterators with grim success. Doctor J’s cloaking shield was powerful enough to obscure their interceptors while StanMan made good use of an old-school magnetic misdirector. Every alien craft looked boringly like the rest, until a large, sleek marauder launched from the epicenter of the evil swarm: the stronghold on the surface of Lao Tzu. Unbelievably fast, the marauder climbed to engage the boys. Their laser obliterators may as well have been flashlights. The magnetic misdirector was misdirecting nothing.
“Stnmn, I need a clear shot.”
“Dr j, stand back.” Stan peeled off to the right at full speed while Jay feathered back his throttle. The tactic worked. The marauder turned to pursue Stan. Jay took careful aim and fired his hyper-strike cannon at its side. Even hyper-strike cannonballs are not instantaneous, and the marauder’s pilot got a kill shot off at Stan’s interceptor before his own craft was reduced to white-hot space junk. “Bye dr j – give Magda…”
Jay didn’t have time to ponder his friend’s fate. He pressed on, battling down toward the sparkling fortress that screamed “Magda’s prison.” He ruthlessly used his laser obliterators to neutralize the aliens’ ground defenses, then came to a hover in front the fortress. Jay had one shot left in the hyper-strike cannon and he had to make it count. He aimed, readjusted his aim, then gave it a final tweak. With a click on the trigger he launched the final hyper-strike cannonball. BOOM! The screen flashed with vivid red! orange! yellow! that finally faded away, revealing that much of the front wall of the fortress had been reduced to moondust. Jay gently nudged his interceptor through the maw.
And there was Magda! The sequins of her revealing, crimson evening gown glistened under the spotlights trained upon her. Doctor J eased the interceptor to the floor and climbed out. He swaggered over and fired his side arm to release the golden handcuffs holding Magda to a chrome pole. He gallantly bowed and Magda put her arms around him, giving him a kiss that filled the full width of his screen. Jay saw his standing on the leaderboard jump from 428 to 389.
He led Magda to the interceptor and helped her into the copilot’s seat. As he climbed into the pilot’s seat, she squealed, “Oh, tea! And it’s rose-infused!” Magda dramatically took a picture of Doctor J (cameras appear at will for super-hotties) and even more dramatically put the portrait into a bejeweled locket, which she kissed before dropping into the recesses of her sparkling gown.
“RIP StanMan. Couldn’t’ve done it without you.”
Jay’s new standing: 326.
* * *
This story has very, very little to do with my books, but I hope you found it fun.
To learn more about the “real” Echoes of Past Lives series, visit re-johnston.com.
©2021 RE Johnston. All rights reserved.
February 4, 2021
His past life as a medicine woman
“Recollections” are the heart of my Echoes of Past Lives series—these are the memories everyone inherits from their previous life back on planet Earth.
Recollections start in the teenage years. Kids know they’ll be coming, but when? Who were they in their past life? Were they the same gender as now? Were they good or bad? Maybe even outright evil? 
Whoever or whatever they may have been on Earth, the first, revealing memories will come as a shock.
Here’s a clip from the Echoes of Past Lives prequel. A young man, Sprig Carver, is sleeping when, in a dream, comes his first recollection:
The shaman worked her way through the tropical forest, looking for plants with special medicinal powers. They were few and well hidden, but she knew which had healing berries or leaves or bark or even roots. She also knew which could make a person insane or even kill them.
She heard the faint screams of a woman somewhere in the forest, but she continued her search for medicinal plants. She would gladly help the imperiled woman, but she would never find her in the forest. Not in time. She felt the woman’s terror, felt it somewhere within her own soul. Then she felt a taste of the woman’s agony and her hatred. Yes, hatred toward a predatory animal. Probably a leopard. And as she plucked berries from a low-lying bush, she sensed the woman’s fatigue. Then her resignation. Finally, she had the sense of the woman finding her freedom from Earth. The shaman stopped and chanted a prayer for the soul of the woman she knew to have been her older sister…
The Echoes of Past Lives prequel is free to my newsletter subscribers. Get it at https://bit.ly/REJ-Prequel
January 27, 2021
Echoes of Past Lives: free series prequel
Everyone remembers their past life…
…except for children.
Woe to the teen who remembers nothing.
On a parallel world, memories from Earth are valuable. Poets write about them. Technology develops from them. Religion grapples with them. Coming of age requires them.
Jay’s scoffed for having no Earthly memories. Should he just whip up a few stories?
The law says no!
But who’d be the wiser?
Sprig has memories, but his are anathema to the New Puritans. And the love of his life is a New Puritan.
It’s said that love conquers all.
Can it conquer a religion?
You’ll love this novelette, the prequel to the Echoes of Past Lives series, because it reveals how the certainty of reincarnation affects a world, like ours, ruled by human nature.
Interested? The Echoes of Past Lives series prequel novelette is the ideal way to dive into the series, and you can only get it is through the FREE offer on this website.
Enjoy!
January 10, 2021
Two Moons hardback in its new cover
Look what I opened today: a hardcover copy of Two Moons sporting the brand new artwork! So often we refer to the digital pictures of online books as “covers” it’s refreshing to hold a real cover wrapped around a book printed on real paper.
This is the hardcover edition. It uses a case laminate binding process to make it ideal for a library or, well, the snow.
If you’d like a copy, even if you prefer paperback or ebook, by all means visit re-johnston.com/#twomoons,
By the way, that snow is coming down in Fort Worth, Texas. It will only be around for a few hours, but at least it was here for the picture!
December 31, 2020
Coming Very Soon: League of Secrets
It won’t be long before Two Moons is joined by its sequel, League of Secrets. The new story begins where Two Moons ends, and from there Jay, Twila, and the other Two Moons characters go on to experience the brightest spotlights and the darkest secrets of their world. And of their own minds.
Here’s the “official” description:
They were hacking their brains…
…and created a mind loop.
Were they becoming too powerful too quickly?
In a world where reincarnation is not only the norm, but people can remember details of their past lives, those who can remember the most have an edge in life. Jay’s friend Carlos believes he’s figured out a way to learn more about their old lives.
But is there a cost?
Twila appears to be at a disadvantage. Her memories should be fewer than most, but she has a secret, and it may give her an edge unlike anything they’ve seen before.
Are they all on a path to self-destruction?
From a bizarre dictator to a powerful talk show host, the cast of players in this twist filled adventure will keep you guessing. Everyone has an agenda. Nobody can be trusted.
Are Jay and his friends in danger?
You’ll love this second installment in the Echoes of Past Lives series, because the quest for knowledge is the ultimate race for power.
Get it now. [OK, not now as in this very instant, but as in when the book comes out in a few weeks.]
December 23, 2020
New Cover for Two Moons
You may notice the the subtitle is no longer "Memories from a World with One," but has become "Echoes of Past Lives Book One." In other words, book one of a SERIES! Yep, expect to hear more on that subject very soon. But for this brief moment, it's still just a series of one.
December 20, 2018
Two Moons now available as an audiobook
Here are the first few choices, more to come:
Audible
Amazon
Audiobooks.com
Google Play
Kobo
NOOK Audiobooks
October 30, 2018
Course Correction (a “nano-novel”)
I’m drafting the second book in the Two Moons series, tentatively to be named League of Secrets. To warm up my creative juices I dashed out a bit of flash fiction based on the same world (Duorth) and concept (everyone remembers a past life on Earth) as the novels.
Let me know what you think:
Course Correction
by RE Johnston
Tina awoke reeling from a dream like no other. She had truly
been alive!
At the helm of a sailboat she had fought howling winds and
crashing waves wrapped in a darkness lit only by lightning. In the storm it was
not she, Tina, but the earlier she, Gloria, the woman she was in her previous
life. On Earth.
This was a Gloria Tina had never before met.
Like all kids on planet Duorth, in her teens Tina began
having recollections of her first life. Dreams
precisely played back Gloria’s memories. Dinner parties hosted for customers. Foreign
trips spent in convention halls. Evenings contemplating brandy in crystal
snifters. And always, a man named Charles who could never be forgiven.
Gloria had excelled in the art of selling industrial adhesives.
Most of her adult life was devoted to neither family nor joy, but to adhesives
and the money adhesives could provide.
Invested with Gloria’s memories Tina had prepared for her
own life. One more year of business school and Tina would embark on a carefully
planned second life of adhesives sales.
But now came this new dream. Waves and wind struggling to break the mast and rip the tiller from her hands while her seamanship and willpower held nature at bay. Why had Gloria abandoned this exhilaration?
Oh. Charles.
Tina thanked Gloria for guiding the way forward for their
second life.
Let adhesives pay for their real life.
And never let a Charles take it away.
To receive occasional (free!) 90-second “nano-novels” by email, sign up
For more about Two Moons, check it out
©2018 RE Johnston. All rights reserved.
Getting Creative
Thursday, November 1, I’ll begin drafting the second book in the Two Moons series, tentatively to be named Memories of Memories. To warm up my creative juices I dashed out a bit of flash fiction based on the same world (Duorth) and concept (everyone remembers a past life on Earth) as the novels.
Let me know what you think:
Course Correction
by RE Johnston
Tina awoke reeling from a dream like no other. She had truly
been alive!
At the helm of a sailboat she had fought howling winds and
crashing waves wrapped in a darkness lit only by lightning. In the storm it was
not she, Tina, but the earlier she, Gloria, the woman she was in her previous
life. On Earth.
This was a Gloria Tina had never before met.
Like all kids on planet Duorth, in her teens Tina began
having recollections of her first life. Dreams
precisely played back Gloria’s memories. Dinner parties hosted for customers. Foreign
trips spent in convention halls. Evenings contemplating brandy in crystal
snifters. And always, a man named Charles who could never be forgiven.
Gloria had excelled in the art of selling industrial adhesives.
Most of her adult life was devoted to neither family nor joy, but to adhesives
and the money adhesives could provide.
Invested with Gloria’s memories Tina had prepared for her
own life. One more year of business school and Tina would embark on a carefully
planned second life of adhesives sales.
But now came this new dream. Waves and wind struggling to break
the mast and rip the tiller from her hands while her seamanship and willpower held
Nature at bay. Why had Gloria abandoned this exhilaration?
Oh. Charles.
Tina thanked Gloria for guiding the way forward for their
second life.
Let adhesives pay for their real life.
And never let a Charles take it away.
©2018 RE Johnston. All rights reserved.
