Tag Archives: RPL Johnson

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT, Cool stuff, Editing, publishing, Ramblings, SNAFU, Writing

SNAFU: CONTAGION AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT – RPL JOHNSON

October 13, 2025 Amanda J Spedding Leave a comment

We’re edging close to halfway with our Author Spotlights, with me wanting to spotlight every two days before print publication (ebook and Audible are already available)… which means I’m gonna have to ramp up the blog frequency – the math just ain’t mathing (if you know me, that will come as no surprise).

So, moving on from my clear lack of numeric aptitude… We’ve another Aussie stepping onto Cohesion Press’ stage for Author Spotlight #7, and he’s someone you’ve likely read before. Richard has been in a number of SNAFU editions – the man knows how to freak us the fuck out, and his tale for SNAFU: Contagion is no different.

But let him tell you a little about himself while I skulk off and cry into my calculator…

Richard Johnson is an award-winning short story writer and independent novelist. He won the Gold Award at Writers of the Future in 2011 and the Jim Baen Memorial Award in 2012 and has been a finalist in the Aurealis Awards with one of his many stories for the SNAFU series of military horror anthologies from Cohesion Press.

In addition to his novels and short stories, Richard has also worked closely with Blur Studios in the USA on the Amazon Prime TV show Secret Level, the video game Exodus, and an as yet undisclosed feature for Warner Bros.

He lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and two sons.

For SNAFU: Contagion, Richard showed us the fragility of reality with: CONSENSUS BREAK: The hospital wasn’t an asylum, it was a prison for those who—

(See what I did there? 😏)

You can find Richard on his website, Facebook, and Twitter.

If you want to read more of Richard’s work (you really should!) he has a YA sci-fi novel The View from Infinity Beach (I’ve read it, it’s excellent!), and a short story collection, Skull Candy.

Editing, publishing, Ramblings, Reading, SNAFU, Writing

SNAFU: PUNK’D AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT – RPL JOHNSON

October 12, 2023 Amanda J Spedding Leave a comment

With the release of SNAFU: PUNK’D exploding into the world at the end of October, we at Cohesion Press will be getting the bullhorns out to shout the names of our authors and regale you with the tales they’ve spawned for this edition. So, it’s promotion time for all of our storytellers with an author spotlight that gives insight into their imaginariums (tread veeeery carefully), and a tease of their story.

Right then, mount up!

For our seventh instalment of the SNAFU author spotlight, please give a hearty-horror welcome to RPL JOHNSON!

Richard is an Australian science fiction writer and winner of the Gold Award at Writers of the Future and the Jim Baen Memorial Award. King Rat is his fifth appearance in the SNAFU series. He lives in Melbourne with his wife and two young sons and is currently working on a novel, Mappa Mundi, set in the King Rat universe.

As Richard just told you, for SNAFU: PUNK’D, he has melded bio and cyberpunk for his story KING RAT: A cybernetic mercenary with all the aspects of the Chinese zodiac discovers a link between his own past and his latest quarry – a shared history and the chance to right a decades-old wrong. But can he find something more than just revenge

You can find Richard on his socials below:

Website: http://www.rpljohnson.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064051633356

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RPLJohnson

To celebrate the release of SNAFU: Punk’d, Richard’s sci-fi novel The View from Infinity Beach will be on sale for just $2.99 starting on Halloween https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08W347VZD.

Or if you fancy more short stories, why not pick up my collection Skull Candy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B86SLPV8

Festivus, publishing, Ramblings, Reading

Festivus Book Pimping. SNAFU: Last Stand (Cohesion Press)

December 16, 2019 Amanda J Spedding Leave a comment

Yes, yes, I know. I am still shit at the regularity of Festivus Book Pimping, but get ready for a deluge! It’s gonna rain books, my friends! And while that may appear painful… BOOKS!

Right then, let’s get this party started.

Today, we’re going to settle into some military horror in the form of SNAFU: Last Stand, the latest release from Cohesion Press. Fourteen stories from fourteen amazing writers from all over the world, and with a foreword written by Hollywood director, Tim Miller (Terminator: Dark Fate, Deadpool). Tim loves the SNAFU series, and stories from some of its tomes have been reimagined in Netflix’s Emmy-winning animated series, Love, Death & Robots (you really should check it out, it’s killer), in both season one and the upcoming season two.

As the editor-in-chief of Cohesion Press, I’m partial to the books, and this one especially. Working with editor, Matthew Summers, the stories cover the gamut of ‘last stand’, and with a linear timeline, we move from Neanderthals right through to future warfare. There’s cosmic horror and voodoo, Sumerian gods and biological ‘gone-wrongs’, giant maggots, killer ‘skitters’, and huge fucking bats… to name but a few.

With the theme of ‘last stand’, you get to the best and the worst in people, the heroics and sacrifice – survival is very much on the table but those pickings be slim. Last Stand shows the mettle of those thrown into untenable situations and what they’ll do to beat back that tide. Each is a law (lore?) unto itself, and it’s a hell of a ride.

Here’s the blurb:

“This is it, mofos. This is the end game. We’ve got nowhere else to go, and no bugger’s coming to save us.
We’re either doing this or we’re gonna die trying, because it all depends on you. There is no going back. So lock, load, and get ready to rumble!”
SNAFU: Last Stand is a collated anthology of short stories of a final battle, no matter where it is or who it involves.
It’s the Battle of Thermopylae, the Alamo, the Battle of Mirbat, the First Battle of Mogadishu, the Battle of Hel, and Custer’s Last Stand, all rolled up into one badass monster-fighting basket of SNAFU-style action.

SNAFU Last Stand