About Reading Junkie

Reading Junkie is my personal blog where I share various rants about politics, current events, reviews of books and films, among other things.

I’m a former US Marine fire support specialist, and also worked for about 10 years as a public affairs specialist in the US Army National Guard and Reserves. For that reason I will mostly opine about the “information operations” aspect of current events in Ukraine. About three years ago I expanded into writing fiction, starting with a sci-fi anthology titled Ultra Violence, which is the first part of what I originally intended as an ongoing seven-book series. COVID lockdowns, personal drama, and a lengthy hospitalization unfortunately interrupted my project, though I plan to come back to it soon when life allows me to. I then wrote a fictional short story about the Russian “Night Witches” in World War II, which was published on the Fabius Maximus website. Fabius Maximus is now defunct, but you can read a copy of my story on the very first post of Reading Junkie, Ballad of the Unknown Pilot. The topic of Night Witches interested me enough that I decided to write more about them, which required more study and research on my part. The more I read, the more I realized just how little I knew about the Soviet Union, Russia, and the people in it. This rabbit hole eventually led to me to taking multiple trips to Russia, and that’s where I still am today. In Moscow region, attending a course for beginners in the Russian language, and writing my book.

I made a decision about the future of this blog, as well as my Night Witches book and other future projects. After I had to abruptly retire from the Army, I wanted to be an author. However, books cost money and any content behind a paywall is less accessible. It is more important to me for any interested person to read what I have to say here without having to pay. This is particularly important now with the digital “iron curtain” severing visa bank cards within Russia. So if I contain my writings in a book, there would be people who might want to buy it but simply unable to. I’m also, for now, financially secure. For those reasons, I will be posting everything I write, both fiction and nonfiction, here and without any kind of paywalls. For people who are interested in supporting my site, I have set up a Buy Me a Coffee, which can be accessed here. There is also a widget visible throughout the site.

If you would like to reach out to me, you can email me at ian.michael@readingjunkie.com

Ian Kummer

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All text in Reading Junkie posts are free to share or republish without permission, and I highly encourage my fellow bloggers to do so. Please be courteous and link back to the original.

I now have a new YouTube channel that I will use to upload videos from my travels around Russia. Expect new content there soon. Please give me a follow here.

Also feel free to connect with me on Quora (I sometimes share unique articles there).

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