Sunday Book Review: The Monster's Corner

  Great Morning my loyal readers! I was hoping to wake up to find that, miraculously! Spring had broken this spell of extreme cold and snow drifts that we're stuck in, but alas. No go. Dammit.
  Alright, I'll stop bitching about the weather. Instead, let's focus on this collection of short stories that I finished a few minutes ago. If you're an Instagram follower (@kellyrwrites) you saw that I put the cover up a few days ago.

Monster's Corner is a collection of short stories from a list of great authors, including Kelley Armstrong, David Liss, Gary A. Braunbeck, and Sarah Pinborough. 
  I've never been much of a short story reader, I usually avoid them. I'm not sure why, I think I read some boring collection back in the day and it turned me off. This one had such a disturbing cover that I gave it a shot. I mean, come on, how could anyone not peek inside of something that looks like that? 
  This collection was awesome and just disturbing enough. The very first story, "The Awkward Age", by David Liss, peeked my interest, as it danced on the line between what's appropriate and taboo in a "friendship" between a married man and an underage girl. Yeah. That's what I was thinking too. Don't worry, it ends super gory and the age difference is thrown to the side in light of the disgusting habits of the main character. 
   There are all sorts of bizarre twists in this collection, and many a bloody, dissected body part gets gnawed on. Creatures from your childhood horror stories are given new life and their true origins are explained better than you've ever read. 
  I don't even know if I have a favorite, as so many of the stories were so amazing and original and well-written. There was so much gore and blood, and demented children, and bad people that it made my head spin. It was awesome! 
  Go and get your copy today. As you can see, I borrowed this one from my local library, but I suspect I will have to buy a copy and add it to my personal library. It's just so juicy and gross. 
  K 

Muddle Writing

  This has been a lazy weekend. The weather is shit, with sub zero temps and plenty of snow. You know, the kind of weather that makes you want to curl up in bed and not leave it for three more months. Good ole upstate NY. 
  The lover and I went outside very briefly to brush the snow off our cars and to shovel a path from our back door to the front. (Even though it's unlikely that we will ever need a second escape route, I feel better if we are able to exit through the back. Just in case.) And holy shit, it was nasty out there.I wish it was a bit warmer out, because I would have totally made an awesome snow fort. 
   However, with the shit weather outside, it should make for great writing weather. I expected to have a great writing day, but I've been muddling through it. I have finished the first couple of scenes that already were played out in my head, so now I'm trying to figure out the next bunch of scenes.
   I'm going to go take a break and make a salad. 
 K 

Friday Morning .....

....Is like the day after a long, hard battle. There are the casualties of the week all around you- dishes & dirty clothes piled up, the litter box needs emptying, my mind needs emptying.....and just a few more hours of struggle before the weekend begins & you can clean things up. 

  Ok, a bit of an exaggeration. My house doesn't get that dirty. But it feels like it gets super disorganized and messy. 

  I love the weekends. After so many years of not having the whole weekend, every weekend for leisure it's still a novelty. 

  This week was killer. Both personal and work-wise. But it's almost over 😎 and it will be spring....eventually. 

Hope your Friday goes Fabulously! 

  Live & Light, 

K 

  

Let Me Tell You A Story....

Getting this new book cover made me think back over as to how I first came up with the idea for this book. 
  I know I've touched on this in previous entries, but the first vampire-thing-a bit before that Twilight crap- that got my engines revving was the first Underworld movie.
  There. The seed planted. 
The next thing was a memory that surfaced of the pre-teen series The Animorphs. Remember that series? The kids that could transform into a certain animal? 
And the final bit that slid into place: the trilogy The Golden Compass. I LOVED that goddamned series! That was an awesome escape as a kid. 

Calissa and Kaellina Dorr are twin sisters who are at odds from day 1. They are Morgins, born to human parents. Meaning, that Calissa came out with a peregrin falcon chic, and Kaellina came out with a black panther cub. Yeah, that's right-Came out with. Morgins have a long history, and only show up when chaos is about to kick off. Morgins usually only come one person at a time....what do you think twins signify?
 They both get mixed up with some bad ass vampires shortly after their 19th birthday, and yadda yadda, there's going to be a second book.
How do you like that?
 Pick up your copy of Broken Bloodlines, Book 1: The Awakening here.
K

Writing Update

    Beautiful Sunday! Beautiful steaming cup of coffee on my left, and all my materials for working on Book 2 of the Broken Bloodlines series on my right. Those include my laptop (which I'm using to write this before I really dive in for the day), my Kishi Kishi binder(left hand picture)

full of sections of colored paper devoted to certain subjects, like character details, location details, etc. and a wonderfully designed composition book (right hand picture) (thank you VG!) that I use for chapter starts, writing out plot/character issues, and general writer's block breakthrough. I often find that if I start a chapter by hand it will start to plan itself out enough so that I can switch to the laptop. 

    I had quite a non-writing lull after I published Book 1. I don't know if it was just due to the career transition I was doing around the same time, or if I'll always need a break like that before starting the next. I hope to jump back into the fray sooner. I published Book 1 on Thanksgiving, and I didn't really dive back into Book 2 until about 2 weeks ago. 
  I'm giving myself a full 10 months to write this one, and a month for editing so I'm tentatively planning on getting this one out for Christmas. 
  Book 1: The Awakening has been well-received, and I already have people asking about the second one. If you haven't downloaded your copy yet, you can find it on Amazon here.
   Thank you all, 

  K

Sunday Book Review: The Alpha's Search, by Natalie Shaw

The Alpha's Search
By: Natalie Shaw (www.natalieshawromance.com)
Genre: Paranormal Romance 


      Who doesn't love a good paranormal romance, with super hot men (and women)? The Alpha's Search is one such book. 
     The first two chapters get you caught up with the current life of the main character, Jackie. As an American, I was taken in by the British vernacular and slang, which these first two chapters are full of. Jackie works at a travel agency and business is slow until a mysterious, beautiful man shows up and tells her a crazy story.
     The Alpha has been looking for Jackie for 40 years and finds her just in time. Due to an accident that Jackie had five years previously, she doesn't remember her life before it. But the Alpha seems to know all about her, and once the enemy shows itself, Jackie is forced to trust the Alpha. 
     Jackie (who's real name is Louise, btw), with the gorgeous Alpha by her side, embarks on a dangerous, crazy journey that still seems like a dream even close to the end. 
      The Alpha's Search is the first in the Craven Trilogy, and I've already bought the next two books. It's engaging writing, with plenty of action and well-written intimacy. 
      This is a great series by the talented Natalie Shaw. Visit her site at: natalieshawromance.com. You can order all the books from her website or any major e-book retailers.

A New Year Begins...

Welcome to 2015! I was the head of the committee that designed it, what do you think of it so far? ;) 
  Seriously though, 2014 was a damn good year for me. I made very good strides career-wise, and got out of the soul-sucking place I was at before. 
  A & I had an awesome summer trip to Vermont, where we got engaged <3 Vermont is an amazing place, there will be another trip in the future. 
  2015 is my last year of my twenties. I'm mostly ok with turning 30, there's only a tiny part of me that's doing tight circles of panic. However, I think I packed more than enough craziness into my twenties, heh heh. I was subjected to so much craziness, met so many crazy people- some crazy in an awesomely talented way, but more that were the bad, dysfunctional crazy.  I had so many adventures, got to feel up some beautiful woman ;) , made a couple of bad decisions, and some great ones. 
  I'm so much happier and wiser than I was at the eve of my 20th birthday. And that's the point kids- for you to get better at getting out of your own way as you get older. 
 k