Kevin James Breaux's Blog

Photo by Kevin. Design by E.J.
Visit E.J. Steven's blog, 'From the Shadows' on May 23rd for a new never before seen excerpt from BLOOD DIVIDED and a big Soul Born Saga Giveaway!!!


I am happy to say that this is my biggest giveaway to date. And I would do more if I could, trust me.. Inside the gift box you will find:
(1) Soul Born signed


(1) Blood Divided signed

(1) Soul Born cover print

(1) Blood Divided post card signed

(3) plastic knight toys (which I like to send out to reviewers, it's kinda my thing.)  :)

(1) $25.00 gift card to Amazon.com

Here is E.J.'s Goodreads.com announcement to the giveaway.
http://www.goodreads.com/event/show/335422-blood-divided-excerpt-soul-born-saga-giveaway
Please check it out, and enter to win. Thanks so much!

Kevin James Breaux
http://www.kevinbreaux.com/

Season 7 cast photo
Hi all,

Well... I finished re-watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine at the end of April. It took me six months to re-watch the entire series of 176 episodes. First off let me say this. I really enjoyed it. See, for me this show holds a lot of meaning. I watched its original air. Those were some of the best years of my life: 1993-1999.

I remember wanting the show to never end... it was my favorite... But the final season came and it seemed to be continuously preempted by basketball games (darn you, Sixers!).  My one friend pretty much quit watching it, it became that hard to follow. This was back in the VHS days, so I did not have Comcast digital cable with a DVR. Yeah, the show would be pushed to late hours at night, sometimes airing different days.  I basically had to turn my VCR on and tape all night long with hopes of catching the show. Turns out I missed at least 3 episodes, because I clearly did not remember them. For example, the one where Nog is recuperating in the casino Holodeck program. Or the one where they had to rob the Casino Holodeck program. Missed those.

Anyway it was a struggle back then, but I remember the show ending and being very sad. Sadder than when Buffy ended.

**cry**
When I finished college and was unemployed for two years, I would spend my days looking for jobs and writing. I took my dog, Amelia to my parents house for doggie day care every day since they had a huge yard for her to play in. When I got back to my house I sat in my office all day... Back then, Deep Space Nine aired on this local PA/NJ channel that you could only pick up on rabbit ears (antena... looked it up online, kids).  My tiny b+w TV delivered that channel as clear as possible, so many days I spent re-watching old eps. For some reason, maybe licensing, that channel only aired seasons 1-3. Over and over again. So when I was just re-watching the show now I remembered the older eps more than the newer ones.

To this day favorite episode of the series is the one where Sisko tells a story of how they tricked the Romulans into the war. For 1/2 of the ep. he is standing facing the viewer and speaking directly to them. That is what really makes it stand out to me. I love the writing and acting. The episode is called "In the Pale Moonlight".



Here is the Wikipedia link for it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Pale_Moonlight

A lot has changed in my life since the show aired. I remember a day when I would have listed my favorite shows as Knight Rider and MacGyver. Now I can not stand watching them. Later I would have said Buffy and DS9.... oddly enough I still love those shows and enjoy them. My tastes have changed some, but to my lasting shock I found myself no longer in love with Dax, who I had a major crush on back in the day. Now, as I re-watched DS9, I found my focus shift to Kira. Not those first few seasons version of her (too tough), but seasons 4 on.  If I told my younger self I would have fallen out of love with Dax and in love with Kira I think he would have thought I was insane-crazy in the head-mad. 
Fun fact, I met both ladies back when the show aired at Star Trek conventions in Valley Forge. :) 
So after just finishing DS9 I felt empty. I wanted to move to another show. Last summer I re-watched Hercules. Before that Buffy and Angel.  What would I watch now??? I started with Voyager... and I quickly realized why I never connected with it. Unlike DS9, Voyager was not serialized and did not have a giant story arc to get swept into. So I am not sure I will continue re-watching it.
I still have to DVD sets I want to revisit. Matt Houston and StarBlazers to start. Yes, I said Matt Houston. OK, stop laughing at me.



Growing up Matt Houston was my favorite show. Granted, I have not seen it since the 80s and I understand that it may be as unwatchable as Knight Rider is now, I still want to give it a shot. Stop laughing...


Thanks all!
Kevin James Breauxhttp://www.kevinbreaux.com/

Slices of Flesh is out! Find one of my short stories inside!
http://www.darkmoonbooks.com/Slices_of_Flesh.htm

Hi all,

Been a while, I know. I have been super busy. I am still working on FLESH ENDED, the third book in the Soul Born Saga. It's at over 122,000 words now, longer than its predecessors. I am at the final battle, which will cross several chapters and bring me to about 140,000 words before it's done. I am very excited to finish it.

Also, following the advice of my mentor, Jonathan Maberry, I began a new secret project. It will not be done for at least two-three months. BUT once again I am challenging myself to writing something new and out of my comfort level. I like to do this once a year, so I gladly accepted this new one.

Also very happy to announce that SLICES OF FLESH came out end of March, beginning of April. You can read about it on the publisher's site here: http://www.darkmoonbooks.com/Slices_of_Flesh.htm and order it at BN or Amazon.com. Here is the Amazon link: http://amzn.com/0985029099 .

Inside SLICES OF FLESH is my short story (flash fiction) called SHE. HER. YOU.  It originally was the first few pages of a horror book I was writing, but then that book got lost in the mix of projects. So I re-edited those first pages into a story that would work in this antho.  This was one of those times where I was invited to submit something, I love that, and I am happy with the results.

So what else have I been doing? Well, I finished SKYRIM, and hit something like 150 hours of gameplay in that game. No lie, 150 hours. I can still play it longer too, although the two main quest lines are done, I want to control the thieves guild. But I am taking a break and moving on to ME3. 

UG! Just the other week, I rolled my ankle really bad. Sprained it, I guess would be the term. It was really bad for a few days, but has gotten about 75% better. Now it's just slightly swollen, stiff and sore. This is not the first time I have hurt my foot, so I know it takes forever to heal. I am trying to rest as best as I can... but yeah...

So what's coming up? Soon I will release two Soul Born Saga short stories. Free!  I would like to get another piece of art done too. We shall see. I am querying two novels still, my Urban Fantasy and my Dark Fantasy/Horror.  I would really like to see an agent pick one of them up before the end of the summer. I think both are good for the market right now, and the Urban Fantasy one is being read by a movie production company right now... which only furthers my case--it's time to get that one sold to TOR or DAW. :)

Oh, FYI - I just got on Pinterest too.  http://pinterest.com/kevinbreaux/

Thanks all,

Kevin James Breaux
http://www.kevinbreaux.com/

Hi all,

Been a busy month. Had another Goodreads.com giveaway. I gave out 5 signed copies of SOUL BORN and a bunch of swag. I decided to randomly add in BLOOD DIVIDED to 3 of the winners. I love Goodreads. People are nice there. I received messages from some of the winners of this contest already, thanking me for the goodies. That's cool! My previous giveaway, in Feb, produced two AMAZING reviews for Blood Divided.

One by Van, who runs a site called Short & Sweet Reviews.

"The world that Breaux created is full of political intrigue, betrayal, love and loss. If you're looking for a well established world and a cast of amazing characters, then I highly recommend the Soul Born Saga." -- Van. Short & Sweet Reviews.

See her full review here at Goodreads.com:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/293261461 
and at her site: http://shortandsweetreviews.blogspot.com/2012/03/review-blood-divided-by-kevin-james.html?spref=fb

Without Goodreads I may never have met Van. She gave such a great, detailed review. I am a fan of hers for life now. :) Another review that came in this week was from Aaron, who read and reviewed Soul Born last year.
"Blood Divided is a solid, well-written, fantasy novel that will draw you in and hold on tight from beginning to end. Bring on part three Mr. Breaux!" --Aaron

You can read his whole review here:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/258706056

One more 5/5 star rating popped up and when I messaged the reviewer, a winner of Blood Divided, to say thanks, she told me this.

"I didn't just enjoy it, I loved it. I had trouble putting it down. I look forward to reading "Flesh Ended". I am now an eternal fan!" --Leigh. 


 
Not bad for a small press published author, right? Time for the big leagues I say!

Lastly, I had a fun interview go live last week. It can be found on the Dreamer's Perch Blog. The owner of which interviewed me last year too. She wanted to know all about me and Blood Divided, so I gave her a good excerpt of the book, and not one I have shared before, so its new, new, new!

Please take the time to read the interview, it has some funny moments.

http://dreamersperch.blogspot.com/2012/03/kevin-breaux-returns-to-discuss-his.html
 
On the writing front. I just finished a 6,300 word short story for an anthology. I also have two short stories releasing in a few days. Will update when they are out. In the meantime I am going back to sending out queries to agents and finishing FLESH ENDED.
 
 
Thanks all,
 
Kevin James Breaux
http://www.kevinbreaux.com/

Hi all,

So, I recently had some people ask me about my SKYRIM character. Being that I am still playing the game I thought it would be a great time to take a moment to talk about her. OK… OK, I admit, could talk about my character and this game for days…


TALA – named after one of the leads in the SOUL BORN SAGA—is a Wood Elf Thief class. She specializes in Archery, Stealth and Light Armor, so most of the time I am armed with a bow sneaking around. At level 40 now I am just starting to put more points in Speech and One Hand Weapons. I had, from time to time, added points to speech to raise the amount of money I made selling things, but now I am getting to the end of that line where I can invest money to make more.

Funny thing, I did not intend to make her look like any actresses, but the other day I realized she kinda reminded me of someone and I just figured it out. My Skyrim version of Tala looks like Lake Bell. See;



It's not just me, right? I mean Lake Bell is prettier but...
So I am currently 100 hours into the game and I just finished the Civil War Quest. I sided with Ulfric Stormcloak and the rebels. We just took Solitude a couple nights ago. It turned out to be a little harder than I expected. All the other fortresses were easy picking. Something about the city attack had me… a skilled archer… stuck full of arrows. I kept moving to high ground, but I was targeted more than Ulfric himself. So I was not getting off as many shots as I wanted. I had to shout away a lot of Imperials that rushed me too. Not complaining there. I love a good shout.

When we finally cornered the General and Legate it was a three on two fight and the Legate dropped fast. Fearing I might not have a chance to properly loot her, I quickly grabbed her armor before the General and Ulfric started talking. When given the option, I let the big boss kill the general, which ended with a funny little moment. Ulfric chopped him in the back and he stumbled forward, tripped over the Legates corpse and his knees buckled… (LOVE that Skyrim physics engine). When he dropped it was right on top of the other body. I had to take a cell phone photo and I swear to the Nord Gods, this is how it was. I did not move the bodies.

That is how they landed. Which was a great WTF moment for me.

So after staring a moment, I joined Ulfric outside for his speech. See me there below;


This is what Tala normally looks like with the Nightingale armor on and her ebony bow.
You know, my character did not always look so bad. I swear the game ages you and you get more war torn. Well off to finish the rest of the main quest. I guess another 50+ hours of game play at least! What is this I hear about Mass Effect 3 coming out this week?


Kevin James Breaux
http://www.kevinbreaux.com/

Hi all,

So, I recently had some people ask me about my SKYRIM character. Being that I am still playing the game I thought it would be a great time to take a moment to talk about her. OK… OK, I admit, could talk about my character and this game for days…


TALA – named after one of the leads in the SOUL BORN SAGA—is a Wood Elf Thief class. She specializes in Archery, Stealth and Light Armor, so most of the time I am armed with a bow sneaking around. At level 40 now I am just starting to put more points in Speech and One Hand Weapons. I had, from time to time, added points to speech to raise the amount of money I made selling things, but now I am getting to the end of that line where I can invest money to make more.

Funny thing, I did not intend to make her look like any actresses, but the other day I realized she kinda reminded me of someone and I just figured it out. My Skyrim version of Tala looks like Lake Bell. See;


 It's not just me, right? I mean Lake Bell is prettier but...
So I am currently 100 hours into the game and I just finished the Civil War Quest. I sided with Ulfric Stormcloak and the rebels. We just took Solitude a couple nights ago. It turned out to be a little harder than I expected. All the other fortresses were easy picking. Something about the city attack had me… a skilled archer… stuck full of arrows. I kept moving to high ground, but I was targeted more than Ulfric himself. So I was not getting off as many shots as I wanted. I had to shout away a lot of Imperials that rushed me too. Not complaining there. I love a good shout.

When we finally cornered the General and Legate it was a three on two fight and the Legate dropped fast. Fearing I might not have a chance to properly loot her, I quickly grabbed her armor before the General and Ulfric started talking. When given the option, I let the big boss kill the general, which ended with a funny little moment. Ulfric chopped him in the back and he stumbled forward, tripped over the Legates corpse and his knees buckled… (LOVE that Skyrim physics engine). When he dropped it was right on top of the other body. I had to take a cell phone photo and I swear to the Nord Gods, this is how it was. I did not move the bodies.

That is how they landed. Which was a great WTF moment for me.

So after staring a moment, I joined Ulfric outside for his speech. See me there below;


This is what Tala normally looks like with the Nightblade armor on and her ebony bow.
You know, my character did not always look so bad. I swear the game ages you and you get more war torn. Well off to finish the rest of the main quest. I guess another 50+ hours of game play at least! What is this I hear about Mass Effect 3 coming out this week?


Kevin James Breaux
http://www.kevinbreaux.com/

 Bram Stoker Award recommended reading

Dark Water: Beaming Smile is on sale this weekend on Amazon.com.
http://amzn.com/B005TX2H86
Sarah should have left Montgomery County when she had the chance, but now it's too late. She is trapped on the rooftop of her family home which is almost completely submerged by dark flood waters. The air smells of a mixture of sewage and mold and it's still raining. Alone with only her thoughts Sarah is mad she did not leave town years ago when she was right out of high school, before she became the one things she dreaded most; her mother.
    Haunted by the reoccurrence of an eerie thumping sound, Sarah is startled when she discovers a large hairy animal, almost the size of a cow, brushing against the corner of her house. What is it? Where did it come from? What other horrors are hiding in the dark water?

If you read it, please leave a review. Thanks!!! 

BTW- updated my author site with more information.


Kevin James Breaux
http://www.kevinbreaux.com/

lost...
Being an author sometimes you start to question whether or not you exist. Lost in a sea of a million other people... You need a little recognition, something to legitimize your hard work and prove that you are real.
http://www.horror.org/stoker/2011readinglist.htm
After eight recommendations, months and months of following rules, and making it to the preliminary nominations ballot of the Bram Stoker Award, I was sure I would get nominated and finally feel alive. Finally feel like I was getting some real credit for all my hard work.

Sadly, that did not happen. Somehow I did not make the final nominations ballot.

http://www.horror.org/blog/?p=2331

Now I am back to wondering, who am I? Am I real?

Yeah, I'm glad this is not the Oscars, cause had the camera been on my face when they listed the final nominations I would have looked like I was going to cry. And you never cry on national TV.

Congratz to... meh... nevermind they have heard it before last year and the year before that...


Kevin James Breaux
http://www.kevinbreaux.com/

Hi all,

First up, the celebration of book release giveaway for BLOOD DIVIDED ended this weekend and Goodreads sent me the list of lucky winners. I will be sending out those books at the end of this week. I also have a few more review copies I need to mail... Time to start packing books!

I'm happy to say I had two things go live last week. One guest post and one interview.

The interview I did was with Literary Escapism. I added some nice excerpts in it. You can read it here;
http://www.literaryescapism.com/25919/interview-kevin-james-breaux
The guest post, which is in my series of goofy ramblings about stuff (all for fun), is at Dark Faerie Tales site and can be read here;http://darkfaerietales.com/guest-post-blood-divided-kevin-james-breaux.html


In other news, I started submitting two books to agents in January. One Urban Fantasy-Action Adventure which I want to turn into a 5-7 book series. The other a brand new Viking Age Dark Fantasy Horror in a Alternate History genre. That book is some of my finest work and I'm very proud of it. I would like that book to start a series too. At least 3 books, maybe 5. 
And.... Starting the first round of queries in the new year! Yay ( /sigh)
Right off the bat, January started with a really interesting email. I was contacted by Unique Features Films, a production company created by the New Line Cinema guys. They saw one of my postings on Publishers Marketplace and asked to read the full manuscript of my Urban Fantasy novel that I am submitting. (good thing its copyrighted) So I sent it to them in mid Jan. Shortly afterwards I had a full request for that same novel by one of the top agents in the business. So I am happy I am getting some interest. So far no solid offers, but I am really hoping 2012 is my year.
In 2012 I'm planning on: sending out queries, finishing book 3 in the Soul Born Saga and writing another new book.  Above all else, I need an agent. You hear that Mayan calendar. I need an agent before the world ends... unless me getting an agent is a sign that the world will end. Whoa... freaky...

Kevin James Breauxhttp://www.kevinbreaux.com/

Hi all,

First up, the celebration of book release giveaway for BLOOD DIVIDED ended this weekend and Goodreads sent me the list of lucky winners. I will be sending out those books at the end of this week. I also have a few more review copies I need to mail... Time to start packing books!

I'm happy to say I had two things go live last week. One guest post and one interview.

The interview I did was with Literary Escapism. I added some nice excerpts in it. You can read it here;
http://www.literaryescapism.com/25919/interview-kevin-james-breaux
The guest post, which is in my series of goofy ramblings about stuff (all for fun), is at Dark Faerie Tales site and can be read here;http://darkfaerietales.com/guest-post-blood-divided-kevin-james-breaux.html


In other news, I started submitting two books to agents in January. One Urban Fantasy-Action Adventure which I want to turn into a 5-7 book series. The other a brand new Viking Age Dark Fantasy Horror in a Alternate History genre. That book is some of my finest work and I'm very proud of it. I would like that book to start a series too. At least 3 books, maybe 5. 
And.... Starting the first round of queries in the new year! Yay ( /sigh)
Right off the bat, January started with a really interesting email. I was contacted by Unique Features Films, a production company created by the New Line Cinema guys. They saw one of my postings on Publishers Marketplace and asked to read the full manuscript of my Urban Fantasy novel that I am submitting. (good thing its copyrighted) So I sent it to them in mid Jan. Shortly afterwards I had a full request for that same novel by one of the top agents in the business. So I am happy I am getting some interest. So far no solid offers, but I am really hoping 2012 is my year.
In 2012 I'm planning on: sending out queries, finishing book 3 in the Soul Born Saga and writing another new book.  Above all else, I need an agent. You hear that Mayan calendar. I need an agent before the world ends... unless me getting an agent is a sign that the world will end. Whoa... freaky...

Kevin James Breauxhttp://www.kevinbreaux.com/