Keith B. Darrell's Blog, page 58

Take Gabriel and Lucifer on the Road with You!

How cool is this? The Halos & Horns logo on a Ceramic Travel Mug! It's the latest addition to our line of Amber Ware available through our affiliation with the good folks at Cafe Press. You can see the entire line of Amber Ware (and we'll be adding to it regularly) at the Amber CafePress store or by clicking the Amber Ware tab at the top of my blog.

It Worked For Wile E. Coyote

You may have noticed I haven't written lately on my blog. That doesn't mean I haven't been writing; the opposite is true. I believe authors should focus on writing books and blog in their spare time, rather than place their emphasis on blogging. After all, my books are far more interesting than my blog. I mean, just say the word ... "blawg" ... doesn't that sound, well... you know? So if you don't see me posting here, it means I'm slaving away over a new novel or more short stories.

I've just...

Amber Ware Is Here!

Back in 2007, I launched my first Young Adult novel (mercifully out of print) at the Miami Book Fair. As you can see in the photo below, we had printed special Amber Book Company T-Shirts to draw attention to our booth. It worked too well: nearly everyone drawn to the booth inquired about buying the demo shirts and few were interested in the actual books (on the display table, below the shirts). If everyone who tried, unsuccessfully, to buy the Amber logo T-shirts had purchased my novel, it ...

Just Published: SHARDS!

Tales of Cutting Edge Speculative Fiction!
Softcover edition. 542 pages.

Finally! Shards was published in August, on schedule, however Amazon has only now gotten around to listing it for sale on its site. So far, Barnes and Noble is still running behind, so the only place to buy it online is from Amazon. Clicking the cover will take you to the Amazon page. Shards is available only in softcover - it will not be available in hardcover or e-book formats.

Shards is the ultimate short story...

Do Blogs Die?

The previous post got me thinking: What happens to our Web pages after we die? Who "turns off" our Facebook profiles or writes "fin" on our blogs? Do they outlive us indefinitely, becoming Flying Dutchmen of the Web, forever roaming the Internet? As blogs and social network profiles proliferate, how many will outlive their creators, leaving the Internet populated by both the living and ghosts from the past?

In five or ten years, when you notice someone on your Facebook profile you haven't...

This Was A Mistake

I was stumbling through the Web when I landed on a blog on Tumbler. It was an interesting blog written by a 17-year-old entitled "The Frustrations of Being A Writer". It had some astute observations, coming from such a young source, although I had to smile at the phrase "during the first couple years of my career". Still, I enjoyed reading the blog, so I started exploring other blogs on Tumbler and came across this:


I landed on a blog that had only one post: "This was amistake." As a writer...

Your Turn! Post Your Replies Here

Did you hear the one about the stripper that showed up at the 10-year-old's birthday party? Hold that thought; I'll come back to it.

It's been three months since I started this blog. About 500 people subscribe to it, through Blogger, Facebook, Network Blogs, RSS feeds, GoodReads, and Amazon. Another 50 or so have multiple subscriptions and an unknown number of readers stumble across it on Google searches or from other blogs, bookmark it, but don't subscribe.

I began my first blog post...

One Day

A friend of mine died, I learned today.
She was not the first friend I've lost, but her death wasmade more meaningful by two facts: I had known her a long time and she was myage.
For 18 years, I saw her every day. We had moved into thesame building a few doors from each other and although we became neighborsby chance, we soon became friends by choice. She was a single mother, raising alittle boy. Occasionally, I would help him with his math homework, or keep himout of trouble. There was a day...

And So It Goes...

I read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five when I wasin school; but then, I didn't attend Republic High School. Republic High is inMissouri, the "show me" state, unless what you're showing is certainliterature, in which case I suppose it becomes the don't show me that!state. You see, the school board there banned (yes, they still ban books in 2011) the Vonnegut classic, as well as twoother books.
Actually, after a vote, the good village elders, oops, Imean school board, decided to let one...

Literary Murder

So I was having a writer's conversation – that's an arcaneterm to describe two writers discussing exoteric aspects of their craft,usually in a Denny's parking lot at 3 a.m., continuing a conversation thatbegan with dinner  -- and the topicturned to murder.
Literary murder, that is. Killing off one's characters.
This is often a hard choice for writers. We don't create ourcharacters; we give birth to them. They become our  children. We rear them and guide them through their fictionallives. The...