Keith B. Darrell's Blog, page 6

It���s Your Fault!

There���s a trend these days for companies to blame their customers for the businesses��� errors. Perhaps it began in the computer industry, where tech support workers would ask users calling in with a problem ���What did YOU do to cause the error?��� My standard response to this question is ���I purchased your product.���

 

Last month, I ordered a pizza from Papa John���s website. I chose ���The Works,��� which is their version of all the toppings. I tipped the deliveryman, who promptly drove o...

It’s Your Fault!

There’s a trend these days for companies to blame their customers for the businesses’ errors. Perhaps it began in the computer industry, where tech support workers would ask users calling in with a problem “What did YOU do to cause the error?” My standard response to this question is “I purchased your product.”

 

Last month, I ordered a pizza from Papa John’s website. I chose “The Works,” which is their version of all the toppings. I tipped the deliveryman, who promptly drove off, and when I ope...

A Graduation Message

 During the final week of classes, the graduating elementary school students had a tradition of taking a small book of blank pages around to their friends and classmates to be inscribed with parting thoughts. Most were rather inane, as might be expected from sixth-graders. Having only a few friends, I filled the remaining pages with comments from the teachers and staff. Most of those inscriptions read surprisingly inane as well; however, one stood out then and still does half a century later.

 ...

Fang-tastic News!

 We’re two weeks away from publication of Book Four in the Vampires Vs. Aliens series!

 The most action-packed installment yet! Kevian's past from the Water Wars returns to haunt him and threaten the safety of Earth. Anti-alien prejudice breaks out on the planet. The vampires must deal with a werewolf in their midst. Courtney Cartwright confronts Sebastian after discovering his secrets but has his inadvertent action already sealed their fates? The Jabari have learned their former foes the Hyper...

Just Published: Vampires Vs. Aliens, Omnibus Edition Vol. One

It's Omnibus Day! VAMPIRES VS. ALIENS, OMNIBUS EDITION VOLUME ONE is now available! More than 800 pages of science fiction - fantasy collecting the first three books in the hit series. This is your chance to catch up before next month's installment featuring the thrill-packed Jabari Invasion in Book Four.

 

Sixteen-year-old Courtney Cartwright finds herself attracted to two strangers -- not realizing one's an alien prince and the other's a 200-year-old vampire. Handsome Nicholas appears to be ...

The Age of Magic, Book 3: Return of the Djinn arrives next week!

 

"In The Age of Magic, Anything is Possible."

288 pages. Coming March 15, 2021.

Paperback (Amazon)
Kindle
EPUB Pre-order

What would the Age of Magic be without the Arabian Nights? Aladdin and his magic lamp; Ali Baba and the 40 thieves; genies and djinns and ifrits, oh my! Flying carpets, desert palm trees, and harems filled with voluptuous women. That Moorish architecture, and oh the clothes: turbans, fezzes, and curled pointy shoes. Belly dancers, and the Dance of the Seven Veils. The ...

Wonderland

 

If you think the world has gone insane in 2020, just wait until you see what Alice encounters in 2021!WONDERLAND... A descent into madness.
Available for pre-order.now!  Publication date: January 29, 2021. 
 

A 15-Year Anniversary Retrospective

Fifteen years ago this month, I submitted my first book for publication. Issues in Internet Law became the flagship title of Amber Book Company in December 2005. Nowhere on its cover did it proclaim it was the first edition: it never occurred to me there’d be another edition, let alone ten more.

In fact, I had begun to doubt it would even be published. The first typesetter we hired screwed up the book. They used InDesign to create the book but, as I later figured out, they didn’t know how to use...

Just Published: Warriors & Wizards

"In The Age of Magic, Anything is Possible."

314 pages.

Paperback
Kindle
EPUB

Taking place 15 years after the conclusion of the Halos & Horns story arc, The Age of Magic marks Lucifer's return to the series but much of the story follows the next generation: the children of Samantha (witch) and Lucifer (demon) Cypher; Pandora (vampire) and Cody (werewolf) Fenris; and Kita (kitsune) and Reggie (mortal) Forster. Alaric Cypher spends his summer before starting college in Japan with the fa...

QuaranTeens Interview

Q: Tell me about The QuaranTeens.
A: It’s probably the most timely novel I’ve ever written. All of us. . . the whole world is in the grip of the devastating and deadly COVID-19 pandemic. No matter where you live or what language you speak, the coronavirus is constantly on the minds of every human on the planet right now. COVID is an acronym for COronaVIrusDisease and 19 indicates the year – 2019 – it was discovered. It’s a unique virus mankind’s never seen before and has no immunity against, and...