K.G. Reuss's Blog, page 2

This Might Be Heartbreak. . . or Writer’s Block.

I’ve been working on For Ever, the newest book in my lineup. I haven’t come up with a series name. I’m working on it. Mostly. I seem to be having an issue coming up with the words describing how I currently feel. Now, one may think this is a non-issue. Like, why does it matter how she feels? Just write the damn book, lady!

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Well, it matters because I tend to write based on my feelings. My experiences. The relationship between the two. Lately, there has been an angry black cloud of death around me. It seems to circle me, drowning me, dragging my spirit down (no pun intended). In my line of work, tragedy isn’t unheard of. It’s the devil in the detail, really. The dying have started to stack up, their names, their faces, haunting me. For Ever is a story I started writing based on my experiences with death. Dying. The dead.

I grew up seeing things others couldn’t. Even now as an adult, I still see the shadows move, the flashes of light, feel the air change when they’re nearby. I wanted to write a story that sort of showcased that. I wanted the reader, the audience, to feel what I feel, to experience what I experience. I cannot provide the terror, the increased heart rate, the sweat, or the tears I’ve experienced. I want to. The words are stuck. I see them in my head, but there seems to be a disconnect between my brain and my hands. I can’t help but wonder if it’s my heart that blocks the path.

In the past month, I’ve lost both family and friends to the inevitable outcome of life. It doesn’t matter if they’re people I know. That’s not the point. The point is, it’s out there. It’s lurking behind a smile, an innocent drive to the store, a visit to a doctor, a night of peaceful sleep.

I’m talking about death. In moderation, I can handle it. Lately, ugh. Too much, too fast! To hold the hand of the dying, to promise them happiness despite pain and anguish, is a difficult task. To look into their eyes and know–know–I can’t help them despite the agonizing pull in my chest to make everything “OK” can completely wreck a good day. On a bad day, it’s the tragedy that makes me curl into a ball and wish I had a choice in being born. Maybe I did. I don’t know since I can’t remember anything before the age of five. The idea that we are all faced with an end is unsettling. I’m trying to channel that fear, that sadness, into For Ever. I’m failing miserably. I can’t get the faces out of my head. I can’t get the sounds of their voices out of my head. I can’t get the laughter, the cries, the whispers, the pleading out of my head. And trust me. When they’re able to plead for more time, they do. They always do.

Because in reality, no one wants to die. We will claw our way out of unconsciousness if it means one more sweet minute of an agonizing life–one that is riddled with disease, with depression, with despair–one where we can rake in just one more shaky, painful breath.

And it’s heartbreaking.

And it’s the knot in my head, the one that stops the flow of thoughts. I’ve been able to write a few scenes in For Ever that are based on my own experiences with the dead, with death and dying, and with the fear and despair that come with it. However, I don’t feel like I’m doing it justice.

For that reason, I’m putting For Ever away for a few days. I’m going to be concentrating on working on Oddworld, a series about a dragon-shifter prince. It’s not coming to me as easily either, but it’s working a lot better than For Ever.

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I hate trying to write during writer’s block. It’s the worst. The desire is there, but the words are stuck on some weird neuron-synapse-backwater road in my head.

My seven-year-old son said something interesting to me the other day. He said, “Mom, what if being alive is just a dream and when you die, you’re actually waking up? And that’s where you’re really living.” He’s insightful for someone so young. He has a point though. Maybe he’s right. We won’t ever know until the moment of darkness, of silence, of goodbye, comes.

Maybe then we wake up and really live.

Until then, I’ll be over here fighting a battle with my brain as I try to bleed thoughts into MS Word.

Want to read what I’ve released? Check out Emissary of the Devil, the story of a demon working his way through the ranks of Hell until he meets a part-angel that’s heaven-bent on saving his tarnished soul. It’s available on Amazon right now.

Check out The Chronicles of Winterset: Oracle, the story of a seventeen-year-old girl who is suddenly able to create and handle fire with her bare hands. She thinks she’s going crazy until she meets Calix Night, a guy who just might have all the answers. Oracle is available on Amazon now!

When the Lost Have a Voice: An UNEDITED excerpt from my next book!

 

 

This is an UNEDITED excerpt from my next series called For Ever. Want to keep up to date on all my weird-doings? Follow me (just not home)!

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facebook.com/kgreuss

https://kgreuss.wixsite.com/booksfrombeyond

 

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            “She doesn’t know!”

            “They’ll come for her, and then she’ll help!”

            “Ever, I’m stuck in your closet! Come let me out!”

            “She’s lying, Ever! Come help me! I’m under your bed! If you don’t help me, I’ll grab your feet the next time you stand too close!”

            “Stop it!” I shouted, covering my ears and losing my balance. I fell to the floor with a heavy thump, the air escaping my lungs leaving me gasping painfully.

“Ever?” Nina burst into my room and ran to my side. “Oh my God! What do I do? Should I call your mom?”

“Give me my pain pills,” I groaned out, my ribs aching, my ankle and arm screaming at me, the voices getting louder, the voices only I seemed to be able to hear. I covered my ears and rocked back and forth on the floor, tears streaming down my face.

“Exactly like her father! The pills won’t silence us forever!”

            “The alcohol might,” another voice added miserably. “It worked for him!”

            “Shit,” I groaned, grabbing the bottle from Nina’s hand and downing two of the pills without bothering to ask for a glass of water. Nina stared wide-eyed at me.

“Ever—those are really strong. Do you think you should have taken two of them?” She sounded worried, her blue eyes wavering.

“Water, please,” I croaked out, ignoring her worries. A pill felt like it was stuck in my throat. Nina grabbed a bottle of water from my nightstand and handed it to me. I drank down half of it, breathless, before passing it back to her. She helped me to sit up, and I almost leaned against my bed until I remembered what the voice had said about being under it.

I got to my feet with her help, the voices starting to fade away, and I wiped at my sweating brow.

“Nina, can you bring my pillow and blanket out to the living room? I think I’ll sleep out there tonight.” My voice shook as I tried to rake in oxygen.

“Sure,” she nodded moving to the edge of my bed and grabbing my pillow. I let out a scream as a blackened hand reached out from beneath my bed and swiped at her bare legs, its nails broken and jagged, blood covering what wasn’t already black with decay. It went right through her without her batting a lash.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, her face displaying how worried she was. “Ever! What’s wrong?”

“I-I gotta get out of here. I-I can’t-,” I stumbled backward, catching myself on the edge of my dresser. A set of dark eyes peered out at me from beneath the bed, a growl emanating from its twisted, bleeding lips.

“Ever, wait!” Nina rushed at me and steadied me as I faltered back a step, my gaze locked with the being peering out at me from under my bed. Clearly, she couldn’t hear the voices or see the creature glaring at me, something that made me feel even crazier if that were possible.

“I’ll wait for you,” it hissed before backing away to the shadows beneath the bed—the very place I knew was home to more than just that monster.

“G-get me out of here, Nina,” I choked out. Nina did as I commanded, steering me to the doorway of my bedroom but not before I noticed my closet door creak open and a hand reach around the door jam, its fingernails tapping as if letting me know it too would wait.

 

For Ever will be available Fall 2017!

 

Want to read more of my work? Emissary of the Devil is available now by clicking this link:

 

The Chronicles of Winterset can be found by clicking this link:

A Contest! Really. I’m not kidding.

I’m running a contest on my Facebook fan page. It’s a giveaway for my newest books. Interested? Click the link below! Give it a once over! Who knows, maybe it’ll rock your socks or the socks of someone you know!

Is it a contest or a giveaway? I’m too tired to contemplate it.

 

Another Excerpt?

This is an UNEDITED excerpt from my upcoming book, For Ever. You can find more information on all (well, almost all!) my books and me here:

kgreuss.wixsite.com/booksfrombeyond

Follow me on Facebook here:

http://www.facebook.com/kgreuss

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Or purchase my books on Amazon here:

 

Or here:

Prologue

For Ever by K.G. Reuss

I was born different.

I always knew there was something not necessarily normal about me. How many children can peer into the shadows and watch as they swirled and formed creatures that could prowl through a dimly-lit bedroom at three in the morning? How many children can say they’ve had a conversation with someone that no one else can see—someone that is as real as the air they breathe—someone with whom Death has touched and then forgotten about? How many children can say that the monsters in their closets and under their beds aren’t a figment of their imaginations, that the shaking of their bed in the middle of the night is more than just an old house settling, that it’s actually something from the Other Side?

And the voices. They were everywhere, like hands reaching out to pull at me, to claw at my crumbling psyche. They whispered, they pleaded, they screamed for me to notice them. And I did. God help me, I did. It wasn’t until I was twelve that I was able to force them away. I learned to block them out until they were a distant echo before finally giving way to silence. Sweet silence. And blindness. I got so good at blocking things out that even the shadows and people I could see that no one else could, disappeared, melding once again into simple darkness, the footsteps, growls, and rasping breaths fading away. More silence.

I thought the silence was beautiful. Comforting. Normal.

It was years before everything that I had worked so hard to put behind me suddenly hit me, smothered me, became me.

            And it all started with a kiss before it ended with me dying on the black pavement—pavement that was still wet from the storm that had passed through only an hour before, but now even wetter because of the blood that pooled around my dying body, Rosewood Cemetery a blurry outline in the distance.

And him. The shadow I’d always seen flitting through my room in the dead of night, his lava-red eyes staring down at me, warning me of things to come. Of things I didn’t ask for, things I didn’t want. Things that were simply meant to be because I was different. Because I was not normal. Because he was not normal.

And because there are things some of us are just meant to face, with or without the silence, with or without the fight, the breath, the life. Some of us are destined to die young, to join the ranks of those we feared, to accept what is and what can never be.

Normal.

I can never be it because I never was it. I am simply different. I am Special.

I am the silence, soft and sweet. But I’m also the storm.  The creature in the shadows. The voice in the dark.

The one they fear.

If you don’t know me, be grateful, for I am not there for you. If you do know me, I’m sorry.

Mostly.

For all the things I feared, I have become, and I shall do my duty justly.

Push the button? This one? No? That one? Oh, got it!

I started a website. I’m going to make this short and sweet! You can check it out by clicking the link! I’ll post updates on my books there. Not that I won’t do it here, but I will probably do it there more. Why? I have no idea. . .

Another Fabulous Excerpt! This One is from my Upcoming Book For Ever.

Excerpt For Ever, K.G. Reuss

I pulled my hoodie over my head, my long black hair doing the rest of the work of hiding my face as I walked through the chilly evening air. Hiking my messenger bag up onto my shoulder, I picked up my pace, eager to make it back to the warmth of my home. It was late fall in Northern Michigan, and that meant it was extra cold, and my breath was visible in tiny little puffs as I hurried along the darkening street.

A familiar loud truck rumbled past, its bass booming loudly. I groaned inwardly as the angry red lights of its brakes came on before the truck went in reverse. This was the last thing I felt like dealing with, but I was a trooper for dealing with unwanted situations. I’d managed to make it through my alcoholic father’s harsh words and heavy hits, watching as he’d terrorized my mother, running and screaming as he’d terrorized me when his bottle had run dry. I’d managed to make it through my parent’s nasty divorce. I’d even managed to make it through my childhood, which was littered with a creepy, red-eyed shadow person, strange creatures that were born from the dark corners of my dimly lit bedroom, and the disembodied voices that called out to me. If I could make it through all that, I could make it through a couple of teenage jock straps yowling at me from the truck their overindulgent parents had purchased for them.

“Ever!” Dylan Reynolds called from the passenger seat as his friends guffawed loudly from their various perches within the vehicle. I ducked my head lower and pretended like I couldn’t hear them. They idled beside me, laughing.

“Oye, mamacita, qué buena estás? I know your Mexican ass can hear me!” Dylan shouted again as I scowled behind my curtain of hair. “Come on, Ever!” The truck came to a sudden stop, and Dylan jumped out and stepped in front of me. I sidestepped around him and kept walking, but being the annoying little shit he was, he got back in front of me and started walking backward.

“Ever, seriously. Are you still pissed over Brit’s party the other night?”

“Dylan, I know it may be hard for you to understand, but vete a la chingada.” I snapped at him.

“You’re right, Ever. I don’t understand what that means. It sounds good coming from your mouth, whatever it is,” he said, grinning at me, his hazel eyes lighting up with his amusement and his sandy brown hair falling across his forehead. I don’t know what I ever saw in him aside from his looks, but I spent five months as his girlfriend, listening to him mess with people and suspecting he was cheating on me with Britney Stewart. I was over it now, though. “You haven’t been answering my calls or texts. What gives, babe?”

“Gee, let me think,” I snapped, stopping suddenly and glaring at him. “I found you sucking face with Britney in the bathroom at her party! Why would I give you the time of day?”

“Babe, that was nothing. I was drunk. I thought she was you!”

“Ugh, get the hell out of my face, Dylan! You thought that blonde-haired, blue-eyed Britney was me? Do you think I’m stupid and desperate?” I was losing my patience with him. I’d been avoiding him like the plague since the night of the party last weekend. As far as I was concerned, he could go back to making out with her.

“I was wasted. Come on, Ever. You know you’re my girl!” he sighed, stopping me by putting his hands on my shoulders. His fingers went to push my dark hair away from my face. “You’re just upset. Give me another chance. I swear it won’t happen again. Just get in the truck with us. We’ll give you a ride home.”

“Dylan,” I said sweetly, batting my long lashes at him.

“Yeah, babe?”

“I’d rather shit in my hands and clap than get in that truck with you jackasses.”

“Christ, Ever.” Dylan’s face soured. “You know, maybe you’d keep a guy around if you learned to talk like a lady. It’s a huge turnoff when you say shit like that.”

“Good. My work here is done.” I stepped around him and continued down the sidewalk.

“Whatever!” Dylan shouted at my back. “You know where to find me when you’re ready to come to your senses!”

I flipped him off and kept walking, the wind at my back pushing me forward.

My Book is Releasing in a Few Hours!

Emissary of the Devil: Testimony of the Damned releases tomorrow! I worked on writing this book for about two weeks straight. I started the story about two years ago, but I never really got around to finishing it. I had started working on other stories and Emissary just took a backseat for a while. I released The Chronicles of Winterset: Oracle then proceeded to write The Chronicles of Winterset: Wildfire (which I haven’t released yet). Between all this, I dabbled in other stories. One day, I was going through books on my laptop and saw Emissary so I read through it. . . and absolutely hated it. Angry that Brax wasn’t getting the attention he deserved, I buckled down and rewrote the book. . . multiple times.

I’m one of those folks who is never satisfied. A book could be PERFECTION, but in my mind, there’s always something I could make better (so how is that perfection? And thus, the struggle). I really am my own worst enemy when it comes to writing and revisions.

Anyway, all that aside, Emissary is coming out tomorrow and can be purchased on Amazon.com! The Chronicles of Winterset: Oracle is also available there as well! I’d repost the blurb and link on Emissary, but it’s already posted on the previous blog I wrote yesterday. I think it was yesterday. . . my days sort of swirl into one big cluster sometimes.

Now that Emissary is releasing, I’m moving on to write a story called Gunny Perkins: /nerd. I’m pretty excited to write it since it’s out of my genre. I tend to stick with fantasy novels. Gunny is a YA comedy about a nerd just trying to get it right, whatever “it” is. In addition to working on /nerd, I’m also working on For Ever (yes, two words), a story about ghosts and totally scary stuff (which is more my speed!).

I do plan on releasing the sequel to Emissary of the Devil: Testimony of the Damned. It’s called Emissary of the Devil: Gospel of the Divine. I started it, but Gunny is taking over my head right now. Plus, I want Testimony to get some alone time for a bit!

This entire post feels a bit incoherent and scattered. I’m just getting over a wicked little flu bug that left my throat feeling like I was swallowing razor blades. I’m so exhausted! I’m having this internal struggle of wanting to work on Gunny or For Ever, but there’s this nagging little voice in my head that is screaming for me to rest since I’m exhausted and have to work a twenty-four-hour shift tomorrow (yuck, right?).

The early reviews for Emissary are great (so far!). That makes me super excited to know that there are folks out there who enjoyed reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it!

I must be going. The nagging voice is winning! I must sleep!

Emissary of the Devil: Testimony of the Damned

Emissary of the Devil: Testimony of the Damned, my newest book, is coming out on May 19, 2017!

You can order your digital copy here on Amazon:

Preview won’t be available until May 19, 2017. Sorry! Check out the blurb for it below for more information on the book!

Want a physical copy? You can request it through Barnes & Noble or any retailer! You can also get a signed copy directly from me by messaging me on my fan page!

http://www.facebook.com/kgreuss

About Emissary of the Devil:

Centuries ago, Brax committed unforgivable sins, killing his lover and himself, and to escape eternal damnation, he made a bargain with the Devil. Now immortal, he roams the earth, corrupting and collecting souls for Hell’s infernal legions in anticipation of the coming apocalypse. And he is very, very good at what he does.

When he is given the special assignment of corrupting Maggie Westbrook, a seemingly timid high school senior who also happens to be one of the Nephilim, children of angels with the purest of mortal souls, Brax believes his goal of commanding his own legion in Hell’s army is finally within his reach. Maggie isn’t just any Nephilim; she’s the lamb who will break the seals that will usher in Armageddon, and her corruption will tip the scales of that final battle towards Hell.

But he quickly finds that the job will be more difficult than he first anticipated. For one thing, he has competition in the form of the demon Corbin Black, whose powers of corruption rival his own. And Maggie is not unguarded, as the Nephilim and host of Heaven will do everything they can to stop him. Most disconcerting, though, is Maggie herself. From the moment Brax first sees her, he is drawn to her purity and innocence, and as he comes to know her, long-forgotten emotions begin to rise within him, emotions he hasn’t felt for centuries…

While Testimony is an epic story of good and evil battling for control of an innocent soul, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance, it’s also the more personal story of a deeply flawed man trying as hard as he can to overcome the devastating sins of his past and find true love and redemption.

This book contains mature themes, violence, drug use, drinking, and sexual situations. Reader discretion is advised.

 

 

Greetings From the Other Side. . . Of the Room!

So. . .

I keep saying I’ll update this blog. I keep saying I will work my hump off to keep writing on it. And yet, I have done nothing of the sort. To be honest, I don’t ever really have anything to say. Today, I will try. A little. Here we go!

News. News. News.

Er, I finished writing Emissary of the Devil: Testimony of the Damned. I’ll probably release it on Kindle and all those digital do-dads sometime in June. I finished writing Wildfire, the sequel to The Chronicles of Winterset: Oracle (which you can purchase on Amazon right now!). I don’t have a release date set for that. It needs to be edited. I’m a writer, not an editor! I just scribble down words and hope to Hades I have them in a somewhat coherent… manner? Sentence? Straight line? I don’t know. I have a massive migraine right now. My words are sort of stuck in my head.

Here’s the cover for Emissary. Fancy, eh?

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I’m currently working on For Ever (yes, it’s two words!) and The Oddworld Files. When my brain starts to hurt from those two, I work a bit on The Coyote Council, a vampire series (yeah, yeah, yeah, vampires. Mine are way cool, though).

For Ever is a book/series about a girl who can see the dead. You know, ghosts ‘n stuff. This is not the cover. It’s just a teaser. I am aiming for an October 2017 release.

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Oddworld is about a green-eyed dragon shifter prince on the run from the Brigade, a dark army intent on capturing him and using his powers for shady stuff. I’m aiming for a late fall/early winter 2017 release.

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I’d tell you more, but I’ve been tasked with being a super secret keeper of my own words. Plus, I’m still working on both stories.

The Chronicles of Winterset: Wildfire is sitting on my laptop being cool. Taking up space. Just chillin’. While I haven’t set a firm release date on it, I’m going to attempt a summer 2017 release. This is the cover. Yay!

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I tend to just write without a clear goal in mind. I don’t plan out my stories. They just sort of happen. I write what I’ve seen in my dreams, what I’ve thought, what I wish. Meh. You know how it is–if you can’t live in that world, then create it so you can!

That’s the news! And, as always, I will try to update more often. Or, you could simply follow me on Facebook. Maybe I should do instagram. . . I take pictures. Sometimes.

Also, I super suck at Twitter.

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And no, my house doesn’t look like a crypt inside (surprisingly).  A lot of folks ask me that. However, plants can’t survive within the walls of my home. I have a black thumb. They die within the week. We all have skills–mine just include killing plants.

Here I am being vanilla AF. In a cemetery. Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery in Illinois to be exact.

Seriously, I’m done. Peace!

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Rattled. You Can Quote Me.

I’m going to make this short and sweet.

I’m pitching Emissary of the Devil this weekend to some agents. Obviously, I have my fingers, toes, and eyes crossed. On the flip side of that, I’m a mess. I’ve never pitched anything but a fit before so I’m treading in new, dangerous waters. . . and I don’t know how to swim (seriously, I don’t).

I’ve decided if this doesn’t go well, I’m going to simply release Emissary of the Devil on my own, just like I did with The Chronicles of Winterset, Oracle.

In other news, Wildfire, the sequel to Oracle, has been written and is currently awaiting editing. I’ve started on a new series called Oddworld. I’m pretty excited to be working on it! The Secret Life of Death was put on hold, although I do plan on finishing that up in the near future.

To be honest, there are nine (NINE!) books on my laptop that I’ve started. I’m halfway done with book one in a series called The Coyote Council. I’m halfway done with a book called For Ever (yes, two words). There are so many documents saved on my laptop. Sometimes I’ll open one and get excited to work on it and then another one will catch my eye and off I go!

I don’t update as often as I should. My apologies. You can always follow me on Facebook at facebook.com/kgreuss

I post more there than here!