Darin Kennedy's Blog, page 3
July 14, 2016
The Mussorgsky Riddle Nominated for the 2016 Manly Wade Wellman Award
This Saturday, 16 Jul 2016, the announcement of the winner of the 2016 Manly Wade Wellman Award from the North Carolina Speculative Fiction Foundation will be made. I am among the nominees with The Mussorgsky Riddle as well as good friend Gail Z. Martin with THREE different books nominated: War of Shadows, Iron & Blood, & Vendetta; traveling buddy John Hartness for Raising Hell and the talented Ursula Vernon for Castle Hangnail. I am excited just to have been nominated among such awesome and experienced authors and can’t wait for Saturday night where we can all celebrate the winner! Here’s a link to the press release.
July 6, 2016
LibertyCon! This weekend in Chattanooga!
So this weekend in Chattanooga, I will be a part of LibertyCon, and couldn’t be more excited.
Looking forward to doing a few panels, a reading, some signings, and actually attending some of the panels as well in between.
Will be heading west with John Hartness and Gail Martin to spend the weekend with a host of awesome guests to include the Literary Guest of Honor, John Mayberry, as well as David B. Coe, Larry Correia, Rich Groller, Robby Hilliard, Chris Kennedy, Todd McCaffery, Bobby Nash, Gray Rinehart, Tedd Roberts, and many more.
My schedule at LibertyCon is as follows:
Friday, 8 July – 3 pm – Autograph Session
Friday, 8 July – 5 pm – Opening Ceremonies
Friday, 8 July – 9 pm – Reading: Darin Kennedy & John Hartness
Saturday, 9 July – 10 am – Global Pandemics and Bio Security
Saturday, 9 July – 4-7 pm – Author’s Alley
Saturday, 9 July – 10 pm – Frontiers of Military Medicine
Saturday, 9 July – 11 pm – Mad Scientist Roundtable
Sunday, 10 July – 5 pm – Kaffeeklatsch
See you there! Darin
#LibertyCon
June 11, 2016
I just ran a 5K! (Well, sort of…)
A productive day, indeed. It’s taken the better part of ten hours, but I have pounded out 5,000 words today, pretty close to a personal record. I might even be able to keep most of them, but I won’t know for sure until I hit the editing phase.
How many pages is 5,000 words? Well, with the average being about 250-300 words per page in your average paper back, that’s 16 – 20 pages. If I could write like this every day, I could complete a book a month, but the contrary nature of my muse in concert with the demands of the actual job make that a bit of a pipe dream, at least at the moment.
Suffice to say that today was a very good day, the characters and story both definitely moved forward, and I feel like I am back in the saddle. Manuscript now sits at 54,453 words and climbing!
As a quick side note, today’s plot twist comes to you all by way of Micki Knop and her insightful comment from ConCarolinas regarding “PATW”. BTW, that particular piece is Prokofiev, not Tchaikovsky, but I’m totally using it anyway – I think that actually makes it work better in the long run, as a matter of fact. Thanks, Micki!
Back at it tomorrow!
Darin
May 30, 2016
ConCarolinas 2016 – This weekend in Concord!
So this weekend at the Embassy Suites Charlotte – Concord, I return for my second year as a guest at ConCarolinas!
Looking to be another awesome year with all sorts of fantastic literary guests, panels, cosplayers, and cool stuff to buy.
I will be available at my table most of the time, but Misty Massey, our unstoppable literary track organizer, has me on eight panels where you can come find me pontificating about subjects as disparate as magical babies and medicine at the end of the world.
My schedule is as follows…
Friday, 3 June – 5 pm – Mystic Pregnancies and Magic Babies
Friday, 3 June – 10 pm – Writers and Mental Illness
Saturday, 3 June – 11 pm – Medicine After the End of the World (Moderator)
Saturday, 3 June – 1 pm – Medicine and the Alternative
Saturday, 3 June – 3 pm – The Trouble with Trilogies
Sunday, 3 June – 10 pm – Using Real People, Places, and History in Your Fiction
Sunday, 3 June – 1 pm – How Deep is Your Subgenre
Sunday, 3 June – 2 pm -The End of It
This weekend promises to be a fun time with awesome people! Hope to see you there!
Darin
#ConCarolinas
April 29, 2016
Look out Virginia! Here I Come! RavenCon 2016
If you are in the Williamsburg, VA area this weekend, come find me at RavenCon!
It’s their first year in Williamsburg, and I’m looking forward to checking out the new venue, doing some panels, hanging with readers/writers, and sending home some fine people with shiny new books.
Here is my schedule for the event:
Friday:
7 pm (Opening Ceremonies) Large Auditorium
11 pm (Panel) Too Many Retcons? / Room G / Moderator
Saturday:
3 pm (Panel) Writing a Strong Teen Protagonist / Room F
6 pm (Panel) Why Comics Matter / Room F / Moderator
8 pm (Panel) Flash, Green Arrow, and Supergirl: DC Conquers TV / Room G
10 pm (Panel) Dream Re-casting / Room G / Moderator
11 pm (Presentation/Workshop) Ask a (Mad) Scientist / Room E
Sunday:
11 am (Panel) Disabled Characters / Room E / Moderator
Hope to see you there!
Darin
April 25, 2016
An EPIC Achievement
On April 15th, 2016, The Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition – EPIC – announced the Winner of the 2016 eBook Awards and I was excited to find out The Mussorgsky Riddle won the award for Best Fantasy / Paranormal Fiction. A link to their page and the list of winners in their various categories can be found here.
To be honest, I entered the contest just to see how the whole thing worked and was pleasantly surprised when I was named one of the five finalists and even more when my little tale of murder, mystery, and classical music came out on top. Hats off to all the other finalists and thanks to the fine people at EPIC!
April 16, 2016
Loch Norman Highland Games
Loch Norman Highland Games – 16 Apr 2106
Top of the morning to ya!
Just letting everyone know I will be out at the Loch Norman Highland Games on Saturday only. I will be spending most of the day with the prettiest wee lass at the fair, but for the first few hours I will likely be selling books near the gate. Feel free to drop by and say hi!
Thanks to Jim Nettles for the invitation. Clan Erskennedy is looking forward to getting our bagpipes on. (Is that a thing?)
Of note, Jim may be selling a few books of his own and you should check out his stuff. Anyone who writes about gnomes who are being murdered and turned into garden statuary deserves a read!
Hope to see you all out at the Games!
Darin
P.S. For all you Caber tossers out there, my website is Doctor by Day, Novelist by Night. In case of emergency, I can check for hernias…
April 8, 2016
Words Awake!
Words Awake! – 8-9 Apr 2016 at
Wake Forest University – Winston-Salem, NC
This event is more than a bit of a homecoming for me.
I was pleasantly surprised a few months back to be invited by Thomas O. Phillips to return to my alma mater at Wake Forest University, which also happens to be located in my hometown of Winston-Salem, NC, to participate in the second iteration of Words Awake! – a celebration of Wake Forest writers and writing in general. This two-day event brings together writers and readers and students and teachers and all lovers of the written word and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of it!
On Friday, I and three of the other authors will spend most of the day at Parkland High School talking to the students there on various aspects of writing from both the artistic and business side of the house, and then the rest of Friday and all day Saturday will be spent on the Wake Forest University campus in the main celebration, the full schedule of which can be found here.
To any of you Wake alumni who happen to still be in the area, hope to see you out at this event or at another event in the future.
Who knows? If this goes well, perhaps I’ll be invited back someday for Words Awake 3!
Best,
Darin
April 2, 2016
SC Comicon
Come find me and John G. Hartness on Artists Alley at SC Comicon this weekend!
10-6 on Saturday and 12-6 on Sunday!
March 17, 2016
Piedmont Wind Symphony – Pictures at an Exhibition
Piedmont Wind Symphony – Winston-Salem, NC
7:30 Tonight!
Come find me at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art for the Piedmont Wind Symphony’s performance of Pictures at an Exhibition, composed by Modest Mussorgsky.
Awesome music, an art auction, and I will be selling copies of The Mussorgsky Riddle in the lobby before the show and at intermission.
Come out for an awesome evening! Tickets available at link above, unless the show is already sold out!
