Darin Kennedy's Blog, page 4

Guest Blog – Interview with Sean Taylor

At ConNooga this year, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Sean Taylor. Lots of laughs sharing an intersection in the Dealer’s Room. A fellow writer and lover of all things genre. I look forward to the next con where we cross paths!

Today, he featured an interview with me on his blog, “Bad Girls, Good Guys, and Two-Fisted Action” – if you’d like to read the interview, click here, and make sure to check out Sean’s blog in the future. Great stuff!

Till next time,

Darin

 

2016 Atlanta Sci Fi & Fantasy Expo

2016 Atlanta Science Fiction & Fantasy Expo

Come find me in the Dealer’s Room!

5 Mar 2016 10-9 and 6 Mar 2016 12-6

North Dekalb Mall

2050 Lawrenceville Hwy, Decatur, GA 30033

See you there!

Putting the “In Progress” in my WIP!

Took a few months off from blogging. Finished the Mussorgsky sequel, got it edited and pretty, and sent it off to my agent. Went from coast to coast selling books and spending QT with the prettiest girl in Charlotte. Holidays. Family and friends.

But I’m back…

Now, a little over a month into working on the third book and I just hit 15K. My stuff aims for the 100K mark, so I may hit the 1/5 point by next week. This new project is proving challenging and fun, two adjectives that always seem to go hand-in-hand when I sit down at the keyboard. Strange connections are magically forming as they have with the previous two books, characters are coming to life, and this trilogy is really coalescing well as the writing on this “finale” begins in earnest.

As for Book 2 and other projects, lots of stuff is going on behind the scenes, lots of new words are being created, and (hopefully) there’s going to be a lot of news coming up in the not too distant future. Stay tuned.

Happy 2016 to everyone. Two months in and it’s proving to be a pretty great year. Life is good.

And now, to quote Joey Tribbiani, “How you doin’?”

Darin

Charlotte Writers

I have been a proud member of Charlotte Writers Group for pretty much my entire time in Charlotte (starting Year 8… wow…) and am honored to be their first Interview with a Writer guest. This group, as much as anything, has helped me become the writer I am today and I owe a lot to the people I met there and friendships that have blossomed from our share passion for writing.

Special thanks to Brendan McKennedy who started the group back in 2008 and to Jay Requard who ran the group for the last three years after my stint as the head organizer from 2011-2012. The current leadership is an awesome collection of individuals and all good friends of mine. To Nicole, Melisa, Karen, and Eric – keep up the good work!

Here is a link to my interview on the Charlotte Writers Group website. Feel free to check it out as well as the rest of the website and if you are in the Charlotte, NC area and are a writer and are looking for a home, look no further!

All best,

Darin

Con Nooga 2016

Con Nooga – 19-21 Feb – First Author Event of 2016

Come find me in Chattanooga this weekend!

I’m scheduled to take part in the following panels:

Friday

3:00 PM Plotting vs. Pantsing

5:00 PM Creating 3 Dimensional Characters

Saturday

2:00 PM Medicine in Sci-Fi

8:00 PM Stephen King and Other Horror Masters

9:00 PM Building Tension in Scenes and Stories

Sunday

10:00 AM Research for Writers: Getting it Right!

1:00 PM Terrible Writing Advice

Any time I’m not on a panel, I will be sharing a table with John Hartness and Jay Requard in the Dealer’s Room! Look forward to seeing you there!

Where’s Darin?

Doesn’t Darin have a blog? I mean, he used to do that Mussorgsky Mondays thing, right?

Hi, everyone. I’m still here, just been busy working on the new WIP, a sequel to The Mussorgsky Riddle, which I must say is coming along a lot better than I anticipated. Funny how these books sort of write themselves sometimes.

Except they don’t, in the very real concrete way of thinking about it.

I do my best to write, blog, social media, all the things a writer is supposed to do in addition to eat, drink , sleep, work, see family, friends, girlfriend, etc. but my daily words are precious and of late, I’ve been spending most of them on the next book. Wish I could find a way to get in more blogging, facebooking, tweeting, pinteresting, tumblring, etc., but I just can’t and get this book written. Never was that great at juggling, anyway…

The writing, on the other hand, has been pretty exciting of late. Right now, it feels like it did when all the little strings (pardon the pun) from Mussorgsky started to come together as we headed for the big finale. I’m excited to sit and write these days, and it shows in the recent word count. As I near the end of this current WIP, I’m really gearing up. But this is nothing new. I always start to accelerate toward the end. Happens every time.

For instance, I started this book the day after Christmas, 26 Dec 2014, or for all intents and purposes, January.

Jan – May – 42,247 words total

Jun – 56,308 (up 9,061 words) Also, June usuallyeats me alive every year.

Jul – 69,397 (up 13,089 words)

Aug – 81,875 (up 12,478 words – and still with 14 days to go!)

I did stop and knock out two short stories along the way, the first 5K and the second 7K, which while cool is a bit frustrating as I’m pretty sure I’d be knocking approaching those my two favorite words (The End) right about now if I’d just kept going, but those stories were both fun and hopefully will be published someday in the not too distant future. Meanwhile, the novel was allowed to gestate/marinate/other metaphor ending in -ate during these two times away and now I’m back at it with a vengeance.

There are many reasons why I seem to be picking up speed. As always, Aug and Sep are typically when my life calms back down a bit at work, but I think the biggest reason this time is I can’t wait to see how this story ends. Truth be told, I know what’s coming–Trust me, I do–but do any of us REALLY know exactly how the story will end until we actually get there?

Flannery O’Connor said it best: “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”

Speaking of the end, it’s nearly midnight and tomorrow is coming whether I’m ready or not, so I will sign off for now. As always happy writing, and I hope to be back around these parts sometime soon!

Darin

 

Smelling Sheep and Jumping Sharks

Today, I was the guest blogger on I Smell Sheep, invited by Sharon Stogner to talk about whatever my heart desired. I discussed Shark Jumping and the inherent dangers of writing sequels. When you can make it better, go for it, but if you suddenly feel the need to create Scrappy Doo, perhaps it’s time to end that piece and start something fresh…

Here’s a link to my post at I Smell Sheep! Enjoy!

Happy writing everyone!

Darin

To Audio or Not To Audio

 

Today, I was the guest blogger on Word-Whores, invited by my friend, Linda Robertson to talk about my recent experience with launching an audiobook. I suspect I will have more to say on the subject in 6-12 months, as the audiobook for The Mussorgsky Riddle just launched 8 days ago, but I did have a few things to say. Also, check out Linda’s posts and the other authors there. Lots of good info to be had!

Here’s a link to my post at Word-Whores!

Happy writing everyone!

Darin

Guest Blog: The One, The Only – Gail Z. Martin

Gail Martin, Dreamspinner Communications

It’s Monday night/Tuesday morning and I’d like to welcome Gail Z. Martin to Checkered Ramblings. Gail is the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer Series, The Fallen Kings Cycle, as well as the two new series pictured below. She is my guest blogger today, so Gail, take it away!

The Charleston of Deadly Curiosities

By Gail Z. Martin

Charleston, SC is an amazing city. Nestled on the harbor, packed with historic sites, haunted locations, beautiful architecture and awesome food, it’s a pretty darn fantastic vacation spot. It’s also a fantastic, under-utilized setting for urban fantasy, which is why my Deadly Curiosities series decided to take up residence.

Charleston is one of the oldest cities in the U.S. at 350 years old. It’s a seafaring city, and its history is full of cotton and commodities, rum runners, blockade runners, pirates and slave ships. Like New Orleans, Charleston is a fascinating contradiction. Proper, pious and beautiful on one level–especially for those who had high status and wealth–and supporting that luxury, another level steeped in the blood of the slaves and catering to the dark passions of those upstanding folks with brothels, taverns and speakeasies, dueling grounds and slave markets.

Ghosts, pirates and duels abound in Charleston’s legends. Head down there, and you can take tours that highlight Charleston’s bloodiest duels, juiciest scandals and scariest ghosts. Read up on the city’s history, and you’ll find out that the truth is even more amazing.

Stroll down King Street, Charleston’s main downtown retail street, and it’s easy to picture Trifles and Folly, the antique shop from my books, tucked in among the jewelry stores and clothing emporiums. Walk through the Charleston City Market and see the fresh produce, locally-made food and craft items and of course, the sweetgrass baskets, and you can easily picture Cassidy, my main character, stopping to talk with Mrs. Teller and her daughter Niella at their basket display.

Visit some of the city’s landmarks, like the Old Jail, the Customs House and Dueler’s Alley, and see if you can’t easily imagine the ghosts of Charleston’s past, even if you’re not psychic or have psychometric abilities. Stop in at the Charleston Museum and take a leisurely stroll through the city’s history, or visit the H.L. Hunley submarine museum then think about what’s on display and you’ll glimpse why Cassidy’s talent for reading the history of objects by touching them makes museum visits difficult–and sometimes dangerous. Take plenty of pictures, and don’t be surprised when lots of spirit orbs show up.

A trip to Charleston wouldn’t be complete without gracious houses, whether it’s Middleton or Magnolia Plantations, the country’s only tea plantation at Wadmalaw Island or the Rhett-Akin house downtown. Imagine Sorren, Cassidy’s vampire business partner, mingling with the planter aristocracy over the centuries during which he and Cassidy’s ancestors helped safeguard Charleston and the world. Spend some time on the Battery looking out over the harbor, glimpse Fort Sumter, and drive out to John’s Island to see the Angel Oak.

Stroll the streets and take in the beauty of the Charleston ‘single houses’ like the one Cassidy lives in, turned sideways to the street with a door onto the piazza and a walled garden. Meander through the beautiful old cemeteries near the historic churches, like the fascinating burying ground at St. Phillips, or out on the edge of town at Magnolia, Bethany and St. Lawrence Cemeteries out on Huguenin Avenue, a veritable necropolis of a street with about a dozen different cemeteries side by side. If you’ve read Deadly Curiosities (and when you read Vendetta, coming in December), you’ll quickly realize where the action takes place.

Make sure you reserve time for a horse-drawn carriage tour of the downtown and a walking tour after hours of the city’s most haunted places. Then if you’re hungry, rove Charleston’s fantastic selection of restaurants ranging from bars to white-linen tablecloth establishments and find out why the Holy City is foodie heaven.

I’ve fallen in love with the real Charleston, and with the setting where Cassidy Kincaide, Teag Logan and Sorren keep the world safe from supernatural bad nasties and magically malicious objects. That’s just one reason I’m looking forward to returning to Atomacon, Charleston’s sci-fi convention, and the opportunity to do more research about one of the most beautiful and haunted cities in America.

Watch for Vendetta, the second book in the Deadly Curiosities series to launch in late December, 2015!

The Hawthorn Moon Sneak Peek Event includes book giveaways, free excerpts and readings, all-new guest blog posts and author Q&A on 28 awesome partner sites around the globe. For a full list of where to go to get the goodies, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com.

Join Gail, Larry, and I at Atomacon, where we will be guests and doing panels / selling books / meeting folks. Not only will Gail be bringing the ghost stories of Charleston to life surrounded by the city itself, but her and Larry’s steampunk Pittsburgh will also be unleashed in the first of no doubt many Jake Desmet Adventures: look for Iron & Blood, coming soon!

Gail Z. Martin writes epic fantasy, urban fantasy and steampunk for Solaris Books and Orbit Books. In addition to Iron and Blood, she is the author of Deadly Curiosities and the upcoming Vendetta in her urban fantasy series; The Chronicles of The Necromancer series (The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven, Dark Lady’s Chosen) from Solaris Books and The Fallen Kings Cycle (The Sworn, The Dread) as well as Ice Forged, Reign of Ash, and War of Shadows in The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga from Orbit Books. Gail writes two series of ebook short stories: The Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures and the Deadly Curiosities Adventures and her work has appeared in over 20 US/UK anthologies.

Larry N. Martin fell in love with fantasy and science fiction when he was a teenager. After a twenty-five year career in Corporate America, Larry started working full-time with his wife, author Gail Z. Martin and discovered that he had a knack for storytelling, plotting and character development, as well as being a darn fine editor. Iron and Blood is their first official collaboration. On the rare occasions when Larry isn’t working on book-related things, he enjoys pottery, cooking and reading.

Find them at www.JakeDesmet.com, on Twitter @GailZMartin or @LNMartinauthor, on Facebook.com/WinterKingdoms, at DisquietingVisions.com blog and GhostInTheMachinePodcast.com, on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/GailZMartin free excerpts, Wattpad http://wattpad.com/GailZMartin.

A Whirlwind of Activity

Wow.

Just wow.

Except to venture out to face the fine ladies at the US Post Office to mail two books this afternoon and eat a relatively late lunch, I’ve barely been off the couch today. Boy has it been a busy two weeks. Fun? You bet. But am I a bit on the beat side? Absolutely.

I got to spend May 29-31 with a few thousand of my closest friends at Con Carolinas, the largest sci-fi/fantasy convention in NC each year, then book signings at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill on Jun 7 and Scuppernong books in Greensboro on Jun 11. Oh, yeah, and still working in between and trying to squeeze in some sleep in the middle of it all.

To recount a full two weeks of activities seems Herculean at the moment, but I thought I’d post some fun pictures. To those of you I got to cross paths with at these various events, great to see you and look forward to the next event!

 

CONCAROLINAS

My table!

Roy Mauritsen

Buds

I have failed this city…

Getting In The Mood…

What’s In A Name?

What Genre Is This?

Friends!

The Barter System In Action…

FLYLEAF BOOKS

Thanks to Jamie Fiocco for helping me line up the signing and to Jeremy Hawkins and the staff for making me feel right at home. Also thanks to Samuel Montgomery Blinn for coming out and meeting us for lunch and to all the great folks who came for the signing!

SCUPPERNONG BOOKS

What an awesome signing! Thanks to Brian Lampkin, the owner, and the fantastic staff who took great care of me. Also, thanks to friends, family, and all the new faces who came out to hear me read my story. Hope to see you all again in the future.

And how to end such a great day / two weeks? Drinks, dessert, and a quick walking tour of downtown Greensboro on a beautiful night.

Like I said, a whirlwind of two weeks, but wouldn’t trade them for anything.

Back in Charlotte, and almost rejuvenated.

May write some tomorrow, but for tonight, I think I’ll watch a little Daredevil…

See you all on the flip side!

Darin