Darin Kennedy's Blog, page 7

Mussorgsky Mondays – My Writing Goals

When you decide to become a writer, you should know what it is you hope to accomplish at various points in your career. For years now, I have established that I have had three main goals that I wished to achieve with my writing.

1) I want to walk into a Barnes & Noble and see a book I wrote sitting on the shelf.

2) I want a complete stranger to walk up to me and say, “Hey, I liked your book.”

3) I want Neil Gaiman to read my book and think, “Hey, that wasn’t that bad.”

Do I have other goals? Of course.

Would I like to be famous? Not sure. Maybe author famous, but not paparazzi famous. I’ll leave that to the fine people on Jersey Shore.

Would I like to be a best seller? Of course. But mainly because that would hopefully mean a lot of people really liked what I wrote.

Would I like to be rich? Again, of course.  However, as I’ve read a thousand times, if you’re doing this for the money, you are delusional at best… You write because you love it. And because not writing is unacceptable.

So for now, I’m sticking with the big three.

#2 has come true, so to speak. I’ve already received some very kind and heartwarming reviews through my publisher and on Goodreads, and knowing that those people enjoyed the story is enough to keep me going for a long time.

As for #1, first I’d like to again thank the fine people at Park Road Books in Charlotte, NC for hosting my Launch Party last Saturday. It was a huge success and I’m still touched and honored by all the friends, family, and others that came out to support me. You are who I write for and I hope to do you proud with this book and future projects. Here are some photos from the event (with more likely to follow):

After all was said and done, we sold 82 books that day, and again I am humbled and grateful for all the support. I left a few copies for the store before joining everyone over at Cantina 1511 and went back this week to find Scheherazade and Baba Yaga doing battle on the New Release shelf at Park Road Books!

But Goal #1 was to see the book on the shelf at Barnes & Noble, right? Well, my friend Regis Murphy posted this picture yesterday from Barnes & Noble – Birkdale, just north of Charlotte.

Naturally, I had to see it for myself, so Erin and I drove up to Birkdale yesterday for some Sunday afternoon sushi and to peruse the shelves at B&N. Goal #1, marked off the list. Here are the photos:

The nice girl who took our picture turned around and bought the book after we walked away…

Now, Regis may or may not have had something to do with the fact that I made it into a Barnes & Noble, as he is currently an employee of that fine establishment, but I will take it.

And right below Neil Gaiman to boot!

So – Goals #1 and #2 are complete. As for Goal #3? Well.. Mr. Gaiman, let me know what you think!

Yes Neil, I know, I know. I should be writing. But there’s still time for one last photo from a particularly awesome evening a few years back.

And with that, it’s back to Project: Recapture the Lightning.

Now, if only my new Stravinsky CD would hurry up and get here. Oh well, back to YouTube…

Darin

Review – The Mussorgsky Riddle – Kat at Quill or Pill?

I met Kat de Falla through various writing channels online years ago, and though we’ve never met in person, it’s been good to catch up with her from time to time over the years. Just like I’m a doctor by day and novelist by day, Kat splits her time between practicing as pharmacist and exercising her writing muscles when she’s not engaging in medical derring do.

I asked her a couple months back if she’d be willing to review The Mussorgsky Riddle and what she posted today brought tears to my eyes.

I’m glad you loved the book so much, Kat, and will endeavor to knock your socks off with next one as well. All best!

Find Kat’s review here.

Cover Reveal for J. Matthew Saunders’ Daughters of Shadow & Blood

On May 3rd, 2015, J. Matthew Saunders will unleash his debut novel upon the world.

The Daughters of Shadow & Blood Trilogy will tell the tales of the three women who became the Brides of Dracula.

Book I: Yasamin is a story of love and betrayal, duty and honor, past and present.

A link back to Matthew’s actual cover release blog post from a few days back is here. I was honored that he released the cover during my Online Release Party and am glad to give him a shout out here in return. This book can’t get here fast enough.

Not to mention, he’s just started Book II… Prepare to be scared.

Boo,

Darin

The Weird Wild West Kickstarter

Several friends of mine are involved in a new Kickstarter project called The Weird Wild West. It’s an anthology with multiple tales of a West that never was, with aliens, magic, and maybe a little steampunk. Sounds like a rollicking good time. The link to the Kickstarter page is here. If nothing else, go and check it out, especially the video narrated by Misty Massey, and see what they’ve got going on!

See you later, pardner,

Darin

A Shout Out to We Geek Girls

As many of you know, I spent 14 hours on Facebook on Monday, 12 Jan 2015, running the Online Launch Party for my debut novel, The Mussorgsky Riddle. One of the guests that hung out for most of the day was my new friend, Candice Carpenter from We Geek Girls, a cool website that caters to all things geeky, especially books and authors. As I was finishing up doing research for the new book tonight (yesterday now), I saw that she had sent me a link to their blog. I followed the link and found that she has written a blog about her experience at the party yesterday as well as created a master list to many of the authors at the party she was able to meet.

A link to the blog is here.

Thanks to Candice for hanging with us most of Monday and for doing this. On Facebook, I plan to tag all the authors mentioned here so we can send some love in the direction of We Geek Girls as well. Candice is going to read 50 books this year, so let’s give her our support!

Candice, thanks for being a part of my big day! See you around the interwebz!

Darin

Doctor Seuss meets Doctor Who

I found these while perusing the book of Face this morning and thought they were charming and funny. For your viewing enjoyment, Doctor Who’ss!

And all the little Who’s gathered and sang!

Allon-sy!

Darin

Mussorgsky Mondays: To Celebrate Launch Day, an Excerpt

After 10 months of patiently (and, at times, not so patiently) waiting, the day has arrived. 12 Jan 2015, the launch day for my debut novel, The Mussorgsky Riddle. A big thank you to everyone who has made this day possible: my agent, Stacey Donaghy; Eugene, Lisa, Nikki, Clare, Andrew, and the rest of the crew at Curiosity Quills Press: my critique group; and my friends and family both near and far.

The Launch Event two days ago at Park Road Books here in Charlotte, NC was successful beyond my wildest dreams and I’m really looking forward to the Facebook Online Launch Party from 9-11 today. Come one, come all for a chance to win one of three prizes: a copy of The Mussorgsky Riddle, a copy of Chronology: The 2015 Curiosity Quills Anthology, or a $25 Barnes & Noble gift certificate!

To celebrate, a excerpt from the beginning of Chapter III –

No sooner do the words leave my lips than the barrage of light and sound stops. The sudden silence is somehow worse. Before I can take a breath, a burst of brilliance like a thousand flashbulbs firing at once blinds me. With ears still ringing from the auditory onslaught, I rub at my eyes as my vision adjusts to the muted luminescence of another place entirely.

An enormous hallway stretches out before me, the sheer opulence of the space reminding me of pictures from the Louvre. The way before me is clear, though the passage to my rear is blocked by a pair of ten-foot high doors fashioned of dark oak. A lock the size of my head hangs between them. Won’t be leaving that way.

“Dios mío,” I mutter, channeling my mother.

If even God can hear me in this place.

Its walls alabaster white with mahogany trim, the hall’s hardwood floor is laid in an intricate herringbone parquet pattern of alternating oak and rosewood. Above my head, the vaulted ceiling is decorated with a fresco reminiscent of the Sistine Chapel’s, though the style of the painter appears far more Dalí than Michelangelo. Also, where David’s sculptor found his inspiration in the many stories of the Bible, the tortured images that fill the ceiling of this place are all stolen from classical mythology, the entire surface an anthropologist’s acid dream.

Directly above me, Leda’s rape by the Zeus-swan fills my vision. Just adjacent, the three Fates continue their eternal task of spinning, measuring and cutting the thread of life, the product of their work resolving into a misshapen infant’s umbilical cord. Prometheus, chained to the rock with the eagle’s head buried in his flayed abdomen, lies in agony above the gigantic door that blocks my escape. The Titan’s gaze follows me as I venture farther down the hallway and an additional picture comes into view. Persephone rests on one knee in the darkness, her fist clutched around the crimson pomegranate that remands her to Hades for half the year.

Guess that minor in Classics isn’t looking like such a waste of time and money anymore, now is it, Mom?

If my theory about this place is right, two things are very clear.

Anthony Faircloth has an intimate knowledge of world mythology.

And he’s not too big on subtlety.

As I proceed down the hallway, the images above me grow more and more bizarre, even as the scenes they depict become less and less familiar. In one, a spider climbs into the sky with a bound python caught between its front legs. In another, a bearded man wears a black T-shirt with a white lightning bolt like the Gatorade logo and holds aloft what appears to be a glowing baseball bat. The largest portrays a half-dead Norse warrior standing atop a fractured rainbow. A multitude of slain enemies lie at his feet. The scantily clad women that graced the covers of my brother’s old Heavy Metal collection would look right at home next to Odin or Thor or whoever the hell Leif Erikson on steroids is supposed to be.

“Have you come to weave me a tale?” The whispered voice seems to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. “Of lovers and dangers and unrequited passion?”

“Anthony?” I work to keep the tremor from my voice. I fail.

“I know your secret,” the voice continues. “You hope to lull me with your honeyed words and clever plots.”

I’ve spoken with others mind-to-mind on numerous occasions in the past, a unique experience each time, to be sure. I’ve never been addressed this way before.

“Who said that?” There’s no sign of anyone else along the great hall. “Show yourself.”

“In due time, Scheherazade.” A low chuckle fills the hall. “We will meet soon enough, I fear.”

“Wait.” My pulse begins to race. “Where am I? What is this place?”

The voice doesn’t speak again, the only answer a quiet titter that echoes down from the vaulted ceiling. I hold my breath, hoping for any clue that might help me escape this place, but an oppressive silence, unnatural in its fullness, fills the air.

Neither masculine nor feminine, the whispered voice could represent an ally, but my money’s on adversary.

“Won’t figure it out standing here,” I mutter. “Time to move.”

As I continue my slow progress down the vast hallway, a name echoes across my psyche.

Scheherazade.

The voice called me Scheherazade.

The Mussorgsky Riddle

The Mussorgsky Riddle

12 Jan 2015 – Curiosity Quills Press

Psychic Mira Tejedor possesses unique talents that enable her to find

anything and anyone, but now she must find a comatose boy wandering

lost inside the labyrinth of his own mind. Thirteen-year-old Anthony

Fairx hasn’t spoken a word in almost a month and with each passing

day, his near catatonic state worsens. No doctor, test, or scan can tell

Anthony’s distraught mother what has happened to her already troubled

son. In desperation, she turns to Mira for answers, hoping her unique

abilities might succeed where science has failed.

At their first encounter, Mira is pulled into Anthony’s mind and finds

the child’s psyche shattered into the various movements of Modest

Mussorgsky’s classical music suite, Pictures at an Exhibition. As she

navigates this magical dreamscape drawn from Anthony’s twin loves of

Russian composers and classical mythology, Mira must contend with

gnomes, troubadours, and witches in her search for the truth behind

Anthony’s mysterious malady.

The real world, however, holds its own dangers. The onset of Anthony’s

condition coincides with the disappearance of his older brother’s girlfriend,

a missing persons case that threatens to tear the city apart.

Mira discovers that in order to save Anthony, she will have to catch a

murderer who will stop at nothing to keep the secrets contained in

Anthony’s unique mind from ever seeing the light.

Review Tour for The Mussorgsky Riddle

The Mussorgsky Riddle Launch Party went extremely well yesterday, the book goes live in three hours, and tomorrow, 26 authors and artists and I will be chatting about everything under the sun at the The Mussorgsky Riddle Online Launch Party on Facebook.

Also, tomorrow, the Review Tour begins. Here is the link to the Review Tour for The Mussorgsky Riddle from 12-23 Jan 2015. For the next 12 days, various book reviewers and bloggers will post their reviews of my debut novel. Should make for an interesting week.

To celebrate, I think I’m going to continue my binge watch of the season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.!

See you all on the flip side!

Darin

The Night Before, The Anticipation, and… a Contest

So, it’s the night before the launch party for my debut novel, The Mussorgsky Riddle, at Park Road Books in Charlotte. All 125 books are nestled at the store, waiting to be pored over by the throngs of people that plan to attend tomorrow. (Throngs, I say! Throngs!) The poster of the cover is framed and on a tripod by the store’s main door. My swag is neatly stacked inside the top box. All three pens are tested for adequate inkage. I know what clever turn of phrase I intend to write above my scrawled signature hopefully 125 times tomorrow.

The pieces are in place. The board is set. Let the game begin.

Meanwhile, I’ve learned how exciting seeing an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper pinned to a clip board can be…

 

And now, for the contest. Already posted on my Facebook wall, but putting it here as well. Welcome to “Mussorgsky Selfies, The Contest!” (Trademark Pending) To any readers, take a picture of yourself reading The Mussorsky Riddle and post it to your wall, tagging me and yourself. I will put all the pictures in my “Mussorgsky Selfies” album and on Feb 1st I will pick one at random and also my favorite, and each person will get a free ebook copy of the book sent to your phone. If the winner already has an ecopy, they can donate their win to someone else, or exchange for an ebook copy of Chronology, the 2015 Curiosity Quills Anthology which has a short story by yours truly, my very first attempt at steampunk.

So, that’s all for now! The book launch is in 14 1/2 hours, and I am beat. To bed with me, but not before inserting my very own selfie…

Good night, world, see you on the flip side!

Darin