Christopher Kellen's Blog, page 6
February 14, 2013
Interview with Alesha Escobar
I totally forgot to post this yesterday! My stop on the 2013 Elements of Sorcery Tour for 2/13 was at Alesha Escobar’s blog, talking about the series, genre, and all kinds of things! Stop by and leave her a comment!
February 12, 2013
The Genesis of Edar Moncrief
Today I’m over at Fantasy Book Critic talking about how my sorcerer, Edar Moncrief, first came to be.
In September 2011, I had decided to begin work on the second installment of my flagship series The Arbiter Codex. Originally entitled PROPHECY, the novel was going pretty well up until the point when I realized it wasn’t. I ended up entirely scrapping that draft (except for some key parts that made it into what became LEGACY), which amounted to throwing away something like 75,000 words. It was one of the most painful things I’ve ever had to do.
However, something good did come out of it…
February 10, 2013
The Magic of Eisengoth
I’m distilling background and giving away secrets over at Roger Eschbacher’s blog, with a post on the Magic of Eisengoth as part of the tour!
February 6, 2013
Review: Halloween Jack & The Curse of Frost by @MGallowglas
(Full disclosure: M. Todd Gallowglas is a founding member of the Genre Underground. However, this review was not solicited by him and is made of–(click-click) *gulp*–uh, of my own free will.)
When I read the original Halloween Jack & The Devil’s Gate, I was immediately drawn in to the steampunk world created by Mr. Gallowglas. (You can see my review here.) The character who becomes Halloween Jack is written to be genuinely clever and engaging, even a little scary. However, I honestly wasn’t sure if a fairy-tale/legend story like this one would translate into a sequel.
Well, I was wrong. Curse of Frost is easily as much fun as the original. It’s been seven years since Halloween Jack and his family defeated the Devil, but that was only the beginning. Old Scratch has another trick up his sleeve, and he’s not fooling around this time.
The story is full of twists and turns, and once again I was genuinely surprised by Jack’s ingenuity on more than one occasion. Mr. Gallowglas knows how to set up a story to make his characters come across as very smart, even while misleading the reader into thinking that it’s just being made up as it goes along. When the reveal comes, you’ll be surprised, and that’s high praise coming from a guy who gets annoyed by trite storytelling!
Editorial errors, while occasionally visible, were few and far between in the edition that I read, which I was very happy to see. Overall the formatting was strong and I had no major issues while reading.
CORRECTION: I noticed very, very few errors. I think there were a couple of times when I spotted a homonym confusion early on in the book, but on reflection, that’s the only thing that comes to mind. Editorially speaking, this book is very clean.
Once again, Mr. Gallowglas hits it out of the park with a well-spun yarn, with surprising twists and turns, great characters, and more than one laugh-out-loud moment to be found!
Sorcery 101 with Mat Nastos
Head on over to the homepage of Mat Nastos (author of THE CESTUS CONCERN–see review here) for a glimpse into the workings of sorcery in the world of Eisengoth!
February 5, 2013
Sneak Peek at SORCERER’S BLOOD
You can get your very own first glimpse of SORCERER’S BLOOD, Lesson III of the Elements of Sorcery, over at Daniel R. Marvello’s Vaetra Files blog right now!
February 1, 2013
January 30, 2013
Film Review: Black Death
So, after my most recent unexpected trip to the ground (long story) I wasn’t feeling particularly well, so I decided I’d pick a film on Netflix and watch it straight through. There are a few movies in this category that I’ve been wanting to see, so naturally I picked the one with Sean Bean in it first. Because, y’know… he’s Sean Bean!
This movie is basically historical swords & sorcery. It’s a pulp novel. A Templar (…in England…?) during the Black Death is sent as the Bishop’s special envoy to figure out why a village hasn’t yet been struck down by the plague. You know, like you do. They need a guide, though, and so they pick up Osmond at a monastery, a young novice who’s just sent his girlfriend(!) off so that she doesn’t get the plague.
That’s how the film starts. This movie is vicious, bleak, gory and nasty. In otherwords, it’s a hell (no pun intended) of a lot of fun. For once, one of these sort-of-B-movies isn’t full of totally worthless actors and capped by a man of talent. Everybody in this film was actually pretty good. The members of the Templar’s band were all convincing in their gritty roles, and the kid who played Osmond was actually fantastic. I didn’t expect to be genuinely moved by the acting in this film, and yet I was.
Honestly, if you like the sort of savage medieval swords-and-sorcery that’s in all too rare supply these days, I recommend checking out Black Death. It was pretty good for what it was.
Just… don’t watch it if you’re squeamish, mmkay?
January 29, 2013
Review: Fox’s Bride by @AEMarling
(Full disclosure: A.E. Marling is a member of the Genre Underground, an indie authors’ group of which I am a founding member. However, this review is in no way solicited by the author–let’s face it, if it was, I would have written it much closer to its launch!)
Fox’s Bride is the second installment in AE Marling’s Lands of Loam series, following the adventures of the Enchantress Hiresha. (I reviewed Brood of Bones, the first book in the series, a while back). Having read the first book, I expected another high fantasy adventure with a strong sense of humor and a lot of originality.
That is exactly what I got.
Mr. Marling stands out for his use of language and plot-wrangling ability. His world-building is also strong, giving us a fantasy setting which seems both comfortingly familiar and fascinating in its departures from the norm. His character’s power as an Enchantress is well-defined and limited, making her seem all the more ingenious when she comes up with ways to improve upon it.
Without a doubt, Mr. Marling stands among the best indie authors I’ve read. Fox’s Bride, much like Brood of Bones, is an indie book not to be missed.
January 25, 2013
Sorcerer’s Code Dubbler Reading
Over the past week or so, I’ve begun an audio read of my first Elements of Sorcery novelette, SORCERER’S CODE. I’m reading it in ~60 second increments via the new social media app called Dubbler and posting them to Twitter and Facebook.
Dubbler is a pretty cool thing, letting the participator’s personality come through with their voice, rather than just through text and photos. It’s definitely a neat idea, and it’s still in its infancy, so if you’ve got a smartphone I highly recommend downloading it (it’s free) and checking it out. If you’re curious to follow my updates, my Dubbler user ID is @christopher.kellen.1 .
Here are the links for part 1-8 of Sorcerer’s Code. Check it out if you’d like to hear how the author (that’s me!) intended it to sound!
2012-01-17 Sorcerer’s Code Read 1
2012-01-18 Sorcerer’s Code Read 2
2012-01-19 Sorcerer’s Code Read 3
2012-01-21 Sorcerer’s Code Read 4
2012-01-21 Sorcerer’s Code Read 5
2012-01-22 Sorcerer’s Code Read 6
2012-01-23 Sorcerer’s Code Read 7
2012-01-24 Sorcerer’s Code Read 8
