Brian Patrick McKinley's Blog, page 9
September 29, 2014
Evil Santa Claus!
Hehehe
Originally posted on meganelizabethmorales:
So the head hancho of PDMI requested that the authors pair up with an another author to write a Santa Claus story that’s mixed with a vampire theme, and I had picked an awesome guy named Brian McKinley! We have chosen to make him evil… and that’s all that you shall know until its finished! :D
Here is the link to his WordPress:
www.brianpatrickmckinley.wordpress.com
September 24, 2014
The Great Vampire Dispute ~ Dan Shaurette’s Vamps
Originally posted on Emz Newz:
Next up on our Great Vampire Dispute expedition is Dan Shaurette, author of Lilith’s Love. I read Dan’s book several years ago when we first met. I loved the way he combined his wiccan/magick world with Lilith, who is a vampire anyone could love. This is a double love story told from a male’s point of view. The vampire lore is well-thought out and there is a great respect for magick and faith in this tome.
Now, here are Dan’s Vamps, according to the vamp man himself…
Dan’s Vamps
Author name: Dan Shaurette
What is the title of your series?
Lilith’s Kiss Series
How many books are available?
1 in print and available at Podiobooks.com.
How many total in the series to date? Plans for 3 in this series, but there are spinoff series planned
What is your series about? Donovan, lonely and getting over the recent death of…
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September 11, 2014
Sequels I liked More than the Original.
I agree with all of these!
Originally posted on Dave's Corner of the Universe:
.
Ok, first off I don’t expect that everyone will agree with me on this. In fact I am hopping everybody who reads this thinks that I am wrong at least one place in this post. I also understand that the word ‘better’ is very subjective. For the purposes of this essay I am going to defend it as “I liked it more.”
It is not uncommon for sequels to suck. The theory behind the concept of the sequel is sound. The first one worked, and we the audience want to see more of the characters, that in the space of two and half hours, we have grown to care about, but the second film is at best an iffy proposition. If the end product is too close to the original it becomes old hat. Differ too much from the successful source material then it becomes too different from what…
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Meet the Character: Jack Wendell
1.) What is the name of your character?
Jack Wendell.
2.) Is he/she fictional or a historic person?
Fictional.
3.) When and where is the story set?
During the summer of 2011.
4.) What should we know about him/her?
Jack was a Special Olympics champion sprinter, and national record holder for the 400-meter sprint, before his accidental transformation to his current human vampire status.
5.) What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
The carnivorous alien Pure vampires, number-one enemy of the human vampires, want Jack to live with them. The Pures do not trust the human vampires to take proper care of Jack, due to the human vampires’ centuries of systematic prejudice against those of their kind who have special needs. The human vampires want Jack to live with them, to prove they have overcome their previous prejudices.
6.) What is the personal goal of the character?
Jack wishes to be fully accepted by his fellow human vampires, and help them work towards peace with the Pures.
7.) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
The novel is “Vampire Conspiracy,” book two of the Vampire Syndrome saga. Book One, “Vampire Syndrome,” is available from Amazon, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and other major distributors.
8.) When can we expect the book to be published or when was it published?
“Vampire Conspiracy” is completed, and the manuscript is currently being edited by PDMI Publishing.
Web/Blog: http://www.vampiresyndrome.me/
Vampire Syndrome on Kindle (young adult): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AMRGKZU
Follow Daven on Twitter @DavenAnderson
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorDavenAnderson
Daven grew up reading Dr. Seuss, the Encyclopædia Brittanica and dinosaur books, never suspecting that one day all of those books would play crucial parts as inspiration for the Vampire Syndrome saga. The simple yet infallible wisdom of Theodore Geisel serving as the model for protagonist Jack Wendell. Encyclopædia research inspired Daven to craft unparalleled levels of back story detail, reconciling science and folklore in ways no “vampire novel” has ever done before. And if that large meteor had not impacted the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago, reptiles could easily have evolved into a humanoid form that would bear resemblance to the alien Pure Vampires of Daven’s saga.
Daven accepted the challenge to craft a saga featuring a brave, wise, dignified hero with special needs, which would reach an audience that would never dream of reading a novel like “Forrest Gump.” Like “Gump”, a story where a hero with special needs proves that quick wit and cunning do not equal wisdom. Unlike “Gump”, a story where danger stalks the hero from beginning to end, from Jack’s well-meaning but devious human Vampire compatriots, to the carnivorous alien Pure Vampires that strike fear in the hearts of all human Vampires. Jack struggles to survive and find acceptance in a world where the “human” and the “monster” are one and the same.
September 8, 2014
Meet the Character: Faolan O’Connor
I got tagged by author Denise Verrico for this, and you can find her blog here: http://immortylrevolution.blogspot.com/
You can also find her naughty Scottish vampire’s blog here: http://sexycedric.blogspot.com/
1.) What is the name of your character?
His name is Faolan O’Connor.
Artist’s rendering of Faolan O’Connor by Woody Welch
2.) Is he/she fictional or a historic person?
He is fictional, though he interacts with many historic people.
3.) When and where is the story set?
Drawing Dead is set in the late 1930’s in New York City.
1939 World’s Fair
4.) What should we know about him/her?
Faolan is not the typical protagonist, and certainly not a “good guy.” In fact, he’s the type of person who would probably be the villain in someone else’s story. He’s a gangster, a cold-blooded killer looking to move up in the world by any means necessary. He does have a good sense of humor, however, and a very practical view of the world that I think is attractive to many readers despite his lack of traditional morals.
5.) What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
The story begins when Faolan is recruited into The Order: the global society of vampires who secretly control much of world politics and society. He’d been serving them as a mortal agent previously, but this is his big promotion. More than anything else, he wants to run New York. The Big Apple is his city and the current boss is a brute and a megalomaniac, so Faolan thinks that he can do better. The problem is that the boss has a pretty strong set-up and Faolan has to walk a fine line between appearing loyal and finding others who see things the way he does. Ironically, the thing that messes everything up for him is the reappearance of his conscience. The more he sees of how the boss runs things, the more Faolan wants to see it changed, but his humane motives come into direct conflict with the brutal and treacherous things he has to do to achieve his goals.
6.) What is the personal goal of the character?
Faolan’s personal goal is to be a “somebody.” All his life, he’s felt over-looked and unappreciated. He wants respect and believes that the best way to achieve that is by acquiring power.
7.) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
The book is called Drawing Dead: A Faolan O’Connor Novel and it’s the first in a planned series that will span several decades.
8.) When can we expect the book to be published or when was it published?
It’s being released by PDMI Publishing, LLC. Unfortunately, I don’t have a release date yet, but the novel is currently in the formatting stage, so I expect it to be out before the end of the year.
I have tagged my fellow PDMI authors Daven Anderson, JD Brown, Emily Guido, and Clay Gilbert! Check back for their guest posts!
September 3, 2014
Brave New Bullying: Goodreads Gangs, Amazon Attacks—What Are Writers to Do?
Originally posted on Kristen Lamb's Blog:
Image via the movie “The Purge”.
Today is a tad of a touchy subject, but in this New year, I want everyone to have a the greatest gift any of us can have…peace. Bullies, in my opinion, are among the lowest known existing lifeforms. I wouldn’t want to insult cockroaches and fleas by drawing a comparison.
Kristen’s History With Bullies
I grew up most of my life being bullied. I switched schools at least once a year and there was always a new gaggle of Mean Girls to make my daily life a veritable hell. I think this is why I grew to love books. I skipped school so much (to seek sanctuary at the public library), that I’m fairly certain I’m the reason for the current Texas truancy laws.
I couldn’t get out of bed. I became ill at the thought of even walking through the front doors of…
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September 2, 2014
Done With Dracula!
There’s a movie coming out called Dracula: Untold. You know what my reaction to that is? There’s nothing about Dracula left untold! That fucking vampire has had pretty much every damn moment of his life told, retold, revised, refurbished, re-spun, regurgitated, and re-imagined more often than Jesus Christ. You know how you can tell when an original vampire book series, TV show, comic book, or movie has started to lose its originality?
Count Dracula shows up.
Ta-da!
Seriously, when did the Blade movie series fall on its face? The one where Blade fights Dracula. Now, I know that Blade fought Dracula in his original comic series, but c’mon, Marvel comics is not known for the originality of their villains. Half of them are gods and monsters stolen from world mythology. Buffy was doing fine redefining the vampire genre on television, but then they decided that she had to fight Dracula just because … well, fuck it, everybody has to fight Dracula eventually, right? Batman fought Dracula, Billy the Kid fought Dracula, Frankenstein fought Dracula, the Wolf Man fought Dracula, Abbott & Costello fought Dracula, even Bonnie and Clyde have fought Dracula … hell, I’m sure Santa Claus and Dracula have duked it out on some memorable occasion!
These days, Dracula is a fucking cop-out!
That’s right, I said it! Dracula is where you turn when you have no original ideas. After literally hundreds of films, books, comics, and TV shows, I truly believe that there is nothing that has not already been done with the character of Count Dracula. Am I saying that all Dracula stories are bad? Of course not. There are plenty of great novelists out there who have some new slant on Dracula, but honestly, as a reader in the vampire genre and lover of the vampire movie, seeing Dracula’s name on something makes me want to move onto something else. I know he’s got built-in cache and name recognition, but I’m going to beg all the film-maker’s and novelists out there: If your story really doesn’t need Dracula, then for goodness’ sake, put someone else in there!
Get your own damn vampire!
C’mon, count … Let’s dance!
Most especially egregious to me (and something that I think should be illegal), is when movies throw Dracula into the title of their shitty straight-to-video vampire movie just to get someone to watch it and motherfucking Dracula isn’t even in it!
Seriously, nothing pisses me off like a bait-and-switch! I’m looking at you, Dracula’s Dog!
Actual scene from the movie … no, really
Just for fun, I took a pop over to IMDB and looked at how many damn Dracula movies they had. 200 TITLES! And that’s just the ones with Dracula in the title. Think about that, people! Does Larry Talbot show up in every werewolf movie? Does Hitler show up in every war/spy movie? Does Sherlock Holmes show up in every…scratch that, the over-use of Sherlock Holmes is another worthwhile rant. You get my point!
Also, why is Dracula always credited as the first goddamn vampire? Sure, he’s the first that most people ever heard of, but he’s not the first! Never was! Dr. John Polidori gave us Lord Ruthven almost a hundred years earlier, and then we’ve got James Malcolm Rhymer’s Varney the Vampire, and everybody’s favorite lesbian vampire Carmilla Karnstein all in line to claim that title. When you make Dracula the first vampire ever—especially when you connect him to Vlad II of Wallachia—you’re saying that vampires have only been around since the 1500s and that’s an insult to all the wonderful vampire folklore that has existed for centuries before!
Why not give Lord Ruthven and Varney some love? Those guys deserve a revival! Dracula’s had his time in the sun, pun intended.
Here are some especially cringe-worthy titles from the IMDB list to help illustrate my point: Dear Dracula, Dracula’s Dog, Dracula’s Widow, Die Hard Dracula (and you thought the Die Hard series couldn’t get worse!), Airship Dracula, Waiting for Dracula (not to be confused with Waiting for Godot), Batman Dracula, Mama Dracula, Countess Dracula’s Orgy of Blood, Dracula and Son, Dr. Dracula, Bonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula, Lake of Dracula, Christmas at Draculas, Billy the Kidd vs. Dracula, Dracula’s Sorority Sisters, Killer Barby’s vs. Dracula, Dracula in Vegas, Dracula’s Daughters vs. the Space Brains, and Dracula 3000.
I can only hope that some of those movies are as funny as their titles suggest, but I doubt it. Hate mail and death threats can be posted below in the comments section!
August 30, 2014
Review of “ACCENDO” Book 3 of “THE LIGHT-BEARER SERIES” by Kim at Purplerose123 Book Review Blog
A great fellow author and human being!
Originally posted on "The Light-Bearer Series" ~ by Emily Guido:
This is an unsolicited review
http://kimpitbull123.wordpress.com/?s=accendo
April 27, 2014 – LONG OVER DUE!!!
Lots of love, Emily
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just have Faith: ACCENDO
Third book in
“The Light-Bearer Series”
by Emily Guido
This review is hard, as this is the third book in this series and I have many emotional ups and downs, especially in this book.
I’ve come to know and love the characters because the author has done a outstanding job with describing them and their personalities.
I’ve wondered what was going on even when I wasn’t reading.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you were reading my reviews or read the series, you know the egotistic stupidness of the men.They went to battle with the Elder Counsel and got defeated just as Charmeine predicated they would.
They had to retreat with one family member dead and Charmeine barley holding onto life.
Tabbruis was beside his self for not believing in his wife and…View original 193 more words
August 28, 2014
The Personal Touch
Nothing is more important to an author than maintaining good connection with their fanbase and readers. I’m going to give you a little peek at my Customize-able Fan Response Template (trademark pending), which I use to make sure that my readers and fans know that I care enough to go that extra mile for them.
Dear [name/email]
Thank you so much for your [email/letter/death threat/attempt to collect a debt]! I am always happy to interact with my [fans/family/bill collectors/salespeople] and pride myself on making a personal connection with the “little people” as I like to call them. Although this is not to be confused with real Little People aka dwarfs, who I have the utmost respect for. Also, thank you so much for the thing you said about [Ancient Blood/Drawing Dead/Other], it’s always nice to know my work is appreciated.
I hope that you are duly impressed that a big-time celebrity author like [name] would take the time to personally type a response to your [email/letter/death threat/attempt to collect a debt], but it’s all in a day’s work for me! Nothing is more important to me than my [fans/family/bill collectors/salespeople].
Have a great [day/night/holiday/other]!
Warmest sincerity,
Brian Patrick McKinley, AUTHOR
Photo suitable for autographing
Now I just need to get some fans and I’m all set!
P.S. If this article was helpful, please share it so that it goes “viral” and buy copies of my books in gratitude.
August 26, 2014
How HBO’s “True Blood” Should Have Ended
I lost my enthusiasm for this show last year, but these are some interesting takes.
Originally posted on ThinkingSkull.com:
For seven seasons, the HBO series “True Blood” – based on the Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse books – deviated almost unrecognizably away from the source material. Every character not killed off managed to pair up with someone, but similar to the final Harris novel that reportedly left fans unsatisfied, HBO botched a chance to one-up the author on the final outcome of Sookie and Bill.
Here’s three suggested treatments for a better ending; this is just off the top of my head, but I prefer number three.
***SPOILERS IF YOU STILL CARE!***
Sookie and Bill die together in the graveyard: Unable to watch Bill’s suffering, Sookie offers herself to feed him before he dies, a willingly sacrificing to provide one last comfort before he pops; it ends with friends and family attending Sookie’s funeral revealing a headstone next to Bill’s family.
Sookie begs Bill to make her into a…
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