Kurt Brindley's Blog, page 98

Hercules Gone Mad – Part Two: Book Cover WIP

So, this book cover will probably change as I work through Part Two, but I just wanted to give you an idea where things are heading. I’ll begin posting new chapters to Part Two – still haven’t settled on a title for it yet – as I write them to my Wattpad account.

[And as I now see the cover in various poses, it’s obvious that the lettering will need some work as it’s hard to read in miniature. Anyway…it’s a start.]

 

 

Filed under: Books Tagged: book covers, books, dystopia, graphic art, graphic design, Hercules Gone Mad, Heroes of Dystopia, Indie Authors, post-apocalyptic, publishing, science fiction, Wattpad, WIP, work in progress

Hercules Gone Mad – Part Two: Book Cover WIP

So, this book will probably change as I work through Part Two, but I just wanted to give you an idea where things are heading. I’ll begin posting new chapters to Part Two – still haven’t settled on a title for it yet – as I write them to my Wattpad account.

[And as I now see the cover in various poses, it’s obvious that the lettering will need some work as it’s hard to read in miniature. Anyway…it’s a start.]

 

 

Filed under: Books Tagged: book covers, books, dystopia, graphic art, graphic design, Hercules Gone Mad, Heroes of Dystopia, Indie Authors, post-apocalyptic, publishing, science fiction, Wattpad, WIP, work in progress

My most favoritist new reading app…

After you download and read all of my books and stories and write raving reviews of them at any bookstore you can find all throughout the internet land, I highly recommend you download the Overdrive app. It’s a great way to read ebooks and, what I like best about it, listen to audiobooks for free, all while supporting your local library…or whatever library for which you happen to have a valid library card.

Click to enlarge

It’s a piece of carrot cake to use. Just download it to your phone, create your account, search for your library, plug in your library card number and both presto and voila, you’ll be reading or listening to books in no time.

And if you’re not into the whole smartphone thingy, you can do it all online right here.

And speaking of libraries, if you haven’t already – and I’m pretty sure you already have – how about petitioning your library to stock my books?

Hey, awesome, thanks dude*.

Yours truly rockin’ the audiobook version of THE SEA IS MY BROTHER, a posthumously published novel by Jack Kerouac, on my most favoritist new app

 

*non-gender specific

 

 

Filed under: Books Tagged: apps, authors, books, Jack Kerouac, libraries, novels, Overdrive, poetry, reading, reading apps, short stories, technology, The Sea Is My Brother, writing

Releaf

Reporting live from Bethesda, Maryland

Filed under: Photography Tagged: Bethesda, blossoms, leafs, Maryland, nature, nature photography, photography, spring, trees

So what do you think of this new description for Hercules Gone Mad that I’ve been working steadfastly on?

And by steadfastly I mean at least up until this damn Spring cold hit me…nothing worse than being sick when the weather has finally turned nice.

Speaking of which, I will post my Short Story selection later this evening. Thank you all for your patience and understanding and, especially, for your kind well wishes.

So, about this new HGM description…it’s been long overdue. The last one (first one) was rather bare-boned and relied more on its association with the Heroes of Dystopia intro than on any meaningful information.

So, I decided to put some meat on its bones, so to speak. Check it out below and let me know what you think in the comment section please.

Oh yeah, before we get to the description…

I don’t know if you’re familiar with Wattpad but I recently joined and find that it’s a pretty cool and handy site/app. Go Canada! I just put up the entire Part One of Hercules Gone Mad there and I will be posting new chapters to Part Two as I write them. So do me a favor and check it out and whatnot. Heck, it is free after all. You can read, vote, comment, and follow by clicking here.

Without any further ado, here’s the new description…

The man they call Hercules, a handle bestowed upon him while an elite warrior in the former military of the former leading World Power, struggles to maintain his sanity in a world no longer known to him, a world no longer known to anyone who has managed to survive the brutal collapse of its established order, or who is so unfortunate as to be immune to the bloody disease that has decimated the global population, or who has been captured, caged, and commoditized within a system formerly known as slavery but now is known as the market of human capital.

However, it is not the insanity that has befallen the ruined world that is tormenting and degrading the former warrior’s mind – what is eating at his sanity is the suffering from the disgrace that has befallen him. For it is his belief that he has committed the most heinous act a military man of honor and integrity could possibly commit. And it is this belief that is driving him completely mad.

As he struggles to survive the madness, Hercules must maneuver through all the evil raging around him, evil stoked by the continuing battle between the neo-collectivist revolutionaries committed to global utopia and the outlawed capitalist rebels committed to restoring a new version of the old order. As the war between the two political foes rage on, the De Borja Cartel, led by a zealot drug lord known as The Pope, seeks to leverage the chaos and extend its own corrupt domain northward.

All the while, Santa Muerte, threatened by one powerful man’s proximity to the technological attainment of a god-like immortality, mobilizes to purge the earth of its remaining living souls once and for all so that she, at last, may attain her divine ascension.

And yet nothing is as it seems…

 

 

Filed under: Books Tagged: authors, blurbs, book descriptions, books, dystopia, Indie Authors, novels, post-apocalyptic, promotions, publishing, Santa Muerte, science fiction, Wattpad, writing

NYX – A Short Story by Stephanie Buosi

What is it about the way that some words can be arranged and aligned in such a way that they can take us to places we’ve never been before?

Who knows, right? I’m just thankful that it happens at all.

All I know is that when I read Stephanie’s story it moved me in ways I couldn’t explain. Maybe it was the way she described the setting…the beach, the waves, the bonfire. I could almost feel the pull of the moon.

I grew up on Lake Erie and there was a time long, long ago that I could have been one of those mindless teenagers out there running around in the sand, mindless of life that lay before me. Annoying those who already know all too well.

Yeah, I don’t know why it is that Stephanie’s stories moves me the way it does…

I’m just glad it does.

Thank you, Stephanie, for sending me your sad yet magical and wonderfully titled story of inspiration.

In Spirit…

 

 

NYX

by Stephanie Buosi

Silly little girls are dancing in bikinis. Their boys chase them around a bonfire on the beach. The waves lap at their heels and mine, although I am neither silly nor wearing a bikini. I hear their laughter as an insult. They play with the night and use the darkness in their game of cat and mouse. I skulk around them unnoticed and am easily on my way.

Perhaps I should have joined in their games. But I walk in a dream, and am afraid of feeling joy only to wake up again.

I told no one.

In a sense, I suppose you could say I ran away. But you can’t tell the people who are the fabric of your life of your decision to quit your home, your job, your life, and head to the beach. You are also a part of the fabric of their lives, and they would never let you go willingly; there would at least be one round of guilt. No. It is always best to just slip away.

I went to the beach because you never took me to the beach. When I press my toes into the white sand the only imprint is mine. You are nowhere near this beach, so I can breathe a little easier.

I could still smell you back in the home I quit. On the bed, against the wall, on the kitchen counter pressed against the granite… you were still there. That was why I sold the house. It now legally belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Collins, respectively. They were a nice couple, yet I still wanted to spit in their faces when they agreed to the price. Why so little? Couldn’t they see what I was giving up?

You were a part of my shadow. You knew my darkness, and relished the bad with the good. You knew I was a bit of everything, and loved to touch it all. Now no one can touch me and you made sure of this. Perhaps I let you have too much. Every night, as I walk home, I remember this and let myself fall on the sand. I sink like a stone thrown in water. This is another reason why I chose the beach; sand is much softer than concrete, and my knees no longer hurt when they smack the ground.

I am playing such a strange role. Who knew I could be so powerful as to be untouchable? I am now a league onto my own, possessing of something no one else will know. Because how can they know? You were my shadow alone.

I have to skip around starfish on my walk home. Every night they are pushed by the waves to their deaths, and leave behind beautiful concrete memories of their lives. The locals collect them in wicker baskets and sell them to ambivalent tourists during the day. Their bodies are treasured, and they become something more than star-shaped predators belonging to the class Asteroidea.

You. Homo sapiens. Workaholic. Wonderful fingers. Belonging to me. Once. And now you belong to the God you worshiped, and I can only touch you through sleep, shadow, or imagination. I hope you are aware that you are challenging my sanity. Are you happy?

I wore a mask at the funeral. I wore a mask so others would not be frightened of me. You wouldn’t have recognized me. I was all dolled up, but felt so cold. People spoke to me and all I could do was smile. But at least with a mask on they had the courage to try. You were right there but so far away. I couldn’t have touched you even if I tried.

The beach is usually deserted at night. Most are afraid to venture beyond the reach of a streetlight. They stay on the boardwalk with drinks in their hands and listen to loud music to drown the call of gently crashing waves. They are afraid of the loneliness, I think. The ocean is a siren that provokes thoughts most would rather hide behind dirty martinis.

But there is freedom in the dark. I can be me: powerful and untouchable as I ache for you.

The girls and boys are now disembodied voices drifting along the sea breeze, and their bonfire now a candle against an inky sky. Life once again feels like a dream. Colorless, the world holds the potential for green skies or purple sand. Whatever I imagine the world to be I can paint it over the black of night. Perhaps I can paint you beside me?

Putting one step in front of the other is not a hard thing to do. I do that every night. I put one foot in front of the other and hope that my steps will bring me to a place of peace. I hope to find a place where I can feel okay without you.

I know it will come. Night cannot exist without day.

stephaniebuosi.wordpress.com

 

 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: authors, contests, creative writing, fiction, Indie Authors, inspiration, short stories, Stephanie Buosi, submissions, writing

Thank You All For The Inspiration

I asked for your help and you all responded in kind…and in kindness. Thanks so very much to all of you who took the time to send me some inspiration by way of your very own personal literary creations. I am no longer lacking in inspiration, that is for sure.

Funny though, instead of inspiring me to dig back into my short story collection, it led me back to my dystopian saga via Wattpad. I will still be working on the story collection; however, right now I am kinda stoked to be working on part two of Hercules Gone Mad.

Again, thank you all. I was really quite surprised by how many submission I received. I enjoyed reading them all. I will confess, though, that I did not read any of the submissions that were just links to websites.

Sorry about that.

I will post the story that I found most inspiring and creative immediately after I post this message of thanks. But before I do, I would like to single out two stories that were also very inspiring to me. I strongly urge you to visit the authors’ sites and see what interesting and inspiring things they have going on there.

Foul Play

by Lee Balan

The Conscious Coward

by Vic Smith

Write on!

 

 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: authors, creativity, fiction, gratitude, Indie Authors, inspiration, short stories, writing

Short Story selection delayed a day…

Apologies all, but I’ve been down with a cold the past couple of days so I haven’t been able to get through all the stories submitted in response to my request for inspiration.

I will post my selection tomorrow.

Again…sincere apologies.

#cough

#hack

#wheeze

#medicate

 

 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: contests, mea culpas, short stories, submissions, writing

Fenc’d no.7

Tho’ bound by boundaries bound by boundaries

‘Tis the warden found within

That keeps us from our freedom

Release the cage key to the wind

 

 

Filed under: Photography, Poetry Tagged: boundaries, existentialism, Fenc'd, fences, freedom, life, living, philosophy, photography, poetry, prison, self-restraint, writing

‘Tis The Season

Pool Season, that is…

 

#backyardbliss

#clocksnowsettoeasternpooltime

#gonnabemightyquietaroundhereforthenextsixmonthsorso

#amwriting…not

 

 

Filed under: Photography Tagged: #amwriting, abundance, Backyard Bliss, family, photography, relaxation, summer, swimming, swimming pools, writing