Allan Krummenacker's Blog, page 5

The First Reviews Are In!

****OUR ANTHOLOGY HAS RECEIVED IT'S FIRST REVIEWS ****4 STARS - "A great read!"5 STARS - "A well written story collection revealing Nathan's past. Excellent!"Come see what other readers are saying and take a 'Sneak Peek" for yourself by clicking the link below, and maybe check out the other books in our Para-Earth Series. Amazon US Link:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KMN78B2Amazon UK Link:https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07KMN78B2Amazon Canada Link:https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07KMN78B2*NOTE: Signed Trade Paperbacks will be available soon, in plenty of time for Christmas*

Available NOW on Kindle!

Just $3.99, or FREE for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.26 Tales of Para-Earth Encounters Spanning 150 years answering many questions about your favorite vampyre and his friends such as:- How did a Nathan manage to continue to serve the Union Army in the Civil War after becoming a vampyre? -How did he and The Professor meet?-Why did Lisa and Marisa drift apart?-Has Nathan or his friends ever met any of the characters from "The Bridge" or "The Ship"?-Who else has had a Para-Earth encounter?Plus much more!Just click below to start your shopping:https://www.amazon.com/Vampyre-Blogs-Anthology-Para-Earths-Para-Earth-ebook/dp/B07KMN78B2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543590262&sr=8-1&keywords=the+vampyre+blogs*And remember to check out the other books in our Paranormal/Sci-Fi series which have been compared to the Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, as well the works of Dean Koontz, HP Lovecraft, and other creators of surprise and suspense.

A Final Sneak Peek...

Just 3 more days until you can get your own copy of the latest installment of our Para-Earth Series... The stories contained within these pages will make you laugh, gasp, giggle and possibly shed a tear or two. But most of all they will leave you anxiously waiting for more stories which we promise are on the way.Remember you can pre-order your Kindle copy for just $3.99 at the following link:https://www.amazon.com/Vampyre-Blogs-... the meantime here's one final peek into the first of what we hope will be many paranormal/science fiction anthologies..."Wolfgang In Sheep's Clothing"June 2014By Helen Krummenacker For someone who travels so much, I always seem to have trouble getting ready for departure. It’s helpful these days, having my granddaughter on hand to look after the farm, my pets, and the complex organizing of my correspondence. She came to Germany to get a medical degree and is happy to stay with me and help out. There is little enough work-- while we do still produce some crops to send to the local markets, apple and walnut trees require little attention most of the year, and there are people we can hire for that. Mostly, she spends several hours in town working on studies and research, and enjoys the property as a chance to get away.Still, there are always many details for me to take care of. For instance, my pets take extra attention. They are not the kind of thing you can easily take to the vet. No one has seen a living trilobite, except for in my aquarium, and many of the others have no near relatives that have existed on this Earth. Depending on one’s definition of near. Fluffy, for instance, has many birdlike traits. His usual prey is squirrel, but herons and hawks like them, too, and he largely eats nuts, especially acorns, to get his protein. He also keeps snails and caterpillars from messing up the family garden and rats out of the buildings. Birdlike was a good description for him. One difference in events between two parallel Earths could lead to such wonderful paths in evolution. The indoor animals were all doing well and the controls for their temperature, humidity, and other such comforts were working fine. Fluffy had noticed me packing and was shadowing me now, wanting plenty of attention before I went away. We played a bit of fetch as I worked and he ran in circles around me out to the barn. “Wolfgang!” I called out. The pygmy woodland camel was not inside, even though it looked to be a wet day. I assumed he’d decided to forage in the orchard, so I went out that way. Ruefully, I discovered a fence post had been knocked over and had on it some of the brown wool Wolfgang grew. I quickly ordered Fluffy back. I didn’t need him to get out, too, and start harassing the neighbor’s cat. As bright as a peacock, as large as a turkey, and not exactly a bird, he would be difficult to explain to anyone who got a good look at him. For that matter, Wolfgang was not easy to explain, but might pass for a rare breed. The question was, where would he be? Following his tracks would help, but only in the softest areas. His feet were wide and kept him from sinking easily. While he was naturally a creature of the forest, he had been raised by me from when he was only about two months old, and I did not believe he would wander far on purpose. However, herd animals seek their kind and, failing that, will seek a good facsimile. Fluffy, for instance, usually spent most of his time among the crows, who were happy to hang around the liminal area between forest and farm to keep their distant, brilliant cousin company. As for Wolfgang, his closest relatives would be camels or llamas, and neither one was likely to be abundant in the area. On the other hand, llamas did sometimes show up for one reason only. They were terrifically fond of sheep, and guarded them against predators better than a dog. He wouldn’t, would he? Of course he would. One thing you could trust any pet to do, no matter what their species, was to gravitate to exactly the activity that would be sure to cause chaos. At least it was autumn, and no chance of a shearing taking place. With a sigh, I headed out to Snyder’s, the nearest farm with sheep...

A Sneak Preview and the Countdown Begins...

ONLY 6 MORE DAYS UNTIL...- 26 tales that span 150 years- Stories of love, laughter, tears, wonder, hope, growth and wonder- Kindle $3.99/Trade Paperback $15.99- Pre-Orders are available now at:https://www.amazon.com/Vampyre-Blogs-Anthology-Para-Earths-Para-Earth-ebook/dp/B07KMN78B2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1543161531&sr=1-1And now a sneak peek..."The Snowman"December 2014 by Helen KrummenackerA chilly December evening was made cozy not only by the fireplace, but the scents of vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger from baking in the kitchen. Marissa turned the radio to a station playing all Christmas music. Isabella was excited even beyond the average child at Christmas time, for this was her first Christmas tree, her first time seeing fairy lights, and even the radio was a novelty for her. She would sit on the sofa, stare at the tree and get up again every few minutes to better distribute the ornaments for color balance and even presentation. Marissa and Lisa were helping Nathan with paper chains, a decoration he remembered from his childhood. The girls were using a ladder to reach high, but Nathan took care of sites out of their reach. Otto, having recently surrendered the kitchen to Penny, who was making a couple of her own favorite treats, had started to show Richard how to wire pine and holly into swags to place around. “So ‘Boughs of holly’ are just branches done up to decorate the place?” “Yes. Deck and decorate have the same word as a root.” “Ain’t that something. I always wondered about that song. Especially the gay apparel.” “That meant jolly, bright colored, festive.” “And that makes ‘Johnny Comes Marching Home’ a lot better,” Richard laughed. The professor was all right by him. Strange and a little weird how he treated the boss like a kid sometimes, but when he was around, you always felt a little bit smarter. Just then, a new tune came on the radio. “Frosty the snowman, was a jolly, happy soul--” “Turn that off!” Otto snapped. Isabella looked at him in shock a moment before heading to the radio and pushing the big circle button she’d learned made these new electric things go on or off. “I’m sorry… I just do not like that song,” he explained, suddenly aware that everyone was watching him, puzzled by his uncharacteristic change of mood. “I really do not like it. You would not like it, either, if you knew how dangerous that snowman could have actually become.” “Wait, Frosty was real?” Marissa asked skeptically. “There are more things on heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” quoted Otto, then sighed. “Yes. Frosty was real, and he was the result of my missing an important detail and behaving carelessly.” "Story time!” Lisa called out. “Oh, yes, we have to hear about this,” Marissa added. “Really?” Otto asked, as if surprised by the attention. “Even I haven’t heard this one,” said Nathan, “and it sounds like a doozy.” Otto took a seat on the sofa, next to Isabella, and the others gathered around. Richard kept at it with the greenery, but still cocked an ear and moved so he could see Otto’s face and gestures. Taking a deep breath, the professor began to tell the tale in a rich, melodic voice...

PRE-ORDERS ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR "THE VAMPYRE BLOGS - ONE DAY AT A TIME"

****COMING DECEMBER 1st, THE LATEST INSTALLMENT OF THE PARA-EARTH SERIES****Twenty-five stories, spanning 150 years...“The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home” introduced a new cast of characters to the Para-Earth Series. This anthology answers and raises questions about their backstories and relationships.What otherworldly threats has the Professor dealt with? How did Nathan’s altered self affect his service in the Civil War? What other mysteries linger on Nathan’s estate? What did a German like the Professor do during WWII? Who are some of the other people Nathan has met over his unnaturally long life? Are Nathan and the Professor the only ones who’ve had close encounters with Para-Earth beings?These and more, including the return of certain characters from “The Bridge” or “The Ship” will be explored within these pages.KINDLE PRE-ORDERS BEING TAKEN NOW AT LINK BELOW: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KMN78B2?ref_=pe_3052080_276849420

Getting Set For a New Adventure

Sorry for being quiet for so long, a lot's been happening over here. First I was needed to help some very dear family members deal a terrible loss. Then both Helen and I had to deal with a vicious bout of Bronchitis which turned into Pneumonia in my case. We've just gotten over that and have been told it will take some time for our lungs to get back to normal, only now we're dealing with serious fires here in California which has turned our normally nice sea air into a smoke-zone. Needless to say this is not making the healing process for our lungs that much easier, especially since we're both asthmatics to begin with. But we wish to thank you for your patience as we've been dealing with all these crisis and want to let you know that even during our force down time we have been working on our anthology “The Vampyre Blogs – One Day At a Time”. With a bit of luck it will be coming out in a week or so, and pre-orders will be announced shortly.We're also pleased to tell you that work has also been progressing on “The Door”, latest full-length novel in the Para-Earth Series. Furthermore, “The Pass” (our collaboration with Richard Caminiti) is close to a finished 1st draft. After seeing how that project has been developing, Richard and ourselves decided "The Pass" would not be part of the Para-Earth Series, but the beginning of an all new series comprised of fantasy, history, and the supernatural. There will be more updates on that project soon.In the meantime, Allan has been studying and purchasing the necessary equipment to begin audio-readings. As you can see below he's been slowly setting up a “Recording Studio” in our office/guest room.Now some of you may be asking “Don't you have enough writing to do?” Well the answer is simply, a growing number of people have been telling us that they'd love to get our books but they prefer “Audiobooks” because they don't always have time to sit and read. Or they lose track of the book they're reading, etc-etc. This we can believe because a number of our co-workers are always telling us about their daily drive from San Jose or Monterey. Plus, there are a number of folks who always have earbuds on and are not always listening to music.Still you may be saying, “Why do it yourselves? Why not hire someone to do the reading and converting them into audiobooks?”Well, a number of folks who've actually heard either of us do public speaking and readings insist we should be the ones to do the audio-readings. Furthermore, there are a number of readers who would prefer to hear the words spoken by the one who actually wrote them, and we are part of that group. After all who understands the story and the characters better than the the invidual(s) who created them?As for how soon will any of our books be ready for audio? Let's just say that we're just experimenting with audio-readings at this point. Allan is going to try his hand at some classic short stories by others like HP Lovecraft and share them here as well as on YouTube. This will allow us to get some feedback and tips from those who are more experienced in doing audiobooks. Furthermore, it will be fun to actually know what it's like doing audio recordings, the experience might lead to the creation of a new character or even a storyline. After all they say write what you know, and drawing from life is always a much more satisfying for us.Now if any of you are interested in hearing what happens on this little journey, we are planning on sharing in detail what we learn as this adventure continues. We'll probably start posting entries about equipment and why some of it was chosen in an upcoming entry. Some of Allan's first attempts will be short pieces by other authors some which are in the Public Domain. We've chosen those first because there is a volunteer project called LibriVox (link: https://librivox.org/), which is similar to Project Gutenberg (link: https://www.gutenberg.org/) which takes books/stories in Public Domain and are making them available for free here on the internet. However, it's much easier to reproduce typed words than it is to get audio versions and LibriVox depends on volunteer readers to record and submit works for public enjoyment, especially for those who are blind for instance.So, that's all we have to report for now. Until next time, keep writing!

Things I Learned Writing An Anthology - Part II

And I'm back, sort of.Okay, I'm still a bit unwell, but finally on the mend. In the meantime let's continue with that discussion about some of the things I learned putting together our first anthology.First off it was somewhat easier than creating an entire novel. With a novel you have to keep track of so many things like character development, interactions, subplots, pace of the story, etc. Now with an anthology, you still have a lot of stories to contend with but each one is self-contained and has its own beginning and end. You don't have to be worried about how they fit into the main tale. Plus you can have a greater variety of characters and give each tale a flavor all its own. Sounds pretty easy so far right? Well, here's where things started to get a little more complicated for me.Like a novel, an anthology does need to have a certain feeling of cohesiveness to it. There must be some facet or factor that makes the reader feel like the stories all belong together in that one volume. This is of course fairly easy to do when you're dealing with a bunch of stories by various authors dealing with the same subject matter. "The Penguin Book of Vampires" is a great example. It contains dozens of authors within its pages with each one using an actual vampire character or a variation on that theme.Another simple method of dealing with this cohesive problem is to do an anthology that contains works by the same author. One of my favorite authors is the legendary Isaac Asimov, a prolific writer beyond compare.Throwing a collection of his works together should be easy right? Wrong! While known for his volume of work in the field of science-fiction, Mr. Asimov also wrote mysteries, as well a huge body of non-fiction. So here you have to ask yourself what kind of anthology would you want? Do you want to have a sampling from different areas of his works to showcase just how versatile he was? Or would you rather want to focus on just one genre of his work at a time? Considering the volume of work the man left behind, most anthology creators have chosen the latter. This was especially true when he was still with us.In the case of his mystery sleuths "The Black Widowers", the publishers gathered all his published tales with these characters who solve puzzles and mysteries while sitting in a restaurant. The publishers also got Mr. Asimov to create an introduction to each collection (there were 5 all together), as well, but they didn't stop there. Mr. Asimov provided some brand new tales that had never been published to make each collection more special. Furthermore, he add afterthoughts to every story giving the readers new insights to his characters as well as how he came up with the puzzles.From there I started looking through the other anthologies by various authors (HP Lovecraft, sci-fi and horror collections) in our personal library to see what was done in those cases. And guess what I discovered, each collection had an Introduction/Preface depending on if the works were all the same author or by various authors. Furthermore, just about every tale in each anthology also had some thoughts at the beginning or end of it talking about the author, or thoughts they'd had on the work. Quite different than just having an "About the Author" at the end of your novel. Naturally we had hour work cut out for us, but there was still the issue of a feeling of connection between the stories. Did we have one or not?To answer this question I found myself going back to the original source for many of the stories in our anthology, our online blog "The Vampyre Blogs - Private Edition".TO BE CONTINUED...

Things I Learned Writing An Anthology - Part I

Helen and I finished the final story for our upcoming anthology!Thank you! Thank you! You're all being too kind. But today's post is not to talk about the anthology itself, as much as what went into making it. How did it differ from writing full-length novels? Was it easier? Was it harder? What was the process like? Where did we get all the stories for it, etc.?Well, for starters, coming up with a decent number of stories was and wasn't hard really. Helen had been writing stories long before e-books and well before I tried my hand at penning a tale. I can easily say I learned so much from her earlier attempts at getting published, and let me tell you she got damn close to seeing some of her work in print. But, that's a tale for another entry.What I want to say is that I learned a lot about what to expect when I decided to try going the traditional published route. Although in my case, I started shortly after the birth of e-publishing and after 2-3 years of trying to get an agent to represent and hearing over and over again "You've got something here, but you crossed several genres and I wouldn't know what publishing house to try and sell it to."You see, at that time (and this still seems to hold true today) publishers don't like to take risks on unknown authors or mixed genres. They want a straight up "Mystery", "Thriller", "Horror", "Science Fiction", etc. They're not keen on trying to sell a book that crosses multiple genres like the Para-Earth Series which we classify as "Paranormal/Sci-Fi".Now some of you may be pointing out that they do it more often these days, but most of those authors are well-known like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, J. K. Rowling, etc. who all have proven sales track records.Anyway, getting back to how our upcoming anthology came to be a reality.During that 2-3 years I tried to get published the traditional way, more stories were taking shape. New characters and ideas were forming. One of them was vampire I called Nathan Eoghan (pronounced Ewan) Steward. I swore I'd never do a vampire character, unless I could introduce new angle or angles to the character. Yet I still wanted to keep a lot of the traditional trademark strengths and weaknesses people have come and know and recognize.By this time, I had already been blogging for several years and had learned from other writers the concept of giving sneak peeks into upcoming works, and even sharing short stories. This is done to introduce characters and concepts to prospective readers and build a demand for them. So, after creating a vampire character that would fit nicely into our paranormal/sci-fi concept, I began doing short stories with Nathan over on a new blog called "The Vampyre Blogs - Private Edition". Over the course of 3 years we had a number of tales about Nathan and introduced a number of his friends who appeared with him in "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home". And we're still making new stories. And that presented a problem, how many people want to wade through 4-5 years of blog posts to read all those stories? Furthermore, most of those tales are rough 1st drafts and it shows.During this time, I noticed some of my fellow authors who had created short stories on their blogs were bundling them into anthologies and that got us thinking. With all the stories we'd already created, why couldn't we create an anthology centered around all those stories on the blog? While it sounded nice and easy, it also didn't feel completely right to me. While having all those earlier stories put into a more convenient format, shouldn't we give the readers more? Shouldn't there be new never before seen stories in the collection? Furthermore, should the stories not be just about Nathan but his friends, and even characters from our first two novels "The Bridge" and "The Ship"?This led to Helen coming up with the idea of recycling some of her earlier works which were firmly established in the realm of the macabre. With a little reworking and adding scenes, she felt a number of those pieces could easily fit in with our Para-Earth Series, while also giving those unread tales a chance to finally see the light of day.*Now I want to pause and say one thing. Remember how I told you all, many posts ago, never to toss out your unfinished works, or fragments because you never knew when they might fit into some new idea/concept? This is a perfect example of why you do that. You just never know when that day might come.*So right there, we had some brand new stories to slip into the anthology. But we didn't stop there, we went ahead and created several more brand new stories just for the collection itself. The result? One third of the tales appearing in this anthology are completely brand new.Plus, we also added an afterthought following each story, sharing some of the who, what, where, and how each tale came into existence. We thought it only right to share some of what the writing process can be like and hopefully inspire others to take that next step in whatever creative endeavors they are involved in.Now, seeing how long this entry is getting and knowing there's still a lot more to share, I'm going to end this one here. I know I covered a lot of background areas today and haven't really gotten to more of the technical and details of actually what went into the building of the anthology. But rest assured that will be covered in the next installment.Until then take care and keep writing everyone.

COVER REVEAL

COMING NEXT MONTH:The latest installment of the Para-Earth Series...Our first anthology:- 25 tales (8 of them brand new)-Spanning 150 years-Starring all your favorite characters from this blog and"The Vampyre Blogs: Coming Home"-Including guest appearances by charactersfrom our other Para-Earth titles"The Bridge" and "The Ship"along with host of all new characters!****PRE-ORDERS will be coming soon****

Announcement Time

*After almost a year, we are finally getting to the last leg of releasing our anthology "The Vampyre Blogs - One Day At a Time". Provided all goes well, it will be available at the beginning/early October, just in time for spooky and weird tales. Helen and I are working on the last story for the anthology even as I write this post. We will be looking for Beta-Readers with hopes for feedback by the middle of September so we can make any final adjustments. In the meantime, here is a little peek at one of the 24 tales that await you within the pages of this newest installment of our Para-Earth Series.THE SNOWMANBy Helen Krummenacker A chilly December evening was made cozy not only by the fireplace, but the scents of vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger from baking in the kitchen. Marissa turned the radio to a station playing all Christmas music. Isabella was excited even beyond the average child at Christmas time, for this was her first Christmas tree, her first time seeing fairy lights, and even the radio was a novelty for her. She would sit on the sofa, stare at the tree and get up again every few minutes to better distribute the ornaments for color balance and even presentation. Marissa and Lisa were helping Nathan with paper chains, a decoration he remembered from his childhood. The girls were using a ladder to reach high, but Nathan took care of sites out of their reach. Otto, having recently surrendered the kitchen to Penny, who was making a couple of her own favorite treats, had started to show Richard how to wire pine and holly into swags to place around. “So ‘Boughs of holly’ are just branches done up to decorate the place?” “Yes. Deck and decorate have the same word as a root.” “Ain’t that something. I always wondered about that song. Especially the gay apparel.” “That meant jolly, bright colored, festive.” “And that makes ‘Johnny Comes Marching Home’ a lot better,” Richard laughed. The professor was all right by him. Strange and a little weird how he treated the boss like a kid sometimes, but when he was around, you always felt a little bit smarter. Just then, a new tune came on the radio. “Frosty the snowman, was a jolly, happy soul--” “Turn that off!” Otto snapped. Isabella looked at him in shock a moment before heading to the radio and pushing the big circle button she’d learned made these new electric things go on or off. “I’m sorry… I just do not like that song,” he explained, suddenly aware that everyone was watching him, puzzled by his uncharacteristic change of mood. “I really do not like it. You would not like it, either, if you knew how dangerous that snowman could have actually become.” “Wait, Frosty was *real*?” Marissa asked skeptically. “There are more things on heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” quoted Otto, then sighed. “Yes. Frosty was real, and he was the result of my missing an important detail and behaving carelessly.” “Story time!” Lisa called out. “Oh, yes, we have to hear about this,” Marissa added. “Really?” Otto asked, as if surprised by the attention. “Even I haven’t heard this one,” said Nathan, “and it sounds like a doozy.” Otto took a seat on the sofa, next to Isabella, and the others gathered around. Richard kept at it with the greenery, but still cocked an ear and moved so he could see Otto’s face and gestures. Taking a deep breath, the professor began to tell the tale in a rich, melodic voice...