K.M. Alexander's Blog, page 68

One Week Until Red Litten World’s Cover Reveal

We’re down to seven days. It’s coming, the cover reveal for The Bell Forging Cycle, Book III: Red Litten World is just around to corner. So mark your calendars! There’s going to be a launch event running all over the web June 4th, 5th, and 6th. If you’re a blogger and want to participate in the Red Litten World Cover Reveal you can sign up here. (There’s even a little giveaway for hosts.)

Along with the reveal, one lucky reader will be able to win a Bell Forging Prize Pack which includes signed copies of both The Stars Were Right and Old Broken Road, as well as a Bell Caravans patch, all the swag, and a $50 Amazon gift card!

If you can’t wait until next Thursday to see the cover, consider signing up for my newsletter. Subscribers will get a preview a few days early! Sign up today →

Filed under: Contests, Red Litten World, The Bell Forging Cycle Tagged: cover design, cover reveal, Old Broken Road, The Stars Were Right

Middle Earth And The Perils Of Worldbuilding

I’ve long been a fan of Evan Puschak’s YouTube channel, The Nerd Writer. I like to be challenged, and I appreciate his scholarly approach to all manner of topics. So when I saw he did his most recent episode on world building—something near and dear to my own heart—I knew it’d be something I shared. Give it a watch below:

The comments on the video are really good (yeah, I know!) and I recommend reading some of the discussion happening over on YouTube. Also, I highly encourage you to read M. John Harrison’s essay on worldbuilding as it serves as a basis for a lot of Pucschak’s argument.

So, what do you think? Is world building the “the great clomping foot of nerdism” as Harrison alleges? Do you agree with Puschak’s assessment; is world building potentially dangerous? Or do you have a different take? Leave a comment below, or, better yet, join in the discussion on YouTube →

Filed under: Videos Tagged: m. john harrison, middle earth, secondary worlds, the nerd writer, world building, youtube

Go To Work

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

In between projects I’ve been re-reading On Writing again and this quote jumped out at me. Nice reminder on those days when the end isn’t in sight, everything feels terrible, and we’re sick to death of everything we’re working on. Go to work. (It’s worth it.)

Filed under: Quotes Tagged: amateur, On Writing, Stephen King, work

Friday Link Pack 05/22/2015

It has been a week in the Alexander household and I am so glad today is Friday! That means it is time for the Friday Link Pack where I share a few links I’ve found over the last few days. Some of these I mention on Twitter, if you’re not already following me there, please do! Have a link I should feature in the upcoming link pack? Click here to email me and let me know! (Include a website so I can link to you as well.) Let’s get to it…

Writing:

To Win Big, You Have To Enter The Race

I thought this was a fantastic bit of encouragement for anyone who is struggling with their writing. The quote from Kevin J. Anderson really rang true to me: “If you want to attract lightning, be a lightning rod.” Work hard and keep at it, you got this.

The Master Outline

What do the YA novels Harry Potter and The Sorcerers Stone, Twilight, and The Hunger Games have in common? The Better Novel Project lays it out in this enormous outline that somehow works for each of them. [Thanks to Christine for finding this, very cool.]

Pros And Cons Of Being An Indie Author

Novelist Joanna Penn lays out the good and the bad of going it on your own. If you’re unsure of the direction you want to go, I recommend starting here.

Red Litten World Cover Reveal Is Coming June 4th

Hold on to your butts. The cover for the third installment of my Bell Forging Cycle is being revealed in a few weeks. Those readers who subscribe to my newsletter will get to see it a few days before it’s posted. Make sure you sign up today →

Art:

The Art Of Syd Bee

Seattle-based painter and illustrator Syd Bee, is doing the cover for my upcoming fantasy novel (which I am still being coy about). However, I want to introduce her work to my audience and what better way to start than using the link pack! Check her work out and expect to see more around here in the days to come.

Classic Art Heroes In Modern Day Situations

Artist Alexey Kondakov takes characters from classical paintings and photoshops them into scenes we tend to take for granted. The result… well, you’ll just have to find out…

Poll Finds 1 in 25 US Citizens Unsure If They Own Art

Question: Do you own any paintings, sculptures, or other art works?

Answer: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Random:

In Flight

In this article from the New York Times, we get a pilot’s perspective en route from London to Tokyo. A great read.

23 Brilliant Life Lessons From Anthony Bourdain

I love Anthony Bourdain, I like his honesty, his candidness, and his no-nonsense approach to life and writing. (If you haven’t, go read Kitchen Confidential you’ll thank me later.) So yeah, I think these little bits of wisdom are great.

When The Victorians Used Microscopic Photography To Look At Porn

But yeah, the headline. Victorians hid naughty imagery viewable only with a magnifying glass inside random gadgets. This was a thing they did. [Warning: Saucy Victorian Nudity.]

NASA Captures Best Photo Yet Of Strange Lights On Dwarf Planet Ceres

Something shiny is on the surface of Ceres, the tiny dwarf planet that orbits with the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. But what could it be…

Random Wikipedia Article of the Week:

Rural Purge [Nice find from my friend, Jedrek.]

“The “rural purge” of American television networks (in particular CBS) was a series of cancellations between 1969 and 1972 of still popular rural-themed shows with demographically skewed audiences, the majority of which occurred at the end of the 1970–71 television season.”

Lovecraft Story of the Week:

The Little Glass Bottle

A short story that serves as an illustration showing us that that not every idea is a good one.

Gif of the Week:

Filed under: Link Pack, writing Tagged: advice, alexey kondakov, anthony bourdain, ceres, classic art, h.p. lovecraft, indie publishing, NASA, outline, Red Litten World, rural purge, Success, syd bee

Come See Me At Lilac City Comicon

We’re about two weeks away from Lilac City Comicon 2015 in Spokane, Washington. The event runs one day, May 30th, and I’m happy to say I will be there alongside the incredibly talented Josh Montreuil! Josh will be doing sketches and selling prints. He’ll also have an ashcan version of his forthcoming comic Rexorcist.



I will be bringing copies of The Stars Were Right and Old Broken Road as well as a bunch of Bell Caravan Patches and as always there will be a ton of free swag. If you’re in the Spokane area on May 30th and attending the convention come visit us at booth C-01. Map below:

I’m looking forward to hanging out with Josh, talking Lovecraft, slinging some books, and seeing all the cosplay. There’s a great list of participants (check out the guest list and the exhibitor list) it’ll be fun meeting everyone. So mark your calendars, I’ll see you there!

Filed under: Upcoming Appearances Tagged: Josh Montreuil, lilac city comicon, Old Broken Road, rexorcist, Spokane, The Stars Were Right, Washington

Friday Link Pack 05/15/2015

The weekend looms on the horizon. That means it’s Friday! It’s time to share a few links I’ve found over the last few days. Some of these I mention on Twitter, if you’re not already following me there, please do! Have a link I should feature in the upcoming link pack? Click here to email me and let me know! (Include a website so I can link to you as well.) Let’s get to it…

Writing:

The Daily Word Counts of 39 Famous Authors

I love seeing links like this. So often new writers get depressed about the amount of words they write vs. the fact that they actually wrote. It’s that latter than truly matters. Somedays (usually the weekends) I’m a Michael Chrichton other days I’m a Shelby Foote. That’s okay. The important thing is you’re writing. [Thanks to Claudia Bradshaw for sharing this.]

How Publishers Could Get More Of My Money (And Make Me Happy To Give It)

Old industries often move at a glacial pace when reacting to changes within a marketplace. Stephanie Leary discusses several simple ideas to make it easier to sell her books. It’s good advice. Big publishing should be listening.

Which Lost Twists Were Planned Vs. Improvised

I always find it fascinating to get an inside look in the process of any writing endeavor. This article from Vox goes into the show Lost and how the writers planned and wrote the series.

Red Litten World Cover Reveal Is Coming June 4th

Hold on to your butts. The cover for the third installment of my Bell Forging Cycle is being revealed in a few weeks. Those readers who subscribe to my newsletter will get to see it a few days before it’s posted. Make sure you sign up today →

Random:

Where The Wine Glass Came From

I was watching a movie this week and was struck by the shape of the wine glass. As an object its sort of atypical for its purpose, right? (I know the stem keeps the wine from being warmed by the hand but work with me here.) So I did some research on how the wine glass evolved and found this handy article. Some interesting info.

15 Islands Overrun by Cute Animals

I just got a new rabbit. She’s an English Lop which Kari-Lise and I have named Willa. [See a video of Willa here.] Anyway, since you might not have a new and adorable rabbit terrorizing you. I figured it’d be fun to share this article from Mental Floss of 15 places overrun with cuteness. Now you know your next vacation destination.

The Heart of Dudeness

Bro, buddy, dude, fella, pal… across America we have different terms for our friends. The Big Think assembles a map showing where these terms are most commonly used. Thankfully the PNW is listed on none of these.

F&%@ Yeah Fictional Maps

I love maps especially fictional maps, so a blog dedicated to sharing some of the best fictional maps immediately piques my interest. Some really great and quite varied work on this blog. I got a chuckle out of The Land of Clichéa.

Random Wikipedia Article of the Week:

Fnord

Fnord is a word used in newsgroup and hacker culture to indicate that someone is being ironic, humorous or surreal. Often placed at the end of a statement in brackets (fnord) to make the ironic purpose clear, it is a label that may be applied to any random or surreal sentence, coercive subtext, or anything jarringly out of context (intentionally or not).

Lovecraft Story of the Week:

The Horror at Red Hook

I hate this story. On one hand, I should love it. It’s urban. It involves a detective. But as Peter Cannon once said, “racism makes a poor premise for a horror story.”

Gif of the Week:

Filed under: Link Pack Tagged: cute animals, dudeness, fnord, h.p. lovecraft, lost, maps, peter cannon, publishers, Red Litten World, the horror at red hook, willa, wine, Word Count

Red Litten World Cover Reveal Is Coming June 4th

The date has been set, the stars have aligned, and it is time. The cover reveal for Red Litten World, book three of The Bell Forging Cycle, is coming June 4th, 2015. One again the incredibly talented Jon Contino is back with some beautiful hand lettering. After seeing his incredible work for the covers of The Stars Were Right and Old Broken Road, you’ve probably detected a theme beginning to form for the series. I’d wager you can sorta guess what this cover will look like… or can you. [Cue dramatic music.]

“…legend said that it had come from a mysterious inner realm beneath the red-litten world—a black realm of peculiar-sensed beings which had no light at all, but which had great civilisations and mighty gods…”

—H. P. Lovecraft & Zealia Bishop, The Mound

As with all big announcements and cover reveals, folks who subscribe to my newsletter will be the first people who get a glimpse at the new cover. Why not join those brave and noble few and… sign up today →.

Filed under: Red Litten World, The Bell Forging Cycle Tagged: book cover, Cover, cover reveal, fantasy, jon contino, Old Broken Road, The Stars Were Right, Urban Fantasy

Imaginary Worlds

My last recommendation post was for Device 6, and it’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these. Like over a year. So let’s rectify that!

Today, I have a podcast recommendation for you: Imaginary Worlds is a free podcast from Eric Molinsky focusing on the worlds of science-fiction and fantasy. Coming at it from a fan perspective Molinsky explores why we as fans love these worlds, what draws us to them, and why they resonate with us. Unlike a lot of other podcasts, Imaginary Worlds is quite deep. Molinsky takes a candid and fresh approach to subjects like: the origin stories of heroes, the tale of the mysterious author James Tiptree, the real history of Salem, Massachusetts, the canon of Star Trek and its relationship to the Torah, and even how modern politics is reflected in Game of Thrones. I found each episode quite engaging and before I knew it I quickly binge-listened my way through the series. You can listen to one of my favorite episodes below:

Subscribe to Imaginary Worlds at iTunes or from Stitcher. The episodes are usually less than twenty-minutes in length making it really easy to fly through these. I recommend starting at the beginning. If you like the podcast leave a review on iTunes as well, it’s a great way to spread the word to other potential fans of Imaginary Worlds.

Filed under: Recommendations Tagged: eric molinsky, imaginary worlds, itunes, Podcast, stitcher, the bell forging cycle

Old Broken Road Summer Reading Giveaway

We had a really nice weekend here in Seattle. Temps hit eighty on Saturday. I realized that we’re now well into May and summer is just around the corner. That means it’s summer reading time!

I’m sure you’re going to be looking for a fresh slew of new books to read. Well, good news! If you live in the US and have an account on Goodreads you can enter my Old Broken Road Summer Reading Giveaway. You can be one of the five lucky winners to win a signed copy of The Bell Forcing Cycle, Book II: Old Broken Road plus some cool swag. Entering is simple. All you need to do is login to your Goodreads account and click the big “Enter to Win” button at the top of the page and you’ve entered. Just follow the link below:

ENTER TO WIN TODAY →

The five winners will be chosen on May 31st and the books will be sent out the following week. Enter to win! Tell your friends! Good luck!

Filed under: Contests, Old Broken Road Tagged: bell caravans patch, Free, Giveaway, goodreads, Swag

Friday Link Pack 05/08/2015

Happy Friday! It’s time to share a few links I’ve found over the last few days. Some of these I mention on Twitter, if you’re not already following me there, please do! Have a link I should feature in the upcoming link pack? Click here to email me and let me know! (Include a website so I can link to you as well.) Let’s get to it…

Writing:

According To The Dictionary, “Literally” Now Also Means “Figuratively”

Language evolves, whether we like it or not. [Thanks to Dave for sharing this.]

So You Want To Use Song Lyrics In Your Novel?

While song titles can’t be copyrighted, lyrics can. Anne R. Allen gives you five clear steps for acquiring the rights to use lyrics within your writing.

Lola Landekic on designing the cover for Where Did You Sleep Last Night

My editor, Lola Landekic, is also a very talented illustrator. In this interview, she gives some insight into her process for the cover design of Lynn Crosbie’s Cobain–inspired novel Where Did You Sleep Last Night. Lola goes into detail on the illustration itself to the custom lettering work to the color choice. It’s a beautiful cover and awesome to get the insight behind the work. Good stuff.

Spellbind Your Readers With Realistic Magic

So you’re writing your fantasy novel. How do you make your made-up magic system feel more real? In her article for Writers Helping Writers author Tal Valante shares some advice to make your magic feel alive.

200 More

I recently (as of Wednesday) hit the four-hundredth post on my blog. In this post I reminiscence a little and reflect over the last two-hundred.

Art:

Korean Artist Beautifully Illustrates What Real Love Looks Like

I love these sweet little illustrations by Puuung. Small touching moments rendered beautifully. Each tells its own story. [Thanks to Stalara for sharing.]

I See Music Because I Have Synesthesia, So I Decided To Paint What I Hear

Painter Melissa McCracken is a synesthete. When she hears music it comes to her in a variety of colors. Instead of trying to describe what she sees she has decided to paint it instead. The results are fascinating.

Random:

Mastering The Art Of The Haterbrag

I debated posting this under Writing or here. Ended up here. Basically, Jennifer Weiner is the coolest. (Make sure you watch the video if you have time.)

A Blueprint For Your Digital Afterlife

We all know that we’re going to die someday. But what happens to our digital life after we’re gone? As the internet gets older and more and more of our life ends up online these are things we all need to start considering.

Bloodborne And H.P. Lovecraft (Spoilers!) [VIDEO]

I’m not much of a gamer anymore. But I have been following a lot of the plot for From Software’s Bloodborne. The heavy Lovecraftian elements are a huge draw (and the stunning art direction.) In this video Super Bunnyhop explores the connections between Bloodborne and Lovecraftian fiction.

Random Wikipedia Article of the Week:

Old Man Of The Lake

“The Old Man of the Lake is a 30-foot (9 m) tall tree stump, most likely a hemlock, that has been bobbing vertically in Oregon’s Crater Lake since at least 1896.

At the waterline, the stump is about 2 feet (60 cm) in diameter and stands approximately 4 feet (120 cm) above the water. Its surface has been bleached white by the elements. The exposed end of the floating tree is splintered and worn but wide and buoyant enough to support a person’s weight.”

Lovecraft Story of the Week:

The Poe-et’s Nightmare

“Lucullus Languish, student of the skies,

And connoisseur of rarebits and mince pies,

A bard by choice, a grocer’s clerk by trade,

(Grown pessimist thro’ honours long delay’d),

A secret yearning bore, that he might shine

In breathing numbers, and in song divine.”

Gif of the Week:

Filed under: Link Pack, writing Tagged: bloodborne, digital afterlife, dogs are the best, h.p. lovecraft, jennifer weiner, literally, lola landekic, magic, melissa mccracken, old man of the lake, puuung, song lyrics