K.M. Alexander's Blog, page 87

Friday Link Pack 03/21/14

It’s time to share a few interesting links I have found throughout the week. 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? Let me know!

Writing:

The Apartheid of Children’s Literature

Poignant article from Christopher Meyer’s discussing the noticeable lack of non-white protagonists in children’s literature. (Thanks to Sky for letting me know about this.)

List of Animal Sounds

A comprehensive list of animal sound in the english language. Handy resource.

Publishing is a Lottery & Publishing is a Carny Game

Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath analyze and discuss the state of the publishing industry. It’s a long and thought provoking article and I highly recommend every writer indie or otherwise giving it a read.

Honest Tolkien Covers

Because really…

Art:

Amazing Illustrations from the Russian Edition of the Hobbit

Such an awesome style. Really love the take on all the characters. I agree with the article’s title: best gollum. Easily.

Rod Ruth – Creatures From “Science Fiction Tales and More Science Fiction Tales” 1973-74

Great assembly of Rod Ruth’s amazing vintage monster illustrations.

Random:

FieldCandy’s “Fully Booked” Tent

Because who doesn’t want a tent that looks like a book? (Thanks to Sky for sending this in me, he was on a roll this week.)

Americans – why do you keep refrigerating your eggs?

Answers to a fascinating question that I’d guess most American’s didn’t even know existed.

Rear Window Timelapse

Footage from the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window spliced together into one awesome timelapse.

Lovecraft Story of the Week:

Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family

Fun fact, the first line from this creepy little tale will be the epigraph for my next novel: Old Broken Road. Madness is scary.

Farewell Gif of the Week:

Filed under: Link Pack Tagged: Children’s Literature, eggs, Indie, Lovecraft, monsters, Old Broken Road, Publishing, The Hobbit, Tolkien, Writing

Here are some things.

A few days ago I launched my official tumblr:

Here are some things.

I’m pretty excited about it. Unlike other attempts in the past HAST won’t be a regurgitation of what I write here on my blog or reposts from things I have said on twitter. Instead it’ll be a heavily curated feed focusing on quick bits of big bold imagery, text, and maybe some music. To myself focused the plan is that anything I post will be tied into my books or research in some way. So far I’m really digging it’s boldness. Expect to see some cool things there.

Filed under: News Tagged: blogging, research, Tumblr, Writing

More Bookquisitions!

Productive weekend is productive: I’m now over 30% complete with book three’s rough draft, I’m getting things finalized for some con appearances, and getting some financials sorted out. (Taxes reminded me that I needed to do this sooner rather than wade through trouble later.)

However, I did acquire some new books and my stack has grown (both virtually and IRL.) So as I have done before, I figured I’d fill you all in on my recent bookquisitions:

Fourth Uncle in the Mountain: A Memoir of a Barefoot Doctor in Vietnam

by: Marjorie Pivar & Quang Van Nguyen

My friend Steve recommend this to me, and since he was the guy who recommended I pick up Cormac Mccarthy’s Blood Meridian last year—now my 2nd favorite book of all time—I am chomping at the bit to dive into this as well. The pitch for it sounded very fascinating, part memoir and part magical realism set in Vietnam during the French and American war. Excited to get into this one.

The Flight of the Silvers

by Daniel Price

My friend Ben pointed this one out to me. The pitch for this sounds fascinating. It’s part science fiction, part end of the world, and part esoteric afterlife story. It’s set in what sounds like a cool and unique world and got bonus points for having such a rad cover.

The Devil in the White City: A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

This has been on my to-read list forever. I love history and try to read a lot of it. I hear nothing but good things about Larson’s treatment of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and the murders committed by Dr. Henry H. Holmes. Glad to finally have a chance to read it.

Half Bad by Sally Green

I try to mix YA into my pile, and I have heard good reviews about Green’s urban fantasy YA Half Bad, I wasn’t sure if it’d be my cup of tea but it’s damn fine book trailer helped seal the deal.

I’m always looking for new books. Currently I am hunting for some recommendations on romance novels, and as always, I’m looking for recommended indie titles. If you have a book recommendation for me please leave a comment! Don’t want to leave a comment? Shoot me an email: hello@kmalexander.com and let me know what you think I should add to the stack.

Filed under: Bookquisitions Tagged: Authors, Books, reading, to-read

Friday Link Pack 03/14/14

It’s time to share a few interesting links I have found throughout the week. 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? Let me know!

Writing:

What Is Your Definition Of Success? How Do You Measure It?

Good article about recognizing our achievements and enjoying our successes in writing while exploring common measurements writers set for themselves.

Self Publishing Is Going to Just Get Bigger, Embrace It

This has been making the rounds but should be posted here as well. Martyn Daniels’ article examines the direction of the self publishing industry. (Spoiler: It’s only getting bigger.)

Need A Writing Coach?

My friend Lauren Sapala is accepting new clients. Lauren is amazing, encouraging, and gives honest feedback. If you have been spinning your wheels for a while or are starting fresh I’d encouraging you to reach out to her.

Art:

Lovecraft sketch shows the author’s vision for Mountains of Madness

A fascinating sketch that shows Lovecraft’s own vision of his monstrosities. I rarely wish I lived on the East Coast, but this is one of those things I’d be ALL about if I was nearby.

The Terrifying Paintings of Zdzisław Beksiński

Kari-Lise sent me this a while ago, but the site went down and it’s only recently showed back up. The surrealist paintings of Zdzisław Beksiński can be seen as strange and terrifying but there is also something engaging in them as well. Can’t look away.

Time in Motion

Beautiful animated gifs that show a single landscape with a constant shimmer of time. Just go watch them.

Random:

Top 10 Most Overlooked Mysteries in History

I am like old man internet. So it’s rare I see lists like this and come away surprised, but suffice to say there’s a lot of fascinating and inspiring stuff I wasn’t aware existed! Very cool.

Submarine Cable Map

The true map of the internet.

If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel

A very effective site showing the scale of our solar system. It’s amazing how quickly the first four planets zoom past, and then…

Lovecraft Story of the Week:

Cool Air

If the cold bothers you then this is the Lovecraft story for you.

Farewell Gif of the Week:

[image error]

Filed under: Link Pack Tagged: Lovecraft, Mysteries, Self-publishing, Sketches, Submarine Cables, Success, Zdzisław Beksiński

Ordine Universale

“Ordine Universale” by Giorgio Santucci

We’ve all struggled with discovering our place within the universe. Thanks to this from Italian artist Giorgio Santucci now we know! Hooray! Here’s the translated names left to right: You, Mario Monti (former Italian Prime Minister), Masons, Illuminati, Anunnaki, Reptilians, Greys, Galactus, and the big fella himself Cthulhu. See it’s that simple!

Oh! Just in case you missed it, make sure you check out the playlist I posted yesterday themed on my book The Stars Were Right. You can listen to it for free over on Rdio.

Filed under: Art Tagged: Anunnaki, cthulhu, Galactus, Giorgio Santucci, Greys, Illuminati, Illustration, Mario Monti, Reptilians, The Stars Were Right

The Tunes Were Right

Shortly before I launched The Stars Were Right I assembled a playlist of music that inspired the book. Over the last few months I have messed with it off and on but now I think it’s at a place where it’s sharable.

Check out the full playlist on Rdio ≫

As a collection it’s a pretty eclectic mix, but Stars is a pretty eclectic book so in that regard I think it captures the tone. If you don’t want to stream the whole playlist you can listen to any song you want individually. I have the full playlist listed below. Click the artist name to find out more about that specific musician/band or click the song title to listen to that particular song on YouTube.

Marion Black – Who Knows
Titus Andronicus – In A Big City
Billie Holiday – Gloomy Sunday
Lotte Kestner – Fake Empire
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Simple Man
Dropkick Murphys – Prisoner’s Song
Johnny Cash – Rusty Cage
Iggy Pop – The Passenger
Mountain – Don’t Look Around
M83 – Midnight City
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – She Put the Wammee on Me
Miles Davis – I Waited for You
Scorpions – The Zoo
Portugal. The Man – Purple, Yellow, Red, and Blue
Tom Waits – Hold On
Andrew Bird – Fake Palindromes
Modest Mouse – Fly Trapped In A Jar
Those Darlins - Western Sky
Pixies – Hey
Tom Waits – Cold Cold Ground
Okkervil River – Westfall
Scout Niblett – Kidnapped by Neptune
The Black Keys & RZA – The Baddest Man Alive
The Stooges – Search & Destroy
The Dead Weather – Die by the Drop
Townes Van Zandt - Snake Song
Bob Dylan – Fixin’ to Die
Noah Gundersen – Oh Death
The Flaming Lips – Look…The Sun is Rising

And that’s it! I had a lot of fun making this, so look for more playlists in the future. Don’t hesitate to leave me a comment below or shoot me an email and let me know what you thought! Would love the feedback!

If you haven’t read The Stars Were Right and want to know what this playlist is all about you can buy it from Amazon or Barnes & Noble or from pretty much any ebook store.

Filed under: Music, The Stars Were Right Tagged: music, Playlist, The Stars Were Right

#TheStarsWereRight

Roaders, miscreants, friends, and readers! First, thanks for taking the time to read The Stars Were Right, thanks for the emails, the posts, and the kind words about the book, and for spreading the word. Ya’ll are awesome.

I have one quick request: If you’re posting about the book on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) please hashtag it with #TheStarsWereRight. Not only is it a great way to keep building this little community of ours. It also makes it super easy to organize, explore, and share thoughts/opinions/ideas/art with one another, and allows interested readers to see what other folks have thought of the book.

Oh! One last thing. You’ll notice there is a new menu item as well. I figured it was time to launch a teaser site for Old Broken Road. It’s simple and straightforward but I think it’ll help set the mood and excite folks for what is coming. Enjoy!

Filed under: The Stars Were Right Tagged: Community, Hashtag, Old Broken Road, Social Media, Teaser, The Stars Were Right

Friday Link Pack 03/08/14

It’s time to share a few interesting links I have found throughout the week. 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? Let me know!

Thanks Drew:

Big thank you to writer Drew Gerken (@worddrew) for picking up my slack and running with the Friday Link Pack in my absence. He found and shared a lot of great stuff. If you happened to miss it, make sure you hit up his blog and check it out. I know he plans on continuing posting link packs of his own. So give him a follow while you’re at it.

Writing:

101 Fabulous Plot Resources For Novelists

Okay, so it’s not really 101 things, but blogger and writing coach Molly Greene (@mollygreene) compiles a handy list of resource for plot discovery.

$14 Kindle Paperwhites

Amazon is offering a Kindle for the price of a trade paperback. $14 bucks a month for 4 months. No interest. No credit checks. Regardless about how you feel about Amazon or ebooks it’s a heck of a deal and a smart play from Amazon.

Can bestseller lists be bought?

The LA Times looks into a recent story where a church from Seattle paid an estimated $210,000 to ResultSource to make it’s senior pastor’s book Real Marriage a bestseller. Shady, yes. Stupid, totally. There’s a big difference between numbers and valuable numbers.

Art:

Here Amid the Wild Woods new works by Kari-Lise Alexander

When I last left you I mentioned Kari-Lise’s show Here Amid the Wild Woods was opening soon at Auguste Clown Gallery in Melbourne. Well it opened and it was incredibly successful. You can see the full show here. I believe there’s only one piece left and the gallery does have prints available.

Cover Reveal for Brandon Sanderson’s Words of Radiance by Michael Whelan

Despite my own vocal opinions about the book cover for Sanderson’s latest epic fantasy I have to admit Michael Whelan did a really good job explaining his process. He’s an incredibly talented illustrator and it’s cool to get a behind the scene’s look.

Random:

Big Hug Mug, a True Detective Playlist

So, I am obsessed with HBO’s True Detective, and not just because of the Robert W. Chambers connection (though that helps.) When Wilson Miner (@wilsonminer) put together a pretty incredible playlist I was stoked. It’s worth a listen, or like 75 listens in my case. (TEASER! I have a playlist coming for The Stars Were Right. I’m hoping to post it soon.)

TED – The Gentlemen Thief: The Art of Misdirection

If you could control someones attention what would you do with it? A great TED talk/presentation with a pretty stunning ending.

Lovecraft Story of the Week:

The Moon-Bog

Sometimes it’s best to leave well enough alone.

Farewell Gif of the Week:

Filed under: Link Pack Tagged: Brandon Sanderson, Kari-Lise Alexander, Kindle, Misdirection, Plot, Resources, TED, The Stars Were Right, True Detective, Words of Radiance

Getting Back In The Groove

Vacation is over and I am jetlagged.

Melbourne was great. We made some great friends and left really liking the city. The city itself is super walkable. There’s tons of great places to eat and explore, loads to do. It might be one of the best cities I have ever visited. It’s the best parts of Seattle, San Francisco, and Portland all rolled into one.

We also took a few days to get out of the city drive down the Great Ocean Road. (Which is where the pic above comes from.) It was by far one of the most beautiful roads I have driven on, saw some wildlife, an incredible shoreline that easily rivals the views on America’s own Highway 101. I would very much like to do it again. If you get a chance you should go.

Kari-Lise’s show (which was why we went to Melbourne in the first place) went fantastic. It nearly sold out, I believe there’s only one piece remaining. While we were down there she was also interviewed for Beautiful Bizarre Magazine’s blog. It’s a good read. She gives much better advice than I do.

So with vacation behind me it’s time to get back in the groove. After all I got writing to do. Here’s what’s coming:

More Old Broken Road news. Still shooting for a early 2014 launch. Thanks for everyones patience.
I’m signing up for a few local-ish cons running a booth and slinging signed copies of The Stars Were Right . More info as they are confirmed.
Work continues on the mysterious book three. I was able to unravel a few small things on my trip. Hopefully it’s pace will pickup.
I got insanely inspired with an idea for a non-traditional fantasy while I was in Melbourne. Which is both good and bad. I have two books I am working on dammit! I shouldn’t be focusing on a third. So for now I am taking copious notes, and drawing a couple of maps. Which counts as notes! Don’t judge me!

Finally, a huge thanks to Drew Gerken for picking up my slack with the Friday Link Pack while I was away. As I expected he killed it. Lots of good stuff to share. If you missed his posts check them out over at his blog. Also give him a follow. He’s a good guy and has a great perspective. Can’t wait to read his stuff.

All in all it’s good to be back. I love traveling. I love removing myself from my own comfort zone and experiencing the world. I love what it does to me, and how I come out afterward. Travel sharpens me, makes me more aware and encourages me to explore, it broadens my horizons. All things I believe are critical to the creative process. It has me excited to get moving on all my projects again. Big things are coming. Stick around.

Filed under: Link Pack, Old Broken Road, The Stars Were Right Tagged: Auguste Clown Gallery, Australia, Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, Old Broken Road, The Stars Were Right, Travel

Hiatus

Starting tomorrow my blog will be on temporary hiatus. I will be traveling to Australia to accompany Kari-Lise to her solo show “Here Amid the Wild Woods” in Melbourne. Afterward we’ll be hanging around the city for a few weeks. There we will eat good food, drink good drinks, hang with good friends, explore the city (and surrounding Victoria.) Calling this a hiatus is probably bit disingenuous, I may or may not post depending on time/muse/weather/etc but my first goal is to unplug, not blog.

Friday Link Packs will still be posted! Fellow writer Drew Gerken will be picking up the slack in my absence. So make sure you head over to his blog on Fridays for the next three weeks to get your weekly fix of fantastic links.

In my absence there’s also four other blogs I’d recommend you check out:

The Shatzkin Files

Mike Shatzkin is by far one of the best sources for opinions and news on the publishing industry. It doesn’t matter how you publish, you should be reading his blog. Lots of insight.

Dave Farland’s Daily Kick in the Pants

Tips and trick on the craft. Farland is a speculative fiction veteran with a lot of solid advice. I’ve called out specific articles in the past but I’d recommend you visit him on a regular basis.

Lauren Sapala

My friend Lauren is a writing coach based out of San Francisco and she offers a lot though on the process of writing. If you’re looking for encouragement look no further than Lauren.

The Passive Voice

News, quotes, and opinion pieces collected from around the web. The Passive Voice is to writing and publishing what Engadget is to technology. A fantastic resource.

I’ll see you all in March.

Filed under: News Tagged: Australia, Dave Farland, Drew Gerken, Friday Link Pack, Hiatus, Lauren Sapala, Melbourne, The Passive Voice, The Shatzkin Files