Kelly Jensen's Blog, page 17
October 9, 2017
Welcome to the Dark Side
One of my most memorable gaming experiences was the final choice in the Imperial Agent quest for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Not long being free of my “attachment” to World of Warcraft, I had decided not to play SWTOR. I didn’t want to get sucked into another MMO. But my husband bought it, and my resolve lasted for the thirty minutes I watched him play.
Even though I caved and bought the game and a six-month subscription, I never really got into the MMO part. While my friends were swinging t...
September 20, 2017
Flash Fiction: My Flame and Collectors
Once again, it’s been a while since I posted some flash fiction! Here are two more pieces written for the Monday Flash Fics Facebook Group. “My Flame” is one of those stories that dropped into my head the moment I looked at the picture. It’s a little creepy, which happens a lot when I write short-form–probably because I don’t have to go back and explain anything. Just serve up a slice of story and let you all decide for yourselves how it happened. The second piece, “Collectors,” returns to th...
September 8, 2017
What I’m Working On
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As I pulled together some bits and pieces for my September Newsletter, it occurred to me that while I do cross post new release news to my blog, I don’t often remember to write update posts or talk about what I’m working on. So this is that. An update and a bit of a ramble about my current projects!
New Release NewsI have two upcoming releases:
Counting on You (Counting #3) – November 22, 2017
Purple Haze (Aliens in New York #2) – January 18, 2018
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“This Time Forever” is a contemporary ro...
August 16, 2017
Poor Purter and the Midwife Cowpoke
My good friend and sometime writing buddy Jenn Burke shared this link on Facebook last week: Romance Novels Generated by Artificial Intelligence. Briefly, computational scientist Elle O’Brien fed over 20,000 Harlequin Romance novel titles into a neural network and then asked it to come up with some titles of its own. The results are all sorts of interesting and hilarious.
I find this project fascinating for a number of reasons—most of which have to do with the sorting of data. If we take the...
July 27, 2017
The Myth of the Perfect Draft
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When I wrote my first book I had absolutely no concept of how the whole process worked. I wrote a story, read it over, sent it to a friend—who read it over and said very nice things—corrected a few typos, and sent it in. The publisher offered me a contract, and I thought, “Wow, that was easy.”
Then I got my first developmental edit letter.
I’ve had worse. I didn’t cry over that first one. But I did wonder why they’d bought the book if they wanted me to rewrite it. I decided that a first draf...
July 17, 2017
I’m Not Ashamed to Admit…
There’s a link floating around Facebook that takes you to a list of books you should be probably be embarrassed to admit to reading. I ticked off sixteen out of the hundred. My score would have been way higher if they’d listed every book by some of the authors, particularly John Grisham and Jackie Collins.
I’m not one to brag about having read anything, mostly because I read for pleasure and really hate the idea of judging anyone for what they do for pleasure. (Plucking the heads off kittens...
June 22, 2017
Aliens Have Landed in New York!
It’s here! It’s here! Today is the release day for Uncommon Ground.
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This book has been a bit of an experiment in a number of ways. First of all, being a part of the first gay Kindle World is amazing. There are so few LGBTQ Kindle World stories available. Hopefully we’ll be changing that!
Second, I hadn’t realised how much I missed writing science fiction until I started putting together this story. I adore my contemporaries, but there’s just something about writing aliens that appeals! Proba...
June 20, 2017
Teaser Tuesday: Uncommon Ground
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Uncommon Ground releases in TWO DAYS! (I’m a little excited.) I’ve already seen a couple advance reviews and they’re making me wish I’d written aliens in New York well before now. 
June 16, 2017
The Book Was Better
Well, duh.
Though…
I watch a lot of movies. I also read a lot of books. I’ve watched a lot of movies inspired by books—and that’s my favourite way of phrasing it, because even a faithful film adaptation will differ from the source material. It’s the director’s vision, and the actors’ interpretation of the script. Like a game of telephone, the story is always going to change by the time it hits the end of the line.
There are instances where the movie is better than the book. Buzzfeed has a lis...
June 2, 2017
What I’ve Been Reading
I have participated in the Goodreads reading challenge for six years now. It’s the only challenge I’ve ever actually completed – probably because it’s based on the number of books rather than specific titles. This year I lowered my goal from 200 to 100, thinking I wouldn’t have as much time to read. I’m at 97 books right now and June has only just begun, so I think I’ll be adjusting the total back to 200.
Apparently I found time to read. I also found some great books!
