I haven’t been feeling well lately. I’ve been dealing with a nasty headache off and on all week, and I was supposed to have surgery yesterday. Thanks to my insurance company dropping the ball, I was forced to reschedule at the last minute. I’ve had a dozen ideas for posts, but I haven’t gotten any of them written (although I did start one – I think it was on Monday).
Since I didn’t have to work today, I thought I’d take a little nap and see if it helped. I was hoping it would. I was wrong.
Well, I’ve finished reading another book, and this one was really good. Kindar’s Cure by Michelle Hauck takes place in the kingdom of Anost, and follows Kindar, second daughter of Empress Eugenie Stefanous, as she seeks out a cure for the disease that is slowly robbing her of life:
Princess Kindar of Anost dreams of playing the hero and succeeding to her mother’s throne. But dreams are for fools. Reality involves two healthy sisters and a wasting disease of suffocating cough that’s killing her by inches. When her elder sister is murdered, the blame falls on Kindar, putting her head on the chopping block.
A novice wizard, Maladonis Bin, approaches with a vision—a cure in a barren land of volcanic fumes. As choices go, a charming bootlicker that trips over his own feet isn’t the best option, but beggars can’t be choosers. As Mal urges her toward a cure that will prove his visions, suddenly, an ally turns traitor, delivering Kindar to a rebel army, who have their own plans for a sickly princess.
With the killer poised to strike again, the rebels bearing down, and the country falling apart, she must weigh her personal hunt for a cure against saving her people.
I had the great pleasure of reading the following post by James Wymore over on Will Macmillan Jones’s blog yesterday, shared as part of a book tour celebrating the release of Forbidden Future: A Time Travel Anthology. The link there will take you to Amazon, where you can read more about the book. It sounds fascinating, and at $.99 (for a limited time only), is a real bargain.
Anyway, I liked James’s post so much that I emailed him for permission to repost it here. He was kind enough to grant my request, so without further ado, here ’tis:
Few fiction tropes have been delved into so deeply and so frequently as time travel. Even if only as a thought experiment, I’ve never met somebody who didn’t speculate on how drastically one small difference in the past could change the present. To be human is to enjoy 20/20 hindsight. We seldom know the full consequences of the choices we make now, but we can always point to the critical moments in the past. Just a nudge. One small word, whispered in an ear at the right moment, and the entire future unfolds differently.
As promised, I have an interview for you with the lovely Will Macmillan Jones, author of the hilarious Banned Underground books. It might have taken me a little longer than I first thought to get this posted, but what can I say? Writers are not necessarily the most organized lot. (Some may very well be, but I most certainly am not.)
KK: So, now that you’ve done it a couple of times, what’s it like to put out two books a year?
WMJ: What’s it like? Let me see…imagine being run over by a lawnmower, thrown in a washing machine, a tumble drier and finished off in an old fashioned mangle. It’s hard going. As you know, I don’t write especially long books, mainly for commercial reasons. But even so it is very hard work, both creatively and practically. But actually quite rewarding too. I can now look at my dressing table and see a line of my books. Yes, I’m really that sad as to have them on show in my bedroom, so that I can see them when I wake up.
KK: I see nothing wrong with that. In all honesty, I would likely do the same thing. 🙂 They say it takes three books to see success. Do you feel like that’s true? Why or why not?
Mmm, Devon Sawa, another one of my crushes. 🙂
So it’s time for another post about childhood secrets. The thing is, I can’t remember a whole lot of those. What I do remember, though, are the secret (or maybe not-so-secret) crushes I had on the boys in my class.
Let’s just say there were a lot.
I think last year for this challenge, I mentioned one. In the comments of that post, I referred to another. But I was less than subtle in elementary school. By the time middle school rolled around, I had grown rather more shy when it came to boys. And the boys had grown rather better looking.
The latest installment in The Banned Underground series, The SatNav of Doom definitely holds up to the standard set by the first four novels (you can read my reviews of them here, here, here, and here). Chock full of humor as always, I laughed my way through The SatNav of Doom at an admittedly slower pace than the previous books, but that was due to my overwhelming open house (and moving) preparation and is in no way a reflection on this fine novel. Indeed, settling down with Fungus and the gang for a rockin’ gig was a welcome relief from my moving stress. 🙂
The discerning reader will find many gems along the way to the Edern’s enchanted Fairy Hill hideout. From wonderful musical jokes to brilliant pop culture references, there’s plenty here to make you giggle, grin, and even guffaw. For example:
I did it! I crossed the 50k line tonight! Well, I probably actually crossed it sometime this noon, but I typed across the 50k line tonight and validated everything tonight and holy crap, you guys! Fifty thousand words is a lot of freaking words!
Okay, so that’s my excitement for the night then. I know I can write another 50k because I’ve done it before (The Lokana Chronicles is roughly 100k) and that it will probably take that many more before my story is all done, but I’m just trying to focus on one thing at a time right now, especially since I was hoping to have this story nearing completion by this point in time. I can’t believe I’ve been working on it for almost a year now and I’m only half done. I had hoped to be so much further along than this! But I suppose that’s just the way it goes, huh? That that’s all part of being a mother/wife/friend/office drone/writer. There are only so many hours in the day and I only get one of them, sometimes two, to write.
But I’m greedy – I want more.
Luckily, my work schedule is about to get a lot less hectic, so that should help. Naptime will once again be writing time! And with school starting back up in just a few short weeks, perhaps homework time can be writing time, too? I guess we’ll see.
In the meantime, I’m going to celebrate my Camp Nano win by going to bed early tonight. I could definitely use the sleep. How has everyone else done with their Nano goals? If you haven’t done Nano, why not try it come November?
(c) 2013. All rights reserved.
I’ve been hard at work on Remnants again lately for Camp Nano. I have a small word count goal – just 5,000 words, give or take – and I have no idea how close I am to hitting it. But I inadvertantly skipped over a major portion of the story during a writing spree a few months ago, and now I have to go back and fix it, so if I can at least get that accomplished, then I’ll consider camp a success.
Meanwhile, here’s a little taste of what all that fixing has wrought…
Multitasking: I found the portal to Lokana while hiking at Pine Lake on a family vacation. Family time + research FTW! 🙂
So, it’s Friday. Woohoo! It’s been a week of big, exciting things around the country, and it’s been a week of big exciting things right here in my own backyard. It’s going to be a super busy weekend, too. So what am I doing to prepare?
I’M WRITING, Y’ALL!
I’ve been working on Remnants again the last couple of days, and it feels great, but I can’t get my inner editor to shut up, which is irritating. I have a buttload of revisions left to do on The Lokana Chronicles, but I really need a week or so of peace, quiet, and no internet to get them done. 🙂
Still, it feels wonderful to be enjoying my passions again. I’ve missed playing with my camera and visiting imaginary worlds and the people that populate them. And since I’m starting a new job next week, it’s nice that at least a little bit of the change going on in my life is change that I enjoy (not that I’m not excited about the new job – I totally am).
So for now, it’s back to writing. Big things are in the works and I need time to prepare. Have a great weekend, everybody!
(c) 2013. All rights reserved.
Today, I’m interviewing Andrea Baker, a fabulous friend whose book, Worlds Apart – Leah, is well worth checking out. So grab a nice cup of tea, get comfy, and settle in to learn more about this wonderful author!
AB: Hi, Kay, and thank you for inviting me onto your blog – I love the title of this blog; it always makes me smile.
KK: You’re most welcome! I’m always tickled when people tell me how much they like my blog’s title – titles are really hard for me, so it’s nice to know I picked a good one for my blog. So, tell us a little about yourself.
AB: I’m pretty ordinary really – daughter, sister, wife and mother to a gorgeous and cheeky little nine-year-old girl.
I work full-time as an Interim Manager. This means that I tend to have short term (usually at least 3 months) contracts with different clients, covering projects, service transformation and that sort of thing.
I’ve always loved the paranormal genre – I’ve always referred to my favourites as being the “edge of reality” stories, where they are based in the real world, but unreal happens. Because it is my favourite genre to both read and watch, it was natural for me to write it too.
KK: Write what you know, eh? Have you always written, or is it a recently discovered passion?
Suddenly they all died. The end. 