Happy Pi Day!

(image borrowed from http://ck022.k12.sd.us)

It's Pi Day, and although I'm not really a math guy, I can totally appreciate Pi Day. So, if you are a math nerd, or know a math nerd, be sure to celebrate Pi Day with as much enthusiasm as you can muster. Go 3.14!

Anyhow, I'm not doing a ton of social networking right now, but I will be around. As much as I want to build an awesome legion of followers by being witty and loveable, it is more important that I actually do the work of writing right now. After a lull like the one I have just been through, writing is the only way I can really get back on track.

But, I'm not going to disappear. I want to get to know more of you folks out there. I want to read your blogs in the morning whilst I chug gallons of coffee like a frat boy with a funnel full of PBR. If you want to talk, email me or Tweet @kenlindsey1981 or leave a comment.

I'm still reading as well, but I'm not promising when I'll post book reviews. When I can, I will. I'm still reading indie books, and eventually, when I'm caught up and feeling better about having been a huge slacktard for the past six months, I'll probably jump back into a weekly review to help support my indie author homies.

Some good news: I've been doing writerly type stuff and things everyday. It's mostly been editing (I'm going to be re-releasing The River Runes soon, with better editing, a bit more story, and a much better cover) but at least it's productive.

Ok, folks, thanks for reading! I think that's all I have for now :)

Buh bye then

Six Months...

Wow, has it really been that long? A lot has happened in my world, Dear Readers, although none of it has been anything to write home about (and by home, I mean the internets, and by write, I mean blog).

I got a job, the kind that takes huge chunks of your life away and replaces them with little pieces of paper that you can use to pay rent and buy food (you know, the unimportant stuff). I've had this job for... can you guess? Six months. I'm glad to be able to pay the bills, so in part I am grateful for my job. However, I have this feeling just about everyday. It's a feeling that rises after another 12 hour shift, before the next 5 or 6 hours of sleep. I feel like I am working only to pay the rent, only so that I can have a place to sleep, only so that I can sleep before I have to go back to work.

Wow, that all sounds kind of angsty. I suppose it is, but it's also honest.

I need to write. When I'm not writing, things start to feel very closed in. I need to make better use of my time, but sometimes it feels a tiny bit hopeless. However, I know that I'm the one in control of these things, and if I want to write, I should just write. Right?

Well, here's to managing free time. :) If you live within walking distance, the coffee is on me.

Thanks for reading, I feel a little better already,
buh bye then

Kickstarter! And Other Stuff...

Hello, all you lovely peoples you. Sorry I've been so sketchy about posting lately, there's just been a lot going on. I'm sure you understand, right? Riiiight? Yeah, that's what I figured. ;)

So, hey! As of yesterday I launched my very own Kickstarter campaign to help me to be able to afford to finish The Fight for Caithiir, as it should be done. Since the release of The River Runes I have found more mistakes in editing in the book and I would like to give it another pass. Actually I would like to be able to get a pro in there to get that baby all cleaned up. If my campaign is successful, I will be using the funds for editing, marketing, cover art, etc... toward all three of the books in the series.

The bottom line: I want these books to go as far as they can, and for that to happen they need I better start than I can give them on my own.

Please check out my Kickstarter page, even if you can't be a backer, any and all encouragement is super-appreciated. Kickstarter is a great place that helps indie artists of all types by giving them a platform where they can raise funds for the work that they love. You should definitely check it out.

In other news... hehe, I've always wanted to say that. I am probably going to continue to not be around very frequently as I dive more into work and writing and getting stuff done. I'll do my best to post at least once a week to let everyone know how things are going. I still a owe a couple more indie book reviews, but after that I may just stop doing reviews altogether. At least for a while.

Well, I think that's it, thanks for stopping by!
buh bye then

Indie Book Review #6

Wow am I a slacker! Sorry for skipping out again last week, but I have a review for you today:)

The novel:
Castles: A Fictional Memoir of a Girl with Scissors. Castles is a is a horror/revenge story written by Benjamin X. Wretlind.

Goodreads Description:
When Maggie was six, she hid from desert storms under the sink where the Comet and Windex were kept. Now twenty, she welcomes the storms. Maggie has been abused, torn apart by the sins of others and constantly feels as if she is living on the verge of some grand epiphany. Then again, she may just be insane. Maggie doesn't know if the four bodies she dismembered and placed inside a rusted Volkswagen Bus are the only bricks left to her castle in the sky, but she hopes you'll understand if they're not. Castles is Maggie's story, a literary horror novel about love and redemption, belief and revenge and what brings a person to madness. Set in a nameless desert in a nameless town, it is the view into the life of a young woman who wonders if madness is really mad.

Wow. As some of you may already know, I am a huge fan of Stephen King. If someone had handed me Castles, and asked me to guess the author, I would have said King without much doubt in my mind. This story is well written and fast paced and I devoured it in something like three hours.

Right from the beginning you fall in love with Maggie, a young girl who has had a very tough life. Abusive men, a cold and distant mother, and a grandmother that seems to hold things together, while at the same time seems to be losing her mind.

Benjamin made me care about his characters and the story, and he did so by showing us their lives, rather than telling us we should care about them. The only complaint I could even imagine is that I wish the story could have continued. The paperback weighs in at about 188 pages, and Castles is available in both paperback and ebook format.

Five Stars!

I'm Back :)

Wow, hey there! Long time, no see. Sorry about that.

Sometimes life just gets in the way. I'm sorry that I have been absent for so long, things have just been... well, crazy. I should be able to get back into schedule now. Things will be just as they were, Mon-Wed-Fri, with indie book reviews on Fridays.

Unfortunately, I don't have much writing news for you right now, since I haven't been doing much of it in the last few weeks. Again, I should be getting back on track now.

In the meantime, here's something to make you laugh:

Guest Blog: Lena Hillbrand

How I Write Now

While every writer has a different process, I’m sure we all have some things in common. I tend to be a procrastinating writer, but sometimes I actually buck up and do something productive. I admire those writers who get up at 5 a.m. sharp, sit down, bang out ten pages in a couple hours, and play golf all day. Their lives sound so peaceful. If only I had that kind of discipline.

But no, I’m one of those writers with chaotic, hectic processes. I bet those golf-playing writers make meticulous outlines, too. And actually stick to them. But I’m what writerly people refer to as a ‘pantser.’ (Those who fly by the seats of their pants). Sure, I’ve done outlines. They mostly got ignored. When I go back and look at them, I think, “Wow, that would have been a great book!” But I didn’t write that book. I started out writing that book, and more likely than not, my main character ended up six time zones away, hitch-hiking through Azerbaijan instead of at Harvard Law.

That’s sort of how my writing process works. I get up, and I want to be one of those organized, outlining authors. I really do. I swear. But I have a snooze button. I hit it for at least an hour. There’s a reason it’s dark out at 5 a.m. The world is telling me it’s time to sleep. When I do get up, I hear bagels calling my name from the kitchen. I must have one. So I eat breakfast. Then I get distracted by the magazine on the table. An hour later, I sit down at my laptop. But that little blue “e” at the bottom left corner of my screen keeps luring me in. I’ll just check my email. Really. Ten minutes, and then I’ll write.

An hour later, I’m done looking at videos of guilty dogs, I’ve Tweeted at everyone willing to Tweet at 7 o’clock in the morning, and obsessively checked all the other websites I obsessively check (do I have new friends? Followers? Messages? Reviews? Hate mail?) You get the picture.

For some of authors, writing is all easy, fun, sunshiny, happy times. They churn out a book every week. They cheerfully call to tell me all about it. I am not one of those writers. I think they’re lying when they call me. I ask to see their drafts. They aren’t lying. I sit down and cry.

Then I realize IT IS OKAY. Not everyone has the same process. We all have our own challenges, and we all come out of them with a different story to tell. I bet even that outlining, uber-productive, always-smiling writer has at least one obstacle. We all have our own way of getting things done. Believe it or not, I really do get things done. After I eat lunch. And take a nap. And do laundry. And check Twitter again.

Lena Hillbrand is the author of The Superiors, the first book in a series by the same name. The books are literary futuristic dystopian vampire novels. How’s that for a mouthful?

Check out the book here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZGB2I4

>P>
Contact her here:

Blog: http://lenahillbrand.blogspot.com

FB: http://www.facebook.com/LenaHillbrand

Twitter: @lenahillbrand

Or on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4836823.Lena_Hillbrand

Indie Review Friday #5

Another week, another indie book review Friday for you!

The Novel:
A Job From Hell. A Job From Hell is a paranormal romance written by Jayde Scott (I know, she has one of the coolest names ever, right?!)

Goodreads Description:
In a world of love bonds, rituals, dark magic, ancient enemies and immortals, nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted.

Seventeen-year-old Amber enters the paranormal world by chance when her brother, Dallas, sets her up with a summer job in Scotland. Dallas has spied something in the woods he thinks could make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. But instead of finding riches, Amber unknowingly enters a paranormal race—and promptly wins the first prize—a prize for which many would kill. Soon, she discovers her new boss, Aidan, didn’t employ her for her astounding housekeeping skills and he isn't who he claims to be either.

As the dark forces slowly conspire against Amber, her naivety and love for Aidan catapults her into a calamitous series of otherworldly events. With every immortal creature hunting for her, whom can she trust with her life?

A JOB FROM HELL is the first book in the paranormal romance series, Ancient Legends. Book Two, Beelzebub Girl, will be out in June 2011.

A Job From Hell was another quick read for me. Jayde did a great job of giving her readers well rounded characters and a plot that was fast paced, but easy to follow. My biggest worry for this series is just how saturated the PNR market has become, I would hate to see this jewel get buried and lost in PNR purgatory. (I'm saying you should read it and tell your friends lol)

There is a big, open world here, filled with vampires, demons, dangerous shadows and much more. Of course, it wouldn't be paranormal ROMANCE if there wasn't a love story. Our protagonist deals with love and lust and relationship issues all throughout the book, and it blends well into the story and helps keep the reading moving forward.

There are some typo and grammar issues, but not so much that it slowed my reading. There were also some characters in here that I liked that were never really fleshed out. I hope to see more development in the rest of the series.

This is one that I would recommend to anyone that enjoys PNR novels. I give A Job From Hell 5 stars:

This book is available in ebook and paperback formats, and I got mine from Amazon for $0.99.

(Which just happens to be the price that you would pay if you picked upThe River Runes right now!)

Thanks for reading!
buh bye then