Musings of Two Creative Minds

                                       Your last chance to grab the e-book version of each of Helen's "Forever Detective" Series of books for 1/2 off the regular price is ending soon.  ***Remember, the sale ends on January 2nd so act now!*** Here are the links: Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/HelenKrummenacker8614 AmazonUS: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L5GM2B4?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn AmazonUK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08L5GM2B4?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn AmazonCA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08L5GM2B4?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn AmazonAU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B08L5GM2B4?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn

  I t's Christmas Eve, so it's time to bring you something 'completely' different... In the United Kingdom there is a tradition of telling a ghost or creepy story at this time of the year. And since according to Ancestry.com based on my DNA sample, I am 49% Irish, plus another 22 % English, I feel it only right to continue this tradition. So, we're bringing you the audio version of "The Snowman", complete with imagery, providing a picture book experience, much like I did last year with my unabridged presentation of Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol". As some of you may be aware, "The Snowman" was written by my wife/co-author Helen for our "The Vampyre Blogs - One Day at a Time" anthology. It was inspired by hearing the song "Frosty the Snowman" one too many times, before deciding to put a bit of a strange unearthly (or Para-Earth-ly) twist on the story... So without further ado, here is this year's Christma

  THE 1/2 OFF SALE IS NOW HAPPENING ON AMAZON TOO!!!! Now is your best chance to find the entire e-book collection of the Forever Detective Series for a promotional price at Amazon starting right NOW! Which books are included in this deal? PLUS the 1st anthology...   and the latest novel... Each are available at only 50% of the regular e-book price from today through January 1st, 2024!   And remember if you wish to gift e-books to a friend, you can schedule when that gift will arrive to their e-mail on a specific date, like say… a birthday, or Christmas Day, or maybe New Year’s? Use the link below, that is correct for you, and grab some copies for yourself/someone you know who loves vampire detectives in a noir setting: LINK:  AmazonUS:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L5GM2B4?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn AmazonUK:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08L5GM2B4?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn AmazonCA:  https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08L5GM2B4?binding=kind

The original baddies are back in the 5th book of Helen's "Forever Detective" book series... Once upon a time, Rafael Jones was just another guy back from the war, starting up his own business. But because that business was a detective agency, he took a case that led him face-to-face with a pair of monsters. One of those monsters, Grigori Rasputin the legendary Mad Monk of Russia, chose him to join their ranks and made him a vampire. But Rafael struggled against their 'gift', drove them from New York, and has continued to seek a cure, while holding onto his humanity in spite of his new condition. But now those who turned him are back, and it seems like a new nightmare is about to be unleashed on a particular part of the city's population. Rasputin, the vampire with religious mania, has turned his attention to those he acknowledges as God’s first Chosen People… the Jews. And now Rafael has to race against time and find out exactly what Rasputin has planned for t

  GOOD NEWS!  There's just a few more days now, until book 5 in Helen's "Forever Detective Series" is available on Amazon. Curious as to what she has in store for you all? Here's a little taste of what you can expect in "Forever Chosen". .. Remember you can still pre-order your Kindle copy using the link below that's appropriate for your region: Amazon Kindle:  Forever Chosen (The Forever Detective Book 5) - Kindle edition by Krummenacker, Helen. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. AmazonUK:  Forever Chosen (The Forever Detective Book 5) eBook : Krummenacker, Helen: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store AmazonCA:  Forever Chosen (The Forever Detective Book 5) eBook : Krummenacker, Helen: Amazon.ca: Kindle Store *NOTE: Links for more book sites will be posted soon* AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS!

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Yes, it's that time of year again, and I hope you all are having a wonderful time with all the spooks and goblins you'll be seeing. Here's a little spooky treat from me to all of you.  As I've mentioned before, I've been working on a new YouTube channel called the Library of the Obscure where I'll be bringing you short stories from various authors, some familiar, others may be brand new to you. In the cases of familiar or even well-known authors, I hope the tales I bring will be brand new to you, which will offer some interesting new insights to some of those authors. In other cases, I hope to introduce you to authors whose names have all but been forgotten and may pique your interest to locate more of their work.  But that will be the work of the 'Curator' of the library to share with you. For now, the Library of the Obscure is still "Under Construction" and will hopefully be opening its doors to you all on January 1st of 2

Hello everyone. I had been planning and hoping to start out this blog post with me being all... But then Monday happened, and I wound up feeling like... Here's what's been happening around here for the last few months (well more like for the last year). You see, part of the reason (well a very big reason actually) why I haven't been posting a lot in the last year is because I developed some health issues. Nothing life-threatening, mind you, but life altering. Keeping a long story short, as of May I had to leave my job at the county of Santa Cruz and take Disability Retirement.   Now this whole process has been ongoing since September of last year and now it's officially a year later, come to think of it. But throughout that time, I had a lot of doctor appointments, as well as dealing with a lot of stressful paperwork, which included short-term disability (which will be coming to an end this month). During my last meeting with my doctor, she noted my condition that led t

 Me this morning when I opened this blog. We had hit over... Honestly, when this blog started back in 2010, I really had no idea what the hell I was doing. I only had the smallest inkling of what I wanted to say about books, writing, characters, voices, point of views, plot, setting, etc. But thanks to all of you and your continued support, I found my way. And after Helen joined me on the blog, things really took off thanks to her and all of you. And now, here we are at a number I never dreamed possible.  Honestly, I'm so giddy right now I don't know what to do... Good advice. Thanks Loki. In the meantime, I want to say that I know I haven't been as active this year, mostly due to health and family issues. And unfortunately, those health issues are still ongoing. But I will try to bring you all more content soon, as well as a major announcement or two hopefully coming in the next two months. So, please bear with me, and continue to visit us. We love seeing you and hearing f

I haven't posted much about writing lately, but this is not because I haven't been writing. On the contrary, I've been rather busy with stories lately. In fact, I recently completed one tale set during in World War I, involving our vampyre "Nathan" (from The Vampyre Blogs part of the Para-Earths Series) and a zeppelin. Sounds intriguing? Well, I'm afraid you'll have to wait until the 2nd anthology "Two for the Road" to come out, to read it.  Which with a little luck, and some actual work on my part, may actually happen later this year. We'll see... HAHAHAHA (I crack myself up some days). But seriously, I would like to see it happen, but if I've learned anything in the last few months is that "Life gets in the way...", so we'll see. Mind you I will try to keep you all in the loop as best I can. And speaking of stories, I've also been working on a second lengthy tale which will also appear in that same collection. This o

This little video gives you an idea of why I get so busy with my audio recordings. I swear, when you're doing most of your work at home, this means you literally are the chief, cook, and bottlewasher. From start to finish, you are your own director, actor, voice talent, editor... the works! It's all on you to make that audio ready to be submitted to ACX and then onto Audible. And there will be days when you are so confident that the recording you just did was F------ Awesome! Possibly one of the best takes you've ever done in your entire career and then... Well, just watch the video below... And even after doing this for 3 years, this still happens all too often to me. And yet, in spite of all the times this happens, I'm still beginning work on my own podcast. Stay tuned for more on that. My goal right now is to get at least a dozen or more installments recorded BEFORE I start to actually get the podcast up and running. Like my unabridged reading of Charles

Until recently, I've always done all my audio recording at my home studio. But I needed some professional demo recordings which brought me to Reeds Recording and the awesome Adam who was the recording technician that day. Now, what brought all this about?  Well even though I've already recorded 4 audiobooks on Audible, I have never done voice work for commercials or documentaries and such. And for those, I needed to learn some new skills and techniques, as well as a better understanding of what the industry is looking for in voice over talents. So I got myself some professional voice over training through "Such A Voice", who paired me up my coaches Ed Renninger, Justine Reiss, my director Nancy Wilson, and my tech advisor Ben Marney. These people made a such a difference in how I do voice work now, and I cannot thank them all enough. Where do I go from here? Well, one step at a time. First I'm going to be putting up a web page and loading my demos, as well as some

  *NOTE: This review covers the audiobook version (which is unabridged), so there will be references to the performance by the voiceover actor Marc Thompson) As a big fan of the Star Wars animated series "Rebels", I was always fascinated by the character of Grand Admiral Thrawn. He was clearly one of the most formidable opponents I'd ever seen on any show (with the exception of Naraku from the anime "Inuyasha"). Thrawn was extremely intelligent, cunning, effective, a really knew how to analyze a situation and who his opponents in order to anticipate most of their possible moves. I often had the impression that if you tried playing chess with him, he'd figure out all your possible moves and how quickly to win the game when you were still trying to figure out which of your pieces you'd finally decided to move first. And I always wanted to know much more about him and what made him so damn impressive. Well, this book answered most of my questions and brough

Well, I finally had the Ablations done on my Sacroiliac joint. It's been 3 days since the procedure actually took place, and I still have a fair amount of pain to contend with. I'm not too worried at this point. since I was told that it could take up to 10 days to really feel any serious change thanks to the procedure. However, a small part of me is worried that my pain will not disappear by then, and that the discomfort which has been my constant companion for the last 2-3 years, will still be there. But, I'm going to give it time first, and then decide whether I should celebrate or cry when the 10 days are up. However, that's not what I really want to dwell on today. What I really want to talk about is what I went through leading up to and at the doctor's office where the procedure took place. Now, I want to tell you all right off the bat, that EVERY person there was amazing and sweet to me, which helped a lot.  You see, in the days leading up to the procedure I f

The Pondering Pug's Thought of the Day: What happens when two authors, who are married to each other, get the same type of idea for a short story for their respective book series? Funny, that this pup should be asking that question, because it happened to Helen and me just recently. As you all know I created a vampire (or as I call him a 'vampyre' since he's not a true undead being, but more of a science fiction-based blood drinking, shape-shifting, sun avoiding being) named Nathan Steward. For those who aren't familiar with him here's a brief synopsis. Nathan was a Union soldier in the Civil War who got blown into a Para-Earth where one of the life forms there fused itself to him, creating a symbiotic bond that allows them to coexist as one. This symbiotic arrangement has also extended Nathan's life far beyond that of a normal human being, which means he has existed for over 160 years. This has allowed him to see and be a part of a lot of history.  Then abo

What a way to start a brand new the year! Helen just got a Kirkus Review of her first novel "Forever's Too Long", calling it... "A tense, thrilling paranormal adventure with a striking cast." Here's the full review: A supernatural crime novel set in the 1940s focuses on a private detective. This series opener begins in 1947. The narrator of the story, Rafael Jones, has set up shop as a private investigator in New York City. Rafael has an extensive background in law enforcement (both civilian and military), and he is eager to strike out on his own. No sooner has he put the sign up for Harmony Investigations than he is approached by a British woman named Clara Thomas. Clara has been sent to persuade Rafael to work for Interpol. She is a sharp woman, with a degree in mathematics from Oxford, who knows how to handle herself in a fight. She can also fly a plane. Rafael doesn’t need that much convincing, and he soon learns that working with Clara will be fun.