Musings of Two Creative Minds

Every so often we come to a realization that something we've been doing hasn't been working as well as we'd hoped. Admitting you didn't do something right the first time is not a sign of weakness, it actually shows growth. Learning from your mistakes is just as important as getting things right the first time.   Recently, during a book release party (for someone else) a mutual friend who is a librarian started talking to me about the Para-Earths series. She's watched trends and keeps a close eye on what's popular in the industry and she pointed out to me that the Para-Earths might actually do better aimed at a Young Adult (YA) audience. This would still make the books quite available to the adult crowd of course, while opening the series to more readers.  I gave this a lot of thought, especially after several others readily agreed with her. So I spent the next week or doing some serious research into YA books. To my surprise, what I found there real...

When it came time to work on the cover for "The Vampyre Blogs - I: Coming Home" I was finding myself coming up against a wall as far as cover art ideas went.  The other books had been relatively easy because of their two word titles: "The Bridge" and "The Ship". But this time the title was much longer, so I needed to come up with something different. Since we were using the word 'blogs' as part of the title, I thought about incorporating a computer or laptop into the picture.  So I experimented with Adobe Photoshop and came up with this image: While very effective in many respects, some people told me they missed seeing my original artwork on the cover. Many said it helped make our books stand out more.  So I began wracking my brains for a a new cover style and wasn't coming up with much. Mind you, at this point we had not even started writing the novel and decided not to worry about it.  I figured once the story was written I'...

          With 2018 drawing to a close, I’m sure a lot of us are reflecting on what’s happened in each of our lives as well as wondering about what 2019 holds. For me 2018 was a strange year of revelations, new opportunities, as well as upheavals. Two bouts with bronchitis, the second one becoming pneumonia, really took a lot out of me and my vacation time from work. I was supposed to be off this last week and not returning until January 2 nd . Our 1 st anthology “The Vampyre Blogs – One Day At a Time” had been slated to be released in late September/early October but didn’t see the light of day until early this month (not a great time to push a new book, not when the big publishers are pushing a bunch of titles they’ve been holding back in time for the holidays). However, things will pick up. I know this from past experience, so I’m not too worried. However, the big question of course is what can you all expect from us in the coming year? Well,...

 In my last entry I explained how I had settled on the idea of Parallel Realities for the premise of my series.  But what could I do with it that was new and different? Well as Doctor Who would say, "This is where things get a bit tricky."         We all know that a lot of choices are man-made, but events are also a major player in our world and our lives.  There's an old school of thought that says, for whatever choices we make another alternate timeline exists where a version of ourselves exists who follows the path not taken.  I began pondering this concept and asked myself, "What if not just choice could lead to a parallel reality?  What if events that didn’t happen in our reality, did happen in another reality?  And what might be the consequences and effects of that event?"  This idea really intrigued me and I began to think about the concept on a much LARGER and OLDER scale...      Current theory say...

NEW 4 STAR REVIEW OVER ON AMAZON FOR OUR LATEST RELEASE...  PICK THIS UP IF YOU LIKE VAMPIRES! By Da Man on June 15, 2017 Format: Kindle Edition I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. Do not pick this book up if you think you know everything about vampires! It will completely change your thinking about them... Click on the link below to see the rest of the review and what others have been saying: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MDO8SLO/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

First I'd like to thank everyone who took advantage of my "Hobbit Birthday" party.  Over 30 copies of "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home" were snatched up.  While I would've loved to have seen triple digits, I'm not going to complain.  The book got into more readers hands and that is always a good thing in my opinion.  Hopefully, this will lead to some more reviews.  Sadly, Nathan and company have been stuck in the single digits as far as reviews go on Amazon, with absolutely none on Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. So I'm going to offer everyone who is interested the opportunity to get a free copy of the book (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, PDF, even paperback) in exchange for a fair and honest review.  Reviews are important to bringing a book to a wider audience.  We all know that whenever we think about purchasing a book or almost anything these days, we check online to see what kind of rating the item has.   Naturally, I'd love to see ...

The party has begun, we've got presents, cake, candle, plates and above all else a gift for you.  Namely a FREE Kindle copy of our latest book.... Just click on this link to grab your copy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MDO8SLO/ref=series_rw_dp_sw And don't forget to grab a slice of cake to enjoy while you're at it.  Remember, cake and reading go hand in hand, as does sharing this link with everyone you know.  The party comes to an end at midnight on April 3rd to spread the word and thanks for coming.