Musings of Two Creative Minds

Hello again everyone. Hope you've all been doing well. As for me and Helen we've had a LOT on our plate lately to deal with. However, we're not abandoning our readers by any means.  We're still getting settled into our new home, which of course seems like a never-ending task, plus Helen is putting in for a number of jobs, especially in the realm of state, county, and city employment. And of course, I've been still contending with Social Security and trying to bring my now 2-year ongoing efforts to get approved for SSDI.  Oh, and did I mention Halloween is coming up? We're big fans and have plans which include FINALLY getting The Library of the Obscure YouTube channel fully up and running. I'm hoping to release a "Coming Soon" video (which I will feature here as well as elsewhere) very soon. Certainly, before Halloween, because I want to drop the first video either on the day before Halloween, or on that day. Haven't fully decided. We'll see...

Good news, it's finally happened. Helen and I now have an online store for our books. Anyone who has been wanting to get a personalized/signed copy of one of our books, now all you have to do is click on the link below and it will take you straight to our store. And "yes" it takes credit cards. (I know, welcome to the modern age, Allan. Took you long enough). Here's the link:  https://musingsof2creativeminds.com/shop/ And while not ALL our books are up just yet, I'm working on it and will be adding more this week. NOTE: I also plan to add another branch to the store for our original artwork, so stay tuned for that as well.  In the meantime, come see what we have available and maybe place and order or two. Until next time take care and keep writing and recording my friends.

 Only six more days until you reach "The Pass"... That's right folks. In just a few more days (on 4-14-2024) you can get your copy of "The Pass". A novel that Kirkus Reviews has called "A supernatural espionage tale that keeps the excitement high." Rich Caminiti, my co-author (an old friend from high school - Levittown Memorial H. S. class of '82 to be exact) and I have woven this tale of supernatural mystery and intrigue, set in the old west (or the Civil War to be precise). This book is the first of a trilogy we have been working on for some time, and the next installment has a completed 1st draft, waiting to be re-worked, edited, re-drafted, etc. Plus, the third installment is already underway as well. Besides having a cracking good tale to tell, this volume has some beautiful pen and ink illustrations created by the wonderfully talented Gabrielle Callan (artist/tattooist) whose link to more of her work I will provide towards the end of this ent...

Greetings one and all. And welcome back to the blog. Sorry to keep you all waiting, but last weekend got a bit crazy around here. Nevertheless, we're back with another Sneak Peek Saturday edition for you.  Continuing with "The Pass" coming next month, we realized that last time we'd introduced you all to a couple of our protagonists, so it's only fair this week we introduce you to two the villains of this piece.  So, without further ado, sit back and meet two very unsavory, and disturbing men who each has their own secret agenda in this story. Enjoy...         Some five hundred yards away, a man bundled in furs, lowered his still smoking Mississippi rifle. “Sorry, Jake, old boy. But business is business. And if you made it out of here alive, you’d be able to claim cousin Amanda’s inheritance which would’ve been bad business for me,” he sighed. In the distance, he could hear the baby’s wail.           ...

Okay, the countdown to the release of "The Pass" is on! Which means it's time for Sneak Peek Saturdays!  From here on out, up until the book's release, we'll be bringing you peeks into this brand-new novel (which FYI, is the first installment of a trilogy of books). Originally, Rich and I had planned on just one fairly good-sized book, but soon the story and the characters kept growing to the point we began talking about making it a two-volume tale. But of course, again the story kept expanding to where we finally said "FINE! We'll make it a trilogy... OKAY?" That seemed to satisfy our two muses. At least for now. There's a good possibility that further stories involving some if not most of these characters may be looming large in the future. But for now, we just have this one rather epic tale for you. And like any good epic, it contains a number of key and supporting characters. So, we've decided to take advantage of Sneak Peek Saturdays to ...

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...

While waiting for Audible to approve/reject our submission, we have heard back from a number of people who say they don't do Audible. Some prefer CD's because they cannot afford Audible's monthly charges. So this got me an Helen thinking about offering CD's even if Audible accepts our books. We are also considering the fact that some people cannot afford Audible but also don't have a convenient CD Player these days, or may prefer audio files for storage. For them, we are thinking about selling MP3 audio files that people can order from this site so they can download the entire book into their own device of choice. So please take a moment and let us know which of the following options that would be of interest to you. We are simply seeking feedback which would be a huge help to us in deciding what path(s) to take as far as making our audios available to people, so your responses are VERY important to us.  NOTE: you CAN vote for more than one option from...