Welcome to the world of Allan and Helen Krummenacker, authors of the Para-Earth Series. Here you will find information about our books, thoughts on writing, our adventures becoming indie authors, reviews of books we've enjoyed, and much more. So come on in and stay a while, we have much to share and would love to hear from all of you about your reading and writing adventures.
Hey there! Thanks for dropping by Musings Of Two Creative Minds! Take a look around and grab the RSS feed to stay updated. See you around!
Back when I was 18 (many many moons ago) I received a rejection from a college I had applied to for their Commercial Arts program. I was so crushed I didn’t pick up a pastel or pencil for over a decade.
If anyone at that time told me I’d one day be doing book covers I’d have asked what they had been smoking and did they bring enough for everyone?
Yet here I am having just finished my 8th book cover for my wife Helen (who wrote all the stories in this collection). Plus I’ll soon be voicing those stories for Audible. The journey is never a straight one my friends, but you have to keep moving forward to see where it leads.
PS: This collection of paranormal tales (which is a spinoff from her Forever Detective Series) is set during World War II will be arriving this September.
*So now you all know where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing for the last few months. This was an very involved piece for me and I was trying be more meticulous than usual in completing it. I’ve also started the audio recording process as well. We hope to have all three: paperback, e-book, and audiobook ready for release this coming September.
Until next time, stay safe and keep writing, painting, and recording my friends
A whole year of planning, working, sweating, and it still wasn’t enough.
For those who are wondering, I’m referring to my unabridged dramatic reading of Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol”. My plan was to unveil the finished project as a picture book on YouTube. Besides spending hours recording voices, some sound effects, finding music in public domain, as well as dozens of images (also in the public domain) created over the last 150 years since the book’s creation… and I still couldn’t quite get it across the Finish Line. At least not in time for this Christmas.
All I have left to do is film an opening and closing to the project, but between work and other audio and writing projects, I just couldn’t do it justice this year.
Now some of you might be asking yourselves, why? Why was this so important to you? After all, there are so many versions available of the story available on YouTube, streaming services, Blue-Ray, DVD, etc.
Well the answer is, none of them are ‘complete’. There are a number of powerful speeches and even scenes that more often than not, wind up on the cutting room floor. There have also been new scenes created and added to the films that cannot be found in the original story at all. After having read the book cover to cover myself a few years back, I started finding myself reading certain scenes with a variety of different voices for each character. And yes, this is when I really started taking the idea of doing voice over work more seriously. I was having so much fun with these characters and that it took me a while to realize I was drawing upon techniques and skills I learned in my l theater class during my last year of high school. I learned so much in that one year, and I have often found myself regretting I hadn’t taken the class sooner and then taken one of the more advanced classes afterwards. Still, I thank my lucky stars and my teacher Mrs. Nina Pfeffer for all her patience and guidance. I learned so much from her.
So after Helen convinced me to bring her books to life in audio, I went back to the idea of doing the same for Mr. Scrooge and company. Helen often refers to me as her “Voice Time Machine”, since I can do so many voices of actors who are no longer with us, which allows her to ‘cast’ the characters from her books and helps her in turn bring them more to life in her writing. And believe me I drew upon a lot of voices of actors both living and dead, to my project.
And in spite of having a whole year to work on “A Christmas Carol” I could not anticipate back and hip problems which kept me from my ‘recording studio’ and sitting at the desk to edit either images/audio recordings for weeks at a time.
Then of course there were other projects that needed my attention as well. I’m wrapping up my 3rd audiobook narration as I write. I also created a couple of book covers over the last 12 months, as well as feeding 3 blogs with material as well. One of those is “The Vampyre Blogs – Private Edition” where I’ve been writing short stories involving our Para-Earths vampyre Nathan and his friends.
https://thevampyreblogs.blog/ (WordPress site – same content as the Blogger site, but I know some people find WordPress easier to work with)
With so much going on, I can’t feel too bad about not finishing my “A Christmas Carol” project. There’s only so many hours in the day, and only so much of me…
Therefore my New Year’s Resolution will be to keep being ambitious, but give myself leeway to scale back and not be too hard on myself if I can’t get all that I want to done.
And I do have plans for this coming year, oh yes indeed. Here’s a little list:
1- Re-work, re-edit, and re-release “The Bridge” in a special 10th Anniversary version.
2 – Get a complete 1st draft of “The Vampyre Blogs – Family Ties” which takes up mere weeks after the end of “The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home”.
3 – Release the first volume of “The Pass” trilogy, which I wrote with my old high school friend Rich Caminiti, with some fantastic illustrations by the talented Gabrielle Callan. We will be releasing this book in hardback (yes, your read that right) and e-book formats.
NOTE: This one is a definite. The book is already written Gabrielle just getting the last of the artwork completed along with the cover
4 – Rich and I will be working on the 2nd and 3rd drafts of the second installment of “The Pass” trilogy with hopes of releasing that book in 2023.
*The 1st draft is already completed so we have high hopes of getting this to happen*
5 – Record and release Helen’s 1st solo anthology “Forever W. I. T. C. H. Hunting”, which is actually a spinoff from her Forever Detective Series and will feature characters from that series as well as a few new faces who will be appearing in future installments of The Forever Detective books.
6 – I hope to begin recording “The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home” with the help of Helen to bring more variety of voices for your listening pleasure.
7 – We may start adding some podcasts occasionally to this blog and maybe even to YouTube. We have the equipment and the ability to do it, so you may actually get to see and hear us once in a while.
8 – Finally, I’m starting to look into voiceover work opportunities for myself this coming year. I’m already on LinkedIn and have seen opportunities becoming more numerous, as well as over on Audible. There are apparently opportunities here in and around Santa Cruz, so I may be trying out for a few here and there. It all depends on time and how many spoons I can spare without burning myself out.
So there you have it everyone. We’ll see how much I actually accomplish, but time and life will tell. I’m not sure how easy the new year will be starting out with our regular jobs as we’re having labor issues with management this time around. So there’s a strong possibility of disruptions in our lives in the coming month. So if I go quiet for a while, you’ll know why.
We’ll see what happens. But in the meantime, we hope the holiday season has been treating you well and that you all have a joyful and wondrous New Year come the end of this week.
Stay safe, and keep writing and recording dear friends.
For some time Helen and I have been considering adding some new things to this blog. After I did the series of how to record audiobooks, I still got a number of requests for more details about creating Chain Commands, where do I find such-and-such function on my ACX, etc. And I realized that perhaps some more detailed visuals such as videos where I’m actually recording an audiobook, then sharing my computer screen so people could see exactly how I remove unwanted sounds, mistakes, and even adjust the recording to meet ACX approval requirements would prove more helpful.
At the same time, Helen started asking about doing some videos with us interviewing each other (as authors, and in my case a voiceover artist), as well as having other people guest on podcast-like videos for a question and answer session. She also brought up the topic of not just bringing authors on, but bloggers, artists and creative folks who would like to share their work and thought processes along with some demonstrations.
I thought this all made sense. After all the name of the blog is the Musings of 2 Creative Minds, talking and sharing with other creative minds seems like a good fit. So we’re asking all of you, our readers and followers, to please share your thoughts with us in the comments section below. If the overall response is a resounding “Yes”, we’ll see about getting things set up to begin in January. (I originally thought about sooner, but the holiday season is fast approaching and we have a lot planned out already, and so do most folks so beginning the new year off with a bang seems more appropriate).
We’re looking forward to hearing what you all have to say. So until next time take care, stay, safe and keep writing and recording everyone!
Hello everyone, we hope you’ve all been doing well. It’s been quite a week around here, or a couple of them actually. Both Helen and I got our 2nd Moderna shots, and both of us felt pretty crummy in the following days. Unfortunately, in my case a nerve problem in my back became exacerbated to the point that I’ve not been to work all this past week, and next week isn’t looking to great either. My doctor is trying to line me up with an MRI to see what’s going on.
But in the meantime, I tried to take my mind off my discomfort by being busy. In this case it meant finishing the final edits on the collaboration with my high school friend Rich Caminiti, and lo and behold… the 2nd draft is now finished and in the hands of beta-readers.
If you’re wondering what the book is about, here’s a little hint:
Was it just bad luck and weather that doomed the Donner Party in 1846, or was it something ‘else’, something evil and powerful? And is it still there waiting to help bring about the fall of the Union army during the final years of the Civil War?
Conspiracy and Intrigue meet Asian mythology, Native American folklore, and something as old as Earth itself in the first installment of this epic trilogy that spans the continent and distant shores.
From the initial responses people are finding the story… well, here’s a few quotes “Amazing!”, “I’ve never read anything like it before… it’s incredible”, “When can I buy a finished copy?”
So Rich and I are feeling pretty good about it so far, but we still have to wait for people to finish reading the first book and give us the rest of their feedback. Plus, a third/final draft will still need to be completed after we’ve heard back from everyone, and especially our editor. The book will also contain pen and ink drawings by the fabulous Gabrielle Callan who supplied the image you see above. You can find more of her work at this link:
But my achievements did not end there. I also completed the edits and submitted my third narrator job to ACX (which is the gateway to getting it onto Audible) just 4 days ago. The book in question is my wife’s 3rd novel from her 5-star rated “Forever Detective” book series;
Rafael Jones is always a little out of his depth in rural settings, but he’s not just a detective, he’s also undead. He can’t ignore the call from the Saratoga County coroner when she mentions the bite marks found on several drowning victims during the spring and summer of 1947.
However, he knows his weaknesses (sunlight, running water, and a woeful lack of country manners), so he isn’t working alone. His slowly developing powers and quick wits may not be a match for something old, strong in magic, and completely cursed.
The entire series can be found at Amazon in Kindle, Paperback, and Audible at:
But the fun didn’t stop there, yes there is still more to report:
I also finished editing the first “Stave” (chapter) of Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol”. This is the same project I’ve mentioned before where I read/dramatize the unabridged version of the classic tale. The first chapter weighs in at between 40 and 45 minutes long, and the next 3 chapters will probably be coming in at the same length. The final chapter will be shorter, but not enough to leave the viewer unsatisfied.
Viewer? That’s right. I will be releasing this project on YouTube complete with images from public domain and copyright-free sources (who I will be crediting of course), to give you all an enjoyable experience this Christmas. I will also be making a strictly audio version for those who might be interested as well.
So for someone who has been having difficulty being on his feet even for short periods, I’ve been pretty productive for the last week. In fact, I’m still kind of shaking my head just writing this. I think setting myself some goals of what I specifically wanted to accomplish this year has been paying off. It’s helped me keep focus better, otherwise I’d be jumping from one project in process to another, while getting very few actually finished.
Well, this is only April so let’s see what else I can get done in the coming months.
Helen has been busy too, having completed her fourth novel in the Forever Detective series. This one is a Christmas tale titled “Forever Festive” and will be coming out in November. This one involves her private detective/turned vampire Rafael Jones heading home to spend the holidays with his folks, who haven’t seen him since he got back from the war trials over in Nuremberg. Besides trying to figure out how to keep his condition a secret, he’s also got a new missing person case that’s literally Heaven sent. After all, who else does a Guardian Angel turn to for help in finding one of their charges who is suddenly being hidden from their angelic sight?
We’ve already got a cover design in mind and will be working on that in the coming days and weeks, while her book is gone over by her editor/proofreader. And yes, I will be turning that into an audio as well so it too can be available in time for the Christmas season.
She is also working on an anthology for her spin-off series ” W I T C H Hunters” which is an organization that has been mentioned to Rafael more than once. These tales will involve members who have actually appeared in the “Forever Detective Series”, or have been mentioned in passing. But in these tales we will get to meet and see them in action. Several of the tales are already completed and more are well under way. So stay tuned for more on this front.
That is all I have for now, my back is hurting and I need down time. But we will be updating you on more very soon. So until next time, stay tuned and keep writing/recording my friends.
Greetings one and all. Sorry for the silence, but as you can guess I’ve been really busy on audio and writing projects. Sadly, one of those projects will not come to light until this time next year. This would be the one I last posted about, namely “A Christmas Carol”. Between trying to get the audiobook version of “Forever Haunted” completed, as well as a lengthy short story (I know that sounds weird, a short story being lengthy) over on our other blog “The Vampyre Blogs – Private Edition”, as well as trying to deal with work and prepping for the holidays, time has not been very available for me.
So I’m planning on releasing my reading/performance of Mr. Dicken’s classic for December 2021. It will be complete with voices and sound effects, along with royalty-free and public domain imagery from the internet. At the moment it seems to be coming in at a length of 5+ hours which is why I will be releasing it in staves (chapters) as Mr. Dickens wrote it. In addition, I may produce a complete audio of the performance to be made available on CD or as an MP3 download. But that’s all next year.
For now, I’m dealing with new shutdowns here in Santa Cruz, California (due to Covid – 19) which has hampered a number of other efforts Helen and I had planned. As well as other work related issues which have left us both rather tired at times.
Helen also had to scale back on releasing her 4th novel in her “Forever Detective Series”, to next year as well, since it too is Christmas related. However, she did complete a short story that will be posted soon over on her blog theforeverdetective.com. We intend to also create an audio for that story which will also be published shortly for your enjoyment.
I’ll be sharing some new audio recording experiences here on this blog, starting in January. I’ll be focusing on editing and more recording techniques, so you know what to keep an eye out for.
I’ll post here again as soon as I have something to say, or just to wish you all Happy Holidays.
In the meantime, if you want a ghost story set around Christmas here is a link to the one I’ve created over on “The Vampyre Blogs – Private Edition”. To date there are two installments with more to come. I’ll leave the links for those right here and hopefully you’ll get a chance to check it out. Enjoy… and until next time, keep writing my friends.
LINKS FOR “Lisa’s Private Thoughts – December 24th 2017, My Christmas Ghost Story”
It’s been a busy month for me, which is why I haven’t been posting anything lately. Between editing “The Pass”, my long-distance collaboration with my old friend Rich Caminiti and recording and editing Helen’s 2nd book in her “Forever Detective Series”, it’s been hectic for me. On top of all that, I have been working on a new short story for our other site:
The story will be a Christmas ghost story (an old English tradition), which I hope you will decide to check out when it is posted. (I promise to let you all know when that happens).
Finally, as the title of this entry indicates, I’ve also started a new audio project that I hope to post on YouTube in December. What is it? Well, I’ll be reading Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol”.
Now I suspect some of you are already thinking “Oh great… ANOTHER production of that old story.” So why am I doing it? Simple, there have been many movies and animations done of course, but not a single one has ever been a complete rendition of the story. I always thought I knew the story myself for a very long time, until I actually got a copy of the book. There are many passages and even scenes that have been left out of a number of the incarnations that have been produced. If you mainly know the story from movies and animations, you’ll no doubt have noticed certain versions include or leave out certain scenes between such as one old animation from 1970 has a horse-drawn hearse driving up the stairs inside Scrooge’s home itself freaking him out. That always puzzled me until I read the story myself and found that it does happen.
There are also some impressive speeches by both Marley’s ghost as well as the Ghost of Christmas Present that almost always get left out. Why does this happen? Well, we’re talking television or the big screen where there are always time constraints so a number of things get left out or are filmed and then wind up on the cutting room floor.
So, I decided to take it upon myself to create an “unabridged” version for people to enjoy for free. Mind you it will not just be an audio, I am gathering Public Domain images to accompany the tale, along with an opening and closings for each chapter or “Stave” as Mr. Dickens called them.
Why he used that term instead of calling them chapters? Well, as I’ve learned, since the title of the story is “A Christmas Carol”, and ‘carols’ are songs, he chose a term that was associated with music. A “Stave” in music has its own mood and theme. This is also true for each of the five sections of Mr. Dickens story, so he titled his chapters accordingly.
I have already recorded the first of the 5 staves “Marley’s Ghost”, which has clocked in at about 45 minutes. For your enjoyment I’ve decided to give you all a brief sample here, so you can get an idea of what you can expect from my little performance, although you might want to lower the volume as the ghost gets a bit loud at the beginning and can be quite startling:
As you can hear, I’m not just reading the story, but am actually performing it by giving each character their own voice. I’ll also be supplying some sound effects for certain scenes where I feel it helps enhance the experience.
My hope to have 5 videos altogether, which I will release over the course of several days or weeks, depending on what you all would like to see happen. Please let me know by leaving your wishes in the comments section below. I want this to be enjoyable for everyone, especially during this unusual year with the pandemic keeping most of us at home instead of being able to travel. I am also considering making CD/DVD’s upon request for those who would like a complete copy for themselves or family members who do not have (or feel comfortable) computers and YouTube.
So that’s what’s been happening and what I’ll be focusing on for the next two months. Please note, I’m also working on more Para-Earth novels. I have both “The Door” and “The Vampyre Blogs – Family Ties” well under way, with hopes of releasing one or both sometime next year. So until next time (which I hope will be sooner rather than later), stay safe and keep writing my friends.
Finally heard back from ACX. Two issues came up. I didn’t leave enough “Room Tone” (silence) at beginning and end of every chapter. They want .5 to 1 second of silence before first word spoken, then 1-5 seconds of silence after last word spoken. Easy fix.
The other issue, I included the closing credits and the last chapter in one file. They wanted them separated, another easy fix.
Otherwise, they had no other problems with the files. Volume, clarity, technical requirements of the audios themselves, all of that was fine.
I will be making these corrections, if I haven’t already dealt with them on my own. After that… still going to follow our own path at this point and make CD’s and downloadable MP3’s from our websites.
and
Why?
Because Audible has an “exclusive” clause that says only they get to produce the audios, and they do not make CD’s. They only produce Audible versions, and as we’ve been told by others NOT everyone can afford the monthly Audible charges every month.
Will our path be an easy one? Not really. But we’re hoping that people will spread the word once we have the audios up for sale. We’ll have to promote ourselves, which would still be true if we went with Audible. Oh the books would be in their catalog along with 100’s of others, so what would be the difference?
Reviews? Reviews can be left at our website under the comments section for each product.
A lot of people think that just because they got their book/audio on a big company’s site that they are set and don’t have to do anything else. But that’s the BIGGEST mistake one can make. No matter where your works are for sale, YOU still have to do most if not all the promoting to get the word out. Or hire someone to do your marketing. In this day and age “If you build it they will come…” is seriously overrated. YOU have to put in the work to get people to find out about your work.
And that is exactly what I’m doing here and now. Letting people know the CD’s and MP3’s are coming. I’ll be creating a “Store” button here on this site very soon and populate it with CD’s, downloadable MP3 files, PDF’s, and the option to order a signed print copy of any of our books.
ALSO… I will be continuing the “Adventures in Audio Recording” Series, in order that those who still wish to create audios can succeed in making Audible quality files ready for submission to ACX or other audiobook outlets.
Until next time, take care and keep writing and recording my friends.
After our last entry asking about making other options available such as CD’s and downloadable MP3 files of our books for audio, we’ve learned that if we go with Audible they have the “Exclusive” right to produce the audio. It also clearly states in the agreement that neither we, nor anyone else, can create audios of the books in ANY format.
                 Â
And this does not just apply to us. At our local library we found some of Jim Butcher’s “Dresden Files” on CD. However, it seems they were all made before the books were transferred to Audible. Since then no new CD’s have been made. Allan even went as far as to check on Amazon and found the only CD copies available are used ones for the earlier books. There do not appear to be any CD’s for the more recent installments of that series, only the Audible version.
So what does that mean for us? That is where the tough decision is being made. After much researching, Allan has learned how to make MP3 Files for sale and download from Helen’s web page. She is still in the middle of constructing the store for that website, but we will keep you all appraised of how it is coming along and when things will be available for sale.
Her first novel “Forever’s Too Long” is already recorded and up to ACX/Audible standards. However, we both want to add a few new touches to the files, like adding some intro and closing music, as well as the occasional sound-effect here and there where it just seems appropriate (like someone bumping their head – without giving any of the plot away, it just seems appropriate for the particular scene in question, trust me on this).
The MP3 downloads will be in Zip File format, and if this is a problem for anyone please let us know.  (NOTE: We will be experimenting with non-Zip MP3 Files as well, just in case some people need that style.)Â
Payment Options:
-Payments will be accepted at Helen’s on-line store through PayPal (which takes credit cards these days).
-Personal checks will also be accepted in which case the file(s) will be e-mailed to you as soon as the check is received and deposited.
*NOTE: Signed paperback copies and PDFs will be posted shortly.*
Audiobooks in the forms of CD’s and dowloadable MP3’s are already under way, starting with the our anthology “The Vampyre Blogs – One Day At A Time” (of which 5 of the stories have already been recorded and edited) and “The Bridge”. Voices have been lined up for many of the characters, while others have yet to be cast so please bear with us.
And rest assured that all new Para-Earths tales are on the way as well.
As of today “The Door” is weighing in at over 60,000 words and still growing.
We are also pleased to let you all know that “The Vampyre Blogs – Family Ties” novel, is also under way and is currently sitting at 6000 words. This story will be a full-length novel taking up a couple of weeks after the events of “The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home”.
A third novel “The Misty Mountains” will feature Jonathan Cloudfoot and his girlfriend Michelle (who both made their 1st appearances in “The Ship”) will be teaming up with “The Professor” (aka Otto from “The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home”) is also in the works. This adventure will be taking place in the hills of Santa Cruz California.
So we have a lot going on here and much more coming your way. As always we thank you for your support and patience while we bring all this and more to you.
Until next time, take care and keep writing everyone!
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 and Helen thinking about offering CD’s, even if Audible accepts our books. We are also considering the fact that some people do not 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:Â you CAN vote for more than one option from the list below:
Â
A – Audible?
Â
B – Audiobook on CD’s?
Â
C – MP3 audio files that you can download to the device(s) of your choice?
Â
Please leave your votes in the comment section so we can see your responses, and as always we thank you all for your continued support for this blog and our works.
New Year’s is a time for reflection and looking ahead… or so I’ve been told. My first thought was “I didn’t really get that much done this year. I don’t have much to say or show for it.” Then at the urging of Helen I pulled out a pen and paper and started making a list. The results surprised me.
         Â
I created not one but three book covers. This is the most art I’ve done in one year in I don’t know how long. Two of them were of course for Helen’s new The Forever Detective Series. The other was a new cover for “The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home” which we re-released as the first Young Adult (YA) installment of our Para-Earth Series.
Speaking of Helen’s new series, we created not one but two book trailers, one for each book.
This was the first time I’d ever made a book trailer and it was a blast. Helen wrote a short script for each and also found a bunch of images she wanted used in them. I not only supplied the expertise in turning it all into a video, but also the voice-over.
Now all this voice-over work, as brief as it was, led to yet another new project. At the urging of many others, I started looking into creating audiobooks. I spent a couple of months researching equipment and software and how to use it all. Eventually, I finally started recording a couple of our short stories from our anthology “The Vampyre Blogs – One Day At a Time” and got some seriously positive feedback, as well as some solid tips.
Here’s one of them:
I’ve recorded several more in the meantime, with the hopes of eventually having the entire anthology recorded in the coming months.
This leads me back to my efforts to get into creating full-scale audiobooks. In spite of all my research and blogging about all the technical aspects of creating an audiobook (there are seven entries in this blog already with a few more to come) I still wasn’t sure I was ready to fully go for it. Then in early November I went to a class about voice-over work and got the reassurance I needed from a pro. As she told me in an e-mail “You’ve got the chords for this…”
With this in mind I’ve been fully throwing myself into completing the audio recordings of Helen’s first solo book “Forever’s Too Long”. To date 20 of the 22 chapters are recorded and edited. I have re-record two more and get them edited. Once their done and meet with her approval (I had recorded them earlier but neither of us were happy with the results hence the do-over) we will be submitting the entire set to Audible. We’re hoping this will happen no later than the end of this month (January 2020). From there I intend to continue recording more stories from the anthology as well as begin turning her second book “Forever Haunted” into an audio, as well as “The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home” in which Helen will be lending her vocal talents to bringing those characters more to life.
Some of you may be wondering why I haven’t started turning “The Bridge” or “The Ship” into audiobooks, instead of jumping to “The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home” and “TVB – One Day At a Time”. The answer is simple, length. Both “The Bridge” and “The Ship” are much longer than any of the other books I’m tackling and will take a great deal more time to record. Plus, I still have to come up with voices for all the various characters in those two books. So until I’ve nailed down voices for everyone, those are on the slow track for now, but they will be happening.
But getting back to 2019, with all this artwork and recording, did I get ANY writing done? The answer is of course I did. Some of it was on the long-awaited sequel to “The Bridge” and “The Ship”.
“The Door” is fully under way, and will hopefully finally see the light of day by the end of this year if not sooner. As this book is a major turning point in the Para-Earth Series, I really want to get this book completed as much as people want to read it. However, some of it’s progress will depend on another writing project with my other collaborator Rich Caminiti.
“The Pass” has been one of the most ambitious projects I’ve worked on to date. It is also the only book I’ve worked on as a long-distance collaboration, which has involved trading off chapters and as well many, MANY Skype sessions. But Rich and I are closing in on a finished 1st draft and then the process of creating a 2nd cleaner draft will begin in another month or so. So I will have much to do on that front. After the 2nd draft, it will be sent to beta-readers and an editor for further clean-up. Our hopes is to have the book out by the end of the year, but we will see what happens. We refuse to rush the book without getting it as clean and exciting as possible. And on a side note, the 2nd installment of that tale is also under way as I write. So more on that will be coming in future blog posts.
Also on the writing front I completed 3 brand new short stories for our other site “The Vampyre Blogs – Private Edition”. Two of those tales were rather lengthy and took several months apiece to complete. Yet in spite of their length, they are still considered short stories and not novelettes or novellas.
So that covers most of 2019.
What’s in store for 2020?
Well, I’ve already covered the fact that I’m close to releasing a complete audiobook, which I hope to follow with at least 2 more before year’s end. As I mentioned earlier, one will be “The Vampyre Blogs – One Day At a Time” anthology, the other will be Helen’s 2nd book “Forever Haunted”. I’ve got voices prepared for both titles and depending on how things go I may get “The Vampyre Blogs – Coming Home” under way as well.
When it comes to my own writing getting “The Pass” into a finished 2nd draft and sent to beta-readers and an editor are the top demands. Rich and I would like to see it reach readers by the end of the year, but I know from experience that there’s still so much to do before that can happen. But we will see.
I’m already planning several new short stories for “The Vampyre Blogs – Private Edition” as well as beginning preparations to put together and 2nd anthology with several never before seen stories included.
“The Door” of course is another priority for me. I’d really like to see that finished and prepped for release this year. With luck, and patience, I hope to make that actually happen.
And of course, I’ll be making new book trailers as well as helping format Helen’s next two books in her Forever Detective series.
So that’s what’s been and what is coming. There’s a lot on our plates, but we’ll keep bringing you new posts regarding all these projects and more so stay tuned. Please accept this late wish for a HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all and as always keep writing.
   
  
 
  
Musings Of Two Creative Minds 