Darin Kennedy's Blog

Hi everyone!

Darin here. In the beginning of 2022, I rebuilt my website from the ground up and went with what I think is a cleaner and more modern look.

It quickly became apparent that I hadn’t blogged in about two years. Almost as if something significant happened in the last two years. But enough about that.

I just wanted to drop a quick note letting everyone know that I have left up my Checkered Ramblings blog for historical purposes in case anyone wants to go back and take a look at my pontifications from the previous decade, but I likely won’t be updating anymore, at least not for the foreseeable future.

Never fear. Just because I’m not actively blogging here doesn’t mean I’m not active. I finished a new book at the end of 2021 and am planning to start on the sequel soon. I have several conventions and other appearances on the horizon for 2022. Still doing the Doctor by Day as well as the Novelist by Night. Just taking a likely permanent break from this online journal.

Check out my Events page and see where you can find me this year. Take a look at my various social media which I keep more or less up to date with my latest musings or photos. Drop me an email if you’d like to chat. Or try out my new online bookstore if you’d like to read any of my books.

All best!

Darin

Happy New Year, everyone!

New Years resolution time.

One I’m going to try to keep.

So, I am not a fast writer. I live in awe of some of my friends and fellow writers who can knock out an outstanding 80,000-100,000 word first draft in 30 days, or even 60 or 90 days. Even if I didn’t see patients four days a week, I don’t think I could do that. That’s just not my process. But, I believe I can write more/better/faster than I have before.

I’m currently 18,000 words into the third and final Pawn Stratagem book, King’s Crisis. I want to have a first draft done by 31 May 2019, as I owe the finished book to my publisher 3 months later. That averages out to around 18,000 words per month or around 600 words/2 pages per day. I’ve never written that fast, but I’m going to give it a shot. Encouragement over the next few months is much appreciated and I will do my best to make it happen. Don’t be surprised if I’m chiming in with word counts and motivational speech from time to time – doing so helps keep me honest and, more importantly, working.

So, what resolution/change/idea do you hope to implement in 2020?And who else wants to join me on this crazy “New Book by June” plan?

Hi everyone! So this blog has been inactive the last few months as I retooled with a new publisher. Curiosity Quills Press and I parted ways amicably last year as I wanted to go in a different direction with this, my first full series. Fortunately, John Hartness at Falstaff Books was interested in picking up the series and bringing out with a completely new look. John completely reformatted the insides while Natania Barron created the gorgeous new covers at the top of this page. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Melissa Gilbert is currently tweaking the above images so that the Fugue & Fable books will finally be available in HARDCOVER. (Just typing that word brings tears of joy to my eyes.) Huge thanks to John, Natania, and Melissa for all their efforts to bring this series to life at Falstaff.

Currently everything is available in ebook and paperback with hardcover on the way while only Books I & II are available on audiobook from Audible. But… that’s about to change. I’ve been in negotiation with Audible the last few weeks getting everything shifted from CQP to me as I move forward and as part of those negotiations, they’ve agreed to pick up The Tchaikovsky Finale for Audible!!! Hope to have this available by the end of 2019, but we shall see.

So… in short, very soon, Mira and Anthony’s adventures through the gamut of Russian classical music will soon all be available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook!

If signed paperbacks are your thing, I will be at various conventions and other events once to twice monthly for most of the rest of 2019. Check out my events page on this website for 2019 to see if I’m coming to a town near you! Next up is JordanCon in Atlanta next weekend.

Oh, and for all you lovers of Pawn’s Gambit… The second book of The Pawn Stratagem is currently in edits with the incredible Melissa Gilbert and we hope to have this book in your hands in the next few months. Book II is slated to be called Queen’s Peril, so everybody keep your fingers crossed for Audrey.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!

The Vampire Super Pack

Mar 2019 – Wilder Publications

Extra-marital affairs are at best dangerous and ill-advised,

but when a vampire is involved, all bets are off.

The Tchaikovsky Finale
30 Nov 2018
Falstaff Books Edition
 
Psychic Mira Tejedor lies comatose in the wake of her second battle
with the devious Madame Versailles, but her sacrifice was not in vain.
Though at great cost, her nemesis is no more, her love has returned
to the land of the living, and twelve innocent girls are back with their families.
Still, young Anthony Faircloth can’t escape the notion
there must have been another way.
 
Obsessed with freeing Mira as Mira once freed him,
Anthony works to rekindle their special link and soon
meets with more success than he knows what to do with.
 
Two distinct worlds, both forged in the imagination
of Pyotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, threaten to consume his life.
By the still waters of Swan Lake, Anthony assumes the guise
of a man named Benno and must help Prince Siegfried defend
the Swan Princess, Odette, from the machinations of a dark sorcerer.
 
In the Stahlbaum house, he takes on the role of a boy named Fritz who,
under the command of the Nutcracker Prince, must save his sister Clara
from the onslaught of the Mouse King and his army of rodent soldiers.
 
At the intersection of the two disparate settings lies
yet another mystery: both Odette and Clara wear Mira’s face.
And these intertwining perils are but shadows of the real danger.
 
Back in the real world, a menacing figure from Mira’s past has escaped
from prison and now stalks her on both sides of the veil of dream.
Anthony must bring Mira out of her catatonic state so that she can fight
one last time, or her life and the lives of all she loves will be lost.

The Stravinsky Intrigue
30 Nov 2018
Falstaff Books Edition
 
Nine months have passed since psychic Mira Tejedor last walked the halls
of Anthony Faircloth’s adolescent mind. All but family now, Mira is relocating
to Charlotte, NC, not only for a much-needed change of scenery,
but to further her burgeoning relationship with Dr. Thomas Archer.
On the eve of her move, however, a new threat emerges.
 
Young girls from every corner of Charlotte are falling catatonic, a condition
eerily similar to the illness from which Mira rescued Anthony the previous fall.
Mira reluctantly agrees to help Detective Calvin Sterling with the case
and soon finds herself pulled into a new pair of fantasy worlds,
both borne from the brilliant mind of Igor Stravinsky.
 
In the world of The Firebird, Mira becomes the warrior Ivanovna
and battles an immortal evil threatening to steal the girls’ souls for all eternity.
In the Russian fair from Petrushka, she assumes the role of Ballerina,
one of three magical puppets who dance at the whim of a cruel Charlatan.
Torn between Moor and Clown, bizarre doppelgangers of the two vastly
different men in her life, and threatened at every turn by a sorcerer
who craves her very essence, Mira must navigate the cruel deceptions
of both worlds and win, or her life and the lives of a dozen innocents will be forfeit.

The Mussorgsky Riddle
30 Nov 2018
Falstaff Books Edition
 
Psychic Mira Tejedor possesses unique talents that enable her to find
anything and anyone, but now she must find a comatose boy wandering
lost inside the labyrinth of his own mind. Thirteen-year-old Anthony
Fairx hasn’t spoken a word in almost a month and with each passing
day, his near catatonic state worsens. No doctor, test, or scan can tell
Anthony’s distraught mother what has happened to her already troubled
son. In desperation, she turns to Mira for answers, hoping her unique
abilities might succeed where science has failed.
 
At their first encounter, Mira is pulled into Anthony’s mind and finds
the child’s psyche shattered into the various movements of Modest
Mussorgsky’s classical music suite, Pictures at an Exhibition. As she
navigates this magical dreamscape drawn from Anthony’s twin loves of
Russian composers and classical mythology, Mira must contend with
gnomes, troubadours, and witches in her search for the truth behind
Anthony’s mysterious malady.
 
The real world, however, holds its own dangers. The onset of Anthony’s
condition coincides with the disappearance of his older brother’s girlfriend,
a missing persons case that threatens to tear the city apart.
Mira discovers that in order to save Anthony, she will have to catch a
murderer who will stop at nothing to keep the secrets contained in
Anthony’s unique mind from ever seeing the light.

So – An update for everyone on the Fugue & Fable books.

At the end of July 2018, I and my publisher for that series, Curiosity Quills Press, parted ways–quite amicably, to be clear–so I could go in a different direction and explore a different space.

As a result, the trilogy, comprising The Mussorgsky Riddle, The Stravinsky Intrigue, and The Tchaikovsky Finale, are not currently available on Amazon or anywhere else. CQP took down all the books from online availability and did so at my request.

I will still have paperback copies at my remaining events for 2018, so if you want a physical copy, come see me. Also, the first two are still available in audiobook format from Amazon/Audible.  Otherwise, however, the books are not available for online purchase.

At least for now…

All I will say at this time is plans are afoot.

Watch this space for more details.

And happy reading!

Darin

The Tchaikovsky Finale

19 Dec 2017 – Curiosity Quills Press

 

Psychic Mira Tejedor lies comatose in the wake of her second battle

with the devious Madame Versailles, but her sacrifice was not in vain.

Though at great cost, her nemesis is no more, her love has returned

to the land of the living, and twelve innocent girls are back with their families.

Still, young Anthony Faircloth can’t escape the notion

there must have been another way.

 

Obsessed with freeing Mira as Mira once freed him,

Anthony works to rekindle their special link and soon

meets with more success than he knows what to do with.

 

Two distinct worlds, both forged in the imagination

of Pyotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, threaten to consume his life.

By the still waters of Swan Lake, Anthony assumes the guise

of a man named Benno and must help Prince Siegfried defend

the Swan Princess, Odette, from the machinations of a dark sorcerer.

 

In the Stahlbaum house, he takes on the role of a boy named Fritz who,

under the command of the Nutcracker Prince, must save his sister Clara

from the onslaught of the Mouse King and his army of rodent soldiers.

 

At the intersection of the two disparate settings lies

yet another mystery: both Odette and Clara wear Mira’s face.

And these intertwining perils are but shadows of the real danger.

 

Back in the real world, a menacing figure from Mira’s past has escaped

from prison and now stalks her on both sides of the veil of dream.

Anthony must bring Mira out of her catatonic state so that she can fight

one last time, or her life and the lives of all she loves will be lost.