A New Look
Well, I guess in this hyperfast doom scrolling timeline of a world we now live in, 2020 as a publishing date is rather old… Continue reading A New Look
Category: Books
The articles in this category discuss issues involving books, the art of writing books, and the industry of publishing books
Just because I love you…
Free books today. Get some❤ Continue reading Just because I love you…
WE ALL DIE IN THE END by Elizabeth Merry – A Review
Merry’s is some of the best writing I’ve read in a while. Like Faulkner, she creates a fictional world unto its own, Faulkner’s set as a struggling Mississippi town, Merry’s as a struggling seaside town in Ireland… Continue reading WE ALL DIE IN THE END by Elizabeth Merry – A Review
RAINY SEASON – A Review by Gina Rae Mitchell
This author continues to astound me with his grasp of descriptive words. In Rainy Season, he portrays his scenes so well you will swear you can hear the rain, smell the smoke drifting from the Tokyo jazz club… Continue reading RAINY SEASON – A Review by Gina Rae Mitchell
RAINY SEASON – A Review by Elizabeth Merry
I found the writing lyrical and rhythmic; words repeated making the prose like music. Indeed, I thought at one time, if I had a tune I could sing this book… – Elizabeth Merry Continue reading RAINY SEASON – A Review by Elizabeth Merry
In Appreciation of a Photograph
Except for THE GOOD KILL, of which I contracted out to Extended Imagery, for better or worse, you decide, I’ve created all my book covers, including the one for my latest novella RAINY SEASON.
It’s a fun process creating book covers, one that allows me to escape the writing process tedium for a while and become creative through other mediums. I like to create the cover early on in the story development process so I can refer to it for inspiration similar to the way I refer to the logline.
The covers I created are mostly designed around photographs I took, except for HOW NOT TO DIE, which you’ll see if you look closely, is designed around a photograph of me in a hospital bed flashing my middle finger in defiance as I’m being treated for heart failure, which was the result of a freak side effect of the chemo drug I was taking at the time (I was speedily switched to a different drug which has yet to cause my heart to fail, fingers crossed), and except for HERCULES GONE MAD, which is designed from a drawing of mine.
Continue reading “In Appreciation of a Photograph”Starbucks and Mocha
The New York Times’ recent piece Melville’s Whale Was a Warning We Failed to Heed is actually a quite serious look at human nature, racism, the environment… but here is a fun selection from it that belies its erudition: Melville had read Jeremiah Reynolds’s violent account of a sperm whale “white as wool,” named — for his haunt near Mocha Island, off the coast of Chile — Mocha Dick. It’s unknown what led Melville to tweak Mocha to “Moby.” Good thing he did, and that Starbuck was the name he gave his first mate rather than his captain. Otherwise the … Continue reading Starbucks and Mocha
Pandemic Survival Guide
THE GOOD KILL – A Review by Meg Orton
In conclusion this is a novel that took me completely by surprise in the best way possible. Brindley has an impeccable grasp of the English language, as well as an extraordinary gift for writing a damn fine tale of intrigue, epic action, a little mystery, one hell of a conspiracy, and what I really hope is a fantastic introduction to a character that I adore for so many reasons, whom I hope to meet again and whose place in literature is sorely needed at present… Continue reading THE GOOD KILL – A Review by Meg Orton
THE GOOD KILL – A Review by Joan Wiley
I was absolutely drawn into this story right from the beginning. This is a gritty and enthralling novel. Kurt Brindly is a great story teller and provides such knowledgeable detail to make one consider he was there, in this dark and dangerous world, if not experiencing it – then certainly taking serious notes! Incredible. The skilled way he draws us into the mind of each character is not only impressive but keeps the reader even more captivated by the story. The character development is outstanding. The dialogue, which some authors struggle with, I found to be very natural and realistic… Continue reading THE GOOD KILL – A Review by Joan Wiley
What Makes a Monster?
#amdrawing #mouseart FEATURED IMAGE COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA Continue reading What Makes a Monster?
An American Pope by Paul Xylinides – A Review
BOOK | FICTION | LITERARY
AN AMERICAN POPE
PAUL XYLINIDES
RATING: ★ ★ ★ ★
A modernizing American has assumed the papal throne. One of His first acts is to select a seventeenth century priest for canonization. The Congregation for the Causes of the Saints recoils in horror at the new pontiff’s choice. Against a backdrop of Vatican intrigue and infighting, a long-unsolved crime comes to the attention of a retired detective. The forces that contribute to it reach far back into the distant past. No one can truly fathom the life of the candidate for sainthood including the nun and priest who join forces to prepare the submission to Rome.
Amazon Book Description
Continue reading “An American Pope by Paul Xylinides – A Review”
THE GOOD KILL – A Review by Lee Hall
Originally posted on Lee's Hall of information:
An enthralling, gripping tale of epic proportions taking the reader on a ride full of twists, turns and action… Kurt Brindley has constructed an intricate story that immediately immerses readers into the brutal world of organised crime, drug and sex trafficking and a gangster underworld all of which is centered around main character Killian Lebon. This warrior and former navy seal embarks on a journey in search of answers and revenge while also dealing with a huge level of trauma. He’s a character that for all of his flaws and even dark moments you… Continue reading THE GOOD KILL – A Review by Lee Hall
AN AMERICAN POPE by Paul Xylinides
Book review coming soon. #amreading #indieauthors Continue reading AN AMERICAN POPE by Paul Xylinides
What a Bizarro World We Live In
Originally posted on Zé Burns | Blog:
Old Town Prague where it all began … (via Wikimedia Commons) We’ve all had those life-changing discoveries, those moments where we find things we could never imagine living without. Mine came with an obscure,… Continue reading What a Bizarro World We Live In
LAST DAYS by Brian Evenson — A Reluctant Review
BOOK | FICTION | HORROR
LAST DAYS BY BRIAN EVENSON
RATING: ★ ★
I had been looking hard for a killer horror noir novel ever since reading FALLING ANGEL by William Hjortsberg, a stellar benchmark of the sub-genre that is in close competition for greatness with ANGEL HEART, its movie adaptation starring Mickey Rourke.
I eventually came across a couple of pretty good lists of horror noir books and found that LAST DAYS was high on both of them.
In Last Days I thought for sure I had a ringer.
And then when I began reading Peter Straub’s introduction for it there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was going to be the absolutely best horror noir book I had ever read.
Continue reading “LAST DAYS by Brian Evenson — A Reluctant Review”
Harrowed Insight
I was inspired to write my first novel Inside the Skin (formerly The Sea Trials of an Unfortunate Sailor) by life experiences I earned back in the late ’90s, early ’00s while working as a navy Equal Opportunity specialist, experiences the focus of which centered around the harassment, abuse, injury, and sometimes sadly even death as a result of the hatred for and confusion of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy which had recently been implemented throughout the military.
THE GOOD KILL – A Synopsis
During the battle to liberate Mosul from the brutal grip of the Islamic State, Killian Lebon, a war-weary Navy SEAL Senior Chief, sustains life-threatening injuries from an explosion during a rescue operation that goes horribly wrong…
THE GOOD KILL – A Storyline Checklist
Battle weary Navy SEAL ✓ Fearless, kickass women ✓ Corrupt corporate moguls ✓ Conniving Russian agents ✓ Ruthless ISIS terrorists ✓ Cold-hearted pimps ✓ Low-life sex traffickers ✓ Evil henchmen ✓ Traitorous scum ✓ Dark Web hackers ✓ Cool cars ✓ Luxurious yachts ✓ High-speed chases ✓ Heartless violence ✓ Brutal redemption ✓ Love ✓ Romance ✓ Kittens #mysteries #suspense #thrillers Continue reading THE GOOD KILL – A Storyline Checklist
The Lullaby Effect of Carter & Lovecraft versus When Nietzsche Wept
I’m only a so-so fan of HP Lovecraft. I guess I’ve read as much of him as I have more out of a sense of allegiance to the horror genre than a sense of loyalty to his literary acuity.
Which is why I was somewhat surprised when I found myself selecting Jonathan L. Howard’s CARTER & LOVECRAFT the other night when cruising my Overdrive app looking for an audiobook fix for which to fall asleep to…
Which, to me, is the primary purpose of audiobooks – literary lullabies.
And most of the audiobooks I listen to do a great job of it.
In fact, they do such a great job of it that most audiobooks I listen to, I don’t finish because each night I always have to go back to the last point in the book I can remember before drifting off to sleep the night before, which is, more often than not, only a minute or two after I started listening.
And the books I do manage to get through before the loan ends I often only remember in sketchy patches…
Continue reading “The Lullaby Effect of Carter & Lovecraft versus When Nietzsche Wept”
Slowing Down the Synapses
Or, Speeding Up the Reviews
Not the primary reason but one of the reasons I decided back in April to take a hiatus from the web was because I wanted to give my brain a break from all the nonsensical chatter that was cluttering it so.
I have been having what I collectively call chemo brain issues for quite some time so I thought it may do me some good to lay off for a while all the hyper-clicking and attention-span deflating skim-reading that the web so sweetly and successfully induces us into doing and which studies have told us is altering our brain and its ability to focus on and process information.
To counter what seemed to me to be my lack of focus and ability to process effectively process information (perhaps less a result from all my web time and more a result from all the chemo and prednisone I used to be strung out on years ago (and, in the case of chemo, which I still take daily dose addiction of)), I decided to turned off the web for a while.
Which, for the most part, I did surprisingly enough.
To fill the time I no longer spent on the web, much of which had been dedicated to this blog, I mobilized the pen and cracked open the books pretty hard.
KURT★BRINDLEY 