Thursday, October 14, 2010

Poetry for the Poisoned

One of my favourite bands, Kamelot, recently released a new album that I've been listening to rather extensively since said release. The album is entitled Poetry for the Poisoned. They hosted a contest to celebrate the release of the album, and that contest was to write some Kamelot-related poetry. Here is my poem, which discusses listening to Kamelot while walking to work.

Walking with Ariel

The commute to work is drudgery, for most.
Like a small hell, we crawl, lengthening the hours already before us.
Thinking of the day ahead, we extend our fate.

My headphones on, I choose not to think of work,
But instead choose enjoy the walk.
My favourite songs buzz in my ears, and suddenly,
My walk toward work becomes a walk with Ariel.
No longer alone, we walk together,
And his voice carries me.
I'm not walking--I now drift toward my destination,
And though I cannot be his Helena,
I proudly adorn my own Black Halo as I reach the end of my journey.
It is not the arrival that has completed my day:
Traveling with ghost-melodies has brought me here.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Survival of the Fittest

On 10/10/10, the dead will walk again.

This is World Zombie Day's tagline on their website.

This is a day for zombie walks across the world. United, the undead will lurch through various streets in various cities and probably scare the daylights out of any passersby.

As I noted in a previous blog entry, this is also the day that my novella, Hub City Survival, is to be published. In the wee hours of this morning, the book was completed. The editing was finished, the formatting done, the information compiled and all acknowledgments written. I am now considered published.

That feels pretty good.

I went to bed at 4 AM, feeling almost too excited to sleep. I managed anyway, and despite my late sleep, I got up at around 9:30 and took a look at the page, ready to start spreading the word of the book's release. To my surprise, I had already sold two copies!

Today also marks Canada's Thanksgiving, and how better to celebrate it than by giving thanks for being able to live to accomplish a dream of mine? I may not be an established author, and this may be one of the only journeys in the realm of self-publishing that I take. But this is definitely a good start in the direction of my lifelong goal.

I hope to one day have an actual publisher and distributor, but I decided to self-publish Hub City Survival for a few reasons. For the first, it is a novella. For the second, regional horror fiction is somewhat of a niche market, and I really think I'd have a lot of difficulty finding a publisher for it. For the third, I already have an established audience from publishing the story online as it was written. I would hate to make any audience members feel as though they had to purchase the book in order to finish reading the story, so I decided to add a few things at the end of the book as a bonus, rather than stopping the story online and stabbing my readers in the back for the sake of money.

I don't expect this book to become a sensation. The fact that two people have purchased my book already means more to me than I could even say.

For those of you who are interested, you can purchase the book here. The book contains artwork by fans and a bonus side-story that I didn't publish anywhere online. I wanted to make readers feel as though they were getting something extra.

Until next time. Thanks for reading, and happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians. To the rest of you, I hope you have an enjoyable World Zombie Day. Try not to get bitten!

K.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Hub City Survival

This past week, I've finished the writing project I've been working on for the past year, entitled Hub City Survival. It revolves around a young woman from Moncton NB who finds herself very suddenly thrown into the middle of the apocalypse.

As a NaNoWriMo participant, I find writing to be a difficult thing to give up even after spending an entire month writing roughly 2,500 words a day. Last year, after it was over, was when I started this project. It began on deviantArt with just a single entry. Then, a few people actually thought it was real! That hooked them, and I was able to get a small following of people reading every installment. Finishing the story was of utmost importance since I had such a following.

I have kept the entire thing online, but I hope to be self-publishing it very very soon. I know that many people will not purchase the book since it is all online, so I threw in a couple of extras. There is a side-story with brand new characters, set in the same time line, and I will be including some fanart from deviantArt fans!

If you're curious to read the story, I have collected all of the parts onto a single journal on deviantArt so they can be accessed easily. You can access them all here. The side-story will not be made available online.

I wouldn't quite consider this story to be a novel; I believe it is likely too short. It holds a very special place in my heart, however, and I believe the ending to be melancholy but faithful to the story.

The date I have planned for release is Oct. 10, 2010, which is International Zombie Day. I have everything finished but need to compile it all together and do a final read-through.

If you're interested, I hope you'll check out the story!

K.