K.Childs

 I got the preview issue, which does not contain the whole thing, just early stuff for reviewers. After reading the preview, I would highly recommend this anthology. So the art in this is absolutely incredible. While the cover might give you a sort of indication it's MG, it certainly isn't aimed in that direction. I would say the vibe and themes really hit me as Young Adult. There isn't any swearing or bloodshed, so it is relatively safe for conservative types. Grandma is likely to be mildly confused instead of outraged. Cthulhu is hard to spell is an anthology from a huge collection of artists and writers. I ventured to the kick-starter page for the anthology in order to get the complete list: A Lovecraftian comic anthology Nora (art and words by Angela Oddling) -- a dejected teenager living in an ice village sets out to find Aphoom-Zhah and thaw his cold heart. The Dunwich Boys (art by Esther Pimentel, words by Eddy Hedington, letters by Nikki Powers) -...

Yeah, this post is a bit overdue. I make no excuses. Life ate my soul. I had to bargain with some elder gods to get it back. With NaNo a week or two cooling down finally, I've seen a few posts in NaNo groups as people begin to wonder 'well where do I start?' for editing. Controversial opinion: I know some people like to edit as they write. This is a fine practice for some, but I personally find it is time-wasting and something I use as an excuse to not finish the WIP I'm trying to get through. As a result, I tend to oppose this method in general. My experience has been that many of the authors I've spoken to who do this suffer the never-ending WIP disease and I attribute an inability to 'just write' as one of the causes of this. Again, if this method is fine and works for you, that's great. It doesn't work for me, and I am sure this is true for others as well. Step 1, spelling and grammar. If you are like me, you probably scoff at the idea...

It was a bright and sunny summer day in 2005 when my relief teacher for the advanced English class in High School held out a hand as the class were leaving the library. "Kristy, wait a moment, I need to talk to you." These words gave me pause, I mentally ran down the list of recent teen transgressions and wondered if I had been too loud or rude during class, "Yes, Ms?" "Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month ?" "No, what is that, Ms?" "It's a month where you write 50,000 words. A novel. It starts in November. I think it would be a worthy investment of your talent." Fast forward to 2018 I've been doing NaNoWriMo since 2005 without fail. Well, not entirely without fail. I've failed to finish 5 times. But I've always participated. Nano has been a worthy investment of my time and energy over the years. A worthy trial by fire, which I've found to be the only way I really learn anything at all. So h...

Okay so today's blog is actually inspired by a cute little story from about twenty minutes ago. I had to leave the house because I have been harbouring a mad-crazy need for egg sandwiches for a few days now and unable to get a fix. Thus, with a small adventure, I found myself exitting the local Woolies, my loot in hand, when I noticed and happened to catch a snippet of a conversation between two kids: The kids were about 11-13ish. Both boys were dressed in that sort of gangsta imitation that kids around that age like, especially the 'tough' kids. They had scooters and the opening snippet of conversation I caught was 'well he's a shit...' (For American reader's that is occa for 'punk ass bitch' ) The slightly older looking of the two dropped his soft-drink can on the ground and scooted off, sprouting a line that made me laugh almost as soon as it was out of his mouth, "Like, totally, yeah, y'know...."  If there's anything that...

Okay, first, 20 posts is actually pretty impressive for me, I'd like to take a second to whistle in appreciation of this many posts. So, without more tithering about, today's topic is about my pro-tips. My pearl-necklace of wisdom. I'm not going to talk about self-publishing in this. Self-publishing diverges from traditional publishing in step 2 of my 3 stage tips. Self-pub has just as many ups and downs and lefts and rights as traditional publishing. I see them both as pretty equal in terms of difficulty setting, but for different stages. This should go without saying, but these tips are based on my style, my experience and my understanding. Your play-through may vary. When it comes to the publishing industry, the 'gate' as it were, seems a lot more daunting than it actually is. 1. The act of writing - Challenge yourself. Don't cop-out the easy solutions to establishing love interests. - Finish. You can't be rejected if your novel isn't fin...

So today I'm going to be covering 4 niches of Speculative fiction: Steampunk, Gaslamp, LitRPG and GameLit. Three of these are Sci-Fi, which may surprise anyone who's seen my bookshelf because I have less than 10 sci-fi books on my shelf. A note on my definitions and explanations. Before I continue, I feel a strong need to disclaimer that these are my own opinions and definitions. Some fans have extremely strict and narrow realms of what does and does not fit their niche, others are much broader.  There is no faster way to start a fight in a niche than to state your opinion on what constitutes that niche. Please keep in mind, I've read extensively in these four niches, I've written in 3 of them, I would consider myself at least adept to speak of these things but your own definition may vary, and we're allowed to dissent. A note on Niche. Niche genre seems to be the offspring of two literary conventions meeting and having a strange hybrid progeny for the ...

Today's post is a little unusual as I'm taking you all to youtube! That's right, I found a camera that didn't instantly melt after filming me for five seconds. I know what you're thinking- but Kristy, does such a camera exist? Yes, yes, it does. So today I spoke about my top tips for writing mystery genre. Apologies in advance as the audio was a little low. I was using my phone's audio and I've since discovered that I need a mic even for my awesome phone.

It might surprise many of you to learn that I’m not a natural ‘people person.’ Being affable and sweet online is a lot easier than it is in the real world. I’ve always found socialising online comes with small simple rules that make interactions easy and flowing. Avoiding unpleasant people and existing inside a small social bubble is the epitome of our world online. Confrontations are totally avoidable and awkwardness can be ignored. Prospering as an online social butterfly is a very different skillset to prospering as a RL social butterfly. Because of this, I started making my ‘how to human’ instructions. How to human: Mornings and conversation starters. I work in an office and I am client-facing; this means that every week or more often, I meet new people. Important people and clients that I need to make a good impression on, people who decide big things, people who decide small things. My job is to help translate their needs into IT-speak half the time. The...

 2.16 The Hummingbird Dilemna  This may take a while to loop back to writing, but trust me, I'll get there. A while ago I read an article about the different types of creatives. I've seen the divide between two types of creatives in my family; the Jackhammer and the Hummingbird are almost exactly what my sister and I are like for pursuing hobbies and interests. She is the sort who delves in deep; she doesn't spread around all the latest gadgets or newest fads, she holds still and true to a couple of pursuits in a focused fashion. I always admired that focus, as it is definitely something I lack in my own pursuits (with a few exceptions, like writing)  and I used to think my 'easily bored' nature was causing a lot of lost enjoyment in creative endeavours. Since learning to embrace that side of myself, I've found I'm in a lot more control of my creative outlets. The trouble with darting from hobby to hobby... Parents can probably relate to this probl...

Today’s review is on my top five favourite fantasy novels of all time. I’m limiting myself to specifically Fantasy instead of delving into sub-categories too much. Urban Fantasy for me is very much its own category and I will definitely do another post about that at some stage in the future. I couldn’t arrange these in much of a specific order, I don’t really enjoy grading artistic works on a scale as it devalues the art itself. Instead these are my favourite five. I have plenty of other books I like, but these are the ones that made the list. As I go, you’ll find a trend in the style of stories I like. None of these are bildungsromans, and these are all single-point-of-view main characters. I like a highly personalised focus in the novels I read; the political intrigue or world-exploding threats are a secondary interest in the face of personal struggle or growth. 1.        The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold Image from ...

Today I’m going to be interviewing the fabulous K.M. Pohlkamp, author of Apricots and Wolfsbane . Her debut novel released in October and it is chock full of girl power and intricate details. Please check it out and support her by leaving a review if you do! Summary of Apricots and Wolfsbane Lavinia Maud craves the moment the last wisps of life leave her victim’s bodies—to behold the effects of her own poison creations. Believing confession erases the sin of murder, her morbid desires are in unity with faith, though she could never justify her skill to the magistrate she loves. At the start of the 16th century in Tudor England, Lavinia’s marks grow from tavern drunks to nobility, but rising prestige brings increased risk. When the magistrate suspects her ruse, he pressures the priest into breaking her confessional seal, pitting Lavinia’s instincts as an assassin against the tenets of love and faith. She balances revenge with her struggle to develop a tasteless poison...