My Books

Rewrite: Part Two

~ klstrader ~ Leave a comment

I’m back to where I was when I realized I needed a complete rewrite: sixty thousand words, or about two-thirds of the way done.

So much better.

My lead is lovable and believable, the love interest isn’t whiny and helpless, the bad guys are horrible and deserving death. There are twists and turns. There are emotions.

I’ve learned how to balance overpowered characters, and I’ve learned how to weave multiple layers of intrigue. Well, at least I feel like I have. It’s better. I’ll say that. This manuscript is by far the most challenging I’ve worked on, and I realized it’s because the characters’ levels are epic (to put it in rpg terms.) Epic-level characters need epic-level bad guys, and epic-level stories to live in. It’s tough.

I can’t just keep throwing dragons and the like at them, even though I love them so. This manuscript is host to a plethora of new, unique, original creatures. And those creatures who aren’t unique to me are given my own spin. I’m excited for you all to meet them.

I’ve also mixed in some old with the new, in regard to the gods (whom these epic-level characters have regular contact with.) Not only will you find original deities of my own invention, but you’ll also find cameos from favorites like Athena. Pandora has a minor role as well, and others will be present.

But it’s much more engaging than the previous draft. I’m back on track.

Thanks for reading!

Buy My Book! This Is My Short And Sweet Synopsis For Glimpsing Infinity.

~ klstrader ~ Leave a comment

Glimpsing Infinity by K. L. Strader (link takes you to its amazon page)

It’s chock-full of all sorts of great things: sex, violence, drugs, magic, foul language, comedy, lesbians, devils and demons, angels and humans…  There’s bound to be something in it for you.

You could read the description on Amazon, but here is a synopsis if you don’t feel like going there right now (“spoiler” is a subjective term, so read on at your own risk. What I say below is evident very early in the book, so I’m not really ruining anything for you.):

The story centers on Brixton Weber, an ordinary guy who is thrown into extraordinary circumstances when he learns of a magical staff, and that it’s actually real – and that he is to wield it.  But he is not alone.  There is Benjamin, a “man” who tells him about/leads him to find the staff.  There is Amanda, a friend from high school caught up in all this by chance, just as Brixton is.  And finally there is Invidia, a bretchling (half-devil, half-demon) succubus who just so happens to be Amanda’s new girlfriend, but really she’s just there for the staff as well (hence Amanda being caught up in it by chance.)  Amanda has no idea she is anything other than human, though.  Nor does anyone know (save for Invidia) what exactly Benjamin is.  Suffice to say they are both bad-asses.

Brixton and crew get the staff and that’s the end, right?  Wrong.  Certain parties in the Infinite Hells have been patiently awaiting this moment for thousands of years, and so an army is amassed to retrieve the staff once its true location in the human realm (or Earth, as we know it) is learned.  And, of course, chaos ensues.  There is a violent, gory conclusion when our modern military collides with that of the Hells – after which Earth will never be the same.

Most of this takes place near or in the fictional town of Charton, which is a suburb of beautiful and non-fictional Cleveland, Ohio.  I spawned Charton from its real-life sister village of Grafton (Chart…graph…eh? eh?)  But the only real similarity they share is their small size.

Damn, it feels good to be a gangster. And by gangster, I mean published author.

~ klstrader ~ Leave a comment

My debut novel Glimpsing Infinity is available on Amazon and Kindle!

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Buy it.  Read it.  Review it.  (Please.)

It is the first book in my Infinity series, but don’t worry: I am not a fan of cliff-hanger endings.  So Glimpsing Infinity , although it leaves you wanting more, completely wraps up its story by the end of the book.  It does tease at the next though, as any good book should.  Each book in the series has its own story, but most of the same characters star in each, which is what ties the series together.  You’ll watch the protagonists grow through the series, and hopefully you’ll grow to love them as much as I do.

The second book in the series, titled Touching Infinity, is due out early 2015, and the third in the series, titled Embracing Infinity, is due out later that year.

They are written with a small-medium-large setting respectively.  I got the idea for writing them that way after watching the Resident Evil movies, of which I am a huge fan (though my books bear no resemblance to them, other than mimicking the scale.)  Glimpsing Infinity takes place mostly in one setting, mainly against one enemy; low magic, everyone sort of stumbles around as they realize their world is changing (hence Glimpsing.)  The second book, continuing fifteen years after the first, takes the changes a step further; humans are sort of coming to terms with magic and other creatures being real, though they don’t like it (hence Touching.)  The third takes it a step even further, picking up roughly one hundred twenty years after the second book, and our human world is completely changed by the emergence of all the different creatures and magics from across the infinite planes of existence (hence Embracing; hence Infinity.)

I could talk about them all day, but I fear I’ve already revealed too much.  Check out Glimpsing Infinity and let me (and the Amazon world) know what you think by leaving a review.  It will be much appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

Kyle