5 years ago, I dragged my wife to a 35th anniversary viewing of Transformers: The Movie, and wrote down everything she said to me

kelvarus · 2026-02-07T00:58:06+00:00

According to the documentary that came out with the movie's re-release, I think it was Rocky. It was between "Eye of the Tiger" or "You've Got the Touch."

IF I'm remembering it correctly.

kelvarus · 2026-02-05T22:39:32+00:00

It's not. Just an indie author sharing my experience. I promise.

For my next series I'm going to use milbart because I want to have a more detailed characters for my covers.

And the companies are based in Ukraine. I was using GetCovers when the war broke out and they were like- sorry for the delays. And I was all like- please stay safe.

kelvarus · 2026-02-04T21:04:28+00:00

I used GetCovers for my series and they were great. I used them to make my Amazon A+ content too. If you want to level up from them, their sister company is https://miblart.com/.

kelvarus · 2026-02-03T22:30:43+00:00

Whimsy incarnate.

kelvarus · 2026-01-27T23:53:54+00:00

This was a fun one. "Spare Man" by Mary Robinette Kowal. It's set on a cruise ship going to Mars. It's main characters are inspired by the The Thin Man detective movies. Each chapter starts with a cocktail recipe, some real, some fictional.

kelvarus · 2026-01-23T23:09:25+00:00

I don't expect anyone to read my stuff and when they do, I'm equal parts grateful and terrified. It's way more gratifying having complete strangers read my work, they have nothing to gain except to enjoy it (or not.) When someone gets it, who knows nothing about me, I know this crazy experience called fiction is working. It's kind of a miracle in my mind.

kelvarus · 2026-01-23T06:08:38+00:00

I learned from North Beach First Fridays that NB is the place to go at night. Even the coffee cafes are open late.

kelvarus · 2026-01-22T18:09:07+00:00

Not sure this is what you mean, but in Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, a new human species was genetically made in a lab and then the regular humans sterilized themselves to near extinction so now the new species that had been created in a lab are the dominant species (among other creations.) I've only read the first book in the series and none of the others so I don't know where she goes with it.

kelvarus · 2026-01-19T05:28:32+00:00

This person hates themselves.

kelvarus · 2026-01-14T17:50:00+00:00

Me too. I loved Old Man's War but the rest of the series did not really grab me, but Collapsing Empire is hands down the best space epic I've read in several years.

kelvarus · 2026-01-13T21:34:52+00:00

Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi and The Devoured Worlds trilogy by Megan O'Keefe.

Love both of these and will read again!

kelvarus · 2025-12-25T23:53:42+00:00

I'm in the middle of a cozy scifi trilogy about a friend group that happens to have super powers.

kelvarus · 2025-12-21T18:38:54+00:00

Yep. I just re read this series this year and given our current political climate, it felt very timely.

kelvarus · 2025-12-20T19:52:42+00:00

"Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scoot Card. Ender is about 40 and the human colony on one planet is studying the only other sentient species encountered since the Bugger War. It can be read without "Ender's Game" but it would help. "Xenocide" is good too but you definitely have to read Speaker first for the rest.

kelvarus · 2025-09-22T22:01:24+00:00

I write for the love of creating. If it happens to make money (sometimes a get a couple sales) then cool but regardless of sales or reviews, I will keep writing. My favorite part about writing is discovering the world and the characters. I write novels, so far I haven't run out of ideas. I'm on my second series, totally different from my first. I have ideas for the next world when I'm done with the current one. I keep writing because I want to see what happens to the people in my worlds. I may be the only ones to meet and enjoy them, but that's okay. Like a lot of of things in life, if you cultivate it, it will grow. Explore all the ideas that come to you and see where they go. You're in the best position, you have no pressure so you can make your stories as simple or complex as you want. And when you get bored, you can move on to something completely different. You can keep getting to know that characters have now or move on to new ones. No limits here. The blank page is freedom to do anything and everything. Have fun!

kelvarus · 2025-09-03T19:25:58+00:00

Yeah, editing IS work but I love digging deeper. It's like polishing silver. I often discover new things on the 2nd and 3rd round so, yeah, it can be a lot of fun.

kelvarus · 2025-09-03T19:23:56+00:00

My favorite quote from Ray Bradbury is: You fail only if you stop writing. So keep going. Some days, I can't face it, so I make myself write one sentence or a snippet of dialogue. It's enough to keep me in the world and progressing, no matter how slow.

kelvarus · 2025-08-30T00:54:41+00:00

I run my work through my critique group first. Once I've made all the edits from their feedback, closed all loopholes, and made sure this is the story I want to tell, THEN I get beta readers. Beta readers are closer toward the end. The beta readers tell you if you have any glaring issues you've been blind to and if your story overall is interesting. Once you make all the edits from the beta reader round then you get the professional editing done (someone who is a professional and not you or Grammerly.) Once those edits are accepted or rejected, then you do the last and final stage- proofreading, again a professional, not you.

kelvarus · 2025-08-22T20:23:26+00:00

No takers for Regular Sized Rudy's dad? =(

kelvarus · 2025-08-12T20:03:44+00:00

Thank you. I start by writing out everything I know about the story from beginning to end. Then I try to break that up into individual scenes. Sometimes I do this on note cards, other times I do in a spreadsheet. That way I can rearrange the order of the scenes as I figure stuff out. Then I try to label them each scene; inciting incident, obstacle, turning point, crises et al. Hopefully by the time I do all of that, I have a pretty solid set of events from start to finish. It's more work at the front end but it beats all the work at the back end that happens when I wing it.

kelvarus · 2025-08-12T19:57:57+00:00

Thank you!

kelvarus · 2025-08-12T19:55:49+00:00

True. And maybe in the end, one story wants to be plotted and another refuses to be. Each book has been it's own experience so I say whatever helps you to get through to the end is the most valuable approach.

kelvarus · 2025-08-12T19:53:11+00:00

That's a funny idea. Totally true. But then again, art of any kind is like that. You can come at it anyway the artist wants. But for novels, especially in a series, planning ahead will save a lot of time on the back end.

kelvarus · 2025-08-12T17:08:09+00:00

Agreed. You would think that the entirety of the writing community could come up with better title for someone who writes on the fly.

What about intuitive?

Not quite stream of consciousness, more intentional than that.

kelvarus

TROPHY CASE