Kevin Hardman

Garren's Quest, Chapter 4

With the busy month of May now in my rearview, I feel like the writing's getting back on track. Here is Chapter 4 of Garren's Quest, and the usual caveats apply:

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As they rode, Garren continued to argue that he could not be held responsible for the idiotic actions of some pompous prince with delusions of grandeur.

“You should know that Nebal isn’t just ‘some prince,’” Hyna...

Kid Sensation #10 Excerpt

Kid Sensation #10 (working title: Expiation) is still in the works, but I wanted to share another excerpt. (And the usual caveats apply...)

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My father floated up into the air, preparing to speak. Behind him, Mouse and I stayed on the ground, staring out at the scores of people in front of us – all supervillains.

I telepathically opened a channel to Mouse. <Lot of bad guys here.>

<...

Garren's Quest, Chapter 3

May is only about half over, and it's been a fairly busy month already - mostly because of school-related items: graduations, banquets, etc. As a result, I haven't advanced the ball as much as I'd hoped on the writing front. That said, here's Chapter 3 of Garren's Quest, part of which I believe posted previously but this is the full chapter. (And, as is customary, the usual caveats apply):

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A quarter-hour l...

Garren's Quest, Chapter 2

I mentioned last month that I'd start posting chapters from a fantasy story I've had bouncing around in my brain (working title: Garren's Quest). Bearing in mind that the usual caveats apply, here is Chapter 2:

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Almost in unison, the soldiers drew their swords – all except their captain, who merely kept his hand on his pommel. Likewise, although he held his weapon in his hand, Garren did not draw the blade f...

Garren's Quest, Chapter 1

I previously posted an excerpt from a fantasy story that I've got a lot of ideas about in terms of the storyline (working title: Garren's Quest). It's one that I think will be a fun read, so I've decided to start posting the chapters here for my patrons. So without further ado, Chapter 1 is below, and the usual caveats apply. (And in other news, I'm still working on Kid Sensation #10.)

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Garren was ...

Audiobook Release: The Fringe Worlds Series (Books 1 - 3)

It took a little longer than I anticipated, but I'm happy to announce the release of the audiobook for The Fringe Worlds Series (Books 1 - 3).

As usual, I'm reporting the release here first and offering my Patreon supporters first dibs on it. You can grab a promo code for a free copy of the audiobook by clicking 2025-02-19 16:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post

If It Ain't Broke...

So I’ve got something of a minor headache in terms of a publishing-related task. Historically, it’s been a little tricky for authors to get their books into the desired category on Amazon. Basically, the categories available during the publishing process didn’t always square up with the categories as they appear on Amazon’s site. As a result, books didn’t always show up where the author felt was most apporpriate. (In my case - after Amazon created superhero categories - I generally ...

Possible Mirific Subtitles

I’ve been thinking lately about Jim’s transition from Kid Sensation to Mirific (which I’ve previously stated would be his “cape” name as an adult). I’m not talking about the transition in the storyline – I think I’ve got that worked out. What I’m talking about is the descriptive transition/title for the books.

Basically, most of the books in the series have a subtitle along the lines of “Kid Sensation #___,” with a numerical indicator of where that title falls in ...

Blurb From Mirific Novel

For some reason, I've been having a lot of thoughts lately about the future of Jim in the Kid Sensation series - namely, when he gives up the "Kid Sensation" appellation and starts going by "Mirific." I've essentially got that worked out in terms of the storyline, so I thought I'd share what's been buzzing through my head in terms of the blurb. Needless to say, it will almost certainly be fleshed out a bit more before publication (and the usual caveats apply):

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A Brief Discussion of Amazon Ads

I think I regularly mention the necessity of book marketing and promotion, and I recently commented on some issues I was having with Amazon ads. However, I thought it might be beneficial to pull back the curtain a little on that.

Amazon ads follow an auction format, where sellers bid for ad placement. Basically, when someone goes to Amazon and searches for, say, “energy drinks,” ads will pop up for said beverages.  All other things being equal, the company that bid the most wil...

Excerpt from Kid Sensation Story

I’m still working on Kid Sensation #10, but I thought I’d share an excerpt from a future Kid Sensation story (and the usual caveats apply):

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“You guys will have to go without me,” I told Smokey and Electra. “I completely forgot that I have a tutoring session with Myshtal today.”

“Tutoring?” Electra repeated with a frown. “What are you tutoring her in?”

“You’ve got it backward...

Audiobook Release: The Warden Series (Books 1 - 3)

Something that I've been thinking about for a while has finally come to fruition: release of the audiobook for The Warden Series (Books 1 - 3). The boxed set has been out for a while, so I'm happy to have the audio version done.

It wasn't as fast as when they did Warden 4, but ACX/Audible did their quality check in a pretty timely fashion and released the title....

Smoked In The Wild

I’ve probably said it numerous times at this point, but it’s great to have Smoked released. I can’t overstate how much I appreciate the patience of readers, because the story ultimately grew well beyond anything I initially imagined. That said, I’m happy with how it turned out (and hopefully readers are as well).

Also, as some of you already know, I had a bit of a rough time getting the paperback and hardcover versions of the book published. (Basically, the thickne...

Blurb From Smoked

Just as an update, I'm in the middle of reviewing the edited manuscript for Smoked. I should finish that today, and my usual process is to read through everything one final time. (Basically, even professional editing/proofing doesn't always catch every typo, so one last read-through never hurts.) Hopefully at that point I'll be ready to hit "Publish."

In the meantime, I thought I'd share the blurb for this one (although I reserve the right to change it - even at this late hour...

Latest On Smoked

As I mentioned in a couple of comments, Smoked is done and currently being edited. For those interested, it clocks in at around 600 pages. (In short, I wasn’t exaggerating when I previously stated that I kept adding stuff every time I read through it.) That makes it the longest book I’ve written thus far - and that’s with me not including a lot of other plot-related stuff that popped into my brain.

Needless to say, the ultimate length of the book was ...

Recent Writing Productivity

Unlike some writers, I don’t have a daily quota or word count that I strive to reach. I basically just try to write as much as possible each day. Unfortunately, the writing has fallen the past few days for a couple of reasons.

First and foremost, I’ve been under the weather. I can (and usually do) push through most ailments, but simply couldn’t manage it this time. Even worse, it’s the second time that’s happened in the past few weeks. Guess I’m getting old…

The othe...

Story Interactions

I've stressed on multiple occasions that my writing process is more art than science.  It's as if the story tells itself and I'm just keeping a chronicle of what happens. Thus, in a way, I'm often just as surprised as anyone else at developments in the plot.

For me, it's fun to write this way. Unfortunately, it usually results in some stuff ending up on the cutting room floor, so to speak – mostly everyday, slice-of-life type moments.  For example, when you’re walking in a...

Undersea City from Kid Sensation #11

I've talked a bit before about how Kid Sensation #11 (working title: Generation) will be a team-up between Jim and the Pelagic Prince, who hails from an underwater kingdom. As is typical, I've got a lot of ideas, and several of them involve Jim visiting the Pelagic Prince's home. With that in mind, I asked an AI image generator to create a pic of a city under the sea. (To be specific, I think I asked for a "futuristic underwater city.") Here's the result:

2024-05-26 21:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Update On Smoked, et al.

Since I’ve got a couple of irons in the fire, I thought it appropriate to give an update. Starting first with  Smoked, I have to confess that I didn’t finish my final read-through.

Basically, I had a couple of things happen on the home front that slowed my publishing efforts down, including losing internet access for almost a week. That may not sound debilitating, but I tend to do a fair amount of research when I’m writing. Ergo, when I touch on things like brain pla...

Excerpt from Kid Sensation #10

Hi, all. As with a lot of people, tax season took a bite out of my time, so I thought it might be worthwhile to share an excerpt from Kid Sensation #10 (working title: Expiation) as a kind of pick-me-up. And, as always, the usual caveats apply:

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I was just sitting down for breakfast when I got a telepathic ping. It was Esper, the most powerful telepath on the planet....