professional science fiction and dark fantasy writer
Thermopylae. Masada. Agincourt. And now, Haxan, New Mexico. We go where we’re sent. We have names and we stand against that which must be faced. Through a sea of time and dust, in places that might never be, or can’t become until something is set right, there are people destined to travel. Forever. I am one. …
Continue reading "Pre-order Information for My New Novel HAXAN"
Darke Conteur has a big blog post on her website about my upcoming book Haxan, including links, blurbs, and places you can purchase the novel being published by CZP. She did a really great job, and this series Writer in Progress is something she does regularly for lots of other really good authors. Please …
Continue reading "Writer in Progress, HAXAN, by Kenneth Mark Hoover, hosted by Darke Conteur"
Wow, this was unexpected but great news. I will be attending the Texas Library Association conference in San Antonio on April 8 and doing Haxan promos for CZP. I will be at the Diamond Book Distributors booth, probably handing out Haxan postcards or something and talking to people. CZP is also thinking if they download …
Continue reading "I’m attending the Texas Library Association for CZP Haxan promos!"
I am not a big fan of romance. I don't think much of most fantasy, either, because a lot of it draws too much on what has been done before and comes off as lazy. It feeds upon itself too much, especially when it comes to plot and motivation and the world the characters are …
Last night I attended the Chizine party and had a really good time. Talked writing with Janet Harriet and made new friends. Also did some preliminary convention planning with Sandra Kasturi and Brett Savory, the owners of Chizine. Sandra Kasturi introduced me as a new Chizine author and mentioned the Haxan novel. I talked to …
Continue reading "Chicon7 Update: getting tired but still going"
Today I am happy to welcome Jenn Nixon as a guest blogger. She will talk about her new novel Lucky's Charm. Enjoy! --KMH Jenn Nixon says: I started writing at a very young age but didn't realize I actually wanted to make a living as a writer until I finished my first Star Wars …
Continue reading "Guest Blogger: Jenn Nixon’s new novel Lucky’s Charm"
The Island of Dr. Moreau is one of my favorite novels by H.G. Wells. Published in 1896 it has deep philosophical elements which Wells faces head on. It is arguably one of his least known, but best written, scientific romances. In 1933 the novel was adapted to film by Paramount Pictures. It starred Charles Laughton …
Continue reading "Island of Lost Souls (1933) – Censored Horror with Sex and Atmospheric Bestiality"
On the argument of Character vs. Plot I tend to side with the former. I think a story with a strong character connects faster with readers than a plot-driven story. Then again the strongest story is one in which both character and plot are very strong and work together. There are always counter-examples where this …
Continue reading "Good Writing is Often a Question of Character"
I remember the very first time I came face to face with how much creativity would be needed if I was going to be a writer. I was in a high school English class and we had finished reading The Old Man and the Sea. In one passage the fisherman comes back to his hut …
Continue reading "What I learned from Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, and why it scared me."
I remember when I began to get serious about writing. I was in my early twenties. One of the things that really worried me is would I have enough ideas for stories? It worried me. At the time it only seemed I had one or two ideas worth developing. It didn't look good for the …
Continue reading "Ideas are a dime a dozen. But stories are forever."
See: Title of post. Ha. I must admit I get a little chuckle when I see or hear a writer say this. As if. I know what they are feeling. I guess I understand what they are trying to express. But they are writers. At our core we are challenged to write about the human …
Continue reading "“Why, the character just took over the story! I had no control at all!”"
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My review of the novel Little Big Man by Thomas Berger has been published by The Western Online. Here's the link, and I hope you enjoy reading what I have to say about this classic work. I tried to approach the review from the orientation of both an armchair historian and a writer working in …
Continue reading "Little Big Man: A Classic Novel of Lies and Counter-Lies in the Old West"
I finished reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo for the second time some years back. The first time I read it was in high school. I liked it then, I love it now, even after all this time. I guess everyone knows about Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bread and being pursued by Javert. …
Continue reading "Les Miserables: “Hunger comes with love.”"
White Zombie (1932) is a classic Pre-Code film starring Bela Lugosi. Though it was roundly panned at its release it has, over the intervening decades, become a seminal horror film as regards subject matter, direction, and artistic photography. To be sure the acting is a heavy handed and creaky, not to mention the squeaky musical …
Continue reading "White Zombie (1932) – Old Fashioned Love and Death Sprinkled with Haitian Magic"
Story: What's up? Me: I'm writing a love scene. Story: I see that. Where's the conflict? Me: What conflict? It's a love scene. They're in love. Story: You delight in making my life difficult, don't you? Me: Of course not...oh, I see what you did there. You advanced our dialog through conflict. Story: Exactly. All …
Continue reading "A Conversation with Story: Advancement of Plot through Conflict"
About three years ago I read the first 100 pages of Pride and Prejudice and then I bailed. I was taking some very heavy damage from several hardened missile silos down below me. I had lost all aileron control and the self-sealing fuel tanks, well, were no longer self-sealing. I had to eject fast or …
Continue reading "Pride and Prejudice: If People Were Ants We Wouldn’t Need Stories"
I was struggling with how to begin the new Haxan novel and got through that hurdle this morning. I see the opening now and I think I know how it should start. It's not going to be easy to write, though, but I have to be truthful to the story and at least give it …
Continue reading "My Challenge of Writing a New Haxan Novel"
Writing is hard enough. Everything about is is hard. Except thinking up new ideas. That's actually easy. People who don't write sometimes think the idea phase is difficult. Nope. That's easy. I have way more ideas than I will ever write. The trick is choosing the best idea among them and elaborating on it. Part …
Continue reading "Endings Are Hard, Except When They’re Easy"
Horror is always either on the edge of a horrendous implosion or on the cusp of a golden renaissance. I think that's about right, given its cyclic nature. Horror literature itself is a fairly shallow field. Widespread, but shallow. It makes half-hearted attempts every ten years or so to break out and become mainstream, but …
Continue reading "The Visceral Power of Horror: Why it’s so hard to write"
Hoover's Corner 