This blog is a compilation of short works of fiction by Allan and Helen Krummenacker, authors of the Para-Earth Book Series. The stories contained here take place before our novel "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home", with the idea of introducing you to some of the characters who appear in that book and the upcoming anthology "The Vampyre Blogs - One Day At a Time" coming this November.
So please, sit back and enjoy more glimpses into Nathan's (our vampyre) and his friends' lives.
It's Christmas Eve, so we're taking a quick break in our current story to bring you something different.
In the United Kingdom there is a tradition of telling a ghost or creepy story at this time of the year.
And since according to Ancestry.com based on my DNA sample, I am 49% Irish, plus another 22 % English, I feel it only right to continue this tradition.
So, we're bringing you the audio version of "The Snowman", complete with imagery, providing a picture book experience, much like I did last year with my unabridged presentation of Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol".
As many of you will remember, "The Snowman" was written by my wife/co-author Helen for our "The Vampyre Blogs - One Day at a Time" anthology. It was inspired by hearing the song "Frosty the Snowman" one too many times, before deciding to put a bit of a strange unearthly (or Para-Earth-ly) twist on the story...
So without further ado, here is this year's Christmas story offering...
No doubt, you might be wondering about the opening stating the presentation came from the Library of the Obscure. For those wondering about that, you'll be seeing and learning more about the library starting next month, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, have a blessed and safe Christmas and hopefully a very wonderful New Year.
Hello everyone, Happy New Year! Hope the holiday season treated you well. You probably noticed that the ever since I finished the "Red Fang" storyline, I've been re-sharing older short stores (or not so short like the "Cannibal Killer" tale). You are no doubt understandably wondering why there hasn't been anything new for so long. Well, up until September, my biggest concern was trying to get the left side of my sacro-iliac joint sorted out through physical therapy, and pain control injections. I was lined up to have ablation surgery done on the joint area in question, when I began having an unexplained increase in my heart rate. We're talking into the low-mid 100's even at rest.
This of course alarmed my wife and my physician who has been subjecting me to a battery of tests, CAT scans, and X-rays. I'm pleased to report that the heart is in fine shape, and there are no irregularities in my heartbeats, aside from the elevated rates. Since then, I've been off work due to nearly passing out at one point and suffering fatigue and dizziness quite frequently. As of this post, we are zeroing in on a possible cause, but there are more tests to be done so I'll keep you updated.
Now a quick rewind. After I finished the "Red Fang" story, I started focusing on the next novel "The Vampyre Blogs - Family Ties" and was making some good progress. I was also finishing the cover art for Helen's newest book (a short story collection which is part of her own series "The Forever Detective" books, which involve a private investigator who becomes a vampire but continues to be a detective and hold onto his humanity set in the 1940s).
I also act as her formatter and submit her books to KDP Direct and Draft2Digital to get them into e-book and print forms, and I had that to take care of as well.
And of course, I have become a voiceover actor and have turned four of her books into Audiobooks on Audible and Itunes:
So, I was still keeping busy, in spite of my illness. I just didn't have a lot of creativity flowing for the most part until I was given a new medication for my high blood pressure which also has quieted down my heart rate to more normal levels. However, there are still other concerns regarding levels of sodium and cortisol which are continuing to plague me. But as I said before, we're getting closer to answers so I'm not too worried.
Anyway, since I've been feeling more creative once more, I've come up with a number of new tales for Nathan and company to be dealing with. A couple of them are slated for the second Vampyre Blogs Anthology, which I'm hoping might be released before this year is over. I've got a number of old stories that have not seen the light of day since their original release on this blog, but I really wanted a few never before seen ones as well. One involves a German U-boat during World War I, another involves a sex traffic ring which I will be putting a trigger warning for readers in case they want to skip that one. That tale will also show a little of Nathan's 'darker' side when it comes to harming innocents.
I am also planning a special Halloween tale for you all on this blog, which may put a few of you in mind of old classic film "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". I won't say anymore, because I want you all to have fun reading that one when it comes out.
In the meantime, I'll be doing a few more re-runs of older stories here, but I wanted you all to know what's happening here on the homefront.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I am currently taking some professional voice acting classes, while I have the down time from my work. I'm hoping this will lead to auditions and some paying work before the year is out. Who know? Maybe, I'll be able to one day retire from the county and do voice work full-time, as well as my writing.
We'll see. But now you're in the loop. I thank you for your support of this blog and ask you all to keep on visiting and leaving your likes and comments.
A whole year of planning, working, sweating, and it still wasn't enough.
For those who are wondering, I'm referring to my unabridged dramatic reading of Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol". My plan was to unveil the finished project as a picture book on YouTube. Besides spending hours recording voices, some sound effects, finding music in public domain, as well as dozens of images (also in the public domain) created over the last 150 years since the book's creation... and I still couldn't quite get it across the Finish Line. At least not in time for this Christmas.
All I have left to do is film an opening and closing to the project, but between work and other audio and writing projects, I just couldn't do it justice this year.
Now some of you might be asking yourselves, why? Why was this so important to you? After all, there are so many versions available of the story available on YouTube, streaming services, Blue-Ray, DVD, etc.
Well the answer is, none of them are 'complete'. There are a number of powerful speeches and even scenes that more often than not, wind up on the cutting room floor. There have also been new scenes created and added to the films that cannot be found in the original story at all. After having read the book cover to cover myself a few years back, I started finding myself reading certain scenes with a variety of different voices for each character. And yes, this is when I really started taking the idea of doing voice over work more seriously. I was having so much fun with these characters and that it took me a while to realize I was drawing upon techniques and skills I learned in my l theater class during my last year of high school. I learned so much in that one year, and I have often found myself regretting I hadn't taken the class sooner and then taken one of the more advanced classes afterwards. Still, I thank my lucky stars and my teacher Mrs. Nina Pfeffer for all her patience and guidance. I learned so much from her.
So after Helen convinced me to bring her books to life in audio, I went back to the idea of doing the same for Mr. Scrooge and company. Helen often refers to me as her "Voice Time Machine", since I can do so many voices of actors who are no longer with us, which allows her to 'cast' the characters from her books and helps her in turn bring them more to life in her writing. And believe me I drew upon a lot of voices of actors both living and dead, to my project.
And in spite of having a whole year to work on "A Christmas Carol" I could not anticipate back and hip problems which kept me from my 'recording studio' and sitting at the desk to edit either images/audio recordings for weeks at a time.
Then of course there were other projects that needed my attention as well. I'm wrapping up my 3rd audiobook narration as I write. I also created a couple of book covers over the last 12 months, as well as feeding 3 blogs with material as well.
With so much going on, I can't feel too bad about not finishing my "A Christmas Carol" project. There's only so many hours in the day, and only so much of me...
Therefore my New Year's Resolution will be to keep being ambitious, but give myself leeway to scale back and not be too hard on myself if I can't get all that I want to done.
And I do have plans for this coming year, oh yes indeed. Here's a little list:
- Re-work, re-edit, and re-release "The Bridge" in a special 10th Anniversary version.
- Get a complete 1st draft of "The Vampyre Blogs - Family Ties" which takes up mere weeks after the end of "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home".
- Release the first volume of "The Pass" trilogy, which I wrote with my old high school friend Rich Caminiti, with some fantastic illustrations by the talented Gabrielle Callan. We will be releasing this book in hardback (yes, your read that right) and e-book formats.
NOTE: This one is a definite. The book is already written Gabrielle just getting the last of the
artwork completed along with the cover.
- Rich and I will be working on the 2nd and 3rd drafts of the second installment of "The Pass" trilogy with hopes of releasing that book in 2023.
*The 1st draft is already completed so we have high hopes of getting this to happen*
- Record and release Helen's 1st solo anthology "Forever W. I. T. C. H. Hunting", which is actually actually a spinoff from her Forever Detective Series and will feature characters from that series as well as a few new faces who will be appearing in future installments of The Forever Detective books.
- I hope to begin recording "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home" with the help of Helen to bring more variety of voices for your listening pleasure.
- We may start adding some podcasts occasionally to this blog and maybe even to YouTube. We have the equipment and the ability to do it, so you may actually get to see and hear us once in a while.
- Finally, I'm starting to look into voiceover work opportunities for myself this coming year. I'm already on LinkedIn and have seen opportunities becoming more numerous, as well as over on Audible. There are apparently opportunities here in and around Santa Cruz, so I may be trying out for a few here and there. It all depends on time and how many spoons I can spare without burning myself out.
So there you have it everyone. We'll see how much I actually accomplish, but time and life will tell. I'm not sure how easy the new year will be starting out with our regular jobs as we're having labor issues with management this time around. So there's a strong possibility of disruptions in our lives in the coming month. So if I go quiet for a while, you'll know why.
We'll see what happens. But in the meantime, we hope the holiday season has been treating you well and that you all have a joyful and wondrous New Year come the end of this week.
Stay safe, and keep writing and recording dear friends.
