Tag Archives: Hammered

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Two books down, one to go!

This morning I just finished writing HEXED, the second book in my series. Right now it’s 82,256 words, and I’m quite smug.

Of course, once my agent and editor take a look at it, it’ll probably change significantly, and the revision process is like that, but it’s also entirely enjoyable, just tinkering around the edges. What I’m grooving on is the fact that I managed to bang all of that out in less than five months while still holding down a day job. I didn’t know I had it in me!

I’ll probably start messing around with HAMMERED soon, but for now I’m going to take a couple weeks or so off from writing and enjoy the sense of completion while it lasts.

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Vainamoinen

Vainamoinen is not a cleaning product. Nor is it a communicable disease. And to completely disappoint you on your third guess, it is not an exotic sauce to pour on your roasted animal flesh of choice.

Vainamoinen is a Finnish deity/culture hero who may or may not have been Tolkien’s inspiration for Gandalf. He played an instrument called a ketele, which he invented himself, made out of materials he happened to have handy at the time: a giant pike’s jawbone and the hair of a blond maiden who must have had particularly thick and resilient hair.

By using the power of his ketele and his voice, he could make magic happen. That’s some serious shredding on the ketele. I’m going to have a good ol’ time with him in HAMMERED; can’t wait to see what kind of guy he turns out to be.

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Disco Fries!

Today I learned about Disco Fries. It’s not something you can routinely find in Arizona, or I would have heard about it by now.

Disco Fries are french fries with gravy and cheese on top. In Canada they call it poutine. Here’s the link, son!

I learned about Disco Fries from my agent. I think I’ll have to try some when I go to New York next summer, just to say I’ve had them.

But I have other excellent news: HOUNDED, HEXED and HAMMERED will be audio books published by Random House Audio! Since Random House owns Del Rey, the opportunities for synergistic marketing are strong, and I’m so happy that people in the publishin’ world seem to dig Atticus and Oberon.

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On HEXED and burly squirrels

My work in progress is called HEXED and I’m just about halfway through it. It features Coyote (not a coyote or the coyote but Coyote, the trickster), a fallen angel, some Bacchants, a nasty coven of German hexen, a tall priest and a short rabbi…amongst other colorful characters.

I have to say that so far I’m kind of cracking myself up during the funny bits. I hope other people will think it’s funny too. I’m also kind of grossing myself out during the gory bits, but I’m not sure if it’s okay to hope other people will be grossed out.

Anyway, HEXED is supposed to be finished in the spring, and HAMMERED, the third book in the American Druid series, will be finished in the summer, featuring nobody’s favorite squirrel, Ratatosk.

“But Kevin,” you may ask, “how can  a squirrel be nobody’s favorite?” According to Norse mythology, Ratatosk lives in the World Tree, Yggdrasil (which isn’t on my daughter’s spelling list this week) and he regularly chats with a great wyrm named Nidhogg. Any squirrel that a wyrm talks with instead of eats has to be a mighty burly squirrel, right? Ratatosk is the kind of squirrel that bench presses guys like Charles Atlas. Ratatosk is the kind of squirrel that would steal nuts from Chuck Norris. Ratatosk will never appear in a Disney movie because he frightens small children and large dogs. I really can’t wait to write about him…but I need to finish HEXED first.