So this one’s a bit rough, and my guitar doesn’t sound so great, but I wanted to make sure I got today’s entry in. This one is called Time’s Running Down. It had its start about 10 years ago, but it was only last year that I completed the song and I’ve been fiddling with the middle eight, but I consider it the start of my new bunch of songs over the past year or so.
In any event, hope you enjoy it.
Those who have known me for a while, or have followed my site or my now defunct livejournal know that I love advent calendars. I’m not religious — I’m not even Christian — but I’ve always loved Christmas, and I’ve always found advent calendars to be somewhat magical. In the past I’ve done my own, several times with original fiction, short flash pieces for each day leading up to the holiday. The thing is, I’m at a point in my writing career where I can’t just rattle off a short piece in a day and feel comfortable posting it. It just doesn’t work. But I have been working on songwriting, and improving myself as a musician and I thought to myself, maybe I could do it with songs.
So here I am, getting it in under the wire (it’s 11:42 PM as I write this in Brooklyn) and I am committing to a Song Advent Calendar — 1 song a day leading up to Christmas. They might be videos or audio only, they might be old or new, they might be covers or originals. But I am committing to putting up a song every day for 24 days, starting now.
This song, “Back in School”, was already posted on my Facebook page earlier this year, and is the sole entry on my Youtube page, but since this was a late decision today, I’m going to go with it. Anything after this will be new to all of you. This song is an original. More about this idea and songwriting in future posts.
Without further adieu:
I have been traveling lately, so I’ve been remiss in reporting that Lightspeed has reprinted my story, “Card Sharp,” in their latest issue (August 2019). They will be publishing the third story in the sequence, “All In,” in September, so now all three stories are available on the Lightspeed website. They don’t need to be read in order, but all three tell one extended arc. The stories and links are:
For those of you who have been around for a little while, you’ll know that I started a podcast back in 2017 with Devin Poore called Spirited Discourse. It’s a simple premise — we get together with fellow creatives or fellow geeks and talk over drinks and record it. After a long absence after our first season, we’re back with Season 2 of the podcast. Two episodes have already gone up, episode 1 with Theresa Delucci where we discuss Game of Thrones (pre-season 8), Red Dead Redemption 2, and The Haunting of Hill House television show (among other things), and episode 2 with Trevor Quachri, editor of ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION & FACT to discuss Avengers: Endgame. The podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, and most other podcast outlets including our website.
I’m really excited about our upcoming guests which include N. K. Jemisin, Scott Andrews, and Mercurio D. Rivera.
In addition to co-hosting a podcast, I have also appeared a few times recently on the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. Most recently I joined Dave Kirtley, Sara Lynn Michener, and Chris Cevasco to discuss the indie SF film Prospect starring Pedro Pascal (of Narcos and Game of Thrones).
Earlier this year, I also joined Dave, Sara, and Matthew Kressel to discuss Series 11 of Doctor Who (with Jodie Whittaker).
And late last year, on the same podcast, I discussed the Netflix miniseries, Maniac, with Dave, Chandler Klang Smith, and Matthew Kressel as well.
So, if you feel the need to hear my voice, you have plenty of options to choose from.
I’d been thinking about it for a while and I always shied away from it. But I realized that in addition to strange writing projects that I couldn’t find a home for, there were other projects of mine that fell through the cracks — gaming/RPG stuff and, most recently, music. So I now have a Patreon. For the low price of $1/month you can subscribe to either the Stories, Songs, or Arcana (gaming) tier. Or, for the also low price of $2, you can get all three. I intend to put up original content monthly, whether that be small pieces of fiction, or original songs or lyrics, or gaming material — characters, settings, items, etc. It’s also an opportunity for me to connect directly with people who are interested in these things, which I am definitely looking forward to.
I’ll be posting free content in each tier in the coming weeks so people can get a taste of what they will get by signing up. I’m looking forward to trying something new.
Raining Fire, the third and final book in the Ben Gold series, was released on July 18, 2017. This book concludes the story begun in Falling Sky and Rising Tide. Publisher’s Weekly said, “Khanna wraps up his postapocalyptic adventure series with a capable page-turner…the airships, slavers, cannibalistic Ferals, and visceral action scenes make this a worthy culmination to the series.”
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble now.
Rising Tide, the sequel to Falling Sky, was released on October 6, 2015. Publisher's Weekly said, "Khanna crafts a terrifyingly dismal picture of the future, raising the stakes by gradually stripping Ben of friends and support while throwing him into increasingly dire situations. His worldbuilding remains solid and unsettling, and he never loses sight of the human element. The cliffhanger ending is sure to leave readers on the edges of their seats, panting for resolution."
Falling Sky, my first novel, came out October 7, 2014 from Pyr. It's an adventure story set in a post-apocalyptic future with airships. Publisher's Weekly called it a "solid and memorable debut" while Library Journal gave it a starred review and named it Debut of the Month. For more information, please click here.
