Brent Meske

Brent is a husband, father, teacher, writer, and sometimes artist living in Seoul Korea, originally from Detroit, Michigan. Brent reads Stephen King, Brandon Mull, Jim Butcher, and a hundred others. You should too.

Lately Brent's been all over the place: designing book covers both E and print, editing up books, and reviewing for AIA (awesome indies, look them up). It's an exciting time to be a writer.

*If you're like me and you don't like to be cheated, please don't use Authorhouse.com. In fact, since finding Smashwords I intend to republish 'Breaking Benjamin' in its entirety here soon enough, and I'm also looking for a print publisher, if you'd like to have one on an actual bookshelf.

Read more of this interview.

Twitter: @BMeskeWriter
Facebook: Facebook profile
Wattpad: Brentmeske
Blog: http://brentmeske.com

http://tinyurl.com/printMeske

academy    active    agent    agents    alpha and omega    alphas    assassin    ax    axe    bee    blood    childrens    clements    comic    cybernetics    cybertechnology    doctor    dropship    espionage    exo    fantasy    flash    future    ginger    horror    jennings    korea    kravens    lincolnshire    magic    mckorsky    mech    michael washington    military    murder    mystery    nanotechnology    north korea    orphan    orphans    powered armor    rajasthan    reunification    school    scope    series    shadwell    short stories    sniper    south korea    space    stone    summer camp    super    superhero    superheroes    sword    terrence jackson    training    wizard    yellow brick road   

• The Alien Who Took Control of Earth on Dec. 02, 2012
  
  Please tell Trent S. to keep up the good work. Soon he will have the power to rule the world. -some writer in Korea.
  
• Perfect Weather for a Baby's Funeral on Dec. 11, 2012
  
  A well-written, dark, often cynical look at the human condition. I was on hand to read many of the first and second drafts, and I'm glad I have them all in one place. Well done, Guy.
  
• Elysium Part One. Another Chance on Feb. 05, 2013
  
  There are some enormous pluses to this book, such as believable and well-drawn characters, interesting plot developments, and Roper handles the pacing very well. Here's the trouble...Mr. Roper has trouble with apostrophes, and there are a limitless number of these issues spanning the whole book, distracting you from what's going on. Secondly, and this is what kept the book from being four stars, is TO BE CONTINUED. This is part of Smashwords don't do list: don't upload a book that's not finished. If it had a resolution of some kind, I could let it go, but the way this ends practically begs the author to get a bazillion fan letters saying 'cripes, finish it already!' Stars for nice setting, interesting idea, very good treatment and very good characters, minus stars for proofing errors and a nonexistent ending/resolution of any kind.
  
• The Last Ambassadors on Feb. 06, 2013
  
  It's so refreshing to finally find a short story on Smashwords that holds its own as a story, even if it's supposed to be attached to a series. The characters, events, history, and world are fleshed out enough that I can put pieces together without being forced to read the series itself. That alone should have given 'The Last Ambassadors' top marks. However, I'll add this: this story's got good ideas, fully realized sci-fi that sounds really cool and maybe only a tiny bit farfetched. It's polished, begins and ends, and has a really nice premise as well. Thanks for this, Fran.
  
• The Last Bite on July 02, 2013
  
  I'm going to give this five stars. Awesome little story. Well-written, well-paced, with a wonderfully voiced main character, memorable details, and a great ending. Thanks for this.
  
• The Gods in the Jungle on July 31, 2013
  
  A great, meandering stroll through the jungle, complete with wildcats, dangerous trees, and dragons. I was a bit skeptical when it came to the beginning of this book, the forward, but I was immediately put right by the beginning of the story. It centers around a conflict between the Servants and the Tall Ones, the latter the ruling class of courtiers, Lords and Ladies. From the start I was entranced by the beauty of the storytelling, the clear and unmistakable voices of the various, well-written characters, the setting with its Machiavellian political machinations and Byzantine social structure. Tuuke was my favorite character, and probably the author's as well. Perhaps I presume too much. My only gripe was with the setup of the world. In the beginning, with its dusty streets and open markets, seemed a sort of high fantasy setting (in the jungle). Fast forward over a hundred pages, and here comes steam driven machines and electric lights! Even later on, we have guns! We need mention of this before the halfway point in the book. Overall, I give this book five stars for aspects I don't often see in Smashwords books: great formatting, clear and powerful storytelling, a complete story (no breaking it into parts and tacking on TO BE CONTINUED), for drawing me in and making me care about the characters, and for having a great vision. The thematic elements, of views on life and death, of upper versus lower class, only slowed down the story in one tiny place and really, if that's the biggest problem with a book on Smashwords, it deserves six stars. Mostly those thematic elements held the story together exceedingly well. Last note: there were two character names that got stuck in my teeth, and no matter how I tried to wiggle my brain, I couldn't dislodge them. Most of the names were just fine. But these two were main characters, and it was very distracting at times to read those unpronounceable names over and over and over again.
  
• Psychic Wisdom on Love and Relationships on Nov. 11, 2013
  
  Psychic Wisdom on Love and Relationships: Definitely Worth It 4.5 stars I was skeptical going into this book for a number of reasons, but I want to lay out the advantages and strong points first. The book itself offers realistic, positive advice from a number of angles regarding what individuals ought to do in relationships. Despite any fundamental differences of opinion I might have had about the worldview of the author, the writing was clear, sometimes humorous, and well organized. I felt myself reflecting on my own relationships (past, and on my current marriage), thinking about ways to strengthen my own marriage. In this respect, definitely a win, because not only was the book written mostly for women, but I'm a guy and took something away from the read. Each chapter included general advice, several examples from the author's experience as a help line adviser and psychic, and ended with several bullet points which were actually the most helpful suggestions. The bulleted suggestions were really nice to think about, and the layout of the book helped, again, with organization. It's likely a reference I'll keep and check back in on. From a formatting or textual standpoint, there were a handful of typos, which didn't bother me really. However, a couple of sentences had some strange wording, or seemed almost run on. This is the cause of the half star loss. The enormous difficulty, of course, is placing the book as non-fiction. I don't personally believe in psychic phenomena or even God, but the book is full of the author's feelings from her 'guides'. The entire chapter on intuition was difficult, though I believe the author handled it very carefully. Earlier in the book, she was careful to point out that 'God' could mean any spiritual guide, as well as your own inner self. This sensitive presentation of a very touchy philosophical and controversial topic was essential for the book's readability and credibility. Overall, this book is a quick and helpful resource for anybody looking to reflect on their relationship status. While I'm not certain the author is a psychic, I believe she knows relationships through years of hard work and experience with singles, the relationship-bound, and married folk. The wisdom, wherever it comes from, can be useful to just about anybody. I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.
  
• Mystical Mountain Magic - Deceiver (book 1) on Feb. 08, 2015
  
  This book is an unbelievably inventive and plot twisty sort of epic fantasy that is at once peculiar, original, fresh, and fun. Deceiver begins with the 'Wahooo!' of Skye, a settler to someplace unburdened with the history, greed or machinations of typical expansionist European empires, and his near-death ascension to the summit of Misty, the sentient mountain. Along with Misty, Skye also has the unique opportunity to meet Igneous, the forthright, yet cheerful caretaker beneath the mountains. He quickly gets a crash course in saving the world, and then literally gets a crash course in leaving Misty. Near death again, Skye needs to save the Anasazi village before their chief, Bending Tree, succumbs to his injuries. Conflicts abound in Deceiver, both from without and on the mountain… eventually pandhandlers come seeking Misty's riches while some malevolent force terrorizes Misty's inhabitants with sweet song and a rotten heart. Chief among Deceiver's virtues is a beguiling ability to get the reader into the action from the word go. Using a somber, yet oddly hopeful and cheerful tone reminiscent of another generation, the author brings us to a world where hope is an endangered species, but the most important species of all, and where humor breaks out from unexpected places, like shafts of light on a cloudy day. Readers begin to feel the sort of Bradbury-like power of the author to evoke moods and emotions with seeming ease. Characters are strongly written, beginning with Skye and proceeding on to the native Anasazi people, along with the naïve yet wise, funny yet ages-old Igneous, and later Toby and Erikson, who play dual roles as villains and comedy relief, an interesting mix. Later, even Mariah and her caretakers each have their unique voices and culture. This tale is brimming with magic in a loosely defined age of exploration world (though there is a pretty sweet map), and yet this is far from the traditional sword and sorcery tale. Deceiver begins with promise, delivers, and transforms into something else entirely in just a few hundred pages. Yet throughout, the same tones and subtext run just beneath the surface, binding three separate acts together into a strong unified whole. Another reviewer likened this to a Native American folk tale, and I'll echo that apt observation here. If there are any critiques to be made about the book, the first is that it seems rather full of thick vocabulary and sentence structures for a YA audience. The second is that the book, as part of a trilogy, eschews a resolution to the climax. Though a minor resolution does occur, there doesn't seem enough of a recovery or 'falling action' or whatever one might call it. And while the Deceiver itself is undeniably a part of the book, and an important one, its role is only just ramping up by the end of the book. The good news is that you don't have to wait for the continuation of the tale. Redeemer, book 2, is already available.
  
• Mystical Mountain Magic - Redeemer (book 2) on March 04, 2015
  
  You are cordially invited to see what happens when eight men decide to take on a sentient mountain. Redeemer, the second book in the Mystical Mountain Magic series, begins with the former Captain Erikson, alone and miserable, trying to forget what he's done, trying to drink it away or sleep it away. And when he's recruited to go searching for the very thing that's driven him to the brink of insanity, Erikson has no choice to say no. This book, for the first third or half, does not seem at all like the book we just left. Indeed, Deceiver seems a deceptive name at first, and it's hard to believe for the first fifty percent of Redeemer that we're likely to see anything like redemption. Erikson and Razor find their path littered with blood and bodies and misery. And what they'll find when they reach Misty is in some ways even more terrifying. But though we're inundated with darkness and horror and blood, the rays of light we saw in Deceiver eventually shine through, and the promise of a better tomorrow is carefully, carefully held up for us to see, and hope it isn't shattered into a million pieces by a stiff gust of wind. The powerful, simple and colorful prose we saw in Deceiver is in full effect in Redeemer, with all the characters' voices still plainly well-worded and carefully thought out. All the favorites are still there, but readers need to wallow through that darkness at the beginning in order to reach them. The setting hasn't changed, and the world remains structured carefully: that same pre-industrialization or Colonialization period, where the huge island is sort of the new world. It's expertly expanded through choice description. There is one nit to pick with the book, and it's difficult to say whether or not it deserves to pull a whole star off the rating for the fault. There is one character who speaks in song lyrics. Sometimes couplets, sometimes quatrains, this character always ends off with rhyme. Almost always anyhow. Except, the effect doesn't exactly live up to the hopes. Rhythmic speech is almost always nonexistent for this character, and the rhymes are often forced. Add to this the fact that this character occupies a spot of major significance in the book, and there is a seriously long section in the middle where this character speaks at considerable length, and it is honestly quite distracting. Understandably, the English language is difficult to rhyme in the first place, but for this to occupy such an important role in the book's outcome makes it difficult. Ultimately the book does live up to its name, and we get to see quite a bit of atypical fantasy magic thrown around, which I won't spoil, that I do want to award Redeemer its fifth star. Thank you, Mr. Brooke.