Kyle Farnworth's Blog

WHALERS is a 2025 Kindle Book Award Finalist

2025 KBR Contest Winners

Reading Time: Less than 2 Minutes

The funniest thing happened to me last night.

As I was browsing Goodreads, I lingered on the page of my debut novel, Whalers. Now, I haven’t thought much about Whalers recently, due to the grind of getting ready for publishing and the promotion of my next novel, Medusa, set to release in February.

I hadn’t visited the page in a while, and when I did, I noticed something ...

Editorial Reviews are In…

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

As many of you know, my second novel is set to release this February. Titled Medusa; Or, Men Entombed in Winter, it represents more than a year and a half of focused, obsessive work. I began writing Medusa well before my debut novel, Whalers, was published, but only now does it finally feel ready to fully discuss.

Medusa follows Peter Holloway, a Dartmouth College student whose friendship with the brilliant and dangerous...

Medusa is Finished (and More Updates)

(Scroll to the bottom for upcoming release dates)

This has been a long time coming.

I started Medusa: Or, Men Entombed in Winter before my first novel was even released. It started as a man running away from a cult with two young daughters, but quickly grew and grew and became something so much more.

A little less than a year later, the novel is finally done.

I’ve blogged a few times with updates. The first was this one in March, intro...

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield

Overall Rating: 3.5 Stars

George Costanza (of Seinfeld fame) once claimed that the “it’s not you, it’s me” routine was exclusive to him and him alone. Unfortunately, as I write my review of this novel, I’m going to need to take it. This is a good book, but I’m going to have to rate it 3.5 stars.

I wonder how good of a “novel” narrative, historical fiction can be? As I finished Gates of Fire, this is the question on my mind. Is this a brilliant ...

Medusa is “Done” / BETA READERS NEEDED!

Today’s blog is one part celebration, one part call for help.

First, the celebration: Another draft of Medusa; Or, Men Entombed in Winter is officially complete.

To recap my process:

I wrote a first draft. It was 60K words, but needed a lot of work.I revised that draft myself. It bumped up to 80K words, and then I sent it to my editor.My editor read it and sent back comments, feedback, and revisions that she thought would stren...

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

Overall Rating: 4 Stars

One of my favorite shows of all time, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, is a show that is, albeit intentionally, about terrible people. Dennis, Charlie, Dee, Mac, Frank — all of them horrid human beings who do unspeakable things to the people around them, for the comedy. As a viewer, you watch knowing that the gang aren’t supposed to have redeeming qualities, but you root for them nonetheless.

Crossroads, the latest nove...

Ranking My Favorite Replies to My (Semi) Viral Tweet

Some tweets just have a way of getting the people talking.

This one, from a few days ago, did just that. 10K views. 145 likes. 17 retweets. 111 comments and counting. Some people agree, some people disagree, some people think I’m an absolute *beeping* moron. The replies on this thread provided me constant entertainment the last few days, so I thought I’d rank some of my favorites.

HONORABLE MENTION: @BrianLoweWriter

A ...

Feels Like We’re Overdue for a Blog

It has been quite a while since posting any sort of update about my next project, titled Medusa, or Men Entombed in Winter.

My last blog on the subject was posted May 10th and titled On First Drafts. It was nothing but an update about how the first draft of the novel was complete and what that meant for the future.

It’s now exactly two months later. So where are we now?

Well, that first draft was evolved into a second draft, which came in righ...

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

Overall Rating: 2 Stars

Man. When I got this novel, I really thought it was going to be a slam dunk. I thought this was going to be a no-brainer five star read for me, based on the rating, reviews, all the awards, etc.

Even the prologue! Cyrus Shams, high, drunk, laying in his apartment asking God for a sign that he’s real, and his lamp flickers. And he’s like “holy shit, just do that one more time to confirm”, and then nothing happens. At that moment, I w...

The Brothers K by David James Duncan

Overall Rating: 4.5 Stars

“The man on the rock had pitched five outs in the losing game, and had given up two runs on a single. But he’d inherited loaded bases. The story of his life. The story of all our lives.”

Wow. Lots to talk about with this one.

First off, as a lifelong lover of baseball and one of three sons, this book rang true with me on multiple levels. My dad was never in the minors and neither of my brothers are Buddhists or draft ...