Showing results by author "Ken Jolly" in All Categories

When the water drops, everything shows. After weeks without rain, the canal begins to shrink beneath the hulls of the liveaboard boats that call it home. Mud banks rise where water once held steady. Mooring lines hang slack. Tempers grow short. For Ivy, the strain is more than practical. The canal has always been her measure of steadiness — of rhythm, of breath, of belonging. But as levels fall and assisted passages begin, the fragile balance between boaters begins to crack. Small mistakes carry real consequences. Pride runs aground faster than steel. Theo tries to hold music between them...

He thought his war was over. The fight has only just begun. Wylie Samuel Smith walked away from the battlefield carrying ghosts he can’t shake and skills he can’t forget. All he wants is quiet—long days at the range, a job that keeps him out of trouble, and enough distance from his past to let him breathe. But when a violent undercurrent surges through the city streets, Wylie finds himself pulled back into a war no one is officially fighting. Local police are outgunned, gangs rule whole blocks, and an old comrade drags Wylie into the shadows where the rules don’t apply. Now the ...

Cold Iron County: The Cost of Commitment In Cold Iron County, nothing stays buried forever. Luke Mercer came back to the ranch for one reason: to keep what little his family had left from slipping away. The land is hard, the margins are thin, and every decision carries a cost that doesn’t show up on a balance sheet. Around him, the county is changing—developers circling, old alliances fraying, and pressure building from places he can’t see but can feel. When a quiet conflict turns calculated, Luke finds himself navigating more than cattle and property lines. Loyalty becomes leverage. ...

Second Chance, rather an unusual name for a Narrowboat. Not traditional, however, as you follow the course of this novel, I hope you discover the importance of the boat's name. We will be joining a new couple, recently married as they learn how to carve a life on the Canals. We also stay with Theo, Ivy, and Shamus as they help this new couple learn the secrets to living on the Canals. Oliver is a city-based Landscape Architect, and his wife renovates their much-used Narrowboat into their first home. This story steers clear of the paranormal and Canal mysticism, bringing us back to the ...

CORE OF THE BELT Book 3 of 3 — Mining the Void At the heart of the belt lies the truth—and it isn’t safe. As tensions escalate and the real cost of folding space becomes impossible to ignore, the crew is drawn toward the core of the system that controls the belt’s contracts, routes, and technology. What they uncover threatens not only their lives, but the fragile balance holding the mining economy together. With no safe folds left and no clean way out, the final decisions will determine who survives—and what the future of the belt will look like for everyone who works it. Core of ...

MINING THE VOID A Hard Science Fiction Trilogy by Ken Jolly Out beyond the safe lanes, there are no heroes—only workers. In the asteroid belt, mining ships live and die by contracts, pressure seals, and the brutal math of survival. Crews drift for months at a time, cutting rock in hostile silence, knowing that every maneuver—every burn, every fold—could be their last. Humanity has learned how to fold space, bending distance into something survivable. But the technology is unstable, tightly controlled, and unforgiving. A bad fold can scatter a ship across light-minutes of vacuum. A ...

TINKERBELL’S DRIFT Book 2 of 3 — Mining the Void Survival has a price—and someone always pays. After barely escaping disaster, the crew of the Tinkerbell finds themselves deeper in the belt and under increasing pressure from corporate contracts that value ore over lives. Folding space offers escape, but each jump risks further damage, lost time, or worse. As systems fail and trust frays, the crew is forced to make impossible decisions: who gets saved, what gets left behind, and how far they’re willing to push a ship—and each other—past safe limits. Tinkerbell’s Drift raises ...

Backstage Ghosts Book 4 of the Tow Path Tales A Canal Romance with a Haunting Undercurrent When the echoes of music refuse to fade, some doors should never be reopened. Theo, the canal’s wandering violinist, has found peace at last—playing in quiet pubs and mooring beside Ivy, the woman who anchors his drifting soul. But when a new band, The Wilder, invites him to perform in the historic Lyric Hall, something old begins to stir beneath the stage. The walls hum with the same strange resonance that once haunted Theo’s lost chord… and the instruments left backstage seem to breathe on ...

ASTROID DRIFT Book 1 of 3 — Mining the Void In the asteroid belt, nothing drifts by accident. Mining crews live by pressure seals, fuel margins, and the dangerous math of folding space. One miscalculation can send a ship off course—or tear it apart. When a routine operation goes wrong, a small mining vessel is thrown into an uncontrolled drift deep in the belt, cut off from support and running out of options. With limited supplies and no margin for error, the crew must decide when to attempt a risky fold and when to trust their instruments, their instincts, and each other. Every choice ...

Snow drifts along the quiet winter canal. Lanterns glow through the fog. And a sixteen-year-old boy named Wren steps onto Ivy’s towpath with more secrets than answers. What begins as a simple act of kindness soon becomes the heart of Ivy’s Christmas. Especially when she and Theo decide the secret to enjoying Christmas was not fancy presents but going to others. Missing ornaments appear in strange places, lantern lights sway without wind, and Ginger—the canal’s mischievous cat—is forever underfoot whenever the mystery deepens. Drawn into Wren’s quiet world, Ivy offers warmth, ...

“Turn your iPhone into a professional camera. Mastering ProCamera is the essential guide to iPhone photography, showing you how to unlock the hidden power of the ProCamera app and shoot like a pro with your phone.” “Whether you’re passionate about mobile photography, eager to explore RAW photo editing, or simply ready to expand your photography workflow, this book takes you step by step through the techniques that transform ordinary snapshots into extraordinary art.” With Mastering ProCamera, you’ll discover how to harness the full power of one of the most advanced mobile ...

“Some melodies never die. They live on,,,” When traveling violinist Theo Mercer returns to the quiet canals of England seeking peace from the noise of performing, his music awakens more than memories. Each night, a haunting melody drifts across the mist — a “lost chord” that seems to call from another time. Alongside Ivy, a boatwoman who feels its pull as deeply as he does, Theo uncovers the truth behind a vanished musician, an unfinished love story, and a song that refuses to fade. Lost Chord weaves romance, mystery, and music into a hauntingly beautiful canal ghost story. Third ...

The towpath never truly sleeps. Beneath the quiet waters and gentle sway of moored boats, secrets travel faster than whispers on the wind. Ivy thought she had finally found her rhythm along the canals—a life of simple work, new friendships, and the steady comfort of her narrowboat. But when Theo’s music draws both admiration and unwanted attention, their world tilts. A missing ledger, a vanished boat, and old debts resurface, pulling the community into a tangle of intrigue. From bustling market days to mist-shrouded bends of the cut, Ivy and Theo must navigate more than the waterway’s...

Rediscover your Joy of Writing! Never face writer's block ever again, increase your productivity by working with an AI partner and stay in control of your voice. Many authors face AI with trepidation, and I've seen some very lifeless books done with an AI; however, here I share the tips that enable you to use an AI assistant and maintain creative control. Instead of taking months to publish (I've been there), do a book in less than two weeks and enjoy reading it. The book also works you through how an AI can assist with cover design and book launches.

Mooring Lines A Canal Romance When Ivy moors her narrowboat at a forgotten bend of the canal, she hopes only to grieve for her father and a place to begin again. But when Theo—a haunted rock violinist searching for his own redemption—ties up beside her, the quiet waters start to stir. Between drifting fog and the echoes of old tragedies, their stories entwine through music, memory, and the slow rhythm of canal life. Each lock and turning tide brings them closer to forgiveness, to healing, and to a love as deep and steady as the water beneath their hulls. If you love burning, heartfelt ...