The Journey II: Stages and White Chocolate M&M’s

 

In the last few weeks, the focus on everything has been shifting.  I spent the last two years getting my name out, writing for anthologies, and releasing that first solo work on the general public.  The time has  come for a new part of my journey into the writing world.  Last year I chronicled my experience concerning getting In Memoriam published in a series of posts called The Journey.  The next few months and years are about my new journey, the first complete novel.

In the past I’ve written some short stories and threw in some information about a place called White Creek, my fictional town where most of my work will take place for some time.  My goal is to write a series of shorts that will introduce the citizens, the town, and the things hidden in the town’s dark past.  Some tales have already been told.  In Memoriam is set in White Creek and introduces the Vineyard Church and the disgraced ex-priest who is their leader, a member of the sheriff’s department who will never be the same after the events in In Memoriam, and the bar owner who seems to be involved in most of the strange happenings in the town.  But wait, there is more to come…

That is only part of the journey however.  Southern Devils is getting ready to be sent out to pre-readers in the next few weeks.  The little white board in the picture?  It is about to be replaced with one twice that size to help me organize all the stuff I’m working on.  I have found it rather nice to have things other publishers want to read as well as the readers out there.  I am going about changing my writing regimen so I can keep all my WIP projects straight and keep myself going.

Random musing of the day:  Horror and writing are two things I enjoy and when they are put together they form an amazing thing.  When the magical bonding of the two form an idea in my mind, I love to get to work.  I also love M&M’s and white chocolate.  Unfortunately, they do not mix well and I’m heartbroken I do not enjoy the new M&M offering as I thought I would.  Thumbs down…

Do you know what I enjoy more than M&M’s?  Seeing the fruits of my labor out in the world and this past week my story “Tears of Heaven” was released in Grinning Skull Press’s From Beyond the Grave anthology.  It contains 19 tales of what happens to us when we die and what the afterlife holds for us in the end.  At the moment is available as an eBook at Amazon, but will soon be out in print.  So pick up a copy today here.

My writing life?  The first journey is complete and now I want to invite you to continue on down the trail with me.  The clouds are hiding the moon and the trail is dark tonight, but take my hand and we’ll find our way together.  The next few weeks I’m going to try to explain my self and what makes me tick, what I’ve learned, and what I still need to figure out.  This journey is about growth and here we go.

Goodnight…

 

My Angel

It’s February and love is in the air, so how about a nice story that looks at love and the price some pay for it.  This is part of another project and it is also the first time I’ve featured a story here on the site, so I hope you enjoy my bloody kiss to you!

WARNING: THIS BLOG POST CONTAINS MATERIAL AND LANGUAGE NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL.  IF YOU ARE OFFENDED, TOO BAD YOU WERE WARNED.

My Angel

Her cold blue eyes stare back at me from beneath the sheer silk sheet, shining in the darkness.  Since I walked into the room to bring her something to eat, her watchful gaze follows me.   Her eyes move back and forth like she’s a caged animal ready to pounce when I stop to lay her food down.  After her last attempt to strike out at me, I’ve chosen when I approach her very carefully.  I can’t get a read on my beloved, at times she’s frightened of me and other times she looks like she wants to rip me apart.

I know what I did is wrong, but I couldn’t help myself.

I’ll never forget the day I found her in the ally and fell in love.

I was cutting through the alley between 8^th and Madison on my way home from work like I do every day.  The rain was pouring down and the reek of stale piss and trash bins filled the air with a bitter twang that stung my nostrils, especially in the damp humid air.  I covered my head with a newspaper I’d grabbed from the lobby before I left work and my eyes stayed glued to the ground so I wouldn’t trip or step in anything unsavory.

Then I saw her.

She must have fallen and hit the paved alley pretty hard because she was curled up against the crumbling brick wall shivering and I spied some blood on her hands.  The white robes she wore were soaked and even in the rain, her raven hair shined in the dim lighting.  I kneeled down to roll her over and once I caught a peek at her face, I found myself enthralled and the sound of her voice when she cried out at my touch, captivated my soul.  At that moment, I surrendered my heart to her.

Hell, you know something?  I’d do it again in a heartbeat.  No matter what I’ve been through and the torment I’ve endured since, I wouldn’t change a thing.

I watch the shape of her sensuous body roll beneath the bed covers and I feel the stirrings deep in my loins again.  She has that affect on me, the ability to turn me on with just a glance like I was nothing more than a switch instead of a man.  I really hate keeping her here like this, I do, but it’s the only way to protect her.  If she were out in the world, I’m not sure they would understand.

And she does something to me I can’t explain.  I digress, I can explain it…I’m in love.

I think that’s why I keep her.

I know that’s why I keep her, no matter what she does to me.  Every time I study the blood drip like water from my pores and the holes appear in my hands and feet when she grows angry with me, I still crawl back to her and proclaim my love.  In those times of exquisite pain, she comforts me or I curl up next to her and comfort myself in the lonely dead of night before she shows me her feelings.

I suffer for her love and I shed my lifeblood to earn her devotion, my little sacrifice to her.

Isn’t that what love is when it all comes down to it in the end?  Isn’t it all just suffering with a pretty little bow on top so it looks nice to everybody?  She’s my world and I’d die for her.  I’m afraid if I did depart this mortal coil, we’d be separated by all of infinity in the afterlife for what I’ve done.  I’ve read through book after book trying to find a justification for my actions, but it all still comes back to love.  Plain and simple…love.

Am I going to Hell for what I’ve done to her?

Guaran-fucking-tee it.

I hear a low husky voice rise from the piss stained mattress.  It reminds me I need to change her sheets again.  Shit, I didn’t even know she could do that.  At first, I almost lost her because I didn’t think she needed to eat.  After I gave her that first cracker and a small sip from a water-glass, I think she started taking a shine to me.

“Release me,” she croaks and the raspy voice sends chills racing up my spine.  Her words are no longer the sweet golden chords she sang when I found her.  Now it reminds me of when we used to rake our fingers across the blackboard in elementary school.

Oh, if only I could have those days back again, to feel that innocent again.

“Release me cretin,” she hisses at me.  I gaze into her pale blue eyes and I see the anger rage within her.  If I undid the cuffs, I think she’d kill me.

Anger is another thing I never thought she’d have been capable of.

“No, not until you free me from this, this, whatever the fuck is happening to me!” I spit back at her and kick the bed’s edge.  The blood seeping from the hole in my foot leaves a crimson print on the box spring and splatters on the hanging sheet.

A smile of satisfaction crosses my lips watching her scramble back against the wall from me and she begins wailing again.  The high-pitched noise hurts my ears and hot streams of blood pour from my ears and my nose.

Her voice’s tone keeps changing.  When I found her, it sounded like a choir on Christmas morning.  Now it sounds like a dying meth addict looking for one last score or a cat mewling in its death throes.  Last night when I curled up next to her, I noticed her skin is changing too.  Once a porcelain white, her color is darkening to an ashen gray and when I brush my fingertips across her, it flakes off and leaves red marks behind.

Underneath, she feels almost scaly.  I think she’s becoming corrupted by my touch.  Her innocence is just about gone.  I keep hoping when she’s totally transformed, I’ll still love and lust after her like I do now.  Maybe her heavenly beauty is what drew me to her, but I like a woman with a dark side too.

FUCK!

Oh my God, the pain rips through me and I scream even though I tried so hard to stop.  I know she loves hearing me in anguish.  I feel like somebody drove a railroad spike through my feet again.  Blood wells up around it and I can see the worn dirty carpet through the hole.  My blood is turning the green shag a dark crimson.  Picking my foot up a little, I wince from the fire spreading up through my ankle and into my calves.

What the fuck did she do to me?

What the fuck have I done to her?

I see the parts of her past I keep nailed to the wall have fallen again.  Bending over to pick them up, a searing pain blasts me in the hands where I touched the feathers.  The holes that formed in my hands last week opened up again and blood runs down my wrists in thin rivers of agony.  Images flash in my mind and the torments I see of my fate both excite and scare me.  But I don’t care; I pick them up and run them through back on the long nails sticking out of the wall.

Her scream startles me and I smile, I guess even separated from them, they still can cause her pain.  I turn and see her rear up on the bed.  The sheets have fallen from her naked form and her breasts are jutting out toward me.  Sitting up on her knees, she writhes around and the swaying of her body brings me to a raging sexual boil inside.  The smile on her face is one of ecstasy knowing how much she’s hurting me right now.

Whatever I brought into my house out of lust has changed.  My angel has turned against me.  My love is broken, but not dead.  I approach her and run my fingers up her arm and across her chest.  The feel of her skin is like an orgasm and I slide my hand down her tight stomach and to the smooth folds of her sex.  Each brush against her is like a wave of pleasure and pain.  She makes all my nerves explode and I look over to the wings hanging on the wall.

I grin and touch the ragged wounds on her back.  The splintered bones protruding from her back and the last remaining blood stained feathers still mark her new earthly shame.

I love my angel.

To remind her of what I did that rainy day a week ago, I left the garden shears I used to clip her wings on the dresser.

It’s not every day an angel falls from heaven and I come across it.  It’s not every day I fall in love with a celestial being.

Of course I cut her wings off to keep her from flying away from me.

Now, I’m just not sure what clipping her wings have done to her.

I think I released her darkness, the same one that caused the Morning Star to fall.

And now I have to live with the price I must pay for my love.

Behind the “Blind Shadows” of James A. Moore and Charles R. Rutledge

In the past few years, I’ve been catching up on the horror authors who I missed.  Among them is James A. Moore.  His partner in crime for this tome is Charles R. Rutledge.  While I have read Moore and enjoy his work, I’m unfamiliar with Rutledge.  After reading their new collaboration Blind Shadows from Arcane Wisdom Press, I will be adding him to the read list.

From Amazon:

When private investigator Wade Griffin moved away from his hometown of Wellman, Georgia he didn’t think he would be back. Too many memories and too many bridges burned. But when an old friend is found brutally murdered and mutilated, nothing can keep Griffin from going home. Teamed with another childhood friend, Sheriff Carl Price, Griffin begins an investigation that will lead down darker paths than he could ever have imagined. Soon Griffin and Price find that there are secrets both dark and ancient lurking in the back woods of Crawford’s Hollow. As Halloween approaches, something evil is growing near the roots of the Georgia
mountains, and the keys to the mystery seem to be a woman of almost indescribable beauty and a dead man who won’t stay dead. As the body count mounts and the horrors pile up, Griffin and Price come to realize that the menace they face extends far beyond the boundaries of Wellman and that their opponents seem to hold all the cards. But the two lawmen have a few secrets of their own, and one way or another there will be hell to pay.

The novel throws you right in the action as Griffin arrives to the murder scene of a childhood friend back in the hometown he left years before.  This is where the novel works really well, it starts off quickly and builds like a crime novel, taking you by the hand and leading you through the backwoods in search of a killer who has a certain dramatic flare when they kill.  Wellman, Georgia has a problem with meth and the murder seems to stem from the local drug trade except the victim exhibits various cult-like symbols.  The ritualistic killings raise questions as to the motive and the killer’s identity.  A string of similar mutilated bodies begin to pile up linking the murders in the method and details taken at each crime scene.  The action builds as Griffin and Price race to figure out who is behind the killings while enlisting the aid of an old man versed in local lore, an old professor, and the local occult bookstore owner.  In the center of it all is the Blackbourne family who controls the local drug trade and maybe more than anyone else ever imagined because on Halloween night 1986, something tried to enter our world and failed.  Now as Halloween approaches, it is time to try again leading to a page turning climax that is very satisfying.

The book reads like a hard-boiled crime novel and shifts to a good horror novel.  Once the focus changes to the cult and supernatural elements, it takes you for a ride that grabs you and throws you around for a bit.  There are nods to the Lovecraft mythos, pulse pounding action, and some surprises are in store for those who are familiar with Moore’s work as you find out what is going on in the shadows.

Overall, when you can throw some murder, an undead hillbilly, and elder gods into a novel…you have my attention.  It is a bloody fun read and the book flew by quickly.  When it was over, I wanted to read more about the area and the local myths and legends that built the novel’s narrative.

Great book, highly recommended, and I give it 4.5 out of 5 tombstones.

I Came, I Saw, I Killed…

Evening creepers and peepers!  Tonight I bring you the future and love.  In Surreal Grotesque issue 9, the ‘Twisted Love’ issue, my story “The Becoming” makes its appearance.  It is a special treat for that someone you love this Valentine’s Day.  Granted it is not the world you know, but a bleak future where humans live in the underground and returning to the surface for extended periods of time are the things science and nightmares are made off.  So, the issue is free to check out right here.  Go give it a read and share with all you hold dear!

The contracts are all signed and returned for “Stonewall” (The Blue, the Grey, and the Scarlet, Neon Moon Press), “Tears of Heaven” (From Beyond the Grave, Grinning Skull Press), and “Winds of War” (Horrific History, Hazardous Press).  All three books are in the editing and proofing stages now and should be ready to give you nightmares in a month or so.

Soon, I will have a new story posted here on the blog for the first time.  It is part of another project with another press and I will warn you ahead of time, it is vulgar and sacrilegious.  The little tale is for ADULT audiences only and I will post a warning before the story when I put it up.  What would you do for the love of an abandoned fallen angel?

Plenty of other things going on with the finishing chapters of Southern Devils being worked on, the Top Secret Project getting ready to take off, and a new project with a couple of my Canadian friends.

On that note, if you’ve read In Memoriam, please feel free to go and like it Amazon and leave a review.  Be honest, I can take it I swear.  No, no matter what else you’ve heard I can really take it…

Goodnight…

Tonight’s Guest…Armand Rosamilia!

If I were to name one of the biggest helps with getting my writing career off the ground it would be this guy, the man with the wicked goatee, and the zombie guru… Armand Rosamilia.  His work lately has branched off into the world of spies and from what I’ve read, he’s made the spy genre his own.  Of course, there is still ‘Zombie’ in the title…

Now for your pleasure, I bring you a few words from the man himself.  I do admit, my mother is not a big fan of what I write either, but she’s not the intended audience.  Sorry mom, that’s just how it is.

Miami Spy Games

 Even Your Kids Can Read This

 Armand Rosamilia

I tend to write adult stories. OK, I write really adult stories, with plenty of profanity, sexual situations and violence. Most of my work my own mother won’t read, especially the Dying Days series. She’s a huge horror book fan, but more old school like King and Koontz. I’m sure if she read a chapter of an Edward Lee book she’d pass out. And my mom is pretty damn hip.

I can’t help it, either. I once tried to write a fun story about a pirate for my kids when they were little but he ended up being a scary and bad man who enslaved children and did horrific acts of violence against captured sailors. Needless to say, they didn’t get to hear it. Come to think of it, though, I need to find that one. It might be worth a rewrite.

But with Miami Spy Games it was fun, because I approached it as if I were writing television episodes. I imagined watching the show and writing an extensive synopsis, if that makes any sense. I also became very cognizant of profanity and over the top sexual situations. A couple of times I had to stop and do a quick rewrite of a part when I devolved into showing more than I figure you can show on TV, even HBO or Starz.

It became a fun exercise to use innuendo instead of simply telling the story like I’m used to telling the story. And maybe something my teenaged kids could actually read. I wonder if kids still read, though…

Now, when I say your kids can read this, I’m not talking about your six-year-old. Let’s try to be good parents here. But a high school kid would find it exciting with plenty of zombies and machismo fist-pumping killing action and super-hot chicks wearing nothing but… OK, need to calm it down again. It’s a good story. Trust me.

If you have any questions about the Miami Spy Games series, I’d love to hear them: armandrosamilia@gmail.com

Armand Rosamilia

Miami Spy Games on Amazon Kindle only $3.99!

Miami Spy Games: Russian Zombie Gun

What’s Going on in That Head of Yours?

Sometimes inspiration can come from the strangest places.  Hiking around a local wetland area for instance can give you such nice symbols like the one pictured here.  From the wooden bridge I found this on, I looked out, observed the dragonflies buzzing about, and I stared at the murky water below.  That my friends is when the muse kicks it into overdrive and earns her keep.

Really, it’s that simple, I find something that grabs me and my twisted mind takes over.  Who drew the symbol, what’s with the dragonflies, and what’s under the green algea floating on the water?  Once those questions dig and worm their way into my brain, they don’t just go away or vanish.  No, they fester until they are released from my imagination and onto the page.

The journey between the head and the keyboard isn’t easy though…

I’ve been thinking about how I develop my ideas lately and I think I need to refine it more.  When I write, I just let it go and have everything hang out.  I picture the beginning and the end, but the middle comes when I sit and begin typing.  In the past couple of years, that is how I approached a story.  So far it hasn’t treated me too bad, but in the last month, I’ve rethought how I do things.

For example, Southern Devils has really become the bane of my existence.  I love the story and I know people want to read it, but I’ve gone back and forth on it so much it kills me.  The layout for the complete arc has gone from 3 books, to 3 novellas and a novel, and last week I settled on 2 novels.  I struggled with the story and where the breaks would be until I wanted to delete the story files.  Seriously, I was at the end of my rope.  In my head, I had it all in the beginning and all of the end.  Driving through the middle…it got me.

Now, I jotted some things down to narrow the focus and I find the scattered writing has been contained.  There might be some rough spots in the first draft and I apologize to my pre-readers.  I promise to clean it up before you get to see it.  I’m going to try sketching out the stories in my head before I start writing and see where that takes me.  My first story doing this is about a pet rock going on a rampage through town.  Don’t ask, but maybe you’ll get to read it later this year…

Updates!

2013 has started pretty good for me.  I already have 7 stories due at this year and there will be more to come.  Two were accepted this year and in a few months you will be able to enjoy the ghoulish delights of “Winds of War” in Hazardous Press’s Horrific History anthology and I just found out “Tears From Heaven” will be in Grinning Skull Press’s From Beyond the Grave.  In short order, Neon Moon Press will unleash the dogs of war in the long-awaited The Blue, the Grey, and the Scarlet with my new take on the undead that spawned Southern Devils in a tale titled “Stonewall”.

In closing, I want to thank everyone again for the support, kind words, and the following that is slowly, but steadily building.  Without you, I’m pretty sure I’m just sitting here talking to myself.  I also want to thank all the editors for their acceptances and rejections.  While we all want to get the ‘yes’ letters, we get the ‘no’ ones more often.  The work an editor does wading into the slush pile, the hard choices, and the work it takes to pull a book together is immense.  So to them and all they do, I thank you.

And to close, you get one update for the “Counter of Responsibility”!  Southern Devils Book 1- 27,000 of ? (It will end when it does, I’m not putting a hard fast word count on it).  Really it’s not too bad considering how many times I’ve ripped huge chunks of the story away and trashed it.

Goodnight…

Goodbye KnightWatch Press, We’ll Miss You. UPDATED!!!!!

The beginning of 2013 starts with a death close to me and my work.  In the last few days, David Naughton-Shires announced he was closing KnightWatch Press.  Like most small presses in the current climate, it became to much of a draw on his personal finances.  David and crew recently published four of my 100 word drabbles in Little Stories for the Smallest Room (you can buy a copy here before it disappears).  KnightWatch was also slated to release my short story “Stonewall” in another anthology.  Every dealing I had with David and the fine folks at KnightWatch was always professional and they will be missed greatly.  I have the utmost respect for David and I wish him well with his other endeavours.  Good luck sir!

On the flip side, “Stonewall” has struck again.  For those keeping score, this is the second time a press has folded before the story got to print.  It was my first accepted story and after a long wait, the press it was with folded.  I updated parts of the tale and it was accepted by KnightWatch.  Elated, I waited for it to see the light.

But again, it was not to be…

I am left with a big question now.  The rights to the anthology it would have appeared in are now with another press (there is not a signed contract, so the story is free to leave if I wish it).  The press is new and untested, but the man in charge has left a decent impression on me (he’s also working with some other great people to get the book out).  I’m to the point where “Stonewall” needs to see print ahead of Southern Devils and I need some flexibility with the story.  I want it in a book, but if I want to use it in the first Southern Devils book,  I don’t have the luxury of waiting for the rights to revert back.  Things are pretty fluid with the situation right now and once I weigh the options and decide, you’ll be the first or third to know.

Well, 2013 has already started off with a few touches of the bizarre and I’m trying to buckle down to complete more projects than last year.  I have updated the Biblio page with some new stories coming later this year.  A few of them are listed by just the title as I am waiting on some things before making the formal announcements.

Thank you all for the views in the past year and I hope to have a more successful 2013!

Goodnight…

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!

KnightWatch Press has just been announced as a new imprint for Fringeworks Press.  There will be new anthologies under the new imprint and KnightWatch name and all KnightWatch books not passed off to other presses will remain in print now.  I wish the very best of luck to KnightWatch’s new direction and also to Fringework for letting KWP live on.

The 2012 That Was and My 10 Favorite Books of the Year!

2012 kicked ass.  Simple and awesome, it was one of the best years a person could ask for.  The writing really started to get somewhere this year and there were some great things going on along with it.  Over the course of the year, I had stories come out in six anthologies as well as a few other accepted ones that are upcoming.  I had tales in Little Stories for the Smallest Room, a short non-fiction piece in Zombie Writing!,  Short Sips: Coffee House Flash Fiction Vol. 2, Father Grim’s Storybook, Undead Tales 2,and I received the honor of closing out Ten Silver Bullets. The big moment for the year was the release of my first solo work, a novella called In Memoriam. This year also saw me give my first book blurb for my friend Carl Moore on his novella Slash of Crimson (a very good read-go pick it up).  One of the most fun things I took part in however, was the book signing with my friend and fellow author Wesley Southard in October.  I finished up work on a handful of new stories and I am in the last stretch of the first Southern Devilsbook.  If you like zombies and history smashed together, this will be for you.

Here at the blog I had interviews with Nate Southard, Tim Lebbon, and Armand Rosamilia, a few different blog hops roared through, and I had my best viewer year ever because of all of you stopping by to take a look.  The Twitter, Facebook, and blog follower numbers have all increased this year and I hope the trend continues into the new year.

2013 looks promising too.  There are more anthologies on tap and some more surprises in store for you readers out there.  But first, without any more delay…my favorite books of 2012.  There are some older books, I wanted to branch it out to the books I’ve read over the last year.  Fear not, the focus is still on this year’s releases.

These are in no order at all…

1.  Edward Lee- The Infernal Series…  For this, I read the whole series back to back and the way Lee portrays Hell as a city called the Mephistopolis was amazing.  He constructed an entire working city-scape complete with a demonic caste system and even an evil economic system.  All three books are worth picking up and reading when you think society around you sucks.  Remember, it could always be worse…

2.  Anthony Kiedis w/Larry Sloman- Scar Tissue… Yes, there is a biography on the list.  The lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers gives ua a raw and no-holds-barred look into his life and his constant battle with drug addiction.  At times uplifting, sad, and horrific, Kiedis shows the reader everything that has made him who he is.

3.  J.F. Gonzalez and Wrath James White- The Killings…  A very tightly written tale about racism, murder, and evil.  The story takes place in two different timeframes, 1911 and 2011 Atlanta.  A series of killings in 2011 mirror a series of murders in 1911.  Carmen Mendoza is a reporter who thinks they have found the link between the two sets of murders as well as a string of other deaths that have occurred in the Atlanta area over the years.

4.  Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee- The Woman… This is the third book in Ketchum’s series about a tribe of feral people living in the wilds and the bloodbath that follows them.  She is alone and finds herself captured.  The woman is being broken.  A sick man and his family have made it their duty to domesticate her, to tame her wildness.  But all the best intentions never end well and the violence he showed her is about to be repaid a hundred fold.  The Cemetery Dance hardcover also includes the bonus novella “Cow”, which serves as a nice coda to the book and leaves the door open for more to come.

5.    Kelli Owen- White Picket Prisons… A tale of justice in the town of Valley Mill where there is no crime and when Detective Mark Baker tries to track down his sister there, he thinks he finds the utopia his burned out soul has been looking for.  But for Mark, things are never what they truly seem behind the false fronts and smiles.  Something lurks beyond the happy town’s front that could be his end.  This book came along at a time when I was preoccupied with justice and how things go unpunished.

6.  J.F. Gonzalez and Brian Keene- Clickers vs. Zombies… This was the most fun I had reading a book all year long.  At first, I thought the idea sounded absurd, but it turned out to be a full-on B-Movie like assault through both author’s mythologies.  When Ob and his minions begin to inhabit the dead bodies of the Clickers, characters from both worlds cross-over in a riotous time.  This is worth it to see some of your favorite characters in positions and jobs you’d never expect them to be in.

7.  Nate Southard- Something Went Wrong…  A short story collection where each story is a great read.  Nate’s short story writing is amazing and every tale is worth reading.  My favorites in the book were, “Team Building Exercise”, “In the Middle of Poplar Street”, and “Going Home, Ugly Stick in Hand”.

8.  Geoff Cooper- Answers of Silence… The second story collection on the list is a very dark and ironic look at the world around us.  Overall a strong collection where I enjoyed every story.  For a taste of how twisted Coop can be, I recommend “Latex: Like a Glove”.

9.  Jeff Strand- A Bad Day for Voodoo… A funny romp through the day that Tyler Churchill decided the best way to deal with his teacher Mr. Click is with a voodoo doll.  When the tables are turned on him, he must survive long enough to reverse the curse placed upon him…if there’s any of him left.  At times while it’s really crazy and bloody, it packs the laughs a Strand novel is known for.

10.  Brian Keene- Earthworm Gods II: Deluge…  If I had to pick a favorite, this is the one.  Picking up where the first Earthworm Gods left off, the survivors of the great rains struggle to live through the constantly rising waters and the new creatures coming up from the deep.  The book was at first a serial novel on Keene’s website, but he re-edited it and this is the collected version.  I waited until the book came out to read it and I wasn’t disappointed at all.  The novel also serves as a lead-in to the next stage in his mythos with The Lost Level, which he working on now.

And there it is my friends, this is the end for this year.  I’ll see you again in 2013 where we’ll start kicking ass again!

Goodnight…

The Road to 2013

2012 is rapidly coming to a close and this year has been a year of loss, sorrow, and victory.  For all the tears that have fallen recently, there have been triumphs during the past twelve months that can still bring a smile to my face.  2011 only began to get my feet wet with my writing and 2012 saw a progression ending with my first novella In Memoriam being released.  There is a notable difference in my work and everything is improving.  I did not write and submit as many short stories as I wanted, but this year shifted and the novella became the chunk of my writing time.  Since I’ve been messing around with other projects, I owe you readers a new update.

The main project I’ve been working on now is the Southern Devils trilogy (a novella series setting up a full novel).  Book 1 is at 21,000 words and will be complete in a week.  Before the new year, it will be in the hands of pre-readers.  There has been some interest in this series and I hope it lives up to expectations.  The remaining books in the series are being plotted now and will be worked on after I finish another project or two.

I admit, in 2012 I was lazy at times and I didn’t get the work done I wanted to.  My 2013 goal is stop putting things off and do them.  I hope to have some shorts released in the new year as well as to finish the Southern Devilstrilogy, two other novella ideas, and some other surprises.  A short story collection is looking to be coming and I’m taking a shot at something in the graphic novel realm.

Next week, I’ll be here with my top 10 novels I read in 2012 and… wait, I hear something.

The dog is barking like mad and the boys are yelling upstairs.  I’m going to see what’s happening.  Take care and I’ll see you…

Eulogies for my Soul (The Zombie Blog Hop)

Due to recent events, this post is different from the planned version.

The wind gently whispers through the trees and its light caress brushes against my cheek like a mother wiping the tear from the corner of my eye.  In front of me, the hearse sits dormant by the chapel door waiting for its next ride to the freshly dug grave at the bottom of the hill.  I’m scared to walk in, to come face-to-face with death as I have so many times over the last few years.  Really, no matter how much I turn back and scan the markers scattered around the hillside, I can’t bring myself to step inside and face the black shrouded figure in the doorway again.  Staring at the bright-colored floral arrangements dotting the cemetery, I pause a moment.  Inside those doors, another life fills another coffin and the cold remains lay shattered in a wave of anger, regret, and loss from those left behind.  Pulling my collar up I turn around and stroll off into the field of broken hearts and forgotten lives.  Dealing with death is not my strong suit and delaying the inevitable entrance into the funeral home should put my mind to rest.

Instead, with each step away from the chapel, my mind wanders…

Over the last week or so, there seems to be a rash of younger people filling out the obit page in the local paper each day.  I scan over the names of people only about ten years older than me.  Reading those ages makes a chill run down my spine.  How much longer do I really have left?  What will my legacy be?  When I breathe my last breath, how long before my name dies and becomes forgotten?  All that I’ve done in life, everything I’ve written, and all I’ve tried to teach my sons I hope is not lost to the cruelty of time.

To size up my issue right now, it’s a fight with mortality and the way I feel the Reaper’s grip tighten around my life.

Walking past the patches of dirt where the dead lay in their eternal slumber below me, I think I feel something.  A hand maybe, reaching up to grab my ankle and pull me down to the depths of the Underworld…to my fate.  If the bodies of those who have gone before rise up, should we be happy for them?  Should we just hurry and kick their skull in to release their soul?

I propose we envy them.  These people have gone to someplace where all our questions about life and death are answered.  These are the ones who are back to tell the tale, but their spirits are tattered and their hunger over-rides all reason (or even love) leaving us with the choice to try to learn from them (if we can) or become their food (which is the most likely scenario).

I think this is what drives many to the idea of the zombie; the ability to live again without the constraints of a conscious or the crushing expectation of life to stop them.  In a way, I do envy them.   On one hand, they rot away and can’t think, but we get to walk again if only for a little bit.  For some of us, just a chance to defy the Reaper a little longer is worth a worm crawling out of my nose or my ears rotting off.

Hey, we all have to make sacrifices…right?

Thank you for stopping by on the Zombie Blog Hop!  I hope you’ve enjoyed the show, pondered your existence, and maybe let out a chuckle.  Feel free to check out the pages (check the Biblio page for some nice zombie books with my tales in them while I write my Civil War zombie series Southern Devils) in the sidebar and sign-up for the party here, on Twitter, and on Facebook.  This is a great hop and please go take a peek at the others who have some great things planned for you today.  So head over to the main page and get hopping!

 Goodnight…