Undead Flesh (an excerpt)

 My zombie novel is now available on Amazon. It's the story of Jack Garret who's thrown into a zombie apocalypse after a sudden catastrophic earthquake. Here's an excerpt from the book after Jack climbs to the roof of an old gas station.
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              The sickly aroma of rotting meat hung heavily on the breeze. Jack realized it was coming from the undead circling the gas station, and it brought him to a startling conclusion: Even though the zombies were animated, their bodies continued to rot in the heat of the day. How long would they last before decomposition reduced them to nothing? Six weeks? Six months? The key to human survival could mean outlasting the living dead until they collapsed into nothing but piles of decayed bones.

            Jack needed to know more about his enemy. He slipped the safety off the rifle and walked carefully to the roof’s edge. In the gravel lot below, a dozen zombies immediately stopped moving and turned their dead faces up to stare at him. From their mouths escaped a chorus of loud moans beckoning more to join their numbers. Soon they amassed into a wailing crowd of undead wanting to devour his flesh. They threw themselves against the side of the station, clawing and tearing off fingernails in a frenzied attempt to reach him atop the wall. The stench rising from their collective corpulence sickened him to the point of revulsion, and he stepped back to reflect on what he had just learned.

            The undead had seen him the instant he’d walked to the roof’s edge, but how was that possible when most possessed lifeless milky-white eyes and others just empty sockets? Jack realized that something other than sight had to be at work here. A psychic sense that detected the presence of the living? It explained why the zombies hadn’t left the area and moved on. They sensed the living flesh within the gas station. But what process granted them that ability, and for that matter, what had created them in the first place? He had been so busy running from zombies that he hadn’t considered the source of their mass resurrection. He assumed it was some sort of virus as portrayed in countless zombie movies and books, but in reality, it would take days or weeks for a contagion to infect so many. This event had happened in a single cataclysmic morning. The work of some unknown radiation from outer space? Interstellar atoms do pass through the human body every second, but why would they suddenly re-animate the dead? It didn’t seem plausible to Jack. A force unknown to science had to be the culprit.

            Something supernatural.

            It was the only conclusion that made sense.

         Until today, he had always been a die-hard skeptic and believed that such things as vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and zombies were mere figments of man’s dark subconscious. He now knew such horrors were very real. He suspected they had always existed hidden beneath the veneer of modern civilization.  In man’s blind quest to build towering cities of glass and steel, he had forgotten the supernatural world, dismissing the superstitions of past generations in the name of science.  First with fire and then with electricity, man had pushed back his fear of the dark over the centuries. But the darkness was patient. It lay beneath the modern world like a volcano waiting to erupt, and Jack knew that the time had arrived. But what triggers a supernatural apocalypse? The wrath of God? The end of the Mayan calendar? No more room in hell? He had no answers, but he had to deal with its terrifying aftermath nonetheless.

            He stared at the darkened sun. How was he going to keep his family safe in this terrifying new reality?

                                                   Find Undead Flesh on Amazon

Things I Learned at the Short Course Writer's Conference

This last weekend I attended a small weekend writer's conference at Rose State College in Oklahoma City. About 150 plus writers were in attendance. This was not a horror writer's conference and I was definitely in the minority at this gathering, but it was still a rewarding experience and a helpful one as well. I came to a few important realizations about my own writing career during the meeting and will list them in no special order below:

1. The stigma of being a Self-Published author is gone. When I first self-published 13 Nightmares four years ago, I was surprised to learn that there was a backlash in the industry about those who self-publish. That no longer exists in the industry (thank you 50 Shades of Gray) and now what matters is how well you write and your ability to reach the public by a platform.  Don't get me wrong. Being published by a Big House or an extablished book publisher is still a great achievement, but the path of long years of constant rejection and knocking on a publisher's door in hopes they will pick you up is over. The power has shifted to some degree. The author appeals now directly to the reader through his platform and word of mouth. Publishers are taking notice of those authors who succeed in doing this with a proven track record. Crap is crap, though. If you put out an unedited book with poor cover and bad writing, you're going to be sadly disappointed. A book is your product and reflects you as a writer. Put the best book out you can and be proud.

2. E-Books are the way of the future. Don't get me wrong on this point. I love a print book that I can hold in my hands and read. (I'm currently reading the Fading Light Anthology that I ordered off Amazon). I don't even own a Kindle, but that's about to change. E-Books are outsellting print books and the number is increasing each month. Authors are bypassing the publisher and putting thier books straight up on Kindle, charging $2.99 per book, and  are making money doing so. This process costs nothing and is easy, plus they keep the majority of the royalty. Many are making serious bank by doing so. As for me, I got to have it both ways: the printed book and the e-book. I am certainly going to push my e-book sales harder, however. The rule still applies. If you put nothing but crap up on the internet your reviews and sales will reflect it.

3. The author sells himself as well. This something that I've been falling short on. Your website is for selling your books. Social media (twitter, facebook, blogs) are for selling yourself as a writer. You are a brand name that sells your product. Gain a following on social media of you the author and the sales will reflect that. If you have a 1,000 fans and they spend only 20 dollars a year on your books you've made 20,000 dollars in sales. 1,000 fans is not an unreasonable figure considering you're reaching out to the whole planet on the internet. My own website gets 25 to 35 new hits a day from all over the world. Because of the e-book revolution people are reading more than ever.

4. Live the author lifestyle. Excercise on a regular basis to keep your mind and creativity strong. Write from your heart and show no fear. Put away your self-doubt. Write every day. Improve your voice. Writers are part of a noble calling and have changed the course of the world. Stand up and be heard.