Monday, September 30, 2013

Contact Info

Hello Friends.

If you have questions, comments or inquiries about TRANSPORT or any other Peter Welmerink tale out there, feel free to correspond with me at: swordandheavyarmor@gmail.com

Until then.

Best regards.

Pete

Thursday, September 12, 2013

9/11 and why I write military fiction

I was on the road traveling the other day, realizing it was the 12th anniversary of that awful day. It was on the news, the big memorial event in New York. I watched it for a while before heading out. Said a little prayer for those lost, the families of the deceased and injured, and remembered our military guys and gals out there fighting the good fight.

I passed Camp McCoy as I drove through northwest Wisconsin.

I drove by the Russell Rd Military Museum while driving home.

Thinking a lot about our military personnel both present and past. Thanks you all. I salute you.

Why do I write military fiction?

Because I love the vehicles, the action and adventure in the old stories transcribed by veterans of all those wars. I know it is a grim world, in a world at war, in the fighting man and woman who has to endure being far from home, possibly smack in the middle of an enemies homeland, under fire, or simply enduring a sandstorm and having to literally take your vehicle apart to get all the grit out.

When I write, about my fictional characters and fictional situations (after all, I am writing about a slightly future flung world, post-zombie apocalypse), I often think if anyone in the military might enjoy this craziness in which I write. I write to entertain, to get the story out. And when writing military fiction, more than say sword and sorcery, I often stop and think about our military folk of today and in the past. I appreciate YOU and what you are doing, and our veterans, what you have done.

The fighting spirit. Perhaps that is really what is enduring. Out there, against the odds, probably more often with the odds against you, and yet you endure. You are strong. You keep pushing forward.

Besides the cool military vehicles and the adventure, that is what I am writing about: the fighting spirit, the push to survive against the odds, fighting the good fight, pushing forward.

Anyway, I thank you, those soldiers of today and those soldiers of yesterday, for inspiring me, to write my crazy adventure tales in this Military Thriller genre. Hopefully it is enjoyed. Hopefully I can throw some light moments in there, maybe get a chuckle from time to time. But will always push the fighting spirit, because, like you, this is what my underlying character story is about, pushing back against the odds, and surviving.

(I know in war, not all survive. It's not always pretty. We don't always win. But we will still go out fighting the good fight.)

Pete

Friday, September 6, 2013

TRANSPORT is coming!

Hey friends!

This is slightly old news to me and not new news as far as outright public knowledge...YET...but I have signed a publishing contract with SEVENTH STAR PRESS for the publication of my TRANSPORT series.

Yea, buddy!! You are going to be able to hold in your hands, in some form or another, a rip-roaring, skull-crushing, action-packed, zombie-blasting TRANSPORT story...three novella length tales in fact are slated so far.

It was such great news to me I actually threw myself into an anxiety attack and was a mess there for a few weeks. Not sure why such good news should cause such chaos in one's head. We writers are a strange lot so who knows. You never think you are good enough and you keep banging along, banging out those stories, and then when you get a great offer to have your kard work pubbed...something snaps. LOL

Anyway, doing much better now thank you. Seeing the forest for the trees and landscape looks very very good. I am very happy to be part of the SSP family and looking forward to some wonderful opportunities with them and my material.

More soon!

Pete

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

TRANSPORT 2 novella underway...and potential cover art?

Okay. I need to share this.

I have the first TRANSPORT novella completed, and subbed to a publisher.

I started the second TRANSPORT novella (tentatively titled TRANSPORT 2: HUNT FOR THE FALLEN) around May 13th, and about 3/4 done writing it.

I haven't started the third TRANSPORT novella, but have a good idea for the gist and guts of it including the ending.

But I wanted to share with you some very very cool cover art sketches for TRANSPORT 2 penned by the very talented Mr. Tim Holtrop. This is all concept art. Not sure if it will be used or not. (If I self-pub this stuff, hell yes, will be working with Mr. Holtrop for some finished cover art.)

The setup for what you are looking at:

Big ruckus between APC Ridgerunner Huron (the massive armored personnel carrier vehicular star of the stories) and an Abrams tank, churning up and spitting gravel and dust about a gravel pit off Butterworth SW, Grand Rapids, Michigan. A hit from the tank's 120mm cannon would be the end of the Huron so the APC keeps up close and personnel to the Abrams. Spc. Loutonia Phelps decides the only way to end this tracked madness is to make like a pirate and board the Abrams. Perhaps dual .45's shoved down the turret hatch and a "Please cease and desist your actions against us, or I'll let off some hot lead like bouncing bumblebee inside your interior."




Thursday, May 23, 2013

Why Birds Need To Go

Journal Entry 402
May 22, 2025
Captain Jacob Billet
GRCC Transport Regiment 1

Bird shit everywhere.

I step out on my little balcony terrace and I am assaulted by a metal railing painted white and splatterings on the deck floor. I ain't touching it and it takes me a while to clean up before I feel like sitting out there and enjoying the view. After all, I enjoy a good mug of joe in the morning while looking out over the zombie-infested west side of town.

We need to use more birds for target practice. Get the big 30 and 50-cal machine guns warmed out and just start blasting the annoying winged monstrocities out of the sky.

Today marks the 12th anniversary of what the world now lovingly calls the day the zombie apocalypse began. Some kids, reading too many of those old Horror novels, think the Zee blight began after some satanic ritual was done, making the undead rise, and those that weren't dead, die and become the walking dead. Some uneducated think the dead just rose up and started their consumption of the living populace, you know, just rose up, no reason. Some say the wars in the Middle East and with North Korea, the detonation of "dirty bombs," terrorist attacks, started it all. Some think the government had something to do with it, an experiment gone awry or a means to reduce the population; always conspiracy theorists and theories trying to spread their black gospel.

Meh. Whatever.

It was the birds. Birds. BIRDS!

So today marks the 12th anniversary of when Influenza A virus subtype H7N9, originally reported  to be afflicting China and Taiwan, came into being. W.H.O. (World Health Organization) reported there had been no migratory birds infected, or that the strain would be so severe as initial reports of people affected and dying from it initially were very low.

WRONG. Have wings, will travel.

As I glance out from my perch from the rooftop balcony of the old Grand Plaza Tower, looking west across the Grand River, into the west side of Grand Rapids, where at least three thousand undead residents reside and shamble about...the W.H.O. (better to have been left one of the greatest rock bands than a group overseeing the world's health) was wrong. What the countries with the initial outbreak didn't report (and I couldn't have blamed them at the time) was that the poor folks who'd fallen to the virus, got back up and had to be put back down by force, ie, the roar of a pistol or rifle point-blank in the ole brain box.

Someone fires from another window a few floors below me. A pigeon flying by turns into a cloud of feathers. Heh. Other than the Colonel will hand their ass to them for using a firearm inside the barracks, someone's got the right idea.

The Human Race, the surviving, breathing, heart-beating living ones, has always endured calamities. This is no different I suppose. Those of us who stay on this side of the dirt keep pushing onward. You either survive or succumb.

Yeah, I have had my setbacks, and on some days they want to drag me to that Give Up state, and I sometimes think about letting it all bring me down and consume me (possibly in a literal sense if I were to just walk OUT THERE into our friendly neighborhood face-eaters). May sound a bit cliche here, but, yeah, my daddy and momma didn't raise no quitter. Though I've lost a lot, there are still people who need me, things to do, actions needing to be done to keep our heads above water...and the rot of the undead.

White wash cleaned off my little perch above my world, I step out with steaming cup of joe in one hand. Black and white Canadian honker just so happens to fly by. BOOM! The barrel of my .44 smokes. A pile of black feathers tumbles down, down, down.

"Keep on comin' ya flying plague bearers," I mumble.

As long as we got bullets, birds and Zees beware.

Monday, April 22, 2013

TRANSPORT done and ready to roll

I finished up TRANSPORT in early March and sent it out for a professional work-out to lose some fat and shape it up. Tyson Mauermann did a great job and whipping the story into shape and helping me get it ready to roll in whatever direction I so desired.

It is a novella-sized piece, almost 37,000 words. I don't think I could stretch it out or crunch it down any further to make it better than it is. I am going to try the traditional publisher route first before considering to do it myself. Pros and Cons of both, but I figure until I can build my brand and my own following, if that is how things will come to roll, then I figure I should put it under the noses of traditional publishers who can hopefully offer to reach a wider audience than little ole me trying to wave my own flag. (Though, even with traditional publishing you, as the author, still need to help SELL IT. No problem there.)

Anyway, here is a teaser AND an awesome sketch by Mr Tim Holtrop who, though he offers only this sketch, does some great finished work also.

Will keep you informed.

(Also, have started a new story, takes place in same time/place as TRANSPORT, including some rough ideas for a TRANSPORT 2 story featuring APC Ridgerunner Huron and her misfit crew.)

*******


The year is 2025.  

When Commissioner Wilhelm DeGage's helicopter goes down in hostile territory, it is up to Captain Jacob "Jake" Billet and his crew to bring the official home. With only an armored personnel carrier, Jake and his crew brave the infected lands, pushed to the limits of their honor in order to rescue DeGage despite the horror of his past transgressions. 

And then there are the zombies. 

Getting from Point A to Point B has never been so dangerous.