Just for fun...just because...
Always read the label before use.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
HUNT FOR THE FALLEN (TRANSPORT Book Two) available now
Captain Jacob Billet
Journal Entry - Sunday April 5, 2026
Journal Entry - Sunday April 5, 2026
It’s raining, it’s pouring, the undead are roaring…
Amassed at the UCRA east end enclosure, the dead strain the fence line while soldiers keep watchful eyes, the survivors on the opposite side of the rising river about to lose their minds.
It’s a crazy time: nonstop precipitation; everyone's up in arms; paranoid city council members with an asshat City Treasurer. Water, water everywhere. Zees dropping into the churning drink. Troops afraid of being stitched up and thrown back into the fray as Zombie Troopers. Tank commanders getting itchy to head out on their own after drug-laden shamblers. Reganshire insurgents trying to extract our west side civvies for some unknown reason, possibly pushing the city into taking heavy-handed action against them.
Then there’s some black-haired dead dude staring at me through the fence, grinning like he’s off his meds.
And I thought Lettner was a headache.
All this sh*t might give me a heart attack.
#
1. TRANSPORT (Book One) takes place in September 2025, in and around Grand Rapids, Michigan, 12 years after a viral pandemic has changed life...and unlife...as we know it. To protect and help rebuild some of the larger grottos of humanity "post apocalypse," the military has been restructured and dispersed to remaining large metropolis like Grand Rapids. The series is centered around Captain Jake Billet, his wily crew and their massive M213 Heavy Transport Vehicle, the HURON.
Where does HUNT FOR THE FALLEN...well...fall in the scheme of things?
Crazed author: HUNT takes place about 7 months AFTER the events in Book One. Billet and crew are back in the West Michigan area after avoiding the place for a while. The covert mission details of the late NSC High Commissioner William Lettner have gotten out to the media, the mission and those involved is not longer a secret, and Billet, the GRCC (Grand Rapids Central Command) and Grand Rapids are seen as both heroes and villians.
Though Captain Billet is seen as more a hero for doing what he did to bring Lettner to justice, he doesn't like that kind of spotlight. He wants to keep his head low.
And with loyalists of the Lettner out and about, still pushing for the eradication of Zombiekind, causing whatever kind of annoyance to people who do not think in those terms, as the man seen responsible for delivering Lettner to his execution, it might be a good idea for Billet to keep his head low.
Oh, and it is April 2026, and has been raining nonstop for weeks. The Grand River, running between the big city and the area where her local undead are retained, is heading to major flood stages.
2. What's introduced in HUNT FOR THE FALLEN?
Insane writer: We see more of the GRCC, namely in another big military vehicle and its commander, a Abrams MBT (Main Battle Tank), the DEVASTATOR, and its TC (Tank Commander) Major Jeremy Pike.
We are introduced to the illegal drug trade of the times where you can buy any mind altering chemical you want, just have you handheld tracking device and search for the dead creature with your substance of choice sown into its empty abdominal cavity.
We get to peek inside the workings of the Butterworth Test Facility where mortally wounded soldiers are stitched up and brought back into service as ZiTs, Zombie Troopers.
The HURON has gotten an upgrade: a 25mm remote-controlled cannon and turret AND a new navigator who may not survive their latest excursion.
Oh, and Billet is feeling severely under the weather, both psychologically and physically, which may not bode well for his future functionality.
3. Would you classify the TRANSPORT Series as a Military Thriller or a Zombie Horror fest? L. Andrew Cooper, one of the reviewers for TRANSPORT Boon One, expressed it more as "zombie fantasy."
Twitchy Word Scribe: I would probably call it a nice mash-up of both, with leanings more towards Military Thriller and/or Action-Adventure.
TRANSPORT was always intended to be a story about the soldier and his/her armored vehicle dealing with the "new" world around him/her, about how they cope and maneuver in what I call this POST-post zombie apocalypse world the series takes place within. The zombies are there, in the background, shambling and lurking, while it seems the real menace is Humankind who struggles to get back on their feet...and pursuing it any way possible, often times not for the good of others.
Perhaps it should be called a Survival story wrapped in Zombie Fantasy sticky paper.
4. How long did it take you to write HUNT FOR THE FALLEN? Do you consider yourself a diligent and focused writer?
Non-diligent, non-focused writer: I started writing HUNT FOR THE FALLEN roughly May 2013 and, with a poppin' re-write I decided to do, capped it off June 2014.
The thing with TRANSPORT, I have a fairly good idea of where I want each book to go. It is easy to write, an easy map to follow, when you have a good idea of the route. In this way, I guess you could say I am a focused writer.
Diligent? No. Where TRANSPORT Book One was very easy to write because everything just flowed, Book Two sometimes slogged along for me writing-wise like the torrential rain and soggy lands within Book two's landscape. Book One hit me so hard and fast, Book Two was like OH SHIT, UMM, NOW WHAT?
Thus the re-write, self-re-polishing of HUNT FOR THE FALLEN after the initial writing. I feel the re-writing made Book Two really stand up on its own, shift into overdrive, and spin a big rooster of mud, action and zombie guts into the air. It POPS, enough so that when my editor (Rodney Carlstrom) got his hands on it finally, he said (in a good way): WOW!
5. What's the deal with the book covers? They seem to link together. And is the cover art and interior art done by the same artist?
Happy-as-a-clam author when seeing cover and interior art: I was very fortunate when my publisher, Seventh Star Press, hooked me up with Jason C Conley. I gave him the gist of the series, what it was all about, what I slightly foresaw on the covers, and next thing I know he does this FAN-EFFIN-TASTIC triptych cover montage that hit the thing wa-ay out of the ball park. The colors, the atmosphere, the pandemonium within the frames... Jason killed it in the best way possible.
The triptych cover pieces, all together, make a kick ass 24 x 36 poster.
Seventh Star Press typically works with one cover artist and interior artist who are one in the same. Again, I got extremely lucky to work with a separate cover artist and separate interior artist.
The very talented Tim Holtrop did the black and white interior illustrations. This was definitely a one-on-one work relationship where we dialed things in and, mainly, got great illos of Billet and his crew, and a few key scenes, fleshed out. I wanted to make sure the reader had good imagery of the main story characters, in some form of action pose, to bring them (the characters) to life.
Like Jason hitting it out of the ball park on the covers, Tim made another home run, crushing the ball over the stadium roof and miles above the city with his fantastic interior illustrations. (Again, kick ass poster quality work.)
6. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us.
Unstable author: No problem. I'm Batman.
#
HUNT FOR THE FALLEN: TRANSPORT Book Two is available currently in all ebook formats via all prominent online booksellers. The paperback will be available very soon.
TRANSPORT Book One is available in ebook and paperback formats at all booksellers. Ask for it by name and author, or go here to purchase:
Friday, December 19, 2014
TRANSPORT: HUNT FOR THE FALLEN Rolls Out
My publisher has just announced TRANSPORT (Book Two) HUNT FOR THE FALLEN will be available in all ebook formats on Monday December 22nd just in time to freak you out for Christmas.
###
Captain Jacob Billet
Journal Entry - Sunday April 5, 2026
It’s raining, it’s pouring, the undead are roaring…
Amassed at the UCRA east end enclosure, the dead strain the fence line while soldiers keep watchful eyes, the survivors on the opposite side of the rising river about to lose their minds.
It’s a crazy time: nonstop precipitation; everyone's up in arms; paranoid city council members with an asshat City Treasurer. Water, water everywhere. Zees dropping into the churning drink. Troops afraid of being stitched up and thrown back into the fray as Zombie Troopers. Tank commanders getting itchy to head out on their own after drug-laden shamblers. Reganshire insurgents trying to extract our west side civvies for some unknown reason, possibly pushing the city into taking heavy-handed action against them.
Then there’s some black-haired dead dude staring at me through the fence, grinning like he’s off his meds.
And I thought Lettner was a headache.
All this sh*t might give me a heart attack.
###
TRANSPORT (Book One) is still available in ebook and paperback formats
wherever quality books are sold.
TRANSPORT Book One Reviews
L. Andrew Cooper Horrific Scribbling
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Biographies of Captain Jake Billet and crew of the HURON
Coming soon...
Biographies of the crew of the HURON, the 72 ton Heavy Transport Vehicle (HTV) featured in TRANSPORT a 3-part post-zombie apoc military action adventure series published by SEVENTH STAR PRESS.
Go beyond the books and get to know the history of Captain Jake Billet, Driver Loutonia Phelps, and gunners, James Stokes and Eddie Mulholland.
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| Artwork by Tim Holtrop |
TRANSPORT Book One currently available in all formats and at all major booksellers.
KINDLE Ebook
http://amzn.to/1qD8bNL
http://amzn.to/1qD8bNL
Thursday, October 23, 2014
TRANSPORT (Book Two) HUNT FOR THE FALLEN Book Display Part 1
For TRANSPORT (Book Two) HUNT FOR THE FALLEN, I am working on a book / table display with a theme that goes along with the cover and essence of the series, ie, zombies, military, wasteland.
I will be posting pictures and info on the progress, here, on the pages of this wonderful little blog spot. Some will be parts of the display build-in-progress, other pics will be just for grins...as the ones below.
Enjoy.
#
After a long day of patrolling the west side of Grand Rapids and its borders, after a long day in the midst of zombies and other unsavories, it's nice to take a little break and crack open a cold (or semi-warm) PBR.
I will be posting pictures and info on the progress, here, on the pages of this wonderful little blog spot. Some will be parts of the display build-in-progress, other pics will be just for grins...as the ones below.
Enjoy.
#
After a long day of patrolling the west side of Grand Rapids and its borders, after a long day in the midst of zombies and other unsavories, it's nice to take a little break and crack open a cold (or semi-warm) PBR.
###
TRANSPORT, a post-post zombie apocalyptic series, military heavy, adventure rife, set in a near-future dystopian Grand Rapids, Michigan, is available wherever fine books are sold.
(Ask for it by name if bookseller does not carry it.)
TRANSPORT (Book One) can be found here:
AMAZON
SCHULER BOOKS
A snippet of a JOE CROSS story
Between working on the editor's edits for TRANSPORT (Book Two) HUNT FOR THE FALLEN, and capping off TRANSPORT (Book Three) UNCIVIL WAR, and working on a few short stories for different things, I am also working on a JOE CROSS: URBAN SALVAGE ENGINEER short story. I plan on submitting this short--when done and edited--to a dystopian-world themed anthology project.
The story line takes place in my post-post apocalyptic TRANSPORT World. Joe is a new character who does not appear in the current book series.
A little bit about Joe.
He's the "best salvager in the Midwest." He can find anything, needed or unneeded. He goes out into the wasteland and pokes around for items to sell and trade, sometimes acquiring things he shouldn't, oft times running into trouble because of it.
He also has an old stuffed toy bear always buckled in the front passenger seat of his LTV (Light Tactical Vehicle). Don't mess with Albert.
Below is a small snippet from the story RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL, unedited.
#
A stick-thin guy in an oil-stained mechanics jumpsuit
leaned into the passenger seat. He peered about the dashboard, rifled through
the open glove box that several persons had already gone through, then looked
at the belted stuffed bear in the seat. With grease-stained fingers he started
to unbuckle the bear.
“That’s one thing you’re not going to want to take,” Joe
said with enough threat in his tone greasy Stick Man hesitated. “That bear isn’t
for taking or touching.”
Stick Man flipped him off and went to finish unbuckling
the bear. A loud-talking crowd coming towards them broke him from his
activities.
Joe looked to the oncoming group. People swarmed around a
central line of others like bees to a hive while the center line marched
forward in his direction. The center wedge parting the flocking bystanders, he
saw half a dozen brawny men, toting machine guns, and a strange lithe form
between them.
“I’m impartial to skin color,” Joe said to the Reganshire
men on either side of him, “But that girl looks like she fell into a flour
bin.”
A young woman in a white shirt and tight, black,
form-hugging dress slacks approached them with her retinue of guards and
onlookers. The places where her flesh was exposed revealed limbs and face so ashen,
she looked almost translucent. She wore gauze bandages about both her forearms
which were dappled with blotches of blood and some form of yellowish ichor
soaking up through the wrappings.
“Someone important?” Joe said out the side of his mouth
to his guard on the right.
“Rebecca Regan. Her dad and her run this town.” The guard
said as he and his partner glanced at each other, and each took a step back as
the woman approached.
Sweet Mary, she
could stand to use a bit of sun, Joe thought.
“What do we have here?” Rebecca Regan said stopping
before Joe and his vehicle. Her eyes roamed over Emery, and then fell on him.
The pale woman gazed him up and down with gray eyes and a
sneer on her crimson-lined cracked lips. Her gums were dark red, teeth
yellowing. Her blond-white hair waved behind her in a phantom breeze, a long
strand on occasion giving up the fight and tumbling away from her head.
Joe threw up a little in his mouth, and coughed as he
swallowed the sour bile back down.
“We caught him in the southern quadrant in our new
grazing land,” a man from one of the black pickup trucks said. “Cut into our
fence and pilfered himself a sheep.”
“Thief?” Rebecca said, a bare brow rising, her eyes still
upon Joe.
“No, I was…” Joe began to say.
“Spy then?” she hissed, leaning into his face.
Jesus, you need a breath mint, sister. "Not at all," Joe quickly replied, eyes darting to the morbid-piked heads lining the town's fence line.
###
TRANSPORT, a post-post zombie apocalyptic series, military heavy, adventure rife, set in a near-future dystopian Grand Rapids, Michigan, is available wherever fine books are sold.
(Ask for it by name if bookseller does not carry it.)
TRANSPORT (Book One) can be found here:
AMAZON
SCHULER BOOKS
Joe Cross copyright 2014 Peter Welmerink
Joe Cross illustration by Tim Holtrop
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Another TRANSPORT Is Coming
Another TRANSPORT short novel is coming soon.
Though Lettner is gone, in this post-post zombie apocalyptic world, many people do share his view: as the Living try to get back on track, all the Undead should be purged from the land. However, these persons will not make the same mistake the late NSC Commissioner made to finally have him swing from the gallows for his crimes against the living and unliving.
There's a storm brewing within the torrential rainfall of a West Michigan spring time. The Grand River is rising far above comfortable height, threatening to overwhelm the city's west side where her protected undead civilians stand agitated. They amass along the river side enclosure as the living watch fearful from the opposite bank.
Captain Jake Billet, crew and the massive M213 Heavy Transport Vehicle, the HURON, stand awash amidst the mayhem, waist deep in chaos as barriers fall, soldiers fall, and the local undead fall. Those who remain headstrong take matters into their own hands: the GRCC's Main Battle Tank, commanded by Jake's military rival, heads out of town, southwest, into the boondocks between Grand Rapids and Reganshire.
Figuratively and literally feeling under the weather, Billet strikes out to pursue the AWOL Abrams tank and commander, intending to stop him, and also find why the man has abducted a large male zombie.
It's 68 tons of armor and a 120mm cannon versus 72 tons of vehicle and a new 25mm turret cannon, MBT versus HTV.
TRANSPORT (Book Two) - HUNT FOR THE FALLEN
is coming soon.
Artwork: Jason Conley, Tim Holtrop
Copyright 2014 Peter Welmerink and Seventh Star Press
TRANSPORT (Book One) can be found here:
AMAZON
SCHULER BOOKS
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Interview in GRAND RAPIDS MAGAZINE regarding TRANSPORT
The October 2014 issue of GRAND RAPIDS MAGAZINE is out on newsstands now.
Unlike Dr. Hook, I did not get my picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone or the GRAND RAPIDS MAGAZINE, but I did make it on Page 20 of that latter mentioned magazine. :)
Thank you to Julie Bonner WILLIAMS, Jason Conley, Matt Radick, Christopher Welmerink and Grand Rapids Magazine. You all rock!!
#
TRANSPORT (Book One) can be found here:
AMAZON
SCHULER BOOKS
 |
| I did NOT pilfer this notebook 36 years ago. :D |
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Fleshing Out TRANSPORT Part 1
The entire TRANSPORT novella series and short stories started with a desire to write something within the Military Thriller / Military Sci-Fi genre. I also have a big interest in all things Military. I decided to take a spin outside my usual writing of Sword & Sorcery, and roll into some Military action-adventure.
The world of TRANSPORT was born.
The story takes place in Grand Rapids, Michigan circa 2025. After a pandemicly serious strain of H7N9 (avian influenza virus or bird flu virus), the world has been turned on its head. You are either fortunate enough to not be affected, or unfortunate and affected. INFECTED. If you are infected, you go one of two ways: you die, completely, dead-dead, or you become a walking maggot factory.
Grand Rapids, as most of the other LARGE cities in the country, has become a walled bastion for humanity of the true living type. Industries have moved back close to the hub of the city if they had been stationed in the outskirts. Other than the tall concrete walls, gates and concertina-wire fences, it is business as usual; day to day survival, luxuries still of home (just packed with more close neighbors)...
...But with that constant niggling feeling everything to drop into the shitter in the blink of an eye.
Why?
Because outside City Central, people, creatures, towns and smaller habitations fight BIG TIME for survival. The niceties and necessities of life are quite a bit more... challenging.
The mighty Grand River separates the east side of Grand Rapids (City Central, the hub) and the west side neighborhoods. As mentioned, on the east side, the Living. On the west side, the big city's undead roam.
Okay. Zombies. The walking dead. Rotters. Shamblers.
But these rotting-faced, face-chewing folk are something more.
I didn't want the same old ZOMBIE THANG going on. You know, people running around, running away from the undead, fighting the undead, the undead wanting to tear them up, eat their brains.
Nah.
The world of TRANSPORT takes place in a post-post (zombie) apocalyptic time. The virus is more or less a thing of the past (happens in 2013) and Humanity, so far as usual, has survived to live another day and try and start anew. The undead are still around. The unforunate Grand Rapids undead civilians are contained on the west side of town behind a huge fence line. They are fed doped meat to keep them docile. There are laws about the Military or anyone else shooting them, doing them harm as they are "less fortunate friends and relatives" who are still cared for. More or less. The living city folk let the Military have the crap job and go in and feed them and protect them if shit hits the fan.
There are still your angry FERAL zombies that want to rend you to pieces and sup on your flesh and blood. Outside the city limits, outside the barricaded villages miles away from Grand Rapids, these "wild dog" type zombies still wander and will attack if provoked or are simply hungry.
It is better to walk softly and carry a loaded machine gun than make a shit load of noise and attract every pissed-off undead thing in your vicinity. Even if you are in an armored vehicle, getting gang-piled by snarling, snapping Zees...not so good.
There are a few other types of ZOMBIES in the series/storyline that I think stand apart from the usual serving of the undead within the genre. I will talk about those and other things, like, why Grand rapids, Michigan? Why the Military? Why a 1950's gas station attendant zombie in my next FLESHING OUT posts.
Until next time.
Don't fear the dead, they don't have to deal with living like the living do.
The world of TRANSPORT was born.
The story takes place in Grand Rapids, Michigan circa 2025. After a pandemicly serious strain of H7N9 (avian influenza virus or bird flu virus), the world has been turned on its head. You are either fortunate enough to not be affected, or unfortunate and affected. INFECTED. If you are infected, you go one of two ways: you die, completely, dead-dead, or you become a walking maggot factory.
Grand Rapids, as most of the other LARGE cities in the country, has become a walled bastion for humanity of the true living type. Industries have moved back close to the hub of the city if they had been stationed in the outskirts. Other than the tall concrete walls, gates and concertina-wire fences, it is business as usual; day to day survival, luxuries still of home (just packed with more close neighbors)...
...But with that constant niggling feeling everything to drop into the shitter in the blink of an eye.
Why?
Because outside City Central, people, creatures, towns and smaller habitations fight BIG TIME for survival. The niceties and necessities of life are quite a bit more... challenging.
The mighty Grand River separates the east side of Grand Rapids (City Central, the hub) and the west side neighborhoods. As mentioned, on the east side, the Living. On the west side, the big city's undead roam.
Okay. Zombies. The walking dead. Rotters. Shamblers.
But these rotting-faced, face-chewing folk are something more.
I didn't want the same old ZOMBIE THANG going on. You know, people running around, running away from the undead, fighting the undead, the undead wanting to tear them up, eat their brains.
Nah.
The world of TRANSPORT takes place in a post-post (zombie) apocalyptic time. The virus is more or less a thing of the past (happens in 2013) and Humanity, so far as usual, has survived to live another day and try and start anew. The undead are still around. The unforunate Grand Rapids undead civilians are contained on the west side of town behind a huge fence line. They are fed doped meat to keep them docile. There are laws about the Military or anyone else shooting them, doing them harm as they are "less fortunate friends and relatives" who are still cared for. More or less. The living city folk let the Military have the crap job and go in and feed them and protect them if shit hits the fan.
There are still your angry FERAL zombies that want to rend you to pieces and sup on your flesh and blood. Outside the city limits, outside the barricaded villages miles away from Grand Rapids, these "wild dog" type zombies still wander and will attack if provoked or are simply hungry.
It is better to walk softly and carry a loaded machine gun than make a shit load of noise and attract every pissed-off undead thing in your vicinity. Even if you are in an armored vehicle, getting gang-piled by snarling, snapping Zees...not so good.
There are a few other types of ZOMBIES in the series/storyline that I think stand apart from the usual serving of the undead within the genre. I will talk about those and other things, like, why Grand rapids, Michigan? Why the Military? Why a 1950's gas station attendant zombie in my next FLESHING OUT posts.
Until next time.
Don't fear the dead, they don't have to deal with living like the living do.
 |
| ZOMBIE TROOPERS, a new TRANSPORT World related series I am working on. No publisher yet but good Pos-Apoc Military goodness. |
IMAGINARIUM Writers Convention - Post Convention Commentary
September 23, 2014
Three words, four numbers, and some exclamation points sum it up:
IMAGINARIUM 2014 WAS AWESOME!!!
I arrived in Louisville, Kentucky about 2pm on Friday, September 19. Originally parked my car wa-aay far away from where the exhibit hall. Luckily was smart enough to just take my computer bag with me, not try to cart my tote and boxes across the vast complex which was the Crowne Plaza.
I procured my Guest Badge and met Susan Roddey and some of the Event Staff (more folks, come to find out, were part of the SSP family) and stepped into the exhibit hall.
.JPG) |
| Placed me next to the fire extinguisher in case I spontaneously combusted. |
I sweat like I'd just stepped under Niagara Falls.
IMAGINARIUM was/is big for me. It was the first big convention I had attended in, hmmm, twenty years. It is the first big convention I had attended where I had something to sell, ie, a book. It was the first big convention in which I would have my own table space to put my stuff up and try to promote and sell. It was the first time meeting, in person, my Seventh Star Press publisher and publishing family and SSP authors (many of whom are books ahead of me in written work available). I knew a few people that were attending the convention, like 2 or 3, from years ago, but 99.8% of the rest were all new. Well, I had "met" them on Facebook.
I was nervous, thus the sweat shower.
 |
| Me and my publisher and Imaginarium Director, Stephen Zimmer. And my editor, Rodney Carlstrom. |
BUT once I got situated between the wonderful Michael West and the marvelous Jen Mulvihill, and after being greeted warmly by my publisher and some of the other "family members"...all was good. In fact, by weekend end, I pretty much felt like I'd known these people all along. That is how great EVERYONE was at the convention.
A community of artists who enjoyed their craft, gave a shit, were human, and enjoyed the company of their brothers and sisters of the trade.
I sat in a panel, as an audience member, after meeting my current TRANSPORT editor, Rodney Carlstrom, and listened to he and the others discuss STEAMPUNK TODAY. he and the rest of the panelists knew there stuff. Experts in the field.
I sat in four panels as an actual panelist, including one as a moderator.
Before I walked onto the whole scene I thought I'd be too nervous to speak, would not know what to say or how to join in the conversation, or talk like a nervous babbling baboon, BUT, by the time it was my time to sit down with the other artists and audience, because of the warmth already spread around by the IMAGINARIUM people (event staff, publisher, other writers, etc.) I felt very comfortable in these groups and had quite a bit of fun.
Saturday, September 20, was my big full day of the convention. I was part of a panel discussion on Cover (Art) Lovin' and, later, The Zombie Horde. I also attended a workshop instructed by Tim Waggoner, which was awesome, and the guy (an established author as well as writing instructor) was a true gent and interesting.
When I wasn't attending a panel or workshop I was hanging out at my little book/table display. Often times, I would see someone I wanted to say HELLO to and meander off to another table.
So much to do. So many people to see/meet.
The bonus: EVERYONE was very friendly, cordial. I didn't meet anyone who was a stuffed shirt, a person with nose turned up, acting mightier than thou, better than you, a true artiste frowning on the other dredges of the Craft. Everyone I met was eager to say hello, talk a bit, chuckle or provide serious feedback.
When I wasn't attending a panel or workshop I was hanging out at my little book/table display. Often times, I would see someone I wanted to say HELLO to and meander off to another table.
So much to do. So many people to see/meet.
The bonus: EVERYONE was very friendly, cordial. I didn't meet anyone who was a stuffed shirt, a person with nose turned up, acting mightier than thou, better than you, a true artiste frowning on the other dredges of the Craft. Everyone I met was eager to say hello, talk a bit, chuckle or provide serious feedback.
IMAGINARIUM 2014 WAS AWESOME!!!
Saturday evening there was a masquerade ball/convention after-party. People hung out. More discussions. More laughter. More camaraderie.
IMAGINARIUM 2014 WAS AWESOME!!!
Sunday, I did (2) panels: LONE HERO VS HEROIC GROUP and INTO THE WASTELAND (where the conversation fell on the subject of zombies again). It was all good though. Cool panelists. Cool discussions. Some laughs.
I packed things up and left the area around 1pm, and headed back north.
I write this little blog post several days after the convention, and can say, I can't wait to go to IMAGINARIUM 2015.
#
September 29, 2014
It has been a week since IMAGINARIUM. It still makes me excited thinking about the experience, the people I met, the discussions, the fun, the being involved in something bigger than me, in being involved in this huge group of story-tellers, tale weavers.
Again, I thank Stephen Zimmer, Susan Roddey and the entire crew who helped put this thing together and make it happen.
See you next year.
I packed things up and left the area around 1pm, and headed back north.
I write this little blog post several days after the convention, and can say, I can't wait to go to IMAGINARIUM 2015.
#
September 29, 2014
It has been a week since IMAGINARIUM. It still makes me excited thinking about the experience, the people I met, the discussions, the fun, the being involved in something bigger than me, in being involved in this huge group of story-tellers, tale weavers.
Again, I thank Stephen Zimmer, Susan Roddey and the entire crew who helped put this thing together and make it happen.
See you next year.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Mini Diorama for IMAGINARIUM Convention TRANSPORT Table/Book Display
What better way to try and garner some attention at your book display, at a convention, than having something additionally VISUAL to draw an eye to your written work than a diorama.
I have built two small dioramas for the convention. One is a vehicle and driver, loaded down with salvaged, scavenged goods, being attacked by a Feral zombie.
The other is this somber little piece below. One of the local zombie civilians of Grand Rapids, standing behind the fence within the UCRA (Urban Civilian Retention Area) where the city keeps her undead "friends and family" in my fictional Military Zombie Post-Apoc book series, TRANSPORT.
I call this little vignette: ALONE.
Think about it. I know zombies gross us out, make us sick, make us fear-filled. But what if, mindless or not, you found yourself in this fellows position. Alone, on the other side of the fence, the living, breathing populace on the other side, living the good life...HELL...LIVING, while you shamble your days away, eating doped meat, calm, but UNDEAD.
Think about it.
Anyway, this piece will be at IMAGINARIUM in Louisville, Kentucky, this weekend at my table display helping to promote TRANSPORT.
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TRANSPORT (Book One) can be found here:
AMAZON
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