Werewolf Zombie wanders the streets of Grand Rapids

From the GRAND RAPIDS HERALD Sunday August 30 2026

 

 

"Something has been tearing into Grand Rapidians, both living and undead, causing a wave of panic among the surviving denizens of Grand Rapids and surrounding countryside.

 

"It is NOT the work of a horde of FZ's (Feral Zombies) or some sort of marauding band of violent Loyalists or any other group," Mayor Dennis Honeywell was reported saying.

 

The Mayor's statement was based on medical staff, escorted by Grand Rapids Central Command, looking at the remains of both living and unliving civilians found torn to literal shreds on the city's southwest side and bodies found severely mutilated in the UCRA.

 

"There have been no reports of Ferals within the city or within the Urban Civilian Retention Area. However, we haven't ruled out that something from the old John Ball Park Zoo hasn't emerged and escaped," Honeywell said.

 

The John Ball Park Zoo, on the city's west side and contained within its own protective fence line, was cordoned off years ago after it was found geneticists of Valley State University had been using its occupants for mutation experiments.

 

"We will continue to follow this story as more details come to light."

 

 

TRANSPORT to IMAGINARIUM

My panelist and moderator schedule for the forthcoming IMAGINARIUM Convention in Louisville KY this September is here!

I am looking forward to meeting the Seventh Star Press team (my publisher) and SSP authors, other writers and all sorts of new people and new friends.

My IMAGINARIUM Schedule:

Saturday      11:00 AM     Cover Lovin'

Saturday      7:00 PM        The Zombie Horde

Sunday        9:00 AM        Lone Hero Vs. Heroic Group

Sunday        11:00 AM      Into the Wastelands (M)

I will also be at the Seventh Star Press table/booth, hanging with the SSP crew and signing books.

Hope to see you there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 19-21 2014 Louisville, KY

at the Crowne Plaza Hotel

The Imaginarium offers a wealth of programming, events, and all kinds of fun for those who enjoy the world of creative writing!

The Imaginarium is open to all genres, and explores all kinds of creative writing, from books, to comics/graphic novels, screenplays, blogging, and much more!

The convention opens to the public at 4pm on Friday and runs through ...the close of the Awards Banquet on Sunday (which starts at 5pm). Programming begins at 9am on Saturday and Sunday, and for the most part panels end by 9pm on Friday and Saturday.

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TRANSPORT (Book One) can be found here:

AMAZON

Paperback

Kindle

BARNES & NOBLE

SCHULER BOOKS

Paperback

  

Stranger in a Strange Place

Yeah, I can be a little weird at times. Fuck it. Go crazy!

 

 

Admittedly, I can be a little strange, a little bizarre, a little too intense, a little too wrapped up in my work. It is not a bad thing I suppose.

 

Not a bad thing, but sometimes I feel like I am all alone out there, in my crazy little writing world.

 

I spend my early morning hours with a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee before me, with the computer on and current manuscript pulled up on the screen, writing some, thinking more, trying to keep myself away from loading up MINECRAFT and playing for a bit...because I am subconsciously, or perhaps, very consciously, trying to avoid writing the words that I know are in me and wanting to come out, perhaps a little afraid of putting down that next written line, if it is good enough, if I am even pursuing something that is legit and worth reading let alone worth writing.

 

I think sometimes, when friends and family ask WHAT ARE YOU WRITING, and I tell them, I get the approving nod but also can see a glimmer of WHAT THE HELL? I don't expect anyone to GET IT, be you a reader of specific, Fantasy, whathaveyou. I know we all do not share the same interests (Thank God) and THAT can be what makes things work with this whole machine called living and life.

 

Whoever said WRITING CAN BE A LONELY PLACE wasn't kidding.

 

But, you know what, on the positive side, I am doing something I have ALWAYS ALWAYS enjoyed doing. It has always been therapeutic for a kid and guy trying to figure out the world on the outside, having a place to go on the inside and a means (talent?) to put it back on the outside (writing) and, wow! even being published and read. A dream come true? Hell yes. Being able to write and be read, hell yeah, a dream come true.

 

Not sure why the deep thoughts, maybe due to remembering my dad (Donald Welmerink 1933-2004), the passing of comedic artist Robin Williams, a full moon, some exciting good things in my life making me anxious, some stressful bullshit stuff making me anxious, the anniversary of a major anxiety attack which was NO FUCKING FUN at the time...I don't why the deep thoughts.

 

I'm going to turn this thing around now.

 

Life is good. It is big and good.

 

I got family, friends, a job, a writing gig. Got opportunities if I want to be a little crazy and pursue them.

 

And like the music artist SEAL sings: How we ever gonna survive unless we get a little crazy?

PETER WELMERINK: Five Things I Learned Writing TRANSPORT

 

The HURON, a 72-ton heavy transport vehicle and an army of four; tracked, racked and ready to roll, to serve and protect the walled metropolis of Grand Rapids — both her living and her undead. Captain Jacob Billet and his crew patrol the byways, ready for trouble.

 

William Lettner, the North Shore Coalition High Commissioner, has enemies from the mainland to the lakeshore. He needs to be covertly transported back home after a disastrous meeting in Grand Rapids. He has no love for a city that give unliving civilians the right to survive.

Assigned to bring Lettner home, Billet finds himself assaulted and insulted by the commissioner's venomous outbursts every mile travelled as they move through the treacherous landscape between Grand Rapids and the shore of Lake Michigan.

 

To complete the mission, Billet, the HURON and her crew will have to face domesticated zombies and the feral undead; marauders holding strategic chokepoints hostage; barricaded villages fighting for survival, and a group of geneticists who’ve lost control of one of their monstrous experiments.

 

Travelling through West Michigan was never so dangerous.

 

***

 

DREAM IT, DO IT
I have been writing stories about epic Sword & Sorcery tales and Military forays for as long as I could put pen to paper. When I got the idea pumping through my system about the TRANSPORT series, and wrote that first manuscript, and submitted it to a publisher, and got it picked up for publication; BAM! Dream come true.

 

If you have an idea, and it keeps burning in your mind, and you can't shake it from your system, or it simply doesn't fade away, then you HAVE TO DO IT! Set some time aside. Put your butt in the chair and your body to the drawing board, keyboard, paper napkin, in front of you and start getting that idea down. Make it happen, because, who knows, you might have a BAM! DREAM COME TRUE.

 

CLICHE? WHAT CLICHE?
I did not set out to write another ZOMBIE-engorged tale when I sat down to write the TRANSPORT series. It was first about writing a fictional, somewhat futuristic, post-apoc tale set in my old hometown GRAND RAPIDS and somehow mix a strong military presence into it with cool soldiers, big armored military vehicles and a lot of action. The zombie aspects were sprinkled in after a thought of: WHAT ELSE CAN I THROW IN THE STORY FOR ADDED CHAOS. I like zombies so, it was zombies.

 

But MY ZOMBIES ARE DIFFERENT.



Bob the zombie service station attendant

Illo by Tim Holtrop

I don't want my characters having to run away from zombies. No mass of brain-hungry rotters rampaging berserkly (new word) killing every living thing. Sure, I have the FERAL "wild dog" zombies on the outskirts of town, like giant biting pesky Horseflies always swarming about, but I also have "civilian" zombies...the unfortunate city folk who have succumb to the virus and trip-shamble about the large fenced-in retention area that is on the west side of Grand Rapids across the river from city central. There are laws to protect those undead, and they are fed doped meat to keep them "tranquil" while City Central tries to figure out what to do with them.

 

And then you have BOB the 1950's gas station attendant zombie.

 

IT'S EASY SOMETIMES WHEN IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD
TRANSPORT Book One was all in my head. The beginning, middle and end were all there right from the get-go. I knew what I wanted, when I wanted it, where to put it. I knew the characters though they came even more to life when I started writing them. Some characters and scenarios just POPPED ONTO THE PAGE when my main group entered their locale in the story stream.

 

Basically BOOK ONE was fully imagined before I wrote it. It was easy to write. It just flowed out of me onto the page.

 

Book Two (TRANSPORT: HUNT FOR THE FALLEN) was a bit harder to write. I think sequels are always a little harder to plop down on page because, it's like, you almost know too much about everything, how do you make this all fit now, what can you do to RAMP THINGS UP, escalate the story line, the plot line, to possibly make it even better than the first book.

 

I figured it out and after some heavy duty, thorough reviewing and revising, I really like how Book Two has come out.

 

Book Three (TRANSPORT: UNCIVIL WAR) harkens back to Book One. I know where I am going, where I am taking things, and it has been fairly easy to write, and I'm having fun doing it.

 

A COUNTRYSIDE FULL OF POSSIBILITY
I scaled my story down to mainly the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and West Michigan spanning an area on the west side of the state, from Grand Rapids then westward between Holland and Muskegon which are along the Lake Michigan lakeshore. If you look at this area on a map, you can see it isn't necessarily a HUGE area. IT IS ENOUGH FOR MY STORYLINE.

 

Besides having large cities and small towns peppering the region, there are also a lot of wild woodlands, farms, etc., scattered about West Michigan. Miles upon miles of opportunity for both urban and rural chaos.

 

And since I know this region very well, it made it the perfect place for the TRANSPORT series.

 

RESEARCH CAN YIELD NEW RESPECT AND KNOWLEDGE
I did a lot of research in the Military realm of things while writing TRANSPORT. I wanted realism even though the books and characters are works of fiction. I spoke with friends and folks who had either served in the Military or were currently serving. I read a lot of true real stories of battle across WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam and our more recent activities in the Middle East. They all added quite a bit of NEW RESPECT for the men and women in the field, for our veterans both past and present...and most likely, future.

 

I do have some worries about writing about the wins and losses of my fictional military characters as I am hoping I show no disrespect for our war fighters both past and present. I do not think I show disrespect, but when you have a new found respect for the real-life folks who forego a lot of pleasantries we take for granted, to serve and protect (this includes police and firefighters, etc.), sometimes I have a concern if I am doing this right. (I have gotten some feedback from some of these fine folks, and they say I am doing just fine. We all need levity from the real deal time to time.)

 

But then again, my military characters are honorable, fight for justice, serve and protect even in the most dire of situations and locals, just like the real-deal service folk.

 

I suppose, in a way, writing about my fictional MIL-characters, I am giving a respectful nod and salute to the non-fiction "characters" who are out there risking life and limb to assist and benefit our way of life.

A tank turret at the Russell Rd Military Museum

 

###

 

TRANSPORT (Book One) can be found here:

 

AMAZON

Paperback

Kindle

 

BARNES & NOBLE

 

SCHULER BOOKS

Paperback

 

 

  

###

Peter Welmerink (www.peterwelmerink.com) was born and raised on the west side of pre-apocalyptic Grand Rapids, Michigan. He loves his hometown and West Michigan, which is why he writes about it. He writes Fantasy, Military SciFi, and other wanderings into action-adventure. His work has been published in ye olde wood pulp print and electronic-online publications. He is the co-author of the Viking berserker novel, BEDLAM UNLEASHED, written with Steven Shrewsbury. TRANSPORT is his first solo novel venture. He is married with a small barbarian tribe of three boys.