Peter Welmerink's Grand Rapids: Altered History: 2015

Thursday, December 10, 2015

MICHIGAN SPACE EXPLORER RETURNS TO A STRANGE STATE

Captain Paul Wells, aka Space Voyager, has returned home from ten years in deep space. He finds his beloved state of Michigan, and his home on the shore line of Lake Michigan, not how he had left it.

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In my new SciFi Michigan-based series, I drop the main character into his homeland that has become barely the place he recognizes or remembers. 90% of the inhabitants of Michigan (at least the lower peninsula) have vacated the Mitten state after a man-made disaster, disagreements between the government and the mega-corporations who rule the roost, and a incursion of robotic beings, spawned from a rogue AI system in Grand Rapids, change the landscape of the place.

After the robotic Synth-Units, or Sues, attack and destroy his lake shore home and base, and curious about this "strange home" he's returned to, Captain Wells decides to venture deeper inland to the source of the Sues and the massive AI system called RAS. (rass)

His wanderings will get him into a heap of adventure... and trouble.

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An excerpt from RETURN TO STRANGE HOME:

"From the data I had reviewed upon descent, the Earth was the same as I had left it. The United States was still in turmoil over a power struggle between the government and the megacorporations. I could never keep up with every merger and dissolution of businesses into one huge company. Most big business moved south of the border and overseas, making the Tri-State area an industrial dead zone.

Michigan was still a forest realm, except on the east side of the state in what remained of Lansing and Detroit. West Michigan had returned almost fully to nature, the government keeping the area quarantined ever since a madman bathed it in a lethal cloud of bioagents over a decade ago. Last I’d heard the state was clean, but the government had struggled through innumerable lawsuits over the tragic incident, refusing to let people repopulate the area; which led to more lawsuits. The military kept it free from curious folk who wanted to venture into its reacquired natural state..."

Q&A with Peter Welmerink

Q: Why, in these currents stories and books, do you write Michigan as some sort of post-apoc No Man's land?

A: Because it's fun. Seriously, ever since I was little and could venture out into the "wilds" of my surrounding neighborhood, in my mind, there was always ADVENTURE there. Fictional and non-fic alike. I simply put my crazy writer's idea hat on, and came up with several challenging "doomsday" scenarios for the city and state I love.

Why should New York City, LA, Tokyo and Atlanta GA have all the fun?

Oh, and really, I am an upbeat, positive person.

Q: When did your Space Voyager character come to life? Are there any differences between the character from back-when to now?

A: Space Voyager came into being roughly 1978-1979. I did over 100 "issues" of a "comic book" drawing him as a stick figure. His ship, The Wild Blue, was part of his storyline even back then. His adventures were mostly cosmic, off-earth and very, very strange. He did have some planet-side adventures, though these meandered into tales with dinosaurs and other oddities. I was 14-15 after all.

The current rendition of Captain Paul Wells/Space Voyager was done by the talented Tim Holtrop. Not a stick figure any more, Captain Wells is a fully fleshed out character. No comics done of him though... for now.

The current Space Voyager tales have the character on Earth, fighting the good fight, trying to right things if possible. And the tone is much more serious.

RETURN TO STRANGE HOME

Author: Peter Welmerink

Publisher: Peninsulam Publishing

Art: Tim Holtrop

paperback

ebook

Friday, October 23, 2015

GR Comic Con interview with the WRITTEN IN THE MITTEN authors

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Green Plastic Soldiers

The simpler days.

Playing with my buddy Mike in the alley over near his house.

Or in the sandbox over at my house. (After we picked out all the cat turd landmines from the tractor tire sandbox.)

Simpler times, simpler days.

Probably because we were in deep and wrapped around the axle with the events of the day and times. We didn't know enough about the real world, or knew just enough to not grind us down.

But we'd take our little, green plastic soldiers, and tanks, and some 2 1/2-ton plastic trucks, and have our battles in the alley.

Maybe noises that we thought might sound like a tank--BROOM BROOM CLANK CLANK--we drove up sheer vertical walls, parking on concrete slab ledges, overlooking the gravel-filled valley. Our troops would climb up behind us, falling us, keeping behind cover, though we were all easy targets out in the open, climbing up a vertical wall above a gravel-strewn floor (the alley way surface).

BROOM BROOM CLANK CLANK.

We'd make it to the very top slab of the broken concrete slab cliff, where we'd meet the neighbors lawn---an expansive field that went go on and on for scale miles. Our vehicles had a hard time making through the tall grasses, so we'd drive along the broken and bumpy slabs of concrete, rolling along, high above the gravel-filled valley.

The enemy? I don't know. Maybe we had plastic blue soldiers who would parallel our movement down below, falling us through the alley along the alley floor. If our men would look down there, those other guys would hunker under a slab of broken concrete, hug the broken rock wall, hide from our eagle eye gaze.

Maybe someone would get shot at. A guy would fall from our battalion, fall right over the edge of the cliff. If he didn't fall to the gravel floor far below, and maybe get hung up on one of the ledges we recently ascended, we'd rescue him. I don't think anyone really died. And I know we left no one behind.

Sometimes there would be no enemy. We'd just drive along, fighting more the elements, the big puddles or a worm crossing our path. A shiny trail from a slug? "Careful, men, could be poison that rubs off on you, sinks right through your boots."

My personal favorite guy to play was the green plastic flamethrower guy. I am pretty sure that was his official name in my young book--FLAMETHROWER GUY.

I am having a grand day today, and for some reason (or maybe it is more obvious than I think) I am thinking back to younger days, when I played ARMY with my buddy, outside, in the fresh air, in the dirt, making BROOM BROOM CLANK CLANK noises as we moved our tanks and trucks and green army men out along the alley way floor.

Simpler times.

Or maybe we just knew how to not get so wrapped around the axle with events of the day and times.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

..........TRANSPORT TRILOGY COMPLETE..........

The rollin', rockin', 72-tons of Military Action-Adventure Thriller, set in West Michigan, with zombies, is complete.

All three books are now available for reading consumption.

See below for details. And enjoy!

TRANSPORT (Book One)

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 and needs to be covertly transported home after his helicopter is shot down en route to Grand Rapids. He has no love for a city that give unliving civilians the right to survive. Lettner’s venomous outbursts assaults Billet and his crew along every mile travelled as they are assigned to safely bring him through the treacherous landscape outside the city back to his hometown.

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 if they want to complete their mission.

The crew will need to stay strong and trust one another in order to finish the mission and bring their “precious” cargo home, even knowing, all the while, the terrible deeds Lettner has done.

Travelling through West Michigan was never so dangerous.

"Peter Welmerink’s keen ability to create atmosphere is magical." -- Jake Elliot, reviewer

Book Links

AMAZON

B&N

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TRANSPORT (Book Two)

HUNT FOR THE FALLEN

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.

"Zombies... The concept has become a cliche. To successfully create such a story any more, there must be unique elements to make the new tale stand out from the countless others out there. Transport succeeds in this endeavor and provides a zombie story not quite like ones you have seen previously." -- Rage Circus Book Reviews

"What a great read. There’s so much action and intrigue. And the zombies are sporting a new twist too." --laurathomas61, Book Reviewer

Book Links

AMAZON

B&N

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TRANSPORT (Book Three)

UNCIVIL WAR

All is not well in the big city of Grand Rapids. Anti-Zombie Loyalists, loyalists of the late William Lettner, have set the city ablaze… Or so thinks the mayor, ruling city council and the military authority. Little do they know, a snake dwells in their midst, creating this chaos, planning an overthrow of the city’s leadership, with intentions much like Lettner: eradicate the non-living nuisances, and also any of the living who get in the way.

Battle will rage from Grand Rapids streets, into the UCRA enclosure where the city’s protected undead wander, to a small train station and military encampment in the village of Lamont.

And all is not well for Captain Jacob Billet. Coming out of a 3-month coma, he finds he has changed. Not for the better. With the deceased William Lettner dogging his every move, and knowing his days are most likely numbered, Jake just wants to make it to his old homestead before his condition sets him on a different, and very much undesirable path.

"...far more compelling than most of the zombie stories you’re likely to pick up...a fascinating sign of where zombie narrative, road narrative, and narrative in general might be moving..."

-- L. Andrew Cooper's Horrific Scribblings

Book Links

AMAZON

B&N

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Humble Message from Author

Folks, I have to #1. thank Seventh Star Press for picking up this little project and making it all possible and come to life (or UNLIFE as it also goes LOL), and #2. thank you to all of you who have so far mentioned your joy and distain for the project. IT'S ALL GOOD.

I had a great time writing this particular series. My main goal was to write something military-esque (as I have always been interested in all things Military since a very young age), and the story taking place in my ole hometown region (Grand Rapids rocks! West Michigan rocks! There IS adventure here.), and maybe pepper some of my favorite "monsters", ie, zombies, into the mix.

It was all fun to write, and so far, from most of the comments and reviews I've received (thank you for those also), the common comment coming from readers is that IT IS FUN TO READ. Yes, yes. There are many gory, gross parts. Lots of intense action. But I have also tried to lighten it up with a human, living group of characters who are sometimes more giving each other shit (poking fun at each other) even amidst the effed-up world they are trying to survive in.

Anyway, I thank you for your interest and all comments.

Roll out! Read on!

Sincerely--

Peter Welmerink

Hiding in his bunker :)

October 2015

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Welmerink (www.peterwelmerink.com) was born and raised on the west side of pre-apocalyptic Grand Rapids, Michigan. He appreciates his hometown and West Michigan, which is why he enjoys writing tales about it. He writes Fantasy, Military SciFi, and other wanderings into action-adventure. His work has been published in ye olde wood pulp (paper) 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 series. He is married with a small barbarian tribe of three boys.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pwelmerink
Twitter: @pwelmerink

BLOGS
grandrapidsaltered.blogspot.com (TRANSPORT and other Alt History Michigan-related posts)
darkheroicfantasy.blogspot.com (author interviews and all things fantastical)

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Another fresh, new action-adventure available: RETURN TO STRANGE HOME, a Military-esque action-adventure, soft SciFi mini-novel, set on the lakeshore of West Michigan.

Publisher: Peninsulam Publishing.

Book Links

DIRECT FROM PUBLISHER

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Strangeness All Around

By Joe Cross, Urban Salvage Engineer*

Yeah, I know I shouldn't be over here. Definitely too close to the big city. Could get my head blown off, or brutally attacked by some of the Ferals that congregate on this side of the fence line. But I've been hearing a lot about the goings-on in Grand Rapids from my Reganshire "friends," and since I probably won't be getting inside the city without the aforementioned getting my "head blown off" (Grand Rapidians and their military persons don't take kindly to Reganshire folk nowadays)...

My little look-see, parked here on Interstate 196 overlooking the darkened UCRA and the glimmering lights of the LIVING downtown Grand Rapids area... Yes, this is close enough.

They have the expressway in and around the city fenced off big time. I checked for cameras and motion detectors before I rolled in here. At 2am, I don't expect any major patrols or anything from the city, but I didn't get to be 39 years old, in this day and age, without being cautious. And probably a little bit lucky.

Electrified on the western edges of the expressway fence line, insulated gloves and, well, a "borrowed" key to the Market Avenue vehicle entrance, got me to this location without issue.

So I sit here, me and Albert, my little brown bear traveling companion, checking out the big city of Grand Rapids. Their local undead moan and howl--like someone with their head underwater--on the darkened west side of town where they are caged, and let to roam about while waiting for--what?--a cure to their dilemma? I get the whole "don't hurt them because they are the unfortunate, afflicted family and friends of the city" but, umm, hey, you living city folk...THEY'RE FUCKING DEAD!

Yet, yeah, as I sit here longer, listening to the sounds of those doped-up undead folk so protected by the city, hearing their lone calls in the night... Shit, I gotta admit, it kind of gets to me, softens me up when really thinking about it. I mean, if there would've been a way to preserve my own family like Grand Rapids is doing below, even if I knew they weren't coming back to any truly LIVING sort of existence... I don't know, I'd probably be okay with them being part of the UCRA also, kept doped up and tranquil, fed by the city some sort of drugged meat slop, clothed and welcomed by a bunch of nuns at some sort of zombie outreach ministry center, and protected by the city's military organization: the Grand Rapids Central Command.

"And then the city has quarreling civilians and city leaders, some wanting to erase their local undead from the city's slate, while others simply want to leave their Unfortunates alone. All sorts of fucked-updom going on around here," I say to Albert.

I shift in my seat. My jeep rocks. Albert's dusty little brown shoulders seem to shrug and his head lolls forward and back a few times until the vehicle stops rocking.

"Glad you agree with me, partner," I bod also. "Let's meander out of here before a patrol or some Ferals stumble upon us."

I start up the engine, wince a little at its initial loud growl. I quickly put it into LOW 1, and quietly turn and get us going in the direction we came. There's some old storage compound out Hudsonville way I want to get in and out of before morning, get back to Reganshire, maybe have a place to sleep again if I salvage something good. I hope there's no one living or unloving there. I hate wasting ammo but...

The world's a strange place now, and a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do.

"Right, Albert, ole buddy?"

We hit a bump in the crumpled asphalt roadway.

Albert's head falls backwards like he's exasperated.

He's heard it all before.

The TRANSPORT Series is a Military Thriller, with zombies, set in a Post-POST zompocalypse world. We're still here. They're still here. There's more trouble with the living, breathing folk trying to beat their neighbors to a pulp than the shambling denizens on the outskirts of town.

Enter Captain Jacob Billet, his crew and their 72 ton M213 Heavy Transport Vehicle, The HURON. They'll complete their missions, or turn undead trying.

TRANSPORT (Book One) and TRANSPORT (Book Two) HUNT FOR THE FALLEN are available now through booksellers everywhere.

TRANSPORT (Book Three) UNCIVIL WAR is due out the 2nd week of September 2015.
Published by Seventh Star Press.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Summer in the Urban Civilian Retention Area (UCRA)

By Captain Jacob E. Billet

I remember my youth, wandering the west side streets of Grand Rapids. We'd ride our bikes down Lake Michigan Drive, the hot asphalt sucking at our rubber bike tires. My mother would bring us kids to the West Side Public Library on Bridge Street, we'd get some books, read for a while under the shade on the front lawn of St. James Catholic Church next door. A few bucks saved, my young friends and I would ride or walk over to the Dairy Queen on Fulton Street, get a Peanut Buster Parfait or a Dilly Bar. We'd go swimming at the Lincoln Park pool: ice cold water and heavy chlorine smell.

The only smell near that old pool nowadays: the city's local undead.

Other than the feeding runs and surveillance patrols, the moment the weather gets warmer, where the heat and sun can start to "bake meat," the city has us load up with 50 gallon drums of cool, refreshing water, an extra air compressor, generator and several heavy duty garden hose. It's not for our sake, to cool down us, or to play "wet habit time" with the nuns at the WSA. (Cripes, Stokes is really getting to me. That's something he'd only say, though not in the company of those battle-hardened, holy sisters.)

Shower time is for the UCRA civilians. The folks on the other side of the river, the living populace, with their "care and concern" for their undead neighbors, want these poor, rotting folk on THIS side of the river to enjoy a cool misting of water.

Sure, I understand why. Sun baked zombies equals hellacious smell, dried out, peeling flesh (nothing worse than a rotter shedding their skin, or in this case, a entire populace of undead littering the streets with orange-peel flesh...it's like Autumn with leaves blowing about the streets), skin frying and sticking to pavement.

So we hose them down.

We drive up and down the streets, main ones first--Bridge, Stocking, Fulton, Lane, Lake Michigan Drive, Valley, then sweeps up Butterworth back to downtown.

It can be a day long excursion with us doing nothing else but giving the locals a soap-less shower.

Still, I'm almost glad the city cordoned off this neighborhood. It has kept most of the places of my childhood from being destroyed.

Yeah, I can't simply walk about like the old days, but sometimes it's just nice to see the old places. Though maybe NOT some of the old faces.

No one informed me that Mrs. Van Duin was undead and upright, still living in the corner house, two houses down from where I grew up. Used to wear heavy make-up back in the day. Ugh. She could use it now for sure.

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For Captain Billet's further adventures in the UCRA and about Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2025, check out TRANSPORT. Available in ebook and paperback through most booksellers.

TRANSPORT (Book One)

Amazon http://amzn.to/1DOQNPl

B&N http://bit.ly/1xDXMck

TRANSPORT (Book Two) HUNT FOR THE FALLEN

B&N http://bit.ly/1titw5T

Amazon http://amzn.to/1vq0ORF

TRANSPORT (Book Three) UNCIVIL WAR

To be released July/August 2015

Publisher: Seventh Star Press LLC

Info:

grandrapidsaltered.blogspot.com

peterwelmerink.com

Sunday, May 17, 2015

LCpl Loutonia Phelps in Action and Action Figure

Been a while, my friends.

Just so you know, TRANSPORT: UNCIVIL WAR (Book Three) is done being written and in editing stage. My publisher, Seventh Star Press, is shooting for a July 2015 release. The cover art is done. (Jason Conley from TN) The interior art is done. (Tim Holtrop fro MI) And with the editorial assistance of Mr. Scott Sandridge, hopefully we can make this last book in the TRANSPORT trilogy rock the house.

In the meanwhile, I have found some military action-figures that I have been messing around with. I will show you the HURON's crew shortly.

I couldn't find a good Loutonia Phelps figure so my talented friend, Mr. Russ Colter, who is a 1/18th scale figure kitbasher did up a "Loutonia Phelps" for me. (I had tried. Failed miserably with a much too "manly" Phelps figure so he stepped in. Fortunately.)

Way back in the day, before the TRANSPORT Series was even picked up by a publisher, I was talking with master artiste Tim Holtrop about the series and my ideas of characters, action scenes and such. He did a sketch of a scene out of TRANSPORT: HUNT FOR THE FALLEN where LCpl Phelps makes a leap of faith from the 72-ton HURON to the 68-ton DEVASTATOR to try and stop the tank from blowing the HURON and her friends to Kingdom Come.

Recently, I met a digital artist through my day job work place, Mr Lee Trevino, who said he muck about with the actual scale vehicles and figures I possess and try some "character shots."

Putting it all together, here's some of the cool, fine work done by friends and fellow TRANSPORT enthusiasts:

(All art 2014-2015 copyright their respective owners.)

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

TRANSPORT (Book One) ebook for .99 cents ONE DAY

Start from the start for one glorious day only.

Seventh Star Press, publisher of my TRANSPORT series, is offering TRANSPORT (Book One) for .99 cents on these platforms.

Kindle
TRANSPORT Book One
http://amzn.to/1wXrwlv

Nook
TRANSPORT Book One
http://bit.ly/1C67cQS

Kobo
TRANSPORT Book One
http://bit.ly/1Ezg0PB

POST Post-Apocalyptic. Military. Adventure... with zombies.

What some reviewers have to say:

"...far more compelling than most of the zombie stories you're likely to pick up...a fascinating sign of where zombie narrative, road narrative, and narrative in general might be moving..."

--L. Andrew Cooper's Horrific Scribblings

"...great cover... absolutely love the interior illustrations...top notch...impressed with the caliber of the writing in this one..."

---Bee's Knees Review

"...faced with the two most common threats in modern horror, zombes and basic human nature...it does not feel like something we have seen time and time again..."

--The Rage Circus Versus The Soulless Void

Monday, February 23, 2015

TRANSPORT Book Series Trailer

What is the TRANSPORT Series about?

This is different.

Zombies are all the rage. Well, WERE all the rage back in 2013 when the H7N9 pandemic caused the zomb-pocalypse.

But, wait, this is different.

We got beyond the zombie affliction. Yes, THEY are still here amongst us, but as Humankind typically does, we've dug ourselves out of the mayhem and piles of rotting bodies, and we're moving onward.

Well, along with zombies still in our midst.

Wait! None of those rotting flesh, flesh-eating creatures are coming after us living folk?

Well, no, unless you travel out of the confines of the walled and fenced in communities. Grand Rapids is the "mother" of all the communities in West Michigan in 2025. Reganshire (formerly known as Standale) would be the second largest until you get out to the lakeshore where you have Muskegon, Fruitport, Norton Shore and Grand Haven all part of the massive North Shore Coalition.

There are Feral zombies on the outskirts of these towns.

But you ask, "What about this undead gent in the gas station blue coveralls shambling towards me, is he going to eat my brains or something?"

No no, that is just Bob the 1950's gas station attendant zombie. He'll probably ask you if you want a new set of white walls and a 25 cents a gallon gasoline fill-up.

He's harmless due to he is kept in the Urban Civilian Retention Area (UCRA) and fed doped meat by product to keep him tranquil and friendly... just like the other 3000+ undead Grand Rapids civilians who live in the enclosure on the west side of town. There are laws about hurting and killing them as they are someone's poor afflicted family members or friends.

Yes, it's a crazy world in this POST-post apocalyptic world.

That's why we're here: the military. Hello recruit, my name is Captain Jacob Billet. The big ass armored rig behind me is the M213 Heavy Transport Vehicle THE HURON. 72 tons of asphalt-crushing, body-grinding (if you get in the way) trouble. We get all the shit jobs. Sit down. Let me fill you in. Loutonia, roll the film...

TRANSPORT (Book One)
Amazon http://amzn.to/1DOQNPl
B&N http://bit.ly/1xDXMck

TRANSPORT (Book Two) HUNT FOR THE FALLEN
B&N http://bit.ly/1titw5T
Amazon http://amzn.to/1vq0ORF

TRANSPORT (Book Three) UNCIVIL WAR -- due out July/August 2015

Publisher: Seventh Star Press LLC

Info:
grandrapidsaltered.blogspot.com
peterwelmerink.com

Saturday, January 10, 2015

UPDATE Hunt for the Fallen Book Display

Hello all.

I wanted to show you where things are at with, at least, the tank centerpiece for my WIP book display for HUNT FOR THE FALLEN (TRANSPORT Book Two) live promo activities.

I am not done with adding detail...more gear, insignia, battle damage, etc., to the vehicle and final diorama base.

I also found a scale figure (1/18th) of a soldier in NBC gear (nuclear, biological, chemical) who is donning a full gas mask apparatus. May incorporate that figure into the scene.

So without further rambling, here are some pix...