I've Been Bad

I've been bad. I haven't updated this blog since January of this year. Time flies when you're working and doin' the family thang, and breathing, and writing, and running around.

Also, I let certain things going on in our nation get me down, batter my spirit and make me feel like WHY I AM EVEN DOING THIS WRITING STUFF?

I have to tell you, being down and letting it get the best of you, killing your passion for life, when it is something you really can't control...that is bad and you shouldn't let the stuff you can't directly control or influence kill your creative spirit or drive for life. Keep moving forward. KEEP MOVING FORWARD.

As it's been a while since I have spoken to you, dear friend and reader, I have a few offers from my written work that have since been released for public consumption.

BULL is the second novella involving JOE CROSS: URBAN SALVAGE ENGINEER. The last time we'd seen him (Running with the Devil), he and his stuffed brown bear companion Albert had been goat-roped into working for Reganshire, a very nasty little place to the west of Grand Rapids.

In BULL, you get to find out what became of the massive mutated bull that crashed and trashed the VSU campus out in Allendale in TRANSPORT. You thought it was gone. Nope. Still here.

On a salvaging mission to get some "treasure maps" of northern Michigan, Joe barely gets out of town when he runs across two Reganite troopers who want to head to the lakeshore for a new life. They want Joe to take them and are very persuasive as they do it at gun point.

Fate or luck (the bad kind) step in and decide different.

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The second offering of my writing insanity is THE SAGA OF BRACCUS STRAUN. This is a epic fantasy yarn that I have been working on, and re-working, for quite some time. I finally got it all spit and polished, and it came out around Halloween of this year.

Braccus was and is a labor of love and a huge nod to the purple prose and fantasy pulp fiction I read as a kid and young adult...and still read from time to time now. It is definitely a nod towards Michael Moorcock's ELRIC character and his "living sword" STORMBRINGER. I liked the idea of a character venturing across the land with a sentient weapon at his side. Braccus Straun and his sentient whip were the result.

In this first book, we meet Braccus Straun: husband, father and town executioner. He is simply trying to provide for his family, and took the only job a lumbering gent like he could acquire. Unfortunately, he picks the wrong day to go into work as a very very powerful sorcerer, Falkair Kem, decides he's had enough of the local king butchering his people. He ensnares Brac's wife and young daughter, puts a 48-hour poison in Brac's system and sends the big man on a series of missions to acquire magical artifacts to take down the king.

Should Brac succeed in acquiring all the items Kem wants, Straun's wife and daughter will go free though Brac will still die from the poison. If Brac fails, the sorcerer promises the man will see his family butchered before his dying eyes the same way Brac butchered Falkair's associates.  

If you are looking for truly EPIC fantasy adventure, you need go no further than reading about the adventures of Braccus Straun.

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Going forward, I will try and not be so bad as to let this blog stagnate.

If you are interested in purchasing any of the books mentioned (other than Michael Moorcock's LOL), I have a link here in which you can purchase directly from me and I will send you a signed copy.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD.

Pete

BULL (Peninsulam Publishing) 

$7.99 + $2.63 shipping and handling within continental US

THE SAGA OF BRACCUS STRAUN (APW Productions)

$11.99 + $2.63 shipping and handling within continental US

TRANSPORT (Book One) (Seventh Star Press)

$10.00 + $2.63 shipping and handling within continental US

An Interview with JOE CROSS: URBAN SALVAGE ENGINEER

By Grand Rapids Herald Reporter, Pink Watermink

As far as adventures in the POST post-zompoc West Michigan and along the Lake Michigan lakeshore, all the way from his hometown of Alsip, Illinois, JOE CROSS has been through quite a bit. After coming up to the Grand Rapids area, Joe worked for the Wyoming-Grandville Consortium, and then, after revealing his skills, became a member of the infamous village of Reganshire.

We caught up with Joe, his stuffed toybear traveling companion, Albert, and his vehicle called Lacey, just before leaving for Grand Rapids Proper with the daughter of Reganshire's town leader, Rebecca Regan.

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WATERMINK: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk to you.

CROSS: Buddy, you cornered me. Lucky I'm not one of the true locals, or you would've gotten your head blown up.

(Watermink Note: Reganshire isn't known to be the friendliest of places. It may have something to do with the rows of spiked heads waving along the village's fence-line perimeter. End note.)

WATERMINK: What is a URBAN SALVAGE ENGINEER anyway? What do you do? Do you need special training?

CROSS: In a less glorified title, some people might call us Trash Collectors. But in this day and age, the stuff we collect can be used for building, trading ...survival. As people have migrated to walled and fenced and guarded cities and towns, there is a lot they left behind, and I am one of those that can be contacted to go outside comfortable confines and, hopefully, bring you back what you've requested or need. You don't need special training, just a good head on your shoulders, a rational (or maybe not) thinking brain inside that head, a fully gassed-up vehicle ...and a gun or ten.

WATERMINK: Do you simply collect things for other people, or for yourself also?

CROSS: I need to survive also, so often times, if I am just working for myself, I go out and "salvage" things I can take back to town and sell or trade.

WATERMINK: Besides the feral zombies still wandering the land, do you run across any other things or creatures that have tried to foil your salvaging activities?

(Watermink Note: Cross looks at me funny here. Like I ought to know something that recently transpired. End Note.)

CROSS: The zombies, really, are nothing compared to, ummm, some of the BULL I've run across out there.

(Watermink Note: Cross pauses, looking at me again like I should know something of importance or that has recently made news. End Note.)

WATERMINK: Elaborate please.

CROSS: You're from the Grand Rapids Herald? Grand Rapids?

WATERMINK: Yes, umm, well, I was stationed in Lansing until recently so...

CROSS: That explains it. Anyway, yes, there are some big ass, wild animals roaming these parts because of, what I've heard, some geneticists from the local university mucked around with diseased DNA, trying to find a cure for the Undead. I think that DNA testing statement was a lie, as what I've seen out there are ...things much more frightening than the actual Undead. So I wouldn't recommend going unescorted, say, west of Grand Rapids and Reganshire, though I may have helped take care of one of the bigger threats out there.

(Watermink Note: Cross seems to shiver uncontrollably at this last statement, and his dour look tells me he'd rather not discuss the subject further. End Note.)

WATERMINK: The latest news is that you are taking Rebecca Regan into Grand Rapids. I thought the Regans, old man Silas, and Rebecca were on the outs with the big city.

CROSS: Where did you hear this? Is it common knowledge in Grand Rapids that Regan is heading there?

(Watermink Note: Cross seems suddenly very, very nervous. End Note.)

WATERMINK: No, not common news at all outside of Reganshire. I just learned about the trip when I stepped foot in here. I take it Grand Rapids and good Mayor Honeywell don't know you are coming to visit?

CROSS: ...

WATERMINK: If there is something you need to say off record, feel free. I know the price if you get in trouble around here.

(Watermink Note: Severed heads on pikes along town perimeter. Armed Reganshire guardsmen in black uniforms. Stockades in town square. A stone's throw west into the feral wilderness. Nuff said. End Note.)

CROSS: ... Myself, personally, I think it's a bad idea to bring Rebecca Regan into the city. I don't know where her father actually left things with Grand Rapids, but, for better or for worse, I think taking his daughter in there might end up being extremely ...catastrophic.

WATERMINK: How so? Do you know her motives?

CROSS: I don't. That's why it's a bit unsettling. She's given me various reasons to take her: visiting an old boyfriend ...nasty... going after one of her mother's stolen heirlooms ...I never have heard what happened to her mother... having a meet-up with a pharmacist-of-sorts...

WATERMINK: Drug dealer? I know that goes on in the city. I heard they use some of the local undead as mules.

CROSS: Heard rumors of that.

WATERMINK: Who is going to the city with you, just yourself and Rebecca?

CROSS: The Regans never travel without their big-armed, armed thugs. Rebecca's got four giant gentlemen she plans on taking, along with her personal nurse of who I think is more CAPTIVE participant than willing assistant. 

WATERMINK: How much city opposition do you think you'll face if Rebecca goes in with hostilities?

CROSS: Oh geez. Let's see: the city police, the city militia Grand Rapids Central Command. Tanks. Armored gun vehicles. Troops with all many of weaponry.

WATERMINK: I get it. And, honestly, you're going why?

CROSS: ... (He nods towards the rotting heads waving on the pikes.) I kinda have no choice, and since Rebecca knows I'm a Salvage Engineer and can help her find those aforementioned items I mentioned earlier...

(At this point, Joe Cross looks at the toy stuffed brown bear, he says something to it that I don't think I hear correctly. "You think I ought to shut up you say, Albert? Maybe you're right." And he seems to wait for the things response. A vehicle drives past us, rumbling the ground. The bear's head wobbles back and forward a few times.)

CROSS: I think we're done with this interview. Where can I read this when it comes out?

(I look at the heads again. Those rotting, sad heads wagging on those tall poles.)

WATERMINK: I'll ...um... be in contact when the interview is published. Good luck with your excursion into Grand Rapids. I'll say hello if I see you.

CROSS: (Under his breath but just loud enough for me to hear) With Rebecca Regan with me, you may want to NOT do that.

END OF INTERVIEW

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There's a monster in Grand Rapids. The dread beast's name is Rebecca Regan, and Joe Cross can be blamed for bringing her into the big city. A vengeful spirit cannot be calmed or detoured. Joe discovers this when he ventures into Grand Rapids with Rebecca, her main body guards, and Regan's "medical attendee." Providing vague, questionable motives for entering the city, Regan's excursion quickly unravels into danger and chaos. In the midst of Grand Rapids' heavily-armed and mechanized militia, the GRPD, and a underground group of anti-zombie renegades, Joe finds there is no rest for the wary or the wicked. Joe is neck deep in it this time, and realizes, sometimes, you have to stand up, and take matters into your own hands to resolve a bad situation.

Where to get THE GIRL WHO RULED THE WORLD, the next JOE CROSS installment:
Amazon

Or for a signed copy by the author (free shipping in continental US), email: authorpeterwelmerink@gmail.com

Or, February 24th 2018 (Saturday) Peter Welmerink will be at THE COMIC SIGNAL where you can pick up this book and the other Joe Cross novellas and MORE!

KEEP MOVING FORWARD