I write ADVENTURE

I write adventure.

Happy 2017 We're going to have a good year, folks, regardless of anything else you hear. You can make it great. You can.

Here's what I've done to keep MY MACHINE, myself, going forward: following a passion I've had since I was a little kid.

Writing.

Writing tales of adventure.

Here's what I've done to date, as far as published and available works:
(Click on title to be brought to book store.)

Self-Published (ebook only)

A PARTING AT SUNSET
One of my first short Fantasy yarns. Saw publication in a few different anthologies way back in the day. Someone said it is very "purple prosey." Yup. Okay. I painted this one in broad swipes of color and detail and emotion.

Oh, and it is FREE.

Obliteration of the Blind

My blind Viking mercenary, Boldolf Andersson, in his first adventure. A bit of historical fiction laced with fantasy and intrigue and an ancient Lovecraftian beast from the dark ocean depths.

This was written during the time I was writing the BEDLAM UNLEASHED material with Steven Shrewsbury so I was quite submersed in Viking and ancient history lore.

This great little yarn is only 0.99 cents USD.

#

Below via various publishers (paperback and ebook)

HISTORICAL FANTASY FICTION

BEDLAM UNLEASHED

Staying on the epic and fantastical, heaped in historical real lands, mixed with the supernatural, turning some Fantasy tropes on their head, I bring you BEDLAM UNLEASHED. A truly epic Viking adventure featuring Erik Bedlam and his traveling companion, Alanis Johansson.

Written with larger-than-life and the very talented Steven L. Shrewsbury, if you like your adventuring big, raw and bloody action-packed, BEDLAM is for you.

This is the first book in a series of four.

Cover by the very talented Tim Holtrop 

Editor: Scott Sandridge

Publisher: Seventh Star Press

POST-APOC ADVENTURE FICTION
(paperback and ebook)

Science Fiction

RETURN TO STRANGE HOME
If you enjoy a action-packed romp with a adventure hero from the depths of space, arriving back on Earth and finding his home not quite the way he left it...STRANGE HOME is for you.

Cover: Tim Holtrop
Editor: Julie Williams-Bonner
Publisher: Peninsulam Publishing

Post-Zompocalypse Adventure

My TRANSPORT "universe" and story lines grew from a desire to write epic adventures in the very real place of my birth: Grand Rapids, Michigan. This fictional universe and characters, with some real locations peppered within, has been slapped down in a POST post-zombie apocalypse world. All the initial viral and zombie-eating-your-face insanity has come to pass and Humankind is re-building and moving forward. The Living are still here. The Undead are still here. Which group make the place a bit hellish, you can decide.

TRANSPORT
Travel with Captain Jacob Billet and crew and their 72-ton armored transport, the HURON, as they venture through West Michigan on a covert mission to bring the much-hated William Lettner back to his lake shore base of operations. The Living and Unliving dog their every step. The events outside the HURON are furious and fiery enough, however Captain Billet must maintain himself and keep his firearm from blasting what he carries within the HURON. Though Lettner doesn't realize it, he is being transported across the land by a angst-filled soldier, Billet, who knows Lettner is responsible for the horrible death of the Captain's wife and young son.

Cover: Jason C Conley

Editor: Rodney Carlstrom

Interior art: Tim Holtrop 

Publisher: Seventh Star Press

TRANSPORT: HUNT FOR THE FALLEN
Captain Billet and crew must pursue a rogue tank commander and his 68-ton very deadly Abrams through the flooded wasteland of West Michigan. With communications down, a group of local Undead washed downstream and wanted by the city (and possible unsavory people) and Billet struggling with some form of ailment, can a Heavy Transport Vehicle with a 25mm gun survive against a Main Battle Tank with a 120mm cannon ta boot?

Heavy duty action and adventure awaits.

Cover: Jason C Conley

Editor: Rodney Carlstrom

Interior art: Tim Holtrop 

Publisher: Seventh Star Press

TRANSPORT: UNCIVIL WAR
After a "heart attack," Captain Billet comes out a coma to find the world more upside down than when he fell prey to his ailing body. Mercenaries hired by a corrupt city official have infiltrated Grand Rapids and the city's military outfit. The said-corrupt city official has gone AWOL and run to a small town, Reganshire, governed by a tyrannical overseer and his insane and partially Undead daughter. The Grand Rapids mayor is on his way back from lake shore trade negotiations and is targeted to die. And William Lettner seemingly has come back to life to dog Billet's every step as the good captain tries to derail all of the above.

An epic conclusion to a epic series.

L. Andrew Cooper of Horrific Scribblings: "...a fascinating sign of where zombie narrative, road narrative, and narrative in general might be moving."

Cover: Jason C Conley

Editor: Scott Sandridge

Interior art: Tim Holtrop 

Publisher: Seventh Star Press

On the heels of TRANSPORT comes a stand-alone character, JOE CROSS: URBAN SALVAGE ENGINEER...

RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL
Joe Cross is a Urban Salvage Engineer, a collector of items and resources from the wastelands outside barricaded cities and towns and villas in the post-zompoc lands of West Michigan. In this first story, Joe Cross and his traveling companion, the stuffed toy bear ALBERT, run afoul of Reganshire, ruled by a tyrannical overseer, Silas Regan, and his insane and partially Undead daughter, Rebecca. Joe will have to prove his worth to survive in this upside-down world and his mantra as being: the best salvager in the Midwest.

Cover: Peter Welmerink / Jordan Richardson
Interior art: Tim Holtrop
Publisher: Peninsulam Publishing

BULL

Galloping from the pages of TRANSPORT into Joe Cross's world, Joe will find himself pitted against a mechanized thug and his henchman, a Reganshire scout hellbent on finding his colleague, and a massive mutated experiment-gone-wrong of the bovine variety stomping through the wilderness...and a small group of dangerous Feral zombies ta boot.

Never a dull day for Joe and his fuzzy brown traveling companion, Albert.

Painted Cover: Russ Colter
Editor: Scott Sandridge
Interior art: Tim Holtrop
Publisher: Peninsulam Publishing

Short Adventure Stories of Horror and Intrigue 

in a fictional West Michigan

FACES IN PERDITION

Join a young woman haunted by faces of her past, fighting a future she is no longer sure she wants to be part of in the title story: Faces in Perdition. Find out why you don't want to be out near the destroyed Valley State University genetics campus on a dark and stormy night in Revenge of the Roadkill. In a alt-history America after the Korean War find out the fate of Humankind and what rests 900 feet below Lake Michigan's surface in the haunting and powerful Signal in the Distance. Find strength and courage in a young man fighting for his city, his life and the fate of his sister and her young son as final night falls across the land in the nail-biting Final Rights.

Cover: Peter Welmerink
Editors: Various
Publisher: Peninsulam Publishing

An Anthology of Awesome Authors

The Middletown Apocalypse series is on its second book. I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to write a story for the second anthology that has some very talented authors and very awesome stories between its covers.

The premise of the anthology: the setting, events and characters are very close to being the same, but it is each author's voice and how they take the gist of the pre-prescribed tale to make the book a truly interesting and entertaining piece.

MIDDLETOWN 2: MIDTOWN APOCALYPSE

#

I write adventure.

And will continue to do so.

Thank you for reading, and stay tuned...there is definitely more to come. 

#

Peter Welmerink writes action-adventure tales, thrown into different genres: Horror, SciFi, etc. But at their heart, they are about Humankind facing some sort of hurtle, and trying to overcome it. His first collaborative novel, BEDLAM UNLEASHED, with Steven Shrewsbury, is available via Seventh Star Press in 2016. TRANSPORT is his first solo novel series, and JOE CROSS, via Peninsulam Publishing, is a standalone character from that “universe.” He’s written, and is continuing to write, high-octane adventure stories and books related to the area he lives and loves: Grand Rapids and West Michigan. He is married with a small barbarian horde of three boys.

Billet, Joe Cross and Captain Wells to respond to THE COMIC SIGNAL

August 6, 2016, from 12-4, I will be at THE COMIC SIGNAL on Plainfield--4318 Plainfield Ave NE, Grand Rapids, MI, to be exact--signing books and talking to people about a POST post-zompoc West Michigan. 

No doom and gloom. It's all about MOVING FORWARD NO MATTER THE ROAD BLOCKS.

Will have copies of my TRANSPORT Series and JOE CROSS, and also my Lake Michigan lakeshore SciFi yarn RETURN TO STRANGE HOME featuring Space Voyager, Captain Paul Wells.

Stop by and say HELLO.

(Plus its a dang cool comic book store...and more.)

Another Day in the UCRA: St Marys Church Area - Turner & Broadway

By Captain Jacob E. Billet

I sit on the church steps. The hot church steps. The summer sun has warmed them nicely though its punished everything else with its relentless brilliance and heat. The steeple above casts its pointy shadow over myself and my team giving us, at least, some relief.

Stokes, Phelps, Mulholland and an additional trooper load of twenty congregate around the HURON, taking a break, having a bit of luke warm water from canteen or slurping a delicious and nutritious Meal, Ready-to-Eat. I sit next to an old wrought-iron railing which leads up to the massive oaken doors of St. Mary's Catholic Church; the church sealed up tighter than a whorehouse after a VD outbreak. The railing, painted black at one time, stands slightly akimbo, at an angle, base with concrete bolts rusted and ready to pop off the steps.

<<Latest news from WOOD radio correspondent Matt Furley, there's been another small riot on the streets of Grand Rapids as anti-zombie protesters quarreled with pro-zombie civilians.>> The radio squelches from the HURON PA system. <<High tempers exploded on this hot day and a bloody fist fight broke out in front of City Hall.>>

"Damn, can't we all just get along?" Stokes grumbles, steps up to the stairway where I sit. A stump of one of his retched cigars hangs from the corner of his mouth, a crumpled, empty container of MRE "mashed potatoes" in hand.

I wonder how much of the cigar butt the sergeant has swallowed while eating the meal at the same time. Meh.

"The answer is, NO, Sergeant," Loutonia says. She leans against the HURON, rubbing at the side of the armor hide with a dirty rag. "We, as human beings, cannot get along."

"That's a pretty negative statement," Mulholland replies, seated atop the HURON. His M4 rests in his lap.  He watches a pair of shambling locals walk-stagger in our direction.

"Um, you read much history, my friend? One of the earliest records of people getting up in arms and beating the shit out of each other is back in Mesopotamian times 3100 BC," Loutonia returns. "Nothing negative there, other than the many instances of Humankind wreaking havoc upon themselves."

"That's what we're here for, kids," I add my two cents. I wipe my forearm across my forehead. My arm comes down and looks like I've just ran it under a garden hose. It is a sweaty, hot gawddang day. "Keep the peace. Make sure no one gets out of line, living or..."

The pair of UCRA civilians stop in front of us. Stokes picks up a can of "Bram"--the doped and processed meat slop given to the local undead--pops the top, tosses it aside. The can hits the hot asphalt of Turner Avenue, bounces, rolls and spills the red, moist puree in the street. The zombies sniff the air, then hobble-shamble after the nasty food stuff like toddler's-first-time-walking. It would be funny if it wasn't so damn pathetic, and your thoughts weren't wrapped around, "That could be me."

As the dead civilians approach the upturned can of drugged slop, Stokes unholsters his sidearm, and fires in their direction. Our jaws drop as the Sergeant, well known for his shitty marksmanship, hits the can squarely, sending into a gentle, spinning arc. The civilians, unfazed, tattered limbs reaching out, comically pursued it.

"That is," Loutonia screeches, "exactly what I am talking about!" 

With rag still in hand, she makes a fist and slugs Stokes squarely and solidly in the arm.

"Hey!" Stokes bellows, rubs his arm while keeping an eye on the woman in case she reels back to swing again. He holsters his sidearm. Thankfully.

"Kids," I say, getting to my feet. Even that little action makes the sweat dribble down my forehead. "No fighting among each other. We fight against dirt bags and miscreants trying to do us and the city harm, not one another."

It was time to get rolling. Three square miles, on a boiling hot day, trying to avoid mashing shambling civilians into the pavement when they hobble out in front of your 72-ton vehicle... Patrolling the UCRA wasn't what one could call a good time.

"Everyone mount up. We're oscar mike," I say, moving past my crew members and the other troops, and head towards the Huron.

"Dirt bag," Loutonia hisses at Stokes.

"Miscreant," Stokes returns fire.

I roll my eyes. 

Gonna be a long day.    

#

The TRANSPORT Series can be purchased here:
TRANSPORT (Book One)
Barnes & Noble
Amazon

TRANSPORT (Book Two) HUNT FOR THE FALLEN
Barnes & Noble
Amazon

TRANSPORT (Book Three) UNCIVIL WAR
Barnes & Noble
Amazon

If you are in the Grand Rapids Michigan area, Schuler Books has paperback copies on their shelves (in SciFi/Fantasy section). Store location is:

2660 28th Street SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49512
Phone: 616.942.2561
http://www.schulerbooks.com/

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.






*Joe Cross: Urban Salvage Engineer is copyright 2015 Peter J Welmerink

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.

 

###

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

HUNT FOR THE FALLEN (TRANSPORT Book Two) available now

 

 

 

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.

 

 

#

 

 

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.

Amazon

B&N

Kobo

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:

 

Amazon

B&N

Kobo

SchulerBooks

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.

Seventh Star Press Book Release News

###

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

Bookishly Me

The Bookie Monster

Bee's Knees Reviews

The Rage Circus vs The Soulless Void