Why writing West Michigan Apocalypse is fun

I am not a weirdo (yes, you are), or a doomsayer. I am not a negative person. I am not some guy that feels down, full of despair, and desiring of bringing people to the pits of fear, anguish and loathing.

I AM AN ADVENTURER, fictionally. I write ADVENTURE FICTION.

Why is it I enjoy writing post-apocalyptic tales of action and adventure based in and around my home state, and old hometown here in West Michigan? Why? WHY? Because...

Because I know THIS PLACE. I know my old hometown, and my locale here in western Michigan. I know the nooks and crannies, the towns and out-of-the-way places. The woodlands and the concrete jungle.

I do not have to go far along the roadway to get thought and inspiration on new tales of epic adventure to bring to my little warped mind, and to paper or blank writing screen. There can be a whole shite ton of adventure right where you are sitting if you ponder it long enough.

But why, you ask, why do you write that END O' THE WORLD stuff?

I don't write END OF THE WORLD stuff. If you read my material you know the stories don't end. Humankind does NOT disappear. Yeah, we get roughed up a bit, a few not make it, but the survivors keep standing up and moving onward. It's never a real END, just another opportunity to rise up and keep fighting the good fight... sometimes after a little rest from getting beaten down.

Sometimes my post-apoc material doesn't paint a pretty picture. That's reality isn't it? Sometimes it's not pretty nor smells great, looks great, feels great. But somewhere in the midst of the mud and blood, there is a spark of HOPE. The main characters might not survive their travels, but they certainly will have fought the good fight for others to live a new day and a potential brighter future.

I'm going to keep writing adventure fiction, and most likely keep venturing in the West Michigan fictional apocalyptic world.

#

I carry my own stock of my books. Contact me at: authorpeterwelmerink@gmail.com if you hanker for some adventure fiction.

Albert the Bear from JOE CROSS Series to appear at THE COMIC SIGNAL

Albert, aka Albert PeeWee, is scheduled to appear at THE COMIC SIGNAL, August 6, Saturday, from 12pm to 4pm, with West Michigan author Peter Welmerink. 

The co-star of the Joe Cross: Urban Salvage Engineer adventures, Albert is Joe's on-the-road companion and confidante while Joe adventures in and around the post-apoc landscape of West Michigan 2025-2026 in Peninsulam Publishing's JOE CROSS Series.

Stop by and say hello to Albert. He doesn't bite, but Joe might if you try to take the bear.

Author Peter Welmerink also does not bite, and will be happy to sign any Joe Cross, TRANSPORT and/or Captain Paul Wells/Space Voyager books*. 

*--Books will be available onsite at THE COMIC SIGNAL the day of the event.
All books suggested for ages 15+.

The Comic Signal

4318 Plainfield Ave. 

Grand Rapids, MI 49525

616-259-8017

www.comicsignal.com

###

Joe Cross: Running with the Devil

Paperback
Kindle Ebook


Cover by: 
Welmerink/Richardson

Interior Artwork: 
Tim Holtrop 
www.timholtrop.com

Alone

Alone

The small fire is warm. I keep it small. No need rousing the neighbors who can sometimes find the light annoying, especially when the dope they are fed starts to run out of their system. They get as agitated as their feral brethren.

I call this third-floor attic my home, my refuge. No roof above me. That caved years ago. But I like the view, able to lay here or stand here, unmolested and without care, for hours looking up at the starlit heavens on a clear night such as this.

Down at the driveway below, encircling the house, wandering aimlessly along the street and sidewalks, the doped undead hiss, and mew, and whine, in their garbled, tortured vocal cord way. I know they are talking to each other, talking to me, talking to others who aren't there. Many of them, those rotting, poor ex-living civilians of the city, are still "living" and "seeing" their former lives as they shamble and teeter about.

I feel for them. That's why, I suppose, I live among them.

I have been cast out like them. Jobless. Homeless. The living city had no place for me, and I was tired of the awful stares and unkind words whispered as I passed: my shopping cart full of my last earthly goods.

I paid a GRCC gate guard an old diamond bauble from my late second or third wife (I forget which now). She, the kindly soldier, let me through the gate, into the UCRA enclosure. She may be the only one who knows I am in here. Bless her soul for keeping me secret. (With the recent fighting in the city, and what I hear from outside the city, I hope she is still alive and well.)

I feel at peace with these citizens around me. We are all the poor, the lost. Cast out and quarantined from the opulence of the Living and Thriving community on the other side of the river, I am at least one with THESE downtrodden people, even if they are somewhat considered not "human" anymore.

The stew is almost done. The can of doped meat, label burned away. The can is red hot. I boil away whatever the chemical slurry is in the processed meat slop. To a still living, breathing goof such as I, ingesting the doped meat is like drinking too much alcohol, followed by a week-long hangover that feels like it will never end. The shit was not meant for LIVING human consumption.

But a dreg like me has to eat. And I've found cooking the piss out of the meat slop makes it almost palatable. Almost. But it's better than starving to Undeath...as I fear is the direction I may go if I let go of my living, breathing, mortal coil.

Old Miss Karo sings her death knell below. She isn't dying. She's already dead. But she knows that I am up here. Her and her "children" are hungry. Even with a rotted brain, she knows me, knows who I am, what I am about. She trills all the louder as I take a moment to finish my own meal.

I dowse my small fire, not wanting to burn my only refuge down, at this old home on Lake Michigan Drive.

I take up some pre-opened cans of uncooked meat slop, make my way down the attic steps, then down the second floor steps to the first floor.

I go to the old enclosed porch. Tall, bulging, overgrown arborvitae trees and bushes block what must have been a nice view of the street from the porch's full sized windows.

Miss Karo is at the porch door, dragging her black, bony stubs weakly against the aluminum porch door.

"I'm comin', girl. Hold your horses," I say, my throat a little numb and scratchy. I must not have cooked the meat thoroughly.

But the cans I slip out to Miss Karo and her small mewing, grumbling children, it's the real deal. The real doped meat slop. The Z-rations as the military call it. She won't have to wait for the next pass-through from the big growling vehicles that come through twice a week, dropping off crates of the stuff for the first-come-first-serve undead denizens of this west side neighborhood.

Miss Karo scratches at my arm. It is her way of saying thanks. The razor sharp index finger, just a bone tip, hurts like hell, but I know it's her way of--perhaps in her own rotted mind--grasping my forearm and thanking me up and down for my generosity.

It is those black, weeping scars along my arms that tell me, at some point, I am not long for the Living world.

True death would be great.

Undeath, well, if I can stay in here, fed and protected...I guess that wouldn't be so bad. The city does watch out for her local undead.


I see Miss Karo off, then lock up and climb, wearily, back up the levels of steps to my attic abode. The night is going to be a cold one. A four-sleeping-bag night.

It's okay though. I get to lay there, alone, free, alive, and stare up at the starlit sky.

It's okay. Really.

#

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

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.

ZOMBIE TROOPERS, a new TRANSPORT World related series I am working on.
No publisher yet but good Pos-Apoc Military goodness.

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.

TRANSPORT Helper - The Ken Campbell Interview

Ken Campbell is a friend of mine. We work at the same place. We have some of the same interests as far as movies, books and illustrated digests (comic books). Ken also appears in the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT page of all three TRANSPORT books, so I thought it would be interesting to interview him.

#

GRA: Your name appears first in the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS page in TRANSPORT: BOOK ONE. A soldier with your last name also appears near the end of the novel as one of the Muskegon High Commissioner Holtrop guards. You have obviously been a part of story input on the TRANSPORT series. Inquiring minds may want to know more about you.

I got you involved on the TRANSPORT project because we have the same interest in action-packed tales and zombies. I’ve used you as a sounding board, kind of a Beta tester, on some of the story concepts, scenarios and plot lines to get your reaction—yay or nay—and input.

With these bouncing around of ideas, and some actually appearing in story, does this ruin the book for you if and when read? Why or why not?

KC: Nah, not any more than a movie preview to the actual movie.  The ideas bounced around are just points in the story.  When reading the finished story, and I’m in the ebb and flow, the "ideas" merge and I get to see the bigger picture.  Besides, it is always tweaked a little from the material/ideas discussed.

GRA: If your in-story character was played by an actor in the Big Screen, who would it be?

Jason Segel

KC: I had to think a long time on this, thank goodness my work is easy enough to allow me such time allowances.  I would have to go with Jason Segel.  He has that "innocent" outward appearance, but has that smirk and head bob that indicates otherwise, just like me! LOL

GRA: What type of books, movies, magazines, comics do you like to read, and why? Do you have some absolute favorites?

KC: I would say for books it’s the sci-fi/magic/steampunk stuff by Cherie Priest (www.cheriepriest.com) and Barbara Hambly (www.barbarahambly.com).  I like the escapism of those fantasy genres.  I also like the historic battles seen through the eyes of a fictional character series by Patrick O'Brian (www.wwnorton.com/pob/pobhome.htm) and Bernard Cornwall (www.bernardcornwell.net).  To re-live those epic battles, without getting hurt, from the prospective of a lowly frontlines man instead of a rich guy sitting in the back with the luggage is cool.

Picking a specific movie is hard.  I have favorites in most genres.  I guess for brainless, chest-thumping, manly action movies I would go with the Expendables trilogy, the Transporter trilogy, and Serenity.

For small budget, foreign movies with good, interesting plots I would go with Lawn Dogs, Amile, Let the Right One In, The Girl, Thale, Attack the Block and Chocolat.

For the "DUH" brainless lowbrow humor, it’s got to be the Harold and Kumar films and American Pie movies.

To round it out, anything from Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.

Comics would be superhero types.  Wolverine tops the list.  I also like Empowered by Adam Warren (adamwarren.deviantart.com) and The Devil's Panties (thedevilspanties.com) by Jennie Breeden.

GRA: A reviewer mentioned TRANSPORT “is far more than a rehash of the military elements that show up in Danny Boyle’s viral fast-zombie opus, Romero’s Day, Land, and Diary, Brooks’ World War Z.”

Would you agree? What are your thoughts on the TRANSPORT World?

KC: Oh, I agree.  Usually the military is the only thing keeping the zombies from taking over the world.  TRANSPORT has the military doing more humanitarian works, at least with the "docile" zombies.  They try and protect them instead of all-out extermination.  It reminds me of what the old Wild West is portrayed as: small pockets of humanity surrounded by wide tracks of wilderness where all matter of nastiness resides.

GRA: Do you think the whole ZOMBIE genre has run its course, or is there still a lot of UN-life left in this typically Horror milieu?

KC: I don't think the zombie genre will ever run its course.  The basic premise of a zombie - a being that is hard to kill in the usual way (shot in the torso, hack off a leg, etc.) and can turn you into one of them with just a scratch or bite goes to a primitive, deep seated, cavemen-sitting-around-a-fire-type of fear that can be used in multiple genres; from World War Z, to Shawn of the Dead and Fido, to name a few.

GRA: You are an avid runner and bicyclist. Which activity do you do more of? What are some of your biggest achievements relating to these? Is there anything on your BUCKET LIST relating to these you want to do before the zombie apocalypse?

KC: I started out as an avid bicyclist, but was introduced back into running when I started working at my current job (ran x-country and track in high school).  Some accomplishes would be participating in several 24hr bike challenges, several DALMAC rides, riding a century ride under 5 hours, running the Fifth-Third Riverbank Run, and being able to eat all the Twinkies I want knowing I will burn them off.  The only real thing on the bucket list would be to finish the Grand Rapids Zombie Dash with, at least, one life strip left.

GRA: Who would you rather meet on a darkened UCRA neighborhood street? Bob the 1950’s gas station attendant zombie, or front gunner of the M213 HURON, Sgt. James Stokes? And why?

KC: Hmmm, since I'm not good at learning new languages and would have a hard time conversing with Bob, I would have to go with Stokes.  The stories Stokes could tell...

[Welmerink comment: the lewd and crude Sgt. Stokes most likely does have a lot of tales to tell as his morals are a little… loose.]

GRA: What is one story in the TRANSPORT World that you haven’t heard discussed yet that you’d be interested in either reading about or understanding better?

KC: That's a toughie.  Since I actually went to college in Allendale, I think I would like to read more about the scientists at the university campus and what REALLY happened out there.

[Welmerink comment: There was A LOT of bull out there, that’s for sure.]

GRA: Thanks Ken!!

Ken Campbell as Rick Grimes from THE WALKING DEAD for Grand Rapids Zombie Dash 2013

 

 

###

 

 

 

 

 

TRANSPORT (Book One) is available and can be found here:

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Busy TRANSPORT-related Day

Hey all.

Mike Wilson, winner of the Sister Mirose print set

Well, so Michael A Wilson was the highest bidder for the Tim Holtrop-illustrated SISTER MIROSE print set. His bid of $100 won him the limited edition, signed 12x18 matted prints which reveal a scene from TRANSPORT: UNCIVIL WAR (Book Three) and a one-shot static pose illo of Sister Mary Mirose with the circa 2025 West Side Apostolate in the background.


The money went straight to the 746 House Flag Day Fundraiser today. Greg Cobb and his wife had a big to-do yard sale, which included Grand Valley State University mascot Louie the Laker and, later in the afternoon, Griff from the Grand Rapids Griffins hockey team. It was a beautiful day for a yard sale and there was quite a few cars coming and going from the place. I showed Greg the Mirose prints. He was very impressed and said he'd been following the news about the prints and the TRANSPORT book series.

Author Peter Welmerink standing outside
the REAL Westside Apostolate with the Sister Mirose prints

I also stopped at the actual, real-life WESTSIDE APOSTOLATE and showed the hard working crew there the print set. They were very stoked to see their building in the fictional setting that is TRANSPORT.  One of the viewers/workers said: "The building looks better in the illustration than it does now."

I pointed out that the IRL building doesn't have zombies or bullet holes like the illustration does...then I was directed to the three bullet holes in one of the front windows. Okay, well, at least they don't have zombies...or the massive, battle-hardened nun like Sister Mirose.

It was a pretty cool afternoon meeting the 746 House Flag Day folks and visiting the real deal Westside Apostolate and talking to all.

Special thanks go to Tim Holtrop for the artwork, Russ Colter and crew at CropMarks Printing for the awesome 12x18 prints, and Stephen Zimmer and Seventh Star Press for the opportunity bringing the TRANSPORT series to life for all to read and, hopefully, enjoy.

Roll out and roll on!

Pete



Sister Mirose copyright 2014 Peter Welmerink

Heartwell versus Honeywell: Mayor's of Grand Rapids - Fictional and Real

Happy June, folks.

A reader, who is familiar with Grand Rapids (the nonfictional one), noticed the Mayor of Grand Rapids in my TRANSPORT World appears to have a last name that sounds strikingly like the real current Mayor of GR, George Heartwell.



Not a Feral Zombie in the TRANSPORT World, but Mayor George Heartwell of IRL Grand Rapids, Michigan.
 




















Dennis Honeywell is the Mayor of Grand Rapids in my TRANSPORT World.

Honeywell a nod to Heartwell? You bet!

I have not met in person Mayor Heartwell, but I can say he is not a guy who hides in the shadows or behind his other city council members. In fact, he and the rest of city commissioners and elected officials have done wonders for IRL Grand Rapids. (I could tell you horror stories of Grand Rapids in the 1980's, mainly because the town was creepy quiet back then, where-as now...GRAND RAPIDS ROCKS!)

And what about Mayor Honeywell of Grand Rapids circa 2025?

I do not know what kind of challenges Mayor Heartwell endures day-to-day, but I can say Mayor Honeywell, who is a stand-up guy, probably keeps a cabinet of aspirin close by for all the headaches and woe he endures day-in and day-out. His council members are always in an uproar, asking for more in their beleaguered wards, pushing for more security to keep them enclosed and protected within the confines of Grand Rapids city central while complaining they are too boxed in. He is required to endure outside towns and villages coming to the big city asking for assistance or complaining "he" is overreaching his boundaries when it comes to assisting them. (Grand Rapids often sends military transports and aid outside city limits which is met by differing forms of approval, some very negative. Example: Reganshire.)

Most of the Elected Officials of the TRANSPORT World Grand Rapids have either stepped down, left town or succumb to the Viral Blight. The City Treasurer, Rupert Largo, is second-in-command as there is no City Manager, etc. There is no love lost, won or shared by Honeywell and Largo. Honeywell knows the man (Largo) is bucking for his job.

As Heartwell, for real life Grand Rapids, fully supports the great city of Grand Rapids, so does Honeywell.

Heartwell must enjoy his position, as does Honeywell, though...

...In a militarized, post-zombie apoc world, I am thinking Mayor George Heartwell is glad he isn't the one filling Mayor Dennis Honeywell's shoes.

TRANSPORT Book One is available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble online, and at any other fine online or offline (walk-in) bookstore.

Interview in MAHLE NORTH AMERICA COMPANY NEWS MAGAZINE

As part of MAHLE INDUSTRY, they put out a company "newspaper" every quarter. Each facility picks an employee to interview and show what they do outside of work, hobbies, etc.

I was chosen for the April issue.

The interview article is below: (As found on the back cover of the magazine. How cool is that?!)

TRANSPORT Book One Cover Art Revealed

All right folks. Here we go.

End o' last week, Seventh Star Press released an image of the cover art for TRANSPORT Book One.

Full release here:
http://www.seventhstarpress.com/category/peter-welmerink/

Cover art done by Mr. Jason Conley of the great state of Tennessee.
He did a fantastic job on all three book covers.
(And Tim Holtrop did the black and white interior art for all three books! Cool stuff!)

Book One is due out in May 2014.

Clear the streets! TRANSPORT is coming.

Contact Info

Hello Friends.

If you have questions, comments or inquiries about TRANSPORT or any other Peter Welmerink tale out there, feel free to correspond with me at: swordandheavyarmor@gmail.com

Until then.

Best regards.

Pete

TRANSPORT is coming!

Hey friends!

This is slightly old news to me and not new news as far as outright public knowledge...YET...but I have signed a publishing contract with SEVENTH STAR PRESS for the publication of my TRANSPORT series.

Yea, buddy!! You are going to be able to hold in your hands, in some form or another, a rip-roaring, skull-crushing, action-packed, zombie-blasting TRANSPORT story...three novella length tales in fact are slated so far.

It was such great news to me I actually threw myself into an anxiety attack and was a mess there for a few weeks. Not sure why such good news should cause such chaos in one's head. We writers are a strange lot so who knows. You never think you are good enough and you keep banging along, banging out those stories, and then when you get a great offer to have your kard work pubbed...something snaps. LOL

Anyway, doing much better now thank you. Seeing the forest for the trees and landscape looks very very good. I am very happy to be part of the SSP family and looking forward to some wonderful opportunities with them and my material.

More soon!

Pete

TRANSPORT 2 novella underway...and potential cover art?

Okay. I need to share this.

I have the first TRANSPORT novella completed, and subbed to a publisher.

I started the second TRANSPORT novella (tentatively titled TRANSPORT 2: HUNT FOR THE FALLEN) around May 13th, and about 3/4 done writing it.

I haven't started the third TRANSPORT novella, but have a good idea for the gist and guts of it including the ending.

But I wanted to share with you some very very cool cover art sketches for TRANSPORT 2 penned by the very talented Mr. Tim Holtrop. This is all concept art. Not sure if it will be used or not. (If I self-pub this stuff, hell yes, will be working with Mr. Holtrop for some finished cover art.)

The setup for what you are looking at:

Big ruckus between APC Ridgerunner Huron (the massive armored personnel carrier vehicular star of the stories) and an Abrams tank, churning up and spitting gravel and dust about a gravel pit off Butterworth SW, Grand Rapids, Michigan. A hit from the tank's 120mm cannon would be the end of the Huron so the APC keeps up close and personnel to the Abrams. Spc. Loutonia Phelps decides the only way to end this tracked madness is to make like a pirate and board the Abrams. Perhaps dual .45's shoved down the turret hatch and a "Please cease and desist your actions against us, or I'll let off some hot lead like bouncing bumblebee inside your interior."

Why Birds Need To Go

Journal Entry 402
May 22, 2025
Captain Jacob Billet
GRCC Transport Regiment 1

Bird shit everywhere.

I step out on my little balcony terrace and I am assaulted by a metal railing painted white and splatterings on the deck floor. I ain't touching it and it takes me a while to clean up before I feel like sitting out there and enjoying the view. After all, I enjoy a good mug of joe in the morning while looking out over the zombie-infested west side of town.

We need to use more birds for target practice. Get the big 30 and 50-cal machine guns warmed out and just start blasting the annoying winged monstrocities out of the sky.

Today marks the 12th anniversary of what the world now lovingly calls the day the zombie apocalypse began. Some kids, reading too many of those old Horror novels, think the Zee blight began after some satanic ritual was done, making the undead rise, and those that weren't dead, die and become the walking dead. Some uneducated think the dead just rose up and started their consumption of the living populace, you know, just rose up, no reason. Some say the wars in the Middle East and with North Korea, the detonation of "dirty bombs," terrorist attacks, started it all. Some think the government had something to do with it, an experiment gone awry or a means to reduce the population; always conspiracy theorists and theories trying to spread their black gospel.

Meh. Whatever.

It was the birds. Birds. BIRDS!

So today marks the 12th anniversary of when Influenza A virus subtype H7N9, originally reported  to be afflicting China and Taiwan, came into being. W.H.O. (World Health Organization) reported there had been no migratory birds infected, or that the strain would be so severe as initial reports of people affected and dying from it initially were very low.

WRONG. Have wings, will travel.

As I glance out from my perch from the rooftop balcony of the old Grand Plaza Tower, looking west across the Grand River, into the west side of Grand Rapids, where at least three thousand undead residents reside and shamble about...the W.H.O. (better to have been left one of the greatest rock bands than a group overseeing the world's health) was wrong. What the countries with the initial outbreak didn't report (and I couldn't have blamed them at the time) was that the poor folks who'd fallen to the virus, got back up and had to be put back down by force, ie, the roar of a pistol or rifle point-blank in the ole brain box.

Someone fires from another window a few floors below me. A pigeon flying by turns into a cloud of feathers. Heh. Other than the Colonel will hand their ass to them for using a firearm inside the barracks, someone's got the right idea.

The Human Race, the surviving, breathing, heart-beating living ones, has always endured calamities. This is no different I suppose. Those of us who stay on this side of the dirt keep pushing onward. You either survive or succumb.

Yeah, I have had my setbacks, and on some days they want to drag me to that Give Up state, and I sometimes think about letting it all bring me down and consume me (possibly in a literal sense if I were to just walk OUT THERE into our friendly neighborhood face-eaters). May sound a bit cliche here, but, yeah, my daddy and momma didn't raise no quitter. Though I've lost a lot, there are still people who need me, things to do, actions needing to be done to keep our heads above water...and the rot of the undead.

White wash cleaned off my little perch above my world, I step out with steaming cup of joe in one hand. Black and white Canadian honker just so happens to fly by. BOOM! The barrel of my .44 smokes. A pile of black feathers tumbles down, down, down.

"Keep on comin' ya flying plague bearers," I mumble.

As long as we got bullets, birds and Zees beware.

TRANSPORT done and ready to roll

I finished up TRANSPORT in early March and sent it out for a professional work-out to lose some fat and shape it up. Tyson Mauermann did a great job and whipping the story into shape and helping me get it ready to roll in whatever direction I so desired.

It is a novella-sized piece, almost 37,000 words. I don't think I could stretch it out or crunch it down any further to make it better than it is. I am going to try the traditional publisher route first before considering to do it myself. Pros and Cons of both, but I figure until I can build my brand and my own following, if that is how things will come to roll, then I figure I should put it under the noses of traditional publishers who can hopefully offer to reach a wider audience than little ole me trying to wave my own flag. (Though, even with traditional publishing you, as the author, still need to help SELL IT. No problem there.)

Anyway, here is a teaser AND an awesome sketch by Mr Tim Holtrop who, though he offers only this sketch, does some great finished work also.

Will keep you informed.

(Also, have started a new story, takes place in same time/place as TRANSPORT, including some rough ideas for a TRANSPORT 2 story featuring APC Ridgerunner Huron and her misfit crew.)

*******

The year is 2025.  

When Commissioner Wilhelm DeGage's helicopter goes down in hostile territory, it is up to Captain Jacob "Jake" Billet and his crew to bring the official home. With only an armored personnel carrier, Jake and his crew brave the infected lands, pushed to the limits of their honor in order to rescue DeGage despite the horror of his past transgressions. 

And then there are the zombies. 

Getting from Point A to Point B has never been so dangerous.