You Have Found Sanctuary

Or you will, when you click this link.

Dead Earth: Sanctuary is the third book in the series written by David T. Wilbanks and me. The first was the introductory novella Dead Earth: The Green Dawn. The second was Dead Earth: The Vengeance Road. Both are available by clicking on the titles.

For those who don't relish scrolling down a few entries, here's the book's description:

After stopping a madman who controlled an undead army and barely surviving the destruction of the aliens responsible for the plague that decimated humanity, Jubal Slate leads a small band of humans across the shattered landscape of America, fighting off the forces of the living and the dead. The group races north pursuing a legend, a post-apocalyptic fairy tale: a town protected from the walking dead. Tired of the war and his nomadic life, Slate follows the path to Sanctuary, even while doubting its existence. Along a journey filled with hordes of zombies, Slate and his companions face new enemies and find themselves pursued by the final weapon of the vanquished necros. Is sanctuary even possible on a dead Earth? And if so, is the cost more than Jubal Slate is willing to pay?
Even after alien invasion and zombie armies, Slate will discover that the worst horrors are home grown.

Here are some other Dead Earth: Sanctuary links to make it convenient for you to purchase the book in whatever format you prefer:

Paperback

Kindle 

Nook

Audiobook

Kobo

I hope you enjoy the novel, which is chock full of action, blood and guts and zombies, and maybe--just maybe--some nice character moments. As always feedback is appreciated.

More Fun With Ancient Mayans

Permuted Press, publisher of the Dead Earth Series, is having a "The Mayans Were Wrong Sale". From now through January 2, 2013, several of their books are $2.99 for Kindle and Nook, and this includes Dead Earth: The Vengeance Road.

You can get more details here.

Dead Sheriff Reviewed and Other Stuff

There's a nice review of The Dead Sheriff: Zombie Damnation up at Vintage Horror.

One of my other books is going on sale for Thanksgiving weekend. Watch this space for details.

As mentioned earlier, Dead Earth: The Vengeance Road is now an audio book.

You can find my latest humor column for the Ashland Beacon over here on page 2. This week I become the Anti-Oprah with My Least Favorite Things.

Finally, the new Pod of Horror is finished. It's showing up now on iTunes. It should be live on Horror World later today.

Dead Earth in Your Ear

Dead Earth: The Vengeance Road is now an audiobook from Audible.com.

For over eight hours of zombie-killing, alien-fighting and crazy biker gang action, download it here.

Waiting on Fall

The other morning as I was crossing the street between the lot where I park and the building I work in, I caught a hint of Autumn on the early morning breeze.

That’s a good thing. It’s been a dark, difficult summer. I’m hoping Fall, a time of the year that has always been good for me, is going to bring better things on all fronts. Good tidings, if you will.

Don’t worry, kids. This isn’t one of those whiney blog posts (okay, it stuck a toe across the Whiney county line, but that's all). It's actually a writing update.

Actual work is getting done, though circumstances have made me less productive than I hoped to be.

Looking at the World With Broken Glass in My Eye is generating good feedback. The publisher has promised that an e-book version is on the horizon. By the way, you can still sign up for a free, signed copy of the book. The winner will be announced on September 1,

Dead Earth: Sanctuary is almost done. We’re running slightly behind schedule (all my fault, believe me) but I suspect The End will be typed by Dave or me sometime this week. Then we start the revisions. We hope to turn in the final manuscript by the end of September.

With any free time (ha!) I might have in September, I will finish up one project and write a story that’s long overdue. On October 1, I will begin writing the second Dead Sheriff book.

By the way, since I mentioned it here last, a couple of new chapters of Donovan Pike and the City of the Gods have been posted at Pulp Nocturne.

I’m also prepping episode 66 of Pod of Horror. The current plan calls for it to go live in mid-September.

I’ll be back with another update soon. As Garrison Keillor says, be well, do good work and keep in touch.

And let Autumn get here soon. I need it.

Dead Earth News and More

It’s official. The next Dead Earth novel will be called Dead Earth: Sanctuary. Permuted Press will again be the publisher. I’ll announce the publication date when it’s locked down. I would expect it to be Spring 2012.

Meanwhile, Dead Earth: The Vengeance Road is still available in paperback and ebook formats. Thanks for all the nice reviews.

Speaking of reviews, I could use them at Amazon for Looking at the World With Broken Glass in My Eye. If you read the collection, please consider leaving a review.

You can still sign up for a free, signed copy of the book at Horror World.

The other big news (well, big for me) is the arrival on my doorstep of In Laymon’s Terms. The anthology, a tribute to the great horror writer Richard Laymon, includes my story “The Red Kingdom”. It was my first professional sale, made all the way back in February 2003. It’s nice to see it finally in print.


And for those who care about such things, I'm now on Google+.

Writing Update

It’s been a while since I’ve done this. Here are where the current writing projects stand.

Looking at the World With Broken Glass in My Eye is done, as mentioned in the last post, and should be available in a few weeks.

Book One of The Dead Sheriff, my supernatural western series, has gone through several rounds of editing and appears to be finished. A release date has not been set but I expect it to be out by summer. Watch this space for future updates.

The third Dead Earth book continues along nicely. I would think it should be finished by the end of May, If accepted by the publisher, it could be in print early next year. Of course, that’s merely speculation on my part.

My novella The Ghosts of Logan County is nearing completion. It’s been put on hold a few times, due to the projects we’ve just discussed, and for some additional research.

Also, I continue to update Donovan Pike and the City of the Gods over at Pulp Nocturne. Work on that pulp adventure novel continues when my schedule permits. I’m having a great time writing it, and the novel is only going to get wilder as it progresses.

Other projects are bubbling just under the surface, though I am hesitant to mention them yet. I have enough on my plate, along with my job, to fill most of my writing time.

I do have a humorous horror story I want to write for an upcoming anthology. I also recently received two interesting invitations to licensed-character anthologies. I’m waiting to hear more details, including deadlines, before I commit. Anything else I sign on for has to fit into my crowded schedule or I can’t do it. This is me trying to learn a lesson from my past.

Also, Pod of Horror #65 is coming along. I’m aiming for a mid-to-late May premiere date.

Okay. You’re updated. Now it’s time for more coffee and much more typing.

A Dead Earth Interview

Dave Wilbanks and I talk about our zombies and aliens and Marvel Comics.

Winter Writing

There’s little to report this time around, except work continues on the third–and still untitled–Dead Earth novel. At this point, the writing is going well and it feels like a great story. I know I’m having fun.

When I’m not taking my turn on DE3, I’m writing a long horror novella. I’m aiming for 35 thousand words. The story has produced a character that I’m fascinated with, and one that may show up in future tales, provided he survives. We’ll see. Meanwhile, the novella is set during the blistering heat of summer. Is that a reaction to the weather outside the window while I'm writing? Probably. Am I asking questions of myself and answering them ala Donald Rumsfeld? Yes. Yes, I am.

By the way, the novella finally has a title. It’s The Ghosts of Logan County.

Dead Earth in Horror Fiction Review

I've loved Horror Fiction Review, dating back to the days when it was a photocopied and stapled fanzine that arrived via the post office. Now it's a digital zine, and I'm happy that Dead Earth: The Vengeance Road was reviewed in the new issue. Check it out.

Pod of Horror #63

Pod of Horror is back with over two hours of ghastly goodness. On episode #63, we talk books with Necon’s Bob Booth and Matt Bechtel, author/actor Michael Boatman, Pod of Horror co-founder David T. Wilbanks, and Cutting Block Press’s R. J. Cavender. Nanci has the news, Jason L. Keene critiques the movies and we introduce our new book review segment, Scary Words. We’re also giving away a bunch of great books in The Tomb of Trivia. Get it at iTunes or download it here. Pod of Horror is hosted and produced by Mark Justice.

Don't forget to check out the new PoH message board.

Chiller Theater/Why Horror/The Dead Sheriff

This morning, The New York Times ran an article on SyFy’s so-bad-they’re-fun original movies. This line caught my attention:

Syfy’s Saturday-night movies harken back to the so-called “creature feature” days of local television. Starting on a widespread basis in the 1960s and continuing through the 1980s stations programmed off-peak hours with old horror movies like “Creature From the Black Lagoon.”

Anybody who reads or writes the stuff I love has gotten some variation of this question: “Why horror?”

(Of course, it’s sometimes phrased differently. As in Why do you read that junk/ that crap/that weird shit, and the line is delivered by someone who, upon discovering your copy of Night of the Crabs by Guy N. Smith or Salem’s Lot by Stephen King or, going back further, a copy of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, looks like he or she just bit into a nice steak only to find it was filled with thick, squirming maggots.)

Here’s my answer: Chiller Theater.

Chiller Theater ran on Channel 13 in Huntington, WV, from the time I was a child until sometime in the 80s. By the end, they ran the pre-packaged Elvira show and I rarely tuned in.

When I say “a child”, I mean exactly that. One of my earliest memories is a Saturday when I was sick and my parents let me stay up to watch Chiller Theater. I remember walking down the stairs from my bedroom, realizing I had never walked down those steps at night.

We moved from that house when I was four.

So this horror thing has been with me for a while.

Channel 13 (which went by the call letters WHTN when I first tuned in, then later became WOWK), unlike many stations in other markets, never had a horror host, at least that I recall. For a couple of years, they had an out of focus dude with Christmas lights on his clothes moaning about something, but I usually took advantage of his time on-screen to run to the bathroom or get a snack. Remember, those were the pre-VCR or DVR days.

During one period, Chiller Theater had Barnabas Collins doing the weekly opening. Channel 13 was an ABC affiliate at the time (they’re with CBS now) and Dark Shadows was a popular ABC daytime soap (and the only soap with vampires and werewolves). Jonathan Frid, the actor who played the tortured, blood-sucking Barnabas, made a publicity stop in Huntington, and the TV station got him to record some brief segments for Chiller.

Since Dark Shadows was also one of my favorite shows, this was awesome.

At least for the first couple of years.

After a while, it sunk in that the TV station only had Frid for a short time, and they ran the small handful of Barnabas bits over and over and over.

But, God, I loved all those horror movies. Chiller was where I was introduced to the classic Universal monsters and the darker and sexier Hammer flicks. It’s also where I saw the AIP library. Even then, I knew a lot of it was crap, but who could resist tuning in to The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow? And don’t forget, AIP also gave us all those cool Vincent Price movies based on the works of Poe that ran every few month during my adolescence.

So if you are wondering “Why horror?” it’s because of Chiller Theater. And Dark Shadows. And Famous Monsters of Filmland and Marvel Comics like Werewolf By Night and Tomb of Dracula and Ghost Rider and The Living Mummy.

***

I got some writing done this weekend, including my latest section of the third Dead Earth novel and another chapter of Donovan Pike and the City of the Gods (that’s three chapters in a week, kids) over at Pulp Nocturne.

I started revisions on The Dead Sheriff today. This is going to take more than the couple of days I set aside for it. There are so many red editorial comments on every page, it looks like the manuscript was used to clean up after a Manson Family party.

I need to hire an editor to edit my stuff before it goes to the actual editor.

Anyway, there are several good editorial suggestions regarding the plot, and I have to give them serious consideration. This will be my major project for the next week or so, along with prepping the next episode of Pod of Horror.

What’s next?

I’ll be getting back to a novella set in West Virginia. It’s a ghost story, and I did some research for it a couple of months ago. It will be good to get the story written.

After that, I’m revising a horror novel to submit to a publisher.

I also have an idea for a 12-issue horror/SF comic book series. I’d like to type up the proposal and script the first issue, but it has to sit on the back row for a while. My 2011 vow is to stick to my schedule. Besides, some ideas get better with age.

Now I need to go find a copy of The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow.

Brief Update

For those keeping score at home, I submitted the long (and long overdue) story yesterday. That's one more 2010 obligation out of the way. I'll be sure to let you know when it will be in print. Of course, the editor could always reject it, but I think it's pretty good, and regardless of what happens with it now, I'm happy I finished it.

Today, I also crossed another late assignment off my list, this one a book review.

And I put up a new chapter of Donovan Pike and the City of the Gods over at Pulp Nocturne.

That clears the schedule for a couple of days. Dave Wilbanks sent the Dead Earth 3 manuscript to me last night, so I'll be focusing on it for the next two days. Then I'll do the edits on the first Dead Sheriff prose book, which should be published in the spring. Evileye Books gave me a great editor for the series, and he provided the best notes I've ever received on a project. I'm looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and digging into it.

So far Operation Catch-Up is going well. Don't confuse it with Operation Ketchup, something I plan to combine with Operation Tater Tot later this weekend.

So how was your week?

Machete Don't Blog

But I do.

So let me use the space to tell you if you ever went to a drive-in theater or have enjoyed an exploitation flick, then Machete is must-see viewing.

If you don’t enjoy over-the-top violence, gore and nudity, well, I don’t wanna know you.

Director Robert Rodriguez and his cast have their tongues buried to the hilt in their cheeks for Machete. From the scratchy film in the opening scene to the way every wound fountains arterial blood like a Monty Python skit, this movie is a hoot.

It is such a drive-in flick, at one point I swear I could taste the stale popcorn my local passion pit served.

Speaking of the cast, how did they get Robert DeNiro for this?? The stellar list of actors include Don Johnson, Jessica Alba, Cheech Marin, Michelle Rodriguez, Jeff Fahey and a bloated Steven Segal. The title character is played by the ubiquitous Danny Trejo, who proves you don’t have to be pretty to carry an action flick.
If you still don’t think this movie is for you, allow me to borrow from Joe Bob Briggs. Machete features weedwhacker fu, shoe fu, meat thermometer fu and, in one of the movie’s funniest scene, intestines fu.

Still not convinced? The movie has a naked Lindsay Lohan, a sorta naked Jessica Alba and a nearly-naked and phenomenally buff Michelle Rodriguez.

Here’s hoping there's a sequel some time soon.

***

The writing has gone well this weekend.

I polished my latest section of Dead Earth 3 (nobody, by the way, likes my title: Dead Earth 3-D) and sent it to Dave Wilbanks, then spent the bulk of the day working on that overdue story that is trying to become my personal Waterloo. Fortunately, I have the beast pinned to the mat. Let’s see if I can hold it there until the ref finishes his count.

Write On

For those who are interested, work continues on the third – and currently title-less – Dead Earth novel. I finished my first pass at my most recent section earlier today. I’ll give it a polish tomorrow and send it back to Mister Wilbanks.

It’s still very early in the proceedings, but I have a good feeling about where this one is headed. Several possible cool twists occurred to me during today’s writing, so I’ll pass those on to Dave, so he can mock them. Hopefully, at least one of the ideas will make the final cut.

After a long delay, I also posted a new chapter of Donovan Pike and the City of the Gods, my pulp adventure novel. You can check it out at Pulp Nocturne.

Another DEAD Review

Author, editor, talk show host and publisher Nick Cato has read Dead Earth: The Vengeance Road and he liked it.

2011, Day One

Today I wrote the first words in the new Dead Earth novel. Later, I'll be working to finish up a long overdue story.

Welcome to the new year.

Here are the random thoughts rattling through my head today:

The Larry Sanders Show is the greatest sitcom ever. Hanging in at #2: The Andy Griffith Show (the first five seasons only). I have worked with Hank Kingsley.

I am to technology what Blatz beer is to gourmet dining.

The strongest force on earth is Jennifer Aniston's nipples. Nothing can stop them.

Can't they lie to Dick Clark and just pretend the camera is on?

When certain guests come over, hide the good beer.

If you look up "mediocre" in the dictionary, you'll find a picture of the Cincinnati Bengals playing the Cleveland Browns.

When did Vince Vaughn decide his new career path was making unfunny movies?

I refuse to pose for a Rex Ryan foot fetish video. I have my standards, you know.

You should never, ever say "good sir" unless you're working at a Renaissance festival.

Resolving to be Resolute

So. Here we are. The year ends, and since we use this arbitrary system of dates to mark beginnings and endings, let me just say, “Adios, 2010, you rat bastard.”

There was a lot of good this year, to be sure. But the year was also filled with many frustrating roadblocks, from a health problem that had a serious impact on my productivity, to family drama to those charming little surprises the universe tosses your way from time to time. I accomplished perhaps one-tenth of what I had planned this year.

And it’s all my fault.

My time management skills went out the window in January. Or I got Time Management Amnesia. In any case, my schedule became a game of Jenga, with work and writing commitments and personal responsibilities piling on one another until the tower of babbling buffoonery toppled.

I missed deadlines. I had to drop out of projects. Everything I managed to complete was very late. Some publishers were understanding and other not so much. I’m thankful for the former and I do not blame the latter. The second worst offense a writer can make is agreeing to a deadline and blowing it (the first is turning in a manuscript that reads as if it were shat out by a diarrhetic monkey).

Looking ahead, I’m working hard to get back on track. A big part of this is figuring out how to balance my writing with my day job. The job takes a lot of hours and I need to make a realistic writing schedule that reflects that.

This week I’m finishing up another long-overdue project. Next, Then Dave Wilbanks and I start writing the next Dead Earth novel on January 1. At the same time, I will do rewrites on the first Dead Sheriff prose book, then starting on a new horror novel, thanks to our collaboration schedule which allows me three days of “alone” writing time after turning in my latest segment of the DE novel. Following that, I will write the second Dead Sheriff book.

I will also continue my serialized pulp-adventure novel Donovan Pike and the City of the Gods.

There are other stories and novellas I would like to write next year. However, the projects mentioned above take precedent. Anything else will have to wait for the rare window in my schedule.

I also have to get better at saying no. Even though I’m near the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to writers, each year I do receive a smattering of invitations to write something for an anthology or other project. In 2011, the project will have to be either incredibly compelling or very lucrative to get me to sign on. That goes for audio book narrating, too.

Where does this hard-line scheduling leave Pod of Horror?

Good question. I love PoH. I love talking with other writers. I love working with my friend, the very patient Nanci Kalanta (but please don’t tell her I said that).

It takes me roughly 12-15 hours to put together a typical episode. That includes scheduling segments, prepping interviews, conducting interviews, editing, and the other boring details that are a part of every episode. Because of the previously mentioned day job–which gets even busier near the end of the year–I didn’t have 12 hours to spare in December, so there wasn’t a Pod of Horror.

Despite my best efforts to keep the show monthly, I end up producing far less. In 2010 there were only four episodes. Part of that is due to the issues that affected my productivity all year long. Still, I have to be honest with myself and admit that I won’t be doing 12 new episodes per year. I think a more realistic goal is 6 shows in 12 months. If I manage to squeeze in an extra show that will be gravy on the mashed potatoes, as we say back home.

I’ll check in regularly and let you know how the plan is working.

Fangora Reviews Dead Earth: The Vengeance Road

On their website, Fangoria magazine gives a positive review to the novel. In my favorite quote,the reviewer says the book "packs in a heavy dose of blazing shoot-’em-up action and intense scares."

You can read the review in its entirety here.

More DEAD EARTH News

Mark Justice and David T. Wilbanks' DEAD EARTH: THE VENGEANCE ROAD is now available in paperback and eBook. Order before Nov. 20 and get a *FREE* eBook of DEAD EARTH: THE GREEN DAWN as well! Go here for details.