Status Update

There's a lot to catch up on since Blogger exiled me, so let's jump right in.

Two of my short stories have been accepted for publication in upcoming anthologies being published by Knightwatch Press.  "The Last Flight of the The Bismarck," about an outbreak of steampunk zombies aboard an airship over New York City, will be featured in Machina Mortis: Steampunk'd Tales of Terror.  "The Hunger," about cannibalism during a zombie apocalypse (as if the possibility of being eaten by zombies wasn't bad enough), will appear in their Cannibal Anthology.  The dates of publication are not set yet; I'll let you know when they are.  In the meantime, please check out the links to see a list of the other great authors who will also be featured in the anthologies. 

I'm also very excited about the two conventions I'll be attending in the next few months.  The first is InfectScranton from 21-23 September.  I'll be there with fellow Permuted Press authors Jacqueline Druga and Kim Paffenroth.  Other guests include stars from AMC's The Walking Dead (including Addy Miller, the "little girl zombie" from the first episode, and Madison Lintz, who played Sofia) as well as several stars from Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead (Judith "Barbara" Odea, Leonard "machete head zombie" Lies, Sharon "nurse zombie" Ceccatti (Hill), and Jim "helicopter zombie" Krut) plus many more guests.  Though I'm not at liberty to divulge any details, I can say that the concept of this convention will be unlike any other I've been at.  If you're in the area that weekend, it's definitely worth your time to swing on by and get infected.

From 19-21 October I'll be in Fort Meyers, Florida, attending Zombicon 2012.  In addition to fellow Permuted Press author Jacqueline Druga, attendees will include and Joe Schreiber, author of the Star Wars' zombie novel Death Troopers, many cast members from Romero's Day of the Dead (Lori Cadille, Gary Klar, Joe Pilato, and Terry Alexander), plus several other special guests.  This promises to be an epic event. 

From 22 October to 30 November I will be engaged in a six week blog tour with Innovative Online Book Tours for The Vampire Hunters trilogy.  This will include a series of interviews, reviews, guest blogs, and a chance to win a free Kindle.  Every day of the tour I'll post both here and on Facebook where I'll be appearing, so please be sure to drop by and visit.

I have several other things in the works, but I won't post about those until they're finalized.

So it's going to be a busy two months for me.  I hope to see you all at the conventions or on the blog tour.  And thanks for following me. 

Upcoming Events for 2012

I have not been on line as much the past few weeks as I would have liked, mostly because I've been preoccupied between my day job and crashing to finish my latest novel.  Most of that is behind me, so now I concentrate on looking ahead.  This year promises to be very successful. 

Rotter World, my first zombie novel, will be published by Permuted Press sometime in April or May.  I am finishing up the final revision of Yeitso, my tribute to the B-grade monster movies of the 1950s that I loved as a Monster Kid (and still do).  Hopefully within the next few months I will begin work on my sixth novel, Hell Gates, a young adult dark fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic world where the boundaries between earth and Hell collapse, allowing the two worlds to merge. 

In the short story category, I have "The Last Flight of the Bismarck" (steampunk zombies) is currently with a publisher, and I should hopefully be hearing back soon.  Another short story, "Recognition" (a zombie apocalypse told from the living dead's point of view), is ready for submission, and I am looking around for the right publisher.  Plus I have several more ideas I'm hoping to develop in 2012.

I will also be attending several conventions this year as a guest.  Among them will be Ravencon 2012 in Chesterfield, Virginia from 13-15 April and Crypticon in Seattle, Washington from 25-27 May where I will be sitting at the Permuted Press table.  I hope to make appearances at several others, including HorrorFind 2012, as well as hold more book signings.  As always, I will keep you posted on developments.

That's it for now.  I thank my family, friends, and fans for all their support.  And I look forward to all the new people I will meet this year.

Book Signing at Beyond Comics in Gaithersburg, Maryland, 26 November

I'll be signing all three books in The Vampire Hunters trilogy on Saturday, 26 November, from 12 PM to 3 PM at Beyond Comics on 536 North Frederick Avenue, Gaithersburg, Maryland.  If you live in the area, please drop by.  I hope to see you there.

Photos from Book Signing at Harrison's Comics

Below are some of the pictures taken during my book signing of The vampire Hunters trilogy at Harrison's Comics and Collectibles on Sunday. 

Yours truly set up at Harrison's. 

Signing books.

Me with my biggest fan -- my niece, Kiera.

Status Update

I finished the first revision of Yeitso (formerly The Walking Monster) yesterday.  Now I need to research some missing sections and input the feedback from my readers, then I'll start the final revision.

The Vampire Hunters: Dominion Now Available

The Vampire Hunters: Dominion, the third and final book of The Vampire Hunters trilogy, is available as a trade paperback and for Kindle, both from Amazon.com.

Cover Art for The Vampire Hunters: Dominion

Pill Hill Press sent me the cover art for The Vampire Hunters: Dominion, the last book in The Vampire Hunter series.  The book will be available from Amazon and on Kindle/Nook on 1 October.

Review of THE ZOMBIE AUTOPSIES

I’m trying a new approach with my blog.  During the Stoker Weekend two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of chatting with many of my fellow authors, including Jonathon Maberry, Scott G. Browne, Scott Kenemore, and John Cozzoli.  One of the many topics discussed was blogging, and how to make our blogs more appealing to readers.  Talking with them, I realized that what my blog is lacking is less material about me and more postings that will be of interest to the wider genre community.  So I decided to make some changes in the coming months, make my blog less “me” centric, and post the occasional review of zombie and vampire books and movies.

So with that, here’s my review of Steven C. Schlozman’s The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse.

Author: Steven C. Schlozman

Publisher:  Grand Central Publishing

Date: 2011

Pages: 190  

Available from Amazon.com

Blurb:  As the walking dead rises up throughout the world, a few brave doctors attempt to find a cure by applying forensic techniques to captured zombies. Based on the research of renowned zombie expert Dr. Stanley Blum, performed at a remote island where a crack medical team has been sent to explore a radical theory that may lead to a cure for the epidemic, THE ZOMBIE AUTOPSIES documents for the first time the unique biology of zombie organisms. Twenty-five detailed drawings of the internal organs of actual zombies provide an accurate anatomy of these horrifying creatures, including zombie brains, hearts, lungs, skin, and the digestive system, while Dr. Blum’s notes reveal shocking insights into how they function, even as Blum and his staff themselves begin to succumb to the plague. No one knows the ultimate fate of Dr. Blum or his researchers, but now that his notebook, THE ZOMBIE AUTOPSIES, has been made available to the UN, the World Health Organization, and the general public, his scientific discoveries may provide the last hope for humans on earth!

Word of mouth from other blogs and forums has been giving The Zombie Autopsies good reviews, so the last time I was at the bookstore I picked up a copy.  I’m glad I did.  As a psychiatrist on the faculty of Mass General Hospital and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Schlozman has used his medical background to provide a unique entry to the zombie genre.

The Zombie Autopsies focuses on the private, hand-written diary of Dr. Stanley Blum, the last scientist sent to the United Nations Sanctuary on the island of Bassas da India in the Indian Ocean where researchers from the UN and the World Health Organization are conducting autopsies on fully-animated zombies to find a cure for the living dead plague that has ravished a third of mankind.  Everyone else who has ever traveled to the sanctuary has become infected and eventually turned into a zombie, so for Dr. Blum volunteering for this mission is a death sentence.  In conjunction with Dr. Banca Gutierrez and Dr. James Pittman, the current researchers who are rapidly progressing from Stage II to Stage IV of the virus, the trio perform graphically detailed autopsies of the brain and internal organs of fully animated zombies.  Their research soon unearths a frightening fact – the virus that has wiped out much if the world was most likely engineered by man.  

An interesting twist to the novel is the bureaucratese that dominates the text.  Because The Zombie Autopsies is written like a scientific paper, it has a detached feel about it.  The zombie plague is referred to as Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome (ANSD), the “internationally accepted diagnostic term.”  Those infected with ANSD are referred to as “humanoids” until they reach the final virulent Stage IV and become “No Longer Human” (NLH) and can be “deanimated.”  Schlozman also includes references to the Treaty of Atlanta, the meeting of scientists, ethicists, and religious leaders to reach a consensus on how to characterize and deal with the infected (ethicists have been arguing that killing in mass self-defense can only be justified as an act of war, which does not apply in this scenario since the zombies did not formally declare war).  Anybody who has watched the complete ineffectiveness of governments in the face of Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Haiti, and the tsunamis that recently devastated Japan will find these sections disturbingly authentic.  

As a tongue-in-cheek nod to genre fans, Scholzman uses the autopsies to explain the physiology of the traditional shambling zombies of the Romero mythos (no fast zombies here), providing a medical basis for why the living dead possess voracious appetites, why they walk with their arms held out in front of them, and a host of other characteristics.  And it would be remiss not to mention the gruesome illustrations by Andrea Sparacio, which in and of themselves are worth the purchase price of the book. 

The Zombie Autopsies is a unique novel that should be included in any zombie aficionados’ book shelf.