Tag Archives: zombies

The Best Zombie Books Out There

zombie_horde_by_joakimolofsson-d5mudbk

So I was checking out the competition the other day,  and I finally started to understand why none of you are reading my books.  Hey,  these other books are really good.  So just, to show I’m not a sore sport about it all, I’ve included some links at the bottom here of some lists of pretty good zombie books.  Here’s to hoping I end up on some of them at some point.  You faithful reader could help in that regard, by checking out my books on the right there.  Yea, they’re a little different then the usual zombie fare, but that’s sort of the fun isn’t it.  Who want’s to just keep reading the same old stuff.

Dead Sea by Brian Keene

If you think about zombies anywhere near as much as I do, I’m sure that at some point you think you’ve found a painfully simple solution to the whole zombie apocalypse.  It’s obvious right? Just jump on a boat and head out to some uninhabited tropical island, and live the rest of your life in paradise.  Well, Mr. Keene is about to burst that bubble on you with all the reasons why you’re our brilliant plan just won’t work.  If you haven’t read any of Keene’s works (shame on you),  I should warn you, there’s no shortage of guts and gore to be had.

Book of the Dead edited by John Skipp & Craig Spector

If your a fan of of the George Romero style of zombie fiction, then this short story anthalogy should be right up your alley with plenty of gore and old style zombie hacking.   With contributions from Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Steve Rasnic, David J. Schow, Nicholas Royle, David J. Schow, Glen Vasey, Les Daniels, Robert R. McCammon and Brian Hodge to name just a few.  The stories here are the cream of the zombie crop from back in the day circa 1989.  So, if you’re interested in delving a little into the history of zombie fiction, this would be the place to start. Continue reading

Morning Pages Entry – April 12, 2014

Well, Saturday morning here, and I have to sit back and reflect a bit on what I managed to accomplish this week. Then number one thing, was obviously 25,000 words written for my novel. That’s pretty incredible. That’s basically 100 written pages. Sure, it’s a rough draft, that needs tightening up, and definitely needs more descriptive prose added to it, but still TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND WORDS in five days all done before lunch . . . usually by 12 but a few times at 12:30 or 1pm, is still pretty frigging darn impressive. By any yard stick. And I did it with a few distractions hanging around (sickly annoying wife) for four of those days. It’s pretty darn cool, and it tells me definitely what I’m capable of doing here. It also points out a few flaws. I do need to get better at plotting and outlining ahead of time. Those two things are definitely important. And, coming up with interesting scenes during that process is important as well. There were a few days, when it was a real struggle to write those words. And I feel those days were when I was working on scenes that weren’t all that interesting to me. So there’s room for improvement. Having interesting scenes to write, will undoubtedly translate into more entertaining stories for my readers as well. I’m quite sure of that. So, the question is now, where to go from here. Obviously, I want to keep generating copious amounts of words as I go along. I am close to having this novel first draft finished, so I will have to spend some time editing it as well. I also need to write a bit more back story I think before I start editing. Specifically, I need a bit more background information on the following:

  1. Different levels and evolution of the zombie / freaks.
  2. Better names for the zombies / freaks / whatever
  3. A better list of the weapons carried by both Chaz and Alex and other minor characters.
  4. A better blueprint of what the floor plan is on the different levels of Fort Knox.
  5. Some better technical understanding of tanks and helicopters.
  6. Some basic grammar on capitalization of characters/titles and writing dialogue.
  7. Cleaning up some 1st person / 3rd person switching around things.

Just a little more back story in general I think will help with making the story more interesting and real for the readers. All in all, this was a pretty amazing week to be sure. And, I managed to stick to my eating routine as well. I think were up to like 45 days now, with no sugar, no process foods, and no alcohol in my system as well. I think the last couple of weeks, since cutting back on the fruits and nuts, I’ve also managed to lose about four pounds. That’s pretty good, for just a couple of weeks. If I can stick to that, I should finally get comfortably under 170 by the end of the month. That will be something I couldn’t even accomplish during my P90X days. I don’t think I have the muscle mass I had then. But I will keep working on that. I haven’t been doing my FitFix routine, which I do need to get back to, but I have been doing my little 2 minute morning workout of plank or wall sits. Once my shoulder get’s back to being healthy, I would really like to throw my pushups back into the mix. I should also start walking every day to. That would certainly help with the weight. You burn about 300 calories per hour walking, and that basically translates to about 9000 calories, or roughly 3 pounds per month. That could certainly help in getting me to my target weight of 155 before the summer really gets rolling along. And all the other benefits that come with walking, which I do believe is one of the best workouts I can do. I get healthier, without the impact of squash or intensive weight training. And it clears my head, and gets me in a better place for whatever else it is I need to accomplish afterwards. I need to get more disciplined about doing that every day. It’s definitely been a good week, and I’m well on my way now with this writing routine to achieveing some real goals. The trick is to keep writing, and make this a genuine habit. One that sticks for a long time.

TIGERBLOOD: maybe DAILYMOOD: good LOCATION: living room WORDSWRITTEN: 5159 PUSHUPS: 2:00 plank TODO: walk, read, write TV: american horror story, sons of anarchy BOOK: none GAME: Batman Arkham City EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 172 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: none SNACKS: orange, grapes ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 10pm and 4am AWAKE: 7:30