ready DEAD: End by TW Brown

The authors note followed by the mega fan comments were enough to make me cry; so I left this book for another two weeks. This is the END.

Having invested a few years in this series I have thus far, lost friends, disagreed with the author, cried, laughed, been disgusted, been horrified but always been drawn back to continue the journey, only now it’s finally, really, truly coming to an END.

Looking back, is it the writing style that I have enjoyed? The world TWB has foretold? The vivid characters? After all, I still have DEAD: “in your town” series; so lots more zombies, great characters and yucky moments. I also have That Ghoul Ava, Zomblog and the other many books that TWB has planned to enjoy.   

So what makes me so sad about the end of this book series?  I suppose I don’t want to say a final goodbye to Thalia, Billy, Jody, Catie, Dr Zahn and all the other multitude of characters that TWB has brought into my life (even the personally irritating Juan!).

Not all the stories or people have panned out as I wished they would. Catie really annoyed me, I’m not so sure Kevin would have been proud of her methods but I did like her ending. 

Thalia, sigh, I have loved this child, and been privileged to watch her grow up, so letting her go and seeing what happened to her made me cry. 

As for crying, I did lots of that in this book. Juan, Jody, Billy; saying farewell in various ways, some fizzled out, some got the happy ending and some got gruesome take outs; TWB did not shy away in making anyone safe or anything unimaginable.

As for my name sake, well, a huge lump came to my throat for her ending with the gorgeous Paddy. 

A few things were still not finished in my view of the world; what happened to Egypt? Kid zombies? Cats….. what the hell is it with zombie authors and cats!!

I did feel a little cheated at getting to 92% and then given two (ok they are great but…) first chapters of other books!

I did like all the little jibs, jabs and subtle references; very clever Mr TWB, very clever.

As a post-script TWB has now started his stand alone (but a series) of DEAD snapshots... so go take a look!


                            DEAD: End

Eye Witness Zombie Anthology

For a debut anthology for this now well established publisher/editor/author, its Amazing (yes, with a capital A!) to be able to bring all these wonderful authors together, with such differing styles and then lay them out in such a great order! Brilliant!

And THEN to add this line in the prologue "if you find an error, please feel free to email the mistake" I think shows the strength, dignity, courage and grounding this team has.... They still carry this on, several series and anthologies later. Another Amazing quality!

Why am I just getting round to writing this review now, two years after it was published and over a year (March 2012) since I bought and read it? Well, I guess I forgot! I got so excited I just marched my way through all the other anthologies, the Dead: The Ugly Beginning series and now my favourite That Ghoul Ava: Her First Adventures (Unabridged).

Love the little author bios before each story. The drawings are wonderfully intricate and the tickertape news is inspired!

Doomsday Ramblings by Tonia Brown: The gentle undertones of barbed comments, low expectation, love of a still over his wife and general disdain that this author describes shows what is obviously a terribly sad marriage in a strangely wonderful way.

Littered with humour you are lulled into the backwoods of stupidity before Ms Brown slams you with blood, gore, alcohol and general eeew.

A Soldiers Lament by Patrick D'Orazio: Told in the first person, this army lad is fed up with saving civvies rumps! 

So much action occurs in such a small space of time its hard to keep up, however, this worn out cynical solider manages to ramble on for another few blocks and pages....it always ends up the same. Did not grip me, but well written.

Childish Things by William Wood: As if a ZomPoc is not bad enough, you get trapped inside a cartoon whale! 

Or maybe you are the person who meets the whale... which has eyebrows! Funny, but sad. Great idea for a little story.

Mere Symptoms of Living by Kris Ashton: What would happen if during the ZomPoc you got locked in the bathroom.... Well now you are about to find out! 

Smirk inducing humour throughout, the inevitable ending but so well written I felt a little tear in the corner of my eye.

All in your head by Stephanie Kincaid: If you spot a zombie on the way home are you going bats? 

Should you up your medication? 

Write a reflection on the issue! 

Or just go grab a bite to eat.... Some great humour mixed with the gore.

The Nightmare by William Lederman: Great story, hated the ending... what a blinking waste of ink. Thought it was a cope out, sorry.

Run Through The Jungle by Tony Monchinski: So far the saddest tale, a great group dynamic tale.

I felt a little shaken after this one, the constant sad endings are a bit much to take after awhile.... What the heck am I saying this is a ZomPoc anthology!!! 

Does what it says on the cover!

Dredge by Nikki Sedlock: My absolute favourite story, because it's basically what I day dream about, well this was pretty much my plan! 

Im hoping for less gore and more showers tho! Will definitely be looking this author up!

One Nation Undead by Mike Harrison: OMG what a start!! Talk about gripped. 

Two believable characters which could easily flesh out a whole novel, great writing, fast but not furious, nothing in the emotion is lost. 

The ending was, well you will have to read it!

Eye in the Sky by John McCuaig: A personal favourite as set in my own country! And unique in this anthology as set in the future. Loved the little interspersed song titles, very clever.

Embedded by Andrew Black: First person writing, with some great explanations of what is going on. Lots of different tortures going on in this little story, hard to pinpoint which is the worst.

Baby Killer by Ron Harris: Brave subject, not enjoyable to read, had a hard time with this one; but nothing wrong with the writing.

Eye-Witness-Zombie

Bob meets Sam by Jaime Johnesse

Starts off with a blast as Bob goes into full on dance, and body part flinging mode within the first few lines. We are also reintroduced to Griff, the empath.

The tongue in cheek humour is forefront with Bob and even if a little stinky/slimy he is such a likeable guy.

What is not to like about JJ’s writing, especially her dialogue pieces as they give her characters such life with getting stuck down in the he said/she said back and forth.

When Bob catches up with Sam, the shape-shifter, at Griff’s bar JJ explains  how they both became part of the supernatural world and how they met, a really great story in and of itself. However, when Bob learns that the necromancer he helped to capture has escaped he has to help to recapture him.

Bring on New Orleans, Voodoo hoodoo, witches, zombies and mayhem galore!

JJ moves her stories along quickly, but still holds tension, and this was no exception, fast paced but with full on mental imagery to pull you into the story.

I am looking forward to the much promised updated Sam the Shifter book.

Bob meets Sam 

Cast in Fire: Revelations Series 2 by Jaime Johnesse, Chirstine Sutton & Lisa Lane

I want a hell hound!!

Poor Frank, the cat loving demon, his love of kitten mugs is so endearing and yet he loves his job as a torturer in Hell, he is a guy I would love to know personally!

The ongoing escape of Djinn continues as does the drain on Lucifer’s soul reaping, with dire consequences, revelations of the fall from Grace are given up during one of her many “moments”.  A time that Poly tries hard to hide.

Poor Drew is sinking further into her soul/energy draining addiction and I loved finding out more about her past history.

Lenny, such a cutie, but the girl you want on your side in a fight not the one pounding you! Her shape shifting abilities bring some interesting  elements to the, multiple, fight scenes.

When the Djinn do their ultimate weapon release the World goes into melt down but one Senator seems to be immune and keeps rising to the top of the pile.

I love the way all three authors gel so well in their writing, you can see the differing styles in their characters but they blend their story lines so well in the joint scenes.

A few new characters in this episode of the trilogy but I think my favourite is Gabriella and her cat Vincenzo.

However, Nick the Ghul, also intrigues me and I look forward to finding out which side he really plays for.

Just when you think all is coming right for the World the ladies kick you in the gut with the final comment, talk about leave you on a knife edge and ready for the final instalment – a good tease ladies, but oh so wicked!

Cast in Fire

Guest Blog!! TW Brown chats about.....

I stumbled across TW Brown in the autumn of 2013 at the time he was meerly a named editor in another much loved authors book series; give it a whirl I thought. I love the apocalyptic genre AND series, so imagine my delight when I discovered TWB!

I was soon suckered in and the next DEAD become something I waited for and relished. At book 10 I started to realise that this must come to an end, TWB had made it very clear that 12 was the magic number.  Yes, there were add ons, other series he was writing (Zomblog and That Ghoul Ava are amoung my favourite worlds) and bonus content BUT in two books time THIS world was ending.......

However, it seems TWB has more to give his fans (horah) and this is him (yes really!) on MY blog explaining why, how and what to expect. So, read on and enjoy!

Oh, but before I go here is his Newfoundland "pup" !!

Returning to the DEAD world

When I sat down and began writing the original DEAD series, I hoped that I would be able to put together a 4-book series. As the story unfolded before me, I realized there was so much going on…and that led to my producing 12 books (that was over 1,000,000 words!). The truth is that I could have gone on MUCH longer. There is a gigantic ten-year time jump for example. But I knew the ending, and to reach it in 12 books, I had to skip ahead.

I found that I skipped over a lot of details as I plowed ahead to that ending. Yes, I could’ve easily discarded my 12-book total announcement. However, I’d made that announcement publicly. I know of one writer that ended a series at book 6. This person went on to other projects that I was hired to edit. One day, book 7 of that series arrived in my email. I sent back a query. 

Me: “Hey, I thought you were done with this one.”

Reply: “Yeah, the other stuff isn’t making the money like “Series X” so I am gonna extend it.”

I thought that was unfair to the fan base. And while I admit this is a business, I just thought it was playing dirty. However, true to the hopes of this writer, the fans scooped up the additional books in large numbers. So, I guess that is okay. I just feel that I gave my word. I wasn’t going to be like The Who and have twenty Farewell Tours” when it came to the DEAD series as the fans knew it.

To that end, I have produced the DEAD: Snapshot—{insert town here} collection of standalone novels. To date, Portland, Oregon; Leeds, England; and Liberty, South Carolina have all received the DEAD treatment. I think the Leeds, England book is some of my best writing. It is one of the books that I truly felt good about. As a writer, I often feel my stuff is lacking.

So, all of this brings me to the real reason I am here with you today. On October 31, 2016, the DEAD world will be the setting of my new series. It begins with DEAD: Onset (Book 1 of the New DEAD series).

So, what makes this different? For one, this series will be through the eyes of one man: Evan Berry. No rotating chapters with Geeks and Vignettes; just the story of one man trying to figure out what is going on and then how to stay alive.

Evan is just a regular guy. I think that resonates more with readers than some military super-soldier packing an arsenal and having a way to rig every situation to his liking. Evan will make mistakes. Sometimes, I am betting that the readers may not like him very much. You will be inside his head, and we all know that we’ve thought things that would cause those around us to be shocked or think badly of us. You will be privy to those thoughts when they cross Evan’s mind.

The real Evan!!

What I hope to do with this series is to explore the world a bit more closely. One of my favorite twists in the mythology of the zombie is how children are different after they turn. I was inspired along this track when I was in a college psychology class. The topic of how much more active the young mind is, how open it is to learning gave me the inspiration that my child zombies would have a degree of sentience. That makes them a bit more frightening. While not actually holding on to their humanity…they are somehow different. They don’t just walk into a storm of bullets. They lurk. They wait.

Additionally, I think I was one of the early writers to explore the idea of possible immunity. That comes from Stephen King’s The Stand. The human immune system is a mystery. Some people just do not get whatever bug or virus is making the rounds. SO why shouldn’t there be those who are immune to the bite? However, once bitten, why not make that person a carrier? Imagine the schism that would eventually arise as the survivors had time to get past that first shock. And now, a person bitten but immune could infect another through fluid exchange. Think back to the hysteria and societal over-reaction to HIV and the AIDS virus. Strip away law and order, toss in those who feel they are now “The Chosen” as well as those who see the immune as dangers and abominations.

It doesn’t take long in my zombie books for zombies to become the least of people’s worries. DEAD: Onset (Book 1 of the New DEAD series) has no set number of volumes. I will write this story until I have nothing left to say. I am not in a hurry to reach an endgame. I want to suck the reader into this world and make them feel every emotion possible. Happiness, sadness, anger. I hope you enjoy it. I have said it before, but it bears repeating: I feel that every new book is my audition. 

I look forward to hearing how you feel about this book. I don’t go out seeking a flurry of 5 star reviews. It is impossible to be all things to all people, especially in the entertainment world. And I often learn things from well thought out critical reviews. If you can’t take those 1 star stingers that come every so often…you are in the wrong field. Do they feel good? No, but as long as you are seeing more love than pleas that you never take up the pen again, you should feel like you are on the right track. Let’s hope I am with my new series.

DEAD-Onset

At Hell's Gates Vol 2 - Anthology

Another AMAZING anthology! a real varied mix of authors.

Pulse by Mark Tufo:

Sam has invented a bug zapper with a difference. Julie, his wife and Arni the lawyer are seeing dollar signs, large ones, little ones and portable ones.

However, the Gov’ is never far behind once you apply for a patent, neither is a certain Hit Man; Emery.  However, unlike Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition, I have learnt with this author to always expect the unexpected and Julie is my hero.

The humour in the story made it a brilliant read and what a fantastic start to this anthology, which has a reputation to upkeep after book 1.

Cookies for the Gentleman by C.T. Phipps:

The narrator describes the worst monster which has followed him through life with various unspeakable torments.

He is placated finally by, of all things, the perfect cookie.   However, the author manages to make cookie baking a terror all its own.

Short and sharp, I loved how this progressed, the writing style was easy even if the subject matter was not.

By Any Means Necessary by Evin Ager:

Sargent Jason Burrows is on guard duty and he hates it. On some god forsaken island in the middle of nowhere he sees this as a total kick in the teeth from the Army.

Then the dreams start, then the goo, the disappearances and finally a climatic end that had me both riveted and disgusted; fantastic.

An author for me to put on my TBR list – these anthologies must have it up to a mile long by now.

History’s End by Frank Tayall:

Dr Marcus Holloway made a video, he also made a virus.

Following a series of breath holding moments, some clever skulduggery and the odd bit of espionage the world ends, but of course!

Would love to have read more, had the story extended into a novella etc. another TBR author, see what I mean!

A Mother’s Nightmare by J. Rudolph

A woman finds a suicide note whilst scavenging post apocalypse.

It is a sad story and I was getting upset myself until the dogs, then I couldn’t have cared less about this loving pre apocalyptic family, but that’s me, animals will always be equal in my eyes.

I liked the overall idea and the plotline was a good one, the characters and emotion they evoked was very real.

Patient 63 by Stevie Jonas:

Fabulous story of an infected who falls in love, yup you read that right!  Not all goes well of course but the love story was great, the outline and surrounding characters were well thought and fleshed out.

Tyrannical Ascension by Shana Festa:

Always and easy and fascinating read from SF, trouble is I always want a bit more.

Basically a tale of how sneaky, nasty and calculating humans can be, this just happens to be post-apocalyptic. Not forgetting the twits that follow them.

Ink by James Crawford:

A fast paced descriptive read. A much sort after and solitary tattooist is sort out by a client who is unsure what he is searching for.  However, the tattooist muse is all too aware.

The drawn out fight and torment scenes are yucky but weirdly intoxicating. I liked the fullness of the story and how well it was structured.

The Man with Four Scars by Stephen Koziekski:

I found lots of contradictions in this story eg. Not able to name items as language skills so primitive but able to tell night time, fireside stories?

At first it distracted me but I was soon enveloped in the story of this self-made town hero falling a fallen star and the strange green goop it emits; green goop is never a good thing!

Whilst I enjoyed the overall story and its unique take and twist on an often tired zombie genre I was annoyed at the author for keep changing the parameters of his characters.

Daddy’s Girl by Ian Mclellan:

What are the worst things you can do? Kill? Maim? Torture? Ignore?

Loved the lure in, the character fill out and then the thrusting twist in the tale. A well written story and a funny bio of the author.

Operation Devil Walk by David Mikolas:

Set in WW2 with the Nazi occult obsession as it main force a group of academics, drafted by the military is set to infiltrate a far flung island to find proof of strange goings on.

The ensuing story is both sad, horrifying and totally captivating.

The Infected by S.G. Lee:

Too many names to keep track of at first but then the little feuds amongst the Medics fighting for a faculty position start to focus their individuality.

A task is set to weed out the weak applicants and of course, this is the perfect back drop for a spot of wild research.

I liked the way the story was told in dialogue as it gave a great emotional feel to the story.

Forget Me Never by Sharon Stevenson:

Just what is the true price for fame? What lengths will people go to too get it?  A fabulous narrated story of murder, decay and fame.

Mileage by Sean T. Smith:

A surrealist tale of humanity trying to survive and a dying man’s hallucinogenic dreams.  A bit too weird for my liking but then that’s why I love anthologies so much, I’m sure some people will adore this story.

The Milestone by Lesa Kinney Anders:

Such a sad and chilling story. I’m not sure what was more horrifying the monster or the disease. I really liked the slow unfold of characters and plot line.

Genesis by Kit Power:

A son chases after kidnapped, crook father. The suggestions of torture via dialogue were very clever and made the reveal even more sticky.

This serves as a prequel to the author's new novel God Bomb! which I have recently enjoyed.  Overall I felt this was a little wordy compared to his novel, but it’s a good flavour of his writing style.

Lock Down by T.M. Caldwell:

Apparently this is the author's first published short, she is working on a fantasy novel; judged on this, I can’t wait for that!

I loved her open and caring writing style, I really felt for her characters and squirmed at the dangers they were facing.

The ending was a great crescendo to a well-paced story throughout, like the slow thud of footsteps that follow you on a dark night.

Collect Night by Curran Geist:

A bit more a fantasy tale with an alien flavour which is great after all that undead!

Hank is desperate to get home to save his new family after a terrifying phone call. CG does well to evoke the distress and builds on our fears of family loss going down every possible nasty avenue of thought on the journey home.

The off world critters he describes are both sad and fear evoking and, again, I was found wondering what a longer novella would be like.

Loved the author bio.

The Cold by Devan Sagilini:

Darren is not a likeable guy, a beach bum who thinks he deserves more. A chance letter post a death and he thinks his ship has come in, but hang on this is a horror anthology nothing is THAT nice!  

Great writing and build-up of character, hard to make one so dislikeable yet not cliché.

A Different Cocktail by Claire C. Riley:

The things men will do for a BJ!

A weird gothic night out and the narrator suddenly feels very hungry; an old story retold, but done well.

I liked the way it spiralled me down with the narrator, thankfully I didn’t vomit or slough my skin but I was in need of a ham sandwich post reading.

A Song to Sing in Babylon by Bobby Medvedev & Michael Baugh:

Monster children of SET are awaiting the uprising and doing various things to speed that along; rock concerts, portent watching, disease and dismemberment.

The exchanges between family members was interesting, especially seeing different views of madness.  However, the ending was a bit sharp for me after all the build-up.

The Gouger by Paul Mannering:

Murdering orcas and kicking dogs off boats (albeit accidently by the character) is not my idea of a good read and I declined to fish this story, shame as it was the last story in thus far a great anthology.

Sorry author but I can’t read any form of animal harm/cruelty that is MY taboo subject.

Overall I really enjoyed this second in the Hells Gates and I can’t wait to get stuck into book 3.

ps - sorry if i got anyone's names wrong!!

At Hell's Gates Vol 2

First Time Dead 1 Anthology

Hello Again by Megan Tregler:

I found MT so descriptive I could almost taste the colours she was describing, her style of writing was beautiful.

Jackson is mourning the rapid, recent and strange death of his wife. As he looks out of the pond in which her buried her ripples start to appear and those among us who understand the way the zompoc works knows what is coming up from the depths.

The difference to this beginning of the apocalypse (and those are always my favourite) is that MT puts so much emotion into their previous relationship with little comments or flashbacks that the love and horror combine.

Add to that the final line and it’s shudder worthy. I also really enjoyed Jackson as a character.

Twisted Words by Andrew Stockton:

Antony is an English book dealer and the story starts with him visiting a wealthy collector to purchase some items; I am always bias to love stories that are set in my own country. Although I am at loss as to why if you lived in the Highlands you would “crack open an Irish (whiskey)”.

As his host gives him a guided tour of the estate he lives in they come upon a twisted tree that has an unusual story. A story within a story, hard to pull off but done very well in this instance.

The following description of love, torment and decay is very palpable not to mention heart wrenching.  As the story unfolds and then reaches a climax I was impressed that the ending did not fail the brilliant story.

Everything I know about Zombies I learned from Star Trek by Sam Christopher:

With a title like that I was really interested, however, it turned out to be far to disjointed for my liking. The majority of the time the language was incomprehensible and I finally gave up after three pages of confusion.

BUT that’s the great thing about anthologies, to others this story will be brilliant.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Dillon Cox:

Ah, that age old start to the apocalypse; the military and their marvellous experiments, I do love a classic.

Lori and her baby brother, Zack, could be out for a road trip if they were not running from the undead! Nothing really felt strained, hard or dangerous for these two. 

In addition, Lori is stunningly beautiful and the chap they meet happens to be an upstanding, military trained hunk, with a fully functional off the grid hideaway etc etc

I was a bit concerned that Zack was sleeping the whole time and was also waiting for the gore/horror to start. Whilst the writing was good the story IMO was not.

Just Another Day by Chantel Boudreaux:

Margot has a busy job, a needy family and she is trying to become an author or at least plagiarise her currently compromised husbands work.

I love the way that CB writes with such humour, the explanation for her families circumstances are brilliant and almost believable.

CB is always a joy to read.

Inland by Martin Milhomme:

Jake is surving the zompoc on a boat in the Florida Keys  when happens upon a traumatised, nearly eaten Angela. However this initially good story took a nose dive when she went from the screaming abdabs to offering a “fun afternoon” in the space of 24hrs not to mention said “fun” was had post an amputation, medications, a blow torch incident and alcohol!

At that point I gave up, yes zompoc is fictional (currently) but I need to believe they could be true.

He’s not Heavy by Rebecca Snow:

WOW this was my favourite story.

Well thought out with a twist I did not see coming. I really enjoyed the build-up and the characters were spot on with great back stories, really all crammed into a small story.

Bravo – an author I intend to look up.

As I Watch Her Walk Away by Dave Minyard:

So sad but also so funny, at least I hope that’s how it was intended.

A happy young man describes his demise at the start of the zompoc, it all felt very real and very fast.   I really enjoyed this one.

Things Worse Than Death by Bryan Vogt:

Poor Peter has a unique on several survivors as they crash through various rooms trying to escape the oncoming horde.

Cleverly written with a brilliant twist at the end. Another author to look out for (for me!)

Death by Dad by Lisa Conger:

Not sure how I felt about this story as it sorted flitted about a bit.

Whilst the writing was clear there was just something wrong; lack of character in the characters and the story kind of went nowhere IMO.

Forgive me Father for I have a ….. Burp by Michael J Evans:

A zombie yet to lose all his brain power is over wrought by the desire to confess post eating his wife.

Whilst the writing was and the story a good one it really lacked some humour, this could have been a gigglefest with some extra input to make it lip smackingly good, which is a shame.

The Overpass by John Lemut:

I was totally engrossed in this story, the characters felt rounded and the timeline jogged along really well and then just as it got really intense it stopped!

I do hope this is part of a larger novel elsewhere, otherwise I’m stumped.

At the end are some footnotes regarding the authors, personally I would have liked these at the end of each chapter.

Overall I liked this anthology as a couple of stories were fantastic and others I would have chucked, but that’s the joy of them, it’s like a mixed bag of sweets!

First Time Dead 1