Z is for Zombie

From: World War Z

If you asked me what my favorite monster is, my answer probably would not be Zombies. And yet, I really enjoyed Zombieland and Warm Bodies, which are at the opposite ends of the zombie movie spectrum and could not be more different from each other if they tried. I've also tried my hand at writing a few zombie stories and Christopher Grant (of A Twist of Noir) indulged my taste in Z fiction by publishing a few of them on his zombie fiction blog, Eaten Alive.  One of the best stories from Eaten Alive was written by the late AJ Hayes. It's called "the End of Our Zombie Days." I was able to tell AJ (I didn't know him well enough to call him "Bill") how much I liked the story when I met him at Noir at the Bar. If you've never read it, it's heart-breaking and it's here.

Free fiction--L.A. Nocturne II

I'll be publishing MISBEGOTTEN early in the new year and I'm giving away my collection of short stories, L.A. NOCTURNE II to get in the mood. You can get it here. There are ten stories of urban fiction inside, some of them first published on A Twist of Noir and Eaten Alive. Cover by the talented Joy Sillesen of Indie Author Services.

the Zombie Apocalypse comes in on the high tide

Photo by Chris Pallister Gulf Keepers of Alaska

I have been haunted by the images of tsunami debris floating across the Pacific for more than a year. Now it's starting to come ashore in Canada and Washington and Oregon. It's only a matter of time before it arrives here in So. Cal.
All those bits of metal that used to be cars ad bits of wood that used to be boats and also black gunk that might have been anything...
That's the visual fertilizer that nourished my story "Tourist Visa." You can read onChristopher Grant's  Eaten Alive site, here.

Brain Food up at Christopher Grant's Eaten Alive site

As you may know, Christopher Grant of A Twist of Noir has a new-ish site devoted completely to zombie stories. There are no zombies in the paranormal Los Angeles where I set most of my stories, but it's fun to write a zombie story every once in awhile just for a change of pace.  You can read "Brain Food" here.  And as long as you're clicking around, you should check out Christine Rains' story "Lady Blood" on ATON. She has perfectly channeled the pulpy voice of a period story. 

Zombiefied Gets a Release Date

Cue the shameless self-promotion!
My story "Dead Letter" is included in this Sky Warrior Books anthology. The ebook version will be available on October 1st (more info later); with a print version following. Here's the cover to whet your appetite (for brains!!!)

And since we're talking about zombies, have you been reading the great zombie stories on Eaten Alive?  All zombies, all the time, with stories from Col Bury, Chris Rhatigan, R.S. Bohn, A.J. Hayes, Jimmy Calaway, Richard Godwin, Kenneth James Crist, Michael J. Solender, Michael Moreci, and me...

And of course, you've bought your copy of Peter Mark May's excellent undead anthology Alt-Dead, right?  More zombie stories than you can shake a stick at, from both sides of the Atlantic.

I've been Zombiefied!

Thanks to Christopher Grant and Peter Mark May who first got me thinking about zombies, I've now written a couple of stories about Zees.  One of them, "Dead Letter," which Christopher first published on Eaten Alive, has been accepted in the upcoming anthology Zombiefied.
Publisher is Sky Warrior Books. Planned pub date is October 1. More information as I have it.