Sunday, April 22, 2018

Hey guys!

I've been away for a while, working on two monster projects that consumed all of my time.

First project: A three year restoration of a 66 year old military jeep.




Second project: I've been working on Poison Well since 2012, actually. It is due to be released in 7 days, although it could be viewed on Kindle Scout for the last month.




As for the jeep, that was just a fun project. The book was a little more intense, because it was a good story that needed to be told correctly, and with a good deal of humor. These things take time, and a lot of energy.

I'm hoping to pull off an Andy Weir (The Martian) next week when I offer Poison Well for 99 cents on Amazon Books. Andy sold 30,000 copies of The Martian very quickly, but he also understood social media, and I don't.

On another note, I am trying to figure out how to make videos of my jeep in action using a new camera mount. At the moment there is too much wind noise to hear anything I'm saying, though.

Talk to you guys soon.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Wow...two more books have been released

 Sonofagun. I have been so busy writing that I have completely ignored this blog. But the newly released books in my John Gladstone series are pretty good, even if I do say so myself.




So I went ahead and invented my own genre - Zombie Crime.

Sound silly? Well, I wanted to write about what it would be like to restart society if you were basically starting from scratch. It turns out to be a pretty big deal in Zombie Hillbillies.

John Gladstone, the hero from Zombie Pied Piper, has to face off against the Aryan Nation. They want an 'all white' society, and are willing to kill to get their point across.




Then, in Zombie Paradise, John has to deal with two serious issues. First, there are 75 million infected people piling onto the barrier that protects the state of Florida.

So they come up with the Macchina di Morti - a sort of giant bucket-wheel excavator that will feed the infected into a commercial incinerator. But the Machine of Death has to be built from scratch.

John also has to put away a violent IRA splinter group that not only threaten his community, but his family and friends, as well.



If you have read these books, please leave a review.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Zombie Pied Piper



As some of you know, I have been away for a while. I've been working on the novel, Zombie Pied Piper. It's been a ton of work, but the end result is pretty cool.

A brief description is below:

Marion County, Florida. There are bad days…and there are really bad days.

Some may not consider it good luck when a passenger jet filled with infected people explodes over the property occupied by Gladstone Specialists, raining zombies and zombie parts.

But it was a very lucky day for the men that work for John Gladstone, and their families, as well. They learn rather quickly that John is a Weapon of Mass Destruction on zombie asshats, whose sole intention is to protect his thirteen-year-old daughter, Hannah.

John Gladstone and his crew become trapped at John’s business when the world falls to the mysterious Outbreak two days after the Fourth of July – and they get some excellent hands-on training on how to put the infected into the ground where they belong.

John and his crew are military historians, working primarily for the film industry, so when the infected pouring in from the freeway begin to pile onto their fence, John’s crew fight back with flamethrowers and home-built flail tanks. And to John’s great surprise, Hannah teaches him how to make napalm. She also convinces him to use her teen friends as his flame crew…all of those years playing video games will finally be put to good use.

John also discovers a weakness in the infected – they are extremely sensitive to ground vibrations, and he proves this theory using a geological survey vehicle – also known as a thumper truck. John and his crew join forces with what’s left of the military, putting OPERATION PIED PIPER into motion.

The purpose of OPERATION PIED PIPER?

Seal off the state of Florida and take it back from the infected. They simply need to build forty Abrams flail tanks, and a two-hundred mile long barrier at the north end of the state. All while millions of infected people are homing in on the living like heat-seeking missiles.


What could possibly go wrong?
****



I figured I'd upload an article about the book, because on the day of its release - last Monday - it started selling immediately on Amazon. And I also figured some people would be interested to see some of the equipment used in the course of the novel is absolutely real.

The first thing I heard is: what the hell is a flail tank?

Above is a Sherman-based flail tank, below is the Churchill. Flail tanks were invented by the British to slap the ground and explode landmines.

The main character in Zombie Pied Piper builds three flail tanks, but he ain't slapping the ground with them. He uses his flail tanks to take heads off the infected at high speed, like mowing the grass.



Churchill in action


I actually own the Kaiser - seen below - that the main character drives. The book was a lot of hard work...not to mention a lot of heartache.



Here is a shot of the Gama Goat tactical truck that the main character uses to retrieve a stuck ambulance after a friend is mortally wounded.



If you haven't read the book and you are in the dark, allow me to explain that the main character - John Gladstone - has a business that restores military vehicles for the film industry. The Gama Goat above is very rare, and John would lease it to a production company. 

Like the RAM Scout Car seen below.




The RAM is used in a rather dramatic rescue of two small children. But the bread-and-butter of John's business is buying old Humvees and jeeps, then refurbishing them to be used on movie sets.




When I said I went through a difficult time writing this novel, I meant it. Last Easter, I was at the 50,000 word mark when my laptop was stolen - so I had to start over. I made it to the 65,000 word mark when my hard-drive crashed and I lost everything again. 

On my third attempt, at 100,000 words, I lost the entire novel again when Microsoft installed Word 2013 on my new laptop online. But this time, by damn, I had the novel backed up on a thumb drive.

Whew.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about flamethrowers.



Saturday, November 3, 2012

Skyfall

New Movie Release
I had very high expectations for the 
new James Bond flick

They have been met...

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

1961 - '73 Volvo P1800


A sports car from a company not 
known for sports cars

But damn, they got this one right....

Cars That Should 

Never Have Been Made 

11th Edition



1973-2001 Reliant Robin

Umm...28 years of production

Great Britain...seriously?


Friday, October 5, 2012


Black Hawk Down

Truly Great Films #13


An incredible movie that 
takes 'based on actual events
to a whole friggin' new level...

Wednesday, October 3, 2012


Cars That Should 

Never Have Been Made 

10th Edition


1978-85 Cadillac 
Seville Diesel

Licking a Turkish urinal and 
driving this car offer roughly the 
same amount of pleasure

Tuesday, October 2, 2012


Film Cemetery

Case Study #23

Where we explore the more 

obscure movies that bombed


The Replacements
A thoroughly enjoyable 
sports movie that tanked

Monday, October 1, 2012

Dredd

New Movie Release
Impressive effects and deadpan 
humor won't save this film

Nonetheless, I liked it