Tag: horror

Upcoming Events and Future Plans

It’s true. I’m only held back by the need to sleep, have a day job, physics and law enforcement!

First things first: I’m working edits and story selection for Tales of the E4 Mafia 2, and Butter Bars! Large and (not so) In Charge! These are the next two anthologies from Henchman Press that I’m leading, and so far the stories are hitting all the marks: irreverent, action packed, funny, and, most important, good reads. I’ve even got a story set in my Burn and Bad Karma setting that takes place in the events in Sandblaster written by a friend of mine. It’s got a bit to go, but it is so funny. So, I’ll keep you posted as we get these anthologies closer to the publication mark.

Next, I’m presenting at Des Moines Con! I’ve mentioned this a couple of times, but I’ll repeat here:

On May 31st, at 11 AM, I’ll bein Panel 4 (Rooms 313-314) presenting Fitness for the Time Crunched Creative. This is for anyone in the creative world (fan or creator) who wants to improve their basic health and fitness, but doesn’t have the knowledge of what small changes to make or how to make them a habit so that they keep improving! No one will have to do burpees, but I’ll talk about hydration, better nutrition, sleep, exercise basics and how to make your medical team part of your fitness team.

On June 1st, at 3:45 PM, in Panel Room 3 (Rooms 315-316) I’m presenting Everything I Wish I’d Known When I Started Writing. We’ll cover productivity, editing, the importance of covers, networking and finding your community, building a fan base, and all the questions the audience has. If I can answer it, I will. If not I’ll direct you to other sources who are more knowledgeable.

If you want to see the full schedule of panels and events at Des Moines Con, please go to the Schedule Link!

And, finally, in a move that is terrifying, I’m working on a script and schedule for creating a video channel! This might be a couple of weeks before I have the first video up (I have a lot to learn, including video editing software), but it’s coming soon. Since I’ve posted it on the internet, now I have to do it!

Let me know what your interested in most!

Spooky Season Is Here! How About a Little Cyberpunk Zombie Action?

As Halloween approaches, I thought I’d share some about how my story “A Simple Escort” got started and how I managed to write a cyberpunk horror story.

Shortly after I’d sold a ‘Santa Claus kicks ass’ story to JR Handley (https://jrhandley.com/) for his Slay Bells Ring anthology, JR reached out to me about the zombie anthology he was putting together, saying that ‘You write dark stories’. While I didn’t think my stories were that dark, even accounting for the cyberpunk and dystopian elements, I sat down and thought about it for a minute. Obviously, I had an idea 🙂

A Simple Escort combined three elements. The first was that Burn and Bad Karma would be involved in a classic cyberpunk data theft job. They would go into a corporate facility to get data on a biotech project for whoever their mysterious employer was. That required them to escort a hacker (Cat, who you may have met in California Chaos), and biotech expert to confirm and vet the data.

The second element was incorporating an ‘uncanny valley’ aspect. This is a term that describes how people react when they see something that is close to human but not quite right. If you’ve walked past a store front at night and seen a manakin in a window and your stomach tightened in a fear response, that’s the uncanny valley response. Because of their levels of implants, Bad Karma and Burn can cause that in unmodded people. I wanted to cause that response to Bad Karma.

For the final, third, element, I wanted Burn and Bad Karma to end up with a house pet, as part of their relationship developing. So, yes, there’s a cyberware implanted cat in the story. And, yes, the cat lives.

If you’re interested in my stories or good zombie stories, hit the link and check out Zombies! Patient Zero.