Dawn of the Dead...

            Dawn of the Dead...

            It was the movie that changed my life. 

            I was 13 years old and up to that point, there had only been four movies that had deeply affected me; Star Wars (Empire & Jedi count as Star Wars :)) Escape From New York, The Road Warrior & The Thing.

            On the weekends my family often went to my aunt's house. She had a VCR, a rare thing in 1983 you can be sure, and hundreds of movies on video tape.  My aunt also liked horror movies. This was the aunt who had shown me Escape From New York, The Road Warrior and The Thing for the first time. I absolutely loved going over to her house to watch movies. And it was one Sunday, in 1983 that I came upon a VHS tape of Dawn of the Dead.

            My mind was suddenly taken back several years, to when I was only 8 years old and my family was at the drive in. I can't remember the movie, but I do remember the trailer for Dawn of the Dead. 

            Check it out!

            Dawn of the Dead trailer

           

            It freaked me out!

            Zombies! Something about them hit a nerve.

            Fast forward to 1983 and there I stand in my aunt's living room, with a copy of the movie in my hand.

            "Can I watch this?" I asked, oh so innocently, not knowing what I was about to unleash in my life.

            There was some banter back and forth between my parents and my aunt about the gore and violence of the movie, but they agreed that since there was no sex in it I could watch it. Hey it was 1983...

            And so I popped it in the VCR and sat down on the couch to watch it while the adults did whatever they were doing and my siblings played outside. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was more than I could have possibly imagined. It was so raw and over the top wild. I knew movies could be gory, The Thing had shown me that. But this took it to a whole new level.

            I haven't been the same since.

            I have always loved monsters, but there was something about zombies in general and Dawn of the Dead in particular... It simultaneously scared the shit out of me and made the zombie apocalypse look fun! I suspect it had that same effect on most zombie fans.

            Do yourself a favor and watch it again... And if you've never seen it, what are you waiting for?

Deadrise...

   I am absolutely amazed at the success of DEADRISE.  I've been a fan of the zombie genre my entire life and it has never been more in demand than right now. And you can bet everything you own that I am finishing up the sequel, DEADWAR, as fast as I possibly can.  It is 95% written and almost ready for the editing process. If everything goes according to plan, it will have an October release, right in time for Halloween.
  Will that be the last of my zombie books? HELL NO! There will be at least one more novel in the DEADRISE series, plus two or three smaller novella's.
  But I don't want to get to far ahead of myself so lets just focus on DEARWAR for now. October is just around the corner, so I better quit blogging and get my ass to writing...

Well, hello there...

     This is my first post to The Pug Zombie Blog, and I would like to start by saying thank you very much for reading. Of the countless other things available for you to occupy your time, you have chosen to read my blog, and I am honored.

     So what is The Pug Zombie Blog about? First and foremost it is a way for me to communicate with my readers about what is available and what is coming next. As of this writing, my debut novel, DEADRISE  is available as an ebook.  Kindle  Smashwords  The paperback version is coming soon.

     For those of you who have already purchased DEADRISE, Thank you! I am truly honored by your purchase and I hope you are enjoying the story. Please let me know what you think. The sequel isn't too far behind...

     Now your probably asking why the hell I waited until after my book was released to start my blog? Its a good question and the answer really quite simple. I was too busy getting my manuscript ready for publication to blog about it. Which leads me to topic # 2 of what this blog is all about. Besides shamelessly promoting my writing, I will also be discussing my experiences in self-publishing. I hope to share with you what I have learned, to help you avoid the pitfalls that ensnared me. And let me tell you, there were a lot of them.  It has been an extremely challenging yet very rewarding experience.

     It is also beginning to pay financially as well. But that is another topic for another day.

     Once again, thank you for reading.

     Be safe...