MUSINGS
Today is the first post from Swedish Zombie where they review The Dishonored Dead, saying it "gives the word 'zombie' a new meaning." In the next several days there will be more reviews of my work, plus an interview, plus an original zombie short story translated into Swedish (as a sneak peek, this story delves back into Philip's backstory and makes a startling revelation in regards to his hatred toward Conrad; seriously, even I didn't see it coming). You know you're excited.
The Zombie Rights Campaign has given The Dishonored Dead a very lengthy and in-depth review. I'm happy to say they "heartily recommend it and award it a Zombie Friendly rating." But first, you're probably wondering what exactly the Zombie Rights Campaign is. Well, it's just like it sounds:
My thanks to John J. Sears, the president of the organization, for not only reading The Dishonored Dead, but for giving it such a thoughtful notice. You can read the entire review here.
The talented and generous Joe McKinney had these very kind words to say about The Dishonored Dead:
"The Dishonored Dead is simply brilliant, and its telling a superb achievement. Robert Swartwood has given us a wonderful twist, not only on the zombie novel, but on the dystopian tale as well. It's like Brave New World meets Logan's Run, but with a bite all its own. Strongly recommended!"
Have you read The Dishonored Dead yet? If not, it's still just 99 cents at Amazon and Barnes & Noble for a limited time. While you're there, check out some of Joe's books too.
In other news, remember yesterday I mentioned how Amazon had once again made The Silver Ring free in the US Kindle Store? Well, apparently it's now back to 99 cents ... that is until Amazon decides to make it free again.
Finally, there's this essay about self-publishing that came to my attention today. Here's some of what it says:
So to start with, let’s see why you’re thinking of self-publishing. I’m not going to lie to you, friends, going it alone is an uphill battle. Although issues of distribution and printing are no longer a concern, you still have the marketability angle to deal with. The big boys have the money to shell out for advertising (such as they do), and big names will always dominate the searches on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the other online stores. You may well have written the finest horror novel of the 21 st century (so far), but on the day you upload your novel to the eBook store, the bestseller list is still going to be dominated by Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Charlaine Harris.
Here’s the good news. Also on that list are guys like Scott Sigler, Paul Eldard Cooley, and Robert Swartwood -- names you may not be familiar with, but who started pretty much where you are now and have used the social media and new media techniques that are just as available to you as anybody else to earn a spot on those Amazon lists.
Um, what??? Don't get me wrong, I'm flattered to be mentioned, but right there next to Scott Sigler? The man is a New York Times best-selling author, for pete's sake! Still, my thanks to Blake Petit for including me in his essay. You can check out the first installment here.
A new review of The Dishonored Dead appeared over the weekend, this one courtesy of Buy Zombie. In the lengthy review, the reviewer says the book is "a definite page turner with lots of action, tension and suspense" and that "the characters are well developed, the action is tight and the storyline is smooth." But the reviewer does pick up on one interesting point:
The entire storyline could be exchanged to depict cops versus robbers, CIA versus terrorists, US Army versus Taliban, etc. The only reason this story is listed as a zombie novel is that the main protagonists consist of decaying zombies who must apply lotion to their skin to slow down the rotting process and their hunt for living humans. As stated, those primary groups could be exchanged for any two groups of people and the story would still be an action packed, suspenseful, political thriller.
And it's true -- in many ways the novel is a political thriller that just happens to feature the decaying dead. I'll admit that while I've always known the novel was somewhat rife with social commentary, the idea that it was also a political thriller never crossed my mind. Maybe because I'm not a big fan of political thrillers and never intended on writing one. And I guess that also begs the question of just what makes a thriller a political thriller. Like the Jack Reacher novels -- many deal with political issues, but are they political thrillers in the same way a Tom Clancy novel is a political thriller? Could we go so far as to call The Dishonored Dead an allegory?
Then again, in the end, does it really even matter?
You can read the rest of the Buy Zombie review here.
Last week I mentioned how The Silver Ring had been downloaded almost 10,000 times. Well, seven days later, it's now been downloaded over 22,000 times. Again, what does it mean? Who knows. The numbers are slipping in the US Store (currently #106, plus a new review calling it "Better than mediocre..."!) while in the UK Store the novella still hangs steady at #11. But I have heard from a handful of readers who said that they did download the novella, liked it, and then checked out The Calling. Two even said they were really looking forward to The Serial Killer's Wife. So at least there's that. You have to start somewhere, right? Hopefully this is it.
* * *
So this guy -- the president of the aptly named Family Radio -- says the Rapture will occur tomorrow, despite the fact he also claimed the same thing would happen on September 6, 1994. Here's what he said recently in regards to that little boo-boo:
Except, of course, if they had really done their research well, they would have noticed a little verse in the Book of Matthew, chapter 24, which says:
Anywho, the most disturbing part of all of this is that some of these nutjobs want to euthanize their pets before tomorrow. Sad but true.
* * *
Of course, if the Rapture doesn't happen tomorrow, then maybe the zombie apocalypse will. And because of this, I've lowered the price of The Dishonored Dead to 99 cents for a limited time on Amazon (US and UK) and Barnes & Noble. Get it before the zombies get you!
* * *
Finally, with no thanks to Netflix, I've been watching through all the back episodes of Scrubs. I didn't realize I had already seen as many seasons as I apparently had. But I finally got to season six, a new season for me, which aired back in 2007. And think how pleasantly surprised I was when, during episode 124 entitled "His Story IV," which talks about the Iraq war, the janitor made a startling prediction.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqXKLb1Y46s
That was four years ago, folks. Maybe these nutjobs should look to Sacred Heart's janitor for new outlook after tomorrow's faux pas.
