Signs of the Apocalypse #14 – Devastated Cities

I am hosting a blog post by the amazing Angela White. Please enjoy. Thank you. Dean

Signs of the Apocalypse #14 – Devastated Cities

One sure sign of the Apocalypse is devastated cities. These images linger in our mind, showing awful visions of what the world could be like. When disasters strikes, people are drawn to the reports and stories that come in the aftermath, and they stare, sure it’s not real.

After the Apocalypse, there won’t be any doubt. Scenes like the one in the excerpt below will become common-place and another challenge for survivors still searching for food, water, and family. For the groups that have to travel into these apocalyptic landscapes, the danger will be at incredible levels. Avoiding these deadly landmarks of a world gone by should be a priority, but for those who have to venture inside, heavily armed and with a large amount of fighters is the best way to go.

"Seven very gifted survivors are destined to rebuild their country after a nuclear apocalypse...If they can stay alive long enough to find each other. Impossible to put down." - The Review Blog


“You should watch your six on this run… closely.”
“You know something I don’t?”
She shook her head, daze clearing. “It’s just a feeling about a bad decision.”
He smiled uneasily. “We make those everyday now.”
They laughed halfheartedly, but he took her words to heart. “I’ll keep you out of the ugliness as much as I can.”
She nodded, warming. “I know that. I need a map.”
Adrian pulled one from his pocket, putting the tape player away. “We’ll let the camp get out of sight, and then we’ll head down. You’re solo again, on this run. Be in the mess in half an hour.”
He turned from her many question - like what happened if she couldn’t convince them to come out and at least talk. She went slowly back to her blazer, looking from the map to what used to be Little Rock, Arkansas.
There were no landmarks to use, the entire city was crumbled on top of itself like broken Lego blocks and it was impossible to tell where one building started and another ended. There was nothing she could see to navigate by, except the Arkansas River, which was literally surrounding Little Rock on three sides due to post-war flooding. That ugly mass of scummy liquid, which she knew they would have to cross when they were done here, would be a nightmare for Safe Haven. Cars, homes, businesses, and bodies were a part of the riverbed forever and it would be nasty, diseased water, full of awful surprises.


Full of realistic and fantasy situations, the Life After War series is a combination of more than 7 genres, so there’s a good chance of everyone liking it and learning a few things about survival at the same time. You can get a free copy at the link below, of the first book in the series. It’s free for all of this year to celebrate the possible end of the world on 12/21/2012.

Adrian’s Eagles Three months after the War of 2012, Safe Haven refugee camp has made it to South Dakota and now holds six of the seven special survivors meant to lead the rebuilding of their country -but it can’t be done until they find a safe place to settle… and who can think of peace when there’s a huge camp of foreign invaders less than a day behind their group and they only want one thing? Safe Haven and everyone inside the light.
Watch the trailer for this series

Free-The Survivors-The bestselling novel that started it all.

-See on iTunes

More Scenes of the Apocalypse


Btw, a huge thanks to Dean for hosting me on my Scenes of the Apocalypse release tour. Have you read Black Numbers yet? It’s only $2.99! I just downloaded a copy to my Kindle. Gonna have a great summer of reading by the time I gather up all these new books!

New Contest to win a free Kindle

My publisher, Fantasy Island Book Publishing, is running a contest to win a free Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch, or free signed copies of print edition books. Take a look to your right to enter the contest.

Wishing you a fantastic day.
Kindest regards
Dean

To outline or not to outline, that is the question

I was honored to be asked to write a guest post for the fantastic site "Indies Unlimited" this week, where I discuss some problems I ran into while writing my second novel, and how creating an Outline helped me.
Kind regards
Dean

Dead Sea Scrolls discovered on the Internet

I met a great new friend named Tim Kavi via Twitter this week who is a fabulous poet. You can read his poems on his blog.

It got me thinking about my own poems that I wrote way back in the day. So I dug around my old files and found the following poem. I remember writing it as if it were yesterday. It was in the early days of the Internet.

Dead Sea Scrolls discovered on the Internet

I found the Dead Sea Scrolls while surfing
the other day
Perhaps Mr. Rogers and his blue cardigan know
about jazzy religions, and maybe even Buddha
catches a wave or two in search of enlightenment
but as for me, I don't let sea spray into my eyes
and monsters from the deep can't take
large bites from my board
instead
a two thousand year old philosopher
speaks my name,
curls fingers around my hand,
and takes me on a journey across the nets of old fisherman
cast perfectly in the sand

©copyright 11/95 Dean F. Lappi

Interview with author Claude Bouchard

I am fortunate to have Mr. Claude Bouchard joining me today, a fantastic and prolific author who has written seven novels (his seventh called Discreet Activities was released on January 29th 2012). He has one of the largest Twitter accounts in Canada (@Ceebee308), which is where I met Claude about 5 months ago, and we have become good friends since then. He is one of those amazing people who is always optimistic and who always looks for ways to help promote others.

Claude was born in Montreal, Canada, where he still resides with his spouse, Joanne. He completed his studies in human resources, accounting and management at McGill University and worked in various management capacities in the fields of HR and finance for a handful of firms for what seemed like decades, because it was.

His first stab at writing was in 1995, the result being his first novel, Vigilante. This was subsequently followed by The Consultant (1996) and Mind Games (1997), all of the same series. Professional obligations and other creative interests led him away from writing for a number of years but he found himself busy at the keyboard in 2009 with The Homeless Killer followed by 6 Hours 42 Minutes in 2011, also part of the Barry/McCall Series born from Vigilante. In July 2011, he released ASYLUM, his first stand-alone novel and Discreet Activities, his sixth Barry/McCall crime thriller was published in January 2012.

Besides writing, editing and promoting his work, Claude also spends some artistic energy with his guitars, oil paints and watercolours. Other passions include cooking, reading, traveling and attempting to stay fit. It should also be noted that following several years of practice, he excels at being cat furniture for Krystalle and Midnight.

You can find his books at his Amazon Author's page.

You can also find more information from Claude's website.

Interview

DL: What is your new book Discreet Activities about and what is the hook that would get someone to read it?

CB: The central story line deals with an amateur terrorist cell planning an attack and a team of specialists from the clandestine ‘Discreet Activities” group intent on foiling the plan. A number of unrelated sub-plots are scattered throughout the book to further demonstrate the anti-crime talents of these specialists. As in all the previous novels in the series, the concept of ‘an eye for an eye’ is prevalent whereas that of ‘turning the other cheek’ clearly isn’t. My ‘good guys’ aren’t super-heroes, in fact, some die and my ‘bad guys’ aren’t brilliant masterminds, as is the case in real life, The result is highly believable fiction.

DL: Do you think eBooks are as valid as print books, and why?
CB: As an avid eReader user, I most certainly think eBooks are just as valid as print books. The stories are the same, whether read on a screen or on paper so why would an electronic format be of a lesser value. In terms of convenience, be it for travel or subsequent storage, eBooks are superior to printed volumes. From a writer’s point of view, eBooks allow me to make my work available for a much more reasonable cost than print does, all while giving me a reasonable return on the product I’m selling. Long story short, my wife and I share four eReaders so, as you may guess, I’m all for them.

DL: Do you think print books will ever become extinct?
CB: That’s a difficult question to answer as it involves predicting the future, a talent which I have not yet quite perfected. I believe we’ll keep on seeing print books for quite a while though we may see bookstores turn into POD (print on demand) shops at some point in time where one orders a book and waits while it’s printed.

DL: If you could ask one of your favorite authors a question, what would you ask?
CB: I probably would have answered that question quite differently just a few years ago, at which time I didn’t know any other writers. Writers whose work I enjoyed were traditionally published, best-selling authors, celebrities, big-shots, superstars. I was awed by these people but in the end, they are simply that; people. I now chat with and have gotten to know a rather impressive number of other authors, some quite successful, and have come to learn they don’t have any special tricks or methods in their craft. They get ideas and they write. Some map things out and meticulously plan, others just let it flow out from wherever these things flow from. Where I might have asked any of my favourite authors about their writing habits in the past, I don’t need to ask anymore as I’ve discussed these subjects with a great many wonderful writers now.

DL: Do you have any writing rituals or writing schedule?
CB: I don’t have any special writing underpants nor do I sacrifice a sock puppet on an altar before commencing a work. Once I have an idea in my head, and it doesn’t have to be full-blown to the conclusion, I just sit down and write. I can and do write at any time, depending how the ideas are flowing and how much volume I have waiting to rush out. However, my unscheduled schedule tends to work out to my doing most of my writing weekday afternoons.

DL: Could you see yourself writing a full-length novel with a quill and ink bottle like they did 300 years ago? Would it affect how you write?
CB: Ughh… Let me rephrase that… Uh, no. My writing with a modern-day ballpoint is mostly limited to grocery lists, not usually penned in one writing session. I should also point out that I’m a southpaw so writing with a quill and ink would result in massive smears on the parchment. I won’t even get into the editing phase once the first draft would be done. As I said at the start, ughh.

Thank you Mr. Bouchard for taking time to meet with me and discuss your books, and the art of writing.
Best wishes.
Dean Lappi

Happy New Year

2011 was an amazing year for indie authors and the eBook phenomenon. It was also a fantastic and exciting year for me. I published my dark fantasy/horror novel Black Numbers in May 2011 with Fantasy Island Book Publishing in both eBook and Print, and it has gotten fantastic reviews so far.
I've met some amazing authors both at Fantasy Island Book Publishing, and on Twitter and Facebook, many of whom I am honored to call friends. I've met some amazing people in the Hollywood industry, music industry, and in publishing. You all know who you are.

Thank you all for your friendship and I look forward to 2012!

Kindest regards
Dean

Winter wonderland

While winter is here in Minnesota temperature wise (very cold), there is no snow where we live yet. While I don't like driving in snow, it is needed in many ways. Without snow, there will be a lack of water for farmers to grow their crops in the spring, pipes in homes freeze quicker without a cover of snow to insulate them, and it makes the landscape much more beautiful to look at. To me, this is similar to completing a novel. The snow in that process is the editing. It makes things difficult for the author (and painful sometimes), but it is necessary to make your novel complete, healthy, and more beautiful.
So we must deal with the unpleasant part of editing to make a book that everyone can enjoy reading.
I know this doesn't make any sense to those fortunate people who live in warm climates, so this post is for my northern hemisphere friends. :-)
Happy holidays everyone!
Kindest regards
Dean