T. L. Barrett

I’ll admit it. I love zombies, and so, too, do a whole lot of you out there. Of course, many of you are sick to death (pun intended) of these shambling threats to life on earth, as they have saturated culture so completely that I’ve actually heard a large number of young people (I’m a parent of five, and a teacher to hundreds more) say not ‘if’ the zombie apocalypse happens, but ‘when‘. The big question is, how did these moronic monstrosities achieve such status in our collective unconscious?

Could it be the fact that in our capitalist society we feel reduced to the state of imbecile consumers, who groan and follow the hoards to attack box stores every November? Possibly. Or, perhaps, as we have been trained to do, we accept the capitalist concept that the masses are just that, mindless consumers, and we, the point of view of the survivor, must struggle against them and compete with other survivors for the scant resources left available. Thereby, we bemoan our state as survivors of the capitalist rat race while at the same time reinforcing its inevitability. Although I believe there are elements in that, I fear that it is just too darned cynical.

Could it be that we as a post-industrial and largely secular society, our concept of life after death has become so muddled, that perhaps all we are in the end is a biological imperative of hunger and reproduction? After death are we subjected merely to rot and the task of carrying on the cycle of life in some obscene, unthinkable and unconscious way? Yeah, totally, I think. Except, both of the above aspects of zombies: Being a consumer and having only that to look forward to- are legitimate fears, and truly horrific and nihilistic prospects. It is, I believe, a much more hidden and subconscious aspect of zombies that really keeps us coming back for more (brains!).

If zombies served as merely a critique and a reminder of the limits of our consumer lifestyle and the spiritually and purposefully void experience such a lifestyle demands, then I think we wouldn’t be so attracted to it.

Take vampires for instance, their power resides in their liberation: liberation from life, the mundane  and ordinary existence of day life and the circadian rhythms. They are often depicted as even being free of gravity, free of remorse, free of consequence largely. Of course, the argument could be made that vampires expose our addiction to the mundi, the world and how we haunt it, becoming addicts to each other and to cruelty, death and a parasitic lifestyle without God. However, it is really the freedom, especially sexual, that arouses the desire to suck blood and be sucked. I mean, thousands or perhaps millions of goth teens can’t all be wrong.

But, coming back to Zombies, what is it about the Z-heads, walkers, voodoo victims, virus-bearers, or what ever you call them that make them powerful, yet seems to make no logical sense at all?

Zombies are ridiculously good-natured to each other. They seem to be able to sense what is zombie and what isn’t. We know that the virus cannot truly be sentient, and yet, even in otherwise intelligent science-fiction films this little tidbit is overlooked. Someone gets infected, becomes filled with mad and senseless rage, infects another, or perhaps just runs into another infectee, and just teams up, like it is the most natural thing in the world. WTF?

Hordes of the undead will chase down a group of struggling survivors and then gather around to eat up the unfortunately slow without attacking one another. We don’t even act so nicely on Thanksgiving (which has ominously become Black Thursday). Why doesn’t a lame or particularly slow zombie who has arrived too late to feast on a squealing co-ed just take a chomp of the zombie in front of him?

I suppose you could come up with some kind of excuse that every time there is such a virus or supernatural outbreak, that the very thing that resurrects these bodies rewires them to sense and eat only living food. Ok, I get that, but really, these things can’t manage door knobs, usually. I mean, wouldn’t they at least get feisty with each other and greedy over the few survivors left?

I believe the true answer lies in our basic nature, which the zombie reveals. Stripped of all but a his basic hungers, the zombie represents that which is left after the ego and all else has been dumped. This means that at their core, humans (which is just a zombie ready to be born) are communal, tolerant and cooperative creatures. I know it’s a shocker, because it goes against everything that we are told by the very nature of the philosophies with which our society is run. This horrifies us.

How come we never ask why the zombies aren’t eating each other, or at least having Jerry Springer like show downs over the fat office worker who was left for bait by the people more adept at surviving in a dog-eat-dog world. Only it’s not a dog eat dog world, and this scares us to death.

Lets go back and look at the seminal classic: The Night of the Living Dead. I still love this movie as pure entertainment in all its shlocky and black-and-white glory. We are going to move into spoiler territory but if you are reading a blog post about zombies and you haven’t watched the movie yet, I don’t really know what to say to you.

The survivor of the little pack of refugees inside the old farm-house is an african american male. The zombies really wanted to bite him and let him join their crew. Zombies do not discriminate due to color, sexuality, gender, size, age, or anything. If you want to moan and shuffle along, they’ll be glad to have you. In fact it is this capacity which gives them their power: numbers and mass effort. And they are the bad guys! How does that make you feel?

Ironically the black hero of The Night of the Living Dead survives the night’s onslaught of zombies only to leave the house alone and is shot by a mob of gun-toting white men who then apparently lynch him and pose for pictures with the corpse.

Just as ironically, we are afraid of zombies because they are what we are not, but always say we should be. They are a bunch of rotting hippies, with their relatively peaceful (at least internally), tolerant, and cooperative lifestyle. We resent them, we fear them.

I could go into a diatribe about how the zombie is really a counter-subversive genre of entertainment. We think we are making fun of the foils in our society, but instead are demonizing the very behaviors that might improve it.

But what do I know? Keep on munching popcorn while your eyes glaze over and the hordes munch on brains. Keep telling yourself that the squabbling, petty, and divisive survivors are the heroes. But, if you want, ask yourself why the zombies are so well-behaved. Or better yet, (and perhaps most frightening of all), ask yourself why you’ve never asked yourself that question before.

Hi, winter is here in the dark northern woods. After solstice, I find my creative wheels really start turning, and it is the first six months of the year in which I really get my writing done. I am preparing for this turning inward to the realities I desire to share with whoever will read about them. Usually, this involves a mad research phase in which I obsessively read everything I can about a few subjects. This year I am fully involved in studying the MBTI- or Meyer Briggs personality types. As I am amazed at how accurate these tests can describe the basic anatomy of  personality, I have decided to use the basic descriptions of the sixteen personality types to inform my writing. Now, I will throw up a situation and thrust one of the 16 inside and see what happens. I don’t know that this will really effect the end product, but it does help to think of personality in terms of direction and plot development. I’ve always felt like the character drives the story. Well, here is an interesting article that you might find interesting. There are lots of tests out there and posts about what superhero or fictional character you are. If you can’t find them then give me a holler. I’ll post some of them. Well, I have to hit the grading pile, then turn my efforts to the editing of my latest novel. I just hope I won’t spend all my time typing my characters for personality.
See you around,
Trav

http://www.writing-world.com/sf/type.shtml

http://www.amazon.com/The-Door-to-Halloween-ebook/dp/B00G01EV6M/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1382926247&sr=1-1&keywords=the+door+to+halloween

I am very excited to announce that I’ll be reading with a pack of great Vermont speculative fiction writers in Burlingtion at Quarterstaff Games, Saturday Nov. 16th, 4:30-6:30 PM- Please come, listen, make friends, and support the weird, geeky and freaky in the Green Mountains.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18695185-the-door-to-halloween

Win a copy of the newest fantasy about this favorite holiday!

I am very excited to announce that later this week, The Door to Halloween will be available for download and print order. This fantasy for children of all ages will surprise, delight and move you. Here is the write-up:

How many of us have wished to find a door to some magical world beyond our own? And what trick-or-treater hasn’t desired that the delights of All Hallows Eve could last all the year round? In a fantasy adventure that will haunt the reader’s imagination, Harrison Brown follows his twin brother Max through just such a door and into just such a world. There they will find friendship and fellowship with werewolves and witches, talking dolls, hobos and goat-women. They will also embark on an adventurous quest to liberate the land of Halloween from the grasp of Reverend Bones and his army of Horned Ones. Turn around three times, take three steps forward and enter…

The Door to Halloween.

You will marvel at this moving testament to the bonds of love that can break the barrier between worlds and restore joy to even the most burdened of hearts. In the magical tradition of Oz and Narnia, this fantasy tale celebrates the magic of the holiday and the child-like wonder which only waits to be awoken in each of us.

Well, I’m in the thick of teaching a new school year and just recently got back from California where I performed the wedding ceremony for my brother and his lovely new wife. Sadly, it has been a dry spell for the world of writing for me. My newest work, The Pyrelord still stands at two-thirds complete. Since writing the latest installment I have a new office, and I’ve decided it is nigh time to get down to the brass tacks of finishing off this (hopefully before the new year). At that point, I have some ideas about where I’ll turn my creative endeavors, but time will tell.

As for my publishing, I have to edit The Bone Snake and get that out to a publisher. This little horror novel has so much going for it, that I’m sure if you find the right place, people will love this story of ancient evil, gathering apocalypse and a group of motorcycle mamas that stand between it and us.

The Door to Halloween, my children’s fantasy novel is all ready to publish, just waiting on a cover from my lovely niece, Levi Tetreault. From what I’ve seen this is going to be a beautiful cover. The wonderful editor raved about the book, saying it was my best work she has read of mine thus far. She laughed and cried. Maybe you will, too. You’ll get a chance to find out by the end of October if everything works out.

I had some bad news on the short fiction front. A story I had written was enthusiastically accepted at the beginning of the year for what promised to be a great anthology. I got word the other day that the story had been cut due to time restraints. I have never heard of such a thing happening, and it was very disheartening, however, I may be able to turn this one around. Looking though my files, I’ve written four short stories and novelets which take place in the same superhero world. Maybe, 2014 may be the year of the superhuman for me.

Well, if I can get through my grading pile from a week away in California, I’m going to start in on all these projects.

Oh, and I just might be reading something published of mine at Quarterstaff Games in Burlington in an event put on by Geek Mountain State on Nov. 16. Not sure exactly if that is finalized, but I’ll post updates when it gets closer to time.

Yeah, the third and final volume of the fantasy epic The Vale of Shade, Lord of an Endless Realm is all ready and waiting for a cover. Hopefully, that will be available for Kindle download and hardcopy by the end of the year.

Go well and stay well,

T. L.

In the summer of 2009, I made a pledge to myself that I would work as diligently as I could to become a successful writer. Mind you, I did this at the beginning of a health crisis with my son which grew to epic and hair-graying proportions. I have raised three step-children since they were very little, and they were in the full force of teenage hormonal and emotional meltdowns. My wife and I have been raising kids together since we met in 1998, and I knew that finding the time to write while trying to take advantage of scarce time alone (although somewhat more plentiful since the twins were a bit more independent) would be a difficult task. So many things have happened since that day that I made the promise. My little boy suffered from a dangerous neurological disorder, severe arthritis and many other maladies associated with an auto-immune disorder. Conflicts and problems abounded. My wonderful father-in-law an invalided Vietnam vet came to live with us, hospice and die. I have dutifully driven 50+ miles north every school day to teach teenagers literacy.

Now, this very week, as the fourth year anniversary of my promise is but one month away, my daughter has had heart surgery, one of my twins has to go on a heart monitor next week, and my other twin is suffering from an as yet undiagnosed thyroid condition. I look around as the school year winds down and think of my so-called writing career and feel a dreadful sense of inertia. Have I done enough? So, perhaps for my own sake, I’d like to share with the world my efforts, so that at least I can take stock and then speculate as to where I should go next. If there is anyone kind enough to read this ramble and has any ideas, comments or suggestions, please feel free to post below.

In 2009, I had written a mammoth 240k+ work of fantasy and a children’s fantasy novel. I endeavored to search the internet for places to send shorter works of fiction. I started and one month later I had made my first sale (my first attempted short fiction written for the anthology, for that matter). I took this as a good sign. I wrote as many zombie stories (man, do people love those) that might get my name in print. By the time 2010 rolled around, I had nearly two dozen publishing credits. Then, I sent out the first volume of my now divided fantasy epic to a publisher.

In late 2010, I made the sale. Nearly a year later, Test of a Prince was published. I didn’t make any money from the sale, but it was encouraging. Then the publisher dropped off the map. In 2010-2011, I wrote a horror comedy, and sold it to the same publisher. My contracts sat, my work languished and I felt a frustrated helplessness to do anything to make my name known. Then in 2011-2012, I wrote a new fantasy novel, The Wardmaster and sold it to a different publisher. In 2012 I managed to get a hold of the old publisher and got the rights back for my earlier works. I sold Hairy Bromance to yet another small publisher and began the work of getting my fantasy trilogy self-published. To prepare for this, I collected many of the best short horror stories into The Night Library and self-published it. For a while in 2012, this book did reasonably well for a first kindle book and I even made the bestseller list for a few minutes. I self-published Test of a Prince, got some great reviews and then the sales fell off the map. In 2013, I wrote The Bone Snake, a supernatural action fantasy, which featured some characters that first appeared in The Wardmaster. I published the second volume of The Vale of Shade series. Sales continue to trickle in at a fourth of what they were a year ago. I have had to hire editors, and the income does not come near to covering the overhead of this literary endeavor.

Now, I have the final book of The Vale of Shade trilogy edited, and am waiting for a cover to put that out. The Bone Snake waits for a rewrite, and my daughter (a talented artist) is working on some illustration of the children novel I wrote back in 2005.

Now, what do I do? I am in the middle of writing another novel set in the same locale and with many of the same characters as The Wardmaster (which has only sold a handful of copies). I have started to self-publish in the hopes that I can put them on free for kindle and drum up reviews and interest. I have sent novels out in the past to major publishers only to have waited over a year for a response. Almost everyone who reads the books that I write say that they enjoy them. It really is a matter of having people realize that you are out there. The question is other than sitting in the few tiny bookstores in the area for one person to buy a copy of my book and annoying my Facebook friends with self-promotion, what can one do?

I have been told by the few people in my life who have avidly read my stuff that I should turn my attention to screen plays. I have been trained by professionals in that arena, and it sounds like fun, but I fear losing track of the epics into which I have already invested so much time. In the end I write because I love to. It is gratifying to hear how much someone loved my work, but I will continue to write, regardless if I sell anymore books or not. It would be nice, however, if I could afford to write more. I have to finish this novel that I am more than half-finished, but the rest of my summer lies open and waiting like a mystery waiting to be solved.

Will I turn the story of monster hunting motorcycle mamas (The Bone Snake) into a screenplay, or Hairy Bromance? Will I start that young adult superhero series I’ve always wanted to read? I just don’t know. I know that I have met my five-year challenge, but would like to be writing professionally within the next five years. That means I’ll be forty-five. Heck, I did this much, why not shoot for the moon.

If you love fantasy, wonder, humor and gothic adventure, please check out any of my stories and novels. Better yet, tell everyone you know. They’ll hopefully thank you, and so will I. Until then, I will be tucked away in my study and writing inter-dimensional stories of frightful adventure and wondrous fantasy. Good luck to you in your endeavors and don’t be strangers.

Trav

I have just finished a novella which will be part of a book about Crimm, the Pyrelord. The entire saga of Crimm and his inter-dimensional adventures is perhaps a bit unique in its execution. Crimm is a psychic warrior that has been asleep for a thousand years. He has awoken to find that since he, despairing over the demise of his love, fell into a slumber the fair world of Vanaheim has fallen under the control of monstrous twisted ones, witch-lords who have amassed great power by consuming the bodies and souls of young witches. Now Vanaheim is one if the nine worlds in Norse Mythology. Midgard, is our world, and each of the worlds act as a kind of alternate dimension. Time moves differently in each as each also has a higher or lower frequency of consciousness (hence the slower time and the higher frequency of psychics born in Vanaheim).

What is so unique about this saga, is that each tale is told by a different person who, for better or worse, becomes a kind of companion to Crimm. Thus, each tale is really a separate story in itself, but all of them read strung together will tell the story of how the Pyrelord strives to set things right once more, and restore the Logos to his home and the other eight worlds.

The Wardmaster was published last year by Post Mortem Press. It tells the tale of Doctor Jack Nicodemus Ween, a witch-doctor of Vanaheim who awakens Crimm as he desperately tries to protect a very powerful witch-girl from falling into hands of the most powerful of the twisted Ka-Tik lords, Yallon. It is a powerful adventure with peril, pathos and powerful evil. There are zombies, necromancers, monsters, psychic-warriors, witches, and introduces a group of monster-hunting motorcycle ladies, the Valkyries. The Valkyries have spun off into their own horror series, the first volume of which should be available later this year. The Wardmaster is available now, so what are you waiting for?

I set out to write a story like I had never seen but had always wanted to read. The Crimm Chronicles mixes the adventure of Star Wars with the gothic sensibilities of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, and a whole bunch of good fantasy adventure. This newest work, The Pyrelord is about half done with a short story (“The Witch-Father”) and a novella (“The Stormherald”) complete. I, for one, am excited to see if Crimm and the other witch-children of Vanaheim will successfully restore the Logos to their home and reestablish their order of psychic protectors, the Vraghmin. Pick up The Wardmaster today, you won’t be sorry that you did.

In other news, I am waiting on a cover for the finale of The Vale of Shade saga, which takes place on the world of Jotunheim, the home of the giants. The Door to Halloween, a children’s fantasy about the magical holiday is being edited as we speak and should be available in time for autumn. The Bone Snake, the first Valkyrie novel, is waiting to be edited and covered, and that, too should be available by the end of the year. That puts us at a book every quarter of the year. I’m having a great time telling these stories and it means so much to hear that someone enjoyed reading them. Please, spread the word, and if you’ve enjoyed one of my tales: drop me  a note.

I am so grateful that I was born at such a time where I had access to the means to spreading my stories to others so easily. Take care everyone, and don’t be strangers!

T. L. Barrett

Hold onto your sanity and get ready for a zomberific, drug-induced and time-travelling good time! 7 Habits of Highly Infective People is a solid zombie apocalypse tale which has many things that sets it far beyond the rest of the pack. We are invited into the first person ramblings of one Bosley Coughlin, who has endeavored to shed himself of ego by using mystically enhanced drugs and instead manages to throw his consciousness into a girl in a dreadful future where zombies flourish and the remaining humans fight for scarce food. Upon returning to his own body and time, Bosley struggles to stop the infection as it begins, while we continue to follow the struggles of young Ocean in the future. The plot is engaging and twisty, the horror is immediate and tense, the characters are fully realized; but what really sets this trippy tale above all others of the like (Are there are stories of the like?) is the beautiful writing of one Mr. William Todd Rose. The writing is so evocative, descriptive, and powerful that I am sure I would read just about anything this man chose to write. He doesn’t, however bog the narrative down with his talent, and masterly resorts to a quicker pace toward the center of the volume to keep things moving. Without giving anything away, the narrative wraps itself up with a shining continuum bow, which also sets it above many of the time travel stories I have read. I agree that William Todd Rose is a talent to watch, and what better vantage point to begin doing so as the trippy perspective of one (very dude-like) Bosley Coughlin. Check it out!