Canister X – A.P. Fuchs: Zombie, Paranormal Romance and Superhero Novelist, Blogger, Artist, Publisher

Just before the weekend, the A.P. Fuchs Library Vol. 1, Boxed Set (The Axiom-man Saga – Four Books Plus Bonus Short Story) had been released. I wasn’t able to blog about it due to attending a weekend-long comic and toy expo, and then yesterday was my first day off since who knows when.

Anyway, I’m letting you know today that The Axiom-man Saga boxed set is out and is a sweet deal as opposed to getting all the Kindle books separately. ($12.95 vs a mere $7.99 for the set.)

See details below, and thanks in advance for downloading a set.

Contained herein are four books and one short story about the Canadian Cobalt Crusader, Axiom-man.

Summaries below.

Praise:

“Axiom-man is that unique breed of superhero that seems almost lost amid today’s gaggle of the dark and tormented. He’s nice, he cares, and his strength comes not from his fantastic powers, but from his soul. A.P. Fuchs has written a defining superhero novel.” – Frank Dirscherl, author/creator of The Wraith

“Reading Axiom-man is refreshing, like reading about the early days of Peter Parker, but with a cooler villain as well.” – Jon Klement, author/creator of Velocity Girl and Xuàn Hú

“Axiom-man was well worth reading and recommending. The broad appeal is amazing—from youth to adult, guys and girls. Superheroes might just become my thing.” – Susan Kirkland, reviewer, Calhoun Times

“Fuchs brings to life a wonderfully imaginative hero we can all relate to . . . . If you’re looking for something different, something truly creative, yet filled with action, look no further. Axiom-man is the end of your search.” – David Brollier, author of The 3rd Covenant

“I found myself picking the book up at various points in the day, just to read a little more.” – Darryl Sloan, author of Ulterior and Chion

“Plenty of surprising twists and turns in this highly enjoyable story. It’ll leave you wanting more. Axiom-man is a delightfullly human superhero with true depth and spirituality.” – Grace Bridges, author of Faith Awakened

“If you’re an action fan with moral sensibilities you’ll not just enjoy Axiom-man, you’ll wish you were he.” – Frank Creed, author of Flashpoint

“If you dig superhero tales that are loaded with action and fun, look no further.” – Nick Cato, Horror Fiction Review

“A must read that I cannot recommend enough.” – Joe Kroeger, Horror World

Brief summary of each book:

Axiom-man: One night Gabriel Garrison was visited by a nameless messenger who bestowed upon him great power, a power intended for good. Once discovering what this power was and what it enabled him to do, Gabriel became Axiom-man, a symbol of hope in a city that had none.

Episode No. 0: First Night Out: The messenger has fled, leaving Gabriel alone with mysterious abilities he knows little about. As he embarks on the path of discovery, Gabriel must try to understand why he was chosen to receive the most powerful of all gifts and, with the help from no other, come to a decision as to what to do with them. Even if it takes the death of an innocent to convince him.

Doorway of Darkness: Gabriel Garrison’s secret identity has been compromised and the timing cannot have been worse. Redsaw has become more powerful than when Axiom-man last fought him, and he has determined to attain unstoppable power through the only means he knows how: murder. Chaos ensues and Axiom-man must find the means to stop Redsaw before the whole world is swallowed in a web of death.

Episode No. 1: The Dead Land: A young boy goes missing. No clues. Nothing except the remnants of a black cloud, like the one coughed up from inside the Doorway of Darkness. A black cloud that takes Axiom-man to a world not his own. A dead world, where a gray and brown sky shrouds an entire city in a miasma of decay. The streets are empty. The young boy is nowhere to be found. Those he does find…are dead. And walking.

Black Water: Bodies litter the sand of a friendly beach. Axiom-man flies down to Florida to investigate only to discover this isn’t your average series of murders. Something else caused the deaths of these innocent people, and something else has caused them to rise. Something unnatural, perhaps even supernatural. Something . . . from beneath the ocean’s black water.

Please visit this link to download a set of your own. Thanks for reading my books and taking flight with Axiom-man.

This weekend I created the Blood of my World Boxed Set for Amazon Kindle, a collection of my paranormal romance series containing Discovery of Death, Memories of Death and Life of Death. It is Volume Two of the A.P. Fuchs Library, with Volume One being books from The Axiom-man Saga (coming this week). These boxed sets are a great way to grab a bunch of my titles and/or complete your collection for a great price. It is also on Smashwords, Drivethru Fiction, and should start showing up on the Nook and iPad shortly.

I wrote an introduction to the Blood of my World Boxed Set and want to share it here.

Hope you check the collected book sets out.

The intro:

Blood of my World Boxed Set Introduction
by
A.P. Fuchs

It seems to me that there is a direct correlation between love and horror, the both of which are two sides of the proverbial coin. They are extremes, where one is light and bliss, filled with goodness, hope, stability–physical, emotional, mental. The other is darkness, danger, pain and untold suffering. They also have a tendency to gel, namely in the arena of romantic relationships.
One can’t help but wonder how much different our world would be if these two elements–arguably one element–were not present. I suspect life would look more like a simulation than an actual experience, with folks walking around conducting business mechanically, without nuance–robotic.
Is it not true that human life as you and I know it are birthed and lived from either horror or love or a mix of both? Is not every other human emotion rooted in one of these?
Love is an especially dangerous thing. Beautiful, yes, but dangerous. While ascending to new heights with your lover, when during those early stages all is well in the world and inner peace is achieved–the fear of it all slipping away always lingers a little or a lot until, perhaps, that fateful day comes and your fear becomes reality. The darkness descends, hope is abandoned, and searing pain rips through your chest until you can barely stand. Once you collapse, you think it’s won and the hot coils of loss’s embrace will finally leave you, but instead, it continues to ravage you in waves, bringing you to the brink of apathy and beyond, into self-destruction and mental chaos. Life is looked at through fogged glass. All other emotions are felt through the jagged pieces of a broken heart. Cynicism sets in, walls go up and survival kicks in full gear and you do all you can to fill the void and repair the damage your loved one has done.
Love and horror. Life and death. It’s what defines us. It’s what’s defined my fiction since I wrote my first book twelve years ago. In fact, my entire career was born out of this bizarre relationship between love and horror, and if you’re a reader of my work, you would have noticed that everything I’ve written touches on this in some way, whether a little or a lot.
There’s my novel April, written under the pen name Peter Fox, which is a firm statement about how people get to you and you fall in love because they touch that secret part of you no one else has.
There’s A Red Dark Night, a tribute to B-horror summer camp movies in which the main villain is a creature comprised of blood and evil–the blood you shed when your heart is broken and knife is brought to skin. For some this is metaphorical, for others, it is not.
The Axiom-man Saga, my superhero opus about a man without self-esteem who, as one of the motives for donning a pair of tights, is simply to prove to himself and others that he is indeed something of value after a lifetime of always feeling rejected and second best.
My zombie fiction–books like Blood of the Dead and Zombie Fight Night–utter indulgences into the world of the walking dead. Is this not what we become after love has crushed us? Is not survival our primary concern? Do we not find folks who are fighting just like us, whether in our relationships or even through the music we listen to so we can feel better?
These are more, but let’s move on to what you hold in your hands.
This boxed set, Blood of my World. Three novellas. Three aspects of love and horror–Discovery, memory, life.
Vampires are the horror world’s romantic hero. They are the regular world’s romantic villain. They embody life and death, love and horror unlike any other creature in fiction.
I set out to tell a story about two romantics whose love for each other was thicker than blood and just as red with passion and devotion. The reader must know, I decided, that there are others out there who live in love’s stream, who have gotten burned yet who also have lived and are living because of it.
Who have grown.
The vampires in the novellas you’re about to read are ruthless. There is blood and pain and indifference to human life. They are monsters.
The people in these novellas are you and me, folks living in two worlds: the past and present; light and darkness; love and horror.
I want to thank you for reading these as you join Zach and Rose on their journey of love’s joy, love’s pain–
–love’s horror.

- A.P. Fuchs
Winnipeg, MB
February 25, 2012

On the 5th of January, I put my book, Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead, up for free at Amazon after joining their Amazon Exclusive program. Right now, the book is still free even though it was meant to be a five-day promotion, which should have ended yesterday. Perhaps they’re keeping it free and will eat the cost of paying me from today onward? Or maybe it’s just free and I won’t make anything. Regardless, I don’t mind it being free right now as, to me, it’s one of the geekiest and coolest books I’ve ever written and I simply want to share it with people. If you as a reader want to support my work–I do feed my family off my publishing–then by all means please check out the Kindle books on the left of this page, or the paperback versions on the right. Thanks, if you do.

Since the 5th, and as of 1:07CST today, Zombie Fight Night has been downloaded 1377 times across all Amazon platforms. Not bad at all. I’ll have to see how the free thing goes behind-the-scenes and if Amazon’ll start charging for it or if I’ll have to manually do something. Regardless, now’s a great time to get a couple free books from me, no strings attached.

What’s the other free book? It’s book one of my Paranormal Romance series, Blood of my World, called Discovery of Death. Memories of Death and Life of Death are the sequels. Discovery of Death became a freebie in September of 2011 and has been downloaded 15,976 times, and that’s on Kindle only never mind Nook, iPad, etc. I plan on keeping it free for now as it’s helped move copies of its sequels.

Here’s the point: I’m fortunate to have been writing long enough to have enough of a backlist that I can put books up for free while still earning a living off the other ones. Ever since I started writing, money has never been a motivator. The only “motivation” dollar-wise was to be able to make enough to live on so I can write and publish fulltime. Also, by having a large backlist, this enables me to conduct these experiments without taking too much of a hit or any at all. Like I posted last time, I try these things out on myself first before considering adopting it as part of my business model for those I publish so as to ensure it’s worth doing so on the money front. To short change an author with their own work . . . yeesh. No, thanks.

Will the risk of offering Zombie Fight Night for free pay off, or will it be a loss monetarily but a gain readership-wise? Time will tell. Watch this space.

I’m conducting a publishing experiment with Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead and between now and the 9th–the 9th being the last day–it will be free on Amazon Kindle. And it is also only available on Amazon Kindle as I hooked up to their exclusive program for this eBook.

As both an artist and publisher, I need to find good ways to promote not just myself but also my authors. However, to suddenly take all the books I’m responsible for and do a campaign like this one, which is essentially a gamble, it would be unfair to take away 5 days’ worth of royalties from my authors without knowing if it’s to their benefit in the long run.

Anyway, I just got online now after being offline all day and at about 5:30PM CST, my Kindle rank in the free store for Zombie Fight Night is #604. That’s pretty good considering I haven’t promoted anything yet. Can we hit #1? I don’t know, but you’re more than welcome to help by clicking on the book cover above and downloading a copy. It’s free, and will only take you around 30 seconds. If you don’t have a Kindle, then a whole host of free apps are available here for your iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, PC, etc.

Here’s the story:

In 2027 A.D., the Zombie Apocalypse took the world by storm and no one was prepared. Countless lives were lost as humanity battled to regain control of their planet. Eventually, they did, and out of the ashes of fallen civilization rose a new world, one bent on revenge against the hordes of the undead that took everything from them.

Enter Tony Sterpanko, entrepreneur extraordinaire who found a way to capitalize on humanity’s thirst for vengeance against the zombie. He created Zombie Fight Night, a worldwide craze where the undead men and women who remained from the apocalypse faced off against people and beings that once existed on Earth or were existing for the first time.

It is ten years later and at Blood Bay Arena, fortunes are won and lost. Men are made millionaires over night. Others are not so lucky and find themselves broken and destitute.

Mick Chelsey is one such man: gambling addict, lousy husband and Zombie Fight Night fanatic.

Except now, in order to still watch the fights and try to win back all he’s lost, he needs to bet fast and big otherwise death will come for him.

Let the battles begin.

Zombies fight Bigfoot, werewolves, vampires, Axiom-man, Bruce Lee, samurai, kickboxers, robots and more in this ode to blood-and-guts action from Blood of the Dead author, A.P. Fuchs.

You ready to get it on?

I now present to you what I think is one of the most coolest books of my career, Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead, for free.

Enjoy, and thanks for downloading.

As promised, Canister X Comix have now hit the Amazon Kindle and I’m really excited about this as I know that the future of single-issue comics lies in the eBook/eComic arena. Now I got stuff there on the ground floor. It served me well when eBooks finally exploded and I know it’ll be the same when comics catch up digitally as well. I don’t mind waiting because that day is fast approaching.

Anyway, the first three issues of Canister X Comix are now available for immediate download to your Kindle or Kindle app. (The apps are free, btw.)

Simply follow the links below to check them out and view the free preview.

Thanks in advance for your support. Enjoy.

Canister X Comix No. 1 – October 2011	Inside: A day in the life of . . ., booksigning woes, fame runs backwards, journey’s beginning, . . . more! B&W Please click here to download.
Canister X Comix No. 2 – January 2012	Inside: 24 pages of comix in 24 hours as part of the famous 24-hour-comic challenge. Inside: A sleepless night, a bizarre superhero’s origin, kids and bad language, expensive cupcakes, . . . and more! B&W Please click here to download
Canister X Comix No. 3 – April 2012	Inside: Every once in a while we lose track of ourselves and wander away from life, people, even the core of who we are. It happened to Abigail. Is it happening to you? In this introspective comic, A.P. Fuchs takes on the comics medium utilizing photos and captions to tell a unique story about a girl who went missing. B&W Please click here to download.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-927339-00-8 eBook ISBN: 978-1-927339-01-5 The war between Good and Evil has raged since before Time began. Now the battle continues with the Ultimate Good versus the Ultimate Evil. Metahumans vs the Undead Metahuman: one of the human species endowed with one or more powers beyond that of mortal men; a person who uses those abilities to serve either themselves or society. Typically branded by a codename and colorful costume. AKA Superhero. Undead: one of the human species endowed with life even after death; a walking corpse. Typically branded by their decayed form and appetite for human flesh. AKA Zombie. In a world where superheroes and zombies collide, only one can prove the victor. Featuring indie heroic favorites like Axiom-man, The Wraith and Shadowflame, while also introducing newcomers like Nightcat, Spectrolite, Midnight Angel and more, Metahumans vs the Undead is a terror-filled action adventure where Light and Darkness collide and only one can prevail. Contains stories by: Rebecca Besser, Eric S. Brown, Frank Dirscherl, Lorne Dixon, A.P. Fuchs, Anthony Giangregorio, Keith Gouveia, J.L. MacDonald, Joe Martino, Rhiannon Paille, Gina Ranalli and J.B. Robb.

Available as a paperback at: Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.co.uk Barnesandnoble.com Other On-line Retailers Available as an eBook at: Amazon Kindle DrivethruFiction.com Fictionwise Mobipocket Smashwords Other Zombie Anthologies Edited by A.P. Fuchs: Other Coscom Entertainment Books by A.P. Fuchs

The Last Coscom Entertainment Release: Bigfoot War 3: Food Chain by Eric S. Brown

For the Entire Coscom Entertainment Monster Fiction Catalog, please go to www.coscomentertainment.com

A.P. Fuchs is proud to launch not one, not two–but THREE novellas to kick off his ongoing Blood of my World vampire series. The first three to be released–in reading order–are Discovery of Death, Memories of Death, and Life of Death.

All three books are available in both paperback and eBook editions on your favorite platforms. Complete listings below along with an abridged synopsis for each book. For a complete synopsis of each title, just click on the cover image to be taken to that book’s page at Coscom Entertainment.

An early review: “A refreshing teen fantasy full of bite, blood and romance.” — K. H. Koehler, author of Raiju

When Zach goes missing for three months, Rose is heartbroken. Zach awakens in the dark of a coffin, his memory erased. A strange group of people who identify themselves as his family reveal he has become a vampire. Rose has also learned of her secret heritage: she comes from a long line of vampire slayers. It is only when her path accidentally crosses with Zach’s does love surface again.

Paperback:

Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
Amazon.co.uk
Barnesandnoble.com
Other On-line Retailers

eBook:

Amazon Kindle
Fictionwise.com
Smashwords
Mobipocket

Now submerged in the world of vampire slaying, Rose must come to terms with what that means for her relationship with Zach and if it’s even possible for the two of them to be together. Meanwhile, every moment spent with Rose helps bridge the gaps in Zach’s memory. The countdown begins and Zach and Rose must come to a decision as to where their loyalties lie.

Paperback:

Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
Amazon.co.uk
Barnesandnoble.com
Other On-line Retailers

eBook:

Amazon Kindle
Smashwords
Mobipocket

Now disconnected from their families, Zach and Rose try and make it on their own away from the war between vampire and slayer. Is love enough? Before the two can find out, the vampire’s family comes for Zach and Rose, and the two are swept into a nightmare where there will be only one survivor.

Paperback:

Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
Amazon.co.uk
Barnesandnoble.com
Other On-line Retailers

eBook:

Amazon Kindle
Smashwords
Mobipocket

The last Coscom Entertainment release: Born to Bleed by Ryan C. Thomas

For our full list of books, please see: www.coscomentertainment.com

As per my previous blog entry on keeping you up-to-date on April‘s (written as Peter Fox) performance on Kindle and if having a new cover affects sales numbers, here’s what’s happening so far with the title this month.

Last month with the old cover, April sold a total of 101 copies via Kindle.

This month, April has sold 35 copies as of this writing. We’re presently 8 days into March. To keep things equal, I’m running it to the 28th (as Feb. had 28 days). Thus far, I’m averaging 4.375 copies a day. If things remain steady, by the 28th of March, 122.5 copies will have sold. Obviously, I’m being technical with the decimals to be precide about this, but you get the idea.

I’ve been around long enough to know sales flucuate month to month, even wildly. For me, at present, a 21.5-copy difference (if nothing changes) isn’t enough to convince me the new and improved cover has been the cause of the increase. A jump of 50 or 100 copies will definitely make me give credibility to the theory, and a jump of, say, 200 will make it plausible, even prove it.

I’ll keep you posted as more data comes in.

As part of my previously-mentioned experiment regarding cover art for books, last night I did up new covers for the two books currently on the market for my Undead World Trilogy (the third’s not out yet, aiming for later this year). At present, these new covers are available for the Kindle and Drivethru Horror only, however will start showing up for the Nook and elsewhere as soon as those distributors update their listings with the new art. If the new covers prove to move more copies in eBook format, then I’ll be updating the paperback versions as well.

To be honest, I really love the original covers to Blood of the Dead and Possession of the Dead. The artists did a fantastic job. I even have promotion posters of both covers in my office. The thing is, my personal tastes fall more into the comic book-style covers, whereas most readers enjoy the photo/traditional covers gracing most books these days. That was kept in mind when making these new covers last night and I’m interested to see how these eBooks fare with the new covers, everything else about them staying the same.

Here they are below, the new covers to Blood of the Dead and Possession of the Dead. Click on the book covers to be taken to their page for Amazon’s Kindle.

Thanks.

ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND by Lewis Carroll and Nickolas Cook Mass Market Edition Now Available!

Coscom Entertainment and Source Books are pleased to present Alice in Zombieland by Lewis Carroll and Nickolas Cook, now available at your favorite online retailer (see below) and bookstores nationwide.

Alice in Zombieland, complete with interior illustrations, is available at the following online retailers:

Paperback:

Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
Amazon.co.uk
SourceBooks.com
Barnesandnoble.com
Other On-line Retailers

eBook:

Amazon Kindle

Synopsis:

When little Alice follows the Black Rat down into the open grave, she falls and falls, and soon finds herself in an undead nightmare. Following the Rat, she ventures further into this land of monsters, encountering characters both creepy and madcap along the way. But there’s something else troubling poor Alice: her skin is rotting and her hair is falling out. Can Alice escape Zombieland before the Dead Red Queen catches up to her?

Have a seat at the table for the wildest tea party of your life and explore the unforgettable adventure that is Alice in Zombieland.

The last Coscom Entertainment release: The Black Cat and the Ghoul by Edgar Allan Poe and Keith Gouveia

For our full list of books, please see: www.coscomentertainment.com