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

March 13, 2007

Dear Dave:

How have you been? The last I wrote you was July, 2006, so quite sometime ago. Man, has it been that long? Guess so.

Anyway…

I’m about 30 pages away from completing Collected Letters 2004. I would have been done much sooner but had misplaced the book for several months and finally recovered it about a week ago. Very intriguing material all around. One thing that kept popping up in your letters was the question of when/if the mail would taper off and you’d finally have some actual retirement time. Aside from this letter taking up space in your mailbox, has your letter-answering load lightened since, say, May of 2004? I know it hasn’t dropped off altogether since you now post at Dave Sim’s Blogandmail (speaking of which, is that where I should find a reply to this letter, if you do reply? I must admit, I don’t check the blog all that often, namely due to there not being enough hours in the day to read through everything).

Things have been going well over on my end. Just the other week my wife and I found out we’re pregnant with our second child. We’ll find out within the next couple of weeks the actual due date but we’re estimating it to be somewhere between late October to early November. This also means that we’ll begin house hunting sometime in May to allow room for the newest addition to the family.

On the self-publishing front, I crossed a milestone in my career on September 29, 2006, when I released my independent superhero novel entitled, Axiom-man, who was a character I created back in my high school drawing days and finally, after all these years, decided to actually do something with him other than fantasize heroic tales about him in my head. The reason the release was a milestone was because of the wonderful media attention—not to mention sales—that resulted due to the character being Winnipeg’s own superhero. TV, Radio, Newspaper—very exciting as most self-published authors are usually swept under the rug because they’re not “real” publishers. What I always found interesting about that argument was that, in the end, the reader doesn’t care if you’ve been published by a “real” publisher or not. They just care about getting a good story.

At the beginning of March, the first draft of the sequel was completed, coming in at about 119,000 words, which is nearly double the length of its predecessor. It’s called Axiom-man: Doorway of Darkness and takes place right where the first one left off. This second book is planned to be released end of July along with a short novella called Axiom-man Episode #0: First Night Out which chronicles, you guessed it, his first night out. The Axiom-man “episode” series is there for those stories I wish to tell that aren’t large enough scale-wise to warrant a full 80,000+ words to make it a “feature.” I’m viewing them more like half hour cartoon episodes ala Batman: The Animated Series, where, though there’s a couple of plotlines going on, it’s more light-hearted and simple compared to the depths of character and story I can get into with a full-length novel. (For example, book two carries five plotlines.)

Which brings me to stating what an honor it will be for our two characters to stand side by side in 2008’s War of the Independents, which, I understand, Cerebus will be participating in. I think the project will do well and the premise of the mini series sounds interesting. We’ll see. I trust Scott Lobdell, who is writing the project.

I wanted to ask you about how you went about writing and drawing the Cerebus storyline? That is, how you planned out the 25-or-so issues for a particular arc and what a day in the life of Dave Sim was like? It’s one thing if a person was only the artist or writer on a series. Pretty straight forward in regards to their day-to-day tasks. But when you couple a few creative tasks together, time management is critical. I love hearing about how other artists approach their craft—habits, routines, etc.—regardless of medium so, please, spill your guts as I’m all ears.

Hope to hear from you.

Take care.

Sincerely,

March 8, 2006

Dear Dave:

Thanks for your recent letter, the latest having covered a lot of ground. I’ll just go through yours in order and do a point-by-point/section-by-section reply in the interest of staying organized.

My rate for copyediting is 1 cent US per word and for a Canadian client it’s still 1 cent US per word but then come invoice day, whatever the US total is, it is exchanged at that day’s current exchange rate to arrive at the Canadian dollar value of the total. Since the Canadian dollar is doing well these days (lately we’ve been hovering around 1.11-1.13 on the exchange), it’s not too big of a deal. If this was a few years ago where our dollar stunk and the exchange averaged at around 1.65, then unfortunately for the Canadian client, the service would cost them more.

The comment about “by Dave Sim as told to so-and-so,” I see where you’re coming from. I don’t believe it’s an editor’s job—copyeditor or just proofreader—to rewrite anything or “redo” anything. The job is to point out to the author where he/she messed up regarding continuity, grammar, spelling, etc. Sure, an editor corrects words or puts question marks beside word choices (especially ones that don’t fit the context of any given statement), but it’d have to be a super heavy “redo” for them to have any righteous claim to a joint byline. That, and any suggestion/correction an editor makes, the author can say no to especially if they’ve hired someone on a freelance basis to go over the manuscript. There’s always a written agreement, too, that so-and-so was hired for such-and-such a service, he/she is to be paid X amount for said service and that’s where the relationship ends.

I liked your idea of just stepping back from all this “creative” stuff and getting a McJob. Trust me, I hear you. I’ve toyed with that idea too and instead of being glued to my work station for 10-12 hours a day, it’d be nice to do my 8 hours and not worry about work until the next block of 8 hours rolled around. Ah, the price we pay for following our dreams and seeing our goals through. And, in truth, I wouldn’t trade this job for anything. Well, maybe being an action star.

You haven’t sent me a copy of the Cerebus Guide to Self-publishing, but it’s okay; I already have a copy (see my first letter to you). Thanks for the offer, though.

So on to the “meat” of our correspondence: our foray into the world of the gray stuff. You had used abortion as an example in your comments. After I first read it, I quickly saw that such a topic could open a door into a discussion on one’s morals and religious beliefs (yours, mine, whoever’s). But I’ll try to keep that separate for now as best I can because, since you and I are dealing in the medium of letter writing, I’ll attempt to keep things simple instead of sending you a 10-page letter each mailing and vice versa (though, of course, I’m not opposed to long letters written and sent by either one of us). So in summation, if I understood your point correctly, we take an issue like abortion, create a “spectrum of extremes”—so Abortion Yes on one end and Abortion No on the other—and then with our pens draw up lines where each line is connected to a “reason” for the abortion and depending where that line is on the spectrum, it would either be closer to Abortion Yes or Abortion No. Or am I making it too complicated? Before delving into that, I’m not sure if the jurisdictional approach to abortion (or the prison terms for a certain crime or whatnot) would work in that if I live in the north end of town and want an abortion but in my jurisdiction abortion is illegal, what would stop me from going to the south end, where it is allowed, to get it done? Unless, of course, that the jurisdiction you live in is the one you have to adhere to lest you face a fine or jail and even if you went to the south end they wouldn’t perform the procedure for you because you would be required to produce two pieces of ID that state your address and what jurisdiction you’re in. You’re from the north, tough beans, buddy!

The spectrum approach is an interesting one, but by allowing different nuances to see where upon it you fall, are we not then opening up the door to more gray stuff? If one end is white, the other black, the stuff in between has to be varying shades of gray. For the record, I’m pro-life (which we can always get into a discussion on at a different time) as murder’s murder no matter which way you slice it. Even when you kill someone in self-defense, you’ve still killed them. And depending how you look at it, abortion is a form of self-defense as the female is “saving” herself from something—fill-in-the-blank, here. But then what of our incest victims or our rape victims or our twelve-year-old teens who were taken advantage of by Daddy’s friend and are now with a thirty-year-old’s child? Wherever that situation(s) falls on the spectrum, should they be allowed to end a life if either a) it’s just a cluster of cells in the womb so by ending it you’re denying it the right to develop into a child and live or b) it’s a maturing fetus that’s four months into development but then you’re disallowing his/her birth? I think the real question is: where are we getting our laws from and what are we basing them on? This, of course, could sidetrack us into the religious arena so I’m trying to avoid that for now, but it does make one wonder from where/when we got our laws and who made them. The nuances thing could work but it would have to be on a very tight and, dare I say, rigid platform without room for leniency, because the thing with nuances is, in the context we are talking about here, each circumstance is different—especially when dealing with rape or incest (i.e. was the defendant coerced into the intercourse? Was it forced? Did they go into it willingly but then things got out of hand and so it was rape? etc.)—it opens the doors to a plethora of nuances and thickens the gray area. In Winnipeg alone, there are around 700,000 people and over half are women, so for the sake of discussion, if all the women in Winnipeg ended up being either rape or incest victims, we’re dealing with a possible 350,000+ unique circumstances that each carry nuances of their own. I know from this and from my previous letters to you that my personal desire to see the restoration or black and white in society may come off as if I want to live in a dictatorship or under a similar type of government. That’s not the case but I thought I should clarify that just in case. My main issue would be to challenge those “in charge” (and I use the term loosely) and Mr. Everyday Joe to take a real hard and objective look at how things are run, how we’re living our lives and, further, why we are heading down the road of “anything goes.” Which then kind of takes us back to the “each circumstance is different so yields a unique outcome” argument, the “we’re all different and unique so what I view as wrong might not be what you view as wrong” thing, which then takes us back again to why we think/feel the way we do. We only have three possible scenarios of outcome if two disagreeing people were to find out why they thought something: either I would be wrong, you would be right, or I would be right and you would be wrong, or we’re both wrong. The thing of it is, we can’t both be right when you’re dealing with yes or no, true or false, up or down, left or right, black or white issues (which most issues are if we dare to trim away all the “fat” that we’ve layered around the things of everyday life). But those “outcomes,” referring to the aforementioned “each circumstance is different so yields a unique outcome,” each yield a different specific result but on a broader scale. For the sake of example, let’s take murder. Whether I killed someone intentionally, killed them in self-defense, or abetted a murder, they all resulted in the specific outcome of someone’s death. Then the real question is to what degree should I be held accountable? Dare I say fully? Regardless of the original intention or circumstance, the way it panned out resulted in the loss of life. I’m responsible for that loss of life because of my actions. I was involved therefore I am responsible. Then what of my punishment? Should it be the same as that if I went out and killed someone I disliked or if I instead shot you because you had a gun aimed at my head? This is why other evidence comes into play when they sentence someone: was it premeditated? Was it done out of malice or out of defense? As a thought, how about a set penalty for a crime that can be added to based upon the “other crimes” perpetrated at the time of said crime? Example, the penalty for murder is ten years in the pen regardless of circumstance. If I pre-planned the murder, another five years. Was it one victim or two? If it’s one and it was intentional, I get put away for 15 years. If it’s two people, then I go away for 30 and/or a sentence where the death of each person on your deathlist has to be paid for in increments of, say, 5 years. That’s not to say a person’s life is only worth 5 year’s in the pen—as obviously the victim’s family would no doubt like to see you hanged or put away for good—but the point would be to set a set penalty for whatever crime. I’m not a lawyer, a cop nor politician nor will I pretend to know the law inside out and backwards. Maybe this approach is far too simple. But then again, maybe it isn’t.

Moving on…

I’m pleased to hear you possibly doing future Collected Letters editions. I’m still reading the first one. I admit to taking a break from it as I just dove in to and completed a 12-book fiction series so wanted to take the time to read those. But I’ll be getting back to your book any day now. As a suggestion—and also from the point of view as a consumer/reader—please consider making them at least 200 pages long, 250 being ideal, if/when you release more. From the consumer’s point of view, it’s the whole bang for your buck thing. The current 2004 edition is printed at 8.5” x 11”, right? If you decided to pursue POD for it, and utilize the Lightning Source option I suggested, as a FYI, to POD print at anything larger than 6.14” x 9.21” it increases your per unit cost (I believe that’s the top size before it costs more though I don’t have my notes in front of me; I know there is a page size limit before increase though). A suggestion might be—depending on how much material you have—to publish each volume as a quarterly publication, where, say, Jan-Mar ’05 would be in one book, Apr-Jun ’05 in another and so forth. Of course each book would be slightly bigger or smaller than the previous based on the volume of mail you received. Then if you took your reply letters and formatted them at, say, 5.5” x 8.5” or 6” x 9”, to fill that 200-250 pages wouldn’t be a problem and you’d save a little on your per unit print cost. As an idea, too, I wonder if adding even a three-page Cerebus story or one-panel/page Cerebus gag would get readers from the regular storyline to pick up the Letters book(s) because of the included art?

The other day I thought, “Gee, I wonder if Dave has ever thought about crossing over into the electronic publishing business either through Aardvark-Vanaheim or via a partnership with another firm?” I’m referring to eBooks. Though I don’t see them ever replacing an old-fashioned print book, they do open the doors to readers who prefer the electronic reading format. There’s 10+ different e-formats ranging from a simple PDF file you can read on your computer screen to a format where you can download the text into a handheld device that’s akin to a Tricorder and you can tote it around like a regular print book. I had thought, “I wonder if Dave has considered doing this for either his text-based Collected Letters volume(s) or even for the Cerebus trades?” Obviously the goal with any creator is to share his/her work with as many folks as possible. As a thought, putting the Cerebus trades into e-format might be beneficial to the sales of your phonebook volumes. Your phonebooks retail for about $25-30 Canadian. Well, if I’m new to Cerebus and his world or just have a partial interest in it, I might not be willing to spend the $25-30 for the book. However, I might be willing to spend $10 for the eBook edition (eBooks typically retail for less than the print version by about half). If I liked what I read/saw in the e-version, I might get the next volume in print and/or replace my e-version by shelling out for the print version (I know of some people who do this for novels). EBooks are a good way for people to try out authors they’ve never heard of or are just interested in but are unsure if that author can deliver the same wallop every outing like, say, Stephen King or Alan Moore. Anyway, it’s just a thought, Dave, but since eBooks require zero maintenance save the initial work to format them, the profits yielded might be a nice additional income during your retirement. Passive income. I believe Gerhard has a site set up for auctioning off some original art, right? If you pursued the “e-option,” he could put up some links on there as to where online readers can purchase the e-versions of Cerebus, make an announcement to the Yahoos, send out a press release online, and all the rest.

Anyway, I’ve rattled on a little longer than I originally estimated. I hope all is well with you. I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

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

October 23, 2010
Blog: Gnostalgia
Web: http://gnostalgia.wordpress.com/2010/10/23/the-middle-way-by-scott-nicholson/
Comment:

I’d have to disagree with the conclusion of this post, the idea being that “whatever we believe is okay.”

Not really, because that would indicate you’re right, I’m right, she’s right, he’s right, even though the beliefs can be wildly contradictory. More so, are the beliefs even true? If there’s no truth to them and/or they don’t accurately represent reality, then why believe in them? And believing in a fantasy for personal comfort or even the comfort of others can’t work, because that would mean we’re dealing in lies or “untruth.”

The question is: what is real?

I know I’ve found the answer. And thank God it isn’t religion, as religion–of whatever kind–is utterly crippling and useless.

Mine’s in Jesus, the Man, the God, the King of all things. It’s about a relationship with Him, not a set of systems or rigorous rules.

October 24, 2010
Blog: Susan K. Mann
Web: http://susankmann.blogspot.com/2010/10/halloween-week-troubled-by-scott.html
Comment:

It’s interesting that you wrote this based on your “troubled” circumstances. Indeed, it was troubled circumstances that got me writing to begin with and formed the basis for my first book, A Stranger Dead, and my second–though unpublished and for good reason–For the Cause.

To a degree, you can’t help but wonder if there’s a tie between horror and troubled lives aside from the obvious. I know I gravitated to horror in the beginning of my career because it was in darkness that I dwelt at the time and it seemed to be the only place that understood me, while everyone else around me was chirping, “Hey, you’re fine. What your feeling is too glum. Cheer up. We don’t understand your pain, but we want you to be happy anyway, so locked those feelings away and come out singing.”

Hrrrrmmm . . .

Now I’ve learned horror is more than just darkness, but instead can be used as an amazing vehicle to explore the human condition in a very raw sense, in a way that other genres can’t handle.

October 25, 2010
Blog: Ashley’s Bookshelf
Web: http://ashleysbookshelf.blogspot.com/2010/10/guest-blogger-scott-nicholson-author-of.html
Comment:

Awesome, Scott. Glad you have such amazing women in your life.

God bless, my friend.

October 26, 2010
Blog: Kaitlyn in Bookland
Web: http://kaitlyninbookland.blogspot.com/2010/10/guest-post-and-kindle-giveaway-tour.html
Comment:

Book signings are funny beasts, and you’re right, they’re terribly lonely.

I’ve had book signings where I’ve sold a healthy number of books. I think my worst was when I moved maybe one copy (though, perhaps, I might have had one where nothing moved at all; hard to remember as I’ve done a bunch of them).

However, I do them as a self-publisher, so for me, I get more than just a few quarters per book sold, and if I manage to sell three books an hour, and even with bookstore discount built in, I’m making a respectable wage.

To me, signings serve two purposes: a) obviously, to make money selling books. b) to advertise myself and my titles, in the hopes that getting my name seen by customers will lead to sales and readers down the road. Sometimes folks won’t buy a book until the author’s name is familiar to them. Having a signing helps with that.

I also found that where I live, Winnipeg, people are very supportive of local talent and since I always make a point to mention my books are set in my city, Winnipegers tend to pick up the books for that very reason. I’m happy for them, too, because then the locations in the book become even more alive for them because they’ve seen or been to them in real life.

Should an author do signings? I think an author should do whatever it takes to sell their book(s) and get new readers. Even if you did a local signing and sold only one copy, that’s one more reader of your work and, like the saying goes, one is better than none.

October 27, 2010
Blog: Blog with Bite
Web: http://www.blogwithbite.com/2010/10/haunted-computer-books-win-kindle.html
Comment:

What’s my favorite monster? Um . . . Well . . . gee, I . . .

ZOMBIES! Hence the stupid amount of fiction I write about them. I’ve written four zombie novels, working on a fifth, some zombie short stories, have drawn pictures of them, sometimes feel like them (and, in the morning, usually look like them), seen all kinds of movies, read books, and even published a whole slew of them through my company, Coscom Entertainment. (http://www.coscomentertainment.com)

Yeah, zombies. Even started to geek out this past weekend at comic con because they had a zombie makeover table set up and you could get all ghouled out complete with prosthetics. Insane!

Second favorite: werewolves. I tend to look a lot like them.

When: Wednesday, December 22 · 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Where: Coles Bookstore, Kildonan Place Mall, 1555 Regent Avenue West, Winnipeg, MB

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Thank you for all your support this past year, and may God bless you in the year to come.

Just a quick note to let you know tonight is my last signing of 2010. Would be great to see those who can make it before we roll into 2011.

I’ll be signing copies of BLOOD OF THE DEAD, POSSESSION OF THE DEAD, ZOMBIE FIGHT NIGHT, MAGIC MAN PLUS 15 TALES OF TERROR, VICIOUS VERSES AND REANIMATED RHYMES, and DEAD SCIENCE. If you have anything else of mine you’d like to get signed, just come down and I’ll be happy to do it for you.

Hope to see you folks there.

And if you can’t make it, please consider grabbing one of my books online, as it’s because of your support I can keep producing novels and stories on a timely schedule.

Some links are:

BLOOD OF THE DEAD (Undead World Trilogy, Book One):

Amazon.com – http://amzn.to/aDRqDx

Amazon.ca – http://amzn.to/hICOqP

POSSESSION OF THE DEAD (Undead World Trilogy, Book Two):

Amazon.com – http://amzn.to/cR8C0B

Amazon.ca – http://amzn.to/bBEFj2

ZOMBIE FIGHT NIGHT (think UFC meets zombies and other monsters):

Amazon.com – http://amzn.to/ax0bPV

Amazon.ca – http://amzn.to/bNqjt0

MAGIC MAN PLUS 15 TALES OF TERROR (scary stories):

Amazon.com – http://amzn.to/9Dq8lB

Amazon.ca – http://amzn.to/ejDuQV

* All the above books are also available for the Kindle at less than $5 here: http://amzn.to/h8uDNU

Thanks once more for all your support.

See you in 2011.

Best,

A.P. Fuchs

http://www.canisterx.com/

http://www.twitter.com/ap_fuchs

What: Merry Undead Christmas Booksigning
Where: Coles Bookstore – Kildonan Place, 1555 Regent Ave. West, Winnipeg, MB
When: 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Details:

This Friday I’ll be at Coles Bookstore in Kildonan Place Mall to sign copies of BLOOD OF THE DEAD, POSSESSION OF THE DEAD, ZOMBIE FIGHT NIGHT and MAGIC MAN PLUS 15 TALES OF TERROR, plus any other book from your A.P. Fuchs collection you’d like to get signed.

This is a great opportunity to get a zombie book signed for a loved one for Christmas. I’ve done Christmas signings many years in a row and a good portion of the books picked… up are for others. Nice way to get a personalized note to the intended reader.

Here’s a couple of quick synopsis’s for you for two of the titles:

POSSESSION OF THE DEAD

Angels.

Demons.

Giant Zombies.

Things have changed.

Ever since returning through the Storm of Skulls to the present day, Joe, Billie and August have discovered the world they now inhabit, is not the world they left behind. The zombie threat has evolved to gargantuan proportions. Now aided by giant undead—massive monsters with phenomenal strength and power, with deadly appetites just as vast—the zombie population moves to devour any and all life.

Separated from his friends, Joe learns that not all hope is lost for humanity when he meets, Tracy, a woman who exudes a strength to rival his own. Tracy brings him to the Hub, an underground sanctuary where life continues in a dead world, but his thoughts linger on his missing friends.

August and Billie have problems of their own, and soon learn the same plight that affected a past friend of theirs now affects many: zombies with shapeshifting capability. Now, anyone is suspect. Yet even with this newfound knowledge, more is heaped upon them when the agenda of the undead is revealed and humanity is the one caught in the crossfire.

A war is raging, one between angels and demons, monsters and man.

And it’s only escalating.

–

ZOMBIE FIGHT NIGHT

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?
–
Hope to see you there. Would love to talk books, zombies, writing, comics and anything else you’d like.

Peace.

When: Friday, October 29 at 4:00pm – October 31 at 6:00pm
Where: The Winnipeg Convention Center, 375 York Ave., Winnipeg, MB

Hi folks,

Coscom Entertainment is back at this year’s Central Canada Comic Con. We’re talking a crazy huge venue with all kinds of comics, games, toys, celebrity guests, artists, costumes and more. Three days of super fanboy and fangirl fun!

Myself and Coscom Entertainment will be back again this year. It’s our fourth year and we’ve had a blast at each and every one of them. It’s honestly the thing I look forward to most every year.

We’d love for you to attend not only for a good time of all things fandom, but also to celebrate the release of my zombie novel, Possession of the Dead, and my wife, Roxanne’s, loveable comic book, Fuzz Society.

What’s Possession of the Dead about? Glad you asked. (Okay, I asked for you, but whatever.)

Angels.

Demons.

Giant Zombies.

Things have changed.

Ever since returning through the Storm of Skulls to the present day, Joe, Billie and August have discovered the world they now inhabit, is not the world they left behind. The zombie threat has evolved to gargantuan proportions. Now aided by giant undead—massive monsters with phenomenal strength and power, with deadly appetites just as vast—the zombie population moves to devour any and all life.

Separated from his friends, Joe learns that not all hope is lost for humanity when he meets, Tracy, a woman who exudes a strength to rival his own. Tracy brings him to the Hub, an underground sanctuary where life continues in a dead world, but his thoughts linger on his missing friends.

August and Billie have problems of their own, and soon learn the same plight that affected a past friend of theirs now affects many: zombies with shapeshifting capability. Now, anyone is suspect. Yet even with this newfound knowledge, more is heaped upon them when the agenda of the undead is revealed and humanity is the one caught in the crossfire.

A war is raging, one between angels and demons, monsters and man.

And it’s only escalating.

Please note this is the sequel to Blood of the Dead, which is always a hot item at the cons.

***

As for Fuzz Society, it’s the polar opposite of zombies, but cool nonetheless. The story is:

Come along for a big-scale adventure with Lyra Ladybug–the cutest bug you’ll ever meet–who’s full of curiousity, and who’s not afraid to stand up for herself even though she’s tiny. Watch as she gets carried along through Gossling Park on a gum wrapper, and finds herself lost in a land so familiar yet so far from her own, only to meet up with new friends along the way. Perhaps even one who’s more than friends.

It’s fun, adventure and budding romance in this first issue of Fuzz Society!

***

We’ll also have a table LOADED with zombie and superhero books, plus a few other cool fandom-related items. Just look for the table with the black and white Coscom Entertainment banner, or me, the big hairy guy standing next to a cute ladybug.

Come by, say hi, and let’s talk comics and art, books and writing, and anything else you want!

See you there.

Thanks.

Possession of the Dead is now out, which means it’s time for book signings and con appearances.

This is where I’ll be next week.

Where: Coles Bookstore in Kildonan Place, 1555 Regent Avenue West, Winnipeg, MB
When: October 28, 2010 – 6-8pm

Announcement:

Come join A.P. Fuchs as he celebrates the release of his latest zombie novel, Possession of the Dead, the second book in the Undead World Trilogy.

Come for thrills, chills and a host of zombie goodness.

Plot synopsis:

Angels.

Demons.

Giant Zombies.

Things have changed.

Ever since returning through the Storm of Skulls to the present day, Joe, Billie and August have discovered the world they now inhabit, is not the world they left behind. The zombie threat has evolved to gargantuan proportions. Now aided by giant undead—massive monsters with phenomenal strength and power, with deadly appetites just as vast—the zombie population moves to devour any and all life.

Separated from his friends, Joe learns that not all hope is lost for humanity when he meets, Tracy, a woman who exudes a strength to rival his own. Tracy brings him to the Hub, an underground sanctuary where life continues in a dead world, but his thoughts linger on his missing friends.

August and Billie have problems of their own, and soon learn the same plight that affected a past friend of theirs now affects many: zombies with shapeshifting capability. Now, anyone is suspect. Yet even with this newfound knowledge, more is heaped upon them when the agenda of the undead is revealed and humanity is the one caught in the crossfire.

A war is raging, one between angels and demons, monsters and man.

And it’s only escalating.

Thanks in advance for your support. See you all there!

Normally, my monthly comic reading diet consists of Batman, Superman, Batman and Robin, Red Robin and Batgirl. I might buy another comic or two, but those are my regulars.

Well, I went to the shop (Galaxy Comics) yesterday and walked out with a pretty big stack of books.

- Batman/Superman #75
- Wolverine Saga (Marvel freebie)
- Batman Beyond #2 (for my kind)
- Toy Story #-something (for my other kid)

From the dollar bin, all these #1 reprints:

The Talisman #0
Captain America #1 (for my wife)
Action Comics #858
Marvel Zombies #1
The Walking Dead #1
The Flash: Rebirth #1
Detective Comics #854
Spawn #1
Savage Dragon #1
Proof #1

I came home yesterday, went through my pile, read Spawn and Savage Dragon and noticed the Wolverine and Batman/Superman. I thought, Wait, this isn’t my stuff. You see, I have a mailbox there and they just put the stuff I collect in there for me to pick up at my convenience. When I got to the counter with my stack of dollar books, the other comics were already in a bag. I just assumed what was in there was my usual books.

Anyway, I went back to today. The Wolverine was a freebie (so I kept it, of course) and the Batman/Superman #75 was an error because I originally asked for the regular Batman and Superman series to be added to my monthly books over the phone. I guess the guy took it as the team up book instead of the two separate books like I meant. Completely understandable mistake because the Batman/Superman book is usually refered to as Superman and Batman or vice versa. But I kept the Batman/Superman because a) I like the owner and b) it’s the 75th issue and has some bonus stuff in it. No worries. It’s all good.

So I left there today with Batman #702 and Superman #702, Hellboy #1 from the dollar bin plus a pack of bags and boards.

Good haul. Really happy.