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

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.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-926712-99-4 eBook ISBN: 978-1-927339-06-0 15 years ago . . . The world fell. Armies of the dead swept across the globe, toppling civilization and bringing humanity to its knees. Now, as the dead virus has ran its course and is fading away, those who survived face a new terror: the ever-growing numbers of the Sasquacth species. The Earth is an apocalyptic wasteland, survivors barely managing to make it day-by-day. Food is scarce, hope is hardly found. Yet all turns on a dime when a secret base is discovered underground and it is learned that it might hold the hope for victory in this deadly world. War breaks out, and this time man and machine combine as the struggle between humanity and the beasts wages anew to see who will hold the top spot on nature’s food chain.

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 Mobipocket.com Smashwords

Other Books in the Bigfoot War Series:

Other Coscom Entertainment Books by Eric S. Brown

The Last Coscom Entertainment Release: Flame of Surrender by Rhiannon Paille
For the Entire Coscom Entertainment Monster Fiction Catalog, please go to www.coscomentertainment.com

So on a whim today I decided to offer the following deal for anyone who purchases a copy of one or more of my just-released vampire love story series, Blood of my World.
The deal:
Grab any one of the Blood of my World books–in paperback or eBook–and I’ll send you a free short love story, My Angel and Me (written as Peter Fox) in PDF. Buy all three, and I’ll send you a free full zombie novel in PDF. Just shoot me an email with proof of purchase(s). Email address is coscomentertainment(at)gmail(dot)com. Thanks.
All books can be accessed at this link here: http://amzn.to/mvHc9Q
Hope you check it out.

Copyright 2010-2011 by A.P. Fuchs. All rights reserved.
43: Spam
It’d be nice if I had any booze left. No, check that, it’d be friggin’ awesome! But, alas, here we are, dry as cold toast, just waiting for things to make sense.
After the big ordeal with Selena dying again, I just paced my apartment until my heels were sore, all the while ignoring Jay’s door banging and shouts in the hallway. Part of the time I heard him; part of it I didn’t. Eventually I tired myself out so much I took a short nap right there on my living room floor. When I awoke, I got up, peed, then walked across the hallway to where Jay was staying. Pride told me to just forget about it, but I’m smarter than that.
Selena’s body still lay there, a big shard of glass sticking out of her head. I looked away, unable to stomach it. Not for Selena.
I rapped on Jay’s door. He opened it, didn’t say anything and let me in. You know you have a good friend when you act like a jerk and they take you back, no questions asked.
The suite he stayed in used to belong to this Spanish guy, Hernandez somebody. I never got to know him, not that he was all that friendly to begin with. Very much one of those people who only left their place just to go to work and get groceries. Come to think of it, I was pretty much like that, too, because right now I can’t say I knew my neighbours all that well despite living beside them for a few years.
“Any food kicking around here?” I asked after sitting at the kitchen table for a few minutes.
“Found a can of spam, a couple packs of dried noodles,” Jay replied.
“I’m not picky.”
Jay got up from the table, pulled the can of spam from the cupboard above the sink, then rummaged around in one of the drawers and found a can opener.
“You don’t need that, you know,” I said. “There’s a tab-key-thing on the side.”
He picked up the can, tilted it left and right in his hand, then said, “What do I know? Never ate this stuff. Probably makes good spackle.”
I chuckled. “Or window caulking.”
He smiled, and fiddled with the key on the can until he figured it out. He opened another cupboard and pulled out a plate, then dumped the contents of the can onto it. After grabbing a couple forks from the drawer, he sat down, gave me one, and said, “Dinner is served.”
“Beats nothing,” I said.
Jay paused before eating, bowed his head and closed his eyes. Out of respect, I waited until he was done, then the two of us divvied up the spam. It was like half-dried baby food cut into chunks. We ate in silence–guys do that–and when we were done, Jay said, “Want to talk about it?”
So much for forgive and forget, I thought. “Not really.”
“I’m not talking about us,” he said. “The girl. Want to talk about it?”
I sighed. “There’s not much to say.” My eyes met his. “She’s the love of my life, you know.”
“I can tell.”
I wrinkled my brow.
“I saw it in the way you looked at her, the way you defended her. No shame in that.” He paused then added, “But she’s dangerous . . . or, at least, something’s not right with her. Sorry to say that.”
It was true I didn’t want to hear it, but Jay was right. There was something wrong with Selena. No one kept dying and coming back, not in the way she did.
“You said you’ve seen her before, yeah?” I said.
He nodded. “Lots of times while I was out and about. Sometimes she was downright pretty, even normal-looking except for a mouth covered in–” He made a circular motion with his hand in front of his lips. “Other times . . . other times the only thing that gave her away was her eyes. Eyes don’t change. They’re beautiful and easy to pick out.”
“Yeah . . .”
“It doesn’t make sense, though,” he said.
I mulled over his words for a moment. “Something’s up. Something weird. She’s come here several times now. She’s also died several times.”
He simply looked at me, his expression reading: Obviously. Tell me something I don’t know.
“Okay,” I said, “have you seen anyone else? I mean, anyone else repeatedly who looked different each time? I don’t go out much, but so far as I know, I haven’t seen any familiar faces.”
“Hard to say. Big city. But for me, no, she’s the only one I’ve noticed.”
“So, what, she’s either got a pile of twin sisters, or she’s regenerating somehow or . . .” I didn’t know what I was saying. None of it made sense.
“When you were together, was she, you know, normal?”
“Yeah. Of course. Everything was normal back then.”
“Family? Sisters?”
“Nothing that would indicate a plethora of look-alike siblings.”
“Superpowers?”
“What?”
He was dead serious, which I didn’t expect from him. “You know, some kind of special ability. Able to multiply herself or something?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “If she did, she never told me.”
“Just going through the possibilities.”
“I know.”
“And she keeps coming to you?”
“Yeah.”
“Know why?”
“No. We broke up before all this started. The only thing I can guess is that everyone else she knows is dead or a walking corpse, and when we split, I promised her I’d always be there for her no matter what she needed. Maybe I’m her last resort.”
“Could be.”
“And I’m fine with that,” I said softly. “At least I get to see her.”
He tapped his index finger on the tabletop. “We need a plan.”
“For?” I coughed. “I mean, aside from the obvious shelter, food, and all that.”
“What if she comes back?”
“Can’t really stop that.”
“No.”
“Would you attack her again?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll beat the hell out of you if you do.”
His face went rigid.
“Sorry.”
“No problem. I get it. But if she does come back, we need a plan.”
“I think what we need to do is figure out where she’s been. She’s come back in that gown, hospital coat thing each time.” I nodded to myself. “Yeah, that’s our starting point. We’ll find out where she’s been, then take it from there.”
“And if she turns?”
“She’s gotten sick first every time before now. We’ll use that as our warning.”
“Well” –Jay stood up from the table– “you can stay here if you want or go back to your place.”
It would have been nice to have company, but I needed some time to just stew and reflect. “Thanks, but I’ll go home.” I headed to the door. “Make a big fuss if you need anything.”
“Sure.”
I went into the hallway and closed the door behind me. My sweetheart’s body lay by my door. Heart aching, I walked past it and into my apartment, tears in my eyes.
< Last Chapter — Table of Contents — Next Chapter >

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

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.

Alice in Zombieland by Lewis Carroll and Nickolas Cook is going out-of-print very soon to make way for the new Source Books mass market edition. That said, this is your last chance to own the original before the new version–complete with illustrations–comes out.

Like our other first editions of mash-ups going out-of-print, there’s a chance the originals can be worth something in the future.

Thanks.

Presently, the book is still available at:

Paperback:

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

eBook:

Amazon Kindle
Fictionwise.com
Drivethruhorror.com
Smashwords.com

Synopsis:

Can Alice escape Zombieland before the Dead Red Queen catches up to her?

When little Alice falls asleep, she finds herself in an undead nightmare of rotting flesh and insanity. Following a talking rat, she ventures further into this land of zombies and monsters.

There’s also something else troubling poor Alice: her skin is rotting and her hair is falling out. She’s cold and there’s the haunting feeling that if she remains in Zombieland any longer, she might never leave and forever be caught between life and death.

Have a seat at the table for the Tea Party of your life and explore the wondrous adventure that is Zombieland.

The last Coscom Entertainment release: Possession of the Dead by A.P. Fuchs

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

Possession of the Dead, the sequel to Blood of the Dead, by A.P. Fuchs is now available at the following on-line retailers:

Paperback:

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

eBook:

Amazon Kindle
Fictionwise.com
Drivethruhorror.com
Smashwords
Scribd.com

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.

The last Coscom Entertainment release: Praise the Dead by Gina Ranalli

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