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

The first zombie anthology I edited, Dead Science, is on sale this weekend for less than a buck. 13 stories. 13 cool and unique takes on the possible scientific origin of the undead, plus, of course, some good zombie carnage thrown in for good measure. So far as I know, it’s only anthology out there of its kind.

Please go here to download direct to your Kindle or Kindle-reading device.

Official write-up:

Science.
Research.
Knowledge.

The human intellect knows no bounds because of them.

We’ve built cities and nations upon them.

We’ve stopped the spread of terrible diseases because of what we’ve learned from them.

Lives have been saved . . . but lives also have been lost.

Now those lives have returned from the grave, seeking revenge.

Sometimes . . . science goes wrong.

Death.
Destruction.
Zombies.

Featuring the terrifying tales of 13 authors, Dead Science brings you stories of the undead unlike any you’ve ever read before. Prepare to go behind-the-scenes and learn about the causes of various zombie uprisings and the havoc these creatures wreak upon the living.

Stories by:

Gustavo Bondoni, Eric S. Brown, Michael Cieslak, Lorne Dixon, Anthony Giangregorio, Glen Held, Becca Morgan, Mark Onspaugh, Gina Ranalli, Vincent L. Scarsella, Jason V. Shayer, Ryan C. Thomas and Adam J. Whitlatch.

Like the other weekend-only sales, price goes back up Monday so be sure to jump on it straight away. Thanks.

You know, you read all these different articles on how to properly use Twitter. Some say to tweet a couple of times a day, others to interact with folks regularly, others say a mix of the two . . . . I guess it depends on your goals and why you have your Twitter feed to begin with. In my case, it’s to talk with readers, meet new people, get some news on the topics that interest me, and also to tell people about my books.
It’s also a source of content for this blog as once in a while I’ll post a Twitter capture of what I’m talking about on there, or post a rant about something.

What do you use Twitter for?

Here’s what’s been going on on my feed since the 31, the most recent tweet being the one on top.

@topshelfcomix Any word on when the Bacchus Omnibus will be out? Been excited for it since I heard about it a couple years back. Pls advise.

@guaybrian Thanks for the retweet!

From my wife’s Mom Blog – Easter baking: http://wp.me/p2zeUV-df via @ladybugstuff #mommyblogging #blogs #easter

Disney Pixar’s ‘Nemo’ Sequel ‘Finding Dory’ Arriving in 2015 http://on.mash.to/XVu10K via @mashable

Comic Convention this weekend. Having a table there. Love it. http://www.c4popculture.com #comics #conventions

@seams16 Thanks for shout, Eric!

@CraigBrummer @pajartstudio @SEvanTownsend @marieharbon @AHDeCarrasco @FictionWriter1 @emarxbooks @KathyReinhart Thanks for the shout out!

@templestark Jack of all trades, master of none, basically.

@EcomBuffet You’re welcome!

Mystery. Legend. #Bigfoot. Hairy tales to make your skin crawl. BIGFOOT TERROR TALES VOL. 1 http://amzn.to/RS4KDi #kindle #horror #ebooks

The Seven Deadly Sins of Social Media by @EcomBuffet http://www.searchenginejournal.com/seven-deadly-sins-of-social-media/10380/ … via @sejournal

23 Ways for a Comic Artist to Survive and Thrive in any Economy – Optimum Wound http://www.optimumwound.com/23-ways-for-a-comic-artist-to-survive-and-thrive-in-any-economy.htm …

APRIL FOOL • by Paul A. Freeman http://www.everydayfiction.com/april-fool-by-paul-a-freeman/ … via @everydayfiction

Keep up to date with superhero and monster book publisher Coscom Entertainment on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/coscomentertainment … #zombies #superheroes

Undead World Trilogy comes to an end in an epic war between Zombies, Man, Demons & Angels in REDEMPTION OF THE DEAD http://amzn.to/14Az4KV

@templestark Like with comics, Diamond became the only game in town later screwing the little guy. Hope Amazon doesn’t do the same thing.

@templestark The monopoly Amazon holds–and is growing–scares me as a writer and publisher. Too much power to one source.

Amazon Acquires Book Recommendations Site and Social Network Goodreads – WebProNews http://www.webpronews.com/amazon-acquires-book-recommendations-site-goodreads-2013-03 …

Last day for a 99-cent ZOMBIE FIGHT NIGHT! Think UFC meets Night of the Living Dead plus robots, ninjas, vamps & more http://amzn.to/cENxW9

Click Here to Download to Your Kindle

I know it seems like there’ve been a lot of sales pitches on this blog. Just the way things have been rolling out. Besides, we writers got to take care of our families somehow. So . . . this weekend my Time Travel, Supernatural Zombie Novel, Blood of the Dead, is on sale on Kindle for just 99 cents. Price goes back up to $5 on Monday. Please download a copy and save $4. It’s a super popular book at comic con every year and has a number of reviews. Story details below. Thanks.

“Frantically paced and never predictable, Blood of the Dead takes the usual staples of the zombie-genre–blood, guts, guns and action–and mixes them with the bizarre to create a unique story. It’s a formidable mix–think Night of the Living Dead with a healthy dash of Dante’s Inferno! Fuchs leads his cast through a nightmare world filled with relentless pain, constant fear and never-ending waves of dead flesh, then takes them some place worse . . . You’ve never read a zombie story like this before!” - David Moody, author of the Autumn series

One year ago, the world came to an end.
First came the rain.
Then came the screams.
Then came the undead.

The Haven became the only place in the city free of the walking dead. A place of community. A place to be safe.

Now, things have changed.

The zombies are coming to the Haven, seeking out the remaining survivors of the human race.

Joe Bailey prowls the Haven’s streets, taking them back from the undead, each kill one step closer to reclaiming a life once stolen from him. Billie Friday and Des Nottingham soon have Joe to thank for their lives.

As the dead push into the Haven, the trio is forced into the one place where folks fear to tread: the heart of the city, a place overrun with flesh-eating zombies.

They soon discover they are not the only humans there. After meeting an old man with a peculiar past, Joe and the others must make one last stand against the undead or unwillingly meet the same fate.

A desperate escape leads them to a place thought impossible to exist and to a discovery that will shake the future.

Welcome to the end of all things.

Last night I took part in an interview at The New Dragon Talk, which is a video version of its predecessor, Dragon Talk Radio (of which I was on a couple years back). Hosted by Jon Klement, it was a great time and we talked about comics, superheroes, Bigfoot, zombies, writing, publishing, Canadian comic cons, and more. I also disclosed my number one piece of publishing advice for anyone looking to find success in this biz and, it seems, one that’s often overlooked.

The recorded video is embedded below. Please take a moment to check it out, or push play and let it air in the background as you go about your Web surfing.

Thanks.

First appearing last year in the awesome anthology, Metahumans vs the Undead, I’m now making available to all Axiom-man fans my story, “There’s Something Rotten Up North,” as a short story download.

It is currently available on Kindle, Smashwords and Drivethru Fiction, with other e-outlets to shortly follow once their systems update.

Here’s the write-up:

When Axiom-man is notified of the dead coming back to life in Flin Flon, Manitoba, he takes flight and heads north to verify the terrible news. Upon his arrival, he is greeted by hordes of the walking dead and wonders if this outbreak is tied to his visit to a parallel Earth where the undead had replaced the living. As he struggles to combat the undead and search for survivors, Axiom-man soon discovers the problem is far worse than he thought.

Note: This story takes place between The Dead Land and City of Ruin.

Please take a moment to download this story at any of the e-outlets mentioned above and likewise share this announcement with any superhero and zombie enthusiasts you may know of. Thanks. Hope you enjoy it.

This year started off with good intentions, but I got derailed when I went through a massive burnt out and some health trouble so my output wasn’t quite what I wanted. However, I’m gaining swift ground on things I set out to do and want to update you on these things. So . . .
Axiom-man: City of Ruin – Done. Edited by the editor. I have still go through his edits and do one more draft my own and give it to my wife as first reader before press, but that’s going to have to wait until next week because I’m plowing through . . .
Redemption of the Dead (Undead World Trilogy, Book 3) – Readers have been asking for this for a while and I hate telling them–especially in person at conventions–that it’s not done. So, I’m doing a major crazy write-a-thon this week to get it done as outlined here. Still have to talk to my editor about a quick turn around, but don’t tell him for me. I want it to be a surprise. Uh, yeah. (And if you’re reading this Mr. Editor, Surprise!)
Axiom-man No. 3 – It’s started to air on the website. Still dropping in some gray tones on the rest of the issue but that won’t take long. Will be off to press on it probably late next week, all in time for an end-of-the-month release and get copies out to subscribers.
Canister X Comix No. 4 – Written, planned, and barely started in the drawing department. Since this minicomic is more for-the-love right now than anything, it’ll have to wait until the above is done. To find out more about Canister X Comix, please go here.
Zomtropolis: The free zombie love story serial here on this blog that’s been running for a couple years or so. I have a new installment written but not posted. After the paying projects above are done, I’m going to finish this up and then upload it for auto-updating so readers get the rest of the story on time every Friday like before. Then that book will enter rewrite phase, editing phase, production, etc. for a new edition to be released next year in paperback and eBook.
If you want to know what life over here feels like right now, watch this as I pretty much feel like these guys (this show, by the way, is my new reality TV favorite).

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.

2011 was a busy year publishing-wise, my time divided between running Coscom Entertainment and Torn Veil Books, while also spending time getting my own ideas out of my head and onto paper.

All-in-all, this year I managed to publish 14 books and 6 comics.

Not too shabby.

Unfortunately, I didn’t meet my writing goals nor some of my comic book aspirations but, hey, there’s always 2012.

This is what was published this year:

Coscom Entertainment

Books:

Comics: