by Jay Wilburn
Winter of Zombie 2017! Here we go! We have a talented and interesting set of featured authors and creative works. These featured works include parts of series in progress and a series coming to a close. We also have short fiction in some creative anthologies that any zombie fan must check out. We have a choose your own adventure style zombie adventure. We have a cook book zombie survival guide and an official property of The Walking Dead franchise on this year’s Winter of Zombie blog tour. These are books worth reading and authors worth following.
Today, I want to take some time to introduce you to our featured authors before we share their interviews, teasers from their work, and blog posts about what they created, how they think about zombies, and the process of creating material for this genre.
Check out the master schedule for the entire tour to keep up with all the great posts. Check out the story authors from the tour are writing together “Play Too Much” for your enjoyment for free. Join the event page on Facebook, if you haven’t already. Pick up the books from the links below as we share about each author. Join us each day in November for the 2017 Winter of Zombie Blog Tour. Follow the hashtag #WinterZombie to find posts in the wild.
I hope you enjoy each of these authors and their work as much as I do.
Ken Stark
Ken Stark joins the tour with Stage 3: Alpha, the sequel to his popular Stage 3 novel. We get to follow a mother across a city gone mad as she searches for her little girl out there somewhere. We get a look at a different character study from the previous book, but still a great adventure in the unique zombie outbreak Stark has created with the first book. If you want to see some straight up raw horror too, check out Ken Stark’s Jitters as well. Pick up Stage 3: Alpha or go back to the beginning to grab up the first book.
Jessica Gomez
Jessica Gomez is the talented author behind the Flash series. One of the treats on this tour will be a rough preview of book 3. She is featuring her prequel short story “Fallen” which appears in the anthology Undead Worlds. Along with Gomez, there are 21 other talented writers sharing new short stories set in the zombie universes of their various series. These include authors on this year’s tour and tours past. Undead Worlds is a great anthology to check out the creations of a number of great authors including the creative and hard-hitting fiction of Jessica Gomez. Also consider checking out her After series.
Rebecca Besser
Rebecca Besser has a vast catalog of work ranging through all types of horror. Her take on zombies in the long fiction of her Z-poc Exception Series: Re-Civilize as well as her short fiction is always intense and different. I have been a particular fan of her short fiction for a while and I’m excited that she is featuring a short piece and a great anthology for this tour. Besser is promoting her story “To Walk The Halls” along with the other 21 great stories in the Treasured Chests zombie anthology. The stories are great and it is for a great cause.
Chris Philbrook
Chris Philbrook is no stranger to many zombie fans. If he is new to you, you should definitely check out his zombie series beginning with the first book Adrian’s Undead Diary: Dark Recollections. We are featuring his latest in the series, The Shed, which goes back to tell a dark and compelling story touched on in the first book and haunting readers ever since. Philbrook’s popular AUD universe has drawn in other authors to tell stories within a series of great anthologies. The latest in that anthology series is Only the Light We Make: Tales from the World of Adrian’s Undead Diary vol 3. Check out The Shed now or begin with book 1.
James D. Dean
James D. Dean is a zombie author who is quickly gaining attention among readers of the zombie genre as well as from other authors taking notice of his storytelling and skill. We are featuring his novel This Dying World: Abandon All Hope. This is the sequel to This Dying World: The End Begins. With his short fiction and the strength of his novels, we should expect nothing but good things from this author in the future. Now is the perfect time to start reading him. Begin with This Dying World: The End Begins and continue with This Dying World: Abandon All Hope.
Armand Rosamilia
Armand Rosamilia is a powerhouse among established authors. He has demonstrated his talent and voice with zombies, crime fiction, thrillers, other types of horror, and a few surprising works and genres on the way. For those who have followed his Dying Days series for some time, it is a big moment to feature the 9th and final installment in the series with Dying Days 9. There will be a lot to explore, learn, read, and enjoy in what may be one of his final zombie tours. We’re going to make the most of it. Readers who enjoy his voice should definitely check out his Dirty Deeds series as well. You can hear him on ArmCast Podcast and the Mando Method Podcast. He also has one of the most robust author Patreons I have seen. So much great, fresh content on there for readers and fans. Now is a great time to begin his complete Dying Days series with book 1 and then follow through to Dying Days 9.
Jack Wallen
Jack Wallen is a prolific and diverse writer. He has an expansive universe of zombie series following multiple tracks. Talking only about his great zombie fiction is a small sample of all he has to offer across many genre. On this tour, we are featuring the latest in his unique Middletown anthology series. Middletown gives a group of zombie authors essentially the same story to write each a different way. The results each time have always been amazing. Middletown 3: Metal Apocalypse is no exception. This installment does not disappoint. Authors from this tour are included and many other great zombie authors too. It is well worth checking out along with the other books in the Middletown anthology series.
Shawn Chesser
Shawn Chesser has established a name for himself with his Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse series. The latest book, Abyss, featured on the tour may be one of the darkest and most emotional view into his beloved characters yet. Chesser has a very compact storytelling style which keeps readers close to the outbreak and covers a couple action-packed days over the course of the books. It has the intensity and pace many zombie fans love. Check out the first book and then read through to Abyss.
Brent Abell
Brent Abell is probably best known for his continuing alternate history zombie series which began with the first Southern Devils book. This series is well worth checking out with a new installment coming soon. On this tour, we are featuring his latest work, Dying Days: Death Sentence. Astute fans of the genre will recognize Dying Days as the signature series of author Armand Rosamilia. Abell’s novel set in the Dying Days universe is based off a short story he wrote for one of the Dying Days anthologies. Rosamilia gladly gave him permission to pursue the full novel. This is a good standalone book for zombie fans to check out.
Lauren Wilson
We are very excited to include Lauren Wilson on this tour. She is best known for her recipes and cooking. As an author, she has made two cookbooks for zombie fans. Her first work, The Art of Eating through the Zombie Apocalypse, is a great and fun cookbook and survival guide. Her work drew attention from the genre and she had the opportunity to write The Walking Dead: The Official Cookbook and Survival Guide. This is a great book with recipes inspired by the show and a good collector’s piece for fans too.
Grivante
The Zee Brothers books really caught my attention. There is a different sort of feel for this series as zombie exterminators go around looking to handle zombie outbreaks in our everyday world. Grivante works in all sorts of different styles of zombies in these exciting books. Zombie School Lockdown is the latest one we are featuring and I’m sure you’ll want to read them all. He has a story in the Undead Worlds anthology which he was a big part of helping bring about as well. It is worth checking out. There is a great Zee Brothers mini comic too. Enjoy Zombie School Lockdown.
Adrienne Lecter
Adrienne Lecter’s series has only ever grown in popularity since book 1 of the Green Fields series. With book 7 Affliction featured on this tour, we get a fresh new story which continues the great adventure that fans refuse to let her quit. The series has a great through-line which connects the books, but there are multiple great entry points in the series as well. So, check out her series now.
James Schannep
Pathogens by James Schannep is a great read. This is a zombie book in the old style of Choose Your Own Adventure books. It is really well crafted and the story is strong no matter which path you take. As with the best of these style books from the past, you’ll want to read it again and again to find new threads of the story. I can’t recommend this book enough. If you love Pathogens as much as I think you will, there is another zombie book, Infected, he created in this style as well for the Choose Your Poison series. He has one called Murdered which is a well-paced mystery and one about superheroes and supervillains called Superpowered. Check them all out!
I hope you see some books that you want to grab up already. Pick up a few here at the beginning of the tour and you can interact with the authors throughout November as you read. This is going to be a great tour and we’re just beginning.
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