Guest Post: Peter Welmerink- Top Ten Things you should be warned about if visiting the TRANSPORT Story Universe

Today we have a guest blog from my fellow Seventh Star Author Peter Welmerink and his Zombie Apocolypse Transport Universe. Please give him a warm and scary welcome. He lists the top ten things to do when visiting the Transport Universe:

Don’t visit Reganshire unless you either want to live there, or possibly die there. Silas Regan, the leader of the small but growing, thriving village west of the big city of Grand Rapids, hasn’t been really seen in a while but his daughter, Rebecca, very much so makes her presence felt whenever a new comer arrives. The young woman seems to be rotting from the inside out. She’s not one of the Undead, but with the maggots squirming out of her bleach white hairline, and her sticky sweet-to-dangerously angry personality…

Just stay away if at all possible

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Watch out for ground-hugging yellow fog. If you see any of this in your travels either inside the UCRA (Urban Civilian Retention Area) or outside of town, stay clear. This is most likely a flesh-eating bioagent that has been dumped to consume the Undead. Probably deposited by someone from GRAZA (Grand rapids Anti-Zombie Association) or loyalists of the late William Lettner. Though it was supposedly formulated to only attack and dissolve necrotic flesh, it has been found to attack healthy, living tissue also.

 

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Stay away from the tall, concertina wire fence line running around the western borders of the city, along the old Interstate 196 and Interstate 131. It is electrified, and will cook you in your shoes. Leave the rotting carcasses that have accidentally stumbled into it and fried themselves.

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Avoid a certain semi-undead zombie with a flop of its black-haired scalp hanging over its face, especially if it is wearing black military fatigues and carrying a high-powered sniper rifle. You may be or may not be on its Hit List.

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If Bob, the 1950’s gas station attendant zombie, shambles up to you while you are visiting the UCRA, and if he is waving his floppy, rotting arms at you, and grumbling, moaning and spitting on you… DO NOT BE ALARMED. He is simply trying to have a conversation with you, probably offering an oil change and a set of new white wall tires at a 1950’s era price.

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The West Side Apostolate is for the local undead civilians. It is overseen by the Reverend Sister Mary Mirose and her flock of battle-hardened nuns. The clothing, and most definitely the “food” is not for living human consumption. Sister Mirose will not kindly to you if you try to take anything. (She does accept gently-used garments and cash donations.)

 

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There is still a giant mutated bull roaming around the farm and woodlands between Reganshire and the Lake Michigan lakeshore. Please travel warily through this area of West Michigan.

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Never irritate military personnel while you are out on the road with them, they may make you walk home. (And you may not make it home.)

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If you see zombies with strange stitchery about their abdomen, basically in a pattern the size of a small box, please report them to the authorities, but stay clear of them. It has been reported these zombies carry illegal drugs and their “owners” keep a close eye on them.

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Avoid TRYING to get into the John Ball Park Zoological Gardens. The series of tall fences. The signs warning of immediate brutal persecution by the Grand rapids Police and Grand rapids Central Command are serious. Like the mutated bull, no one knows quite what’s left alive—or otherwise—inside the old zoo.

You’ve been warned.

As Captain Randall Crawford, a frequent traveler inside the UCRA, used to say: Have a nice day.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Welmerink (www.peterwelmerink.com) was born and raised on the west side of pre-apocalyptic Grand Rapids, Michigan. He loves his hometown and West Michigan, which is why he writes about it. He writes Fantasy, Military SciFi, and other wanderings into action-adventure. His work has been published in ye olde wood pulp print and electronic-online publications. He is the co-author of the Viking berserker novel, BEDLAM UNLEASHED, written with Steven Shrewsbury. TRANSPORT is his first solo novel venture. He is married with a small barbarian tribe of three boys.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pwelmerink

Twitter: @pwelmerink

BLOGS

grandrapidsaltered.blogspot.com (TRANSPORT-related posts)

darkheroicfantasy.blogspot.com (author interviews and all things fantastical)

BOOK LINKS

TRANSPORT (Book One)

Barnes & Noble

http://bit.ly/1xDXMck

Amazon

http://amzn.to/1M0j8bs

TRANSPORT (Book Two) HUNT FOR THE FALLEN

Barnes & Noble

http://bit.ly/1titw5T

Amazon

http://amzn.to/1IOTgrp

TRANSPORT (Book Three) UNCIVIL WAR

Amazon

http://amzn.to/1F8IEsT

B&N

http://bit.ly/1KtpFoB

Tour Schedule and Activities

9/21 A Work In Progress Interview
9/21 I Smell Sheep Guest Post
9/21 Beauty in Ruins Guest Post
9/21 shells interviews Guest Post
9/23 Book in the Bag Interview
9/23 Sheila Deeth Book Blog Guest Post
9/24 Bee's Knees Reviews Review
9/25 WebbWeaver Reviews Guest Post
9/26 Vampires, Witches, & Me Oh My Top Tens List
9/26 fuonlyknew Review
9/27 Coffintree Hill Guest Post
9/27 Armand Rosamilia, Author Guest Post

Guest Post: Supernatural Sandwich by AshleyRose Sullivan

Hello Everyone, 

Let's please welcome AshleyRose Sullivan to the blog today talking about her new release Silver Tongue with Seventh Star Press

In the last ten years or so YA fiction has seen a lot of supernatural elements. Some people might say too much. The thing is, when I was a teenager, I really couldn’t get enough of this stuff. Tough chicks with superpowers, a dangerous, magical world, bad guys with worse agendas—I loved these elements when I was in high school and I still love them today. But, between that time and this, I read a lot. And that stuff seriously affected my interests and influenced what I wanted to write about. So Silver Tongue is sort like I put some of my favorite stuff in a blender. Or, maybe more accurately, I made a sandwich.

The Bread:

Silver Tongue’s story couldn’t exist without a setting in which to take place. The foundation of the novel is the crazy alternate history version of the American Colonies where Claire and her friends live. In this timeline, George Washington drowned in the Delaware instead of crossing it and now, fifty years later, Claire and her friends are still dealing with the repercussions. They live in New France and, in the course of their dangerous journey, have to cross the Mississippi into New Britannia.

The Condiments:         

Silver Tongue is flavored with elements of Gothic literature. Actually—you can still see the influence of classic gothic lit running through a lot of YA. Dark mysteries. Eerie lands. Secret histories. Men who turn into monsters. Monsters who turn into men. Unconventional young women. Brooding Byronic hero types.  The list goes on. It’s just a little more overt in Silver Tongue. Claire actually meets William Frankenstein.

The Meat:

I love the common themes in YA lit. I’ve never grown out of them and, in writing Silver Tongue, I was determined to stick to the themes that always spoke to me. Friendship, self-discovery, sexuality, racial identity, and, of course, love. The Post-Revolutionary War Colonies aren’t really ready for Claire and her friends and they struggle to make their way in this strange, dangerous world.

The Extras:

I have a lot of weird interests and those things always seem to work their way into my books. I love to eat so Claire loves to eat and dreaming up French Indian or American English menus was a blast. And, petticoats! Oh man, I love researching period fashion. Of course, with Silver Tongue taking place in The Colonies, fashion wouldn’t move west as fast. So, Claire is a little behind the times—as she finds out when she leaves her small town.

And medicine/science/technology! I love thinking about how tech might have evolved differently if history had taken a slightly altered course. How did history influence tech? How did tech influence history? Silver Tongue sees the very beginnings of a steam punk-like era and Claire’s mother is a healer with both western and traditional medicinal techniques at her disposal. It’s this kind of stuff that I think really adds flavor to the overall narrative and helps to make it special.

So anyway, I went about making this sandwich—mostly for my teenage self—and I ended up with something unique. I think it’s pretty tasty. I hope you do too! 

About the Author: Born and raised in Appalachia, AshleyRose Sullivan now lives, writes, and paints in Los Angeles. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University and her first novel, Awesome Jones: A Superhero Fairy Tale is available from Seventh Star Press. She can be found at her website or her blog, My Year Of Star Trek.

Book Synopsis for Silver Tongue: The Colonies lost the Revolutionary War. Now it's 1839 and the North American continent is divided into three territories: New Britannia, Nueva Espana, and Nouvelle France where seventeen-year-old Claire Poissant lives. Claire has a magical way with words-literally. But a mystical power of persuasion isn't the only thing that makes her different. Half-French and half-Indian, Claire doesn't feel at home in either world. Maybe that's why she's bonded so tightly with her fellow outcasts and best friends: Phileas, a young man whose towering intellect and sexuality have always made him the target of bullies, and Sam, a descendant of George Washington who shares the disgraced general's terrible, secret curse. But when Sam's family is murdered, these bonds are tested and Claire's special ability is strained to its limits as the three hunt the men responsible into dangerous lands. Along the way they cross paths with P.T. Barnum, William Frankenstein and other characters from both history and fantasy as they learn the hard way that man is often the most horrific monster and that growing up sometimes means learning to let go of the things you hold most dear.

Author Links:

website: http://www.ashleyrosesullivan.com

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ashleyrosesullivan

GoodReads page: https://www.goodreads.com/AshleyRose

Twitter: @MyYearOStarTrek

Print: http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Tongue-AshleyRose-Sullivan/dp/1941706800

Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Tongue-AshleyRose-Sullivan-ebook/dp/B00WFPRKVU

Barnes and Noble Link: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/silver-tongue-ashleyrose-sullivan/1121775443?ean=9781941706800