Everyone Dies in the End #32

Housekeeping

Let's take a brief time out for some housekeeping before we head into the final third (half?) of Everyone Dies in the End. I apologize for the tardiness of this post. As I've I mentioned, I also own a board game company (Lock 'n Load Publishing) and my company just released/is in the process of releasing four products. It takes a bit of my time. But, that isn't all. We are also prepping for our primary winter convention, Prezcon, in Chancellorsville, VA this weekend. Not only does that entail lots of time spent coordinating three printers' efforts, but also assembling games (yes, we assemble some of the games in house), and shipping. We'll be out of pocket for five days, and we want to get as many games to our mail order customers as possible before we leave, so we are shipping a truckload of them. 

Last, but not least (at least not in my heart), my first World at War novel, Revelation, will arrive today (Yes, today!). My novels are a labor of love. I've authored 40-some books (or book-length tomes/user manuals/industry studies) for a variety of publishers, all non-fiction. Revelation is my second novel and will be published by my company, Lock 'n Load Publishing. So in essence, Revelation is self-published. Please understand that you aren't getting anything less than a top-notch product, written by a professional writer. As I explained, I have written over 40 traditionally published books, but I write fiction for the joy of writing. That doesn’t mean that I’m averse to making a buck, but rather that I want my stories to be read, not sit in an agent’s slush pile. So read it. We’ve made every attempt to eliminate mistakes, but if you find some please let me know.

Revelation will be available through both Lock 'n Load Publishing (first) and Mark H. Walker.com (a little later), as a downloadable PDF and a beautifully-covered (Guillaume really did a nice job on the cover) 5.5" x 8.5" trade paperback. The PDF is $5.00 and the trade paperback is $14.95. I think/hope both are competitively priced. To be honest, it is far and away the lowest profit margin on any Lock 'n Load Publishing product...ever. I spent about an hour perusing Barnes and Noble's book shelves before setting the price and $14.95 is the lowest price for an alt-history, science fiction, horror-type book of this size that I found. The point is simple...I want people to read it, not debate over the price.

You can't buy them today; the purchase page still isn't up. I'll post here when it is. It'll be soon. 

Now, back to a time that is sometime after the events described in Revelation. With four games, a Con, and Revelation off my desk, I hope to get back to three posts a week. Thanks for reading. It's all I ask. Well...that and a few more followers. 

 

Ramzke

      Ramzke was sleeping. Not that a vampire’s day rest was truly sleeping. It was more like a period of rejuvenating hibernation. When alone, the vampires frequently burrowed into the ground during the day. But Ramzke wasn’t alone, and Ramzke hadn’t buried himself in the ground. He hadn’t come south to hide, Vader had sent him to find the girl, and find the girl he would. Step one was to return to where he had lost her.
 
       Vader sent day keepers to watch over him as he slept. So Ramzke slept. His keepers first saw the cloud. Actually, of the three men with Ramzke only two saw it. The third was looking directly west, at Charlotte, which lay just over the horizon when the ManPot detonated. The dazzling white explosion immediately and irrevocably blinded him. He fell to the ground, screaming. 

        Of course the other two had seen the brilliance, as if the sun had passed out of clouds, but luckily for them, they weren’t looking directly at the detonation, they didn’t need to. They knew what it was. They also dropped to the ground, one crawling toward their screaming friend, the other counting Mississippis. Long ago his father had taught him that if you count the time between a flash of lightning and the peal of thunder, you can estimate the distance of the storm from you location. He counted fifty-five Mississippis, he guessed Charlotte, he guessed right. Above the distant town the mushroom rapidly rose.