A Favor to ask on behalf of wounded vets and zombie lovers

Dear friends,

My fundraiser story, “Shambling in a Winter Wonderland” has raised $178 so far for Operation Homefront, but has stalled again.  Would you give me a belated Christmas present?  If you have friends or fans who enjoy zombies, humor, horror (of the Zombieland variety) or helping charities or wounded vets, would you please copy the message below and share it with your social networks? The last line is 136 characters and can be used as a tweet.

Zombies on skis?  That’s worth a read—and a chance to help a wounded soldier’s family.  My friend, Karina Fabian, is publishing her humorous zombie novella, “Shambling in a Winter Wonderland” at http://skizombies.karinafabian.com  Neeta and Ted are zombie exterminators trying to take a vacation on the slopes of Utah, but when a ski/snowboard team comes back from the dead, they get hired to  put them back under.  There’s excitement, humor, romance, and shredding with the undead!

This is more than a fun story, however;  Karina is using it to raise funds for Operation Homefront, which provides emergency financial aid to wounded members of the armed forces and to their families.   The story is free, but Karina has a donate button on the website.  Enjoy the story and if you would like to help out, donate as little as a dollar.  For every $10 in donations she gets, she’ll post the next episode (or if she gets $500 total, she’ll post it all.)  She is also offering books for bigger donations.  However, EVERYCENT GOES TO OPERATION HOMEFRONT.    

Tweet:  If you enjoy zombies, skiing, funny horror, or helping others, visit http://skizombies.karinafabian.com , check out the story  & donate.

Shambling in a Winter Wonderland

Coming Nov. 19, my next serial fundraiser story! 

Cover Art by Frr Mallory.  Story at http://skizombies.karinafabian.com

Zombie exterminators Neeta and Ted head to the slopes for a much-deserved break, but when a ski team that died in an avalanche dig themselves out of their snowy graves to finish the competition, it looks like a working vacation after all. 

"Shambling in a Winter Wonderland" will raise money for Operation Homefront. Operation Homefront provides emergency financial and other assistance to the families of our service members and wounded warriors.

Through generous, widespread public support and a collaborative team of exceptional staff and volunteers, we aspire to become the provider of choice for emergency financial and other assistance to the families of our service members and wounded warriors. Where there is a need we do not provide, we will partner with others for the benefit of our military families. 

Once again, I'm asking for donations.  You can donate as little as a dollar.  Every ten dollars aggregate will get the next episode put up.  (I anticipate 19 episodes, based on the lines of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland.") $25 or more will get you a choice of the Neeta Lyffe books, and $45 or more will get you both books.

Regardless of whether you donate or not, you are welcome to read along at http://skizombies.karianfabian.com

My Novel's Journey: Cart Before the Horse

I thought in May, when I took my six-week break for graduation and vacation, that I'd be reveling in normalcy by now, but "normal" (by which I mean a slower but still regular pace similar to what I'd enjoyed earlier this year) continues to elude me.

Case in point:  "Shambling in a Winter Wonderland."  You'd think this would be a simple matter of writing an episode a day, then editing, then putting together the website.  Somehow, though, things got mixed up.

First, I decided to play with Photoshop Elements to see if I want it for Christmas (or if I want the more expensive and powerful CS6.)  I'm not good at purposeless dorking around, so I made a cover for "Coyote Fires" which I am pretty pleased about.  Then a friend suggested this article about covers, so I tweaked it.

Thus emboldened, I decided to try my hand at a cover for "Shambling in a Winter Wonderland."  (Remember, I tend to get into obsessions, so writing has fallen aside while I play on Photoshop.)  I could not find any free photos of zombies, so I messed with silhouettes and tried to color them like skiers.  As you can see, the results were less than impressive, although I thought the font was fun.

Well, I posted it, and immediately, Frr Mallory said, "Yuck!" and offered to make me a cover for free.  Look how awesome--the difference between know-how and access to good graphics.

So all of this talk about the story has meant that I needed a website to refer folks to, even if it's just a stand-in until I post the first episode.  Rob and I came up with skizombies, which isn't the title but is catchier.  Today, I made the subdomain, http://skizombies.karinafabian.com, and designed the website, the home page of which is posted.

So, cover art, website, promotion...and no story?  Well, three episodes are written of an expected 19, and the others are planned out in very general terms.  What I need to do this week is apply BICHOK* and write them.

In other writing news, I finally found out that Discovery was rejected by Ignatius.  Somehow, the rejection letter had gotten lost in the mail.  The timing is good, though, since Harper Voyager is taking unagented submissions in October, so I'll start with them.  It's also with an agent, but I've not heard back from her yet, either.  I talked with the slush reader at BAEN about The Old Man and the Void, and it's made it to #2 in his to-read pile, which he says might not mean much as the publisher keeps handing him stuff to read first.  

So more waiting, but the best thing to do while waiting is write.

*BICHOK: Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard.