“It’s my favorite short story I’ve ever written: In A Pickle.”
“Can I listen to it and read along?”
“You bet. Here’s the link to the short story. It’ll open in a new tab. The dramatization is below. Be sure to be sitting down and don’t operate heavy machinery while you listen to it. Note that this short story and many others are in my book, Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse.
Now, what was he going to do? Brice Butterworth’s boss just told him to double the productivity of Vegan Inc.’s pickle strain they used for their Kilwowski Pickle brand. That was completely impossible.
But keeping his job required it. He was the low man on the genetic engineering totem pole at Vegan Inc., the last one hired and the first one to be fired if another recession hit.
Brice couldn’t think. He couldn’t face this. So he cruised the internet. “The origin of zombie turkeys? I didn’t know they’d found that. Hmm, a Midley Beacon exclusive, the foremost zombie news source,” he read out loud.
Which book do I have for you? None other than this one.
This story begins with a happy family story of zombies who start their own business sharing zombie blood. Diane Newby, My Undead Mother-in-law, is the natural leader. You can read a tiny snippet from late in the story here. (I promise: no spoilers)
My Undead Mother-in-law back cover, no blurb.
She gasped for air as she hauled herself up on the transom dock, and she tasted gulf water. Salt water! Her zombie bacteria were dying!
As soon as she stood up, two zombie ninjas charged her, one with a katana and one with a naginata. And she was weaponless.
The lead one called to someone behind her, “Get her!”
Glancing behind her, Diane saw the two woman bodyguards she’d thrown in the water were coming up behind her. They didn’t have weapons, so she turned her back on the two killer women in front of her and charged the two behind her, slowly, painfully.
‘The Death Doll’ by Brian White is post-zombie-apocalypse story, but oddly, the zombies aren’t the main antagonist. I’ll let you read and find out who is.
The first chapter irritated me because none of the characters seemed to be acting rationally. True, they were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, running for their lives, but still they were over the top. Or so I thought.
I’ve learned to have patience. Over the next few chapters, the author showed me each person’s point of view and their motivations and their irrationality made sense, after a while. Mr. White has given the reader some excellent characters–good, bad, and ugly ones.
If you’re a lover of zombie books, dystopian books, and action-adventure books, this next book is for you.
I received a copy of this book to review, but that did not affect my opinion of it.
Another My Undead Mother-in-law Excerpt for You
There they all ate four huge steak filets from the fridge. They didn’t bother cooking them. For the second course, they planned a whole chicken apiece. The four chickens roasted in the oven while they gobbled the steaks.
They finished clearing out the Newbys’ commercial-sized refrigerator. They each topped off all that protein with their food of choice: George ate a whole family-sized pizza, as did Don. By the time the pizza delivery arrived, they looked quite normal, for zombies.
Diane ate an entire cheesecake. And Maggie devoured a box of sugared flakes. They had never been so ravenous—and they had never been so close to death.
From My Undead Mother-in-law
You can find the excerpt here, along with a lot of other authors’ excerpts.
The latest excerpts on SciFi, Fantasy from SciFi Roundtable. I have another bit from 'My Undead Mother-in-law'.
Astounding Science Fiction was a SciFi magazine during the golden age of science fiction. These stories could have come from there, but they’re all genuine science stories.
Okay, this is science from 150 BC but it’s astounding and it’s like an alternate history scifi where mechanical technology from the 18th century is introduced to the 2nd century BC.
Too bad the tour is over. But lucky for you, all my audiobook excerpts are still available for listening right here. I think the links to all the additional excerpts in the blog posts all still work too. Be sure to leave a comment on these blogs. The authors love engagement, just like I do.
