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Who Is Author Andy Zach?

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Who Is Author Andy Zach? I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced.

Who Is Author Andy Zach

Once upon a time, I was born. Then I graduated from college and became a programmer. Then I was a project leader. Eventually I became a 6 Sigma Black Belt. Then I retired and became an author.

That’s when the fun began! I’d always wanted to be an author. For my first book, I wanted to write something easy and fun. As I pondered my subject, I fried a turkey. I brought in the golden brown turkey and said, “What if this turkey came alive on our table?”

“Then it’d be a zombie turkey!” said one of my family. (One wife, two daughters, and a son and daughter-in-law.)

“That’s the name of my book! Zombie Turkeys!” I immediately conceived of the whole silly book as a parody of the zombie genre. I considered it overdone in 2015, and ripe for parody.

So I wrote Zombie Turkeys first.

Who Is Author Andy Zach? – Part 2

Imagine my delight when I got this review:

Alara

5.0 out of 5 stars 

This one is definitely NOT a turkey!

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2017

‘He felt great. He was full of energy, he had many hens to breed with, and he was the leader of a great flock.’

Sam Melvin is a reporter with the Midley Beacon, it’s a tiny local paper – with an online presence – run by its penny-pinching editor Lisa Kambacher. When Sam sees the two turkey hunters on the slab in the local mortuary, he knows he has a story to cover and he sets out to do so with great gusto. As the zombie turkeys multiply, Sam and Lisa are the leading media team on the ground and the Midley Beacon goes international, solving their financial woes and syndicating their work across the globe. But it’s not all good news. After all, there are those people-killing zombie turkeys heading into town…

This was a book I picked up with trepidation as it seemed all too possible it would be a ‘one trick pony’ stretching a single joke to beyond breaking point across the length of an entire novel. Wrong! It is like a bowl of potpourri on the sideboard of life – lots of subtle blending examples of humour – many of them very American so I suspect there were even more than I noticed, handicapped by my British perspective. 

Who Is Author Andy Zach? – Part 3

My Undead Mother-in-law back cover
My Undead Mother-in-law back cover
Who Is Author Andy Zach

Naturally I had to write another book. My zombie turkeys were lonely! How could I top a zombie turkeys apocalypse? Make zombie humans! And make them the heroes of the book–unkillable, regenerating, super strong humans. And make them a middle aged couple.

So that led to my third book. I took the same superhero zombie faily, gave them a letter of marquis from the President, and sent them around the world as US privateers, taking on tasks too sensitive for direct military involvement.

Who is Author Andy Zach? – An Overview of His Books

You’ve never seen them like this! Behold! My sales page.

Tremble, Amazon.

Now Amazon also has my books but they will never compare their prices with mine.

But I will.

Life After Life Chronicles: Zombie Turkeys, Zombie Detective, My Undead Mother-in-law, and Oops! are all $12, autographed by me, from my website. Amazon is 12.95 for all those. Paranormal Privateers is $15 from my site, $15.95 on Amazon.

My other series is Secret Supers, Villain’s Vacation, and Secret Supers in Space. Those are all $7 on my website and $7.95 from Amazon. This series is about four seventh graders with four different disabilities and four different superpowers–who fight crime.

“But wait, Andy!” you say. “Amazon gives me free shipping!”

“So do I. Checkmate.”

I have two more books for you, I’ll tell you about at the end of this post.

Meet My Books – The Life After Life Chronicles

I was going to write some clever blurb for each book in the series, but I decided to let you read a review from a reader for each one.

Zombie Turkeys

  • Overall    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story    5 out of 5 stars

“I feel great” about this amazing book

Zombie Turkeys Reviews
Chapter 2 Icon

It is amazing that such a funny title and a random premise could make such an enjoyable experience. This story was fantastic. Certainly the narrator made the story come alive, but I can’t say how many times I “laughed out loud” while reading this book. Only one other book in my life ever made me feel this way. I enjoyed this story. It is a zombie-apocalypse book with political thriller feel as well as a home-town romance subplot. I would give it 10 stars if I could. Read it (listen!) and laugh. And learn how to be prepared for that zombie turkey apocalypse.

Meet My BooksZombie Detective

Your Thirteenth Literary Gift
Meet My Books
  • Overall    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story    5 out of 5 stars

Listener received this title free

Not a typical zombie story!

Based on the title and the cover, I originally thought the detective was going to be a zombie back in the 30s or 40s. That wasn’t the case, but it was still a hilarious amateur detective story and I loved the absurdity of it all.

It’s a short read (or listen, since I listened to the audiobook), but is packed with Sam in crazy situations with all sorts of zombies. His string of good luck is as unlikely as the conundrums he finds himself involved in, but somehow it works for him.

Phil Blechman was the perfect choice for Sam’s character. Lauren Testerman did a great job channeling Lisa, the poor woman who has to manage Sam and all his antics.

Meet My BooksMy Undead Mother-in-law

Best August Videos
Meet My Books
Zombie corgi in Scotland from ‘My Undead Mother-in-law’
  • Overall    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story    5 out of 5 stars

Listener received this title free

One of the most funny books about zombies

One of the most funny books about zombies, where the zombies are not the monster or the bad guy, actually being zombified, cures all sorts of health problems, from being overweight to the death doors, and you feel much more energetic and strong.

And what can I say that wont give spoilers, but it will explain in details what I did enjoy about this audiobook, both voice actors, you had a male and a female, they seemed to enjoy themselves while they were reading it, so it was so much more fun, it was also very nice the way they interact with the other, great fun, the story was also fun, and with lots of action and violence, but in a way that you will find yourself laughing out loud while listening to the violence, yeah the first dinner in the parents-in-law in the first few minutes of the book set what I was sure I would find during the book and it didn’t disappoint.

Meet My Books- Paranormal Privateers

Paranormal Privateers Chapter 9 icon
Meet My Books
Flying Saucer over Washington DC – Paranormal Privateers Chapter 9 icon
  • Overall    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story    5 out of 5 stars

Listener received this title free

I love Andy Zach’s Audiobooks.

First off, I want to apologize to Mr Andy for not Reviewing these books at a lot earlier time.
Again I can’t say anything but how much I have enjoyed the three books in this Series. The performance by Phil Blechman was great. I especially loved the voice of the Alien, and the Villains. Y’all just have to check out this Series, you won’t be disappointed. Thanks again Mr Andy Zach.

Meet My Books – Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse

Meet My Books
Who is Author Andy Zach?
  • Overall    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story    5 out of 5 stars

Listener received this title free

Great intro to the author’s works

This is a great book to start with if you haven’t tried any Andy Zach book before. It contains stories from both his Life After Life zombie comedy series and his superhero story Super Secrets. It also shows you Zach’s sense of humor (plus there’s one little horror story that isn’t overly gruesome). This book is great for both kids and adults and works just fine on it’s own.

I loved the silly story of the flying zombie cucumbers. Ha! Very fanciful. And they have migratory routes, like butterflies! Very silly and had me chuckling. I also loved the story with the hamster (who does play a role in Secret Supers). Perhaps rodents will truly save the world some day.

The stories also help fill in some of the blanks of the zombie comedy series, including one about Diane (the beloved zombie mother-in-law). But what I really liked was the stuff about genetic engineering and the aliens. Book 3 of the Life After Life Chronicles had a lot of stuff tossed into the story and some of these short stories really help fill those parts out.

No time life for the Secret Supers! I’ll cover those in another post.

Who is Author Andy Zach? – My First Non-Fiction Book

It’s hard to believe, but I wrote a non-fiction book. It took me forty years to write. But it was worth it.

I use a different author name for my non-fiction. No sense in getting people confused.

Gospel Medley Writer's Block: My Experience
Who is Author Andy Zach?
The Gospel Medley cover. Click to get

Are you curious about Jesus Christ? Do you struggle to understand the Bible? The Gospel Medley includes the four Gospels in a single narrative, faithfully pulling the text from the World English Bible. You are now able to read all the gospel as a single, easy-to-read story.

Each Gospel describes Jesus’s life from a different point of view with different details and insights. The Gospel Medley combines every word into a single perspective with all details and events arranged chronologically.

Unlike other harmonies, The Gospel Medley doesn’t put the four gospels in columns or rows. Instead, the text is integrated word by word into a smoothly flowing narrative. Further, each paragraph references the four gospels so you can read the original citations. You also get footnotes of all the quotes from the Old Testament, giving you the context of Jesus’s words.

For a unique perspective of the four gospels, read ‘The Gospel Medley’ today.

Your Twenty-Fourth Literary Gift
Who is Author Andy Zach?
The four icons of the four gospels

Who is Author Andy Zach? – My Second Non-Fiction Book

Who Is Author Andy Zach?

Grab a copy by clicking here. Or get it on Amazon here.

Who is Author Andy Zach? – Some Free Audiobooks

Any newsletter subscriber gets free audiobook codes–as long as they last. Click here to get yours. Don’t wait!

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Best February Reviews from Readers!

What Do Readers Think

Best February Reviews from Readers! What’s going on in the book world this February? Who has reviewed what? Which books stand out from the rest? Let me share with you the best reviews of some great books.

Best February Reviews: Here is Your First Review

A Pub In the Underworld cover
Best February Reviews

Andy Zach

Author 10 books, 94 followers

February 17, 2024

I’ve read a lot of Harmon Cooper and this is the coziest book he’s ever written. Here we have a hardened soldier, Sylus Runewolf, dying as he fought his country’s enemies in a battle. After his death he wakes up in the underworld. What’s more, he has a deed to a pub.

Some of Sylus’ favorite memories are from his boyhood where he helped in his father’s pub, so he’s eager to get the pub up and going. It’s quite the fixer-upper. But he gets a pub cat, Patches, who’s magical and helps him protect the pub from rats–and demons.

The pub is in Ember Hollow which is hard by the Chasm, the hell that is below the underworld. Sometimes demons slip in. Overhead are are Celestial Plains, or heaven, glowing in the sky.

This book is a delight for brewers, fantasy lovers, and RPG lit readers!

Best February Reviews: Your Second Review

Secret Supers audiobook cover
Best February Reviews
Secret Supers audiobook

Kat M

3,211 reviews

19 followers

February 25, 2024

This was a fun concept in the super-hero genre, it had everything that I was looking for in this type of book. The characters were interesting and had a great overall feel to this world. I enjoyed what I read and can’t wait for the sequel. Andy Zach has a great writing style and I’m glad I got to read this.

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Best February Reviews: Your Third Review

Best February Reviews

Andy Zach

Author 10 books, 94 followers

February 27, 2024

I just re-read this novel after 20 years from my first read. I loved my initial read and I kept remembering inspirational sections of the book, so I had to re-read it.

Ben Fielding, a successful VP with a keen interest in China, leads his company investments there in the 1990s. To promote their Chinese division, Ben decides to spend a couple weeks living with a Chinese family. He decides to contact his old Harvard roommate, Li Quan, who went back to China after graduating with honors.

Ben has mixed emotions about his old friend. They were very close at Harvard, but fell out of touch while Ben got married, had kids, and got divorced. There’s also the awkward fact Ben introduced Quan to Christianity, which Ben no longer practices.

So with mixed emotions Ben drives to meet his old friend, three hours away from Shanghai.

That’s when the novel really begins. Li Quan is the backup pastor for an illegal Chinese house church and is under suspicion by the government. Ben is clueless about Christianity in China. It’s a major threat to the Communist government which persecutes it severely. Ben is forceed to decide between his old friend and his company, which needs the favor of the Chinese government.

The novel holds up well 20 years later. China has become more repressive toward Christianity and Christianity has grown beyond a hundred million people.

Best February Reviews: Your Last Review

What is Villain’s Vacation All About?

Four disabled seventh-graders with superpowers take a vacation at Coaster World. They need a break from fighting criminals. Ever since the beginning of the school year when they acquired their unusual abilities, they’ve been training and using those powers to fight crime in their town.

Little do they know the arch-villain they recently defeated also loves coasters and is vacationing at Coaster World. Worse, the villain wants revenge. Nothing less than turning these teens to a life of crime will satisfy.

Can Jeremy, Dan, Kayla, and Aubrey withstand the villain’s attacks? Or will they become Super Villains?

Click for your Villain’s Vacation autographed copy

Get your free audiobook here!

What Do YOU Think? But First, Your Free Book

I wasn’t kidding. You can really get this book for free. I give it to all my newsletter subscribers right here: click to get your audiobook.

What’s the catch? I only have limited supplies of free codes. When they’re gone, they’re gone.

So, tell me what you think! Leave a review of my books and I’ll publish it on my blog. On Amazon, post them starting here.

On Goodreads, post your review starting here.

Pop hit from American Idol by Maddie Poppe: Going, Going, Gone.

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Andy Zach Gets Interviewed and Reviewed – and vice versa

Review of Andy Zach's book Oops

Andy Zach Gets Interviewed–by whom? About what? Where? You’ll find your answers here.

Who Interviews Andy?

You may think you know me–but do you really? Dr. Wesley Britton gets to the bottom of my mysterious persona. This is the same guy I interviewed and who reviewed my book Oops!.

Andy Zach Gets Interviewed
Dr. Wesley Britton reviews Oops! by Andy Zach

Where’s this interview of Andy?

Right here, right now! It was only published in Wes Britton’s newsletter. (Subscribe to Wes’s newsletter here) (Subscribe to mine here.) I got permission to post it on my blog. So you’re special!

ANDY ZACH GETS A GRILLING!


As I’ve read four of your books now, that means I’ve read your comic author autobiography multiple times. And of course, I know it’s completely fictitious.
 
1. So–tell us, Andy, what’s the real poop? Who are you when not presenting your humorous personae?
 I delegate all my legal and financial issues to the real person and my CFO, Jeff Smith. He’s got an MBA, so he likes all the financial stuff.  For some reason, suppliers don’t like pseudonyms and fictitious personae. Isn’t that a violation of my Constitutional rights?

Sadly, his real life isn’t as interesting as my fictitious one. He had a career as a programmer, systems analyst, project manager, and 6 Sigma Black Belt before he retired to be my CFO.

 And unlike me, he has three children, a wife, and a dog, instead of five phoenixes. But I like him anyway. Not everyone can be a comic paranormal animal author. Or a disabled superhero author.

Andy Zach Gets Interviewed – Question 2

2. Your  “life After Life” series is extremely imaginative, to put it mildly.  Tell us something about your writing process, how do you start out with each concept, what sorts of goals do you have for your stories?

Your 10 Best Science Updates
Click to get Zombie Turkeys.

Zombie Turkeys began with a fried turkey. “What if this turkey came back to life?” I asked as I set it on the table. “It’d be a zombie turkey!” someone said. “That’s the title of my new book, ‘Zombie Turkeys’!” I cried, eureka-ly. (neologism) From there, I worked out ‘Zombie Turkeys’ as a parody of the zombie genre, complete with a boring anti-hero, Sam Melvin.

Hello Books My Undead Mother-in-law
My Undead Mother-in-law cover. Click to get yours.

Naturally, I had to top that with my next book, so I introduced zombiism to people in ‘My Undead Mother-in-law’. Here I examined the social aspects of having zombie in-laws and what kind of civil rights zombies would have and how they’d be treated. I had to turn every zombie trope on its head, so I made the zombies the heroes of the book.

Long answer continues . . .

Andy Zach Gets Interviewed
Cover image. Click to get yours.

Still trying to outdo myself, in ‘Paranormal Privateers’ I put my zombie family on a superyacht and gave them a letter of Marque from the President to fight all enemies, foreign and domestic. Then, when I was running out of adequate villains in the world, I added an alien invasion.

Finally, I decided to try my hand at short stories. Having only written one short story, I made a collection. I took all my left-over ideas (I record each one in my book notes), brainstormed more, and created about 24 story ideas.  Some seemed to write themselves. Others were more of a struggle. So I drafted Jeff Smith’s two daughters, Olivia and Tori, to contribute two of their short stories. With that, I had 14 stories, which sufficed. Since many of the stories were based upon accidents, I chose the title Oops! It’s set in my Zombie Turkey universe.

Andy Zach Gets Interviewed – Question 3

3. Since you enjoy playing with comic approaches to your stories, who are your influences in humor? Favorite comics, movies, TV shows, books?
Let’s begin with Terry Prattchett of Disk World fame, may he rest in peace. I’ve read all his books and especially liked ‘Going Postal’ and ‘The Color of Magic’. 

 For my zombie influence, I read John Ringo’s Dark Tide Rising series. I also like Eric Flint’s 1632 series with the juxtaposition of technologies in history.

Science fiction influences were Heinlein, Asimov, and Silverman. Fantasy influences were Tolkein, CS Lewis, and Patricia McKillip.

Favorite comics were Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, and The Flash in my childhood. I gave up on comics at 12 when I realized they violated laws of physics and the superhero’s powers were not internally consistent.

TV shows influencing me were Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Time Tunnel, Lost in Space, Star Trek. Movies were Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Star Trek and Star Wars movies.

Andy Zach Gets Interviewed – Question 4


 4.  As a blind writer, I was especially interested to see your use of disabilities in your “Secret Supers” characters.   How did that come about?  What is your background with folks with physical disabilities?

My daughter Tori has had cerebral palsy since her premature birth, so I was familiar with that. In my church in Cleveland, I was friends with four different blind men. I roomed with two of them in hotels, so I got a feel for what that was like. 

Along the way, I’ve become friends with various wheelchair and walker bound people who were amputees and afflicted by spinal meningitis. Knowing the problems my daughter faced, I imagined what the others would face as kids in a special ed class.

Andy Zach Gets Interviewed – Question 5

5. In your Oops short story collection,   you credit a batch of folks as co-authors. And you included “The Story of Sound” written by Olivia Smith even though it had nothing to do with “Life After Life” or “Secret Supers.” Why? What was all that about?
First, I really liked her story. It was light and humorous and unexpected. It seemed to be outside my universe, but who can say? Without any strain, I can imagine her fantasy universe as the precursor to our universe, accessible only by Tori Smith’s time-traveling wheelchair.

Then there’s the fact she’s my daughter. Tori is too. That’s in their favor.

Finally, I like surprising my readers. I don’t want them settled into knowing what to expect.

New Review of My 2nd Book in My 2nd Series

You do know I have a second books series about four disabled 7th-graders who get superpowers, right? Feast your eyes upon the latest review of my latest book.

Villain's Vacation cover
Villain’s Vacation cover Click for your copy.

And the free book follows the review.

When you look at my rating for Andy Zach’s Secret Supers Two: Villain’s Vacation, please keep in mind I’m not twelve. The Secret Supers series is definitely for school-age children.

If I had to describe Mr. Zach’s book it would be Adam West’s Batman meets The P.J. Masks. There is nothing wrong with this mash-up. It is a fun and quick read for a grizzled old bookworm like myself. 

The hook that caught my attention was that these superheroes are disabled. The leader, Jeremy has cerebral palsy and is wheelchair-bound. Dan is blind, Kayla is mute because of her complications with meningitis, and Aubrey has two prosthetic legs. Each hero has a superpower to compliment the disability that allows them to have a sense of independence. 

Click here to read more of the review.

B.W. Harold

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