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Your Twenty-Second Literary Gift of 25 Gifts

Micro-hippo

Your Twenty-Second Literary Gift of 25 Gifts to Christmas. Just in time for Christmas, you’ll enjoy this unique excerpt from my recent book, Zombie Detective. This is perhaps Sam Melvin’s oddest case as a zombie detective.

Let me know what you think by clicking here or emailing me at [email protected]. As always, everyone who responds with a comment or email will get a free book from me.

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Your Twenty-Second Literary Gift: From Zombie Detective

Your Twenty-Second Literary Gift
New Science Books
Andy Zach’s new scifi detective mystery.

 They sat in a nearby conference room. “How much do you know about Vegan Inc., Sam?”

“They’re a big ag firm that competes with Corn-All. They provide garden seeds for farmers and home gardeners. They sell a line of vegetables. That’s about it.”

“Right. I was recently tasked with a secret project to diversify into pig breeding.”

“OK. That’s a big leap.”

“Yes. It was high risk, high reward, so they threw it to me. I’m fresh from college and too dumb to know something is impossible.”

“So where do I come in?”

“Let me finish with the background. We wanted a fast-growing, healthy strain of pigs. I thought, Wouldn’t it be great if they grew as fast as zombie turkeys?

“Uh-oh.”

“Right. I created a pig modified with zombie turkey and hippo and mouse DNA.”

“What?” Sam’s stomach clenched.

“I won’t go into all my failures with other combinations. This one worked. I get pigs that grow from piglets to full grown in four weeks.”

“But what’s the catch?”

“They look like hippos. And they grow only to about one pound.”

“Sounds more like a failure than a success.”

“They do taste like pork. And they reproduce fast enough to make up for their lack of size. But―” Bryce stopped and sighed.

“Tell me the worst.”

“They escaped my lab. They’re infesting the whole building. People keep finding them in the toilets. It’s very upsetting.”

“Are they zombies?”

The Threat

Your Twenty-second literary gift
Micro-hippo
Micro-hippo

“No, I couldn’t get that to work with pigs, hippos, or mice.”

“Whew. That’s a load off my mind. Sounds like you need pest control.”

“Right. I couldn’t find any who would tackle it, so I called you.”

Sam rubbed his head. “I don’t know, Bryce.”

“You’re my last hope. If you don’t catch them all, I’m fired.”

“OK, I’ll give it a try. Just tell me one thing. Why is Vegan experimenting with pigs? Isn’t that against their image of a pure vegan, non-GMO food source?”

“Well, yes. That’s why the project was top secret. If I can get it to work, it’ll be a spin-off company, Perfect Pork.”

“All right. Let me take a look at the hippo-pigs, or whatever you call them.”

“Right now I’m calling them micro-hippos, but I’m sure the marketers will think of something more appealing.” Bryce stood. “Let’s go to the restroom.”

“You have to go?”

“No, that’s the quickest way to find them.”

They walked in. “Check every stall and toilet.”

Sam looked in the first toilet. A cute hippo looked at him and then disappeared down the drain with a swirl.

“I found one!”

“Good. Now let’s go to the cafeteria. That’s where they feed.”

“Yuck.”

“Right. That’s one more reason why we need you.”

Non-Standard Salad

Your Twenty-second Literary Gift
Your Thirteenth Literary Gift

Lunch hadn’t started, so there were just a few people scattered across the large cafeteria.

“First, we’ll go to the salad bar. Ah. They’ve been here. Don’t step in the hippo droppings.”

“How do they get up to the salad bar?”

“They climb as well as mice. Their feet are the least hippo-like. They’re more like rats or mice.” Bryce stirred the salad greens, then the fruit salad. Out popped two eyes peering above the strawberries, pineapple, and melon.


Your Twenty-Second Literary Gift Concludes

Your Twenty-Second Literary Gift
Kindle Publishing
Sam Melvin, Zombie Detective

What do you think of your latest gift? Let me know right here. Don’t forget I’ll give you a free book after I get your email.

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Your Twenty-First Literary Gift of 25 Gifts

Chapter 4 icon Advent Day 12

Your Twenty-First Literary Gift of 25 Gifts to Christmas. Just in time for Christmas, I have a zombie turkey apocalypse. This excerpt is from my first book, Zombie Turkeys. This excerpt is the first news conference after the plague breaks out.

Let me know what you think by clicking here or emailing me at [email protected]. As always, everyone who responds with a comment or email will get a free book from me.

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Your Twenty-First Literary Gift: From Zombie Turkeys

Your Twenty-First Literary
Chapter 4 icon
Chapter 4 icon

 

At the press conference, in the city council chamber, General Bagley motioned he would begin.

“At approximately seven p.m. last night, over a hundred thousand zombie turkeys attacked Joliet. They caused widespread death and destruction. The current number of victims is twelve hundred and seventy-three, with another eight hundred missing. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is assisting with recovery, notification of the next of kin, and finding lost people.” General Bagley spoke somberly to the assembled press.

“The first question to be answered is, how did the turkeys escape our military cordon? The turkeys boarded a string of barges in Hennepin and got off south of Joliet. From there, they went to Farm Fresh Turkey Farm, the largest turkey farm in Illinois, killed the workers there, and infected the seventy thousand turkeys.

“Simultaneously with this barge movement, a parallel attack of a flock of about two thousand zombie turkeys tried to escape the cordon by Spring Bay. They were eliminated by our troops. However, this simultaneous attack probably caused us to not detect the barge moving upstream.

“In response, we are suspending all barge traffic for the duration of this crisis. This zombie outbreak will not happen again,” the general asserted firmly.

“The next questions to be answered are, where are the turkeys now, and where will they attack next? Before I address this, let me reintroduce Dr. Edwin Galloway of the Poultry Research Institute in Northwestern University. Dr. Galloway.”

The Turkey Institute

Your Twenty-First Literary

“General Bagley invited me here today to share some of our latest findings on this turkey disease, which leads to the condition popularly called ‘zombie turkeys.’

“We’ve managed to induce zombiism in several varieties of turkey. We have also cured the disease in these turkeys, using salt water in various quantities and using various techniques: injection, mist, and bath.

“We have a small flock of zombie turkeys at the Poultry Institute and have tested exactly how much damage they can sustain and still revive. As we already know, chopping a turkey in half, or in smaller pieces, will defeat the regeneration process, as will burning them. However, merely burning their skin is not sufficient. Skin and feathers will grow back within hours, and both will be much tougher than normal—enough to stop buckshot smaller than 00. The turkey must be burnt until all the bacteria in it have been sterilized.

“Likewise, chopping off their heads, legs, wings, et cetera, will only cause them to regenerate much stronger than before. Most turkey farms cut off spurs and beaks to prevent damage to the turkeys. When the Farm Fresh turkeys were infected, the beaks and spurs grew back in the hour’s journey to Joliet. Even freshly killed turkeys in stores, that have not been frozen, when infected with the bacterium will revive within an hour, growing an entire set of organs. The armed forces are already going through the dead turkeys and chopping each carcass to ensure complete death and prevent resurrection.

The Most Important Fact

Your Twenty-First Literary
First Draft Complete
Zombie Turkeys fly to escape to Zombie Turkey hunters

“But the most important fact we have discovered is that after feeding, zombie turkeys go into a catatonic state for twenty-four to forty-eight hours. They burrow down in leaf mold or under bushes and twigs while they sleep off their meal. Their body temperature drops, and they are not detectable by infrared detectors. This explains the military’s difficulty in tracking them after these attacks. I now turn this conference back over to General Bagley.”

 “Let me first express my gratitude towards Dr. Galloway and his team at the Poultry Institute. These findings have given us the advantage over our turkey foes. They led directly to the victory at the battle of Spring Bay, and they have given us help in finding the turkeys after the Joliet disaster.

“We are currently tracking the turkeys to their catatonic nests using dogs. We expect to neutralize a majority of these zombie turkeys over the next forty-eight hours. Ladies and gentlemen of the press, the floor is now open to questions.”

The Press Questions

“Dr. Galloway, what are you doing to prevent future infections of turkeys, wild and domestic? I understand several organic, free-range turkey farms have become infected with zombiism, and all present were lost,” asked Jill Holcomb of ABC News.

“At present, the only means of prevention is to daily mist your turkeys with a five percent saline solution. We have not found an effective antibiotic yet. We have informed the Turkey Growers Association of Illinois of this approach,” Dr. Galloway said,

“General Bagley, at the last press conference, you said the zombie turkeys wouldn’t escape the cordon and had no strategy. Yet they did, and you said the two groups of turkeys moved in tandem, causing you to miss the larger group. Wasn’t that a strategy?” asked Ed Fitzgerald of the Wall Street Journal.

“No. We discussed the possibility of increased intelligence in the zombie turkeys with Dr. Galloway. He has tested them, and they are not smarter than normal turkeys. However, they do travel in cohesive flocks, larger than natural turkey flocks. We believe that when the turkeys got on the barges, there wasn’t enough room for them all, and the flock split. The two flocks still followed the general direction upriver toward the east. What looked like a strategy was just unfortunate happenstance.”


Your Twenty-First Literary Gift Concludes

Your Twenty-First Literary
Your Best May Videos
The back of Zombie Turkeys

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Your Twentieth Literary Gift of 25 Gifts

Gospel Medley Writer's Block: My Experience

Your Twentieth Literary Gift of 25 Gifts to Christmas. Just in time for Christmas, I have a Christmas story! This excerpt is from my non-fiction work, The Gospel Medley. In it, I’ve placed every word of the four gospels in chronological order. That includes this story.

Let me know what you think by clicking here or emailing me at [email protected]. As always, everyone who responds with a comment or email will get a free book from me.

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Your Twentieth Literary Gift: From The Gospel Medley

 

The Visit of the Wise Men

Your Twentieth Literary Gift
Gospel Medley Writer's Block: My Experience
The Gospel Medley cover. Click to get


Matthew 2:1–12
1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, 2 “Where is He who is born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east, and have come to worship Him.”

3 When King Herod heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he asked them where the Christ would be born.

5 They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is written through the prophet,


6 ‘You Bethlehem, land of Judah, are in no way least among the
princes of Judah: for out of you shall come a governor, who shall
shepherd My people, Israel.’”

From Micah 5:2

King Herod’s Order to the Wise Men

Your Twentieth Literary Gift


7 Then Herod secretly called the wise men, and learned from them exactly what time the star appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem, and said, “Go and search diligently for the young child. When you have found Him, bring me word, so that I also may come and worship Him.”


9 They, having heard the king, went their way; and behold, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, until it came and stood over where the young child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.

11 They came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, His mother and they fell down and worshiped Him. Opening their treasures, they offered to Him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

12 Being warned in a dream that they shouldn’t return to Herod, they went back to their own country another way.


Your Twentieth Literary Gift Concludes

Your Twentieth Literary Gift

What do you think of your latest gift? Let me know right here. Don’t forget I’ll give you a free book after I get your email.

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