As promised, and in no particular order, are some of the books I’ve read and reread. All of these have inspired me in one way or another.

Dracula                                                           Bram Stoker

The Hound of the Baskervilles                      Arthur Conan Doyle

A Princess of Mars/Tarzan of the Apes         Edgar Rice Burroughs

Hunchback of Notre Dame                            Victor Hugo

Interpretation of Dreams                                Sigmund Freud          

The Big Sleep                                                 Raymond Chandler

The Martian Chronicles                                 Ray Bradbury

Psycho                                                            Robert Bloch

The Lord of the Rings                                    J.R.R. Tolkien

The Grapes of Wrath/Cannery Row              John Steinbeck

For Whom the Bell Tolls                               Ernest Hemingway

Nineteen Eight-Four                                      George Orwell

Frankenstein                                                  Mary Shelly

Slaughterhouse-Five                                      Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 

In Cold Blood                                                Truman Capote

Atlas Shrugged                                              Ayn Rand

Flowers for Algernon                                    Daniel Keyes

The Godfather                                               Mario Puzo

 Lolita                                                            Vladimir Nabokov

Catch-22                                                        Joseph Heller

The Road                                                       Cormac McCarthy

The Call of the Wild                                      Jack London

Jurassic Park                                                  Michael Crichton

Trainspotting                                                  Irvine Welsh

What are some of your favorite books?

Some of my favorite films

Here’s a short list of few movies that have entertained and inspired me over the years (the complete list would be huge). If you want to add some of your favorites to my list, hit the comments. I’ll add books and music, soon.

Alien, Psycho, King Kong the original, Pulp Fiction, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Casablanca, The Godfather, Goodfellas, Lawrence of Arabia, Star Wars: A New Hope, Silence of the Lambs, Dr. Strangelove, The Pink Panther, Some Like It Hot, Lord of the Rings, Unforgiven, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Fargo, North by Northwest.

What I would do in a zombie Apocalypse?

I've thought a lot about the looming zombie apocalypse. Really. When half-rotten (or in some cases, fully rotten) corpses reanimate and feast on the living, what the hell would I do? How would I defend our home? More importantly, how would I defend my family?

I've recently concluded a very thorough analysis of my current planning, and it seems my defensive strategies aren't very good. To be a little more precise, they stink on ice.

So I decided that I needed advice. Then it dawned on me. Who would know more about killing zombies than screenwriters? With that in mind, I popped some popcorn and downloaded several of the best zombie movies of all time.

Sadly, the results were not very encouraging.

SPOILER ALERT – If you haven't seen these movies I sort of give away the endings.

I could stay and defend my family like in Night of the Living Dead (1968) – Unfortunately, the movie ends with photos of the hero being dumped on a pile of burning bodies.

Okay, maybe holing up in a shopping mall would work. After all, it was more or less successful in Dawn of the Dead (2004). At least for a while. And it all worked out in the end by sailing to a remote, uncorrupted island. Right? Wrong. Instead, you get bitten, and you have to kill yourself while your friends sail away to uncorrupted island. Except . . . not. They run out of food and land on an island swarming with—zombies. Crap.

How about flying to another continent? One that's zombie free? In 28 weeks later (2007) our heroes fly across the English Channel to France only to find zombies pouring out of the Paris Métro.

In Zombieland (2009) (full disclosure, one of my favorite movies) their great idea is going to an amusement park in California where they believe there are no zombies. Except when our heroes get there, the place is not only loaded with zombies, there's a zombie clown. A ZOMBIE CLOWN!! What the hell???

There are more movies. Many more. But it seems that in each, no matter what you do, you're going to die.

My conclusion, based on this exhaustive research, is that when the zombie apocalypse comes, we're all thoroughly and completely screwed.

The Book Quarry: H.L. LeRoy's Pooled Blood ☆Review☆

The Book Quarry: H.L. LeRoy's Pooled Blood ☆Review☆:     Pooled Blood Series: A LT. Jack Daniels/Jillian Varela Mystery  ( A loosely tied together series. But any of the stories ...

Dante Eternal's Virtual Bookshelf: One Eight Seven by: H.L. LeRoy w/ Review

Dante Eternal's Virtual Bookshelf: One Eight Seven by: H.L. LeRoy w/ Review: Title: One Eight Seven Author: H.L. LeRoy Series: A LT. Jack Daniels/Jillian Varela Mystery ( A loosely tied together series. But...

Waceland - a review

WACELAND

Coyote, a teenage girl in a post-apocalyptic landscape, must save her little sister by crossing a desert to reach the fabled town of Midian, all while being hunted by a pack of bloodthirsty mercenaries and outlaws.

But is Midian harbouring even darker secrets than the moonlit dunes of the Akchain Territory? Through her barbaric journey, Coyote must find the strength within to keep her humanity without losing her life.

It's violent. It's mad. It's Waceland.

-Blurb from Amazon.com

 

Review:

Coyote Singh has a knack. In the post-apocalyptic ruins of Waceland, she can find the artifacts and weapons that bring a little money and a certain measure of respect. All that's fine, but her mind is focused on getting out of Bone Town and to the mythical city of Midian where they might be able to heal her dying sister, Anika.

That is, if Midian exists.

But Coyote Singh has a knack and with it, she'd find the city or die trying.

Waceland is a tightly written, imaginative novel with well-developed characters and a story that hums along at high speed. Better yet, the world Ashlock has created draws you in with a gritty reality that you don't often find in sci-fi books.

A terrific story! Don’t miss!

http://www.amazon.com/Waceland-Brad-Ashlock-ebook/dp/B00TQUXXL8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426866103&sr=8-1&keywords=waceland

When the opportunity to write in Jack Daniels’ world presented itself, I jumped at the chance. Since my other works are in the mystery/thriller/action/adventure genres and tell the stories of strong female protagonists confronting impossible situations, I knew it was a perfect fit.

I decided that to begin with I would write three novellas, To that end, I have published the first two (ONE EIGHT SEVEN, REMEMBER THE DEAD) through Amazon’s Kindle World’s platform, and the third, POOLED BLOOD, should be ready in the next few weeks. These are licensed tie-ins with J. A. Konrath’s serial killer hunter par excellence, Lieutenant Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels, and I hope people enjoy reading these as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Although loosely tied together, the stories are stand-alone reads and fit into the 2005-2006 timeframe. Longtime fans as well as first time readers will be able to drop right in and not miss a beat.

ONE EIGHT SEVEN

Lieutenant Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels’ mom doesn’t just enjoy guilt trips she buys your ticket, packs your bag, and stamps your passport. Now she has Jack reluctantly heading to San Francisco in an effort to solve the murder of a drag queen superstar.

Teamed up with a tough-as-nails local P.I., Jillian Varela, Jack figures it will be an easy case. But what her mom didn’t tell her was that she would be helping a Mafia don with a long list of enemies.

As the bodies begin to stack up, it becomes obvious that Mom’s “simple job” has turned into something both dangerous and deadly.

REMEMBER THE DEAD

In the world of serial killer hunters, Lieutenant Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels is a legend and well known in every cop shop in America. But when one gruesomely posed body after another are discovered in the middle of Chicago, ambitious politicians and an aggressive press are threatening to derail Jack’s investigation.

And with her partner Herb on an extended second honeymoon in Mexico, it doesn’t look like help is on the horizon.

Then a friend from California, P.I. Jillian Varela, shows up on a job that parallels Jack’s case. Together they pursue the killer into a nightmare world of obsession, torture, and murder where no one may survive.

Joe’s Jack Daniels franchise is sharp, witty, suspenseful, and scary, and I’m privileged to be able to write in her world. She’s a once in a lifetime character. If you have a Jack Daniels story you’ve been dying to write, check out Joe’s Kindle Worlds page. It couldn’t be easier.

REMEMBER THE DEAD

http://www.amazon.com/Jack-Daniels-Associates-Remember-Novella-ebook/dp/B00U7TTMYE/ref=sr_1_25?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1425476607&sr=1-25

 

ONE EIGHT SEVEN

http://www.amazon.com/Jack-Daniels-Associates-Kindle-Novella-ebook/dp/B00U7TWEGM/ref=sr_1_22?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1425476486&sr=1-22