'Life After: The Arising'

[BryanWay]

In a scientific and spiritual sense, humanity has its world ordered, but that order slowly descends into chaos when something defies the tenets of both, leaving the events of human history divided into life before and life after the bodies of the dead began to reanimate... That was the opening of the query letter for my book before I decided to self-publish, and now a labor of love for the past decade will be released in print and e-book in the Summer of 2013: Life After: The Arising For those of you who are interested, I've been writing short fiction here at Homepage of the Dead since 2000 and I never would have completed this novel without the site, or without the guiding hand of our webmaster. I've submitted a few short stories connected to the world of this novel on the HPOTD fiction section and there are more to come, all of which easily traceable via the 'Life After' prefix. The link in the large title above this paragraph leads to the Facebook page, which features regular updates with pictures, polls, writing snippets, interviews, and various chaff from the world of the story as well as a timeline of events leading up the novel's publication, starting with the birth of my interest in the undead back in 1998. I will be sure to provide updates regularly here as well, including the release date and where to buy it. Naturally I wouldn't be posting if I didn't want to encourage discussion, so any questions/comments/concerns/criticisms can be directed here and I'll do my best to answer every one! Here's the expanded synopsis: 19-year-old film student Jeff Grey returns home from college for the weekend only to find himself confronted with something he'd only seen in movies and read about in books: Zombies. Despite lungs beset by asthma and a total lack of survival skills, his lifelong fantasy of living through such an apocalypse helps him organize a small group of acquaintances, but with the town effectively quarantined and no help on the way, Jeff and the rest of the survivors will have to grow up fast if they want to see a life after the arising... And a brief interview with yours truly: Ardmore Video Clerk Publishes Zombie Novel by Tom Sunnergren

[AcesandEights]

Moved to fiction section.

[BryanWay]

I recently took part in a photo shoot to enhance my publicity while living out a life-long dream of getting to play a zombie. Without further ado... Attachment 1247Attachment 1248Attachment 1250

[BryanWay]

And some more... Attachment 1252Attachment 1253Attachment 1254 Good pictures shot by Claire Horvath. Crappy ones shot by me in a bathroom.

[BryanWay]

UPDATE! The release date is partially set, and Life After: The Arising will be available to purchase on paperback and e-book in July of 2013! As always, the Facebook page is the best way to stay informed, so hop on and follow for more updates!

[BryanWay]

An artist and I are now discussing how the book cover should look, and after batting it around a bit, we settled on a basic idea that I sketched out on a tiny piece of paper. It's extremely crude, but it gets the feeling across! 1.jpgAttachment 1257Attachment 1258

[Neil]

Cool!

[BryanWay]

Cool! Thanks! Good thing I'm getting a REAL artist to produce it for me, eh?

[BryanWay]

UPDATE! My two newest submissions to the Fiction section are connected to the forthcoming novel Life After: The Arising! Since this is exciting for me, I thought I'd examine each of them in a bit more detail... Life After: The Basement We've all met our fair share of conspiracy theorists; people who believe that 9/11 was an inside job, that the US government covered up an alien landing in Roswell, and that secret technology was tested at RAF Macrihanish. Eric Matthews, a full-blown fanatic, and Mia Muxworthy, an open-minded realist, had been following some suspicious activity in Newtown Square when the dead returned to life. Now convinced that the US government has something to do with the Zombie apocalypse, Eric and Mia enlist the help of their friend Chris Lequire, an amateur surveillance expert, to track down the source of the conspiracy. However, nothing is as it seems for Eric and Mia, and while she tries to keep him from spinning off the planet, the reality of their situation is about to become much worse than they'd ever imagined. Life After: Undeath Syndrome Surveillance and Diagnosis After months of studying Zombies in every way feasible following the Newtown Square outbreak of October 9, 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally produce a report on the phenomenon. Covering everything from a narrative examination of undead dissemination, expected reanimation times, the altered function of bodily systems, maze testing results, and a host of recommendations, this report was somewhat hastily assembled and circulated to assist government, military, and healthcare officials with the containment and understanding of the undead. (This submission to Homepage of the Dead is written in dense medical prose with no primer except the internet. I strongly encourage anyone reading to look up terms with which they may be unfamiliar.)

[Wyldwraith]

Read the 2nd of your Life After stories, "The Phoenix" in the Fiction section. I really admired how believable and deep the relationship-issues back-and-forth between Shar & Adam were, and it even made sense that they were still doing it even with zombies trying to break in. Brilliant how you set up Shar's decision at the end with Adam's dialog earlier about "I need to see real concrete action, not more words"...and that statement ended up becoming the reason she stayed at the door so he could go... Your characterization is excellent, but on the flip-side I'm not sure if the almost vague descriptives and short amount of time given to the characters witnessing the zombies served this plotline to the fullest. Hopefully it's something you've since polished, and/but best of luck with your novel.

[BryanWay]

Read the 2nd of your Life After stories, "The Phoenix" in the Fiction section. I really admired how believable and deep the relationship-issues back-and-forth between Shar & Adam were, and it even made sense that they were still doing it even with zombies trying to break in. Brilliant how you set up Shar's decision at the end with Adam's dialog earlier about "I need to see real concrete action, not more words"...and that statement ended up becoming the reason she stayed at the door so he could go... Your characterization is excellent, but on the flip-side I'm not sure if the almost vague descriptives and short amount of time given to the characters witnessing the zombies served this plotline to the fullest. Hopefully it's something you've since polished, and/but best of luck with your novel. Thanks for reading and telling me about it, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I was a little disappointed when that one first went up because for some reason the story ended just halfway through (when Adam falls asleep in the car), and I got a lot of messages complaining that it wasn't a Zombie story! With each short story in the series I intended to go with a slightly different angle. The first one, A Deadly Secret impacts the plot of the novel pretty directly and is quite pulpy with violence, sex, and drugs. Also sloppily written, but after all, that was seven years ago. The second one, The Phoenix, is supposed to be entirely character driven; the story is about Adam and Shar, and the undead are practically incidental. I'd written so much stuff focused on Zombies I thought it would be fun to push them in the background for once. I also thought the Phoenix metaphor was killer. The third one, The Cemetery Plot, is supposed to be sort of a paranoid thriller meets comeuppance tale. It too has a major impact on the events of the first novel, and the protagonist, unknown to all, is the first live person to succumb to the undead. He's the index patient. The fourth, Undeath Syndrome Surveillance and Diagnosis, is inspired by Lon Miller's Alomal-137 Epidemiology Case Study. I decided I needed something to keep my zombies consistent in a medical sense, and I also wanted a global timeline of events to keep the stories canonical. The fifth story, The Basement, was born from the idea of doing something incredibly twisty and intense, subverting the audience's expectations at every turn. This one has a major impact on my intended second novel of the series. I look forward to writing more of them in the future, and I hope you have a chance to pick up the book when it comes out! Thanks for posting!

[BryanWay]

UPDATE! Life After: The Arising Debut & Signing Event On July 5th 2013, my first novel will have its debut sale at Viva Video in Ardmore, PA, USA! This exclusive limited edition of Life After: The Arising is only available on paperback, can only be purchased from the author himself, and will consist of only 100 copies. The event (time TBA) will feature author and Viva Video employee Bryan Way in his first ever book signing. Remember, THERE ARE ONLY 100 COPIES OF THIS PRINTING! Some have already been committed for promotional use and pre-sold, and there will be no further holds or pre-orders of any kind! Sales at the event will be first come, first serve! $ CASH ONLY! $ The novel retails at $14.95, but at this event only, the price will be dropped to $14.00 flat, no tax.

[BryanWay]

I was invited to the Tom Zombie Prom, but I couldn't make it. In lieu of my presence, I sent them a signed copy of the Undeath Syndrome Surveillance and Diagnosis report and this video. Enjoy!

[Morto Vivente]

Your going to need something to brace that door Bryan!

[BryanWay]

After months of toiling in the editing/submitting/publishing process, the novel is now ready for pre-orders on Amazon: Life After: The Arising by Bryan Way It comes out August 23rd, 2013. For those of you with Kindles and those who live outside the United States, fret not; it will become available on paperback and e-book in Canada, Europe, and the UK on the same day! Also, for those of you who have not visited the front page, Neil has 2 Limited Edition, hand-numbered, autographed copies available for FREE in a competition!