The blood runs FREE – the final stages

We’re on the final stages of the free eBook promotion – Indeed Arkansas Smith II, has now reverted to the usual price but there’s still time  to grab free downloads of The Dead Walked and The Rhondda Ripper. So if you haven’t secured your free copies then do so now.

The aim of this promotion was to kick start the books in the increasingly competitive Amazon market place and I do hope that those who downloaded free books will eventually leave reviews on Amazon, and that all those who downloaded the first part of The Dead Walked trilogy will be back for the second book in the series later this summer.

And please, all my Blogging buddies, publicize this offer on your blogs, websites etc. Let’s make these final two days go with a rush of downloads.

Sill available for free:
The Dead Walked Book One by Vincent Stark

The Rhondda Ripper by Gary M. Dobbs

THE RHONDDA RIPPER: The story begins slowly, a man’s morning routine as he gets ready for duty and faces the possibility of a busy day, but he has no idea how “busy” it’s going to get! Throw in Buffalo Bill, a Wild West show, murders that may or may not be connected to Jack The Ripper, and you have a really hot read. I don’t want to say too much for fear of giving something away, but it’s a well-written yarn and you will get hooked right away. It’s also, for me, a nice change of pace from the modern urban hard-boiled junk I’ve been digesting lately. Brian Drake

THE DEAD WALKED – Vincent Stark, otherwise known as Gary Dobbs, presents a new look at the zombie story. A group of people trying to survive in a world gone nuts. Sound familiar. Of course.But Stark has injected his own elements into the story. A pregnant woman and a plot thread I’ve not seen in a zombie story before. The ending threw a twist in and sets up the next part of the story, coming soon.

Zombie stories are not a type I read a lot of, but I’ve come to expect good stuff from Stark/Dobbs/Martin, whatever genre he writes in.I read this one straight through while drinking coffee early this morning.Recommended.  George R. Johnson

Would Mr. Vincent Stark please stand up

Introducing Vincent Stark

Vincent Stark is a reclusive writer, who shuns all contact with the outside world. He has not been seen in public since 1979. Although, from time to time, there have been rumours of sightings of the author lurking in the shadows of the cemetery behind his dilapidated mansion house deep in the Rhondda Valley countryside.
It is said that he is suffering from a skin condition which is aggravated by sunlight and is thus forced into his twilight existence. There is much debate over his well known skill with, the Stylophone and his penchant for playing jazz phrases on his own podcast, Scary Motherfucker. Indeed Stark seems to have picked up this skill overnight and there is one urban legend of him visiting the crossroads one evening and selling his soul to the devil in exchange for his ability on the stylophone.

The devil has all the best tunes

December 2011 saw the  publication of a new novel, The Dead Walked and the author, showing the first signs of clawing his way back into the public consciousness now has a Facebook page – please support the author by clicking like on his page, HERE

However for now Vincent Stark remains hidden away, his groceries delivered by a string of crucifix wearing delivery men and his bills paid by automatic withdrawal from the blood bank.

 

My novella, The Dead Walked, the first in an all new trilogy, is available now at an incredibly low price.

Some said it was viral.
Others claimed it was an act of God.
Either way the result was the same and the dead walked.
September was her favourite time of the year, and late September, when the autumn was just preparing to hand over to winter, when there was still a residue of the late summer warmth in the air, as well as the crisp promise of the iciness to come, had always been, as far as Missy was concerned, the finest chunk of that particular month.
Not for her was the spectacle of high summer, nor the morose beauty of mid winter. Of course they both had their fineries but these paled next to the season when the leaves glittered with reflected sunlight. It was the autumn, with September being the highlight of that season, which she loved – a time when nature put on its finest display as the lush summer growth was magically transformed.
The sky itself seemed to glow at this time of year.
September was a time of promise.
A time of rebirth.
Not this September, though.
This September, Missy would remember as, the time the dead walked.

Download a free sample before you decide – HERE

Walkers, walkers everywhere – The Dead Walked

AVAILABLE NOW: Book one in The Dead Walked trilogy

Written by Vincent Stark – check out Vinnie’s Amazon page HERE

The Dead Walked – a new kind of zombie thriller

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And coming March 2012

 

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THE DEAD ARE NOW WALKING

AVAILABLE NOW

My novella, The Dead Walked: Outbreak is NOW available for purchase from Amazon  as a KDP exclusive before becoming available on all other eFormats early next year. The Amazon deal means that the eBook is also available to prime customers for loan from Amazon’s lending library.

The novella is my debut in the horror genre, following on from a string of bestselling westerns written under the name, Jack Martin and published by Robert Hale’s Black Horse Westerns line.

For my work in the horror genre I adopted the name Vincent Stark as a nod to that flamboyant horror star, Vincent Price and the surname came from the fact that I’d been reading a lot of Richard Stark. The Dead Walked though is not the first sale for the Vincent Stark name – an upcoming issue of the iconic, Weird Tales will feature the short story, Back then our Monsters were Real which was also comes from Vincent’s pen.

 

The Dead Walked: Outbreak

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 168 KB
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Gary Dobbs; 1 edition (18 Dec 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
• Language English
• ASIN: B006O0T89Y

US READERS FIND IT HERE
UK READERS FIND IT HERE

Some said it was viral.
Others claimed it was an act of God.
Either way the result was the same and the dead walked.

September was her favourite time of the year, and late September, when the autumn was just preparing to hand over to winter, when there was still a residue of the late summer warmth in the air, as well as the crisp promise of the iciness to come, had always been, as far as Missy was concerned, the finest chunk of that particular month.
Not for her was the spectacle of high summer, nor the morose beauty of mid winter. Of course they both had their fineries but these paled next to the season when the leaves glittered with reflected sunlight. It was the autumn, with September being the highlight of that season, which she loved – a time when nature put on its finest display as the lush summer growth was magically transformed.
The sky itself seemed to glow at this time of year.
September was a time of promise.
A time of rebirth.
Not this September, though.
This September, Missy would remember as, the time the dead walked.

The second eBook, Dead Days will be published March 2012 and I’m pleased to be able to give you a look at the cover art for the second volume. The man responsible for the cover is once again Tony Masero, and he’s managed to fully capture the mayhem and er, boobs of the zombie apocalypse.

And so take a look at the stunning artwork for the forthcoming second volume and go out and buy THE DEAD WALKED BY VINCENT STARK

 

March 2012

Walkers, walkers everywhere 3 – I walked with a zombie (1943)

Released during the very real horrors of World War II this was the second horror film from producer, Val Lewton, the first being the iconic Cat People, and if you think Seth Graham Smith was the first to mix zombies and the classics with Pride and Prejudice with Zombies then think again. Lewton adjusted the original script to be a loose adaptation of Jane Eyre. Lewton borrowed the story, which is set in a plantation, from Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, but set in it on the island of St. Sebastian. Betsy Connell (Frances Dee), an innocent and pure Canadian nurse, accepts a position on the troubled Holland family plantation and in the best creaky old horror film fashion all is not what it seems.

Ignore the cheesey title which makes it sound like a film along the lines of, I was a Teenage Werewolf because I Walked is, like Cat People before it, a cut above most of RKO’s horror content. It went unappreciated by the critics of the day with the New York Times calling it dull and disgusting, but over the years it has rightly attained classic status and is these days regarded as one of Lewton’s best films, if not superior to The Cat People it is at least its equal. The voodoo element of the film is cleverly understated and it is not clear to the viewer if Jessica Holland, wife of the plantation owner, is actually under a supernatural spell or the victim of some strange tropical illness. Modern viewers may find it slow but it is one of the best pre-Romero zombie movies. There’s also a great joke when the disclaimer in the opening credits about the characters and events presented in the film denies any similarity to “actual persons, living, dead or possessed”.

 

Well worth seeking out.

 

Want an all new zombie fix –

 

 

The Dead Walked by Vincent Stark will be released in all major eFormats Jan 5th 2012

 

Some said it was a virus

Others called it an act of God

Either way the result was the same when the dead walked

Scary Motherfucker’s Scream Queen Jane Smith revisits the classics

We’ve got out very own Scream Queen in Jane Smith, so please enjoy this guest post from Jane Smith,a freelance writer and blogger with free online checks

Masters of atmosphere: Revisit horror classics

Horror buffs will doubtlessly name authors like Stephen King and Dean Koontz when asked to list classic authors of the genre. But what would they say if asked to name the influences on these “classic” writers? There were a host of horror authors writing harrowing tales—stories that still incite fear in the contemporary reader—decades before Stephen King was even born. I encourage all horror fans to take a look at some of these vintage authors in order to gain a deeper appreciation for the themes that shape current horror fiction.

Edgar Allan Poe

A champion of gothic fiction in early to mid nineteenth century America, Edgar Allan Poe has been immortalized for his foundational contributions to the horror genre. Everyone has hear of Poe’s classic poem “The Raven,” a work playing on self-induced madness, but the real meat of his work is in his short fiction. Stories like “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Oval Portrait” revolutionized the way future writers captured gloom and doom in fiction.  Idle curiosity over mortality and the specters of life that lurk in the darkness occupy much of Poe’s work. Most horror authors to this day cite Poe’s macabre writing as a major influence on their own work.

Robert Bloch

Robert Bloch was an American science fiction and horror author whose work spanned the greater part of the twentieth century. His work is often classified as cerebral horror, with fictional works describing characters’ disassociation with reality and descent into madness. He had a fascination with real life stories of people losing their minds and committing inexplicable, eerie crimes. His 1959 novel “Psycho,” about the mentally disturbed Norman Bates who terrorized occupants of his family motel was, adapted into the classic horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson’s writing had a profound impact on controversial horror fiction. She wrote the type of stories that frightened readers not just because of their content, but because of how that content reflected contemporary culture. Her infamous short story “The Lottery,” for example, scandalized readers by its violent satire of modern day culture (if you haven’t read the story I won’t ruin the ending for you. Go read it now!). Her novel “The Haunting of Hill House” set the bar for modern day haunted house fictions and films alike, writing the titular house with the characterization as if it were a character unto itself. Her work can easily be ranked among the best in American horror.

H.P. Lovecraft

Horror enthusiasts will often debate between Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft as the undisputed classic masters of the horror genre. Writing in the early twentieth century, H.P. Lovecraft wrote horror and alternate reality fiction that depicted other planes of existence from a detached and clinical prospective. He’s perhaps best known for writing an alternate Cthulhu universe inhabited by people completely unaware of calamities and horrors just beyond their perspective. His worlds are inhabited by a mythology of demonic demigods, such as the Cthulhu (a bat-like human with the head of an octopus) or the Ithaqua (a zombie-like human with glowing red eyes and webbed feet). To be sure, his stories are unlike any other. Check out his novella “At the Mountains of Madness” for a thrilling introduction to this god among horror authors.

Byline:
Jane Smith is a freelance writer and blogger. She writes about free background checks for Backgroundcheck.org. Questions and comments can be sent to: janesmth161 @ gmail.com