Zachariah Wahrer's Blog, page 13

Enthralled

As part of a Medium publication I am an editor of, I wrote a sci-fi reboot of the classic fairy tale, The Frog Prince. It was released today and titled Enthralled . If you missed my previous remix of Hansel and Gretel, it is called Therapy. Hope you enjoy! If you'd like to read other reboots of the Frog Prince, there is a directory that lists them all. If you generally enjoy reimagined fairy tales, our publication, The Grimm Reaper, might be for you.

April Wrap Up - Travel, Reboot, and a Paperback

Wanderer

During the month of April, my wife and myself bid farewell to Las Vegas, NV and spent a couple weeks traveling to our new home in Bozeman, MT. We experienced a lot of rain, followed by a bunch of snow. Our main goal was rock climbing, but the weather made that difficult. Thankfully, we still got to see family and friends along the way.

I didn't get much writing done while we were traveling, but I did manage to publish some flash fiction on Medium called Therapy . It is a sci-fi reboot of the classic Hansel and Gretel, by the Brothers Grimm. A fellow author (Lizella Prescott) and I decided to start a Medium publication dedicated to remakes of classic fairy tales. The result is The Grimm Reaper .

Currently, I am waiting to on a paperback proof copy of Breakers of the Dawn to arrive from the printers. Getting the novel formatted for print was quite an effort, but it will be worth it. I also made some cover tweaks that ended up looking really good. The paperback will be available on Amazon within the next month or so. Stay tuned!

March Wrap Up - Second Draft, Reviews, and a Photo Essay

April is here already?!

I managed to get the second draft of HotD (Book 2 of the Dawn Saga) completed, and it is now off to my editor (which also happens to be my lovely wife, Sarah) for inspection. I'm interested to see what she thinks. I enjoyed how it turned out, and the first editing pass went well. There are still several editing runs to go, but I am psyched to have finished the first one so quickly (while still maintaining high quality).

Over the course of March, I wrote two book reviews. One was for A Dirty Job (Christopher Moore), and the other for Death Chase (Lizella Prescott). Overall, I enjoyed both books but felt Death Chase was a more interesting read.

I didn't publish any short stories this month, although I am working on a few. On Medium, I published two photo-essays: The Abandoned Clothing of Las Vegas and When Life Gives You Lemons...

Looking towards April, I have a couple flash fictions I'll be releasing. With HotD out of my hands for the time being, I will be shifting focus over to editing the yet-to-be-titled van life how-to book. Sarah and I will be moving from Las Vegas, NV to Bozeman, MT in a couple days as well. We are looking forward to the change of pace and escaping the oncoming desert heat. The life of a traveling author is never still.

The Abandoned Clothing of Las Vegas: A Photo Essay

Posted a photo essay over on my Medium page. It's called: The Abandoned Clothing of Las Vegas.

Book Review - "Death Chase" by Lizella Prescott

(4 out of 5 Stars)

“Death Chase” has a simple premise, but once I began reading, it pulled me deep into a thrilling mess of interpersonal turmoil set against a backdrop of fear. It was an enjoyable read, with awesome pacing that made it hard to put down. Prescott does a great job of presenting detailed imagery and descriptions without bogging down the plot. The story creeped me out on several occasions and the ebb and flow of fear and revelation was spot on.
I do have two criticisms of the book, one that may be particular to me and the other a technical realism issue. I found the male characters slightly flat and one dimensional. Perhaps Prescott did such a good job of fleshing out the female leads that the men just look dim by comparison? Their personalities didn't come through for me, but the men still functioned within the scope of the book. A technical issue relating to how cell phones work brought me out of the story momentarily, but honestly, it's a small thing and doesn't affect the plot. I also spotted a few editing errors, but they were minor as well.
The lead characters in this story are dramatic and believable and the well crafted plot engenders lots of suspense. If the book's blurb intrigues you, I would highly recommend reading it. Death Chase delivers the suspense, fear, and chills it promises.


Author website: www.lizellaprescott.com

Book Review - "A Dirty Job" by Christopher Moore

(3 out of 5 Stars)

A Dirty Job is a fun, irreverent, and weird novel. Moore wrote some crazy, potentially offensive stuff in this book. The story line is off-beat and engaging, if a bit predictable at times. My only real criticism is I feel that Sophie (Charlie’s daughter), was generic, especially given her role. She doesn’t develop much over the course of the book (other than aging) and has little impact on plot development. Sophie almost feels like an after thought. The rest of the cast was compelling and ridiculous (in a good way). I laughed out loud during several scenes. Overall, the novel was enjoyable. This was my first Christopher Moore book, and I felt a real Stephen King/Dean Koontz vibe.

Author website: www.chrismoore.com

Follow-Up to "Why I Stopped Watching Game of Thrones"

As a follow-up to Why I Stopped Watching "Game of Thrones" (No Spoilers), here is the direction I'd like the series to go:

February Wrap Up - First Drafts, Blogs, and Short Stories

February was a productive month! I managed to complete two book length first drafts. One was the 2nd book of the Dawn Saga and the other a non-fiction van life how-to that my wife Sarah and I are co-authoring.

In short fiction, the serialized version of Utopia Gone finished up on both Medium and Wattpad. I also released Cough, Cough , a horror sci-fi inspired by my being sick for the first part of the month.

On the blog, I wrote about Why I Stopped Watching "Game of Thrones" (No Spoilers).
 
Though March, I'll be editing HotD (code name for the second book of the Dawn Saga) as well as posting some book reviews. I'll also be working on building my Medium publication, Rumble Fish (currently seeking submissions). As inspired, I may also write a short story or two. I had an idea for a fantasy series that I'd like to explore.

Why I Stopped Watching "Game of Thrones" (No Spoilers)

A completely unrelated piece of art called "Cloudline."
For me, Game of Thrones was one of those shows that was addicting and easy to binge watch. In the past, every time a new season would come out, I'd find myself starting over, watching all the previous seasons in a rush. I had to remember all of the small details, had to know what would happen next. But after finishing season 5, I'm done.

Don't get me wrong, I was never a super fanboy or anything. I read the first couple books back before it was a TV show and really enjoyed them. I probably would have continued experiencing the story that way, but then my schedule changed and there was no time to read 1500+ page books anymore. I moved to the TV show. The first few seasons were amazing. It had great acting and seemed to stick to the events of the book (from what I could remember). The thing I think I liked most about the series is the vulnerability of the main characters. It was thrilling and felt realistic.

As I watched later seasons, I began to wonder, "What has this become?" The nudity, blood, gore, conniving, and backstabbing had all been there since the very first season, but the tone had shifted. It was like the producers or writers had decided they had to keep one-upping their prior work, that they had to keep exceeding the prior "edginess." The show was already over the top. They didn't need to take it further.

The fourth season was bad, but the fifth season was worse. I invested so much into these characters just to have them do something horrible (or having something horrible done to them) and then die. From an author's perspective, I feel this is terrible storytelling. Having your main characters be vulnerable is one thing, but killing off huge swaths of them is not a way to keep your readers interested and entertained. Another thing I've noticed is that characters have changed so much they've become almost unrecognizable. Maybe I misinterpreted some of them from the start, but most of them are acting out of line regarding their personalities, at least in my opinion. My suspension of disbelief is gone.

So I won't be watching season six. There are no characters left at this point that I care about, at least not enough to wade through all the negative feelings the show gives me. Maybe the books are better, but I still don't have time to read such large tomes. What started out as such an awesome thing has spiraled down into a mess. They took the qualities that made it interesting and amplified them to the extent the show was ruined.

First Draft Complete (Book 2 of the Dawn Saga)

Today, I finished the first draft of the 2nd book in the Dawn Saga, code named "HotD." I'm really happy with how it and the series are developing. Stay tuned for more updates as I work though the editing process. I have some estimates for a completion date, but it is a little too soon to share those. HotD is going to be an exciting read, I promise!

If you haven't already, make sure to check out Breakers of the Dawn (Book 1 of the Dawn Saga) . In celebration of completing the first draft of the next book, I'm offering 50% off of Breakers if you purchase through Smashwords (all common formats available). Use the code "VZ52G" at check out. The coupon is only good until Friday, February 26th, so don't wait too long!