George L. Cook III's Blog, page 34

The Dead War Series books 1,2,& 3 now available for Nook!

Hi I am author George Cook and I am proud to announce that the first three Dead War Series books are now available for the Nook for 99¢.

In the year 2053 the dead walked. Mankind was caught off guard at first but within six years mounted a massive military assault against the dead.

These are the stories of some of those men and women that fought back.

These are the stories of some trying to find a cure.

These are the stories of those that are just trying to survive the nightmare of the walking dead.

These are the stories of those that caused The Dead War.

The Dead War Series Book One: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-d...

The Dead War Series Book Two: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-d...

The Dead War Series Book Three: WAR!: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-d...

The Dead War Series Book 1, 2,& 3 now available for Nook.

Hi I am author George Cook and I am proud to announce that the first three Dead War Series books are now available for the Nook. Each book 99¢

In the year 2053 the dead walked. Mankind was caught off guard at first but within six years mounted a massive military assault against the dead.

These are the stories of some of those men and women that fought back.

These are the stories of some trying to find a cure.

These are the stories of those that are just trying to survive the nightmare of the walking dead.

These are the stories of those that caused The Dead War.

Buy the books using the links below:

The Dead War Series Book One: The Dead War Series Book One

The Dead War Series Book Two: The Dead War Series Book Two

The Dead War Series Book Three: WAR!: The Dead War Series Book Three

Interview with director, producers and co-writers of the upcoming zombie film "Forever Hollywood"

Hi this is George Cook of thedeadwarseries.com. Recently I became aware of a short zombie film being made titled Forever Hollywood. The film is currently being crowd funded over at  http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/forever-hollywood/x/4919921 . After I donated I reached out to the women who are the director, producers, and co-writers of the movie for an interview. Mrs. / Miss Angie Bagget and Julia Watson  quickly responded and answered my questions. Check out our interview below. I hope it inspires you to donate to these two creative film makers. George Cook, thedeadwarseries.com. 

George Cook: Give us some background on yourselves and how you got into making movies?

Angie / Julia: Angie is an MFA graduate from Academy of Art University's Motion Picture and Television program, with an emphasis in screenwriting. She has written for commercial advertisement, as well as written and directed several short films, one of which won an audience choice award at the Oceanside International Film Festival. Her long-term career goal is to work as a writer/director/producer in feature films and, especially, television.Julia is a graduate of the Creative Writing MFA program at UC Riverside-Palm Desert, where she primarily studied screenwriting. In addition to having written, produced and scored several short films, she's also a published author of both nonfiction and fiction and is pursuing a career as a writer across multiple platforms: movies, TV, novels, graphic novels, video games--the works.We met after we were both hired to work on a locally produced short film together in Spring 2013 and clicked so well that we decided to start writing/producing short films together. Forever Hollywood marks our third production and we have several other writing/producing projects in the works..,
George:  Tell us a little about the movie you are trying to fund, Forever Hollywood?

Angie / Julia: Forever Hollywood is a short horror film about a group of young actors. Sent to participate in a team-building camping retreat at the request of their producer, the group sets out to capture behind the scenes footage to promote their upcoming TV series. The retreat takes a dark turn as one by one, the actors fall prey to the spread of a zombie virus and even the living begin to turn on one another. A hero arises and a mad dash for survival ensues, and we've drenched the whole thing in layers of gore and social commentary about the film industry.
George:  What makes Forever Hollywood different from other zombie movies?

Angie / Julia: We're both big fans of classic zombie horror, particularly the work of George A. Romero, so we part of what we wanted to do with this film was to pay homage to that style. As female writers and filmmakers who love the spectacle and symbolism of genre films, we're also both eager to tell those kinds of stories about (or at least inclusive of) strong female characters. As is a common element in both of our work, we wrote this film to include a strong female protagonist. Plus, we have a zombie forest creature attack scene, which we've never seen before on film and is, frankly, pretty freaking awesome.

George: The fact that many women will be working on this movie both in front of and more importantly behind the camera is very important to you. Why so?

Angie / Julia: We both grew up as rabid movie and TV fans in an era when strong female characters (much less protagonists) were far and few between, and I think that has strongly shaped our individual aesthetics as well as our motivation to tell "our kind of stories," since there was a frustrating lack of that for both of us growing up. Plus, the film industry is a challenge to navigate for just about anybody, but particularly so for women, who are infamously underrepresented in writers rooms and behind the camera. There have been several articles about this in the news recently, which is heartening, but as much-discussed of late, real change on this issue has yet to take place. In writing and making movies like Forever Hollywood, we're trying to be an active part of that change.
George: The movie will also feature a strong female protagonist. Will she be a strong lead throughout or in true horror movie fashion become a bad ass in the final 15 minutes of the movie?

Angie / Julia: Definitely the latter! That's something we talked about a lot while we were writing, as this is an especially beloved character model for us in horror. (Julia wrote her MFA thesis paper largely on Ripley in Alien and Aliens.) We put a great deal of thought into making our heroine someone whose courage and conviction to STAY ALIVE ramps up over the course of the film as she is presented with increasingly terrifying and life-threatening situations. This was a challenge in a 15-minute movie, but we think we've pulled it off.
George: Where can people go to learn more about your movie and to help you fund it?

Angie / Julia: We're running a crowdsourcing campaign through indiegogo right now through February 2nd with the goal of raising a total of $5000 for our budget. In addition to covering general production expenses, most of the money we raise will go to paying for our visual special f/x (can you say ZOMBIE RAVEN?) and also very importantly, to pay for entrance fees to submit the finished film to festivals. Our talented cast and crew are so much fun to work with have have been giving this movie everything they've got. In turn, we feel it's our job as the production heads to make sure we get this movie seen by as many folks as possible!

For this campaign, we're offering a variety of fun contributions rewards (social media shout outs, DVD copies, script coverage, personalized zombie haiku!), and contribution levels start as low as $1. You can even buy a producer's credit for as low as $100. Once we complete filming this week, we'll be adding new and exciting contribution rewards such as props used in making the film, a free photo shoot with our fantastic director of photography, and the chance to be made up as a zombie by our talented special f/x make-up artist during the week of Halloween 2014. You can check out our indiegogo campaign here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/forever-hollywood/x/4919921
We're also on Facebook and Twitter, and have been posting tons of cast and crew photos from the set this week, particularly from the make-up department, featuring some of our great gore f/x. Also, watch our Facebook and Twitter feeds over the next week for details about a contest we'll be running for a movie prop give-away after we wrap!

https://www.facebook.com/ForeverHollywoodMovie?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/forevzhollywood

George:  Is there anything you would like to say in closing?

Angela / Julia: Fun fact: this movie started out as the test script we wrote together before competing in the 2013 San Diego 48-Film Project Challenge competition. We'd never sat down and actually written something in the same room together, much less under a very tight time frame, so we thought we'd better do a practice round. The result of that writing session was the first draft of this script, which we wrote in under two hours and loved so much that we decided to develop and ultimately produce it.
It's our hope that people who love the shambling undead as much as we do will embrace this film and support not just us, but other female filmmakers as well. Now if you'll excuse us, we have to get back to set and wrangle some particularly bitey zombies...

Review of Cockneys vs Zombies

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a movie maker mixed together The Walking Dead, Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and a foul mouthed version of Cocoon? No me neither but apparently the makers of Cockneys vs Zombies have.

The movie is a Zom-Com ( zombie comedy ) that doesn't deliver on the zom or the com. There are no scary bits and there are a few funny bits scattered throughout. So we can all forget about those comparisons to Shaun of the Dead.

The movie seems to exist as a reason to hear senior senior citizens curse and curse often. But to be fair the parts featuring the seniors are the best parts.

The movie starts off by showing us where the dead come from and then takes us to the heist portion of the film which seems to exist only to explain how the heroes wound up heavily armed. After that it's a straight up zombie flick which involves our heroes ( the bank robbers ) trying to get to a senior home to rescue their grandfather. There are a few funny kills along the way but the movie begins to really drag after a while as if the makers are just trying to find a way to extend the films running time.

It's not the worst zombie movie you will ever see but it's easily forgettable. But if you have Netflix and just have to see a zombie flick it's worth a looksie.

Interview with M.F. Soriano, author of the Zombie City series

Hi this is George Cook of thedeadwarseries.com. It was my pleasure to interview M.F. Soriano author of the Zombie City Series.
Synopsis: What would you do if all the hipsters turned into zombies? 

Shane moved to San Francisco to write, following in the steps of his Beat Generation heroes. Twelve years later he's pushing thirty, flirting with alcoholism, and not writing at all. His life revolves around his dead-end job as a janitor at a tech startup, cleaning up after work-obsessed hipsters who dress like artists but think like yuppies. On the day Shane realizes he needs to get out of the City or give up on being a writer, a horrific infection breaks out amongst the startup workers, plunging San Francisco into a nightmare of cannibalism and murder.
 
San Francisco is dying. Welcome to Zombie City.

Here is our interview:


George Cook: What inspired you to become an author?
M.F. Soriano: I started writing because I found it easiest to express my thoughts and feelings in a written format.  I also love to get lost in my imagination, and writing is a way for me to put my imagination into a form that other people can experience.  When you write, you build worlds with your words.
George Cook:  Why write in the zombie genre?
M.F. Soriano: I'm a big fan of George Romero, and love the way he used the zombie-apocalypse scenario to comment on certain aspects of modern life (like how the zombies inDawn of the Dead are somehow compelled to return to the shopping mall, which highlights the mindlessness of consumerism).  I also think the idea of our world being radically and rapidly transformed is compelling.  What would it be like if everything we take for granted just suddenly changed entirely?  Plus I get a kick out writing horrific scenes of gore and violence, and the zombie genre lets you do that.
George Cook:  Lets's get to Zombie City. What's the series about? How many books are there in the series?
M.F. Soriano: Zombie City follows a failed-poet-turned-janitor named Shane as he struggles to survive in a San Francisco that's gone bat-shit crazy.  There are three books in the series so far (I call them "episodes" because they're shorter than novels, and they're plotted out more like episodes in a TV show).  I'm working on a fourth episode now, and I think there will be five episodes in the end.
George Cook:  As I'm sure you know there are thousands of zombie books out there right now. What makes yours stand out?
M.F. Soriano: I think Zombie City stands out because in addition to offering action and horror, it reveals something about the changing nature of San Francisco.  SF used to be a Mecca for immigrants, artists, and other minorities—a sort of refuge for people who didn't fit into mainstream American society.  Now it's becoming a city of business, specifically tech-industry business, and those immigrants and artists and other minorities are being forced out.  Zombie City takes that change and makes it explicit by having a virus break out amongst the tech workers—they literally become zombies intent on eating the uninfected.
George Cook:  What's the cause of the zombie apocalypse in your books?
M.F. Soriano: The story follows Shane and he doesn't know the specific cause of the phenomena affecting the city, but he does notice things and start putting two and two together as the story progresses.  I don't want to give all the secrets away because I think the gradual reveal—and the sense of intrigue that accompanies it—is part of the allure of the series… but I will say that it involves an energy drink that's been created from a blend of Epidemiology (disease science) and black magic (of the Voodoo variety).
George Cook:  Are your zombies the fast or slow moving type?
M.F. Soriano: Slow.  They lurch along, their bodies loaded down with sickness.  I remember hearing someone say that fast zombies are scary because they're fast, but slow zombies are scary because they represent the relentlessness and inescapability of death.
George Cook:  Are you trying to make any greater point with your books or just write a good zombie story?
M.F. Soriano: I am trying to imbue the story with certain deeper meanings—like what I mentioned above about the changing nature of San Francisco.  I think a well-developed context makes all the killing and mayhem more rewarding!
George Cook:  Do you have an online prescence? If so where? Blogs, web sites, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
M.F. Soriano: I'm working on developing an online presence, but usually I'd rather be writing so my "online-presence efforts" are still somewhat primitive. Here's a link to my blog: http://mfsoriano.blogspot.com/ There's a page for me on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7163661.M_F_Soriano And I finally got around to joining Facebook, about a month ago.  Here's a link to my author page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/MF-Soriano/446568585465434   George Cook:  Where are your books available?
M.F. Soriano: On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/M.F.-Soriano/e/B00D0IIBEQOn Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/m.f.-sorianoOn Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/mfsorianoAnd also on Kobo, Apple Store (iTunes), and the Sony Reader store.  George Cook:  Any thing you would like to say in closing?
M.F. Soriano: Thanks very much, Mr. Cook, for interviewing me!

Buy the book!

Review: Rec 3 Genesis

I finally checked out REC 3: Genesis a few nights ago. Here is my review.

The film is the third installment of the REC series It is a parallel sequel to the first two films taking place before, during and after the films. ( Got that? )

Now to be honest I'm still not sure about the genesis part of the title unless a brief explanation by an Uncle of one of the main characters about how his hand got hurt is the cause of the outbreak.

The film starts out with the familiar found footage format but thankfully when the action picks up switches to a normal third person view.

The movies setup is quick, things move briskly and the "zombie" action starts fairly quickly and suddenly.

The film takes place at the wedding of Koldo and Clara. It follows the adventures of the survivors of the initial zombie attack at the wedding reception. The chaos at the wedding reception is one of the better scenes in the entire film.

The highlight of the movie is when Clara gets a chainsaw and goes to get her man. She goes all Texas Chainsaw Massacre on the zombies and kills many of them in some creative ways.

While never really scary or even suspensful it's an okay "zombie" film. The effects are decent and the acting is not half bad ( even if it's in Italian ). I only really have two gripes with the movie.

The first has to do with the "zombies" I keep putting zombies in quotation marks because although the "zombies" spread the infection through bites they run and move like the infected from 28 Days Later. But then again they are not infected but possessed by demons. I prefer real zombies myself but hey if demon possession floats your boat I'm all for it.

The second gripe has to do with possibly one of the dumbest things ever done in a zombie movie. ( Warning spoilers ahead ). When Koldo finds survivors in a chapel one of the characters states that the zombies can not enter because it's holy ground. So what do the survivors do? They of course decide to leave the chapel and try to make it to a bus. You can guess how that ends.

The movie has a downer of an ending but then again that's probably how things would go down in a real zombie apocalypse.

So in closing I would say that Rec 3 is okay but a totally unneeded sequel. Hopefully Rec 4 will be better and more on par with Rec and Rec 2.

Interview with Steven Bynum the author of the "Into Zombies" books.

Hey guys it's my priviledge to present to you an interview I did with author Steven Bynum, the author of the Into Zombies series. Checkout our innterview and his books. George Cook thedeadwarseries.com.
George Cook:  What inspired you to become an author?
Steven Bynum: I've always enjoyed creative outlets, such as painting, and telling stories. However, I have always found it difficult to actually talk to people. I am one of those shy types. Writing provides me a creative environment to entertain people. Through my writing, I hope to give people some enjoyment.
George: Why write in the zombie genre?
Steven: I'm a big fan of zombies, and I wanted to tell a story with them in it. I will not always write about zombies, but they are so fun. What can provide the most enjoyment other than watching or reading a zombie story? Writing one!
George: Lets's get to the Into Zombies series. What's the series about? How many books are there in the series?
Steven:  It's set in the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse. The story is fast paced. It mainly revolves around a little girl that is murdering the survivors she comes across. She has a reason for doing this that will not be apparent until the end of the story. There is love, loss, death, and the search for vengeance going on with the other characters in the story.
I released the story in three novellas. Now, I have put them all together into one book, Into Zombies Complete.
George: As I'm sure you know there are thousands of zombie books out there right now. What makes yours stand out?
Steven:  In my story, you do not just have to worry about human zombies. Any creature that was once living, can be a zombie. Also, make sure a certain little girl does not have you fooled, or under her influence. You may come to have a very bad day.
George: What's the cause of the zombie apocalypse in your books?
Steven: The reader will only find out the cause towards the end of the story. I'm sorry, but that is all I can say about it without giving anything away.
George:  Are your zombies the fast or slow moving type?
Steven: They are able to move at the same speed as their living counterparts.
George: Are you trying to make any greater point with your books or just write a good zombie story?
Steven: I just wanted to write a story with zombies in it. There is no greater point other than to entertain the reader. I guess another point would be, I very much enjoyed writing the story.
George: Do you have an online prescence? If so where? Blogs, web sites, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Steven: I am slowly working on my online presence. I'll provide what I have now.
Amazon: Amazon Author Page
Twitter: @sgbynum
Blog in the works: I Write Stuff
Steven: Where are your books available?
Readers can get them on Amazon.
Becoming the Beast My first novella. It is a psychological werewolf story.
Into Zombies Complete This book contains all three parts of the Into Zombies series. It is a brand new collection, just released.
George: Any thing you would like to say in closing?
I will continue to write other stories that will vary in nature. It gives me pleasure to provide people with some entertainment through writing. My best wishes to you Mr. Cook, and to all the readers.

Buy Into Zombies

Interview with Phillip Tomasso III, author of the "Vaccination" zombie series

Hey guys this is George Cook of thedeadwarseries.com. Please take a few minutes and check out my interview with Phillip Tomasso III the author of the "Vaccination" series of zombie books.

Here's the synopsis for Vaccination: What if the H7N9 vaccination wasn’t just a preventative measure against swine flu? It seemed like the flu came out of nowhere and yet, in no time at all the government manufactured a vaccination. Were lab workers diligent, or could the virus itself have been man-made? Chase McKinney works as a dispatcher at 9-1-1. Taking emergency calls, it becomes immediately obvious that the entire city is infected with the walking dead. His first goal is to reach and save his two children. Could the walls built by the U.S.A. to keep out illegal aliens, and the fact the Mexican government could not afford to vaccinate their citizens against the flu, make the southern border the only plausible destination for safety?

Here is my interview with Phillip Tomasso:

George Cook: What inspired you to become an author?

Phillip Tomasso: I grew up with a reading disorder. It wasn't until I was in 7th grade that I read my first book cover to cover. It was S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders. I was hooked from that point on. When I found out that she was jkust 16 when she wrote that novel, I realized a few things. I was always a story teller. If Hinton could write a manuscript that made me become an avid reader -- then I wanted to also write stories for reluctant readers, and to entertain as many people as possible!

George: Why write in the zombie genre?

Phillip Tomasso: After devouring the four books by Hinton, the next book I read was Stephen King's Firestarter. And from THAT moment in time, I became a fan of horror fiction. I went on to read every book by Stephen King, Dean Koontz, John Saul, Robin Cook ... you name it. One day I discovered Joe McKinney's Dead City. It is still my all time favorite zombie novel. Like with Hinton, I wanted to write zombie novels. I would never compare my writing to Hinton or McKinney's, but they are truly the inspiration.

George: Lets's get to the Vaccination. What the series about? How many books are there in the series?

Phillip Tomasso: Vaccination is a trilogy. Vaccination (Sept '13), Evacuation (Dec '13) and Preservation (March '14). It revolves around a 911 dispatcher saving his kids, and making it from place to place with a small, close band of survivors.

George: As I'm sure you know there are thousands of zombie books out there right now. What makes yours stand out?

Phillip Tomasso: I have fast and slow zombies. I do not want to give anything away. In Vaccination, you notices something . . . off, about my zombies. It is explored a little more in Evacuation. And in Preservation, there is no denying that my zombies are different. Deadly. Smart.

George: What's the cause of the zombie apocalypse in your books?

Phillip Tomasso: The swine flu erupted in countries in the late 90's. People scrambled to find a vaccination to prevent severe illness. In my books, the vaccinations are contaminated in a lab mishap. Everyone inoculated succumbs to the side effects. Becoming a zombie. Since so many people get the flu shot -- the number of zombies to non-infected is crippling!

George: Are you trying to make any greater point with your books or just write a good zombie story?

Phillip Tomasso: I make several points in the book. My main character is badly flawed. Having suffered through a divorce where all he thinks about are his two children, he finds that he is more selfish and arrogant than he ever realized. More self destructive and uncaring than he'd like to believe. I've read reviews that suggest my book is against inoculating people. It is not. However, I have never received the flu shot. I find it too suspicious. The reasons why are called out in the novels.

George: Do you have an online prescence? If so where? Blogs, web sites, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Phillip Tomasso: philliptomasso.com
Twittr page; @P_Tomasso
Page On Facebook

George: Where are your books available?

Phillip Tomasso: Amazon, and Barnes & Noble

Universal codes for ebooks:

http://mybook.to/vaccination
http://mybook.to/evacuation

George: Any thing you would like to say in closing?

Phillip Tomasso: Severed Press -- my publisher, has been amazing and supportive. In 2014, I also have a horror novel, RIVERBED, due out in June/July, and a second zombie trilogy, Starting with Damn The Dead in late fall.

Buy The Vaccination Books:

Short excerpt from The Dead War Series Book One

Here is a short excerpt from my book The Dead War Series Book One. It's just enough to give you a taste of the zombie and science fiction type action in the book ( and the Dead War Series ). So check it out and enjoy. George L. Cook III.

...Richards lowered his pistol and began to creep away from the area. He turned a corner right smack into an oncoming Gray. The dead had soulless black eyes. No pupils, no whites of the eyes, just black orbs.The thing shrieked as it reached out at Richards. Richards instinctively kicked the thing back and fired just once. The blue bead of laser light slammed into the Grays forehead and blew out the back of the things head in a blue burst of light, blood,  and black bile.Richards rolled forward and then spun around onto one knee. The other two Grays he had seen earlier were almost on top of him now. Richards fired twice silencing both with head shots. He got to his feet and ran. He could hear moaning sounds all around him now...

Buy The Dead War Series Book One

Walking Dead spinoff still has no definite plot, admits AMC exec

[ SOURCE ] A planned Walking Dead spinoff show is still "in the incubation stages".

AMC's programming head Joel Stillerman told Vulture that Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman is yet to decide on a specific narrative for the show.

"Robert has some things on his plate," he explained. "He continues to write every issue of the comic and hasn't finished season four of The Walking Dead, which he is very intimately involved with and will continue to be."

Stillerman added that AMC and Kirkman had "kicked around a few ideas" in terms of the new show's content.

"What is going on [now] is a more philosophical discussion over why there should be another version of the show," he said. "Once we answer that, we'll zero in on the specific creative."