Dan Henk's Blog, page 3

The government in hot pursuit

The government in hot pursuit!
I first got the bug to rebuild trucks when, as a teenage punk rocker living in a bad neighborhood in DC, I got a small settlement from an accident, and used it to buy a jacked up, bare bones old CJ5 from some redneck in the boonies.
Since then, I’ve owned and rebuilt 3 Jeeps, including an M38A Korean war era jeep that I did a frame off restoration, and spent way too mucbh time and money on.
I also went through a phase of four-wheeling whenever I could. Let me tell you how long it takes to hose mud off a vehicle at the local self-serve car wash!
I utilized the knowledge of both in my novel “The Black Seas of Infinity”, where the protagonist uses a Jeep he’s built to flee a pursuing government. After a heist and some random killing of course!
The novel is available here on Amazon 
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The protagonist flees government pursuit in his Jeep.

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Deceased but never forgotten

Monica Henk when I first met her

Monica was always my biggest fan and greatest supporter. I make sure to thank her in every book I release. She died in 2007 in a hit-and-run, and the NYPD mangled the investigation (most likely because she was a heavily tattooed immigrant). It wasn’t until me and her brother, Kike, mounted a large campaign that was picked up by News 1, News 5, Telemundo, and Univision, that anyone exdpressed any interest.

I met her at Cassiopia in 2000, and she barely spoke English. We both worked there, yet it took me attending events and hanging out with the crew for her to realize anything.
When I came down with brain cancer in 2001, it was a total surprise to everyone, and even though she was only 21 and we’d been dating for 3 months, she visited me every day at the hospital. Something my parents never did. They never visited at all.

We married shortly after, something I never thought I would do as a teenager!
I drew this illustration as the design for her memorial concert. Unsane, Indecision, Locked in a Vacancy, and quite a few other bands played. Since then, I’ve used it in the forward of every book I’ve written,
She did quite a bit of alternative modelling and was the perfect model for 5 of my oil paintings so far, including the cover for my debut novel, The Black Seas of Infinity, where the death of a man’s wife is part of what sets him on a very dark path.
My friend Christine tells me, many people never meet that one person they bond with in life; you’re lucky if it happens even once, however brief. Maybe she’s right.

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The Great State of Texas

The Great State of Texas.I remember one rainstorm so intense, I couldn’t even see the sides of the road. It was spring, I lived in Virginia then, and the watery deluge was so intense I didn’t know where I was, what lane I was in, or even if I was still on the road. Finally, I had to pull over, convinced a violent crash awaited around every corner, and ended up in an abandoned strip mall in the middle of nowhere. These were the days before cellphones and GPS, so even after the deluge dies down, I still had to figure out where I was.That incident alway stuck with me, and I used the concept in my novel The Black Seas of Infinity (available here https://tinyurl.com/2v2zdv3d) and again in a slightly different, and actually more true to the original incident, in my short story Watching the World Burn, included in my collection Down Highways in the Dark…by Demons Driven (available here https://tinyurl.com/53r4y9p4)If you want to get notified when I release new work, sign up for my email list 

A watery deluge and drining do not mix.

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New Audiobook!

New Adiobook!

The audiobook of my collection of cosmic horror short stories is now available on Amazon
courtesy of Cassandra Arnold

Here is a brief description-

 

Legends and old wives’ tales hold a truth—but we’ve forgotten the chaos that lies behind them.

Strange worlds and creatures lie all around us. Humanity was once a slave and is still the prey of creatures no one dreamed existed. The universe is much darker and stranger than we can ever imagine.

No one is your friend, there is no help, and there is no way out.

 

I have a limited number of free audiobook copies I can give out

Email me if you want one here
All I ask in return is that you post an honest review on Amazon! When they are gone, they are gone!

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War Movies

My dad had us watch war movies from a very young age, but I remember him constantly picking them apart. He had been in every war since Vietnam, and he enjoyed the Hollywood take, but he always critiqued the little stuff, like the haircuts, uniforms, firearms, and so on.
It wasn’t until I saw films like Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket (in the theaters as a child no less) that the full impact dawned on me.
War is hell, and often the further back in history you go, the worse it gets.
In my story Eye Deep in Hell, I did everything from consulting with war historians, reading historical accounts, and researching letters from the era. All in an attempt to portray trench warfare’s misery and primal cruelty in The Great War. With a little cosmic horror mixed in, of course!

You can check out the book the story is in here

If you want to get notified when I release new work, sign up for my email list

The corpse of a soldier decays in the trenchs of World War 1

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Christmas is Cancelled

For this third illustration in my story “Christmas is Cancelled”, I wanted to bring to life riding in a truck, upstate, during a heavy snowfall. I spent 3 years in Buffalo, and remember it well. The ice crusting on the corners of the windows, snow piling up on the wiper blades, and flakes bombarding you as they fell from the heavens. The roads were a mess, but the heavy vehicles’ weight, combined with the driver’s skill in wintery conditions, made the trip nothing more than the usual delivery.
Unless, say, something disturbs the driver just as he is rounding the cliff on the way to West Point. Which is exactly what happens in my story!

You can check out the book the story is in here

If you want to get notified when I release new work, sign up for my email list 

death on a winter road.

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Washighton, DC

I lived in Washington, DC in the early ’90s, and crime was out of hand. It was the murder capital of the US, the mayor was caught on tape, smoking crack with a hooker. His famous line was “Bitch set me up!”
He went to jail, and when he got out, he was re-elected. Congress gave DC money to double their police force, and they did, by not running background checks and hiring wanted felons from other states as cops.
The parking garage for my complex had a sign up one night that said, “It’s gang initiation week, if you see someone driving with their lights off, don’t blink at them, they’ll shoot you”.
With all that turmoil in mind, I imagined how bad it could be if the US government fell apart. In my third novel, The End of the World, just that occurs! Unhuman creatures stalk terrified denizens in the parking garages.
The novel is available here

Join my email list on if you want to be notified when I release new work

Beware of underground parking garages during the apocalypse

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The Small Spaces in Time

The abandoned remnants of large commercial buildings always seem to host the ghostly remnants of the crowd that used to occupy them. I remember when I lived (as a kid) in white trash-northern Florida, an overgrown lot nearby my house held a long-shuttered mall complex. I used to hide in the tall wild grass surrounding it, smoke cigarettes, and listen to Metallica and Slayer on cassette.
Larger, more expansive sites flooded with travelers to unknown sights would only enhance that aura.

For my collection of short stories, ‘Down Highways In The Dark…By Demons Driven” I envision something sinister living in a long-abandoned airport that sleeping passengers sometimes awaken in.

 

You can check out the anthology here 

If you want to get notified when I release new work, sign up for my email list 

there are spooky corners we should never explore, and long forgotten creatures tha still feed off us.

 

 

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New cosmic horror anthology

My new cosmic horror anthology is now available on Amazon 
Barnes and Noble

and Google Play 

Heavily illustrated as usual, it includes 13 short stories by some of the biggest names in indie horror!

You can email me to get a signed copy

Join my newsletter to keep up with my latest releases! https://danhenk.com/newsletter

13 horrific, cosmic horror inspired stories by some of the biggest names in indie horror!

 

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My new anthology paperback debut!

My new nthology paperback debut! The anxiously anticipated second anthology by Deadguy LLC is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
You can contact him for more details and signed copies on his website!

A whole slew of some of the best authors in the indie world have contributed!
Jeff Strand

Robert Essig

Christine Morgan

Cody Goodfellow

Lucas Magnum

Ryan C. Thomas The Joke Is On Mankind

Patrick Lacey

Nat Robinson

Dicey Grenor

Terry Campbell

Tommy Clark

Merrill David

Dan Henk

13 short twisted tales all in that classic, Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Tales From The Crypt vibe, with a splash of cosmic horror thrown in!

The much awaited, heavily illustrated cosmic horror anthology The Joke is on Mankind

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