Zachary Adams's Blog, page 3

Tomahawk – Chapter 2

Frank Garraghan, the President of the United States, or POTUS, slammed the phone into the receiver. The phone broke in two, which was unfortunate because it was the same phone Woodrow Wilson used to order the American spy in Sarajevo to have the Black Hand organization murder Sophie, Archduchess of Hohenberg, wife of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. It was unfortunate that the Black Hand organization targeted the Archduke as well and therefore sparked World War I, because all Woodrow Wilson really w...

Tomahawk – Chapter 1

“Fuck off, Mr. President.”

Tomahawk “Tom” (Codename: “Hawk”) Abrams slammed the phone down into the receiver. He hated being interrupted at work.

He looked around the office. His manager’s chair—a black mid-back mesh with a large, cracked indent in the leather of the seat—was pulled away from the double-pedestal cherry desk. His manager had left in a hurry. Hawk didn’t wonder why.

He looked up. There were pencils embedded in the popcorn ceiling. Being an utter man-child, his manager had bent...

Firebird, book two of the Tomahawk series, to be released this August!

Chapter 1

“Nipples. It just can’t be. It’s impossible.”

Tomahawk “Tom” (Codename: “Hawk”) Abrams looked into the rear-view mirror of the Pontiac Firebird as he flew through space. Fear widened the whites of his eyes. In the rear-view reflection he saw the gigantic water tower-looking, jellyfish mothership of an alien species. The Rhaokin, as the aliens were called, were friendly, highly technologically advanced, and surprisingly similar to humans. Their mothership was less typical than what h...

How I use Photoshop, Amazon KDP, and CreateSpace to publish my books

So self-publishing can be a pain.On the one hand, validation is hard to come by when you’re self published. On the other hand, however, sales can come as fast as you want. Plenty of times in the past I’ve been asked how I push my books out.So here it is. The quick guide to publishing your own book on kindle.

1. Begin writing a book.

Sounds easy enough, which it should be. But I want you to note my phrasing. Begin writing a book.

If you’re at all like me, beginning a book is easy, and dreaming...

Why Deadly Premonition’s story is great and is a good study on storytelling

Deadly Premonition (Xbox 360, and probably other systems) is weird. But if you liked the first season ofTrue Detective withMatthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, you’ll like it.

First things first: If you want to play it, play it on easy mode. I say this not because the game is hard, but because the bad guys only take longer to kill. The game can drag, so play it on easy to enjoy the story.

The game starts off similarly toTrue Detective. There is a strange, cult-like murder of a young woma...

The Science of Twists

I think all twists can be narrowed down to a very specific scenario. I’ve narrowed it down to a positive and negative (like magnets, not good or bad) of Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.I use this guide when coming up with my twists. I’ve been asked how I can cram so many twists into such short stories, well this is how I do it. I think I understand theScience of Twists in an unusual way, which I’m, for the first time, sharing below.

Warning!The Science of Twistscontains a ton of spoilers...

Can you write a book and also have time to play video games?

Great question. Honestly, it’s something I’ve asked myself time and time again:

Can you write a book and also have time to play video games?

Well, as a professional writer, obviously the more time I spend writing, the better. I, however, like many people with short attention spans, occasionally burn out while writing.If I’m writing an especially engaging portion of astory, I can usually stay hyper-focused and muscle through it. On the other hand, when it’s a rough patch where every word is pu...

What makes a person lucky?

If we could do some sort of study, I wonder how many people who win Fantasy Football would consider themselves “lucky” over people who lose.

For instance, if you were to win your fantasy football league but lose your phone, wallet, and keys, would you consider yourself “lucky” when asked? What if you lost Fantasy Football, but you won ten-thousand dollars? What about if you only won a grand? What about just one hundred measly dollars?

What is the nature of luck? If you win five hundred dollar...

Twenty-three writing tips. About half are worth your consideration.

So I promised in my last post (30 seconds before posting this) that I would talk about my upcoming book.

But I changed my mind.

Instead, here is a list of my writing tips that I’ve been compiling as I write since 2010:

1. Do not write at home.

2. Do NOT write at home.

3. If you must write at home DO NOT work where you sleep.

4. Write and read everyday.

5. Do NOT edit until you’ve completely finished your first draft. You can edit small things, spelling errors and character errors, but do NOT...

Blogging style

So newsflash, even though I’m a writer, I make dumb grammar and spelling errors all the time.

So if you spot one here, please let me know, but don’t think that I don’t know how to write.

Also, I’m working on a new book and it hopefully won’t be as disturbing as The Heretical Nine. I will write more about it in my next blog post

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