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Friday, December 21, 2012

The Next Big Thing!

I am excited to be participating in this blog hop (my first one!)  Thanks to ML Katz for tagging me last week!  Be sure to check out her post-apocalyptic book Raft People!

The rules of the blog hop are to mention the person that tagged you, answer some similar questions, and then tag some additional authors to keep the blog hop going!

The theme of this blog hop is "The Next Big Thing", which is about an upcoming work.  I have decided to discuss some details about the next book in my Contamination series (Book 2) which will be called Crossroads.  I plan to release it around Jan/Feb of 2013.

What is the working title of your next book?  Contamination Book Two: Crossroads.  

Where did you get the idea for your new book?  I have always been a fan of the post-apocalyptic and zombie genres.  In this book, I expand on some of the "conspiracy" themes of the first several books in the series.  I have always enjoyed seeing people from different backgrounds come together—in this case the survivors of the first two books.  It is fun to envision how they would interact and survive!

Can you give us a one-sentence synopsis of your book?  Two groups of survivors converge in the place where it all began; forced to face hordes of the infected.  They soon realize the undead are the least of their worries. (Sorry—that was two sentences!)

If you plan to publish, will you be self-published or traditionally published?  Self-published.  Go indie!

How long did it take you to complete your first draft?  Still in progress.  However, I am more than halfway through.  It has taken a few months so far.

What other books would you compare this to?  The most obvious comparison would be the previous two books in the series.  Other than that, Dean Koontz.  I was a huge Koontz fan growing up.  I'd like to say there are comparisons to his works, but that may be a stretch!

What inspired this book?  The initial inspiration for the book was a single character: Sam Cook (the storeowner from Book One).  It was a lot of fun getting inside his head.  I think the story spawned from a combination of envisioning his character, and then creating the setting of White Mist.  The zombies were an afterthought.

What might pique the reader's interest even more?  I'll end off with a small excerpt from Crossroads.  **SPOILER ALERT**  If you have already read the first two books, or are interested in reading them, you may want to skip this part.


The man spat on the storeowner.  Sam wiped his face, grit his teeth, pressed the blade further into his neck.  The man started to laugh.

“There is no escape.  You’ll all be infected soon, anyhow.” 

“Are you responsible for all this?  Did you poison all these people?”

Sam felt his blood begin to boil.

“Humanity’s fate has always been sealed,” the man said.  “We’ve just given you an expiration date.”

“You’re sick!” the storeowner yelled.

The man’s smile faded, and his eyes narrowed into slits.

“As soon as you let me up, I’m going to kill all three of you.  You know that, don’t you?  You’re as good as dead.”

Sam raised the knife over his head, watching as the man began to laugh again.  He thought of the young man that had just been killed, of all the others that had been infected—of Kendall.  In spite of all that, could he kill this man in cold blood?  He didn’t think so. 

He began to loosen his grip on the blade.  The man’s laughing persisted, blood now spilling out of his mouth and onto his chin.  Without warning, the man’s arm shot up towards the storeowner, vying for the blade.

Sam plunged the knife deep into the man’s chest, twisting the handle until he felt it scrape against bone.  The man’s eyes widened, and he gasped for breath.  A ring of blood radiated outwards from the center of his lab coat.  Sam’s fingers slipped off the handle and onto the grass, and he choked back the urge to vomit.

Shouts erupted from the top of the hill, and the storeowner stumbled to his feet.  Delta and Noah were staring at him in shock.

“Run!” he yelled. 

Thanks for taking the time to read this post, and thanks again to ML Katz for the tag!

Tag - You're It!  Authors with Works In Progress:

Terah Edun - Check out Red Madrassa, the first book in the Algardis Series from this YA Fantasy author, as well as the short story Flight Feathers which is now FREE!  She is also a GRIMM fan so you can't go wrong!

Meinos Kaen - Author of the Proud Parents Blog (S-Class) with an upcoming book S-Class in March 2013.  Check out his author page and pick up the book on Amazon!







Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Contamination Prequel FREE for 3 days!!

The Contamination prequel is now FREE on Amazon from 12/19/12 - 12/21/12!  Please grab a copy, and be sure to tell everyone you know!  Happy Holidays!
Sunday, November 18, 2012

Contamination Prequel will be out this week!

Contamination Book Zero should be live by the end of the week!  This serves as a prequel to the series, and introduces new characters in a small fictional town in Arizona.  It also provides more insight into the cause of the contamination.

I am looking forward to sharing this story, and in continuing the series.

Book Two: Intersection is about 20% complete, and I hope to have it out in Dec/Jan!

Best,
T.W. Piperbrook  





Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Contamination Book One is live!!!

Wow.  I can't believe my little novella is finally seeing the light of day.  On Monday night, I hit "publish" for the first time on Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble.  I can't tell you what an amazing feeling that was!

The novella started as an idea I had over the summer—probably about mid-June.  I still remember putting the first words on paper, and how amazing it felt to be writing again.  It is crazy to see my little idea come to fruition!

If you are reading this post, thank you so much for taking an interest in my journey.  I am eternally grateful!

-T.W. Piperbrook

Saturday, October 13, 2012

A Lifelong Dream


My writing “career” first began in the 80’s.  At the time, I was either eight or nine years old. 

Around that time, I remember taking a walk with my father in a local reservoir—talking about various life events.  The subject somehow turned to a series of fantasy novels that he had loved since childhood.  He began to tell me about the characters—a short, determined hero with hairy feet named Bilbo Baggins, a bearded wizard named Gandalf, and a creature named Gollum.  I was immediately hooked.  Where could I find these stories, I asked him?  My Dad ended up taking me to Waldenbooks (I know, I’m dating myself here).   I started off reading The Hobbit, and quickly devoured the Lord of the Rings trilogy in its entirety.  At the time, I was in 2nd grade.  I can’t promise that I understood everything I had read—there were a lot of big words for an eight-year old.  But reading that series changed my life.  I still remember the covers of those novels.  In fact, I’m pretty sure they’re still up in my dad’s attic. 

My love affair with reading continued.   Books, magazines—anything I could get my hands on.   I remember inheriting my uncle’s collection of Hardy Boy mystery books sometime around then.  The covers were ripped, and the pages were yellow and smelled funny.  I read the whole series. 

 It was around this time that I tried my hand at writing.  I would fill entire notebooks with stories—I even cleaned out one of my bureau drawers just to hold them in.  When I got a little older, I began to submit them to publishing houses.  Somewhere, I have a pile of rejection letters addressed to my eleven-year old self.  I can recall one of them, and it makes me chuckle to this day.  It may have been from Bantam Books.

Thank you for your submission.  You are very ambitious for an eleven-year old!  “George and the Robot” is a very intriguing story, and George is quite a likeable character, but unfortunately we aren’t accepting any unsolicited submissions at this time.  Good luck, and keep on writing!

Someday soon, I am going to dig them out for a laugh.  I’m pretty sure I saved them!

Now, twenty years later, I will finally share one of my stories with the world.  I can’t tell you how exciting it is to have this opportunity.  The Internet has changed many things—in this case for the better.  Clearly, the e-book revolution has turned the industry on its head.  The “new world of publishing” puts the power in the hands of the reader (where it belongs), rather than a small group of individuals at a publishing house.  I will always have a love for physical books, but I am eternally grateful to have been given the chance to share my writing with others.

With that said, thank you for taking an interest in my humble journey.  No matter what follows, I am excited to see my lifelong dream come true.

Feel free to drop me a line with your questions, comments, or rude gestures (as one of my middle-school teachers would say).  

-TW Piperbrook

Work in Progress



ALIVE AGAIN BOOK 3 (OUT NOW!)

63042 / 63042 words. 100% done!

POST APOC PROJECT (FIRST DRAFT)

46314 / 46314 words. 100% done!

The Ruins Box Set w/ Bonus Novella!

About Me

T.W. Piperbrook lives in Connecticut with his wife and son. He is the author of the CONTAMINATION series, the OUTAGE series, and co-author of THE LAST SURVIVORS. In his former lives, he has worked as as a claims adjuster, a touring musician, and a business analyst for a Fortune 500 company. Now he spends his days fighting zombies, battling werewolves, and roaming the cities of the Ancients.

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