A new kind of terror

The first two parts of my zombie trilogy  are out there now. The third and concluding part will be out late October/early November and so maybe now is a good chance to jump in on the saga which is getting positive reviews. Take a dip into the zombiverse and you won't be disappointed as the story takes the reader to the edge of pur gut wrenching terror.

Both parts can be found by clicking your relevant region – US      UK

The story may, at first seem like your standard zombie apocalypse thriller but there’s so much more to it than that, and the trilogy will take the reader from the ordinary into Necropolis itself.

“Missy is also having dreams where the dead are talking to her, demanding, and she doesn’t understand what it means.
The author carries this segment of his story into new ground once again. His extremely readable prose has me wondering what he wil come up with in the third installment. I eagerly await it.” Amazon five star review

Some said it was viral.
Others claimed it was an act of God.
Either way the result was the same and the dead walked.
The story that started in the bestselling novella, The Dead Walked continues, as Missy and Johnny find themselves having to adjust to life in the land of the dead.

“Hey, if you love zombies (and who doesn’t) this is a fab read. The author is proving a master at several genres, all his novels are well worth reading.”

A story of survival
A story of Destiny
A story of true gut wrenching horror

“Simple but not boring i enjoyed the book more so because of the simplicity.I cannot wait for the next book to find out what happens to Missy,and her odd destiny,Johnny and of course the hybrid demon zombie thing! Is it time for them to die now they are surrounded by hordes of zombies? The worst one being trapped indoors with them? Need to know!” Five star Amazon review

Book 3 – Necropolis coming soon

It's close to midnight

The Dead Walked Book 2-Dead Days is officially published for the Kindle platform from midnight tonight, but given the workings of the KDP process the book can actually be downloaded immediately from Amazon UK and US.

To celebrate the release I have made the first book in the series free for the next two days-head over to your Amazon Vincent Stark page and get both books - that's two books for the price of one which surely can't be bad.

Beyond terror, beyond reality.

A world where the dead rule supreme.

"Zombie Sex dude, this one goes too far."

Ahh well, maybe I should market it as, Fifty Shades of Mould



Vincent Stark is a reclusive writer, who shuns all contact with the outside world. He has not been seen in public since 1979. Although, from time to time, there have been rumours of sightings of the author lurking in the shadows of the cemetery behind his dilapidated mansion house deep in the Rhondda Valley countryside.

It is said that he is suffering from a skin condition which is aggravated by sunlight and is thus forced into his twilight existence. There is much debate over his well known skill with, the Stylophone and his penchant for playing jazz phrases on his own podcast, Scary Motherfucker. Indeed Stark seems to have picked up this skill overnight and there is one urban legend of him visiting the crossroads one evening and selling his soul to the devil in exchange for his ability on the stylophone.

The devil has all the best tunes

 

This year will see the publication of the second novella in the Dead Walked trilogy and the author, showing the first signs of clawing his way back into the public consciousness, now has a Facebook page – please support the aging author by clicking like on his page, HERE

However for now Vincent Stark remains hidden away, his groceries delivered by a string of crucifix wearing delivery men and his bills paid by automatic withdrawal from the blood bank.

Beyond terror, beyond reality

To celebrate the publication of the second novella in the Dead Walked trilogy, book one is now free for a limited time.

Take a journey beyond terror, beyond reality.

Vinnie's back....

If you’ve not yet read my novel,  The Dead Walked, available on Amazon then now is the time to do so. The novella, the first in a trilogy is available to download at an incredibly low price and kicks off this trilogy of terror. Book Two will be published this coming Friday and continues the story, taking the reader into areas not usually covered by the zombie sub-genre.

It’s a new kind of storytelling that harks back to the golden age of serial fiction – a time when novellas, and not heavily padded five hundred page books,  were the norm.

September was her favourite time of the year, and late September, when the autumn was just preparing to hand over to winter, when there was still a residue of the late summer warmth in the air, as well as the crisp promise of the iciness to come, had always been, as far as Missy was concerned, the finest chunk of that particular month.

Not for her was the spectacle of high summer, nor the morose beauty of mid winter. Of course they both had their fineries but these paled next to the season when the leaves glittered with reflected sunlight. It was the autumn, with September being the highlight of that season, which she loved – a time when nature put on its finest display as the lush summer growth was magically transformed.
The sky itself seemed to glow at this time of year.
            September was a time of promise.
            A time of rebirth.
            Not this September, though.

This September, Missy would remember as, the time the dead walked.

Book two available now:

Book Three: Necropolis follows soon.

Get ready

Book Two published 17th August 2012

Still AVAILABLE - Book One

Sink or Swim - I'm taking the plunge

It's all change here at Archive Towers - well, it's actually my spare room but Archive Towers sounds cooler. I've been at this writing game for my entire life, and a lot of water's gone under the bridge since I saw my first novel published back in 2009. Immediately the book was accepted my Robert Hale and before the contract was signed I started promoting and the book benefited by topping many western charts. My second book, Arkansas Smith did even better and is still getting strong chart showings.

After that it was a slight departure and I saw my crime novel, A Policeman's Lot published first as an eBook and then in print by Solstice Publishing. The book didn't do as well as I'd expected and so I recently had my rights reverted and republished the book as The Rhondda Ripper on both Amazon and Smashwords, and you know what the book is doing much better. It's still to find the audience I think it deserves but I have faith.

My third western, The Ballad of Delta Rose came out from Robert Hale last year and in a few months my fourth,  Wild Bill Williams will see print. I am currently working on a book entitled The Afterlife of Slim McCord which will hopefully be my fifth book for the Black Horse group. I love writing the westerns and will continue to so so even if my current self pubbing activities are proving much more profitable.

And speaking of self pubbing - I have published a novella straight to Kindle which is a sequel to Arkansas Smith, and can currently be found on Amazon. Add to that you have The Dead Walked Book One written using the pen name Vincent Stark, with the second part coming out at the end of this month.


My latest book is a cozy crime thriller called Granny Smith Investigates and it is proving my first real self published hit - it's selling a few hundred copies a week which provides a healthy income.

I've been working towards this position for a long time and I've made some mistakes - particularly in self publishing where I learned not to rush product onto the market until they had been properly proofed. Still  the beauty of self pubbing is the ease in which editions can be revised, and by the time Granny Smith had gone off its free promotion, I had sorted out all the issues with the book.

And so I have now decided to take the plunge and devote myself full time to my writing, for only by giving 100% can I hope to grow and develop and take myself further in my chosen career path. I've been driving a taxi for several years and it does pay the bills, but it takes up a disproportionate amount of my time. And so I'm going to stick with it until the New Year - Christmas being a very profitable period - and then on JAN 1ST 2012 I am going to hand in my license and become a full time writer.

It's a scary prospect but if my sales remain as they are at the moment and I see no reason why they should not get better, then I can make a better than average living. I will also have the time to develop and grow as a writer And besides I'll still take the odd acting job when I can get it, but I am now at a point where if I do not allow myself the luxury of writing full time I feel my work will stagnate.


And that is not good - I'm a writer. I've been writing since I knew how and I feel that I am at the stage where if I put everything I have into it, I can make quantum leaps. And that's what I intend to do.

The Archive will be kept up as much as usual, hopefully improved upon because it is my hope that by providing good content I will encourage some of you to buy a book and support my work. I will also have more time to devote to my sister blog, Let's Write and hopefully this will provide a useful source for other writers. And of course there's old Vincent Stark's blog,  Scary Motherfucker to maintain. Blogs, social networks are, I think, or paramount importance to the modern writer.

There's also the fact that The Tarnished Star is still under development for a big screen version, which will be directed by Neil Jones under the title, LawMaster and hopefully this will get off the ground before too much longer.

Readers of the Archive can help by Tweeting, Blogging or leaving a review on Amazon when you enjoy any of my books. After all the Archive takes a heck of a lot of time to produce, so think of it as supporting this writer and thus this blog. It's one way of ensuring you get more and more of the eclectic shit the Archive serves up.

Anyway...wish me luck.


Available now:
Granny Smith Investigates
The Dead Walked Book One
Tarnished Star
The Ballad of Delta Rose
Arkansas Smith
Arkansas Smith II

And soon

Wild Bill Williams
The Walking Dead Book Two

Fearsome reboots

“We have a fantastic young design team and are putting together an international editorial team – a crew of new and original writers.”   


part two of out John Gilbert interview HERE

Batman's Dogs, Lumley's Coke and Shaun Hutson's Knickers....

Fear Magazine was spawned in 1988 and quickly became a favorite among fans of horror, fantasy and Sci-Fi – right from the start Fear was different from most other genre titles. It was more cerebral than most and was rare in that it had a fiction section which provided opportunities for new writers as well as featuring work from established voices. I was a huge fan of the mag, never missed an issue and this week I got to sit down with editor, John Gilbert to chat about Fear Magazine, as well as John’s other genre related activities.

CHECK OUT THE INTERVIEW WITH JOHN GILBERT HERE

Fear this

Horror fans of a certain age will remember Fear magazine – arguably the most intelligent and wide ranging genre magazine there’s ever been.  I was a huge fan  and remember being depressed for months when it folded. It didn’t seem right that the pretenders such as Dark Side and Shivers were still being published while the king had gone to the periodical graveyard.

So imagine my delight when this week I got to talk to the magazine’s guiding ghoul, Mr John Gilbert.
The interview will be presented here., and also on sister blog, Scary Motherfucker  later this week.
We’ll also have news of John’s  latest venture and a possible resurrection of Fear itself.

You won’t want to miss this:

The art of selling eBooks

For the last few days I have, in association with Amazon, been running a promotion where several of my titles are available for free download for a limited period.

 Now obviously I'll not make any money from this but I do believe the promotion is a success - in terms of gaining readers, some of which will hopefully come back for more, it has been a mega success. And besides money is not the motivator, if it were I'd find a far more lucrative use of my time than writing. For me I write because I do and to have people reading my books is always the chief concern.

At the time of writing there are still several days to run on the promotion and the total worldwide downloads per title stand at:

The Rhondda Ripper  700 downloads
Arkansas Smith II 768 downloads
The Dead Walked 1178 downloads

It is worth pointing out that The Rhondda Ripper is only on its second day of the promotion, while the other titles are going into their third. Now there are two things I want from this promotion - I am hoping that some of the readers leave a review, good or bad, on Amazon and also that many of these readers will return to my work - The second part of The Dead Walked trilogy is only a few weeks away and so if only a fraction of those who downloaded the freebie return for the paid for sequel I will be happy.

It's a new world out there and we are all struggling to make a dent in the eBook market. There'll be a lot of trial and error but rest assured we will be talking about both our successes and failures along the way. And at the end of it all, when the end is near and I face my final curtain, I will, at the very least be able to croon - I did it my way.

Available for FREE download now


The Dead Walked Book One by Vincent Stark
Arkansas Smith II: The Tumbleweed Trail by Jack Martin
The Rhondda Ripper by Gary M. Dobbs

It's as good as FREE...dead free, that is

For the next week my novella, The Dead Walked: Outbreak, the first in The Dead Walked trilogy is available at the special offer price of  $0.99 US and £0.77 UK. The book has been receiving great reviews and there has never been a better time to snap it up - in seven days it reverts back to its usual price.

GO GET IT.

CLICK IMAGE

Some said it was viral.
Others claimed it was an act of God.
Either way the result was the same and the dead walked.

September was her favourite time of the year, and late September, when the autumn was just preparing to hand over to winter, when there was still a residue of the late summer warmth in the air, as well as the crisp promise of the iciness to come, had always been, as far as Missy was concerned, the finest chunk of that particular month.
Not for her was the spectacle of high summer, nor the morose beauty of mid winter. Of course they both had their fineries but these paled next to the season when the leaves glittered with reflected sunlight. It was the autumn, with September being the highlight of that season, which she loved – a time when nature put on its finest display as the lush summer growth was magically transformed.
The sky itself seemed to glow at this time of year.
September was a time of promise.
A time of rebirth.
Not this September, though.
This September, Missy would remember as, the time the dead walked.


AND PLEASE LEAVE AN AMAZON REVIEW AFTER READING THE BOOK.



FROM THE REVIEWS:

Hey, if you love zombies (and who doesn't) this is a fab read. The author is proving a master at several genres, all his novels are well worth reading.
***

Vincent Stark, otherwise known as Gary Dobbs, presents a new look at the zombie story. A group of people trying to survive in a world gone nuts. Sound familiar. Of course.

But Stark has injected his own elements into the story. A pregnant woman and a plot thread I've not seen in a zombie story before. The ending threw a twist in and sets up the next part of the story, coming soon.

Zombie stories are not a type I read a lot of, but I've come to expect good stuff from Stark/Dobbs/Martin, whatever genre he writes in.
***
read a lot of zombie books,the dead walked is the best book i have read in a while cant wait the next instalment.

Ghouls and Goblins

Introducing Vincent Stark

Vincent Stark is a reclusive writer, who shuns all contact with the outside world. He has not been seen in public since 1979. Although, from time to time, there have been rumours of sightings of the author lurking in the shadows of the cemetery behind his dilapidated mansion house deep in the Rhondda Valley countryside.
It is said that he is suffering from a skin condition which is aggravated by sunlight and is thus forced into his twilight existence. There is much debate over his well known skill with, the Stylophone and his penchant for playing jazz phrases on his own podcast, Scary Motherfucker. Indeed Stark seems to have picked up this skill overnight and there is one urban legend of him visiting the crossroads one evening and selling his soul to the devil in exchange for his ability on the stylophone.

The devil has all the best tunes

December 2011 saw the  publication of a new novel, The Dead Walked and the author, showing the first signs of clawing his way back into the public consciousness now has a Facebook page – please support the author by clicking like on his page, HERE
However for now Vincent Stark remains hidden away, his groceries delivered by a string of crucifix wearing delivery men and his bills paid by automatic withdrawal from the blood bank.

My novella, The Dead Walked, the first in an all new trilogy, is available now at an incredibly low price.

Some said it was viral.
Others claimed it was an act of God.
Either way the result was the same and the dead walked.
September was her favourite time of the year, and late September, when the autumn was just preparing to hand over to winter, when there was still a residue of the late summer warmth in the air, as well as the crisp promise of the iciness to come, had always been, as far as Missy was concerned, the finest chunk of that particular month.
Not for her was the spectacle of high summer, nor the morose beauty of mid winter. Of course they both had their fineries but these paled next to the season when the leaves glittered with reflected sunlight. It was the autumn, with September being the highlight of that season, which she loved – a time when nature put on its finest display as the lush summer growth was magically transformed.
The sky itself seemed to glow at this time of year.
September was a time of promise.
A time of rebirth.
Not this September, though.
This September, Missy would remember as, the time the dead walked.
Download a free sample before you decide – HERE

The Dead Walked

My novella, The Dead Walked, the first in an all new trilogy, is available now at an incredibly low price.


Some said it was viral.
Others claimed it was an act of God.
Either way the result was the same and the dead walked.
September was her favourite time of the year, and late September, when the autumn was just preparing to hand over to winter, when there was still a residue of the late summer warmth in the air, as well as the crisp promise of the iciness to come, had always been, as far as Missy was concerned, the finest chunk of that particular month.
Not for her was the spectacle of high summer, nor the morose beauty of mid winter. Of course they both had their fineries but these paled next to the season when the leaves glittered with reflected sunlight. It was the autumn, with September being the highlight of that season, which she loved – a time when nature put on its finest display as the lush summer growth was magically transformed.
The sky itself seemed to glow at this time of year.
September was a time of promise.
A time of rebirth.
Not this September, though.
This September, Missy would remember as, the time the dead walked.

Download a free sample before you decide – HERE

VIDEO NASTY

Available now - HERE

HERE'S VINNIE....

Introducing Vincent Stark

Vincent Stark is a reclusive writer, who shuns all contact with the outside world. He has not been seen in public since 1979. Although, from time to time, there have been rumours of sightings of the author lurking in the shadows of the cemetery behind his dilapidated mansion house deep in the Rhondda Valley countryside.
It is said that he is suffering from a skin condition which is aggravated by sunlight and is thus forced into his twilight existence. There is much debate over his well known skill with, the Stylophone and his penchant for playing jazz phrases on his own podcast, Scary Motherfucker. Indeed Stark seems to have picked up this skill overnight and there is one urban legend of him visiting the crossroads one evening and selling his soul to the devil in exchange for his ability on the stylophone.

The devil has all the best tunes

 

This week saw  the publication of a new novel, The Dead Walked and the author, showing the first signs of clawing his way back into the public consciousness now has a Facebook page – please support the ageing author by clicking like on his page, HERE

However for now Vincent Stark remains hidden away, his groceries delivered by a string of crucifix wearing delivery men and his bills paid by automatic withdrawal from the blood bank.

The Dead Walked by Vincent Stark
  AVAILABLE NOW

Can we have your attention please....

AVAILABLE NOW: Book one in The Dead Walked trilogy
Written by Vincent Stark – check out Vinnie’s Amazon page HERE
The Dead Walked – a new kind of zombie thriller

 

 

Click on image

 And coming March 2012

Drum roll please...the dead are now walking

AVAILABLE NOW

My novella, The Dead Walked: Outbreak is NOW available for purchase from Amazon  as a KDP exclusive before becoming available on all other eFormats early next year. The Amazon deal means that the eBook is also available to prime customers for loan from Amazon's lending library.

The novella is my debut in the horror genre, following on from a string of bestselling westerns written under the name, Jack Martin and published by Robert Hale's Black Horse Westerns line.

For my work in the horror genre I adopted the name Vincent Stark as a nod to that flamboyant horror star, Vincent Price and the surname came from the fact that I'd been reading a lot of Richard Stark. The Dead Walked though is not the first sale for the Vincent Stark name - an upcoming issue of the iconic, Weird Tales will feature the short story, Back then our Monsters were Real which was also comes from Vincent's pen, .

Vincent Stark's sibling, Jack Martin

The Dead Walked: Outbreak

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 168 KB
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Gary Dobbs; 1 edition (18 Dec 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
• Language English
• ASIN: B006O0T89Y

US READERS FIND IT HERE
UK READERS FIND IT HERE

Some said it was viral.
Others claimed it was an act of God.
Either way the result was the same and the dead walked.

September was her favourite time of the year, and late September, when the autumn was just preparing to hand over to winter, when there was still a residue of the late summer warmth in the air, as well as the crisp promise of the iciness to come, had always been, as far as Missy was concerned, the finest chunk of that particular month.
Not for her was the spectacle of high summer, nor the morose beauty of mid winter. Of course they both had their fineries but these paled next to the season when the leaves glittered with reflected sunlight. It was the autumn, with September being the highlight of that season, which she loved – a time when nature put on its finest display as the lush summer growth was magically transformed.
The sky itself seemed to glow at this time of year.
September was a time of promise.
A time of rebirth.
Not this September, though.
This September, Missy would remember as, the time the dead walked.

The second eBook, Dead Days will be published March 2012 and I'm pleased to be able to give you a look at the cover art for the second volume. The man responsible for the cover is once again Tony Masero, and he's managed to fully capture the mayhem and er, boobs of the zombie apocalypse.

And so take a look at the stunning artwork for the forthcoming second volume and go out and buy THE DEAD WALKED BY VINCENT STARK

.

Visceral Images

The Dead Walked Book One: Outbreak will be available exclusively from Amazon for 90 days and should be on sale from Amazon’s Kindle store tomorrow, and will also be available from the Kindle lending library.

Early next year the book will also be available in all other eFormats.

The novella is the first in The Dead Walked Trilogy.
The cover art was done by Tony Masero, an artist whose works has graced the covers of many a book – I came to know Tony from his work on the Edge western series but he has over the years done many horror novels including books by James Herbert and Dean Koontz.

Check out Tony’s work HERE



And below is look at what went into the creation of the cover art for The Dead Walked, and what’s more later this week I will reveal Tony’s cover art for The Dead Walked Book Two which will see print next March.

The Digital Dead

I’m not really any good at  video games, never have been and couldn’t get around more than a couple of levels of Pacman and at Space Invaders  I was terrible – those alien gits always managed to destroy my houses and reach the bottom of the screen – GAME OVER. However from time to time I do like to pick up the X-Box  for a little slice of zombie splattering. And the range of zombie themed games is immense, for just as the walking dead have occupied our movie theaters for decades then so too have the digital dead claimed their place in the video gaming world. They’ve been here for a long time and have developed since the first zombie video game, Zombie Zombie which was released for the ZX Spectrum back in 1984.

The Wiki lists many dozens of zombie themed video games and I’ve never even seen most of them, let alone played them,  but below are just a few of the zombie games I have played  and would recommend to anyone who is in the mood for some not so gentle zombie bashing.

Resident Evil – Racoon City, population 100,000, was  a small mid-western town that thanks to the Umbrella Corporation has become overrun by the walking dead. This was, and still is, a great shoot em up game with just the right amount of puzzled. Progress is relatively easy and it always seems as if you are moving forward and of course there are hordes of undead to shoot, bash and splatter.
Red Dead Redemption, Undead Nightmare – this game takes two cool genres – the western and the zombie blaster – and sticks them in a pot, gives them a good stir and sets them free. An excellent game but the  original Red Dead Redemption was addictive enough, and now with zombies on the horizon the game is even more compelling.
Dead Rising is another addictive zombie game with some great gory sequences. The action takes place in Romero style in a shopping mall and for that fact alone I like it. There’s a lot of humour in this one and the range of objects you can use as weapons is bizarre - fancy bashing a zombie with a frying pan!

Call of Duty World at War: Nazi zombies – you can’t really escape the Call of Duty series at the moment and the zombie nazi mode in Call of Duty is great fun, particularly in multi-player. It’s basically a frantic shoot em up as you hide in a bunker and face off against wave after wave of nazi zombies.

Ghosts and Goblins – OK now this is one game that I did master and that was way back in the days of the Commodore 64. It’s a sideways scrolling shoot em up, jump over em. It may look old fashioned these days but it’s still compelling and it was great fun back in the day. Those zombies at the start of the game looked cute rather than scary but man this was fun and still provides retro gaming thrills.

My novella , The Dead Walked Book One: Outbreak is officially published early next year, but in an exclusive deal with Amazon will be available as a Kindle only title for 90 days.
The book will be available to purchase later this week.

Some said it was viral.
Others claimed it was an act of God
Either way, it mattered not, for the dead shall walk.

September was her favourite time of the year, and late September, when the autumn was just preparing to hand over to winter, when there was still a residue of the late summer warmth in the air, as well as the crisp promise of the iciness to come, had always been, as far as Missy was concerned, the finest chunk of that particular month.
Not for her was the spectacle of high summer, nor the morose beauty of mid winter. Of course they both had their fineries but these paled next to the season when the leaves glittered with reflected sunlight. It was the autumn, with September being the highlight of that season, which she loved – a time when nature put on its finest display as the lush summer growth was magically transformed.
The sky itself seemed to glow at this time of year.
September was a time of promise.
A time of rebirth.
Not this September, though.
This September, Missy would remember as, the time the dead walked.

Walkers, Walkers everywhere 3 - I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

Released during the very real horrors of World War II this was the second horror film from producer, Val Lewton, the first being the iconic Cat People, and if you think Seth Graham Smith was the first to mix zombies and the classics with Pride and Prejudice with Zombies then think again. Lewton adjusted the original script to be a loose adaptation of Jane Eyre. Lewton borrowed the story, which is set in a plantation, from Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, but set in it on the island of St. Sebastian. Betsy Connell (Frances Dee), an innocent and pure Canadian nurse, accepts a position on the troubled Holland family plantation and in the best creaky old horror film fashion all is not what it seems.


Ignore the cheesey title which makes it sound like a film along the lines of, I was a Teenage Werewolf because I Walked is, like Cat People before it, a cut above most of RKO’s horror content. It went unappreciated by the critics of the day with the New York Times calling it dull and disgusting, but over the years it has rightly attained classic status and is these days regarded as one of Lewton’s best films, if not superior to The Cat People it is at least its equal. The voodoo element of the film is cleverly understated and it is not clear to the viewer if Jessica Holland, wife of the plantation owner, is actually under a supernatural spell or the victim of some strange tropical illness. Modern viewers may find it slow but it is one of the best pre-Romero zombie movies. There’s also a great joke when the disclaimer in the opening credits about the characters and events presented in the film denies any similarity to “actual persons, living, dead or possessed”.

Well worth seeking out.

Want an all new zombie fix -


The Dead Walked by Vincent Stark

Some said it was a virus
Others called it an act of God
Either way the result was the same when the dead walked