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The domino effect that can happen unexpectedly on a project is amazing. I'm currently working on a novel, writing an outline for a novella, and thinking about the pile of short stories I have gathered over the years.
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Suddenly my brain screamed, "Short stories? Hey, I should put together another collection!"
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And I will, but then it dawned on me that Black Bubbles was out of print. So first things first, let's get that back out for everyone.
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I then spent the next few days revamping the OG collection of short stories.
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Black Bubbles has a new cover, a refreshed interior, I've pulled the old intro, and cleaned up some notes — and learned how to use the new Kindle Create* along the way.
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*About that Kindle Create mention: the WYSIWYG systems for ebook creation have improved vastly and it was much quicker than the old html method. Why do I tell you? Because I've been hand coding html since the dawn of the internet (remember Horror-Web? Hand-coded html in notepad!). First websites went to blocks and drop/drag layout, now the ebooks have joined them. I guess I'm finally done playing with html. An end to an era in a sense, but also, yeah technology! As they say, grow and learn with the times, or die. Speaking of dying...
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In going through and editing the notes for Black Bubbles, I found I had referenced an old blog. Or rather, the question posed in an old blog. And it's an interesting question, so I'm bringing it back from the grave to ask again (with minor edits, since my world is all about edits this week). This was written at the end of season 1 of the Walking Dead, way back in the before times, circa 2010.
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What would you do?
There was a scene near the end of The Walking Dead (season 1). A scene which followed me out to the porch and became quite the discussion. A discussion that has been revisited several times over the years. Let’s do a little role playing first, to set the mood.
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It’s the zombie apocalypse, following your basic zombie guidelines:
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1 - If you die, you return as a zombie.
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2 - If you are bitten by or sprayed with the blood of the infected, you become a zombie.
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3 - The only way to stop a zombie permanently is to destroy the brain.
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It’s that last one that will come into play later.
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So, for those who didn’t watch the show, let’s put you in the situation. You have survived so far. For argument's sake, we’ll pretend you have a spouse and one child. You have stumbled upon a group of survivors. The group is mostly strangers, there are couples and quartets who were together, but the bulk of the group didn’t know each other before the apocalypse.
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One day, while you’re enjoying a moment of not crying, running or screaming, all hell breaks loose and there’s a zombie raid on your happy little camp. Your family member gets bitten. (Which family member may make a difference down farther. Consider both.)
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They will die and return.
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You can’t stop it, but you can watch it. You can hold their hand and wait for them to die and come back and then kill them. Or you can kill them now and skip watching them die twice. Your call really. But the scene that got me, the question that was born, is this:
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If you chose to let them die and come back—if your loved one was a zombie—would you kill them yourself, stubbornly stating how you wanted to take care of it? Or would you gladly hand the ax over to a stranger and let them do the deed?
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This started a massive conversation and I’m interested to see if it’s a gender thing or not. I love the hell out of my family, and zombie or not, I just don’t think I could let my last memory of them be ME smashing their brains out of their skull, and so I’d gladly let a stranger, or a friend if they volunteered, do it instead. The boys on the porch though, that was completely different and rang out in unison. They all seemed adamant that no one else would do it. It would be their responsibility and they would handle it as such. Me? Yeah, if someone else volunteers, they can have it. I loved this person pre-zombie. If I don’t have to do it, I won’t. The boys? They all insisted they’d do it themselves to make sure it was done right.
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So? What would you do? Could you cut the head off your girlfriend, boyfriend, or spouse? Your sibling? Your child? Zombie or not, you’re going to have to look at their face while aiming. You’re going to see their eyes… *shudder*
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Me? No way. How about you?
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Now don’t give me a gut reaction answer. Really think about this. Stop. Turn away from the screen. Look at or think of your loved ones. Think of the good things and happy times and sparkle in their eye. Now then, imagine they've been bitten and turned. Would you want to kill them yourself? Or would you willingly let someone else handle it for you?
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You can now leave comments on the bottom of the Newsletter page
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Thanks for reading and remember, a current inventory of personalized, signed books available to ship (direct from me and shipped to you) is available.
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