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Zombie Detective Excerpt 3

Your Thirteenth Literary Gift Andy Zach Newsletter Zombie Detective Audiobook

Zombie Detective Excerpt 3 – I’m sharing this THIRD excerpt of my book Zombie Detective with you, my readers. Enjoy!

Kindle Publishing
Sam Melvin, Zombie Detective

Do you want excerpt 1? Click here to Meet Zombie Detective Sam Melvin.

Do you want excerpt 2? Click to read Secret Blog Post – Excerpt of Zombie Detective

Do you want to listen to the audiobook? Click here for Zombie Detective Audiobook Preview.

P.S. I give away free books for any comments on the excerpt. Just click here.

Chapter 3 – Turkeys

Secret Blog Post
Sam Melvin, dealing with Zombie Turkeys

“Me too. Now that’s over, let’s talk business. About Maryland.”

“What’s going on, Lisa?”

“After the zombie turkey apocalypse, they kept a flock of wild zombie turkeys for hunters. Maryland’s gotten great tourist trade from that. The recent bad weather on the East Coast has kept the hunters down, and the turkeys are out of control. They’re hunting people in the suburbs of Hagerstown.”

“What can I do about that? That’s a problem for the National Guard. I’m a lover, not a fighter.”

“Yes, I know. The governor, Mary Landis, called me begging for your help. They can’t find the turkeys. I promised her that you’ve got a nose for zombie turkeys and you’ll find their hideouts in no time flat. They’re paying you two thousand per day for this, so don’t screw up. I’ve booked an evening flight to Hagerstown from the Peoria airport at six p.m. That gives you an hour to get there. Starting now.”

Zombie Detective, by Andy Zach

Zombie Detective Excerpt 3 – Part 2


The captain put up a map on the wall-sized video screen. It was dotted with little black symbols and bigger red ones. Looking closely, Sam saw they were miniature turkeys.

“The small black symbols are where we’ve found turkeys. The large red ones are where we fought them. The battles are all on the west side of Hagerstown. And so are all the turkeys we’ve found in the woods.”

Sam walked to the screen and peered closely at the symbols. “Hmmm. Look at the turkey attacks, Captain. Do you see the pattern?”

“It’s kind of a semicircular tangent to Hagerstown. What does that mean?”

“See this attack near Cearfoss Pike? Then this one on Fairview Road? Look how they follow the Conococheague Creek. All these attacks in Fairview Acres—it’s surrounded by a big loop of the creek.”

“So they’re following the creek.”

“Yes. Even zombie turkeys need water. And I’m sure there are lots of trees and brush around it.”

“So much so we haven’t bothered investigating the banks.”

“That’s where we’ll go then.”

From Zombie Detective, by Andy Zach

Zombie Detective Excerpt 3 – Part 3

Your Thirteenth Literary Gift
Zombie Detective Excerpt 3

After killing hundreds of hibernating turkeys later, they got a comm: “All units proceed to MD-40. Major turkey attack underway in Cearfoss, Maryland.”

“Crap. That’s past their previous attack in Fairview Acres. They’re getting closer to Hagerstown,” Jeff said.

Sam gunned the engine, and they mushed uphill to the access road where the MRAP awaited them. Jimmy trotted behind them. Another MRAP picked up Amy.

Sam drove a quarter-mile into the woods, when the first zombie turkey flew into his face, spurs first. They scratched the tough Plexiglas on his helmet.

“Gobble! Gobble!”

Sam speared the bird on his twelve-inch knife and continued to plow toward the MRAP. Hundreds of turkeys descended from the trees. Sam ran over some, pounding them into the snow. Jeff shot them with his M4 carbine. Sam again gunned the engine as he hit level ground. The flock followed them, pecking at their backs, as they hunkered down on the eight-wheeled vehicle.

Zombie Detective Excerpt 3 – Part 4

First Draft Complete
Zombie Detective Excerpt 3
Zombie Turkeys fly to escape to Zombie Turkey hunters

Sam had often thought zombie turkey victims looked like they had been assaulted by hundreds of pickaxes. Now he felt their beaks cut through his parka, slowly bleeding him to death. The cold air congealed his blood quickly. Next to him, Jeff had fixed a bayonet on his M4 carbine and sliced wildly, beating off the turkeys.

He saw the MRAP ahead and sped toward it. The flamethrower shot liquid flame over his head. He felt the heat on his exposed bloody skin.

Weak and faint from blood loss, Sam parked next to the MRAP as the flames shot out overhead. Jeff jumped out and opened the rear of the vehicle. Sam fell off into the soft snow between the vehicles. His last sight before losing consciousness was a huge tom turkey stalking toward him.

“Gobble! Gobble!”

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Andy Zach

Andy Zach in repose
Zombie Detective Excerpt 3
Andy Zach in repose
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Labor Day Potpourri from Author Andy Zach

Labor Day Potpourri from Author Andy Zach. “What’s potpourri?” you ask.

Labor Day Potpourri
Take your cat to work day

It’s whatever I’ve found over the past month or so on the internet.

First, from Facebook, it’s take your cat to work day.

What’s ‘Labor Day’? It’s the US holiday where we celebrate workers by giving them a day off.

Sam Melvin goes from reporter to detective. Zombie detective.

Zombie Detective  cover
Labor Day Potpourri
Zombie Detective cover

Click to get it! On sale for .99 from September 3rd to 10th.

You can get a signed copy with free shipping and no taxes from me by clicking right here!

You can also get an audiobook here: Grab a free listen.

Or you can get a free book by joining my newsletter. Click here.

Labor Day Potpourri – Get Some Libraries Here

Labor Day Potpourri

I love libraries. Do you? Let me know.

Where do you think this one is?

Answer below.

The Royal Portuguese Reading Room or Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, is a public library in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Elected the fourth most beautiful library in the world by Time magazine, it has the largest collection of Portuguese literature outside Portugal.

How about this library? Where is it and how big is it?

The clock is ticking.

The answer is next.


The largest library collection in the world is the British Library in London, with a range from 170 to 200 million items! Recognized for its history and architecture, it contains copies of every book produced in the United Kingdom and Ireland, in multiple languages and formats in print and digital. Before its establishment as the British Library, this collection of materials and books was a part of the British Museum until 1973. The Library is recognized as a research library, so it also contains scripts, databases, maps, and more in addition to its extensive book collection. Every year, another 3 million or so reading materials are added into the British Library!

Slang terms from the 1930s

Don’t you hate it when some kaylied up nogoodnik blows your wig at the juke? If you’ve ever been there, or if you have no idea what that means, here are 20 slang terms from the 1930s that you can floss.

Given that the suffix nik denotes a person associated with something, nogoodnik is, expectedly, a word for someone who’s nothing but trouble.

The largest number we have a name for is the googolplex, or 10 raised to the 10^100 power. In the 1930s, people had a less precise approach to unfathomable quantities—they used bazillion to exaggerate large and indefinite numbers of things.The 1930s-era slang term ‘blow one’s wig’ has a couple of meanings. / John M Lund Photography Inc/DigitalVision/Getty Images

A bazillion of something, whether dollars in your bank account or cars in a line of traffic, might make you blow your wig. In the former situation, the phrase would refer to feelings of happiness or excitement, but according to Cassell’s Dictionary of Slangblowing one’s wig could also refer to someone feeling furious—which could definitely be the case in the latter situation.

(More here)

Labor Day Potpourri – My Favorite Videos This Month

The little truck that could

And another favorite video/audio pair.

He transcribed this piece and then performed it.

Russian pianist Vasily Kurachen transcribed this piece from Vladimir Horowitz’s recording and then performed it. Pay attention to the amazed expressions of the orchestra members. What did Horowitz’s recording sound like?

Like this:

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Your August SciFi and Fantasy Books and Reviews

Your August SciFi and Fantasy Books and Reviews. These are books I’ve read and reviewed this month, or someone else has.

I finished my most recent review the other day on Goodreads:

Your August SciFi > In Enemy Hands

My Review

This is the sixth book in the series. See the next review for the first book in the series.

August 14, 2023

Author David Weber is certainly not nice to his heroine Honor Harrington. She’s had her boyfriend murdered, lost an eye, and had a building she funded collapse and kill 50+ people, mostly children. This is after sexual abuse and attempted rape while she was in the space academy.

But it gets worse in this book. She gets ambushed and while leading her pursuers astray to protect a convoy, she gets captured. Then she gets handed to group of sadistic captors. And her best friends are also captured. And a man she trusted betrays her.

Doesn’t look good. But how it turns out makes this book one of the best in the series.

Andy Zach, Author 10 books, 87 followers

Your August SciFi > On Basilisk Station

My Review

This is the first book in David Weber’s series. I recommend reading them in order. I’ve got them all reviewed.

It’s been six years since I last read this book. This is the third time I’ve read it and I enjoyed it just as much as ever.

Honor Harrington just got her first command of the light cruiser Fearless. She’s 5 years younger than her executive officer Allistair McKeon and he hates her for it. But he’s just the start of her problems.

The admiral in charge of new weapons has halved her missiles in exchange for a grav lance. It’s a deadly weapon, but it only works at close range. Too bad the lightly armored cruiser is unlikely to survive any close-range encounters. Basically, the light cruiser is crippled, with only half of its offensive power.

Honor manages to use the grav lance once to destroy a superdreadnought in fleet practice maneuvers, but everyone then is out to destroy her. So the ship gets destroyed endlessly in fleet practice, depressing the crew.

Then the ship is assigned to the backwater of Basilisk Station. There the commanding officer, Pavel Young, was beaten up by Honor while they were in the Space Academy together because he tried to rape her. He had to apologize for sexual innuendo, but no one knew the full reason for his beating. He hates her guts.

Then he leaves her in charge of the entire station while he takes his ship to be repaired. It’s too much for one light cruiser to fulfill all the responsibilities, so she’s sure to fail and get a black mark on her record.

Only no one tells Honor that. This is where the story gets good.

Don’t miss this book or the series.

Andy Zach
Author 10 books, 87 followers, July 20, 2023

Your August Scifi and Fantasy And My Review

July 30, 2023

I think this is the third time I’ve read this book over the 20 years since it was written and each time I understand more and like it more.

Patricia McKillip writes fantasies and she writes them as mysteries. She doesn’t ever explain the magic that gets used. You have to figure out what’s going on. She doesn’t have conventional villains or protagonists. Very often they seem to switch roles unexpectedly.

In this book, she begin with a classic trope: a princess from a magical kingdom (Sidonie) has to marry a prince (Ronan) from another magical kingdom to cement an alliance. She doesn’t want to be forced into the marriage, but she dutifully goes along with it to save her kingdom from war.

The kingdoms powerful wizard is recuperating from a terrible battle and he sends his apprentice (Gyre) with her to protect her. He’s a very talented wizard in his own right.

They get to the Forest of Serre without incident and then everything goes haywire as the magic of Serre affects them.

Andy Zach

Author 10 books

87 followers

Free August SciFi Books for you!

Let me know what you think of these books or other ones and I’ll give you a free ebook!

I’ve got a group promo for you! Click here to get your 51 free SciFi books! Offer good until September 17th.

You can also get free audiobooks! Claim yours by clicking here! This will subscribe you to my newsletter. Which books do I give away? Most of them!

First, I’ll cover my zombie turkey apocalypse parody, The Life After Life Chronicles.

Zombie Turkeys – click to laugh!

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Your August SciFi

Then you have Zombie Detective

Where reporter Sam Melvin becomes an amateur detective specializing in zombies.

My Undead Mother-in-law


Next we have:

My Undead Mother-in-law

What happens when your mother-in-law becomes and unkillable zombie?

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Your August SciFi

Up next is Paranormal Privateers Click to listen

The zombies are sent around the world by Presidential decree to fight US enemies.

After that, you’ve got Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse

Following my Life After Life Chronicles, we go to my disabled teen superhero series, we have two audiobooks.

Secret Supers is available in Audible for free if you subscribe or if you’re from the United Kingdom.

The next book in the series is Villain’s Vacation, the second of my three Secret Supers books.

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Your August SciFi

Finally, my third book, Secret Supers in Space, just came out this year!

Click here to get an autographed copy now.

Click here to get an ebook or paperback from Amazon.

For all free audiobooks, click here to get them from me.