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Free Zombie Detective Excerpt – Why?

Your Thirteenth Literary Gift Andy Zach Newsletter Zombie Detective Audiobook

Free Zombie Detective Excerpt is here. But why am I giving you this? Because this week, April 7-14, my book is on sale for .99. Get your copy here right now! Clickety-click! Enjoy!

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

Chapter 1 – Laid Off

From Zombie Detective, by Andy Zach
Your Thirteenth Literary Gift

“Sam, you’re fired.” Lisa’s green eyes met his brown ones.

“What? Lisa, you and I have worked together at the Midley Beacon for ten years! And we’ve known each other for fifteen!  And we’ve been married almost two months!”   

“Sorry Sam. Romance has to take a back seat to finances. Ever since the bottom dropped out of the zombie turkey news market since the first of the year, the Midley Beacon hasn’t made enough to pay your salary.”

“But that’s our salary. We share and share alike.”

“We can still live on my salary. And you can apply for unemployment, now that you’re fired.”  

“But what’ll I do all day? I can only play Fortnight for so long.”

“What did you do before I hired you, ten years ago? What did you do while I was in college?”

“Uh, mow lawns. Handyman repair. Stuff like that. But I’m a grown man now. I want more.”

“Hmm, you are a decent reporter.”

“Thanks Lisa. That’s high praise from you.”

“Well it’s the truth. You’ve grown from a crappy reporter, like 99% of all reporters, to well above average. I did lay off everyone else on the staff before you, you know.”

Free Zombie Detective Excerpt – Part 2

Your Thirteenth Literary Gift Andy Zach Newsletter Zombie Detective Audiobook
Audiobook cover – click to listen.

“Aw, you’re making me feel warm and mushy.”

“That’s part of good management, emotional manipulation.”

“Uh, you mean you don’t mean it?”

“Nah, I mean it. Emotional manipulation is much more effective if you’re sincere.  Say, why don’t you call Andy Zach and see if he has some royalties to share. We signed a contract with him to get half the royalties from his book Zombie Turkeys. We supplied more than half his source material right from the pages of the Midley Beacon.”

“I just called him yesterday. His sales haven’t paid for the cover yet, let alone the editing.”

“I told him to go with traditional publishing!”

“He’d still be trying to get an agent, let alone publishing his book. Who wants to represent a zombie turkey author?”

“So think of something to do with your reporting and investigative skills. That’s your first job. Get out of here and work on it at home. When I come home tonight, I want a decision from you. That’s a deadline.”

“Ok, Lisa. And thanks. You know I work best under a deadline.”

“Sure dear. We’ll go out for dinner tonight to celebrate your new career, whatever it will be.”

“I’m kind of tired of McDonalds.”

“We’ll spurge. We’ll go to the big city of Peoria. Maybe to the Country Time Buffet.”

“Wow. Thanks, Lisa.”

“Now, shoo! Don’t forget to clear out your desk.”

From Zombie Detective, by Andy Zach

Free Zombie Detective Excerpt – Still more goodies!

If you like these kinds of excerpts, subscribe here, if you haven’t already. As a subscriber, you can get my audiobooks for free.

You can listen to my audiobook for free here.

You can grab an autographed copy of my book by clicking here.

Check out these reviews!

Not a typical zombie story!

  • Overall    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story    5 out of 5 stars

Listener received this title free

Based on the title and the cover, I originally thought the detective was going to be a zombie back in the 30s or 40s. That wasn’t the case, but it was still a hilarious amateur detective story and I loved the absurdity of it all.

It’s a short read (or listen, since I listened to the audiobook), but is packed with Sam in crazy situations with all sorts of zombies. His string of good luck is as unlikely as the conundrums he finds himself involved in, but somehow it works for him.

Phil Blechman was the perfect choice for Sam’s character. Lauren Testerman did a great job channeling Lisa, the poor woman who has to manage Sam and all his antics.

I Love Andy Zach’s Books!

  • Overall    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story    5 out of 5 stars

Listener received this title free

I wasn’t quite sure where this book was going when it started but as it kept going I understood where it fit in the timeline. . . It was a great book. I laughed several times. Now that I’ve finished this one, I’m going to have to read my Undead Mother-In-Law again.

Andy Zach

Andy Zach in repose
Free Zombie Detective Excerpt
Andy Zach in repose
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Get My Latest Book Autographed – Just Launched Here’s How

Disabled Superheroes

Get My Latest Book Autographed – Just Launched Here’s How. You can be just like in person at a book convention, walking up to the table.

Here’s my latest book!

Get My Latest Book Autographed

What’s it about?

The Book of Revelation is mysterious to many, but if you use this daily devotional, you can understand it like never before.

Each day you’ll have one small verse to read and reflect upon. You will see connections and meanings you’ve never seen before.

Author Jeffry Smith asks provocative questions to help you think about each portion of scripture. He also supplies useful cross-references which give further insight to the scripture.

Begin your journey of inspiration now, with the Revelation Devotional.

Click here to grab your autographed copy!

What is this site? It’s my Square site. What’s that? It’s my OFFICIAL SALES website. I sell you my autographed books at LESS than Amazon AND include free shipping.

How can I do that? I cut out Amazon.

Amazon takes a 30% commission on each sale. It then deducts the printing cost of each book. That leaves me with 30% of your money.

But Square takes a 1% commission. I get most of your money even though you are paying less. That lets me:

  1. Pay for shipping for you
  2. And then pay for taxes for you
  3. Finally I pay for printing the book for you

Get My Latest Book Autographed – The Story Behind the Book

Jeffry Smith author picture
Get My Latest Book Autographed

So how did a fiction author, Andy Zach, end up writing a non-fiction book about the most mysterious book in the Bible under the name Jeffry Smith?

First, the book Revelation always fascinated me When I read the Bible for the first time, I read the book of Revelation first, because I’d heard how mysterious and hard to understand it was.

I read it and there were a lot of things I didn’t understand, but I did understand that God wins in the end.

Over ten years later, after reading many interpretations of the book, I decided to see exactly what it said. I went through it verse by verse and wrote down every statement it made. Here’s Revelation 1:1 for example:

The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

Revelation 1:1

The statements I found in this verse are:

  • The book of Revelation is from Jesus Christ
  • God (the Father) gave Jesus this revelation
  • Why was it given? To show Jesus’s servants what must soon take place.
  • How did this revelation come to John? Jesus sent it by His angel.

Revelation has many other verses this densely packed with information.

Get My Latest Book Autographed – The Story Behind the Book Part 2

So how did this study go from a personal Bible study to a published devotional?

Revelation Devotional back cover
Get My Latest Book Autographed
The Revelation Devotional back cover

After I completed the study, it lay in its handwritten version for years. Then I typed it up on my computer, where it resided for more years. Then I decided to make it into a class about Revelation.

I decided I would skip any interpretation and just teach what the book said. That became an eight week class of hour and a half sessions, going through all twenty two chapters.

Teaching the class at my church and then at Bradley University helped me refine it.

My students demanded another book of Revelation class covering the interpretation of its symbols.

So I created a class covering all the symbols in the book, showing how they were used elsewhere in the Bible

Get My Latest Book Autographed – The Story Behind the Book Part 3

Gospel Medley Writer's Block: My Experience
Get My Latest Book Autographed
The Gospel Medley cover. Click to get

By this time I was pretty familiar with the book of Revelation, forty years after I started studying it. How’d it become a book?

Publishing my first Bible help, The Gospel Medley, encouraged me to try writing a The Revelation Devotional. Reading Timothy Keller’s The Songs of Jesus devotional about the book of Psalms inspired me. Also, one of my friends, Leslie McKee, also wrote a devotional, Hope Amid the Pain. She also edited my book.

Note that I use a different name for my two Bible help books, Jeffry Smith. That’s my non-fiction name. Andy Zach is my fiction name.

We look a lot alike.

But Wait! There’s More!

Meme alert!

I just had a birthday, but I’m not done writing.

You can get all my books, fiction and non-fiction by clicking at my Square site.

But, you can also get ebooks at my Amazon pages. Click here for fiction by Andy Zach. Click here for non-fiction by Jeffry Smith. You can also see how much more my paperbacks cost on Amazon than on my site.

Finally, all my fiction books are available on Audible. Click here to get your copies from my audiobook page. My wife assures me my books are funnier read aloud.

Or, you can get my audiobooks free with a subscription to my newsletter by clicking here.

Say–which of my books have you read? Which one do you want next? Let me know and I’ll give you a free ebook.

Lastly, Learn More About My First Non-Fiction Book

Hold on to your chair! This book will rock your world.

Get Books Signed
The four gospels in chronological order, word by word

Here is what this book is all about:

Are you curious about Jesus Christ? Do you struggle to understand the Bible? The Gospel Medley includes the four Gospels in a single narrative, faithfully pulling the text from the World English Bible. You are now able to read all the gospel as a single, easy-to-read story.

Each Gospel describes Jesus’s life from a different point of view with different details and insights. The Gospel Medley combines every word into a single perspective with all details and events arranged chronologically.

Unlike other harmonies, The Gospel Medley doesn’t put the four gospels in columns or rows. Instead, the text is integrated word by word into a smoothly flowing narrative. Further, each paragraph references the four gospels so you can read the original citations. You also get footnotes of all the quotes from the Old Testament, giving you the context of Jesus’s words.

For a unique perspective of the four gospels, read ‘The Gospel Medley’ today.

The Gospel Medley on Square
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Here’s a Good Plot from author Andy Zach–and You

Free Plotting Lessons Second

Here’s a Good Plot from author Andy Zach–and You

“Wait! What do you mean? I just clicked here.”

I mean I have a ‘Developing Your Plot’ class I’m giving this month and I’ll share it with you. Here’s slide 1, below.

Good Plot – The Cast of Characters

 

First, there’s me, the teacher character,  Andy Zach. If you’re not familiar with my biography on this site, you can go to Amazon or to Goodreads and find out about me and my books.

Good Plot slide 1

Then there’s you, one of many student characters. What have you written? Are you writing? What will you write? Please share you plot/novel/work ideas with me and the class by commenting below.

Comment here! I’ll send you my powerpoint class. Or email me at [email protected]

You MUST comment to participate in this class–or I’ll send the zombie turkeys after you!

That’s my big turkey stick. The carrot is, I will give a free ebook of Zombie Turkeys to one of the commenters!

Start commenting – NOW!

Good Plot – Lessons – Where Will You go with Your Idea?

Plotting class slide 2
Good Plot

You’ve got your great idea for your novel. What’s next?

Authors fall into a spectrum of two approaches. First, there are plotters, who plan out the plot of their book and then write to that plan.

Then there are ‘pantsers’, those who sit on their pants and type away until a book emerges–or not.

Then there are endless variations between the two. I’m firmly in the first group. If you want to learn the pantser approach, find another author! I can’t even imagine how I’d write that way, and I’ve got a good imagination.

Let’s take my first novel, Zombie Turkeys. I created a chapter outline of the book on my first day of writing it during NaNoMo in November 2015.

Free Plotting Lessons
Good Plot
Click on the Zombie Turkeys book cover to hear Andy read a free excerpt.

Read my Zombie Turkeys chapter outline:

Continue reading Here’s a Good Plot from author Andy Zach–and You