Posted on

Pick Up More Gifts for the 12 Days of Christmas

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Secret-Supers-Series-150x150.jpg

Welcome 2024! Pick Up More Gifts for the 12 Days of Christmas. In this post you can get book excerpts, free, and discounted books for you!

You may be familiar with the 12 days of Christmas song. The actual 12 day festival ran from December 25th to January 6th, also known as Epiphany, when Christians celebrated the appearance of the wise men or magi from the east.

This post covers days seven to twelve.

Days one through six are here: Welcome 2024! Pick Up More Gifts for the 12 Days of Christmas

Here’s the song:

12 Days of Christmas

For those who don’t read past the first heading, here’s a free book gift for you. The giveaway only lasts until January 9th, so grab it quickly! Click here.

Produce Your Audiobook Secret Supers in Space
Secret Supers in Space audiobook cover. Click to listen.

The Secret Supers are bored out of their minds during summer vacation-until they go to Space Camp. They learn all about the space program, try out moon gravity and zero-g simulations, and practice docking with the International Space Station.

But that’s the easy part. The villains they defeated in the past are back with a diabolical plot that renders the middle schoolers’ superpowers ineffective. Jeremy, Aubrey, Dan, and Kayla face the biggest challenge of their lives. Even if they escape the villains’ clutches, will they survive?

Find out in Secret Supers in Space!

Pick Up More Gifts – Seven Swans a-Swimming

Where do I have seven swans a-swimming in my books? How about seven turkeys? Or more? Check out this excerpt from Zombie Turkeys from Chapter 9 – Chicago. Note the aquarium type chapter icon.

Pick Up More Gifts

They very cautiously looked in the topmost door. The door opened onto a platform looking down on a large pool full of sea creatures–including a great white shark. A man was there at the edge of the pool, blowing a turkey call. “GOBBLE! GOBBLE!” That was the odd sound Sam had heard. The zombie turkeys responded, “Gobble! Gobble!” and advanced en masse on the man, surrounding him. They seemed mesmerized by the call, staring with red eyes, but quietly marching forward. The man wore a khaki, camouflaged hunting outfit, cammo boots, and a full, bushy beard.

Sam called to him, “Hey you!  You can escape this way!”

He looked at them, “Yeah, I know. I’ve got to kill these buggers.”

“How will you kill them with a turkey caller?”

Pick Up More Gifts – Excerpt Continues

“By getting them into the pool with me. It’s salt water. I’ve already gone through my ammo!” He jumped into the aquarium.

“Noo! ” Lisa gasped.

From the water he called, ” GOBBLE! GOBBLE!” Like lemmings, the massed turkeys moved forward, plopping into the water like feathered, twenty pound Alka Seltzers. The ones behind pressed the others forward. Soon, hundreds upon hundreds of turkeys covered the surface of the water, like a turkey patterned pool cover.

As soon as they were in the salt water, the zombie turkeys lost their red eyes. They swam as well as turkeys normally do; badly. Then the great white shark hit. Gobbling the turkeys three and four at a time, the shark was delighted to have this extra feeding. This food was so fresh and crunchy!

The shark was an automatic eating machine; bite, crunch, swallow, bite crunch, swallow.

This excerpt is gift number two of seven. (After the Secret Supers in Space) Here are three free books in exchange for a review:

Book TitlePen NameEmail IntegrationAvailableSignups
Secret SupersAndy ZachGet your review copy here
Secret Supers in SpaceAndy ZachGet your review copy here
Zombie TurkeysAndy ZachGet your review copy here
Get your free review copies here!

That’s five gifts. Two more to come! First, get a free newsletter subscription here: Clickety-click!

Next, get personal with me, Andy Zach! Talk to me! You can reach me on x.com.

On to more days of Christmas–and gifts!

Pick Up More Gifts – Eight Maids a-Milking

Do I have eight maids a-milking in my writing? Anywhere? Not exactly. I do have eight reporters covering the zombie turkey outbreak for the Midley Beacon and milking it for all it’s worth. This excerpt from Zombie Turkeys, with the Chapter 9 Chicago icon. That’s a turkey caller in the turkey’s mouth. Why? Read and find out.

“I never thought I’d say this, Sam, but I think the story has gotten too big for the Midley Beacon. I’ve added a zombie turkey Twitter feed to our site, but this is way too big for us to be everywhere, even with the six new reporters I’ve hired. I’ve sent one to Bartonville and Peoria, one to Princeville, two to Joliet, one to Tinley Park, and one to Chicago. Chicago alone should have six reporters.”

“Well, let’s go to Chicago then. Three are better than one.”

“I’m with you on that. Lemme give Charlie a call. He’s our guy in Chicago.”  She called Charlie Gomez, one of their new reporters. “Hi Charlie, where are you?”

Pick Up More Gifts – Excerpt Part 2

“I can barely hear you. Oh, keep your head down, then. We’ll cover the loop activity then. Ok, good reporting. Stay alive!  Report daily or more often! Bye.”

“What’s up with Charlie?”

“He’s in the middle of the zombie turkey firefight in Soldiers Field. It’s quite a melee there. Let’s go to the loop.”

How about eight gifts? In addition to the excerpt above, I’ve got seven books available through free audiobook codes:

AuthorAndy Zach
1Zombie Turkeys (United Kingdom only)Andy Zach
2Secret SupersAndy Zach
3Secret Supers in SpaceAndy Zach
4Zombie DetectiveAndy Zach
5Villain’s VacationAndy Zach
6Paranormal PrivateersAndy Zach
7My Undead Mother-in-lawAndy Zach
8Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey ApocalypseAndy Zach

Pick Up More Gifts – Nine Ladies Dancing

Zombie Turkeys fly to escape to Zombie Turkey hunters

Have I got the excerpt for you! I’ve got twenty or more ladies dancing in this scene from My Undead Mother-in-law.

Frank always got hyped up before an operation, but this one was the strangest he’d ever been on. He’d done his time in Afghanistan and Iraq—that was where he’d lost his leg to an IED. When the marine doctors offered him a chance to get it back through zombie blood, he’d leapt upon it like a duck on a bug. Now he was landing a whole platoon of marines on a superyacht of a criminal, to prepare the landing of more zombies.

Things got stranger. Looking at the helipad as he descended, he saw a crowd of hula-skirt-clad girls—good looking ones too! The crowd resolved itself into a formation: a smiley face! As he landed and brought his weapon to ready, he saw each girl carried a basket of leis.

The Dancing Begins

SciFi Story Fuel My Undead Mother-in-law
Welcome 2024
Pick Up More Gifts
My Undead Mother-in-law cover.

“Welcome! Welcome!” they chorused in their soprano voices. They ran up to put the leis over his head. He kept them away with the bayonet on his automatic shotgun. Laughing, the nearest ones tossed leis over his gun and over his head. “Aloha Oe” blared in the background on the outdoor speakers as the attractive ladies began to sway in a hula dance en masse.

Yellow flowers decorated his head and his rifle. He felt awkward and a right fool. Already the battle plan was out the window.

“Ladies! Please gather over here!” He followed the contingency plan for if they surrendered.

Giggling, the hundred or so beauties compliantly assembled in the landing circle under the V-22, their hair and grass skirts blowing wildly in the hot rotor wash. After tearing his eyes from their shapely legs, he saw his friend Lieutenant Gerber walk up to him, festooned in leis.

“Not bad duty, eh?”

“Something about this smells.”

“Well, here come the zombie bulls. And turkeys.”

Nine gifts? How about nine discounts for autographed books? These paperbacks are discounted from the Amazon price. Get them here:

Pick Up More Gifts – Featured Items

Zombie Turkeys signed by author
Pick Up More Gifts

Zombie Turkeys signed by author

$12.00

My Undead Mother-in-law - Signed by author
Pick Up More Gifts

My Undead Mother-in-law – Signed by author

$12.00

Paranormal Privateers - Signed by author
Pick Up More Gifts

Paranormal Privateers – Signed by author

$15.00

Zombie Detective - signed by author
Pick Up More Gifts

Zombie Detective – signed by author

$12.00

Oops!  Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse - signed by author
Pick Up More Gifts

Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse – signed by author

$12.00

Villain's Vacation signed by author

Villain’s Vacation signed by author

$7.00

Secret Supers in Space signed by author

Secret Supers in Space signed by author

$7.00

Secret Supers Signed by author 2
The Gospel Medley - autographed copy

Secret Supers Signed by author 2

$7.00

The Gospel Medley – autographed copy

$15.00

Welcome 2024 Pick Up More Gifts – Ten Lords a-Leaping

Zombie Detective cover
Zombie Detective cover.

I don’t have ten lords a leaping (I do have several dozen drug lords, though). How about leaping hippos? What, you don’t believe me? Check out this hippo excerpt from Zombie Detective.

“Let me finish with the background. We wanted a fast-growing, healthy strain of pigs. I thought, Wouldn’t it be great if they grew as fast as zombie turkeys?

“Uh-oh.”

“Right. I created a pig modified with zombie turkey and hippo and mouse DNA.”

“What?” Sam’s stomach clenched.

“I won’t go into all my failures with other combinations. This one worked. I get pigs that grow from piglets to full-grown in four weeks.”

“But what’s the catch?”

“They look like hippos. And they grow only to about one pound.”

Micro-hippo
Micro-hippo

“Sounds more like a failure than a success.”

“They do taste like pork. And they reproduce fast enough to make up for their lack of size. But―” Bryce stopped and sighed.

“Tell me the worst.”

“They escaped my lab. They’re infesting the whole building. People keep finding them in the toilets. It’s very upsetting.”

So, these hippos leap and scamper like rats. Aquatic rats. Here’s a drawing of one from the chapter about them.

You want eight more gifts? Get all my excerpts for each of my books!

Zombie Turkey excerpts

Zombie Detective excerpts

My Undead Mother-in-law excerpts

Paranormal Privateer excerpts

Oops! excerpts

Secret Supers Excerpts

Villain’s Vacation Excerpts

Secret Supers in Space Excerpts

Welcome 2024 Pick Up More Gifts – Eleven Pipers Piping

This’ll be a different set of gifts. I love bagpipes. I have a Youtube category of them. So I’ll share my favorite bagpipe videos with you. Eleven of them!

March of Cambreadth

Amazing Grace with more than 200 bagpipes; live in Berlin

they said she couldn’t play BLUES on BAGPIPES…

Scotland the Brave India the Bold (Bagpipes) Official Music Video – The Snake Charmer ft. Poczy

Celtic-Indian Folk Music (Bagpipes & Bhangra) – Frantic Feathers (Toss the feathers)

Through the Fire and Flames (Official Video) – Mia x Ally

Scottish tribal pipes & drums band Clanadonia playing “Ya Bassa” during St Andrew’s Day event 2019


Red Hot Chilli Pipers – Thunderstruck – Wiesbaden 8.11.16

The Badpiper Thunderstruck

Monty Python and the Holy Grail Performed on Flaming Bagpipes and Unicycle in Portland, OR

Welcome 2024 Pick Up More Gifts – Twelve Drummers Drumming

I had so much fun with those eleven bagpipe videos from my Youtube collection, here are twelve drummer videos from my percussion collection!

Harry James and Buddy Rich – Cherokee 1964

” Autumn Leaves ” Chet Baker – Paul Desmond

“The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by Dover Steel Drum Band

best drumline video ever amazing

Joy in the Whirlwind’ for garklein recorder and percussion | by Melika Fitzhugh

TUBA SKINNY Go Craig and Robin go!

Gene Krupa “Sing, Sing, Sing” on The Ed Sullivan Show

Bugle Call Rag – Benny Goodman – 1936

the craziest drum solo ever

Caravan (Ellington) – Drum-Battle Charly Antolini, Wolfram Kellner, Paul Höchstädter, Thilo Wolf

Laurindo Almeida plays One Note Samba

Czardas – Trình tấu Đàn T’Rưng Việt Nam với tác phẩm Phương Tây

Pick Up More Gifts – Don’t Forget Your Free Book–Until January 9th

First an excerpt:

Welcome 2023

We arrived at the top. “Time to ship out the Supers.” Papa Smith hauled out Aubrey and Jeremy. I unloaded Kayla and Dan. We lined them up on the floor.

“It’d be so easy to eliminate them here.”

“Yes, Loretta, but the consequences will follow us. And there’s no money in it. Think of each of them as a billion dollars.”

“Nice idea, Papa.”

There’s four more gifts with this one!

You can get your free review copy by clicking here.

Get your discounted signed copy by clicking here. Free shipping from the author.

How about a free audiobook or two? Get your Secret Supers in Space by clicking here!! You might as well pick up your free Villain’s Vacation while you’re at it.

If you have any questions or comments for me, leave them here.

Buy any of my books directly from me at my store. Click here.

Or buy them from my Square site. Click here.

Finally, you can go to Amazon and get them.

Posted on Leave a comment

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
Posted on

Best 5 Books I’ve Read This Year 2024

Best 5 Books I’ve Read This Year 2024 of the 11 I’ve read.

I won’t put them in any order. I don’t have a favorite book among these. Do you? Let me know.

Best 5 Books I’ve Read This Year – The First

My Review

Andy Zach

Author 10 books94 followers

January 27, 2024

This was a fun and creative twist on the Battle Mage Farmer series. After saving the world where they lived, John and Ellie go on their honeymoon, into the chaotic void. They’re transported by their faithful super-bull Ferdinand and guided by Ellie’s prescient sense of direction.

Eventually, they end up in a confusing cluster of planets where there is a nest of vicious void beasts.

What a start to a honeymoon!

This creativity continues for the rest of the book.

Enjoy!

Best 5 Books I’ve Read This Year – The Second

My Review

Read This Year

Andy Zach

Author 10 books

94 followers

January 28, 2024

This progressive fantasy continues with our protagonists Matt and Liz highly trained after years of ascending the path to Level 10.

Now they’ll compete with other Pathers at that level and the problem isn’t they aren’t strong enough, but that they’re too strong! You see, promising Pathers are assassination targets for the other Great Powers who do not want to face the in war.

So they adopt three false identities each and play under their ‘real’ identities, but using only a limited amount of power.

They want to walk a delicate balance. They want to hide their real powers and still qualify for high rewards within the tournament.

Meanwhile, we learn that spies from every government are seeking out their true identities by any means possible.

Best 5 Books I’ve Read This Year – The Third

My Review

Read This Year

Andy Zach

Author 10 books

94 followers

January 28, 2024

What a cool book! I knew nothing about globemaking beyond gores; now I know a whole lot more, both of the multiple crafts involved and of its history.

But what makes the book great is the author’s personal story, telling how he went from making a handmade globe for his father’s 80th birthday to starting a bespoke globe company with a worldwide audience and customer base.

It’s a review of both the history of globemaking and of our recent history from 2008 to now.

I recommend this book to anyone with an ounce of curiosity.

Best 5 Books I’ve Read This Year – The Fourth

My Review

Read This Year

Andy Zach

Author 10 books

94 followers

January 27, 2024

What a wonderful explanation of basic Christian principles! Author Miles Stanford explains both the theory and practice of Christian living and growth.

He begins with the cross and explains that trying hard to overcome sin is not enough. We must totally die to sin and realize our death daily. But our death leads to our resurrection in Christ. Having Christ live in us is how we triumph.

How can this miracle be achieved? Not by us. But Christ has already done it. It is up to us to believe and to claim His life and to live it through faith and perseverance.

Mr. Stanford draws from a wide range of respected Christian authors and teachers as well as many quotes from the Bible to prove his points.

I recommend this book most highly to anyone who wishes to learn about Christianity.

This fourth time around, I was writing my own fantasy novel/series and I looked at how Pratchett started out his series. It was a ripping good start, with unending action and interesting characters from the beginning. Who doesn’t like Death as an animated skeleton and a lugubrious voice?

We come to my first favorite SciFi novel and it’s a goody.

My Review

Best 5 Books I’ve Read This Year – The Fifth

Read This Year
Review of On Basilisk Station

Andy Zach

Author 10 books

94 followers

January 3, 2024

My first book of the year! It’s a fantasy, with familiars who are intelligent badgers, owls, hamsters, and prairie dogs. Enjoy a dash of humor with your fantasy.

Familiars enhance and magnify your magic, but they come with troubles of their own. They’re just people, who are animals.

What Can Top The Best 5 Books?

Free gifts! I gave away literary gifts from December 1 to December 25 to celebrate Advent 2023. These include free books and free excerpts. Enjoy them below. Don’t forget to get free audiobooks from me by clicking here.