Posted on

Oops! Free Short Stories for You

Free Short Stories

Oops! Free Short Stories for You from my short story collection, Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse.

latest science news
Oops! Click to get.

Let’s start with a bang.

Free Short Stories – In A Pickle

So what do readers say? Here’s a review coming up for you.


Editorial Reviews

“You’d think after three oddball novels, Zombie Turkeys (How an Unknown Blogger Fought Unkillable Turkeys), My Undead Mother-In-Law (The Family Zombie with Anger Management Issues), and Paranormal Privateers, that Andy Zach would have exhausted all the comic possibilities in his world of killer zombie turkeys and superhero zombie humans.

You’d be wrong. How about flying zombie pickles? Zombie zucchini? Zombie caterpillars? (How can you tell a zombie caterpillar from a normal one? Andy Zach can tell you.)

How about being injected with zombie blood which can cure any ill, regrow any lost limb, and be quickly cured with a widely available antidote? Who needs insurance with that sort of help? How about organizing a zombie worker union at Amazon when zombies can outperform robots? And suggest the story is based on two real people, Anthony and Ravan Jones who contribute the foreword to the book? Or zombie residents of a nursing home taking over the place?

–Dr. Wesley Britton at BookPleasures.com on Sept. 15, 2020:

Review continued

But all this silliness is just part of what Andy Zach has collected in Oops. He has included other short stories by other authors like “The Story of Sound” by Olivia Smith and his own “A Phoenix Tale” before diving into his zombie world. Then he offers a batch of stories based on his other book series featuring disabled middle-schoolers who become superheroes, the Secret Supers. Oh yea, there are the aliens who first appeared in Paranormal Privateers who are defeated by zombies working for the U.S. Government. The aliens can provide you legal assistance in the form of a sexy avatar who looks exactly like Marilyn Monroe.

If you’re getting the impression that one Mr. Andy Zach has a wide and wild imagination, you are on the right track. One obvious audience for his quirky tales is the YA readership, especially for all the contemporary references like video gaming and computer lingo. But even grumpy old sixty-somethings like me can have a lot of fun with Andy’s characters, scenarios, and plots. I’m still laughing at the image of migrating flying zombie pickles. Hard to get more original, unique, or surprising than Zach’s “Life After Life” series. Have some fun with Andy Zach in 2020!”

–Dr. Wesley Britton at BookPleasures.com on Sept. 15, 2020:

Free Short Stories – The Butterfly Effect

Free Short Stories
The Butterfly Effect Click to read.

Do you want to write a review? Send it to me at [email protected] or click here. I’ll send you a free Zombie Turkeys ebook!

Andy Zach Wins NaNoMo
Zombie Turkeys paperback cover. Click to get it!

Your Next Oops! Review


5.0 out of 5 stars 

What do zuccini, phoenix genetics, and superpowered kids have in commom?

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2020

As I expected, story time at Andy’s house must include a recorder to grasp the many directions and characters he delevolopes in each book. This set of several stories are exciting in a novel manner of disbelief overlaid with a tinge of possibility.

How many people have tasted a hummingbird zombie zuccini, a superpowered set of disabled kids with a intelligent hamster as co-partner, a phoenix genetic research specialist, all these under one cover? Well, step right up and open page one!

Each story includes an ideas from his zombie turkey series and as always a hint of something new to come!This was a free book and I am not connected to anyone involved. I laughed and soaked up the words wanting more.

Kindle Customer

Free Short Stories – A Dying Business

Free Short Stories
A Dying Business – Click to read


5.0 out of 5 stars 

ZOMBIES ARE out there you will laugh your nutt off at how Funny they can be

Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2020

This book was a true page Turner from start to finish, 1 of those books you wish had more to read ,I must say look forward to a possible follow on !!

Glenn Marshall, Jr. U.S. NAVY Retired

Another Free Short Stories Review for You

3.0 out of 5 stars 

Take some crazy and add a whole lot of zombies…

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2020

Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse by Andy Zach is a collection of short stories and as the clue is in the title, the theme is zombies. And boy do they come in a variety of different shapes and sizes.

The book starts with three stories that are a starter and not in the zombie genre. Firstly, you are introduced to a world where nothing is heard. Then we move on to finding an elusive phoenix and trying to use its DNA for breeding. Lastly, we have a story about a time-travelling wheelchair.

Then we jump straight into zombies. From zombie pickles, to zombie service dog corgis, to zombie models and even zombies in a nursing home. There is a timeline thread running through the stories where characters that create something or meet someone bring them into a later story. And all of this in a world where becoming a zombie is as easy as ordering blood online!

Jacqui Corn-Uys

Review Continues Below

After each story, the author explains where he got his ideas from, and since in his bio he claims both his parents were zombies, he must be an expert on all things undead. The author has a very quick mind and some of the quips and plays on words were very clever.

In some of the stories, however, I would have preferred a definite ending—one where the story doesn’t just finish and you think there is more coming. It was almost as though they were ideas taken from diary extracts with sporadic glimpses into a world of zombies.

After the zombie stories came tales from some of his other books about teenage superheroes. I think the one I enjoyed the most was of the hamster that one of the kids had experimented on and had developed some superpowers. He taught himself to read and was eventually able to communicate with others by typing on a computer. The author very cleverly integrated himself into that story by being the author in the story and the one that the hamster contacted. And of course, we had to have a story about aliens to end it off.

Jacqui Corn-Uys

Your Final Story of Free Short Stories

This short story still comes from Oops!, like all the preceding ones.

We’ve Got It – Click to read!

And you get a review to go with it.


5.0 out of 5 stars 

Great intro to the author’s works

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2020

This is a great book to start with if you haven’t tried any Andy Zach book before. It contains stories from both his Life After Life zombie comedy series and his superhero story Super Secrets. It also shows you Zach’s sense of humor (plus there’s one little horror story that isn’t overly gruesome). This book is great for both kids and adults and works just fine on it’s own.

I loved the silly story of the flying zombie cucumbers. Ha! Very fanciful. And they have migratory routes, like butterflies! Very silly and had me chuckling. I also loved the story with the hamster (who does play a role in Secret Supers). Perhaps rodents will truly save the world some day.

The stories also help fill in some of the blanks of the zombie comedy series, including one about Diane (the beloved zombie mother-in-law). But what I really liked was the stuff about genetic engineering and the aliens. Book 3 of the Life After Life Chronicles had a lot of stuff tossed into the story and some of these short stories really help fill those parts out.

All around, it’s a fun collection of tales. 5/5 stars.

DabOfDarkness

Audiobook Narration

The Narration: Michael Stafford was a good pick for narrating this anthology. While the Life After Life series and the Secret Supers use different narrators, Stafford was a good inbetween voice. He had unique voices for all the characters and his female voices sounded feminine. I also liked his kid voices for the Secret Supers kids. The pacing was good and there were no tech issues with the recording. 5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Andy Zach. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

DabOfDarkness

Do you like audiobooks? I have six of them and I give them away to you here. Click now.

Posted on

Laugh At My Free Short Story Audio Dramatization

Andy Zach Newsletter

“Audio Dramatization? Are you doing this, Andy Zach?”

“Don’t I wish! I’m not this talented. But Chris Herron is.”

“Who’s he?”

“Creator of podcast, website, and Youtube channel Tall Tales.”

“So what short story is this?”

“It’s my favorite short story I’ve ever written: In A Pickle.”

“Can I listen to it and read along?”

“You bet. Here’s the link to the short story. It’ll open in a new tab. The dramatization is below. Be sure to be sitting down and don’t operate heavy machinery while you listen to it. Note that this short story and many others are in my book, Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse.

The Audio Dramatization

It begins like this:

Now, what was he going to do? Brice Butterworth’s boss just told him to double the productivity of Vegan Inc.’s pickle strain they used for their Kilwowski Pickle brand. That was completely impossible.

But keeping his job required it. He was the low man on the genetic engineering totem pole at Vegan Inc., the last one hired and the first one to be fired if another recession hit.

Brice couldn’t think. He couldn’t face this. So he cruised the internet. “The origin of zombie turkeys? I didn’t know they’d found that. Hmm, a Midley Beacon exclusive, the foremost zombie news source,” he read out loud.

From the Tall Tales website

In A Pickle short story.

Get more short stories here . . .

I give away free short stories to my newsletter subscribers. Just click here to subscribe.

Some more short stories I have for you:

A Phoenix Tale Icon

A Phoenix Tale – I tell of my college studies of the phoenix and how I got one as a pet.

Audio Dramatization
The Butterfly Effect

Brice Butterworth tries again to improve the productivity of Vegan Inc with completely unexpected results.

Thankful
A Hamster’s Tale

Find out what it’s like to be a superhero hamster–from the hamsters point of view.

Posted on

My Most Romantic Story – and a Gift for You

My Most Romantic Story – this’ll be the first time I’ve shared this story with you. I wrote it especially for this weekend. But it isn’t your gift. Your gift is at the end of this blog post.

Go ahead. Scroll down past the romantic story to see it, if you want.

My Most Romantic Story – For Valentine’s Day

He was hyper. His dream of marriage was finally coming true. He couldn’t believe she’d said ‘yes’, back in February when he proposed. Now it was June, a week before their wedding day.

She was gorgeous. Red-haired and petite, she’d fit nicely in his lap.

Stock photo, public domain

They had to buy their marriage license from the courthouse. Their minister would sign it after their wedding. They’d do that this week on Wednesday.

But today was Monday. Now he’d activate his plan. He’d surprise his fiancee with a gift she didn’t expect. They’d already bought each other’s wedding rings and her engagement ring. They’d been practical, with the two of them looking over the jeweler’s wares, picking the rings they wanted.

She was really practical. He loved that, since he tended to be highly romantic. She’d be a good balance for him.

He called the store and give very careful, precise instructions for the coming week. She’d never expect this. Not only was he romantic, he had a wild imagination.

He waited eagerly for her call. She called him daily from her job as an office manager to his cubicle where he worked as a programmer.

After lunch, she called.

My Most Romantic Story – Part 2

“You mushball!”

“Did you like the rose and the poem?”

“Of course I did.”

“I wanted to do something special for you this week.”

“A single long stemmed rose.”

“And a poem. I’m an amateur, but sincere.”

“I know.”

My Most Romantic Story
Long-stemmed rose

The next day, she called again.

“Two roses! And another poem.”

“Were you surprised?”

“Yes. Am I going to get twelve roses, eventually?”

“Could be. You’ll have to wait and see.”

Then on Wednesday I answered the phone and heard, “I got your four roses and poem today. Everyone in the office is going nuts.”

“Good. I wanted to create a sensation.”

“Well, it’s working. Everyone says you’re so romantic.”

“What about you?”

“I think I’m getting a steal. I don’t know why the other girls didn’t go for you.”

“Probably because I was wearing off my rough edges on them. I was dating for ten years before I met you. I know I wasn’t ready for marriage.”

“I’ve got you. That’s all that matters.”

My Most Romantic Story

The Conclusion

The following day she called. “I got twelve roses today. And your poem. What’ll happen tomorrow?”

“Wait and see. Tonight’s the rehearsal.”

“Yes. I can’t believe we need to do all this.”

“Its traditional. And afterward we’ll have a nice dinner together, our two families.”

“Your family is so different from mine.”

“I think my family’s closer to normal than yours.”

“C’mon. My family’s normal!”

“Your mom and dad raised seven kids in eight and a half years. She breast-fed all of you through the 50s and 60s when that was not the thing to do. Your dad gave up promotions so he could come home and have lunch with you guys. That’s all unusual.”

“It didn’t seem odd.”

“Let’s see how odd we can be.”

On Friday, I picked up the phone and heard, “i think I liked this poem the most of all.”

“I worked the hardest on it. Poetry doesn’t come naturally to me.”

“I love it. All the girls are gushing in the office.”

“Am I impacting your productivity?”

“No. I can run this office in my sleep. What am I supposed to do with all these roses?”

“Whatever you want. Strew the petals over your bed.”

“Our bed. It sounds uncomfortable. And it’d be lot of work to take off the petals.”

“We’re getting married this weekend. Are you excited?”

“Of course.”

Your Own Valentine’s Gift from Me

My novel My Undead Mother-in-law begins on Valentine’s Day. I’ll give you a romantic excerpt I’ve never shared before.

George and Diane Newby are a normal, middle-aged couple who turn zombie. Note that my zombies don’t eat human flesh. Rather, they regenerate from injuries very fast, as their zombie bacteria copy their cells and replace them. As a side effect, their eyes turn bright, glowing red.

This excerpt falls between My Undead Mother-in-law and Paranormal Privateers. I tell it in the latter book as a flashback.

Through an unbelievable plot line, the Newby’s acquire a five-hundred foot superyacht in the first book.

Let me know what you think of my stories here, and I’ll send you a free Zombie Turkeys ebook. That’s the first in my series, The Life After Life Chronicles.

My Most Romantic Story
Back cover of My Undead Mother-in-law

I vividly remember the rechristening of the yacht, formerly named Rule Britannia, in January in New Orleans.

Diane had held the bottle of champagne at the boat dock and smashed it against the prow. The sheet covering the new name had slipped down, revealing Resolute Too—and the figurehead.

“George, is that supposed to be me?” Diane yelled in excitement.

“Of course, Diane. Can’t you see the resemblance?”

“Yes, in the face. She even has cat’s-eye glasses just like me. But she’s too buxom.”

“Oh, I don’t think so.” I knew that part of her anatomy very well. The sculptor had actually made Diane’s waist narrower, which made her seem more buxom, but I hadn’t wanted to point that out.

From Paranormal Privateers
Back cover of Paranormal Privateers