The Land Of Brad

It's Molly

On Thursday we are heading over to Iowa to take a look at a dog. Well actually two, Molly and Anna. I’m sure we will see quite a few more over there but these are the two we are interested in. I’m leaning towards Molly and Tracy is a fan of Anna but Anna does have another family that is interested in her so we’ll find out more when we get there. Tracy keeps saying we should bring them both home though. The dogs are from the Wire Fox Terrier Midwest organization and from the name you can tell they specialize in Wire Fox Terriers. More on what goes down in Iowa when we get back from there.

Anna does not like the cone

Last night we had a rather pleasant surprise. Our friends Mike and Brenda stopped by with a little box to give us. These are the couple that we got Darby from a few years back. As I mentioned previously we opted not to get Darby’s ashes from the cremation. We wanted them but we had already spent so much that week just trying to help her out that it wasn’t something we could afford at that time. Mike and Brenda contacted the vet the Friday she went to sleep and took care of that for us. It was a huge surprise for us and after another good cry we are thrilled to have her back in the house with us.??

So, onto other things. Some of you might know or some of you might not know that I have been messing around with scripting a audio series for the last year and a half. It is more or less set as a sitcom type with most episodes ranging, and I’m estimating here, from 15 to 30 minutes long.  It’s working title is ‘The Call Center’ even though I’m not sure I want to use that. It revolves mainly around two people who work for the Federal Annoyance Response Team, they man the phones in a call center and specialize on zombies. There is much more than just zombies going on though. In this world everything can happen. If you have seen it in a movie then it is out there. What do you do when you have something attacking you that you can’t deal with? Well you call for help of course. But you better listen to the phone menu so you don’t get transferred.??

I’ve finished scripting and rewriting 4 episodes of this so far with a 5th pretty close to done and ideas for the 6th in place.  Monday I sent out a call on Twitter for voice actors so if you would like to help out let me know. This is going to be the trying part of the entire thing since I currently have to fill about 20 roles. Some short, some long.  With this many people I am wondering if I can get the audio quality to sound good. We will see. Sending out the parts to the names I have signed up on that tomorrow. More later.

Another week down. Rufus is missing Darby. He has become very clingy and is following us everywhere around the house. He has even given into cuddling as well which is something that cantankerous old man hasn’t ever been fond of. On that note we kind of stumbled across a little girl wire who might fit in just find with Rufus and Nikki. Her name is Tessi and she is from the Midwest Wire Fox Terrier Rescue. There is a whole application process then someone comes to your house to check it out, then you get to meet the dog, and then, if everything goes well you bring them home. I know it might sound like we started looking for a pup quick but I told Darby before she left to guide a pup to us and it looks like she is working on it. We will see.

Ok onto something that doesn’t involve animals. Let’s talk about Zombies and things of that nature. Currently I have a few projects that I am messing around with.

The rewrite of Urban, my nanowrimo story from last November is on hold. This story is a massive alternate universe thing with a totally messed up lead character who is ripped from his family then dumped on aalternate world to find out his wife never made it past childhood. Plus there are multiple hims was well and a ghost and well let’s just say the Nano version was weird and needed a bunch of help. So far I have only gotten past the first section before having issues with the plot.

I wrote a short audio story that will be sent into the Library of Horror podcast when it is compiled. The maincharacter is being voiced by Laura Best and let’s just say it will be interesting and she is perfect for the part. It is set in the 1930’s during the Depression and we’ll, there is some cannibalism going on in it, and singing possibly as well. Speaking of Library of Horror, I read a story entitled ‘Childhood’ by David Dunwoody that was just…well you’ll have to listen for that in a upcoming podcast. Also, I just read a story by Kody Boye entitled ‘Worm’ for Library of Horror as well. Let’s just say that Tracy no longer likes one of the sweet innocent rotating backgrounds that comes up on her laptop because of this story.

Another audio series that I am scripting, rescripting, scripting again is my Call Center script. This thing has been around for a year and a half now and finally the workers at the Federal Annoyance Response Center…yeah really.. are starting to get put to work. Should you be interested in reading some audio let me know, there are plenty of parts short and long.

There is another novel, post apocalypticish called ‘Desolation Road’ that I putting down notes and such for. Currently the plot is getting redone every few weeks but it will come together soon enough. I’ll put up the synopsis in a few days.

Another short story/novella idea I am working on involves a Zombie Motorcycle Club. That’s all you get for now on that one.

That’s enough for now,

This last week has really sucked. The past few days have been extremely draining and emotionally painful. As I write this though things are slowly getting better or I am getting better at coping with it, its one of the two.

Last Sunday our Wire haired Fox Terrier Darby started acting strangely and not herself. We got her into the vet the next day and she was very lethargic and in pain. The vet started treatment for pancreitist since that was his guess, there was also some x-rays done. So her treatment was done by IV each day and we took her in and dropped her off before work. She was starting to respond and then on Wed I went home to get her at lunch since neither of us could get her there in the morning. She had thrown up and wasn’t doing well at all. We booked an appointment for her to get a ultrasound at University of Illinois vet clinic about a hour away and took here there that afternoon. She woke up that morning and gave me a few kisses to show me that her tongue was still working somewhat. It’s the one thing she would do every morning and I had really been missing it. They shaved her belly down a little then gave her the ultrasound. She had multiple pancreatic abscesses along with fluid build up and something that might have been cancer. Even if they did surgery the outcome wasn’t good. After having a breakdown there in the waiting room we decided to bring her home.

We came home Thursday for our last night together. Her original parents came over to the house to say goodbye to her. She wasn’t feeling well was on pain meds so she was there enough to say her goodbyes as well. Friday morning we went into the vet for the last time and I held her head as she went to sleep.

I had told Tracy once that I had never had such a bond with an animal before. I was pretty much useless on Friday and wasn’t all the well the rest of the weekend either. We had only had her 3 years but she had become such a integrated part of the household that things aren’t the same without her. Her “brother”, Rufus, isn’t sure what is going on either. He keeps giving us looks like he wants to know when Darby is coming home.  Those two had bonded as well and it is easy to see his sadness as well. Plus I think he might be getting made at me since I keep picking him up to cuddle. He’s not into cuddling much.

The week prior to all this we had signed up to do the Ride For The Cure to benefit breast cancer research. We still took the ride Saturday and we had a special passenger with us. Strapped to our back luggage rack was a stuffed Wire Hair Fox Terrier who got to wear Darby’s collar. It was great to have her with us even though she wasn’t. It was great to go on that ride so that we got out of the house….even though it did sprinkle or rain on us almost the entire time until we got back into our driveway. There was a moment on the ride though that just made us smile. The parade part was long, took us about a hour or more to finish and during this part there was a ton of people on the side of the streets watching us. During this entire trip we saw two dogs, a black lab and a wire hair! It was the strangest thing to see another wire hair out, they are not a popular breed so you don’t really ever see them but there one was. Luckily my aunt and uncle who also had their bike in the ride saw the dog as well so we knew we weren’t just seeing things.

So thats’s it. I just had to write something up. Therapeutic I guess but it just needed to be done.

Darby you will forever have a special place in my heart and I love you very much.

Well figured I better get back into the swing of doing these posts. I’m sure there aren’t thousands of people hanging on my every word but thats okay.

Spring is here and the pollen is out. I recently finished a short story entitled “Hunt Thru The Night” which is about a late night radio host. What, not thrilling enough for you, well did I mention he was on the air when the zombie uprising started? The short synopsis of it is that everything started out normal and the night slowly went to hell. People call in saying they are seeing the military driving around in gas masks, another sees a cop being attached, another had to kill his wife when she attacked him. All that an more. Oh yeah it doesn’t end on a happy note either.

I submitted this story to a publisher that was looking for short stories based in first person but I haven’t heard anything back from them yet. When I do I’ll post something, probably on Twitter. The inspiration for the story came from a late night radio show I listen to call Coast to Coast AM. Actually I don’t listen to it at night I just download the shows mp3’s and have a listen through work.

This month I kicked off Script Frenzy and gave up yesterday. I just didn’t prep much and I’m finding that my scripting skills really need some work. I kept wanting to add more description that I couldn’t figure out how to put into a audio presentation like I can with writing. So as a result I am back to working or tearing apart my Nanowirmo novel entitled Urban. This story has a bunch of weird crap going on in it. Multiuniverse, multiple people, and every cyrptozoology critter you can think of. I also dug out my ‘Journal of a Serial Killer’ notes and I’m working on them. Writing the book that is note becoming a serial killer.

Scratch that last part, see this is what happens when I write up a post for my blog and then forget to post it for a day. Yesterday I had a idea. Actually my muse came up to me, said hi, then drop kicked me in the temple. I have a new novel that I am going to be working on and just need to put some prep work in it. I have a beginning, middle, and near the end idea laid out, sorta. Need to work on characters and some other things. Did I mention I even had the book cover figured out already? Really. The idea just came to me. Of course there isn’t a title yet but I still have a bunch to work through. Oh yeah, there are zombies in this one.

Okay that’s all you get for now.

So, as you might have noticed I am currently sick. Well I am in the recovering mood now but I am pretty sure I was infected by some sort of rare genetically altered virus that would have killed a lesser person. Me however, I am almost back up and on my feet again.

During the last month we have been working on the spare room and outfitting that a bit more. After I got to play with the hammer drill…see last post..the plumbers came and did their thing. Then the real fun started, drywalling.  If you have ever drywalled before you know that this isn’t all that much fun. Due to a lack of time in being able to work, about a day each weekend, the entire room is mudded and I just need to sand it down to prime it. Once that is done I’ll be thrilled.

As far as the writing goes I’ve shelved Urban for a little bit. Just not feeling it at the moment. However, I have been working on another project of mine that involves a call center in the Federal Annoyance Response Team. It is going be a audio horror comedy that I’ll start putting together when I get two more episodes finished. I’ve already finished three. So more info on that later.

Well as you can tell my blogging skills are horrible. Then again maybe it has something to do with this month.

Most of my creativity has been smashed since I have been sentence to working in the call center this month. It’s something we all have to do at work and I can’t stand it. I know I can write 1500 words per day at work between my breaks and lunch, I’ve proven this before and basically wrote my last two NaNoWriMo story on my work breaks. This month however, I’ve only managed to get through three chapters in the rewrite of Urban. The place just drains me. The only good part on this is that I have really been able to think out the plot and character structures more then I might have. The rewrite will be totally different then the original but I think I said that already.

What have I been doing besides writing then? Well for one I’ve been playing DragonAge ont he xBox, I such a fan of the epic RPG games. I’ve also been doing a bit of remodling/deconstruction/reconstruction. We have a room downstairs that is the doubles as the laundry room and computer room. Well this place was never finished. Actually I think it might have been at one time since you could tell there used to be drywall on the ceiling but it was removed before us. I took out a worthless wall in that room which really opened it up and reran some electrical wiring. Had to hire a plumber to come out and change some lines out that had corroded plus the main cutoff inside the house. To save a bit of money I just went ahead and rented a hammerdrill to break up some concrete so the plumbers didn’t have to. Spending $27 on renting the drill and the 25 minutes it took me probably saved me about $100 if the plumber would have done it. Of course, I have done stuff like this before as well.

That’s all I got for now.

So here is it, January 1st and I have a new WordPress theme. Actually, it’s a new theme to the new domain name, bradzipprich.com I migrated the other posts over from the previous site I was using. I was going through a ton of themes for this site and finally settled upon one that my lovely wife approved of, it matches the houses color scheme even. There are some options on it that I need to tweak but just haven’t gotten there yet.

This morning I put in about 500 words to the rewrite of Urban. This is the story I wrote for NaNoWriMo in November. It’s a challenge to write a 50,000 word story in 30 days for those who haven’t clicked the previous link. It was my second year doing it and I finished. After finishing I spent December trying to figure out what to keep from that draft. As it turns out, I’m only keeping about 15% of that original story. However, I am really excited about the re visioning of the story that I have come up with. My goal is to have it done by April with an allotment  to finishing in June if I get caught up doing some other short stories. I’m taking my time with this one and putting allot of thought into each word.

If your curious here is the synopsis I posted on the NaNoWriMo site for the story. This was from the story I wrote in November, there are parts used in the one now but…well, you’ll have to wait for that.

Over the years the theory of some world changing event happening in 2012 struck fear and hope throughout the world. When nothing happened everyone went about their daily lives. Seems they had the date just a little off,

It was February 9, 2013 at 11:53AM when Urban Emory was ripped from his reality and smashed into another.

In the blink of an eye multiple dimensions merged together depositing people and other undesirable things onto Urban’s new Earth. That, was three years ago and the planet was still reeling from the tears in the fabric of realities that floated around it.

As a refugee to this new place Urban found his skills unusable like many others due to the overwhelming population. His family was nowhere to be found. His wife had not made it out of childhood in this world. He was left alone much like a few of his other selves that came to this world as well.

So, like many, he joined the Bureau, the one place that would take him in. Never in his life did he think he would see the mythical creatures of horror and legend let alone be protecting the world from them.

At some point this year The Road To Landsford will be released by the Library of the Living Dead Press. This is my first full novel to be published and I am thrilled about it to say the least. When I have more info on when it will be published I’ll let you know. This novel is a prequel of sorts from the short story I have in Zombology: A Zombie Anthology entitled Children of Landsford Towers.

I’ll also have a number of short stories coming out in some anthologies with that press this year. My two favorites are Tattooed Sweets that will be in an anthology called Horrorology and A Bad Day that was a collaboration with T. Patrick Rooney that will be in the book entitled Zombology VII: Risen Cadaver Collaboration.

What else is going on, well nothing much. Still working with the rest of the group on Don’t Look In The Podcast. We cover a variety of movies and it can get a bit weird at time. Taking a break from our Sons of Anarchy fancast, Watchers of Anarchy, that I do with my wife Tracy and our great friend Laura Best. We should be starting that up in February again with a review of the first season.

That’s all I got for now. I’m planning on keeping this site updated more often so subscribe to the RSS feed if you want. Things might change a bit on the site from time to time as I test out  a few things for some friends. I love playing around with the WordPress and anything else web related. Might have something to do with that first webpage that I coded in Notepad back in 1994. Plus I like helping people so if you have a question let me know.

Okay, so I really need to update this more. But until then, for those of you that did not get the limited edition Zipprich Christmas Card I give you the cover of the card.