Tell
us a little about your latest or upcoming release.
This book is Transition. It is the third book in my
Euphoria Z series. In Euphoria Z the series starts with civilization shutting
down and the dead filling the streets. They feel only pleasure and never pain.
The few who remain unaffected struggle to survive, unaware that things are
about to get unbelievably worse. Cooper is among the few survivors of a
conspiracy to depopulate the world. Now we are on book three and a lot has
happened. By the third book civilization is completely shut down and there are
unforeseen threats to be dealt with. It is the third book in
what was supposed to be a trilogy but is now an ongoing series. This third book
was title Transition partly because it is a transition from the old book and
series conclusion to the new.
Have
you ever based your book or characters on actual events or people from your own
life?
Yes, all the time. The secret is to keep it a secret.
I change up a lot about the character so they are unrecognizable as a real
person, but it helps me write when I can picture a face I know very well, hear
the voice, and see the mannerisms.
When
you’re not writing what do you do? Do you have any hobbies or guilty pleasures?
I love cooking. It started because we wanted to eat
better and save money but I immediately had fun with it. I found recipes I
wanted to try. I started cooking things that I had always assumed I couldn’t. I
don’t know why because most stuff is pretty simple. I was really surprised at
how relatively cheap the ingredients are for a dish compared to what you pay
for the cooked food at a restaurant. I’m still kind of ecstatic about it. I
mean, I can buy the best ingredients and make eight servings of a dish for the
same cost a plate of food would cost at a restaurant and it will taste better.
In fact, the only real downside of doing all this cooking is that after a few
months I went out to eat and I swear I thought they dug the food out of a dumpster.
I ruined the restaurant experience for myself. I’m one of “those” people now. J I can taste the difference between
organic food and regularly grown food. I’ll admit I always thought that was
nonsense. And I find I but far less “stuff” on my food like salt and whatnot.
When you have really good fresh food you don’t want to mask it with anything.
I think the greatest simple joy in my life recently
is the smell of fresh ground pepper, good olive oil, and all the herbs and
spices… It has changed me and I know I sound silly going on and on about it.
What
is next for you? Do you have any scheduled upcoming releases or works in
progress?
I am working on a book entitled Zone of the Damned. I think I might shop this one to agents. It is
the story of a brilliant geneticist who finds himself testing water at a
bottling plant in the Pacific Northwest simply, because he has a bit of a
conscious. He was okay with secret human testing but the brutal conditions and
torturous experiments were too much even for him. His answer? Reveal the secret
lab and its activities to the press but when he arrives the lab is empty of all
research. All that remains are the hundreds of genetically altered humans left
to die a slow torturous death in the pitch blackness of the subterranean lab.
His impromptu plan B? Release the hundreds of man-ape hybrids into the
wilderness of Northern California. As you can imagine he created a world of
problems for himself and most of the country.
What
book are you reading now?
Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly and The Island
of Doctor Moreau.
Transition
The Euphoria Z Series
Book Three
Luke Ahearn
Genre: Thriller/Post-Apocalyptic
Publisher: Luke Ahearn
Date of Publication: April 25, 2016
ASIN: B01ESFRJW4
Number of pages: 194
Word Count: 56,200
Book Description:
Transition is the third book of the Euphoria Z Series set in a post-apocalyptic California.
The post-apocalyptic world is in transition. While things may seem safer, a great danger lurks under the surface and sometimes from above.
What does the Island have to do with the state of the world, and the invisible creatures? New threats arise and evil is tracked down. Will this finally be the end for Ben and his psychopathic lifestyle?
Continue the adventure as we find out what happened to Cooper, Lisa and the others.
Excerpt:
Prologue
It doesn’t rain
frequently in San Jose, California and when it does it’s a quick gray affair
that rinses away dust and freshens the air. Every few years there’s a day or
two of torrential downpours, interspersed by widespread drizzling and dripping.
And rarely, as was the case this day, the skies opened and dumped a decade’s
worth of rain upon the city in only a few days. These rare downpours could last
days and do substantial damage citywide.
The downpour was
so heavy it was impossible to see farther than a few hundred yards. Water ran
from the highest spots in the city and merged into thick fast flowing rivers on
its journey downhill. It gushed down streets, blasting over curbs and past sign
posts, taking away anything that wasn’t nailed down. The waters were black with
months of accumulated filth and foamed with the runoff of a million miles of
city streets. The fine dust of millions of corpses, that which wasn’t already
blown away by the winds, was swept into storm drains and out to the Pacific
Ocean.
But the most
alarming aspect of the rainstorm by far was the thunder and the lightning.
Every few minutes great jagged bolts of light arced across the sky,
illuminating the world in blinding flashes, followed moments later by the
thunder, a terrifying sound as if the heavens were being torn open. Then
cascading booms shook the earth for long moments after.
One of these
giant flashes illuminated the inside of a dark warehouse revealing a world of
crisp black shadows and harsh blinding whites. For a split second a human shape
was visible laying atop a large worktable. It resembled the sarcophagus of a
long dead pharaoh. Puddles of odd liquids had collected under the body and run
off the edge, hardening in long stalactites of black and dark red. A minor
flash revealed a hardened shell, mottled with the same black and reddish hues.
The long low rumble of the distant thunder that followed caused an eye to
twitch. A loud crack and a blinding flash of light caused both eyes to open
wide in shock and fear. A high-pitched keening could be heard emanating from
the misshapen body on the table.
Slowly a hand
rose, the cracking of dried viscera was faint but clearly audible above the
muted pounding of rain. The open eyes, clear and green, regarded a grotesque
hand armored in a red and black crust. The arm dropped and the eyes closed. The
thrumming of the rain and intense fatigue made slipping back into the sweet
darkness of sleep all too easy.
Later, a blinding
flash of light and the ensuing crack of thunder caused the figure to startle
awake. Fat drops of water fell almost forty feet from the compromised skylights
above creating a loud rhythmic clunk, clunk, clunk as they struck a crustaceous
shell. There was a hiss as breath was sucked inwards through thin reddish tubes
that hung over a tiny mouth. The creature spasmed at the discomfort as air
filled its long dormant lungs.
The figure
rolled awkwardly left and right as it attempted to stand. Dried viscera cracked
and crunched and fell away in large chunks. It stopped to rest a few times
until eventually, with great effort, it rolled on its stomach and swung its
legs off the table, pushing itself to a standing position in a sort of diagonal
pushup. It struggled to stay upright as it took one awkward step forward, then
another.
The heavy
armored shell made walking difficult and uncomfortable. Each labored movement
caused the figure to hiss and gasp. It took three steps and bent forward over
the table to rest. The effort was exhausting and the armored plates tugged at
odd spots and pinched and pulled on the raw skin beneath.
Many laborious
steps later and the creature was nearing the door to the warehouse. The effort
was exhausting, the movement unnatural, and feelings of weakness and nausea
were overwhelming. But a sense of urgency drove the creature forward. It knew
that it must get out of that dark place. There was somewhere it had to be.
The warehouse
door swung open and wind blasted cold rain across the armored body, but it felt
nothing. It looked down, apparently just now gaining a sense of awareness
beyond wakefulness and the desire to escape the dark building. Groggily it
tugged on a section of armored shell as if it was just now noticing it. The skin
beneath pulled, the shell seemed to be attached to flesh like that of a lobster
or crab. A disfigured hand rose up, lightning flashed and a gasp of horror came
from the bulbous armored head as it looked with revulsion at its own red and
black armored appendage.
The creature
looked to the sky and stepped into the torrential downpour. It shuddered as icy
rain made its way beneath its armored plates. A shell loosened from a forearm
and with a touch clattered to the ground. The rainwater stung like fire and the
figure backed into the warehouse staring at raw skin glistening with red
wetness. The unprotected skin was as sensitive as that of a newborn babe. The
arm went back into the rain and recoiled again as if the rain water was
scalding. It tried again and again until it could stand the pounding rain.
Eventually it
stepped out into the deluge and disappeared into the blinding storm.
Lisa barely
remembered her own name when she awoke, but now it was all coming back to her
as she shuffled along in the downpour and she grew more and more terrified. She
had no idea what had happened to her or what was happening to her presently.
She remembered hiding in the safe room and later talking to the creature.
Another piece of her exoskeleton fell away and she shivered as cold rain
pounded her left shoulder. It didn’t hurt as bad as the first time rain hit her
flesh. She almost tripped when most of the shell on her right leg fell away all
at once. It was as if she were molting like a crab. She was sick, weak, and
terrified. She had no idea what had happened to her but everything about her
body felt different and weird.
-end-
About the Author:
Luke Ahearn was born in New Orleans, LA and now lives in Central California. He is a successfully published author of both fiction and nonfiction, most recently completing Transition, the third book in the Euphoria Z Series. He has over 20 years of professional game development experience in lead positions; designer, producer, and art director.
Luke is also a book cover designer interested in supporting his fellow authors. He hates writing about himself in the third person, but thinks it makes him sound more substantial.
He can be reached at www.LukeAhearn.com
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