Scenes Along the Zombie Highway by G.O. Clark by Dark Regions Press

From the Bram Stoker Award nominated poet of Shroud of Night, Strange Vegetables, Bone Sprockets, 25 Cent Rocket Ship To The Stars and The Other Side of the Lens comes a new collection of 42 poems in the realm of the undead. Full of humor, charm and chilling imagery, Scenes Along the Zombie Highway by G.O. Clark strikes the perfect balance of levity, commentary and horror in the realm of the living dead. Zombies! There are all kinds of zombies out there these days, from the slow-witted, slow-moving kind, to the more steroid pumped-up versions of recent film and TV. In Scenes Along the Zombie Highway, you'll encounter the living dead in all their ragged, rotten glory, and upon finishing the book, leave with a twisted smile upon your face.

Available in Trade Paperback and Ebook

Praise for Scenes Along the Zombie Highway: "G. O. Clark's Scenes Along the Zombie Highway is stylish, chilling, clever and sly. Beware: it will eat your brain and have your sense of the

on DarkRegions.com and Amazon.com

absurd for dessert." - Mary A. Turzillo, Nebula Award winner, Rhysling Award finalist, author of Lovers and Killers. "Grisly and smartly funny! G. O. Clark renders the juiciest bits of modern zombie lore into ironic, poignant, and often wry reflections of modern society filtered through a warped sense of humor we all hope the walking dead will have when the zombie apocalypse finally arrives." - James Chambers, author of Corpse Fauna and The Engines of Sacrifice.

SCENES ALONG THE ZOMBIE HIGHWAY

G. O. Clark

Illustrated by Marge Simon

Dark Regions Press 2013

Poems in this collection appeared in slightly different form in the following: "Zombie Eyes," "Saturday Night Social Scene," "Some Advice to Prospective Zombies" were published in Mor‐ tician's Tea, 2009, Sam's Dot Publishing. "Dead Eyes In the Rearview Mirror," "Some Zombies One Should Avoid," "Little Zombies," "Two Drink Mini‐ mum," "Zombie On A Leash" were published in Shroud Of Night, 2011, Dark Regions Press. "The Carolers" was published in Star*Line, Fall 2012. All the other poems included are original to this collec‐ tion. Dark Regions Poetry Five Editor: Bruce Boston First Edition ISBN‐13: 978‐1‐62641‐001‐5 ISBN‐10: 1‐62641‐001‐1 Text copyright © 2013 by G. O. Clark Cover art copyright © 2013 by Alex McVey Text art copyright © 2013 by Marge Simon Dark Regions Press 300 E. Hersey Street, #10 A Ashland, OR 97520 www.darkregions.com

Contents 7 At the Tipping Point 9 Little Zombies 10 The Carolers 11 New Moon/No Pulse 12 The Picnic Is Over 13 Seasons of the Living Dead 15 Saturday Night Social Scene 16 Zombiemobile 17 Zombie Clowns 19 The Ventriloquist 21 You Just Can't Get Good Help Anymore 22 Slapstick 23 Pool Party 24 Night Parade 25 Zombie on a Leash 26 Zombie Loner 27 Scarecrow 29 Writer's Block 30 Roadside Shrines 31 The Library 34 Zombies Crossing 36 Road Kill 37 Albino 38 Rag Doll 40 Clothes Make the Zombie

41 A Stop along the Post‐Apocalyptic Tour 42 The Curse of the Aware Zombie 43 Zombie Eyes 44 Reanimated 46 Some Things Zombies Suck At 47 Some Advice to Prospective Zombies 49 Breaking News 50 Playtime's Over 51 Two Drink Minimum 52 Bottom of the Ninth 54 Old Flame 55 Dead Eyes in a Rearview Mirror 56 Road Trip Advice 57 All in the Family 58 Some Zombies One Should Avoid 60 Quotes from the Zombie Fact Book 62 The Last Zombie

SCENES ALONG THE ZOMBIE HIGHWAY

At the Tipping Point You're in a cheap cafe, eating the breakfast special, sipping watered down coffee, when you notice the guy at the far end of the counter. He looks old, but seems young; hair uncombed, skin a sickly gray, dark suit looking slept in, both hands shakily raising a coffee cup to his lips. You think, poor guy, tossed out on the street by his wife, on the edge of losing his job, likely spent the night on a park bench, just trying to get by. Eating your greasy‐spoon fare, you wonder if you should start up a conversation with him, give an ear to his verbal blues; two guys just trying to survive. Before you can follow through, he lunges over the counter at the poor waitress, bends her over his untouched breakfast, and starts gnawing on her face, biting deeper and deeper 7

as if trying to get inside her skull to feast on her brains, scrambled eggs no longer appetizing. In time the big picture will come into focus, the consequences of the incurable, mutated virus become old news. On this singular morning, however, you’re ringside at the tipping point, the end of the status quo, the rise of the living dead.

Little Zombies It's Halloween night and all the little zombies are stumbling from house to house, pressing doorbells with rotting fingers, gurgling trick or treat, trick or treat through yellowed, broken teeth, bloody bags thrust forward for candy, pennies and that all time favorite, slow‐witted human brains, the adults handing out the goodies so amused by the cute little zombies that they never see the trick coming, each about to become the bloody treat.

The Carolers The zombie carolers crowd my front doorstep, their voices slurred, badly mangling “Jingle Bells,” the beginning of each chorus sounding like jellied brains, jellied brains, need some right away, while spastically flailing their arms around and clumsily marching in place like decaying wooden soldiers.

New Moon/No Pulse It's the new moon, and the zombies are sluggish, milling around on street corners, stumbling about the cemetery, wandering aimlessly in the night in search of fleshy leftovers, allowing even the weakest human to dance circles around them, beneath the star‐bright sky, the cycle of the heavens like a ticking clock, the silence inside each zombie's head complete.

The Picnic Is Over A perfect summer's day for a simple picnic lunch, in the solitude of the city cemetery, away from all the hustle and bustle of corporate life. Skyscrapers look down upon the peaceful afternoon, giant, hollow cement and glass tombstones now filled with the bones of the living. The mighty buildings still stand tall, but lifeless. The cemetery quietly waits, its headstones toppled, flowers trampled, graves empty. Perfect summer days have given way to endless nights of flesh eating zombies picnicking without pause, not even the graves immune to the madness.

Seasons of the Living Dead Come spring the snow pack melts and the zombies thaw out, picking up where they left off before the winter freeze. Summertime is hard on decaying bodies, the strongest sunscreen no longer an option, sunglasses useless, swimwear a bloody joke. In autumn the leaves turn, days grow shorter, nights cooler and the living dead perform their gruesome tricks for bloody treats. Winter brings huddled nights by the fire, burnt out Christmas lights, off‐key zombie carolers in the distance, and an empty toast to the New Year.

Available in Trade Paperback and Ebook on DarkRegions.com and Amazon.com "G. O. Clark's Scenes Along the Zombie Highway is stylish, chilling, clever and sly. Beware: it will eat your brain and have your sense of the absurd for dessert." Mary A. Turzillo, Nebula Award winner, Rhysling Award finalist, author of Lovers and Killers. "Grisly and smartly funny! G. O. Clark renders the juiciest bits of modern zombie lore into ironic, poignant, and often wry reflections of modern society filtered through a warped sense of humor we all hope the walking dead will have when the zombie apocalypse finally arrives." - James Chambers, author of Corpse Fauna and The Engines of Sacrifice.

Available in Trade Paperback and Ebook on DarkRegions.com and Amazon.com

"Scenes Along the Zombie Highway is an absorbing collection of emotionally poignant poetry. G. O. Clark brings a fresh take to the zombie genre, so if you love zombies, then you will love this book." - Jeani Rector, Editor of The Horror Zine. "I'm going to guess that G. O. Clark had a good time with the poems in Scenes Along the Zombie Highway. Oh, there is some serious work here, but Mr. Clark is playing at the top of his game...when he's tongue in cheek. A great wry, witty look at the whole zombie craze. Highly recommended." - Gene O'Neill, Stoker winning author of Dance of the Blue Lady and Other Stories.

Scenes Along the Zombie Highway G.O. Clark

G. O. Clark's writing has been published in Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog, Talebones Magazine, Strange Horizons, Space & Time, Retro Spec: Tales of Fantasy and Nostalgia, A Sea Of Alone: Poems For Alfred Hitchcock, Tales Of The Talisman, and many other publications. He's the author of eleven poetry collections, the two most recent, "Shroud of Night", 2011, Dark Regions Press, and, "White Shift", 2012, Sam's Dot Publishing. His fiction collection, "The Saucer Under My Bed & Other Stories", was published by Sam's Dot Publishing in 2011. He won the Asimov's Readers Award for poetry in 2001, and has been a repeat Rhysling and Stoker Award nominee. He's retired, and lives in Davis, CA. See http://goclarkpoet.weebly.com/ for more info.

Scenes Along the Zombie Highway G.O. Clark

Author:

G.O. Clark

Front Cover Artist:

Alex McVey

Interior Artist:

Marge Simon

Editor:

Bruce Boston

ISBN-13:

9781626410015

BISAC code:

POE000000

Genre:

POETRY / General / Horror

Page count:

Poem count:

Interior illustrations:

Size:

6”x9”

Publication date:

06/04/2013

Trade Paperback pricing:

$9.95 USD

Ebook pricing:

$2.99 USD

Availability:

DarkRegions.com, Amazon.com

Scenes Along the Zombie Highway G.O. Clark

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Dark Regions Press is an independent specialty publisher of horror, dark fiction, fantasy and science fiction, specializing in horror and dark fiction and in business since 1985. We have gained recognition around the world for our creative works in genre fiction and poetry. We were awarded the Horror Writers Association 2010 Specialty Press Award and the Italian 2012 Black Spot award for Excellence in a Foreign Publisher. We produce premium signed hardcover editions for collectors as well as quality trade paperbacks and ebook editions. Our books have received five Bram Stoker Awards from the Horror Writers Association.

We have published hundreds of authors, artists and poets such as Kevin J. Anderson, Bentley Little, Michael D. Resnick, Rick Hautala, Bruce Boston, Robert Frazier, W.H. Pugmire, Simon Strantzas, Jeffrey Thomas, Charlee Jacob, Richard Gavin, Tim Waggoner and hundreds more. Dark Regions Press has been creating specialty books and creative projects for over twenty-seven years.

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Scenes Along the Zombie Highway G.O. Clark

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