This is the official book cover for the deluxe horror edition of Journey Into the Unknown.  All the stories are finished. Once all the edits are finished for the new stories, the book will go to press.  I had fun writing all the new stories for the reissue.  For those that haven't purchased the original version, you will definitely be glad that you didn't.  Smashwords will distribute their version with an alternate book cover.  That version which is a lot more sexier is at the bottom of this blog.

Zombie Hunter, which everybody that follows my blog, was finally finished this week and I'm hiring a professional artist from Romania to do a illustration based on the two main characters in the story; Devlin The Zombie Hunter and Militia.  The illustration is going to be a little pricey, but from what I've seen of his portfolio, it will be worth the price.  I'm going to use it for promoting the release of Journey Into the Unknown.

My latest short story "The White Wolf" is available to read for free on shortfictionbreak: http://shortfictionbreak.com/2014/09/16/the-white-wolf  The story will also be available in the deluxe horror edition of Journey.  For those who have purchased my other two novels, there will be no reissues.  The versions that are out are the versions that will be in print until the end of time.

I posted some new photos from the horror studio of Mark Cusco Ailes on my Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/authorderekailes  Stop by and like the page. 

Halloween is approaching and it means that it is the perfect time to read horror fiction.  Even though I want people to read my work, support all of us horror authors during the Halloween season.  Better yet, support the horror authors twelve months out of the year.

As always keep checking back each week for my latest updates.

Until next time
Stay Scared
Derek Ailes

Hello horror fans. October is approaching.  It's time to pull out all of the classic horror films.  Halloween, Friday the 13th, Hellraiser, Nightmare on Elmstreet, Creepshow - the list goes on and on.  Which is your personal favorite?

Tuesday morning will be the debut of The White Wolf on shortfictionbreak.com  The story will be included in Journey Into the Unknown: Deluxe Horror Edition.  I hired somebody to design a new cover for the release including many new short stories.  I can't wait to see what the new cover could possibly look like.

I finally finished writing the short story 'Zombie Hunter' yesterday.  It only took me a year writing it here and there.  It will go to the editor this week.  The story is 43 pages long.

I'm going to write a couple more stories for the Deluxe Horror Edition.  I think it will be available toward the end of November.  A lot of people still haven't purchased a copy of Journey, so this will be the perfect time to do so.  The hundred pages of Mark Cusco Ailes' poetry are gone in this edition and replaced with all new horror short stories by me.

It's only a couple of weeks away for Mark and my next book tour.  We will be promoting our latest release: Second Journey Into The Unknown.  I will also be promoting Zombie Command: A Horror Anthology.  I will keep everybody posted on where we will be appearing next.

Remember you can purchase all Mark Cusco Ailes and my novels on this website: http://derekailes.weebly.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html or on Amazon.com
Zombie Command: http://amzn.com/B00MU3Q194 or Second Journey Into the Unknown
http://amzn.com/B00NDVWK88

Until next time
Stay Scared
Derek Ailes

This has been another great productive week for me.  First off, you can now buy all Mark Cusco Ailes & my books on my website for $12.99 each including shipping.  Check the link on the left marked: store - buy my books here.  The new version of Zombie Command with the new cover and the new professional edit will be available next week.

I've been working real hard getting the reissue of Journey Into The Unknown ready for its global ebook release.  It will be known as the Deluxe Horror Edition.  This version will not have any of the poetry.  Instead it will have new horror short stories by me.  I'm currently writing the new short stories.  Zombie Hunter will be one of the new stories.  For those that have been following my blogs for awhile now, I've been working on this story for way over a year.  I couldn't get it into Zombie Command or Second Journey Into The Unknown because there wouldn't have been any room due to all of the other stories.  I think it may end up being the longest short story I've written to date.  I already finished writing the White Wolf.  The White Wolf is based on a guy that use to shop at Wiseway/Strak And Vantil that I talked to every night for years.  He stopped coming over six months ago.  We believe that he may have passed away.  I wrote this story around the details of his life after his wife passed away from cancer in 1999.  My tribute to "Little Pete" as all of us at the grocery store used to call him.

Zombie Command is now available on all ebook formats.  I will be working on getting Mark Cusco Ailes novels converted for all the ebook formats.  They will be making their worldwide debuts in the upcoming months. 

After I finished writing this blog, I will be working on the next round of edits for Second Journey Into the Unknown.  The stories turned out better than I originally envisioned them to be.  There are stories in there for horror and non horror fans.

My bedroom, which is my writing studio, is going to go through a major overhaul.  My large L shape desk is going.  I'm going to turn it into my new horror studio.  I'll be searching for some cool horror props to make it very authentic for a horror writer.  I can't wait for all the Halloween items to show up.  I also want to buy a straight jacket prop for a photo shoot for my horror career.  I saw a couple of cool ones on Amazon.

Mark and I have been working on our plans for next year's book tour.  By then, we will be promoting the fourth and final novel in the Ray Cycle Adventure Series: Heir To The Throne.  I hope to have my next book project finished.  Karena is what I hope I'll have finished, but I put that project aside again to finished all the stories for the Journey Into the Unknown Deluxe Horror Edition.

Halloween will be here before everybody realizes it.  This is my favorite time of year.  I'll be out promoting Second Journey Into the Unknown and I'm going to have some cool horror photos taken of me for the occasion.

Until next time
Stay Scared
Derek Ailes

Now available on Smashwords.com for only .99 Zombie Con brings you three horror short stories from Derek Ailes. Zombie Con: Norman is excited to attend the Walkers Zombie Convention in Chicago. He finally gets a chance to meet his favorite actress Lauren Callas. During the convention a real zombie outbreak takes place. Who is a zombie or a fan decked out in a zombie costume? Zombie Twister: What happens when a group of storm chasers encounter an EF5 tornado infested with zombies while filming a documentary special? Will they survive the zombies or the tornado? Gargoyle's Curse: A small town in Texas is being terrorized by a hungry gargoyle. Will Sheriff Tavenier be able to stop the gargoyle before it kills everybody in town? Find out in these chilling tales from a horror mastermind.

Now you can read the first new horror short story before the collection 'Second Journey Into the Unknown' gets released.  I threw in two of my favorite shorts stories from my other two anthologies: Zombie Twister & Gargoyle's Curse.  I hope everybody enjoys my latest collection of terror.

Until next time
Stay Scared
Derek Ailes

I want to thank everybody that turned out for Mark Cusco Ailes and I book signing at the Hammond Public Library's Local Authors Fair.  I hope to see everybody at our book signing this weekend at the Lake County Library.  The details are on the link for the June 7, 2014 book signing on the left side of my weebly page.

I just finished writing the short story "Zombie Con" which will be in the short story horror collection "The Second Journey Into the Unknown" by Mark Cusco Ailes and Derek Ailes (me).  I have three stories done so far: "Furnado", "Zombie Con" and "The Day of the Redheads"  I will start working on Claws (a cat horror parody of Jaws) and "Karena Part 2".  I will hopefully then finish writing "Zombie Hunter".  I've had a lot of fun writing these stories and the readers will have fun as well.

Mark Cusco Ailes and I will be working on a collection of horror short stories called:  "Trick or Scream" for young adult readers.  Our version of Goosebumps.  That will also be out this year.

"Zombie Con" is based on the Saturday Chicago Walker Stalker Con 2014 and revolves around everything that happened that day including the incompetent photo company.  If you attended, you know what I'm talking about.

I  added a rough draft sneak peak of "Zombie Con" on the bottom of this blog.  I hope you enjoy it.

Until next time, stay scared

Derek Ailes

    Keegan walked out of the convention room and headed for the cafeteria area.  If he was lucky, Russo would be there stuffing his face with whatever food he could find.  Russo love to eat and when going to buffets two or three plates filled with food was just a warm up.  He could see the stacks of boxes with their dolly outside the cafeteria.  He couldn’t believe that Russo had left them there unattended.  Anybody could have taken off with them.  He thought it was odd that the area was empty.  Normally at a convention, you couldn’t get near the food areas without tripping over people.  He did see a long line by the photo area.  Maybe everybody was over there waiting to get a picture taken with Lauren instead of stuffing their face with hotdogs and hamburgers.

            He walked into the cafeteria and quickly walked backward out of it.  Inside there were people lying all over the floor with their guts hanging out with what looked like zombies eating away at their intestines.   Was somebody staging a scene from a zombie movie?  It looked very real.  He turned around and crashed into Russo’s chest.

            “There you are buddy.  I was wondering where you were,” Keegan said.

            Russo pushed Keegan to the ground.  Russo stumbled forward and landed on top of him.  Keegan tried to push him off, but Russo, who was now a zombie, started to tear away at his flesh.  Keegan tried to scream, but his throat was being ripped apart by his hungry friend.

Do you ever wonder why none of your friends are posting on facebook anymore?  Guess what, they are.  A few months ago, I was receiving updates from all my friends and colleagues.  I was also seeing updates from all the fellow writers, celebrity’s official facebook pages and more.  Now, nothing.  When I would post some new update about my upcoming novel, I would get dozens and dozens of likes. Now only my brother and my mom are liking my posts.  The reason is that facebook made changes to the way you see people’s post making most of your friends and pages you like completely invisible.  If you go on the individual pages, you’ll see all that person’s individual posts.  How many people have the time, patient, or to ability to remember every person you follow on facebook to do so.  I know I can’t.  When you are a famous author, like Stephen King, and people are no longer seeing your post, you know there is a problem.

Facebook used to be a place where somebody had an identity and when they had something to say hundreds and thousands of people could see it and like it and comment on it.  Now you are completely invisible instantly ignored by those that follow you.  You can spend the $6.99 to promote your posting, positioning your individual post to top of everybody’s newsfeeds that follow you, but who can and is willing to spend the money to do so.  $6.99 adds up quickly.  Facebook is become a place of advertising for those who have a fat wallet, corporations.  Everything is about the big bucks and making the stock shareholders happy.  What about us?

Several years back, I was an eBay seller that had one of the eBay store’s that sold used cds, dvds, books and collectible toys.  I was making $200 or more a day.  I was able to quit my job and make a living selling these items.  EBay changed the way the eBay stores were seen on the website.  The day before the change, I made over $300.00.  The day they made the change, I made $0.00 and each day after that I was lucky to make $10.00 or more.  My eBay store became completely invisible.

This same situation happened to me on facebook two months ago.  I’m not the only one.  We are talking almost everybody on facebook that I talked to recently.  What can us little people do now to be seen?  With an ever changing social networking platform, we are all being left behind being overtaken by the advertising executives that are making the people with the big bucks seen over the average person.

Thanks

Derek Ailes

Zombie Command: Demon's Unleashed is now available on paperback and Kindle.  It's been an exciting two weeks since the release of my latest collection of horror short stories.  I have two book signings coming up in the next two weeks.  I'm already looking ahead to my next book project "The Second Journey Into the Unknown" with fellow author Mark Cusco Ailes.  Mark's short stories are complete and the story "Day of the Redheads" by both of us is already completed.  I'm working on my first short story "Furnado" about a tornado that picks up a thousand cats and is dropping the angry kitties on unsuspecting victims.  The story is fun and exciting in the tradition of Sharknado.  That project has a September/October release.  I have a lot of surprises in store for the next collection.  I've outlined the beginning of "Power Force" which is due in 2015 to celebrate my 30th Anniversary as a writer. 
I hope everybody has a chance to purchase my Zombie Command and if you are in the Highland area on May 24 or Hammond May 31 stop by to purchase an autograph copy.  There is a column on the homepage for the May 24 book signing with all the details.  I will add the details for the May 31 to that column this week.

Until next time, stay scared.

Derek Ailes

Two more weeks of writing and hopefully Zombie Command will be complete.  I've had a lot fun writing these stories.  Once all the edits are complete, the book will go to press sometime in May.  I have two book signings coming up.  One is on May 24 in Highland.  Details is in the photo below.  The next book signing will be in June (Friday, the 13th).  That one is still in the process of being confirmed.

I start working on The Second Journey Into The Unknown sometime in April/May.  Mark Cusco Ailes is in the process of writing all of his short stories for the project.  I'm not sure what my stories will be, but the unfinished story: Zombie Hunter will be added since I can't get it finished in time for Zombie Command to be released.  There is so much more that needs to be done on that story and I had to put it aside, because I can figure out how to proceed yet.  The sequel to Karena will be included since there is so much of her story I want to tell.  I fell in love with her character and have been itching to start working with her again.  I have a great story idea that puts Trikies way back into the Salem Witch Trial days.

I hope everyone that hasn't purchased "The Journey Into Into The Unknown" will stop by one of the upcoming book fairs and signings we be attending in the upcoming months.

Derek

I finally have returned to writing the short stories for "Zombie Command: Demon's Unleashed."  Just finished writing the Candy Factory.  What happens when a demon takes over a candy shop and starts brainwashing children with gummy bears?  Awesome story.  For those who have seen Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, there are a few references that you will get.  Six stories are complete now so far.  I still need to write Shark Transporter and I wrote a new outline the other day that will make a great story.  I still plan on having this collection released sometime in April.  After that I am going to start working on "Stories From Weekland" and new horror stories for my next collection: "Second Journey Into The Unknown" with new stories from me and Mark Cusco Ailes. 2014 looks to be a great year for me.  I'll keep everybody posted.