Chapter 1 Excerpt from the Siege of Anticus: A Zombie Fantasy Novel

Background: This is an excerpt from the sequel to my “critically acclaimed” and “best-selling” novel, The Curse of Troius.  This excerpt deals with the introduction of some new characters, members of Baron Northreach’s expedition to investigate the odd message sent by his son, Mikel Anders. It revolves around 4 young recruits attached to the veteran outfit. It is absolutely and 100% unedited so bear that in mind!

***

Atheism

I am a proud atheist.  I don’t try to hide that fact, but I also don’t bring it up unless asked.  I don’t preach to my religious friends of the “error of their ways”, and indeed I don’t have a big problem with people having faith in general.  I do have a problem when faith is wielded like a weapon or used to cast judgments on others.  I have much stronger feelings on organized religions themselves, much more negative.  I firmly believe that the earliest religions were a mechanism for a chosen few to gain and retain power over a large mass of people, and I don’t think much has changed over the millenia.

Drama

When I think of drama, I generally think of actors.  Drama is typically considered the performance of a situation by actors, portrayed in a realistic manner.  Drama is fine on the stage, although dramas about real-life scenarios tend to bore the shit out of me (why would I ever want to watch a married couple arguing about their problems, when it is so unpleasant to do the actual thing in real life?  It’d be like watching a movie about someone doing bank reconciliations).  What I have a big problem with, though, is when drama BECOMES real life, or when one’s life becomes filled with drama, whether related to you or not.

Siblings

Sibling relationships can be truly bizarre things.  People talk all the time about how a certain friend is like a brother or sister to them, meaning that their affection and closeness rivals the ties of blood.  In many cases, these same people have actual brothers or sisters that they aren’t particularly close to, or don’t care for, or actively dislike.  I know many people who talk shit about their siblings constantly, only to vociferously defend the siblings to others who do the same.  It’s weird.

A Trip to the Butcher

For the first time in my life, I went to an honest-to-god butcher.  I was driven to do so by reading Alton Brown’s Good Eats: The Early Years, where he lobbies hard for people to find local butchers, and an article Lady Aravan posted about growth hormones in meat.  Afterwards, I decided I would find one near me.  I did, and Lady Aravan and I took a trip up there.  I was intimidated, I have to admit.  After a lifetime of just grabbing whatever I wanted from little individually-wrapped packages, here was someone waiting for me to tell them what kind of cut of meat I was looking for.  I choked, and the man kindly suggested that he had a really nice piece of sirlion.  I said that would be great, and got a steak that he said would feed four people (I assumed that might be enough for Lady Aravan and I).  He cut it, weighed it and wrapped it, then I talked about pulled pork and he suggested something else (a pork butt that he deboned).  They sell Boar’s Head products, which Lady Aravan and I both love, so we ended up getting a pound of bacon – cut from a slab – along with Boar’s Head mustard, hot dogs, pepperoni, and bleu cheese.