John A. Karr, writer

Eclectic writer. Nice phrase, if a bit stuffy. Basically, I write what strikes me as interesting. That encompasses thriller, general fiction, historical, dark heroic fantasy, horror, and now mystery. Goal is to make it entertaining for the reader as well, as the writing entertains me. Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune blog. Twitter: @JohnAKarr 

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The United States of America needs to renew its efforts in Space.  There lies The Future, and we must meet it. Innovate. Invent. Achieve. "We will go to the moon. We will go to the moon and do other things, NOT because they are easy but because they are HARD.” John F. Kennedy  The Rice University Moon speech 

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   On the Writing Front:

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3/18/2012 -- Two forthcoming publications from Dark Continents Publishing, breaking ground on the next novel -- a science thriller with global implications for human race, and I've set Xeria as a free space opera story over at Wattpad.One of the WattPad members was kind enough to make a movie trailer for Xeria:

1. Will soon be readying my paranormal mystery novel, GHOSTLY SUMMONS, for publication via Dark Continents Publishing.  The premise:

 

Lars Kelsen doesn’t believe in psychic phenomenon. To him, visions of murder victims are a form of mental illness. Once they begin, options are limited; he can try to ignore them or deal with them by exposing a killer. Only the latter provides any semblance of peace. Temporarily, anyway. Five years into his new life as a programmer, Kelsen -- ex-crime beat reporter with a penance he can never fully satisfy -- sees a victim.

In person. Upright. Staring.

Typical of such past mental aberrations, or "Visits" as he calls them, he doesn’t welcome this one. The nude form of a beautiful millionairess in his cubicle means murder has come to the vacation haven known as North Carolina’s Outer Banks (OBX). It also means he’ll have to go places he'd rather avoid. See things he'll wish he hadn’t. Do things that don't come naturally, like in-your-face confrontation and bending the law. Actually, breaking the law ... but with good intent. So begins Kelsen's return to investigative reporting -- complete with attempts on his life, fights, deception, and use of technology such as GPS and computer hacking. And possibly finding a new love interest.

 

2. Also to be released through Dark Continents is my Weird West novella [zombies on the hunt] with the working title, UJAHWEK. Premise:

As God created Man in His own image, so too did Lucifer create the Ujahwek to prey upon the fleshed manifestations of his enemy.

For years Randall Montgomery swung a sledgehammer in a coal mine, as if pitting himself against a mountain would replenish a soul depleted by the Civil and Indian Wars. With the onset of black lung and middle age, he journeys west to visit an old army buddy before starting life anew. Instead of a friendly reunion, he finds a burgeoning terror last encountered in North America by early humans. A threat bent on claiming all who draw breath in the Wyoming Territories.

For ages the dark spirits of the once-feared Ujahweks have waited, ravenous and expectant ... until a banished female shaman of the Blackfoot tribe is drawn to Skull Cliff in the Owl Creek Mountains. The shaman embraces the spirit of Xotaena, Ujahwek high-priestess, and unleashes the means to resurrect the unholy species. Immediately they hunt their prey: humans. The Ujahwek high-priestess selects Randall Montgomery for possession with the soul of her mate. To survive he must battle in both the physical and mental realms, or get dragged into the depths of humanity lost. ...  

 

10/25/2011 -- Hippocrates Shattered, on Kindle for a $1.

10/8/2011 -- My short story, Bayou Life, is part of Dr. Alex Scully's anthology of Gothic Fiction called Enter at Your Own Risk. Dr. Alex Scully has pulled together

Old Masters, New Voices: Looking into the dark past, Enter At Your Own Risk resurrects the Gothic masters and for the first time, they meet their modern counterparts. Poe, de Maupassant, Bierce, Lovecraft, Yeats, Stoker and more walk the haunted literary halls with B.E. Scully, Carole Gill, Joshua Skye, Mari Adkins, Edward Medina, John A. Karr, E.P. Berglund, A.A. Garrison, Robbie Anderson, David Thomas, Alex McDermott, Nicky Peacock, Drew Keaton, and Benjamin Sperduto. Enter... at your own risk...

 

 

9/8/2011 -- Lightning strikes twice! My short story of life and death and undeath on de 'ousiana bayou, titled Bayou Life, has been accepted for Enter at Your Own Risk: An Anthology of Gothic Literature and for the November 2011 edition of online magazine Danse Macabre .

 

7/10/2011 -- Amazon has my medical thriller, Hippocrates Shattered, on sale for under $5, print edition.

 

 

5/20/2011 -- Writing and peddling and publishing.  

2/1/2011 -- Forced into zombiehood?  You might need a Death Clause

Surgeon Victor Galloway kept death at bay in the operating room. Now death has claimed him. Resurrected against his will, forced to sign a Death Clause, he must fight for his family and his soul.

Victor Galloway is a prominent surgeon and family man. When he suffers a heart attack, he claws his way to the phone and dials 911. The paramedics arrive, smile down at him and quickly administer a lethal injection.Victors life is ending, but his nightmare has just begun. Close to death and strapped to a gurney, hes offered an unholy deal by Tobias, H.E.L.L.'s CEO: Use his surgical skills to harvest the living to feed the undead in exchange for immortality.

Refused but not to be denied, Tobias presses his unwilling recruit into the ranks of the undead. Whether by chance or divine intervention, Victor is different from the others. He is a monster with a conscience, a force for good ensnared by evil, and the only one willing to stand against Tobias and his burgeoning nest of zombies. He must destroy them, but doing so risks the lives of his family and the last hospital employee with a pulse.

Death Clause is the 2011 resurrection of previously published Dark Resurrection.

 

 

12/10/2010 -- XERIA -- a space opera short story

Xeria's home planet of Iegaké had nearly been purged of life by demons with greater technology and firepower. Their spaceships hold hostage not only the paltry number of survivors -- including her father -- but the entire solar system. If Xeria does not return from a neighboring planet with the Drayden Dust that allows demons to dream, Mizk will destroy the entire planet, and prey upon the next.

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/XERIA-short-story-ebook/dp/B004FV5BOU/
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/33017

 

11/14/2010 -- The revised version of Rhone (The Marsii Saga), epic fantasy of Mars, is now available in Kindle ebook, and soon as a second printing from Wild Wolf Publishing.

10/9/2010 -- Van Gogh, Encore now available in print at Amazon.

9/22/2010 -- Van Gogh, Encore now available on Amazon Kindle and Smashwords for other e-book formats. Proofs for the trade paperback version on on the way.  

9/5/2010 -- Van Gogh, Encore submitted to Kindle for 48 hour acceptance wait  (as noted at my blog, Slings and Arrows.

7/22/2010 -- Graphic artist Annie Melton sent several size variations of the final cover art for Van Gogh, Encore. She captured the image in my mind perfectly!

                                         

 Annie is also editing Rhone for the Kindle version since Wild Wolf Publishing doesn't publish electronically. I'll also send them the next version for the second print edition. 

7/7/2010 -- Hired a graphic artist to create cover art for my modern Vincent Van Gogh novel: Van Gogh, Encore. I'll be self pubbing it via Amazon Digital Text for Kindle. Currently giving the chapters another edit. 

7/5/2010 -- An editor is polishing Rhone for the print second edition, and for my upcoming effort at e-publishing, since Wild Wolf doesn't do e-books currently. 

6/7/2010 -- Mihir over a Fantasy Book Critic has a cool review of Rhone 

 6/2/2010 -- Asylett Press is offering medical thriller Hippocrates Shattered at wholesale prices. 

 3/23/2010 One-two punch ... RHONE available in trade print on Amazon and Hippocrates Shattered also available in trade print on Amazon

About RHONE:

Mars has a hero that will defy both god and man ...

Rhone is an ex-soldier of mixed blood, more man than demon but with reserves of hellish power. He has led a peaceful life as a fisherman since his soldiering days and is raising a daughter, Enna. Returning home one day he finds Enna murdered -- or so he believes.

And so begins Rhone's manipulation by Ducain, a demigod hell-bent on ruling the heavens. After avenging his daughter's death, Rhone grieves and isolates himself in the mountains. Ducain tells him his daughter's soul is locked in purgatory but can be retrieved ... and if Rhone also frees the titan who once defied the king of gods, Enna will live again.

4/28/2010 -- Scheduled release date of RHONE from Wild Wolf Publishing. Trade paperback. First edition runs have been sent to the printer. 

2/16/2010 -- Signed publishing contract with Wild Wolf Publishing http://wildwolfpublishing.com/default.aspx for my dark heroic fantasy novel, RHONE. The cover art they have shown me is awesome. 

Very cool cover design by artist Peter C. Fussey for Wild Wolf, conceptually based on the rough I created below but rendered light-years more compelling.

2/2/2010 -- Things heating up nicely on the publishing front for my heroic fantasy novel, RHONE (see image of sword through fracturing Mars below). Announcement forthcoming ....

1/22/2010 --  Asylett Press soon to release trade paper edition of Hippocrates Shattered, possibly by January 31.

11/23/2009 -- Sam's Dot Publishing's Expressions editor has accepted my flash fiction piece, Storeroom Clerk, for Dec '09.

10/24/2009 -- Received the print galleys and print cover art for Hippocrates Shattered so now I need to go through and check for errors for an errata list. Trade-sized print copies available soon afterward. Asylett Press

10/02/09 -- Want to read some horror on your iPhone or iPod Touch? Dark Resurrection now available via App Shopper.  Thanks to Samhain Publishing for exploring this e-realm.

6/21/09 -- Asylett Press has released my medical thriller,  Hippocrates Shattered, in ebook format. Trade paper soon after I hand in the final edits. Ebook also available at Fictionwise.

About Hippocrates Shattered:

Andrew Raynorr M.D. was forced from his practice by a managed care corporation. When he loses his family, his vengeance turns deadly. He creates a virus, one that causes the body’s own genes to unleash an explosive leukemia, and targets managed care executives.

Bridget Devereaux, a young intern at Chambers Hospital, suspects something is strange about the strain of leukemia they are seeing in recent admissions...it kills the patient within days. Though she finds no support for her suspicions within the upper echelons of hospital management, she researches the blood cancer and traces the catalyst back to Raynorr.

But Raynorr is aware Bridget has found him out, and now not only her career, but her very life is in jeopardy.

7/15/09 -- Hol Art Books has listed my modern-day Vincent van Gogh novel, The Painter's Dream, as a viable project for a collaborative publishing effort. So far I've got a project manager (moi), an editor, and a designer. Now I need a publicist who will accept a percentage of sales as compensation, and an independent bookstore sponsor or museum gift shop sponsor for the rest of the team. I have a contact who may be willing to translate the work into French, as he and the protagonist are French-Canadian.

The Samhellion Newsletter published my dark fantasy short story, Bayou Life, in their November '08 edition.

The Apex Runner is in the Archive section, Volume 8/35 of Allegory, tri-annual online magazine of SF, Fantasy, and Horror. The story was inspired by the skeletal dude running endlessly at the bottom of this site. Asylett Press is scheduled to publish my medical thriller, Hippocrates Shattered, in the near term, after we finalize the edits. I like the forthcoming cover. Eyes right ----> The Absent Willow Review has published my short story, His Shadowed Self, in their May 16, 2009 edition.