Tennatrick

The official homepage of author Walter Greatshell, featuring excerpts from his work, news of upcoming projects, original art, articles, and other random gleanings.

Walter Greatshell is the author of the Xombies series and the novels Mad Skills, Terminal Island and, under the pen-name W.G. Marshall, Enormity. He has written short stories, plays, television scripts, and children's books, as well as being a freelance journalist, illustrator, radio commentator, and stage actor in plays such as Karel Capek's RUR and Andy Kaufman's Bohemia-West. He currently lives in Rhode Island with his wife Cindy.

SAFARI MINE

Henriette "Jenny" Kerschon's 21st birthday is nothing to celebrate. She is out of work, out of money, and returning home in disgrace to the gloomy German village she has tried so hard to escape. But little does Jenny realize that her ship is about to come in, a ship with the funny name of Watussi, and soon she will trade her troubles in Weimar Germany for a whole new life...in Africa.

Jenny's decade-long odyssey will carry her from the windswept heights of Cape Town to the sweltering depths of the Belgian Congo...and finally back to the dark heart of Nazi Germany, where Jenny Kerschon must confront an evil she never imagined possible.

SAFARI MINE is based on a true story. It is a chapter of history few know about--except those who lived it.

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SPECIAL FEATURES

Was DARTH VADER originally the hero of a glam-rock musical? Which JAMES BOND movie shamelessly cashed in on the success of STAR WARS? What does GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH have in common with MIDNIGHT COWBOY?

Cult author Walter Greatshell answers these burning questions and poses many more in this wittily informative collection of essays about the movies, books, and comics that fill his brain instead of actual useful knowledge.

SPECIAL FEATURES--Short Takes on Pop Culture from Androids to Zombies. Read it today!

Walter Greatshell is the author of the XOMBIES trilogy as well as the novels MAD SKILLS, TERMINAL ISLAND, and (writing as W.G. Marshall) ENORMITY. Aside from SPECIAL FEATURES, his most recent work includes the historical epic SAFARI MINE and the science fiction thriller TRANS ATLANTIC. He has also authored short stories, plays, children's books, and feature articles for newspapers and public radio. When not writing, Greatshell has run a landmark art cinema, worked in a submarine factory, and acted in theater productions of Oedipus Rex, Karel Capek's RUR, and Andy Kaufman's BOHEMIA-WEST. He also likes to draw pictures. Greatshell currently lives in Providence with his infinitely patient wife.

"Expect great things from Mr. Greatshell."--Nate Kenyon, author of Sparrow Rock

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TERMINAL ISLAND

The gripping new thriller by Walter Greatshell, acclaimed author of Xombies, Mad Skills, and (writing as W.G. Marshall) Enormity.

"A psychedelic descent into madness and cultural insanity, Greatshell has given us a tale of ancient gods and nameless cults that practice their rites not in some wasted land far away, but right in our own backyard. This book never slows down until the high energy climax. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED." -- Brett J. Talley, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of That Which Should Not Be and The Void.

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ENORMITY author uses pseudonym for political satire of scary dimensions!

"An enthralling, apocalyptic fusion of Gulliver's Travels and Food of the Gods, Enormity comes at you with big ideas, voluminous scope and colossal pace. Marshall has the high-tech savvy and breadth of vision of a great SF writer, coupled with considerable daring." -- James Lovegrove, New York Times bestselling author of Redlaw and The Age of Zeus

"Hilarious, fast-paced, and just mind-blowingly cool, Enormity is part Michael Crichton, part Jonathan Swift, maybe even a little bit Tom Clancy, but in the end genuinely unique...a page-turning thriller that will make you remember why you fell in love with Science Fiction all those years ago. This is some seriously good stuff!" -- Joe McKinney, author of Apocalypse of the Dead and Flesh Eaters

"Enormity is at once tight and sprawling, a vibrant rush of Phildickian apocalyptic menace. What feels at first like the collision of genres in a particle accelerator blends seamlessly into a whirling dervish of a novel that goes down like Everclear with a quark-gluon chaser. If you like spy movies, heist novels, Tom Clancy, and crazed speculations on the underlying structure of the universe, you'll eat Enormity up with a spoon." -- Thomas S. Roche, author of The Panama Laugh

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MAD SKILLS

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW OF MAD SKILLS:
Walter Greatshell, Ace, $7.99 mass market (320p) ISBN 978-0-441-02012-6

Equal parts science fiction thriller and coming-of-consciousness tale, this page-turner lays bare the inanity of modern-day existence in grand style. After 17-year-old Madeline "Maddy" Grant suffers a severe brain injury, an experimental neurological treatment from the enigmatic Braintree Institute not only restores her to her former self but also advances her intelligence exponentially. When she goes home, Maddy is appalled by shallow, "suffocating" everyday human lives and is eventually sent back to the institute for re-evaluation. Eventually, she begins to realize that the institute isn't purely benevolent, and their scientists' experiments have downright terrifying implications. Powered by an endearing heroine (whose ingenuity and resourcefulness make MacGyver look inept), pedal-to-the-metal pacing, and generous amounts of social commentary, this science fiction thrill ride is the literary equivalent of a syringe full of adrenaline.

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XOMBIES: APOCALYPSO

The Agent X plague infected women first, turning mothers, daughters, and sisters into killers intent on spreading their contagion, turning most of the human race into Xombies.

Now, Lulu Pangloss and the Xombified crew of the USS No-Name are wandering the seas on a mission of "mercy": converting the last mortal humans into immortal beings like themselves, believing it is mankind's only hope of surviving a cataclysm that will wipe out all life on Earth.

But Lulu and her shipmates are about to learn that there are worse fates than death...

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XOMBIES: APOCALYPTICON

XOMBIES: APOCALYPTICON is the continuing saga of the USS No-Name, an Ohio-Class submarine converted to a refugee vessel during the worldwide plague of "Agent X"--a disease that changes women into raving, homicidal Typhoid Marys.

Leading the fight to survive are Dr. Alice Langhorne, whose research helped spawn the plague; Commander Harvey Coombs, Navy captain minus a navy; Sal DeLuca, BMX champ facing the ultimate Xtreme sport; and troubled teenager Lulu Pangloss, who died and was born again.

Facing off against them are mutinous shipmates, yoga-crazed prison convicts, hostile mercenaries...and the all-encompassing threat of the Xombies themselves.

"Xombies is a triumph, both epic in scope and entirely unpredictable, and anchored by one of the most refreshing and unique voices in modern horror fiction." --Nate Kenyon, author of Bloodstone; Horror World Reviews

"Greatshell wrote an amazing novel called Xombies. It's really, really good."--Bob Fingerman, author of Bottomfeeder

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XOMBIES: APOCALYPSE BLUES

Lulu Pangloss has problems. She has no friends, her mom is difficult, and her absentee father is a deadbeat. Things can hardly get any worse...or so she thinks.

Then the world comes to an end.

It starts with Agent X, a plague that turns women into raving, demonic predators--Xombies--who then hunt down and infect anyone they can catch. Guns are useless; armies are helpless.

With civilization collapsing all around her, Lulu hitches a ride with a crew of wary male refugees, and together they flee for the last place on Earth rumored to be safe. But what they find is as unexpected, and as terrifying, as the hell they've left behind.

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