The Headhunter (Shorting the Undead & Other Horrors) (6 page)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My
undying
thanks to the devoted staff of Brinestone Press for their keen eye and gentle but firm touch in helping me bring this story to life, for believing every step of the way that I could raise the dead.

To my devoted fans and followers on Twitter (http://twitter.com/saultanpepper), especially the zombie apocalypse junkies. Everything’s better with the #zombie hash tag.

My deepest gratitude goes to my family for their unflagging support. Without them, I would not be able to create worlds with such richness to them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Saul Tanpepper is a writer of speculative fiction for teens and adults. A former molecular geneticist originally from Upstate New York, he now calls Northern California home.

If you enjoyed
The Headhunter
, please check out the short story collection
Shorting the Undead and Other Horrors: a Menagerie of Macabre Mini-Fiction
, available from Amazon. Additional titles from this collection also available in electronic format.

For more information about the author and his writings, please check out his website:
http://www.tanpepperwrites.com
.

Click for details

Other titles available by Saul Tanpepper

Shorting the Undead and Other Horrors:

A Menagerie of Macabre Mini-fiction

Eight terrifying tales of the Undead and the Unliving.

Includes:

Occupied
(a supermoto champion is trapped on an airplane with the Undead)

Mr. November
(four boys, a haunted house, and the World Series on Halloween night)

The Headhunter
(a story of redemption, salvation, and zombie hunters)

The Object of Her Obsession
(a young woman's desire is so strong it reaches beyond the grave)

Nocturne
(a man with a dark secret and an even darker obsession)

Outsourced
(a dark comedy about the economy and zombies that crave more than brains)

Open Wide
(payback comes in the form of a dentist's drill)

Golgotha
(a scientist's attempt at a zombie antidote goes horribly awry)

Approximately 88,000 words

For older teens and adults

Available in paperback (252 pages) and digital formats

Other titles available by Saul Tanpepper

Insomnia:

Paranormal Tales, Science Fiction, Horror

Seven short stories and novellas.

Includes:

The Grin

The Scenario Egg

A Thing for Zombies

Reached in Error

Raise the Dead

The Sacrifices We Make

The Promises We Keep

Approximately 84,000 words

For older teens and adults

Available in paperback (252 pages) and digital formats

Other titles available by Saul Tanpepper

The Object of Her Obsession

There's something about Felipe-Janssen knives, the fancy ones you used to be able to get at Milano's onTenth Street in downtown Grand Forks. My Uncle Phil got us a set of them for Christmas a half dozen years back, the ones with the guaranteed Eversharp™ blades that come in one of those fancy velvet-lined boxes.

Most of them are gone now. Misplaced or thrown away. All except the filleter. I was always so careful

to keep that one hidden away. I wanted to make sure it wouldn't get lost or misused like the others.

Three summers. That's how long seventeen-year-old Emma Harris has been secretly watching Jesse, the boy her uncle hires to fix the fences on their remote North Dakota ranch. Now, three years after her father's death, Emma is ready to make him hers. There's just one problem, and it's her mother.

Other titles available by Saul Tanpepper

A Thing for Zombies

It's funny, the things you get used to seeing, now that they've passed the Undead Amnesty laws. Funny how quickly you learn to ignore them. But then one of them walks in like this and you realize there are some things you'll just never get used to.

Like zombies wearing g-strings.

Seventeen-year-old Kevin Velasco is about to have his heart broken.

But if crushing on his lifelong best friend, Jamie, weren't bad enough, she's obsessed with someone else. Or...some
thing
: the Undead. How can a guy compete against that?

So, when an attractive young zombie shows up at the pool where they lifeguard, Kevin becomes desperate. But his pushing forces Jamie to make a mind-blowing confession, leaving Kevin to wonder how far she's willing to go for the Undead.

And, more importantly, how far is he willing to go to win her back?