"Xombies: Apocalypticon"

When not writing satirical horror novels, Walter Greatshell dabbles in freelance illustration (with an eye to creating dark children’s books, comics or graphic novels), humorous nonfiction (a throwback to his early days as a freelance journalist and arts critic), and stage acting (including in local productions of Oedipus Rex and Karel Capek’s R.U.R.). He has been a graveyard-shift nuclear-submarine technician and the general manager of a Providence landmark, the Avon Cinema.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new book, Xombies: Apocalypticon, and reported the following:

Page 69 of my novel Xombies: Apocalypticon is quite a fortuitous page choice, as it's where the action really begins. It's the first page of Chapter Eight, "Field Trip," where two groups of teenage refugees are leaving the relative safety of the nuclear sub to scavenge for food and supplies ashore. Their leader is 17-year-old Sal DeLuca, a former BMX champ, who is despised by the other boys because of his collaboration with the hated Navy crewmen. We get Sal's flashback to the last meal he ever shared with his father: the submarine factory's final picnic for its soon-to-be shafted employees. So there's a lot happening on that page, and a lot about to happen, which I hope gives the reader a good incentive to keep reading. The Sal DeLuca story is a major part of the plot, so I would say this is fairly representative of the book as a whole ... though there is little hint of the insanity to come.

Learn more about the book and author at Walter Greatshell's website and blog.

My Book, The Movie: Xombies: Apocalypse Blues.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue