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Hollowmen (The Hollows #2) is still with the editor, but it should be back soon. Until then, I'm giving you a sneak peak at the book with an excerpt from it. Keep in my mind that this version isn't fully edited. So, here it is:             “Remember us - if at all - not as lost             Violent souls, but only             As the hollow men”                         - T. S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men,” 1925 1. I was dying. Or at least I really hoped I was. During the operations, I often screamed for my own death, begging them to just hurry up and kill me. They didn’t, though. They planned on keeping me alive for as long as they could, dissecting me over and over again. I’m not even sure what they were looking for, and honestly, I don’t think they knew either. From what Dr. Daniels had told me, the doctors and scientists at the quarantine were no closer to finding a cure for the lyssavirus, despite all examinations and tests and vivisection they’d performed on me. Daniels was the

If you've been following Zombiepalooza this year (or last year for that matter), you'll have seen posts from J. L. Bryan. (Here's last year's bog post if you're interested - here ), and this was his post just last week. He's currently on A Parnormals Blog tour promoting his Paranormals Trilogy that includes Jenny Pox , Tommy Nightmare , and Alexander Death . There's actually a ton of cool things going on with the tour, including a giveaway for a free Kindle Fire (which looks REALLY bad ass), so you should totally check out the Paranormals Tour info: here . Also, in related fun news, Jenny Pox is currently free for the Kindle. Yeah. You heard me. Free . And since Jeff has no control when Amazon makes it not free anymore, you should hurry up and pick it up while you have the chance. I do have a really awesome giveaway for a signed paperback of Jenny Pox , too, and the details will follow closer to the end of the blog. But first, I figured I ought to tell you

I just spent the last few days trying to find an easy way to configure my web services deployed as annotated POJOs and I think I've found it. The idea is to provide an easy mechanism to change values through the administration console and have the java code pick up those changes at run time without redeploying. I thought about using a property file but this is inconvenient because we have a clustered environment and editing files in a deployment directory isn't the best idea. @Resource Saves the Day Anybody who used JNDI before the days of annotations knows that old style lookups were a little bit of a pain, but maybe I’m just being difficult. Here’s how I got it working - first thing is to add the proper entries in my web.xml : <web-app...> ... <env-entry> <env-entry-name>DsixE/SomeParameter</env-entry-name> <env-entry-type>java.lang.String</env-entry-type> <env-entry-value>This really rocks</env-entry-va

Daniel Arenson is the author of several books, including Firefly Island and The Gods of Dreams . His new series, Song of Dragons , is an epic fantasy chronicling the struggles of men who can turn into dragons in the kingdom of Requim. Today's post is an excerpt from an upcoming book in that series. For more information on Daniel, please visit his website at: http://danielarenson.com/  _________________________________________________ The three boys swaggered down the streets, arms pumping, eyes daring beggars, urchins, and other survivors to stare back. The dragons had left this city; so had the nightshades. Now, in the ruins after the war, new lords arose. The Rot Gang ruled now. "Slim pickings today," said Arms. The wiry, toothless boy was seventeen. He crossed his namesake, arms long and hairy as an ape's. "We've been searching this cesspool all morning. These streets are clean." Teeth glowered at him. "Shut your mouth, Arms," he

A while ago I discussed how web services can be invoked using javascript in a browser, but there was a nagging problem that prevented me from deploying it into a production environment - how do I prevent a hacker from manipulating the user identifier in a request? Suppose we have an application that displays an end user's payroll information. In this case we need web service operation will retrieve information specific to the user's ID. We can't just send the user's identifier in the request because that would allow spoofing the ID of another person resulting in a breach of privacy. Retrieving the User's Identity from the Container In a servlet, it is relatively easy to retrieve the user's identity from the request, but this presents a problem if we're using JAX-WS annotated POJOs which have no concept of HTTP or a request object. How the heck do I figure out what the user ID is? I spent many hours looking at WS-Security but I got lost in all the details ab

In anticipation of the release of Hollowmen (The Hollows, #2) (which is currently with the editor and should be out sometime within the next few weeks, barring a nuclear holocaust or a zombie apocalypse), I'm going to be giving away THREE signed paperbacks of Hollowland (The Hollows, #1) .  "This is the way the world ends; not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door." Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way - not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies.    Here's the details about the giveaway itself: 1. There will be three winners, with each person receiving one signed paperback of Hollowland . 2. The giveaway runs from today until midnight on Friday, October 31, 2011. 3. To enter: Comment below and with a way to contact you in case you win (email addresses work best). 4. Only one entry per person. 5. Winner will be

Today we're treated with a short story from David Dalglish , author of the Half-Orcs series and Shadowdance Trilogy . For more information on David, please visit his website at ddalglish.com ___________________________________ I Was Once... My first sensation was of the earth, cold and loose, as I dug my way toward the surface. My thoughts were chaotic fragments of images, without names or meaning. I felt my fingernails peel back, felt rocks rip into my flesh. No pain. Why was there no pain? Oh god. I wasn’t breathing. Dirt caked against my lips and nostrils, but it didn’t matter. No fire burned in my lungs. I didn’t even have to fight the impulse. My frantic clawing increased, and I felt memories hanging like monsters in the distance, threatening to overwhelm me. When my fist punched into open air, I might have cried if I had any tears left in my eyes. Thrashing, clawing, I emerged. My eyes were open, but I saw little, just darkness, and a man. Impulses filled me, a feral anger th

This isn't part of Zombiepalooza, but it's something I wanted to say. This blog isn't meant to be a rant. I'm not writing from an angry place. And it's not a direct reaction to anything. It's just something I've wanted to say for awhile, and I'm finally frustrated  enough to say something. Here it is: I didn't sell a million books by selling a million books. What I mean by that is everybody keeps talking about  how many books I sold and the "phenomenon."I spend more time during interviews talking about sales than I do my actual books. There are so many blogs and tweets and all that talk about numbers and not writing. The number one question I get is: How did you sell so many books? Here's the secret: I wrote a book that many people enjoyed. I did not say I wrote the best book ever written. I did not say that everybody loved it, because some people who read it really hated it. What I did say is that many of the people who read it, liked

Today’s Zombiepalooza post comes from J.L. Bryan, author of The Paranormals trilogy ( Jenny Pox , Tommy Nightmare , and Alexander Death ) and other novels.   Fairy Metal Thunder is the first book in his new Songs of Magic series.   On Monday (October 17), he begins The Paranormals Blog Tour , where you can win a Kindle Fire, Jenny Pox-themed jewelry, autographed books and more. Watch for a Zombiepalooza giveaway of Jenny Pox , too, later this month. ________________________________________________ Old-Fashioned Zombies (and New-Fangled Ones) First, a word from today’s sponsor: *** Have you suffered any of the following symptoms? _ A groaning, shuffling walk? _ A burning desire for unusual organ meats? _ Returning from the grave? If so, you may be entitled to brains in a class-action lawsuit.   Did we say brains?   We mean a settlement.   Contact the law offices of Gerr & Arj for a free consultation.   We’ll help you get all the brains you deserve.   By which we mean restitution

I actually posted this story in the last in last year's Zombiepalooza, but I liked it so much, I asked David McAfee if I could post again. It's a really fantastic story, and I wanted you all to enjoy it.   David McAfee is the author of 33 A.D . and Grubs , a novella that gave me nightmares. For more info about him or his books, please check out his site: mcafeeland.wordpress.com One of Four - along with fifteen other stories - is included in McAfee's horror anthology, Pound of Flash . It also has bonus material from David Dalglish, Daniel Arenson, and Michael Crane. ______________________________________________________ “You know who I am, Father.” It isn’t a question. The priest looks at me, his youthful eyes brimming with idealistic forgiveness, and nods. “I know who you claim to be,” he says as he steps past the nurse – a burly bitch named Swanson - and starts to close the door behind him. “I wouldn’t do that,” Swanson says, holding up her left hand. She casts a meaning