Not every monster started as human.

In this anthology of eleven original tales - ten by DFW Writers' Workshop members - the undead are never quite expected. From sinister feline mummies to ravenous zombified cars and any and all things in-between, the living dead have returned from their graves, junkyards, and even the war torn skies to haunt the lands of the living. With stories horrific, funny, and weird, Strange Afterlives has a little something for everyone who has ever wondered what terrible secrets could be lurking in that rotting tree or broken toy.

Edited by former DFWWW board member and "a pretty cool guy (according to his mother)", A. Lee Martinez, STRANGE AFTERLIVES is available on Amazon for $0.99.

Buy it now see firsthand why you should join the workshop, if you haven't already.

Stories included in this anthology:

Mouse Trouble by A. Lee Martinez

After the Invasion by Russell C. Connor

Seated Woman with Child by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Roots by Brooke Fossey

The Late Mrs. Buttons by Sally Hamilton

An Undercover Haunting by Kristi Hutson

GImme Shelter by David C. Whiteman

01001110 by Nik Holman

The Runner by John Bartell

Night Witch by Shawn Scarber

The Scavenger Hunt by John Sanders Jr.

STRANGE AFTERLIVES will terrify and amuse. You may never look at a rusted automobile the same way again.

And be sure to join us any Wednesday night at 7:00 pm at The Simmons Center in Euless to see how DFWWW authors keep producing wonderful stories like the ones in this anthology.

So, I just ripped the guts out of my first fifty pages. It needed to be done. I'd written them over two years ago and they were nowhere close to the lean, mean, fighting machine they should be.  They didn’t really represent what I now have to offer as a writer.

Did it hurt? Sort of. I wasn't as attached to some of it as I once was since I'd put distance and time between the story and me. Honestly, a lot of what I removed was just, "Look, I don't know how to start this, so here is everything you will ever need to know about the main character and six other people whom you will have a whole book to get to know."

And to think, I queried those pages for months before I came to the realization at the DFW Writers' Conference that I wasn’t doing myself any favors by sending out the weakest part of my book.

So I did something that I had never considered before: I redrafted. Blank page, baby. My first fifty pages became twenty-seven. I got the same stuff done, but way less boring.

I'm not a plotter, I'm a pantser. I only knew the end of my novel once I finished it, and that allowed me to ‘fix’ the beginning. I figured out what I needed and what I didn't. (Oh hey, a three paragraph tangent about a college the reader will never see? Yoink!)

I certainly don't think everyone should pick at, revise, and prod their manuscripts over and over again. No, no. Onward and upward. Working on another book and taking the lessons from the previous one is what enabled me to 'fix' my last one.

Sure, I still have to get it to my beta readers.   There is also the not-so-small matter of then sending it out to the nice agents who asked for it at the conference. But in the mean time, I'll keep writing my new novel. And then one after that. Who knows? In two years I may look back on my super tight first fifty pages and say, "Eh…it's not that great."

But that's the thing about writing, it evolves with the writer.

--Sally Hamilton, DFWWW member since 2009

Longtime Workshop members A. Lee Martinez (Alex to those of us at DFWWW) and Sally Hamilton were married on Sunday, October 24, in a ceremony none of the guests will soon forget.

Sally and her bridesmaids wore traditional matrimonial garb. While Alex and his groomsmen were attired in suit jackets and pants with t-shirts and tennis shoes that depicted their favorite superheroes.  The vows were short and humorous (what else would one expect from Alex?). Then, the wedding party adjourned to a comic book-themed reception with delicious h'orderves, build-your-own candy gift bags, music and great conversation.

Congratulations Alex and Sally from your friends at the DFW Writers' Workshop.