by Adair, Bobby
I looked at the dark-colored dot making its noisy passage in the crisp blue sky and thought about it. Eventually, I laid my arm on the end table and pushed it up beside Murphy’s. He looked down at my arm. I said, “You’re white. I’m white. We’ll always be white. Whatever that helicopter means, it doesn’t mean shit to people like us.”
The End
Final Words
Before forcing you to read a bunch of blah blah crap that you might not find interesting, I’ll tell you right up front:
There WILL be some more Slow Burn books
This is obviously a reversal for me. I’d planned to end the series at six, well as you read, with everyone who is left alive riding off into the sunset to live happily (or not) ever after. But, just as many of you have, I’ve gotten very attached to both Zed and Murphy through the course of six books. Admittedly, Zed is hard for me to write. Because of Zed’s past he has difficulties dealing with people in an emotionally healthy fashion. To write him believably, I have to put myself as best I can, in his mindset. I have to believe I’m in the situations that he’s in. I have to imagine myself as him. I don’t know if other writers do the same when they write but that’s what works for me.
Imagining myself in Zed’s shoes takes an emotional toll that’s sometimes hard to pay. Frankly, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to draw the series to a close. I didn’t know how long I could keep writing him and still hold onto my own emotional stability—okay, that sounds melodramatic, but hey, I’m a writer.
On the other hand, Murphy is fun to write. He’s gregarious. He’s funny. He doesn’t get too hung up in the bullshit of life even if life is full of zombies. He makes the post-apocalyptic world kind of fun.
My other concern for the characters and the story is that I didn’t want to take the simple idea of seeking a safe place to live and wear it out. I didn’t want to write a zombie version of Gilligan’s Island where the whole series is predicated on the fact that the castaways want to get off the island but never do.
In ending book 6 in the way I did, I left some of the survivors going to find safety which seemed like a good way to bring the story to an end. Zed and Murphy, plausibly, and in character, choose to stay behind in Austin. For them, the quest for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow—sanctuary—is over. Instead, they’re going to get into some trouble in a post-apocalyptic Austin and the books that follow those adventures will be stand-alone, 1-book novels. Maybe they’ll even track down Mark and finally kill him. And who doesn’t want to see that happen?
I’m not going to make any promises about when the next Slow Burn book will come out. I may write one or two next year. For the moment though, I need some time away from Zed and Murphy so I can torment other characters in my imagination.
Thank you so much for reading the series. All of the feedback you’ve given me through Amazon, Facebook, and the other social media sites has meant a lot to me and helped me keep writing even on those long, long nights after working a full day in the cubicle. I really do appreciate it.
Bobby
Where to find me
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Reviews
I received an email this afternoon that said that every time a reader leaves a book review, a crippled monkey gets a free banana. I couldn’t believe it. After all the books I’ve read through the years, had I only been leaving book reviews, I could have been feeding those tiny, frail, hairy, little critters.
But I didn’t leave reviews and I’ve had to live with the burdensome guilt of causing the starvation of those cute, little, cymbal-banging, Shriner-hat-wearing apes.
So I beseech you, free yourself of the coming guilt.
Help a monkey.
Leave a review.
Thanks for reading! – Bobby
Other Books by Bobby Adair
Thrillers
Ebola K, book 1
Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
The Last Survivors
Horror
Slow Burn: Zero Day, book 1
Slow Burn: Infected, book 2
Slow Burn: Destroyer, book 3
Slow Burn: Dead Fire, book 4
Slow Burn: Torrent, book 5
Satire
Flying Soup
Text copyright © 2014, Bobby L. Adair
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.