Category: Posts Page 8 of 10

What if the government made it mandatory for you to have a microchip implanted in your brain, telling you it was for your security, for your safety? Would you believe it? Would you take it? 
What if you learned world powers were setting up sophisticated spy cameras everywhere to watch and record your every move 24/7? Would you believe it? Would you run and hide? Would you become a subversive and fight back? 

What if you learned soldiers and law-enforcement officers had become super-soldiers, genetically modified trans-humans capable of out-running Usain Bolt, out-lifting Olympic weightlifters, re-growing limbs, and even communicating telepathically through microchips installed in their heads? Would you believe it? Would you acquiesce to the new world order? Would you revolt? 

In a chillingly real examination of these questions, post-apocalyptic disaster survivors Nathan King and Velvet Jones escape government clutches, returning to war-ravaged Prince Edward Island only to discover their problems are just beginning. Not only are they being hunted by savage, opportunistic tribes struggling for survival, giant insects created by the new world order are also hunting for blood. 

If that isn’t enough, a government desperate to cover up its megalomaniac trail of death and destruction declares them a subversive enemy of the nation and launches a search and destroy mission. 

Battling multiple enemies, Nathan and Velvet soon learn their only hope for survival might be intangible: a portal inadvertently created by the genetic modification drug that seems to take them into another world, another dimension. 

In gritty and shocking fashion, Assaulted Souls III illustrates just how close we might actually be to a totalitarian regime ruled by ruthless and power-hungry leaders and thugs. Buy Now

Visit us on Social Media and Share your review of Assaulted Souls using the hashtag #AssaultedSoul

Post-apocalyptic fiction fan Kevin O’Neill recently intercepted my break-neck production schedule and interviewed me on Assaulted Souls, genetic modification and the apocalypse. Without any further adieu, here is the abridged interview:

O’Neill: In your newly released Assaulted Souls trilogy, you talk a lot of doom and gloom. In Assaulted Souls III, post-apocalyptic survivors narrowly escape government clutches, returning to war-ravaged Prince Edward Island only to discover their problems are just beginning.

Assaulted Souls

Not only are they being hunted by savage, opportunistic tribes struggling for survival, giant insects created by the new world order are also hunting for blood. If that isn’t enough, a government desperate to cover up its megalomaniac trail of death and destruction declares them a subversive enemy of the nation and launches a search-and-destroy mission. Battling multiple enemies, they soon learn their only hope for survival might be intangible; a portal inadvertently created by the genetic modification drug that seems to take them into another world, another dimension. Is that how you view escape from an apocalypse? Going to another dimension?

Blackwell: I don’t know. As I was writing the trilogy, this idea of another dimension just sort of popped up, and seemed to fit into the story, adding perhaps a spiritual dimension to it. I think it serves to drive home the point that, without some spirituality, trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland could potentially be much more terrifying. Oftentimes with spirituality comes hope.

Read More

I’ll be the first person to admit that social media has many benefits. It’s great for promotion, has the ability to catapult you to financial success overnight if used properly, and is an excellent way to stay connected with friends, family and loved ones.

But therein lies the paradox. Social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Whatsapp, to name a few, has not only thrived but exploded in popularity by exploiting the human need to connect with others. It preys on our propensity to be admired and loved, our desire to measure our self-worth by how many likes we get with our selfies (for those of you who don’t know, it means self-taken photos).

Like me please.

I recently had a conversation with a computer repair technician, and you wouldn’t believe some of the stories he told me about social media addiction. Maybe you would. He said one customer brought a computer into his shop to have all her photos backed up on a flash drive, claiming it wouldn’t be a very large job as there were only about 600-odd photos. What the technician found was over 100,000 photos, most of them of the woman’s teenage daughter. Apparently the teen spends many hours at the computer (and on social media), and every time she strikes a different pose (which must be fairly often) she snaps another picture, trying to capture that perfect angle, her best side maybe. Who knows how many of these photos made it onto her Facebook Wall of self-aggrandizement, looking for likes, a sense of self-worth and even a sense of identity from the virtual mirror of social judgment.

Read More

As I write these words, intense winds batter my house and shake the surrounding tree-line violently.

It’s easy to downplay Mother Nature’s wrath. “We could use the rain,” I said to a gas station cashier the other day while discussing the expected arrival of Hurricane Arthur. “I really don’t think it’ll be that bad.” I said this even after watching the devastation it caused in North Carolina, not to mention the other states; even after reading news reports Arthur had caused flash flooding, downed trees and massive power outages in neighboring provinces New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Read More

There are millions of authors out there trying to get their voices heard, their visions read. Not all of them will make it. Some will get discouraged by the lack of attention and quit writing altogether. Still others will succumb to family and financial pressures and wave the white flag of surrender. And that’s an easy thing to do. Just quit, pack it in, say no more, never look back.

But is it what you want?

Read More

If you don’t hear from me for a while, please don’t think for a second my creativity has gone dormant. Or, I’ve abandoned you. No. The little wheels in the little mind are always turning, always searching for new story ideas, always reading, writing, trying to refine the craft and become a better writer.

Admittedly, I’ve had a lot of other projects to detract from writing lately. The weather here on Prince Edward Island has been beautiful over the summer. Sometimes I find it hard to keep myself indoors, at the keyboard, creating when the weather is so nice outside. After all, I have a beautiful forested, waterfront acreage to explore.

Read More

If you’ve never worked with a cover artist before, here’s some information that may save you a lot of time and money. I work with Johnny, a talented cover artist, whose day-job is a senior artist for Walt Disney Productions. He works sixty hours a week for Walt Disney, comes home, spends time with his family and then burns the midnight oil creating beautiful, evocative, and in my case menacing book covers.

Check out the latest cover for The Strap, my horror novel scheduled for release in about a month.

Read More

Fresh off the heals of returning from Ecuador, where I was having an adventure, researching and writing Terror in Ecuador, Steve Wellings of Write A Revolution caught up with me to learn more about my projects. Without any further adieu, here’s the interview:

Read More