Showing results by author "Eric A. Shelman" in All Categories

It's now been over 150 years since ASPCA agents, at the direction of founder Henry Bergh, rescued little Mary Ellen Wilson from her abusive New York tenement home back in 1874. It's also been over 25 years since Eric A. Shelman and Stephen Lazoritz, M.D. released Out of the Darkness: The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson, which remains the only book about the little girl's case.

A strange phenomenon occurs out of nowhere: an omnipresent light that engulfs the entire planet. Humanity is forever changed by the light. NOAA and NASA are mystified. People soon face a new threat; even the smallest, most insignificant injury will no longer heal. Doctors cannot stop it. The sick do not die. They change. They are Scabs.

When the black rain began to fall, it was a worldwide phenomenon that mystified everyone. There was little time to ponder the cause. Most animals died at the onset. While some humans were unaffected, others experienced a half-death of sorts, morphing into blood and flesh-crazed creatures with a desire to hunt the living. Climbing Fox Wattana of the Henomawi Nation claims responsibility for the black rain; he says it will will ensure the ultimate extinction of the United States government as revenge for robbing his people of their land. Cole "CB" Baxter isn't taking this lying down.

As Flex, his niece Trina, Gem, Hemp, and Charlie brave the wild world teeming with the walking dead, they make up the rules as they go along. Flex Sheridan was an electrician before the world took a nasty turn; Gem, an artist. Hemp is a scientist; Charlie is a metal and punk rocker with a crossbow. Each one of them has their own story. This volume is Gem's chronicle. Join them as they struggle to balance their natural tendencies toward self-preservation with their strong desire to rid the world of the zombie scourge.

In New York City, in April of 1874, a most unusual event took place. A severely abused nine-year-old girl named Mary Ellen Wilson became the first child in America to be rescued from an abusive home. She had been beaten, burned, slashed with scissors, locked in a closet, and had never been outside of her tenement home in over 7 years. Thanks to the concern and dedication of a missionary named Etta Wheeler, the child was finally saved from her cruel captors.

A phone call to his sister leads Flex Sheridan into a nightmare and a quest to save his family from a new, horrifying epidemic that's turning humans into zombies. As he makes his way from Georgia to Gainesville, Florida and back, he picks up old and new friends and survivors. Flex reconnects with perhaps the strongest woman he's ever known, Gem Cardoza, his former girlfriend.

Some of our old friends have returned home safely, to be with the ones they love and trust. Even as their warm greetings of welcome are offered, another threat builds on the horizon. It enters their home in the form of a little girl.

A gas emitting from the earth's core has transformed 90% of the living into ravenous, flesh-eating zombies, and the remaining 10% are fighting for their lives. Hemp Chatsworth takes the reins in book three of the Dead Hunger series, which finds our small band of heroes growing with each passing day. Seeking the safety of a less vulnerable part of the country, Flex and company pack up and head to New Hampshire, where a community of survivors thrive, facing the daily battles together.

Hemp Chatsworth has already figured out how 90 percent of the Earth's population became what they are. Now he must find out why some of them are evolving into something else. Something more dangerous. With their families poised to grow, the stakes are now higher than ever for our friends. Each new discovery creates the need for a new defense. Hemp has his hands full as some among the zombie masses appear to be utilizing more of their grey matter in a horrifying way. Only brute force and innovation will save Flex Sheridan and his family and friends from the ever-changing zombie scourge.

We used to believe that mankind contaminated the Earth through our use of oil, coal, and other non-biodegradable consumables and pollutants. We never once considered that the planet might one day contaminate us. But that's what happened. More than a year has passed since an ancient gas started seeping from every surface of the planet. Nine out of every 10 humans have since transformed into walking dead creatures with an insatiable hunger for human brains and flesh. We, the survivors, are now food for the afflicted… and we are vastly outnumbered.

A strange phenomenon occurs out of nowhere: an omnipresent light that engulfs the entire planet. Humanity is forever changed by the light. NOAA and NASA are mystified. People soon face a new threat; even the smallest, most insignificant injury will no longer heal. Doctors cannot stop it. The sick do not die. They change. They are Scabs.

Wealthy philanthropist Arthur Wells, in need of a family getaway with his wife, Joan, and his daughter, Emma, arranges a trip to Romania. His intention is to explore an ancient cave system he read about, located in Constanta, on the Black Sea coast. The name of the cave, unearthed in 1986, is Pestera Movile. It has been sealed from the light of day for over five-and-a-half million years, preserved beneath more than 20 meters of clay. In this harsh, chemosynthetic environment, Arthur stumbles across something he hopes will advance medical science.

Scott, Warren, and Missy Walsh did not understand what their roles were to be when the omnipresent light first blinked on. They believed their only obligation was to find a safe place for their small family to escape what was happening all around them. But fate would not allow them to hide away in the North Carolina cabin for long. Now, with their number hovering near a dozen survivors, they must work together - along with Koku, the flawed, self-aware goddess with a long-term memory problem - to preserve Earth for humanity's occupation.

Since 2011, Flex, Gem, Hemp, Charlie, and their families have struggled to survive in a world gone dead. Nearly 20 years later, at the dawning of 2029, they are under siege yet again. After more than a decade of relative calm in the fortified city of Kingman, Kansas, a new onslaught of the walking dead has our heroes struggling to understand the reasons behind it. There is no time to come up with a plan. The fences appear inadequate and the Mothers and Hungerers are dead set on getting to the nourishment within....

A camera, tainted with ancient, evil blood, is purchased by Detective Jack Hunger, who just wants to document his career as a crime scene photographer. He sets up his own darkroom at home, but when he develops the photograph of his first murder victim, something bizarre happens.

Eric A. Shelman was born in Fort Worth, Texas, so he's not sure how much more American someone can be. He grew up in the '60s, with memories of community parades, men and women on horseback carrying flags of his home state of Texas and the United States, and all the riders proudly wearing red, white, and blue. Patriotic music played in the background while onlookers ate hot dogs and cotton candy cheering on the participants.

As recently as 1874, no laws yet existed in this country for the protection of children. In New York of the same year, it was the widely publicized case of Mary Ellen Wilson—a nine-year-old girl who had been a prisoner in her tenement home, enduring unimaginable cruelty—that was the first to draw national and worldwide attention to both the social issue of child abuse and to the notion that children are entitled to humane treatment. American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) founder Henry Bergh and his attorney, Elbridge T. Gerry, intervened on behalf of the ...

You met Tony Mallette in Dead Hunger III: The Chatsworth Chronicles. Low key and sometimes confoundingly sure of himself, he was an instrumental member of our group of survivors. He played a crucial role in Hemp's rescue, and Tony arrived in the nick of time to save dozens of people in Concord, New Hampshire. It's time you heard his story.

Nelson Moore, our lovable stoner, takes over the telling of this, the eighth installment in the series. What he shares is terrifying and surprising. After encountering the living dead in Central Park, Nelson decides he must escape New York City and get to his grandfather, Jim Scofield, in Concord, New Hampshire. With his mellow, sweet demeanor, nobody could have predicted what this kind-hearted dude went through on his journey.

Lula, Georgia, in the year 2030. It's a nice place, post-apocalypse. It’s Flex’s former home, and he and Gem - many years older than when the apocalypse first came crashing down on them - have settled back into their former digs after leaving Kingman, Kansas, behind. They had important reasons for going to Kansas, but it turns out they had an even better reason to leave.