VBT: Dark Walker Series

DARK WALKER SERIES

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GENRE: Speculative Fiction/Horror/ Dark Sci-fi

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BLURB:

Series Blurb:

When we were children, they told us monsters weren't real. They were dead wrong.

It’s just a closet door with a skeleton key, but when David opens it, he unlocks a gateway to a

sinister world that’s bent on destroying everything and everyone he loves. Some doors are

better left closed.

Embark on a thrilling journey with the Dark Walker Series, and be transported into an

interdimensional tale of monsters, lies and self-discovery. Where the terror of darkness is real

and the line between ally and enemy is as thin as a blade.

"Equal parts coming of age story and otherworldly horror, Gulf probes the depths of loneliness,

loss of identity and childhood trauma. It is a true treat for fans of the genre and had me clutched

in its razor-clawed hands from the first word to the last.” -C.M. Forest author of Infested

Book One Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old David is fading from his world, like a Polaroid picture in reverse. He longs to

feel connected to something bigger.

When his brothers discover the new extension at the rental cottage comes with a locked door,

David finds the key first. Expecting to claim a bedroom, he opens a dimensional gateway

instead, exploring abandoned versions of his world in different timelines, 1960s muscle cars

alternating with crumbling cottages.

Except now the dimensional bridge won’t close, and something hungry claws the door at night.

David scours for clues to break the bridge, but each trip to the other side makes him fade more

on his. Even if he succeeds, he risks severing his connection to his own world, and dying on the

wrong side, forgotten.

Book Two Blurb:

There are doors that open to other worlds, but it’s no fairytale on the other side.

I thought otherworldly monsters bent on devouring my whole world starting with my family

trumped everything. Turns out, I was wrong. My world's only one of thousands facing

annihilation from the maneaters that tried to eat me alive. Charlie saved me, rolled into my life

on a motorcycle, and rescued me.

Problem is, I’m the Embassy’s property now. They’re the interdimensional agency tasked with

stemming the flow of ravenous aliens into our universe, but they seem more interested in

studying me. I crashed a gateway in a way they’ve never seen. The Embassy wants to replicate

that. I think they want to use me as a war weapon.

If I don’t convince Charlie to help me escape, I’ll be an Embassy science experiment for the rest

of my short life, or worse, eternally trapped in the dark hell that fills the spaces between worlds.

 

Excerpt from GULF:

Certain my family is gone, I cross to the five-panel in two strides, twist the key into the lock, and

push the door.

It doesn’t open.

Of course it doesn’t, idiot. It’s still hung like a closet door. It opens out, not in.

I pull.

Mirror.

That’s the first thought that strikes me as I take in the exact duplicate of the living room I’m

standing in. Same green, crushed velvet sofa bed sagging behind me. Identical chipped

melamine cabinets. Same painted windmills on the porcelain tile backsplash—wait.

No me.

No reflection of me. Tentative as Alice in bloody Wonderland, I pull the black skeleton key from

its hole and crane my head through the doorway. No dirty breakfast dishes, but when I look over

my shoulder, there’s still stacks of egg-yolk spackled tin plates beside our sink. Crumpled under

one arm of the hide-a-bed is my plaid blanket, but the one in front of me is empty. Looks dusty.

“What the hell, Everett?” This is creepy. The ole bugger’s built an exact mirror image of the room next door. Where on earth did he find

the twin to that green monster of a couch? There’s even a spring beckoning through the same

spot in the back cushion.

Got an eye for detail, hasn’t he?

Same woodstove too, only this one has a cold, crusty frying pan on it. I can still feel the heat on

my back from ours across the wall.

The pine planking creaks under my next step, and I jump and then smile, but I’m pretty sure it

ends up as a snarl. An odd feeling consumes me whole, the one I had just before Sam Ren and

his gorilla wingmen beat the piss out of me behind the Dairy Queen. A curdled sense of

approaching doom slithers through my lungs.

Get out.

Primal instinct presses me back a step toward the door, but I hold fast there, like a dumbass,

like I waited while Sam Ren eased toward me in the Dairy Queen parking lot.

Shaking out my hands and hissing through my teeth, I scan the room trying to identify what’s

wrong, because something is. Something is very wrong, and it’s not just the duplicate room, or

the draft emanating from here at night. It takes a few seconds to pin it down. The out-of-place

thing. My throat spasms when I see it. I swallow and shift to the balls of my feet.

“Window,” I whisper.

Interview 

On average, how long does the writing process take?

For me, it varies. My debut book took more years to complete than I care to count. Gulf, book one of the

Dark Walker series took 30 days, but that hurt. Book 2, Breach, took five months, but my longer works, I

budget around a year for. I’m generally a slow writer 

 When did you realize you wanted a career in writing?

My sister and I recently found a little pink diary with a lock on it in my mom’s basement. Neither of us

could recall whether it was mine or hers, but when we busted it open, it was obviously mine. Apparently, I

declared at the tender age of eight that I was going to be a famous author someday. I don’t think I’ll ever

get to the point where I’m doing this full time and it pays all my bills, but I don’t mind my part-time day job.

It’s a great balance.

 If you weren’t an author, what other career path would you have taken?

My background is oilfield. I’ve been a plant operator at a sour gas plant so I imagine I would have stuck

with that until the shift work got too excruciating. Currently, I teach First Aid and other oilfield related

courses. The First Aid course comes in handy for characters responding realistically to injuries in my

books.

 Out of the characters that you created, who is your favorite?

Hands down, David, the main character of the Dark Walker series. He deals with all the horrible things I

throw at him with an awkward tenacity and humour that I wish I had.

 What advice would you give to someone looking to be a writer?

Write. Read. People watch. Repeat. Only take the advice that works for you and forget about the rest.

You need creative input to be able to create creative output, so reading is equally important as writing.

Have fun with it. We only live once 

 What kind of research (if any) was required for any of your books?

Well, my writing spans the gamut of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, so I’ve researched anything from how to

brain tan a deer hide, to the symptoms of a penetrating chest injury, how long can a human survive in

complete vacuum, time dilation derivation, steam engines, beginner mistakes with crossbows, long term

effects of isolation on the human psyche. You know, the usual 

 What are your thoughts on fanfiction?

I’m flattered that folks would love a piece of writing, character, or world enough to want to add their own

spin to it. To me, it signals that they loved the story enough for it to stick with them, and they didn’t want it

to end. There are few higher compliments for an author than that. AI fanfiction, on the other hand, hard

pass.

Would you prohibit fans from writing stories about your book(s)?

Writing them, no. I’d prefer if they had to the courtesy to ask permission first. But, like I said, I’d be

flattered. Selling them, now that crosses a line. I’ve seen a few posts where someone was binding fan

fiction into books and selling them. That’s not flattery. That’s theft. That’s profiting off months or years of

someone else’s hard work. AI writing is doing the same thing. It’s largely trained on materials that authors,

narrators, and artists did not grant permission to use, and it’s putting those same folks out of work. That’s

not a tool. It’s theft, plain and simple.

How long after you finish a book do you start another one?

I usually take a month or two off, then I’m on to the next one. I launched straight into book three of the

Dark Walker series after I finished Breach though. It’ll be out in early 2025. I can wait to share it with you

all! Thank you so much for having me on the blog. I really appreciate the support.

AUTHOR:

At a young age, Shelly Campbell wanted to be an air show pilot or a pirate, possibly a dragon

and definitely a writer and artist. She’s piloted a Cessna 172 through spins and stalls, and sailed

up the east coast on a tall ship barque—mostly without projectile vomiting. In the end, Shelly

found writing and drawing dragons to be so much easier on the stomach. Shelly writes

speculative fiction ranging from grimdark fantasy, to sci-fi and horror. She’d love to hear from

you.

Website

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