Zeb Haradon

I just finished a new movie, The Eternal Recurrence. It won't be public for at least a few months at least, as I submit it to film festivals. Here is the synopsis: An experimental film made with AI tools, The Eternal Recurrence follows a week in the main character Jim’s life, focusing almost entirely on his dreams. A subconscious Walter Mitty, Jim’s nightly journeys through his warped memories, violent fantasies, and existential regrets contrast starkly with his mundane waking life, which mostly consists of failing to attend meetings at work and watching monster shows with his wife, Jill. This film can also be watched as a collection of stand-alone shorts. The movie is meant to be in the vein of Maya Deren, and early Luis Buñuel/Salvador Dali collaborations.  Here is the trailer:

I've just published a trilogy, The Disposable Soma (also the title of the first book). The whole trilogy covers the American presidential elections of 2164, 2172, and 2180 through the lens of Jim Liu, a failed stand-up comedian and hotel heir who first tries to get the nomination of a third party, then becomes a Democrat and tries to become vice president, and finally switches to the Republican party and runs for president.  Here's the trailer:  The Disposable Soma (2023) - The year is 2164 and politics has become unrecognizable. Democrats have become conservative, Republicans have become liberal, and an upstart party called the Empathy Party blames all the world's ills on sociopaths. An assassination leaves the Empathy Party's candidacy wide open and a clown car of candidates vies for the nomination. One, hotel heir and failed comedian Jim Liu, stands out from the others when he chooses a genetically modified, super-intelligent, opium-addicted parrot as his running ma

I'm experimenting with creating AI-generated trailers for my books. I started with The Orphans, here is my first attempt:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wO_sYYpJsU The images were created in Midjourney, then converted to video in Runway's Gen2. The music is from YouTube's free music library. I'll eventually make trailers out of all my books. I generally like how it turned out. Link to buy the book:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009C3NO6S

I've just published a new book, Planet of the Head-Breakers.   Planet of the Head-Breakers (2023) - Centuries after the revolution, the remnants of humanity survive on agricultural communes where they are subjected to mandatory lobotomies before reaching adulthood. The centuries-old, malfunctioning robots that control them have turned the lobotomy into a coming-of-age ceremony. Most children look forward to it, but not Jim. He dreads the impending surgery and contrives a plan to evade it. Japeth, a nomadic surgical robot tasked with performing the lobotomies, admires Jim's rebellious spirit and decides to spare him. He promises to return, and makes a bold claim - he was once a man of flesh and blood. Jim maintains the charade of being lobotomized as he awaits Japeth's promised return, but after years without rescue, he resolves to flee the commune. His quest takes him across a barren, post-apocalyptic landscape in a desperate search for the elusive Japeth. Kin

     When I'm retired I'm planning to live a nomadic lifestyle, at least for a few years. I'll start in Asia, move west to Africa, north to Europe, then South America. I'll spend at least a month in each country, sometimes up to three months depending on visa policies, cost of living, and how much I like it there. It will take a few years to go to all the countries I want to visit. If I'm not bored with it by then, I'll start the cycle over again. I've worked out the numbers, and the most it will cost is the same as my cost of living now. In some countries, it will be less than half that. That's even when I factor in air travel. Now that remote work is standard, some people are already living this way.     One of the biggest problems I'm expecting to have to deal with will be all the stuff I'll have to pack. I'll need a couple books at a time, tooth brush and nail clippers and that sort of thing, and a laptop. Unfortunately, the most bulky th

  A new review of Cousin Calls was published. "I thoroughly enjoyed Cousin Calls, and the stories have stuck with me days after reading them, and I still find myself chuckling over various moments through. [...]  If you’re a fan of transgressive fiction, or have a messed up sense of humour (like me, and evidently the author), I can not recommend Cousin Calls highly enough. You can sit down and read it like a novel, or you can just read each story when you’re ready. If you’re not quite as messed up as I am, or don’t gravitate towards transgressive stories, there is a lot to love and Haradon’s skilled writing will draw you in, even during its lowest of beautifully lowbrow moments." You can read the whole review here . Or buy it here .