Heavy Metal and Zombies...WORKS FOR ME!!! Sorta.

I debated posting this since the Metallica guys tend to be total jerks about the new media despite their kick ass music. I have more than one ex-boyfriend in my past who worshiped these guys. My husband hates them. And their music. And their douche bag ways of attacking the new media.

But...*sigh*...I gotta give them props for the zombie love. This doesn't make me want to forgive them for acting like assholes in the past, but it does make me think they are slightly okay for liking zombies.

And, yes, Metallica, I had my novel online for FREE for years. And we loaded up a free eBook version on the bit torrents. My husband and I are well aware that people like to hold a book in their hands and we didn't see it as a way of killing our sales, but building them. Kinda like when people like a band's music, they buy merchandising and attend concerts.

I still continue to put out free fiction on my Scribd page because I believe if people know you're good at your craft, they will be interested in supporting you.

And this video is pretty damn good..so...I'm supporting it. Cause..you know...zombes rawk, babyee!

The Zombie Survial Pack

I want this!

It's soooooooooooooooooooooo cool!

Is it wrong how much I want it?

Hell, I would stuff it full of anti-zombie devices.

I love etsy.com. You can find the absolute most awesome things on there.

Freakin' Zombies.! Why Won't They Leave Me Alone!??!

Last night, all I did was dream about zombies.

Yuck.

It was like watching an anthology of shorts with different people/families trying to escape on the first days of the apocalypse. Sheer insanity. One desperate family was trying to escape a FEMA camp where the zombies were amassing outside the fences, but more survivors just kept getting routed into it. Another was a group of teenagers trying to get home and the older sister makes a really bad choice (when one of the kids opened the back door, I forced myself to wake up). Another was a grandmother, mom, and their kids trying to find safe refuge. There were soldiers firing randomly at cars and people as they lost control of the population. People running on foot when their cars couldn't go any further.

UGH!

It was awful.

I woke up and I was ragingly sick. Fever, swollen eyes, coughing, sore throat, asthma, the whole shebang.

I thought for sure I would have a nightmare about ghosts since we watched The Orphanage last night or about vampires, since I'm reading Tanith Lee's Blood Opera trilogy about the Scarabae.

But...oh..no! I dream about...

...freakin' zombies.

*sigh*

Oh, well. More fodder for future stories, I suppose.

The first of the edits are coming in already on As The World Dies: Fighting to Survive. I'm excited. The first editor to finish reading loved the novel and she felt it didn't suffer from a sophomore slump. That was a massive relief. I want to keep the story taunt, exciting, but emotional.

Anyway, I'm gonna go lay on the sofa now and stare at the TV. I think I may watch the Resident Evil movies. I'm in a cheesy, goofy kind of mood.

Sweet Dreams of Zombies and Vampires

Book Signing v 2.0

Saturday went quite well at the book signing. I actually signed books! That were already bought and brought in for me to sign, but, hey, I actually got to sign my lil' name! Everyone was cool about the shipment not arriving on time and the store has asked me back on October 11, 2008. That is the day the Zombie Ball happens at Elysium down on Red River and 7th in Austin, Texas. The store will be supporting the ball by doing a little pre-party and I will be there with my zombie novel.

I Feel Famous!!

The book shipment came in Monday. I dropped the pre-ordered books off at Secret Oktober. I also left five copies for whoever wants to snatch up a copy locally. While I was hanging out talking to my friend (who is the owner), she got a phone call from someone asking if the book was in stock. They wanted to pick one up. She was grinning like crazy when speaking to the customer and pitched the October 11th book signing. I was glowing!

The As The World Dies t-shirt RAWKS
My husband wore it this weekend and got a ton of compliments. It's really awesome. So go ahead and order one if you want one. They're really cool. I'm going to see if a local Austin t-shirt vendor can make the shirts for me locally, so we'll have them at the conventions next year.

Pretty When She Dies-A Vampire Novel

Well, what can I say? I do tend to be a ditz at times. I thought I had done all the revisions on the novel, but could not find the first nine chapters when I sat down to do them. So I thought that maybe I had already done them and forgotten. Uh. Yeah. That would make life easy. I botched it and didn't do those nine chapters. I am not going to put my copy editor through that kind of hell. So I'm reading through the chapters and fixing them up.

This is the novel I wrote in two and a half weeks. Because I was writing as fast as my little fingers could go, I have a lot of run on sentences. To be specific, I linked two sentences with an "and" that didn't need to be linked. If that makes sense.

Anyway, fixing that issue.

We're still trying to get this one out ASAP.

I hope to get the first chapter or two up on Scribd so you can take a sneak beak.

I've Been Interviewed!
CL. Fiere, the editor-in-chief of TREI Literary Magazine, contacted me recently about an interview for the October issue of the online magazine. I was thrilled to answer her questions and my interview is now up! Please check it out!

The entire magazine is fabulous and you'll have plenty to read and enjoy. I'm so glad to be part of such a wonderful issue.

And this zombie girl from TREI Literary Magazine will eat you if you don't check it out.

How's that to give you nightmares?

Dr. Pus Loves Me...or at Least My Book
To finish this off, I must give you the fabulous news that Dr. Pus' Library of the Living Dead podcast will feature the ENTIRE novel of As The World Dies: The First Days complete with voice actors, sound effects, music and Dr. Pus' own narration. Of course, this won't be dumped into one podcast, but spread out over time. I'm so excited!

Finally...
I'm making headway with As The World Dies: Fighting to Survive. I'm even dreaming about Jenni and Katie and lots and lots of zombies. That is a good thing, of course. It keeps me inspired.

I have to admit the best part of the book signing was when one woman said to me, "When is the next one coming out? I'm on pins and needles!"

It's coming. I promise. It's coming!

And One More Thing...
Here is a mock up of the cover for Pretty When She Dies. Rose Munoz of Excentric Visions Photography has been kind enough to let me use her awesome photograph on the cover!

I'm so excited!

The Brits Sure Do Love Zombies

I absolutely loved Shaun of the Dead. I thought it was beyond brilliant. It made me laugh, it made me squirm, it made me cry, and it made me look up Spaced with Simon Pegg, which was also freaking amazing.



And of course, I loved 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. If you haven't checked out the short films associated with the release of the second movie, check them out:

Welcome to London

Jealous Rage

77 Days Later

Saturday Afternoon

28 Seconds Later

The End is Extremely F**king Nigh



Of course, I know people argue constantly about if the infected are zombies or not, but the way I see it, they destroy civilization just as effectively, so they count in the genre.



I found two new zombie nuggets by the Brits with much more traditional Romeroesque zombies.



First, check out this great short film called "I Ran From A Zombie." It had some seriously funny moments and I laughed out loud more than once. I adore the zombies in this short. They're awesome.



Next up is this great trailer for "Dead Set". It's a weird little spin on reality TV as the Big Brother house in England becomes the safest place to be when the zombies rise. It looks really good and I'm hoping we'll be able to see it on this end side of the pond.



Enjoy some British zombie goodness! Yum!

Edited: Kody Boye directed me to something the Aussie's did. It's really great. Check out I love Sarah Jane.