Another Update!! What Am I Up To? Hrmmm....

On to the fun stuff...

I was pretty disappointed in not having a convention to attend this October, but a good friend of mine directed me in the direction of this all day event. I spoke with the organizer, a very nice woman named Rose, and I am booked for the event! I think its going to be a ton of fun and if you visit the Myspace page for Excentric Vision you'll see the have a love of da zombies, too. They have a great black and white slideshow of some very scary, yet sexy zombie femme fatales.

I've placed it below for your viewing pleasure.

Also, it looks like As The World Dies: The First Days may be appearing very soon on Dr. Pus Presents "Library of the Living Dead". If you haven't been paying attention to this really fun podcast, I recommend that you check it out. It is definitely a great way to check out what's new in the zombie genre. I've been exchanging emails with Dr. Pus and he said some very kind things to say about the novel. He seemed especially pleased that the book had a strong female lead (well, actually two). Once I confirm this is going to happen, I'll post the details here. But honestly, even if he was not going to cover my book, I would still recommend this awesome podcast.




Now a little more news on my interview with AngelLesa on October 13, 2008. It will start at 7pm Central and you will be able to call in and ask me questions. The number to call is 347-945-7025. I would love it if you called in, but just don't spoil the remaining trilogy if you read it online. I'm more than willing to answer any questions you may have. Just follow this link the night of the interview and check it out.

Meanwhile, I'm contacting reviewers to see if they would be interested in taking a look at As The World Dies: The First Days and selecting conventions in 2009 to attend to promote that book and the ones that will follow.

I'll be honest. All the promotion of the book seems to take up so much time, I often feel like I can't get any writing done. But this is the way it is and I just have to get used to it. But thank you AGAIN to anyone who is posting about the book on their blogs or forums out there. It is highly appreciated.

Now, back to writing on the second book...

It's Sorta Like the Zombie Infection...Spreading

Word is getting around about As the World Dies: The First Days. I've done a little bit of promoting, but most of the word of mouth is from fans of the story. I've seen some postings on various forums and came across this on wikipedia. I have to admit when I saw the book listed with all those other zombie titles, I did a little scream of joy and a little dance.

Today I sent out some information to the local paper about my book signing and contacted a few websites. I am hoping that the zombie fans out there who have not heard of the story will get the heads up and check it out.

Thank you to anyone who has posted about the story on the forums and are telling their friends about it. One reader has lent his copy to about three people so far. I love that! It is so rewarding to know people are reading the novel and enjoying it!

The most rewarding thing about being a writer is having people not only read your stories, but love them. It is the most incredible feeling.

Thank you again for all your support!

True Blood! True Ike! True Writer's Block, but not really

I saw True Blood this week. I don't have HBO, but I managed to see it on youtube.com. I love youtube. If not for youtube, I would miss out on a lot of cool shows from overseas, and in this case, a show from a channel I refuse to subscribe to. (Seriously, why can't they let you just order one show?)

I've been jonesing to see True Blood since I first heard about the series based on Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire novels. I thought Anna Paquin as Sookie was a great choice when I heard the news and after seeing the show, I definitely think she is perfect casting. So is the actor who plays the vampire named Bill (his name cracks me up as much as it does Sookie). He looks almost exactly how I imagined Bill when I read the novel. The show is uncanny in its representation of the locations in the book because it almost matches my imagination perfectly. I am impressed. And now I have to find a friend who has HBO so I can continue to watch the series or hope youtube will save me again.

What I really enjoyed about the show was that the characters, sets, and vibe were so much like the books. It made me wonder what As The World Dies would be like as a show or mini-series (pipe dream, yep, I know..but a girl can dream). I remember some of the fans offering up their ideas for actors for the characters. Nathan Fillion and Clive Owen were suggested for Travis. Mira Furlan (of Lost and Babylon 5) and Helen Mirren were suggested for Nerit. Kristina Loken (the Terminator in T:3) was tossed out there for Katie. Jennifer Connelly was often mentioned for Jenni. And though I saw Juan as looking more like the tall, handsome Robert Rodriguez (the Austin-based director who I have seen in real life), people suggested John Leguizamo. I'm not saying any of these interpretations of the characters are wrong. They don't exactly match my idea, but it makes me wonder how fans of the story would cast a series or mini-series.

I admit I have my own personal "casting" in my head, but I won't share it here. I'd rather people have their own ideas.

Meanwhile, I have mapped out the bungled mess that sits in Fighting to Survive (I have tossed out the Struggling to Survive title). I have it all sorted out and now...err...I have writer's block. Not really bad, but just enough to make me moody. I have managed to write a few pages on the bus in the morning, but its not as much as it should be. My proof readers are waiting for the novel and I know I need to punch through. I hope I can this weekend.

If Ike doesn't blow us all away...

Ike is going to hit Texas and it's going to affect Austin one way or the other. One scenario has it coming over Austin as a tropical storm, but that seems unlikely. We will have massive storms and high winds even if it does hit further down the coast, so I hope the electricity stays on and lets me get more work done.

Oh, yes. Fearfest is canceled until February. I will be at the show in February and as soon as the details are released, I'll post them here. The Zombie Ball did not work out for me like I hoped. A sponsor is a publisher, so..bah. But my books may make it into the gift bags they are putting together for winners of the contest. I hope to attend and hand out flyers with the book info if that is cool with the organizer.

I also plan to make two appearances at Nightmare on Grayson, the big haunted house festival in downtown San Antonio. I'll be at the Creepy Classics booth and that will be a ton of fun. I always enjoy seeing the monsters out on the street terrifying the people waiting to enter the haunted house. One year a group of teenage boys (probably around age 16) ran screaming past our booth. I looked up to see Michael Meyers walking calmly behind them. It was hilarious. Not so funny are the scary clowns. One year a teenage girl fainted dead away in the tent when she turned and saw one of those evil suckers right behind her. Ugh! I hate clowns!!! Anyway, when I confirm the dates I'll be there, I'll post the information.

Edit: I would love to hear who you would cast as your favorite characters in the novel. The first comment on this post mentioned Gillian Anderson as Katie. I had never even thought of her!

Some Cool News to Share

First off, I will be attending Fear Fest 3 in the Dallas/Fort Worth area to promote my book. I will be sharing space with my good friends from Creepy Classic Videos. She has some truly awesome zombie t-shirts, caps, totes, and lots of good ol' horror movies. I've attended cons with her before, but this is my first time I'm actually vending my own stuff and not just helping with her table!

I'm so excited!

For details, click on the links in the sidebar of this blog. If you're in the area, please come and check it out, buy and book and chat.

Second good news is my short story Vengeance on Scribd has made the Hot List. I'm very excited about this. It was awesome to get that news today.

This is a very short update, but hopefully I'll have more in the future.

Surrounded by Zombies

Strange how I ended up with a zombie trilogy, a zombie novella, and a series of zombie short stories considering my first and foremost love is for the vampire. Though, if I consider my past carefully, I realize that my love for the vampire was born out of my stark fear. They were my childhood bogeymen. They were the things I feared most appearing outside my window. Vampires were my night terror, my personal demon, my greatest fear. The only way I could make peace with that fear was to embrace them, to write about them.

I suppose, in a way, that is what I have now experienced with the zombies. The first time I saw Day of the Dead as a kid, I threw up. It terrified me. I refused to watch anymore zombie movies until an old boyfriend talked me into watching Night of the Living Dead with him. I had such terrible nightmares afterward, again, I swore off watching zombie films.

When my husband and I first started hanging out, we realized quickly we had a lot in common. We were constantly together and never bored, so I suppose it was inevitable we would end up together. For some reason, we decided to watch George A. Romero's Zombie Trilogy. I fell utterly in love with the movies. They scared me to death, but I loved the characters in the stories. I winced for those I cared about when they fell and cheered when ones I hated got their comeuppance. I tried watching a few other zombie movies after I was done with the original trilogy, but none had the feel or the emotional resonance that Romero's did.

I did enjoy the remake of Dawn of the Dead, but again, I only truly cared about whether or not one character lived or died (and he was bitten right before the boat). I feared the zombies, but I just didn't care too much about the characters.

I'm not sure why I wrote that first short story (Tiny Fingers). Maybe it was to gain control over a bad nightmare I had. Or just to try something different. I remember just wanting to get the story into words and posted for people to see. I had read a lot of online zombie fiction before I wrote my own story. And like at lot of the zombie movies, I just didn't really care about the characters or the situations they were in.

As The World Dies: The First Days is exactly what I wanted it to be. A strong zombie story with lots of action, gore and characters you care about. I would never claim to be the master story teller George Romero is in his wonderful tales of the undead, but he definitely inspired me to find the heart of the story and embrace it.

I still love my vampires. I will be returning to them. I admit I was rather snobbish about my vampire novels and treated my zombie story like the red headed stepchild in the beginning. But I have learned to embrace both sets of monsters and the worlds they inhabit.



I'm okay with being not just a writer of vampire fiction, but of zombie fiction as well.

But those werewolves....man...that's a whole other story...

As The World Dies is Available on Amazon.com!!!

As The World Dies is now available on Amazon. com. Though I prefer the fans buy the book from my own eShop (I get a better royalty), I realize sometimes it's much easier for people to buy from Amazon.com.

My first three reviews are up. When I read them I almost cried.

Two are from the proof readers of As The World Dies. They were lucky (or unlucky) enough to read the proof copy and offer up suggestions. One is a horror writer. The other is also a writer, but doesn't like horror. Between the two of them, I was fairly sure they could give me some great insight and suggestions. I'll be honest. Having a horror writer read your stuff is nervewracking because you want the horror fans to love your story. Having a non-horror fan read it, was nervewracking because it was definitely not her genre. The fact that they both loved the book was very flattering and encouraging.

As soon as they heard that the book was on Amazon, they both hopped over to give their support.

The third review is from a fan. What he wrote literally made me cry. When I showed it to my Mother, she choked up quite a bit, too. My mother is very supportive and I don't think she could be any prouder of me. She HATES zombies and horror novels, but loved my book. And since she has been editing and critiquing my works since I was around 10 years old, I know if she doesn't like something, she will tell me. But she loved the book and the characters. She is so excited she's trying to find out where she can find an old mannequin so she can make me a zombie to carry around to conventions. She is a painter, so I know she would do a great job. She has already volunteered to help me man my table at the convention I am planning to attend in October.

The last few days have been a blur. I've been visiting with family (and having them visit me) and I've barely had time to log on and do anything to support the release of the book. I hope to pick up the slack this week and this coming weekend.

For those of you who have ordered the book, let me know what you think when you receive it. I have heard back from one fan and he declared it "beautiful". Frankly, I think it is, too. The cover artwork just blows me away.

For those of you who have read the story, your reviews on Amazon.com would be highly appreciated. Also, spread the word to any horror fans you may know.

Thanks again for all your support!

New Chapters! More Jenni! More Everything!!

The second book is well on its way. It starts just before the survivors in the fort make their move to claim the hotel. I was reading over the sections and realized something was missing. I wasn't sure what it was and laid the book aside to think about it.

That night I dreamt about the missing "part". It made perfect sense and opened the second book with chapters that capture the essence of the characters and fort itself. There is always the possibility of someone starting to read the series at the second novel As The World Dies: Struggling to Survive, so I wanted to make sure they knew who the characters were, but not have a massive info dump. The new chapters add to the character development, paint a clear portrait of what is happening in the fort and the risks at hand, and give the readers a new action sequence.

I really love the new chapters.

Plus, it was fun to revisit Katie and Jenni and the other characters. I miss writing for them and it felt good to hear their voices in my head once more.

Besides, Jenni+ax+zombies=a good time.

The final proof reader is making her way through the book. She has an excellent eye and I trust her to find the final little goofs that have missed the one billion read-throughs. There is always something you just don't see.

We're almost to publication and its getting so exciting. I'm looking into attending some horror conventions as a vendor so I can sell and sign my book and that means ordering signs, posters and banners.

I recently met an artist here in Austin who has made this truly creepy zombie baby. I'm thinking of buying it off of him.

That we are at this point in the process just amazes me. I never would have done this without the encouragement of my fans, family and friends. I don't feel alone in this process and that is a very good feeling.

The publication date is looming, but I'm not worried. I really believe you guys will love this book as much as I do when you hold it in your hands. It's truly gorgeous and the quality is terrific.

I wonder if ya'll are as excited as I am?

Moody Lil Bitches

A very long time ago, I bought a replica of this painting. I had no idea who it was or what it was even about. I just knew I loved it at first sight. It now hangs in my home and people often comment on it. It's a stark, intense painting and I love it.

Years later, I found out that the painting was of Sappho, a legendary writer that remains highly regarded to this day. "Dark little Sappho" with her brooding intensity appealed to me when I was still discovering my own writer's voice. The fact she is such a highly regarded female writer of lyric poetry appeals to me. She stands among greats and is considered by some to be the greatest.

Of course, she is also well known for her homoerotic poetry and her name and the place of her birth, Lesbos, has heavily influenced the lesbian community. I may not be gay (though some of my characters are!), but I can see why they adore her.

She's a strong woman who made an impact on our world.

I adore strong women. I also happen to be one. It's often not an easy role to have when people see you as a pillar of strength in adversity. It puts a helluvalot of pressure on you to go beyond what you feel are your limits. I admit I'm often shocked at how much I can accomplish when I push myself. Family, friends and co-worker see me as someone they can depend on and as I grow older, I am more comfortable with this role.

But when it comes to my role as a writer....UGH!!

I really love what I write. I wouldn't write it if I didn't want to read it. I often write because I want to know how the damn story ends! But just because I adore a certain character and love to hang out in an imaginary world does not necessarily mean everyone out there will, too.

I cruise writer's blogs. It's cool to see what's up in the minds of other people slogging away at their computers to create fantastic worlds. Two topics caught my eye recently: self-promotion and reviews.

I have to admit, both of these things make me shudder.

I love positive reviews, but the negative ones can be a little disconcerting. Whenever I get a negative review, I consider what the reader is saying seriously (unless its obvious they're just trolling). If I want to be the best writer I can be, I'm going to have to take some hits and learn from them when they are legit. It just sucks donkey balls to realize you've goofed it. But if I realize its legit, I do take care to evolve and change. I am not perfect, so I know my writing won't be either. It does annoy the hell out of me when some one's version of a review is them telling you how they would write your story (...and you should have so and so die and the robot should really be blah blah blah...and this gun should be..and blah blah blah). Reviews are tricky things. They are valuable when they give you new perspective. But when I realize someone is just being a troll, I just ignore and keep going.

As for the whole self promotion thing...yuck. I have noticed that most writer's websites look identical and they all write in a particular style in their blogs. I'm not stupid. I know the pack mentality when I see it. I've never done well with packs. I'm that weird girl standing on the outside of it. Hell, I was Goth before I knew what Goth was.

But I can't fault the other authors for this. Our whole society is obsessed with either being this really cool individual that sticks out from the crowd (so we can ridicule them later) or running with the pack of the cool peeps(so we can ridicule them later). And when people see something is working for a successful author, I think the inclination is that is they have the magic formula, quick, grab it!

Mary Janice Davidson, for example, is credited for creating paranormal chick lit. The woman is freaking hilarious and foul mouthed to boot. Seriously warped. She makes me laugh out loud when I'm reading her Betsy series (the mermaid series..not so much though). As soon as she hit the big time, the market flooded with knock offs. I tried reading one, but it really sucked (no pun intended) and I couldn't stand it. I didn't even finish it or if I did, I have blocked it from my mind! Long story short, I don't read any paranormal chick lit but MJD. Everything else just feels fake.

Laurell K. Hamilton, meanwhile, is well known at this point in her career for books full of vampire and furry were-animal orgies. I loved the books in the Anita Blake series until Narcissus in Chains. It was in that book that all that had come before took a flying leap out the window and we all fell down the rabbit hole into paranormal porn theater. When LKH wrote that infamous "Dear Negative Reader" post, she was writing to me. I have completely checked out of that series and the Merry one and I'm not spending a cent on the books anymore. But she makes the big bucks and has lots of fans, so there are copycats everywhere. Sunny is one that comes to mind with her Mona Lisa books. I read one of her short stories in an anthology and actually checked online to see if it was LKH in disguise. Nope. Just a copycat. I don't read either author.

Its so bizarre to feel so much pressure to be a unique writer but at the same time fit into the pack. I see it on so many blogs and articles about the publishing world it makes my head spin. "Stand out to the agents and publishing houses!" headlines scream over articles that tell you how to stun and amaze the gatekeepers. Of course, this will most likely result in a nice form letter that reads "This is not what we are looking for. We want paranormal chick lit and erotic werewolf vampire orgies". Okay, leave off the second sentence, but that's what you'll end up with. Try and stand out and you'll probably get kicked to the curve.

I would love to think that as an Independent Author I'm free of these two sharp barbs, but I'm not. I will have reviews that I will want to frame and hang on my wall and others that will probably make me want to crawl under my desk. I'll face the big questions of "Do I just be my normal, weird gothy self or try and look like I'm normal. Is what I'm writing the way to go or should I try something different?"

At this point, I'm inclined to just be who I am in my blog, website and myspace. I'm going to write what I want to read and hope people like it. The pressure is still there...to stun and amaze with my wonderful individuality...while running with the pack and hanging with the cool kids.

Eh...

Goths dress better anyway....

Just check out Sappho...