Help Spread The Z Word!

My contest to promote my new release, The Z Word, is live! The best part, is no cost is involved. It's free, baby, free--at least on Smashwords (Amazon is charging 99 cents, so a heads up there).

The Z Word is the first book in the Apocalypse Babes series.

It's been said that a sure sign of the coming apocalypse is an 80s roller skate disco movie coming to DVD (with special features). In the science-fiction novel series Apocalypse Babes, a stylish group of twenty-something friends are torn from the Babylonian arms of 2006 West Hollywood and flung nearly thirty years into the past. It might be because one of them purchased the taboo film in a nostalgic moment, setting off a chain of events more disturbing than a roller skating conga line. They wake up in an apocalyptic but strangely familiar landscape, complete with a hidden mountain compound and retro survivalists, hinting at hidden and retro secrets they must face if they want to survive.

Book One follows Seffy Carter and her longtime friends Gareth, Addison and Lani. The four besties share a past dysfunctional and dark enough to keep them bound together under do-over identities. But rends develop in their relationships from the flesh-eating pressures of ending up in 1980, in a Montana desert, surrounded by zombies wearing dated disco duds.

If you want to help promote the book--tweet, leave a review, friend me on Face Book, etc, send an email to fireflypressbooks@gmail.com detailing the ways you promoted. Each action is worth points and you'll be sent a confirmation email with your total. The drawing will be in October by Random.org. See www.apocalypsebabes.com for all the details. Click on the contest sparkles.

First prize is a Juicy Couture tracksuit (tho the author cannot guarantee magical properties). Second prize is a bottle of Pink (Seffy's favorite, natch) perfume by Victoria's Secret, and third prize is a $25 Amazon gift card (more free books!).

So help spread The Z Word, like a zombie infecting a human--but in a good way!

The Z Word on Smashwords

My newest book, The Z Word, is the first of six books in this eponymous series.

Seffy Carter and her longtime friends Gareth, Addison and Lani. The four besties share a past dysfunctional and dark enough to keep them bound together under do-over identities. But rends develop in their relationships from the flesh-eating
pressures of ending up in 1980, in a Montana desert, surrounded by
zombies wearing dated disco duds.

The book is free at Smashwords through 10/6/11, and is also available for Kindle for 99 cents. I'm hoping Amazon will make it free for a time, and I'll let everyone know if that's the case.

I'll be having a contest starting July 6th, but any reviews, tweets, or posts about The Z Word will still be eligible to be entered. Prizes will include items from Juicy Couture, Victoria's Secret, and Amazon. Check my website for the latest.

Until then, join Seffy, who has no mad skillz, no sacred destiny--just a pink tracksuit that will take her places she never wanted to go...

When Zombies Become High Art

I recognize I'm a bit of a Janey-come-lately to this movie, but like any good zombie, it caught up with me eventually.

I love zombie movies and books for what zombies represent (you can't outrun death, lives lived on auto-pilot, etc) and how they reveal human nature when those humans are either bitten or chased.

Zombies can be fun, campy or terrifying, but sometimes they can become high art as in the film, 28 Days Later.

This movie languished in my Netflix queue for almost a year before my son finally lobbied for its rental. It was one of those films that absolutely rocked in cinematography, acting, writing, directing, editing and the score.

But where it really became a tour de force for me was in the story. The heart of 28 Days Later made me care deeply about the characters while at the same time commenting on what makes a society; is it mankind as a whole? Or is it the family?

New Hope in The War on Zombies

Physician and author Steven Schlozman has written the book that gives the downtrodden a ray of hope in the seemingly endless war against zombism:

The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks From the Apocalypse

 From the author's website:  

"As the walking dead rises up throughout the world, a few brave doctors attempt to find a cure by applying forensic techniques to captured zombies. Based on the research of renowned zombie expert Dr. Stanley Blum, performed at a remote island where a crack medical team has been sent to explore a radical theory that may lead to a cure for the epidemic, THE ZOMBIE AUTOPSIES documents for the first time the unique biology of zombie organisms. Twenty-five detailed drawings of the internal organs of actual zombies provide an accurate anatomy of these horrifying creatures, including zombie brains, hearts, lungs, skin, and the digestive system, while Dr. Blum’s notes reveal shocking insights into how they function, even as Blum and his staff themselves begin to succumb to the plague. No one knows the ultimate fate of Dr. Blum or his researchers, but now that his notebook, THE ZOMBIE AUTOPSIES, has been made available to the UN, the World Health Organization, and the general public, his scientific discoveries may provide the last hope for humans on earth!"

So run, don't shamble, to your nearest bookstore and arm yourself with the one weapon that may be more useful than a trench spike!

Because the zombies are coming.

All Looks and No Story?

The reviews are rolling in and they're not good. But I'm holding my hands over my ears and chanting in denial. The look of the trailer is so gorgeous and I adore the actresses--how could this movie suck?

Then again, I thought Red Riding Hood would be a slam dunk, but, well...let's just say the only redemptive value of the film was this.

Here's hoping my wallet won't get sucker-punched. Because what's not to love about Dystopian Manga?

That and Jenna Malone.

Good To Know

 
Popular Mechanics has always been handy to have around. A recent article gives tips on how to perfectly kill a zombie, via the experts of the TV show The Walking Dead:

"To that end, The Walking Dead special effects team tailors their head hits to the action on the screen. "We have forensic textbooks that we use to match wounds with weapons," Nicotero says. "Part of our job is doing research into the ways that bullets go in and come out, how they fragment and how large the exit wounds are."

And if you forget easily (being on the run from zombies has been known to cause memory loss), here's a handy T-shirt to help.

Now that's information I can use!

Leo Grin's TOP 5: Reasons Zombies Reign As Horrordom’s #1 Monsters

Film critic Leo Grin gives his top 5 reasons why zombies are the best monsters (excerpted from his Big Hollywood article):

1. They’re anthropomorphic.

There’s all sorts of beasties under the sun (and moon), but in general I’ve always found that the creepier specimens are the ones which assail you while housed in a human body. Bruce the shark in Jaws, the Blob chasing a young Steve McQueen, or the wide assortment of killer piranhas, rats, and dinosaurs out there don’t hold a candle to things like vampires, werewolves, and zombies — monsters that retain aspects of their humanity even as they terrorize us with their doom-laden, inhuman fates.

2. They’re the living dead.

An adjunct to #1 above. Some monsters are nothing more than exotic animals, others demons associated with the netherworld of some ancient religion or mythology, and still others ordinary humans with a black nullity where their soul and conscience is supposed to be. All provide us with legions of good scares, and may they continue to do so!
But there remains a special type of unease associated with that which was once alive, normal, and often loved as friend or family returning in a degraded state as recognizable as it is hideous. At their best vampires fit this bill, but zombies manage to routinely do so even at their worst, which makes them to my mind more consistently effective on screen or in print.

3. They’ve got contagious cooties.

With many monsters, your primary fear is getting ripped limb from limb. But the truly frightening ones up the ante by the ease with which they can flip you to the dark side. Along with werewolves, zombies have always been the ones offering our intrepid heroes/victims the least margin for error: one bite and you’re out, baby. In the case of werewolves, at least there is a great amount of humanity left, along with the time and wherewithal to control or mitigate your fate. Get nicked by a zombie, however, and it’s game over — an irreversible downhill slide into permanent monsteria.

4. They possess strength in numbers.

Most bloodthirsty fiends are of the single or limited variety, while others assault us by the dozens, hundreds, or even thousands. Only zombies, however, typically manage to completely overwhelm our entire world and way of life in short order, threatening to throw civilization itself into a permanent nightmare.
An added benefit to this is the frequent spectacle of massive, ultra-cool firepower which we get the pleasure of seeing levied against the limitless zombie hordes.

5. Their resistance to the Twilight effect.

Vampires have been defanged via Twilight, True Blood, and any number of other romantic variations on the Dracula theme. Werewolves are often tragic Byronic brooders who ooze a feral sex appeal in between their bouts of lycanthropic mayhem and murder. Horrordom’s vast assortment of serial killers — Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Norman Bates, Freddy Krueger, et al. — ply their crimson trade on sexy damsels in the throes of passion and/or provocative undress that grants the murders a quasi-erotic quality. Even Frankenstein’s monster had his bride (It always strikes me when I watch Bride of Frankenstein how it’s so campy as-is that Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein is almost as much a remake as a send-up).

But zombies steadfastly resist all efforts to sissify, romanticize, or eroticize their essential awfulness.

 Read the full article here.