Hey! What are you doing here? I moved to Blogger so check out my new online home. No offense to WordPress but the .com version just has too many limitations to it and I figured why deal with learning all of WP.com’s quirks when I’m already familiar with Blogger?
Hope to see you over there.
Well, I’ve had a couple of dreadful days the last couple of days, and it had nothing to do with anything good because the hot water heater decided to die. Life without hot water is definitely not fun so we got to take a special trip to Lowe’s. Yah! Not!
Fortunately, you can have a perfectly Dreadful day on Wednesday and all it involves is dropping by Amazon US or Amazon UK to grab your free copy of Dreadful Beginnings, the first book in the new ‘Penny Dreadful’ urban fantasy series. I hope you stop by and give Penny’s first outing with Doctor Horror a try.
The free promotion ends Wednesday night at midnight.
Dreadful Beginnings
(A Penny Dreadful Novella)
There are things out there. Dark and scary things that will kill you in strange and terrible ways. They live in shadows and feast on blood. They don’t belong in our world, but they’re here. You don’t have to freak out, though, because there’s this guy out there too. He calls himself Doctor Horror and he fights those bad things, but he needs help in his fight against the darkness.
Lucky for him, I’m the right girl for the job.
When you think of home, you probably think of chilling out in front of the TV or hanging with friends on the latest social media hotspot. What you probably don’t think about are killer hairdryers and murderous stuffed bunnies that want to make sure you don’t wake up from your blissful slumber. These are the kinds of things that might happen when you accidentally release a demon while playing witch. Hey! Don’t look at me that way. My friend was doing the spellcasting. I was just there.
Demon-killing isn’t something I considered as an actual profession until a guy named Doctor Horror showed up and asked for my help in dealing with this supernatural pest. Once I got over his strange name, it seemed like a pretty good deal. Killing demons definitely sounded better than telemarketing. Ugh! More importantly, this thing was trying to kill me and my friends… and that just doesn’t work for me.
Now, armed with Doc’s little suitcase of goodies and a special bracelet that has a mind of its own, I’m going to show this demon why he would’ve been better off staying in Hell.
Penny Dreadful is on the prowl but let’s not forget there are zombies out there too. The Horror Blog & Dark Home of Tyr Kieran is hosting a giveaway and five zombie fans are going to win a free copy of my zombies-in-prison short story, Dead Man Walking… and now’s a great time to join the undead fun because I’m currently working on a larger and more in-depth version of the tale because so many fans requested more from Griffin as he battles the zombie plague. This is your chance to find out where it all begins.
To enter for your chance to win, just leave a comment here answering this question – Would a prison be the best or worst place to be during the Zombie Apocalypse?
I’m looking forward to seeing your responses over at Tyr’s place. They can be serious, thought-provoking, or even funny. I can’t wait to see what you have to say.
Well, I’ve been saying for awhile now that Penny Dreadful was on her way, and she’s finally arrived. Say hi to Penny and the cover of Dreadful Beginnings. The book will be arriving on Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes & Noble soon, so keep an eye out for it.
I was introduced to Ben Winters’ Bedbugs by watching the awesome book trailer that came out for the book’s release. I loved the realism of it and I dare you to watch the preview without getting the urge to change your sheets.
Shock Til You Drop recently reported that Ti West (The Innkeepers, House of the Devil) has been tapped to adapt Bedbugs for the big screen, and I’m curious to see how the story might look on film.
I recently read a guest post by Colin F. Barnes on R.A. Evans’ blog that talked about how people tend to become desensitized to horror because of society’s exposure to it in literature, movies, and even on the nightly news. Barnes says ” a good psychological fear will hit harder and longer than a pus-filled zombie every single time,” and I tend to agree with that, although nothing beats a good zombie tale, in my opinion.
With that in mind, I believe bedbugs, which have made their own appearances on the nightly news every now and then, are perfect candidates to provide chilling entertainment in a theater. After all, it’s unlikely that you’ll encounter a brain-hungry zombie on the way home but bedbugs are real… and that amps up the suspense quite a bit.
If you haven’t heard of Winters’ book before, I’ve provided the synopsis below, along with the trailer. Don’t say I didn’t warn you when you find yourself in the shower, scrubbing your skin raw.
FOR RENT: Top two floors of beautifully renovated brownstone, 1300 sq. ft., 2BR 2BA, eat-in kitchen, one block to parks and playgrounds. No broker’s fee.
Susan and Alex Wendt have found their dream apartment.
Sure, the landlady is a little eccentric. And the elderly handyman drops some cryptic remarks about the basement. But the rent is so low, it’s too good to pass up.
Big mistake. Susan soon discovers that her new home is crawling with bedbugs . . . or is it? She awakens every morning with fresh bites, but neither Alex nor their daughter Emma has a single welt. An exterminator searches the property and turns up nothing. The landlady insists her building is clean. Susan fears she’s going mad—until a more sinister explanation presents itself: she may literally be confronting the bedbug problem from Hell.
I’m a huge Stephen King fan and Chloe Moretz blew me away with her roles in Kick-Ass and Let Me In, so I was in fanboy heaven when I learned that Chloe had landed the title role in the remake of Carrie.
Kimberly Peirce, the director of the film, recently shared this wicked fan-made poster on her Facebook page, and I honestly think this should be turned into the official promo for the movie. Could it actually get any better than this piece of artwork right here? I think not.
I’m not a huge fan of remakes and usually wish Hollywood would get back into creating new stories instead of rehashing what’s been done before, but Carrie is an exception to that rule. The original movie was okay but I think it could’ve been so much more than it was. However, I know standards are different these days and I hope the movie doesn’t become one huge gore-fest. Hopefully, Peirce saw Moretz as the vampire child in Let Me In, and will take some notes from how that film was done because the creepy-factor was high, even though there wasn’t really a whole lot of blood spilled on-screen.
What do you think of the poster?
Easter is almost upon us and this little guy will be stopping by to visit you so it might be best if you spent the weekend indoors, and the best way to spend time inside is with a good book. Just because I’m a nice guy (and I don’t want to see the Bunny turn your empty skull into an Easter egg), I thought I’d help you prepare by offering Little Demons for free tomorrow.
From midnight to midnight on Good Friday, you can ride with Frank as he finds himself in the little town of Hale. The evil Easter bunny might not be there but Frank still has his hands full with other things going on in that messed up town so hop on over on Friday, April 6th, for your free copy of Little Demons. UK readers can get their free copy here.
Hope you enjoy the journey.
Evil Easter Bunny was created by ~sharpie99 at Deviant Art.
Sorry to be such a stranger around here. [looks around; notices the place really needs a good dusting.] I’ve been kicking back and letting the words flow in my new urban fantasy story, The Doctor’s In. It’s the first book in a new series called Tales of Doctor Horror and Penny Dreadful, and that is one pushy duo. They keep shouting out ideas for future stories and I have to constantly whip them back into shape and remind them we’re still on the first book.
It’s exciting and exhilarating, and just a bit nerve-wracking. My first two titles were horror, so that’s the fan base I have going now. Will they thrill to the switch to urban fantasy? Will readers of urban fantasy that don’t like horror take an interest in the new guy? It’s kind of like starting all over again since this is a new genre.
Still, I believe I’m up to the challenge. This is one of those stories that seems to write itself. I’ve even gone the extra mile and actually use visual cues for this one. Usually I just keep the stuff in my head, but I felt a few pictorial representations were in order this time around.
The first image that came to me was for the character of Doctor Horror himself. This guy actually looks a little older than what I envisioned, but the clothing is spot-on. Yeah, the Doc is kind of an interesting character. How interesting? This is his car.
That might be a little bit of wish fulfillment because I always thought it would be cool to own a hearse. Yep, I’m a bit strange at times… but come on. It really would be cool. Anyway, this is Doc’s ride, although Penny is the one that actually drives it.
We also have George.
Again, this isn’t exactly what I see in my mind’s eye but it’s close.
You probably noticed there’s no pic for Penny. I have a strong image in my mind of her, but I think it’s best to keep how I envision her a secret. The Doctor is In is a first-person POV, with lots of “I did this” and “I did that.” I’ll lay the foundation so readers have a starting point (she has pink-streaked hair) but Penny, and even the rest of the gang, will soon belong to others besides me, and they’ll be able to picture these guys any way they want to… and that’s how it should be.
The cover for The Doctor is In will probably be available soon. I actually have a cover ready now, but I need to let it sit for a little while and see if I still like it when I come back to it. If it still seems like the one, then I’ll be sharing it with you fairly soon.
