Cover Reveal: The Charge by Sharon Bayliss

Cover Reveal: Paradise Earth by Anthony Mathenia

It gives me great pleasure to lend my blog to a great title’s release. I was a proofreader for this story, and it will move you, shake you to the core and sucker punch you in the gut while you’re down. Mark your calendars, it’s coming on December 21!

The book is Paradise Earth by Anthony Mathenia. Now, feast your eyes on the cover, and don’t forget to read the blurb.

 

When the ground quakes and blazing balls of fire fall from the sky, a religious sect interprets it as the fulfillment of long-held prophecies foretelling the end of the world. The members flee to their religious sanctuary, believing that this global cataclysm is the portent of a new paradise of eternal happiness.

Inside, one cold and starving man struggles to hold onto his hope for the future. He’s sacrificed everything for his faith in the prophecy, including his family. As the tortuous night drags on, he struggles to hold onto his hope for the future and grapples with a lifetime of beliefs, and expectations.  If he survives to see the paradise earth, will it be worth it?

Paradise Earth is a deconstruction of faith at the end of the world and beyond. The first volume of the trilogy, Day Zero, will be published by Curiosity Quills Press on December 21, 2012. Week One and Forever After will follow.

Anthony Mathenia is a novelist and freelance writer. He has a weekly romance serial titled Happiness: How to Find It published on curiosityquills.com and a weekly offbeat travel column on Vagobond.com. Paradise Earth: Day Zero is his debut novel. He was raised in a religious cult and sincerely apologizes for waking you up on Saturday morning in order to recruit you.  www.anthonymathenia.com

Cover Reveal: Sanity Vacuum, my debut novel!

I’m very excited to finally be able to reveal my amazing, beautiful cover to the world! It’s been as though I’ve been hiding a cosmic secret for the past month. Now that I have a release date, I’m going to reveal its beauty to the world.

Release Date: December 6, 2012

Sanity Vacuum Synopsis:

Vivian Skye just finished university, and qualified for her first-choice internship. Not many would consider the distant and isolated Extra-Galactic Observatory cushy, but it’s a dream come true for Vivian. Hailing from the low-tech planet of Aurora, she studied hard for this opportunity—and to leave her old life, and planet behind.

Her assignment is simple: perform a routine upgrade for the station’s supercomputer, quIRK. Her reception isn’t a friendly one, and eccentric quIRK becomes her only friend. However, the station’s administrator, Bryce Zimmer is obsessed with quIRK—he suspects that the station’s computer may have achieved sentience, something explicitly prohibited by the ABACUS Protocol. Compounding their issues, Bryce’s traumatic and privileged past makes him distrust Vivian from the beginning. Desperate to keep control, he sabotages quIRK in order to eliminate Vivian. But, his plan threatens to consume the entire station and send them into the unknown void of intergalactic space.

Vivian must struggle to survive not only Bryce’s megalomania, but also the emerging artificial super intelligence that is quIRK. Can Vivian and quIRK learn to trust each other and work together, before it’s too late?

Sanity Vacuum is book one of The ABACUS Protocol.

 

Author Bio:

Thea Gregory is a farm girl from English Western Quebec, a total nerd, and she loves science fiction, zombies and physics. Between marathon cooking sessions, her clerktastic day job, and part-time studies, she manages to find time to write. Author of the Zombie Bedtime Stories, her debut sci-fi novel, Sanity Vacuum releases December 6.

Deadlocked Cover Art!

At long last, Deadlocked has a cover prototype.

Deadlocked cover

 

My cover artist and I would love to hear your thoughts!  Recently, he put a portfolio online, and if you’re in the market for a reasonably priced cover artist, give him a shout.

Stay tuned for Monday, when the Coffin Hop begins. I’ll be posting a contest.

The Zombie’s Bride – Now on Smashwords!

I got around to cleaning up The Zombie’s Bride, and uploaded it to Smashwords. I’m very fortunate to have a creative and dedicated cover artist. Like my covers? He’s willing to take on work.

Let’s have a look at the picture, both because I really like it, and I want a picture in here.

The Zombie's Bride cover

Isn’t it great?

So, I know you want to read it, you know you want to read it. So read it. It’s free!

I have a few more of these cooking, all featuring protagonists who deserve a zombie apocalypse on their doorstep.

Locked Out (Zombie Bedtime Stories #2) Cover Art sneak peak!

It’s been a busy weekend. I caught some kind of weird flu, but feel mostly better now. Still no appetite, but I could do with some cutbacks in the indulgences. But, in addition to the tentative signs that my muse is returning (I managed 100 words of Deadlocked last night), my boyfriend and cover artist has not been lacking in inspiration. I really lucked out with a guy who used to design video games for a living and had to do his own textures and art.

 

Zombie Bedtime Stories: Locked Out

 

The original concept was supposed to be a brain with a keyhole on it, but it didn’t fit the story as it evolved. However, fire, zombies and mystery liquid always apply.

As always, we would love to hear your feedback!

Weekend news: I got interviewed, Zombie Walk Video and more!

So it’s been a dismal week productivity wise. That happens, I’m told. I’ll just redouble my efforts next week. It’s a pain editing halfhearted crap into good material, so it’s probably for the better. I’m getting good feedback on Locked Out, which is very encouraging to make me sit down and crank out Deadlocked. I want to have it out before NaNoWriMo.

I promised you a video. Here is the footage Kyle  took. He got some great shots of the zombies swarming a Justin Bieber display.

Montreal Zombie Walk 2011 video – skip to 1:16 if you only care about seeing Bieber get eaten (there are two waves, second is at 1:50ish)

Goals for this week: Deadlocked to 5000 words. If I get Locked Out back from editor (hi mom) then new draft. I’m hoping to have some nice cover art to show off at some point in the nearish future, but that might not be this week.

Finally, I have an interview about Locked In posted. This is happy news. Thanks to 1st Author Interviews, you guys rock.

 

 

Zombie Bedtime Stories: Locked In Cover Art and Sneak Peek.

Edit 07/25/2011: Here are links to the store pages for Locked In:

Amazon.com

Smashwords

Original Post:

You heard it here. I think it’s done. I’m going to do the “read it out loud” test tomorrow evening.

So, here is the story cover my boyfriend created for me. The arms are mine, and I made the fake (bright pink) blood. The rest of the effort is all his. I know I’ve posted it before, but it’s changed and improved.

Book Cover

I did promise a sneak peak, didn’t I?

            Haley threw up her arms as he made a lunge for her face. His unimaginable strength pitched them both to the ground. The blow winded her. Her eyes widened in alarm as she squirmed under his wizened form to keep his decaying teeth away from her flesh. His fetid breath was tinged with the scent of blood, the overwhelming stench burning into her lungs. Haley thought she was going to vomit. The three officers and Frank shouted as they struggled to gain control of the crazed man. Deafened by Buddy’s shrieks, the terror of the cacophony threatened to paralyze her. A Taser was drawn, but its discharge barely seemed to jolt Buddy, prompting a renewed flurry of attacks. Haley felt a discernible electric tingle pass through her own body, so she knew the device had worked, but on the wrong person. With this realization her thoughts became frantic and incoherent. As she felt her arms weaken from the exertion, she couldn’t help wondering if Buddy was drugged.

That’s all for now. Sleep tight. If you want a more animated version of today’s events, featuring overuse of the word “crap”  and a Fedora, then check out today’s vlog.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

I Am A Sprinting Writer With No Stamina

I can crank out sweet word counts for the first hour, but then I need to fall back and recharge. I wrote 1100 words in just over an hour, but then it was like my mind melted. My total count per burst is getting higher, but I just have no stamina whatsoever! It’s the new writer’s block.

Yesterday, I made a YouTube video to talk about Zombie Bedtime Stories. Check it out.

Tomorrow I’m going to RibFest in Ottawa, and I get to see my cousin that I never get to see! I’m so stoked. Stay tuned for another cover art sneak peek – Locked In is getting a face (font) lift.

The Blog Improvement Project

With release of my first story hopefully about one month away, I decided to clean up a little, make this joint just a little nicer. There may just be one or two more drafts before I stick a fork in it. Additionally, the rough draft of part 2 is approximately one third done.

I noticed the About page is getting some hits and badly needed some love. As well, I realized that I had no dedicated place for my magnum opus, Zombie Bedtime Stories. I fixed that, and tried to express my vision for the project, and why it’s unique and deserves your attention.

Contact me is basically shameless self-promotion, and an email address. In case anybody wants to email me. I like emails.

Otherwise, my cover for Locked In is getting an overhaul. I realized that the text is unreadable in the thumbnail. Anonymously-obsessed-boyfriend (Now on Twitter!) is on the case.

Vlog-wise, I’m hoping to get my cooking videos up. I made one about how to cook chili that needs a good amount of editing, and today I made matzoh balls, which also require edits and cuts. The latter half happens to be hilarious, but I need to learn to look at the camera, not the cameraman. It makes me look psycho. I might step up the standard vlog a little, too. Make it edgier.