Cover for Plague Nation (and my first post in, like, forever!)

Ain’t it pretty?

I have been away from my blog for months now, working on publicity for Plague Town, the first in my Ashley Parker series, and then working on the second book, Plague Nation, the cover of which you see before you in all of its eerie glory.  I loved the cover for Plague Town.  This one makes me even happier, what with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background and multiple zombies instead of one.

Writing Plague Nation has been challenging.  I have, according to my sister, classic “Second Book Syndrome.”  In other words, my first book has been really well received and gotten overwhelmingly positive reviews, and I’m afraid the second book will suck and no one will like it.  I guess this is relatively normal (the fear issues, not that my second book will necessarily suck!), but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.  

So… lots of second-guessing and angsting and agonizing over Every. Single.Word. Also lots of publicity work had to be done for Plague Town, much more than anticipated.  Which was lovely and fun and made me love the Titan marketing team so much that I’d marry all of them, but also took more time than expected.  I am not yet able to write for a living and have a full time day job, and I find I have this annoying need for eight hours of sleep every night in order to be functional at work and tolerable to my fellow human beings.  

Seriously, no one likes me when I’ve gone a few days without adequate sleep.  We’re talking signs against the evil eye and crosses held up to repel me.  It also has meant no spare time for blogging and a brain sucked dry of ideas for posts, like Xander in Starship Troopers.   But things are moving along now and I’m inclined to try and post once a week again and stop being such a whiny little bee-otch ’cause I am writing for an awesome publishing company (love you, Titan!) and I’m getting to write about one of my true loves: zombies!  

So stay tuned for Plague Nation, due out April 9th, 2013!  

Review – The Zombie Tarot Deck

thefool As a longtime fan of both zombies and tarot desks, when asked to review the  Zombie Tarot Deck by Stacey Graham and Paul Kepple, I didn’t have to think  twice before giving a resounding “Yes, please!”, followed by a rather undignified  “Gimme, gimme, gimme!”

 I had no idea what to expect from it, but I figured that the equation of zombie  plus tarot had to result, at the very least, in something kind of fun.  What I got  when I received my review copy of the deck from Quirk is one of the coolest,  gorgeous, funny (and yet totally functional) tarot decks I’ve ever seen. To quote  the sell copy on Amazon: 

 “Imagine the celebrated “Rider Deck” infused with the horrors of Night of the  Living Dead, and the result is The Zombie Tarot—a crazy, campy interpretation  of a classic divination system.

 In this zombified parallel universe, wands become limbs, pentacles are biohazard symbols, and the Major Arcana is full of shambling corpses. Along with the 78-card deck, readers will receive instructions in a 96-page full-color book; its contents explain how to survive the zombie apocalypse and forecast your future using one of three different card layouts.” 

A very accurate description, but it still doesn’t convey just how cool, clever and beautifully illustrated this tarot deck is.  The artwork by Paul Kepple is whimsical, retro in style and chock full of in-jokes for the zombie aficionado, all the while still conveying the essence of the tried and true classic tarot suits and numbers.  For instance, the Empress (which signifies a maternal, nurturing feminine force) depicts Helen Cooper from Night of the Living Dead with her daughter turned trowel-wielding matricidal ghoul.  The Fool has a smiling  man in a business suit carrying a funereal wreath and a basket, striding towards a gravestone and a hand thrusting out of the ground just waiting to trip him up.  And the Lovers… well, take a look below.  theempress

The text is equally clever, combining the classic interpretations with specifics to help the reader survive the zombocalypse or just the perils of every day life. The Empress, for instance, reads: A feminine force to be reckoned with, the Empress embodies birth, death and reanimation. Her maternal instincts kick into high gear whenever her offspring are threatened.  She knows there’s no problems she can’t solve with patience, love, and a shovel to the back of the head. She is a nurturer, so her home is filled with both the living and the undead.  Watch where you step.

The Three of Swords, just for another example, starts out with: Oh no! Jealousy rears its ugly head–and in the wake of a zombie apocalypse, you don’t want anyone to take the phrase “Eat your heart out” literally. 

All of the text, from the rest of the card interpretations to the intro to the instructions are equally entertaining.  The card layouts include: The Beginner, The Broken Heart, The Gravestone, The Severed Head, and the Eyeball.  

Did I mention I love this deck?  

The Zombie Tarot Deck shambles out onto the streets and for sale on June 5th and is available for pre-order on Amazon here!   Don’t hesitate!  It could save your life in the upcoming Zombocalypse!

thelovers


New Guest Post at Titan Books!

That’s right!  Today at Titan Books (right here, in fact),I talk about (big shocker here) zombies and the current proliferation of the undead flesh eaters in society today.   As mentioned previously, Titan’s blog does not currently allow comments so if you have any questions/comments for me, please leave them here instead.

 

Thanks! 
Thanks!

Guest Blogging Over at Titan Books!

I know I haven’t been posting a lot on my blog the last few months (okay, fine, the last half a year), but this does not mean I haven’t been writing.   I finished the final draft of Plague Town, jumped back into spicy romance land and finished Fixation, my upcoming paranormal novel for Ravenous Romance, and then immediately did another leap onto Plague Nation, the second Ashley Parker novel, which I’m working on now.  I’ve also been writing guest posts for Titan Books’ blog and the first one went live (or perhaps “undead”) today and can be found here.  Unfortunately there is no comment section on the Titan blog (we authors do love our comments!) so if you go read it and are so inclined, I would love to hear from you in the comment section below! 

Demon Lovers – An Anthology


And what a kickass anthology it is, too!   So I’m glad that when Holly and Lori with Ravenous Romance
 emailed to ask if Dave and I (aka Kilt Kilpatrick and Inara LaVey) wanted to edit an anthology of succubus and incubus stories for Ravenous that we said yes, desite very busy schedules.

How busy, you ask?

Well, we didn’t just have full plates; we had “all you can eat” buffet piled high type plates. And yet… the idea of reading other peoples’ work and putting together an anthology sounded like fun.  And it was.

We sent out a call for submissions (Submit!!  All Kneel Before General Zod!) both as an open calls via social networking, as well as emails to specific writers we knew would be perfect for this book.  We got an amazing response and ended up with a selection of sometimes funny, sometimes scary, always sexy stories from thirteen talented authors (listed here in no particular order):  Lisa Lane, Kat Sheridan, Elena Derring, Red Hanner, Ray Garton, Anastasia Greumach, Angela Cameron, Olivia Cunning, Loren Rhoads, Courtney Sheets, Elizabeth Black, Kilt Kilpatrick, and yeah, my alter ego Inara has one in there too.  

Anastasia, btw, is as of yet too shy to reveal her secret identity so we will leave her unlinked. 🙂 

Demon Lovers is available for sale at Ravenous Romance and just came out for Kindle at Amazon

too!

And for a little taste of what’s inside…

They come for you in your sleep…

The Succubus, nocturnal seductress of men; the Incubus, the perfect male no woman can resist; enticing demon lovers who haunt your bedroom, slip into your fevered dreams and drag you into delicious sins of the flesh…

Demon Lovers is a fresh new collection of seductive, frightening, hilarious, adventurous, sumptuous, thrilling stories of succubae and incubi from today’s hottest and most exciting authors in paranormal erotica!

A girl with something extra finds her match in a mysterious carnival jack; in Victorian London, a celebrated singer with a secret plays a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a lover; girl sleuths at a finishing school must solve a series of deadly seductions before they are the next to succumb; a female UPS driver discovers that the most unlikely of prospects can lead to an unforgettable erotic encounter; to gain an ancient treasure lost to the Arabian Desert, a roguish archeologist in 1927 must gamble on surviving a seductive Moroccan she-demon! You can find these and many more hot paranormal tales in Demon Lovers!

 

Happy New Year!

It’s been a long time since I posted on my blog.  It’s been a rough couple of months in many ways, but I have a lot of optimism for 2012 and am looking forward to sharing it with friends, family, fellow writers, readers, and cat lovers (many of whom fall under friends and family already!).  Thank you for those of you who shared 2011 with me and helped make it a better year… and here’s to next year.  May it be a great one for all of us.