Happy Thursday, zombie lovers, and welcome to another day of the BoD Zombie Crawl 2 Blog Party!
There are still some great posts coming up, with some amazing prizes to be won, so make sure you keep checking back to each blog and entering the different giveaways. – See more at: https://www.facebook.com/events/974966652562897/
So excited to be a part of #bodzcrawl 2, 2015!
I’ve been sitting on this cover for months as my coauthor B.V. Barr and I worked hard on the sequel to this past summer’s full-length entrance into the Z Children world, Z Children: Awakening (excerpt below! First appearance of the Z Children world in Let’s Scare Cancer to Death, MayDecember Publications). Z Children: The Rising is finally drafted! *Happy Dance* But we still have a long road ahead of us with edits and rewriting. Fingers crossed, look for Z Children 2 at the end of November!
I hope you enjoy the teasers and excerpts!
*Make sure to go to the bottom of the post and find out how to enter the giveaway for an eBook copy of Let’s Scare Cancer to Death, Fading Hope, Z Children: Awakening & Dead Trees 1.
**Cover Reveal**
(Back text subject to change)
Blurb
(unofficial, subject to change)
The Z-Children have risen… and they’re hungry.
As a foghorn sounds loudly in the distance, attracting the hungry foaming mouths of the Z-Children to the Corpus Christi marina, Juan’s group stares across the water at the Fields’s boat. Susan and her family set sail for the safety of the wild blue ocean and she can only pray that she’s making the right decision in leaving everyone and everything behind her. Miles away, JW stares through his scope getting ready for the smash-and-grab of a lifetime and also wonders if he’s made the right choice.
Z-Children have swarmed the country faster than anyone could have predicted. What were once quaint family towns are now zombie-infested hellholes. The country is on its knees.
Groups of survivors will divide and face separate horrors. Those with little hope will finally reconnect with loved ones, just to be ripped apart once again. And new characters with tragic stories and the hunger to survive will enter the picture.
In Z Children: The Rising, the red war continues to rage between Z-Children and mankind.
“The second installment of the Z-Children series is even better than the first. More action, more terror, more tears, and more death.”
Claire C. Riley
Bestselling British Horror writer
And USA Today bestseller
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Z Children: The Rising (excerpt, unedited & subject to change)
JW
I had done it again—listened to a noob and we’d ended up stuck.
***
The doctor had convinced me that the safest way out of the hospital was through the construction area. Sure, it was safe with not a Z kid in sight, but safety had ended at the cafeteria. And that was about as safe as razor blades in a birthday piñata. I should have asked more questions before taking Chris’s word.
The fucking cafeteria was crawling with the monsters—short and tall.
Z adults were ambling about. One was knocking its head into the wall repeatedly as if trying to lodge something from memory. Maybe its living name or maybe some image that wouldn’t die along with its humanity. There was a cluster of Z kids on the serving counter. Two were straddling a tall woman—not a woman, a Z adult now—with rich brown skin and curly hair that was coated in a layer of, what looked like, whipped cream.
The monster kids were everywhere really, outnumbering the adults by a mile. They’d gathered here, apparently, for the junk food. Surprise, surprise. Kids will be kids, even when they’re certifiably undead—like those creepy ass triplets outside the ice cream shop when I’d first seen Virginia. Just perched on the trunk of that car, enjoying scoops of quickly-melting chocolate in the sunshine.
Watching the Zs in the cafeteria—munching on candy bars, ding-dongs and moon pies—would have almost been comical except for the fact that these junk-food-loving monsters also craved human flesh and blood.
***
A mere two yards from the door that was protecting us from the chaos within the cafeteria, was a Z boy who was studying something on the floor intently. Following his (no, its…I had to keep reminding myself that they weren’t boys or girls or kids. They were ‘its’. Monsters. Creatures. Zombies. Undead.) gaze toward the pale industrial tile, I saw something miniscule and black rushing across the smooth surface. A bug of some type.
The Z kid followed the insect, eventually falling to all-fours and moving like the animal it was. The bug’s trajectory took it further away from our position. I wondered how long the monster would chase the insect, how long it would be distracted.
I didn’t have to wonder for long.
Seconds later the Z pounced, slamming his fingers around the tiny bug’s body and screeching in triumph. Bringing his domed hands to his eyes, he peered into a small gap between his digits to admire his prize.
Then, in a lightning-fast motion, he slammed his hands against his mouth. When he brought them down again, they were no longer shaped into a small cage. And the insect was gone.
Now, I’d eaten worse—in the field, when wildlife gets into your food, you suck it up and swallow it down (roaches in brazil come to mind)—but watching the boy play hunter and eat his catch made bile rise inside my mouth. It was just a bug, just a damn bug, but I wanted to shoot the Z over it.
Maybe it was because watching the monster chase the bug was too lifelike. It was something I’d seen children do—so fascinated by ants on the sidewalk. I didn’t like it. If these Z kids were dead creatures, horrible and blood-thirsty, then they should not be allowed innocent actions and awareness.
It was just fucking wrong.
Add Z Children: The Rising to your Goodreads shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26185344-z-children
Z Children: Awakening
(excerpt, available now on Amazon)
It didn’t open! What the hell? I pushed harder and looked down to see if the door was locked. My eyes were greeted by a little red sign over the release lever. HOLD FOR 15 SECONDS UNTIL ALARM SOUNDS. Crap. That’s less than ideal. They’re going to hear that sucker a mile away and make a beeline for my ass. Holding my breath, I pushed and held the release in place.
The emergency alarm blared to life and a split-second later, the door clicked and swung open. Without hesitation, I bolted across the threshold and ran. My legs pumped back and forth, my sensible shoes slapping the pavement in a rushed rhythm.
A gunshot sounded to my left and I turned quickly, almost falling over my own feet and face-planting on the asphalt. John Croxton, one of the deputy sheriffs, was firing warning shots over a crowd of people moving toward him. Coming to a halt, I opened my mouth to yell, to warn him that the mob couldn’t be reasoned with. I saw the children in the crowd, they moved faster than the adults, moved toward John… closer, closer. John fired again. I couldn’t look away. Morbid fascination- a brutal car crash on the freeway.
The children were upon him now. I watched as his body disappeared beneath the swarm of ringlets and bloody, cherub cheeks. I listened as he fired a last desperate shot into the air. And then his gun was silenced, replaced by his screams… an infinitely more disturbing sound than a gun shot.
Something told me to move, something primitive, something ancient. My inner self prodded me to run- like a hot poker on my backside. I snapped into action. The emergency alarm was still screeching and the infected children were beginning to look my way. My feet started pounding against the pavement again. I counted the footfalls, trying to ignore the snarling and spitting in the distance behind me.
I was almost at my house. So close. Only one more street to cross.
Everything around me was in ruin. People were screaming; a man was beating a child with a garbage can; an elderly woman was lying on the ground, an old wooden cane her only defense against an attacker with blonde pigtails. Percy, the local handyman, was fending off a preteen with a hammer. But he couldn’t defend himself from all sides. I gasped as a boy bounded on all fours towards Percy from behind. I was close enough to hear the squelching, flesh-ripping sound as the man lost a chunk of his calf. I flinched as Percy fell forward, the hammer useless against such calculated viciousness.
It was too much. I couldn’t handle this. How could I survive on my own? When so many were dying… so much fear?
I pushed harder, sprinting as fast as I could, fully focused on getting to my house. Getting to a phone. Because I realized that I didn’t have to be alone. It was a stupid, stupid time to realize that I needed Chris. But I did. I needed Chris. Not just because the world had gone to shit, but because if the world went to shit, I’d want to be with Chris until the end. It was just that simple.
Right foot down. Left foot down. Right foot down. Left foot down.
I could do this; I could make it home, pack a bag, and take the Jag to Dallas. I’d get Chris. We’d be safe together. And I’d wear that damn engagement ring with pride.
All I could think about was Chris now. I should have been paying attention to my surroundings.
Crossing the last street, I didn’t look left or right.
Just a little further and I’d be home.
The car seemed to come out of nowhere- they always do when you aren’t paying attention.
*****************
Add it to your Goodreads’ shelf: http://bit.ly/ZChildren_Goodreads
1-click on Amazon.com! Amazon.com:http://bit.ly/ZOMBIE_KIDS_ATTACK…
1-click on Amazon.co.uk! Amazon.co.uk: http://bit.ly/Zombie_Kids_Attack_The_UK
Thank you for reading! I hope that you enjoy the rest of the blog crawl & look for Z Children: The Rising this winter!
Please remember to visit all of the stops and ‘share’ ‘like’ and ‘enter’ all of the giveaways! There are some great participants this year and I hope that you meet some new authors and blogs.
Your #bodzcrawl 2 host on this lovely Thursday, Eli ❤
Eli Constant
Choosing to be a dedicated homemaker after the birth of her first child, Eli rediscovered her passion for writing—a passion once alive and kindled during her time at Charleston School for the Arts in SC as a child.
Now, nearly four years later, she’s never regretted the decision; not only are her kids the most amazing creatures, but writing fulfills her soul in a way science never did.
Her style is eclectic and she frequently produces true mash-ups of style and genre. Her characters are real—light and dark and everything in between—and her storylines, although sometimes convoluted, often hide deeper core meaning that makes her readers truly think.
***
Eli is the author of Dead Trees, Dead Trees 2, Mastic, The Water is Sweeter, Sleeping in the Forest of Shadows, DRAG.N & Z Children: Awakening. She is a contributing author to Let’s Scare Cancer to Death, State of Horror: New Jersey, State of Horror: Illinois, & Fading Hope. Her books are available in eBook, paperback, & audio formats.
Stalk Eli on social media:
Twitter @Author_EliC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorEliCon…
Books on Amazon: http://bit.ly/Author_EliConstant_Amaz…
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show…
Wordpress: https://authoreliconstant.wordpress.com/
B.V. Barr
Ben has been teaching Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) since 1981 when he joined the USAF as a “Survival Instructor”. In that Thirty plus year period he has taught all aspects of SERE, trained at both domestic and international schools, written SERE doctrine and instruction, researched and developed cutting edge techniques for dealing with both psychological and physical challenges and injuries, tested equipment and wrote evaluations on results. He is a Master Instructor.
The groups and individuals whom Ben has instructed and/or developed programs for include people from various military branches, government agencies, and civilians from all different backgrounds. Members of the Rangers, Green Berets, Pararescue, Combat Control, Navy SEALs, Air Force Crew Members and MARSOC are just some who Ben has taught. Outside the military he has taught people from the DEA, Local Law Enforcement, Department of Natural Resources, the FBI and other Federal Agencies. Equally adept at teaching civilian groups, Ben has instructed various lessons and developed programs for groups such as the Girls Scouts of America, South Carolina public schools, Covenant Heights and others.
Unlike many Instructors in the “survival training” world, Ben brings to the table both experience from training as well as experience from some of the toughest streets and locations in the world. Ben has won Instructor of the Year three times, nominated for twelve outstanding Airman awards, awarded numerous decorations and developed some of the most complex and sophisticated training courses in the world. Based on this, Ben has created courses in Travel Safety, Hostage Survival, Field Survival and now exclusive to the Universal Survival Innovations World, “Street Smarts” and “Get of the X”, both of which have their bases in real training for highly specialized people.
Ben just isn’t another Instructor. In many cases He wrote the book.
Z Children: Awakening was his first foray into fictional publishing.
Zombie Crawl 2 – Blog Party October 22 – 31, 2015
by Band of Dystopian Authors & Fans
How it works: Each day, the scheduled authors and bloggers will post awesome zombie-tastic content for your enjoyment along with a giveaway on their site/blog/page. You can hop around to all of the participating sites and enter as many giveaways as you like! If you would like to be emailed links to the new posts each day, join this Zombie Crawl Daily Digest list which will ensure you don’t miss a post (or join the party on Facebook to get notifications). Make sure to leave comments and interact with the participating sites. Thanks for joining the party!
The Schedule:
OCTOBER 22 – Thursday Band of Dystopian Authors & Fans (Party & Grand Prize Host) Jo Michaels Blog (author) Rissa Blakeley (author)
OCTOBER 23 – Friday Claire C. Riley (author) 2 Girls & A Book (blog) Emily Shore (author)
OCTOBER 24 – Saturday Kathy Dinisi (author) Us Girls & A Book (blog) The Voluptuous Book Diva (blog 18+)
OCTOBER 25 – Sunday Casey L. Bond (author) THE KATY blog (blog)
OCTOBER 26 – Monday Saul Tanpepper (author) Warren Fielding (author) The Leighgendarium (blog)
OCTOBER 27 – Tuesday Kody Boye (author) Rhiannon Frater (author) ER Arroyo (author)
OCTOBER 28 – Wednesday Allen Gamboa (author) Armand Rosamilia (author) Ethan @ One Guy’s Guide to Good Reads (blog)
OCTOBER 29 – Thursday Kate L. Mary (author) aftershockzombieseries (author) Eli Constant (author)
OCTOBER 30 – Friday Aria Michaels (author) Brian Parker (author) Mama Reads Hazel Sleeps (blog)
OCTOBER 31 – Saturday Cindy Carroll (author) M. R. Pritchard (author) Toni L.H. Boughton (author) Digital Dirty Girl (blog)
To learn more about Band of Dystopian and/or to enter our Grand Prize Giveaway, visit BandofDystopian.com and don’t forget to join the group on Facebook!
#BODZCRAWL 2 GIVEAWAY
VISIT THE RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY PAGE (RAFFLECOPTER WILL OPEN IN A NEW WINDOW. THANKS AGAIN!)
The Blog of Eli 