I Dream of Zombies

I just woke up from a dream where me, a random girl I've never seen irl but somehow know was named Cassandra, and Willow and Xander from Buffy, all survived the zombie apocalypse together. I've only dreamed about the zombie apocalypse once before a couple months ago, and it wasn't as vivid and insane as this. We stole an old riverboat that was like a little tin can, all the others could fit in it but while we sped up the river I sat on top and kept a lookout. The world was already in ruins and it felt like much more time had passed than a few weeks since the world ended, but dreams are weird and messy like that. So anyway.

Cassandra's insane aunt who blamed me for her husband's death tried to kill me, and Cassandra killed her and saved me after I lured her to a swamp where my friends were waiting. There was an 'intelligent' zombie who could control others who was after us, on some Game of Thrones shit, but more terrifying than the Night King's icy bitch-ass.

All I know is that I have got to find a way to write this shit as a book. Or stop dreaming of horrifying end-of-the-world scenarios.

Superhero High Book 1: FORCE (Announcement, Cover Reveal & Release Date!)

So, in my last post I promised you all that I wouldn't blog again until I had some cool stuff to announce and share. And now I do! My next title, FORCE (Superhero High Book 1) is coming out on January 10th 2020!

Force is actually a novella, not a full book. It's the first in a series of five titles following the students of Southaven High, a school for teens with powers, who in this world are listed as C-Class Citizens in the new American social caste system.

I had a ton of fun writing this one!

I would describe this series as, like, Smallville meets Degrassi? I've never actually seen an episode of Degrassi, but I know it's about teens at a high school and there are a ton of different generations or classes or whatever. Each novella follows a different student at the school, although they're all part of the main roster of characters who will each play a big role as they go on. I mean, not all of them, some of them just die, but I can't talk about that, because spoilers...

If that sounds interesting to you, here's the cover and blurb!

Two years ago a meteor shower rained alien particles known as Gemblood over most of the planet Earth, resulting in those humans with no immunity developing…abnormalities.

In the United States of America, where individuals with powers are listed as C-Class citizens, teenagers with abnormalities are sent to special schools, where they can hone their talents without hurting any A-Class citizens, AKA normals.

Welcome to superhero high…

Kacey Print only wants to disappear. After unleashing the powers she spent two years trying to hide, she ended up killing nine of her classmates in a tragic accident. Now the only reason she hasn’t been carted off to a maximum security prison for freaks like her is because of the timely intervention of one Dr. Christian Howell, the principal of Southaven High School, a black hole they toss people like her into to keep everybody else safe. He’s given her a second chance, even though she doesn’t deserve it, but straight-edge punk girl Kacey is going to have to fight for redemption if it’s what she truly wants, because all of a sudden, the school is under attack by a giant tentacled monster and a group of mysterious faceless men.

Welcome to your first day at Southaven! The only rule of orientation is ‘Don’t Die!’

I will update this post and make another announcement with all the links once it's available for pre-order in a week or two, and I'll also be posting the first chapter as a tease, so be on the lookout! I'm already working on book 2, TORCH, for a February release and I can't wait to share it!

I'm Living in Some Type of Television

*Title from the song Show Me Yours by Trisha Paytas.

So all I've done for the past two days is work on this new story I don't want to talk about, and play Fortnite. I'm now officially trash. To be fair I also walked to our mailbox today but the only thing inside was a death threat/parking ticket reminder.

It was really nice outside, even though it was cold as hell. I wore combat boots instead of sneakers so I wasn't slipping on all the ice for once.

It's weirdly beautiful and, I guess, 'fresh' outside when it's winter and there's snow everywhere but it's still sunny. All the white snow and golden light combines and makes things look like some kind of a fantasy world.

Anyway, my walk was nice, but I'm sore all over. I'm probably ruining my back by sitting in all the weird positions I sit in. I made a blanket nest on the floor in a corner of my room and I've been retreating there more often than I want to admit even though I know it's really fudging up my back and shoulders, especially my neck. Oh well, though, it's comfy and I have no decent chairs and even if I did, I'd want to sit on the floor anyway because I'm a weirdo.

The truth is both my bed and my house in general are twisted and bent to hell. The entire world is warped.

I have no money to get a new bed, but even if I did I'd probably spend it on books...

So I have to deal with my back problems and I mostly do it by spraying my entire body with a muscle relaxant that has peppermint in it but honestly just smells like root beer. Like to a degree that it's weird. I think it's about time I give my body a break from the constant assault of coffee and weed I put it under, so I'm cutting those out for a couple days, hopefully, even though I already cut back on smoking. The truth is it helped with quiet a few things, so I guess that's a sign I should keep cutting back.

I'm one of those people who doesn't like to do what's good for me, though, and even when I finally relent and do it, I end up kicking and screaming the whole way.

In fact, it's probably why I'm writing this blog right now instead of writing my next book. To be fair, I only have a couple more chapters to write, because it's not actually a book, it's a novella, and I am in love with it, but I'm at the final fight scene and I always kind of hate the action scenes because as cool as they can be, I'm more interested in characters just talking and having feelings about each other, and it's also a scene where some reveals need to happen to most of the characters present, and a lot of different moving pieces are involved, and I'm not sure entirely if I'm wrapping it all up right. But it doesn't really matter, right? The first entry in a series doesn't even need to wrap much up, it mostly just needs to get you excited for the next one, and I think it will.

I actually wrote the first 10k words of this project all in one night, and I really had a lot of fun with it up to now, but I think I need to reread it all from the start and do some editing to re-familiarize myself with it before I hop back in and write the end.

I know 'they' say you shouldn't edit as you write, 'they' being the unseen council of art gods whose opinions get spread around the internet as fact, or the cold hard rules of writing, but I'm gonna go ahead and break that rules.

I've been hanging out playing video games and listening to the new Trisha Paytas EP all day. I was really hoping I'd get my new books in the mail, since some are supposed to come this week, but I don't think they'll get here until tomorrow some time, and I'm annoyed about it. I want those books! I've got the entire My Blood Approves series coming, both Hollows books, and Gumiho 1 (Wicked Fox) and I bought a box-set of the Splintered trilogy so I can have nice new paperbacks that actually match, because I haven't read book three and I hate that the copies of the first two I have don't match, one is paperback and the other is hardcover, and I prefer paperback, which I've been told I'm weird for by hardcover lovers, who are what we in the business of being awesome call haters. <__<

I'm already reading a ton of books including The Red Scrolls of Magic and Margaret Sthol's Black Widow book Forever Red (I also need its sequel, gah) because I want to get excited for Black Widow's solo movie. The trailer they just put out looks awesome.

I'm also considering rereading The Hunger Games because Fortnite really reminds me of it, lol. I haven't read those books in two or three years now, and I watched the trailers for their movies earlier and got really nostalgic.

Remember when we were all like a hundred years younger and The Hunger Games was first blowing up, and the first movie had just come out in theaters?

Damn, we are old.

That said Suzanne Collins is coming to save western society with another book in that world, so hey, maybe the Gods who run the simulation haven't abandoned us yet at all!

Anyway I will leave you with the promise of new links and new covers for new titles next time I post! I'm not letting myself write another blog until I write my damn novella! I'm probably going to go back on what I said about quitting coffee, aren't I? I know I am.

- XOXO, your local insane indie author who is definitely NOT Gossip Girl, I swear