Blurb: Welcome to Peaceville, population 2067
and rising...from the grave...
Luke Chester has had enough. He’s the school
geek, the girls laugh at him, he’s lost his dead-end job at the pizza place,
and in the midst of the world’s messiest divorce his parents don’t even know he
exists. An overdose of his mom’s tranquilizers and a stomach full of whiskey
should solve all his problems...
But they don’t. Instead, Luke finds himself booted out of the afterlife for not dying a natural death, with nowhere to go but back to his recently vacated corpse and reality. How the hell is he going to pass for one of the living without someone trying to blow his brains out for being one of the undead?
And it just gets worse. He’s got to fight his own desperate craving to consume the living, evade the weird supernatural hunter who’s having a field day with the new undeads rising, and there’s this creepy black shadow following him around. Add to that the distraction of female fellow undead Annabelle burning to avenge her own murder, and clearly there’s no rest for the wicked. Jeez, all he wanted to do was R.I.P.
But they don’t. Instead, Luke finds himself booted out of the afterlife for not dying a natural death, with nowhere to go but back to his recently vacated corpse and reality. How the hell is he going to pass for one of the living without someone trying to blow his brains out for being one of the undead?
And it just gets worse. He’s got to fight his own desperate craving to consume the living, evade the weird supernatural hunter who’s having a field day with the new undeads rising, and there’s this creepy black shadow following him around. Add to that the distraction of female fellow undead Annabelle burning to avenge her own murder, and clearly there’s no rest for the wicked. Jeez, all he wanted to do was R.I.P.
Excerpt:
I can hear the frogs. Above me, the moon is so fiercely white and full,
it hurts my eyes. It's also jerking across the sky between the branches of the
cypress like someone's hauling on the leash of a disobedient hound. I frown at
it, and then realize it ain't the moon moving. It's me. Something's got a hold
of my leg and is dragging me along.
Glancing down sets me yelling. A gator has my right ankle in its jaws as
it pulls me down to the river. A small one as alligators go and probably why he
hasn't dug himself a hole in the mud to hibernate. I guess he's planning to
stick me under a log until I rot and tenderize a little more. But I ain't
planning to end up in his stomach. Not when I might still be conscious all the
way through digestion.
I twist and latch onto a nearby tree. I'm so slick with mud that sheer
strength and bloody minded stubbornness are all that keep me clinging on. My
resistance earns me a growling from the gator, and he yanks all the harder on
my foot until I can hear my joints popping as they threaten to snap. He shakes
his head, hoping to break my hold, and my damn fingers slip. I feel things
parting in my ankle. Shit, I can't afford to lose my foot. I let go of the tree
but I kick him in the head with my free leg, hard enough that he lets go. Most
gators wouldn't give up a meal so lightly, but I hit a damn site too forceful
to be classed as easy. He growls and goes for another bite, but my next kick
breaks his jaw. Bleeding, several teeth missing, he scuttles away into the
river, more than his pride hurt. I sit and stare until the ripples he made
smooth out into stillness. Then I check the damage.
His teeth have gone deep, leaving a pretty pattern and some of my flesh
torn. Shit. I don't have nothing to patch it up, and I don't much care. I've
lost Annabelle. I should have just let the gator take me. After I sit there
feeling sorry for myself for I don't know how long, I rip a piece of my shirt
and tie up the worst of the bite. I don't want it catching on nothing when I'm
walking. If I decide I want to get up and move again.
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Bio:
After spending
twelve years working as an Analytical Chemist in a Metals and Minerals
laboratory, Pippa Jay is now a stay-at-home mum who writes scifi and the
supernatural. Somewhere along the way a touch of romance crept into her work
and refused to leave. In between torturing her plethora of characters, she
spends the odd free moment playing guitar very badly, punishing herself with
freestyle street dance, and studying the Dark Side of the Force. Although
happily settled in the historical town of Colchester in the UK with her husband
of 21 years and three little monsters, she continues to roam the rest of the
Universe in her head.
Pippa Jay is a
dedicated member of the Science Fiction Romance Brigade, blogging at Spacefreighters Lounge, Adventures in Scifi, and Romancing the Genres. Her works
include a YA science fiction novel—Gethyon—published
through BURST (Champagne Books), a scifi romance novella—Tethered—published by Breathless Press, three
self-published short stories (Terms & Conditions Apply, The Bones of the Sea, and Reboot), and she’s one of eight authors included in a
science fiction romance anthology—Tales from the SFR Brigade. She’s also a double SFR Galaxy
Award winner, been a finalist in the Heart of Denver RWA Aspen Gold Contest (3rd place), and the GCC RWA Silken Sands
Star Awards (2nd place).
You can stalk
her at her website http://pippajay.co.uk, or at her
blog http://pippajay.blogspot.co.uk, but without
doubt her favorite place to hang around and chat is on Twitter as @pippajaygreen.
Thanks for hosting me!
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