rjspears
R.J. Spears
Author of Crime, Mystery,
and Horror Fiction
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Feed the Zombies 2 - Facebook Zombie Fiction Extravaganza
24 Hours of Zombie Fiction
Michelle Kilmer, C. E. Robertson, Darren Wearmouth, Katie Cord, Jack Wallen, Rachel Tsoumbakos, Claire C. Riley, A. Carina Barry, Randy Spears, Dan Eagles, Timothy W. Long, S.P. Durnin, Tonia Brown, Rhiannon Frater, Owen Baillie, K.R. Chin, Mark Tufo, John O'Brian J.L. Bourne, Aramand Rosimilia, Jonathan Moon, Joseph A. Coley, and David Moody. There will also be a special offering from Craig DiLouie, Jackie Druga, Eloise J. Knapp, Rhiannon Frater, Stephen Knight, and Joe McKinney. Get ready, we're going to rock this town with zom-apoc!
All for only $99. cents
Friday, November 21, 2014
Edward P. Cardillo - Author Interview
Edward P. Cardillo is an inventive author, coming at horror and science fiction from exciting and oblique angles. His Automaton series is truly ingenious. Personally, I've gotten to know Ed through our shared relationship with J. Ellington Ashton Press. He never ceases to amaze me with his intelligence and wit.
Author's Featured Works
I Am Automaton (Severed Press) has won three Reader's Favorite International Awards and was also selection for Zombie Book of the Month in 2014. He has written two additional follow-up books.
His book, The Odd Tales of an Old Man (J Ellington Ashton Press), has received effusive praise from critics and readers alike. Midwest Book Review gave it 5 out of 5 stars.
Author's Featured Works
I Am Automaton (Severed Press) has won three Reader's Favorite International Awards and was also selection for Zombie Book of the Month in 2014. He has written two additional follow-up books.
Why do you write about dark and
scary things?
It’s just the way I’m wired.
Some people like roller coasters, some like haunted houses. I like writing and
reading horror…and haunted houses. Not roller coasters, though. As a clinical
psychologist, I’m fascinated with fear. It’s an emotion that’s crucial to the
survival instinct, yet in excess it can bog down one’s life. Horror fiction is
a safe way to feel the exhilaration of being the object of the hunt, the chased
pray facing a superior predator.
What is your latest
project/release and what is it about?
My latest release was “FeralHearts” (J. Ellington Ashton Press), an epic 6-author vampire collaboration
with 6 characters and 6 alternate endings. Co-authored with Amanda M. Lyons,
Michael Fisher, Jim Goforth, Mark Woods, and catt dahman, this was my editorial
debut.
Six
young people from different walks of life embark on a singles’ tour in Derosso,
Italy, only to encounter a strip club in town that preys upon the men. Warned
to stay away by their guide, two of the tourists give in to their curiosity and
encounter the undead exotic dancers within. Lured by promises of untold carnal
pleasures, these lonely hearts invite disaster on their group and the rest of
the town. Wild and erotic, manipulative and vicious, these feral vampires are
not at all romantic…they’re predators.
Six different characters and six different endings, this tale is not for
the faint of heart.
It is only for Feral Hearts.
It is only for Feral Hearts.
When did you know you wanted to
be a writer and how do you go about the writing process?
I’ve known I wanted to be a writer
since I’ve been a kid.
It depends on the genre. For my
more sci-fi oriented horror, I like to plan plots and subplots, and outline.
Plot twists and action scenes need to be choreographed and red herrings
convincingly executed. Then, of course, there’s the research on technology,
weaponry, military protocol, politics, etc.
My pure horror/dark fantasy
tends to be more organic, the source of my most potent elements being actual
nightmares I’ve had. I appreciate a good nightmare. When I wake up in a cold
sweat, I write everything down for use later. My wife can tell when I’m “on the
jazz” with a good idea because I toss and turn and cry out at night. But make
no mistake…I actually love a good nightmare. Once again, it’s the way I’m
wired.
What advice do you have for
other writers?
Write, submit/query around. As
you’re doing that, write and submit the new stuff while submitting the old
stuff. Keep writing. Submit that new material, and so on and so on, ad
infinitum. Unless you have aspirations to publish through a big 5 house, if you
write genre fiction, don’t worry so much about chasing agents. Query publishers
directly if they allow it, but make sure you follow their submission guidelines
to the nine.
Don’t be afraid to submit your
work to contests. You never know. What’s the worst that can happen—you don’t
win? My first two books in the “I Am Automaton” trilogy won Reader’s Favorite
International Book Awards as unpublished manuscripts, the first book finishing
in the same category with a NY Times Best Seller. That got me attention and
helped me land a book deal with Severed Press. Book 3 won as a published book,
making it an award-winning trilogy. While promoting “I Am Automaton,” I
attracted the attention of J. Ellington Ashton Press, who snatched up “The Odd
Tales of an Old Man” and commissioned “Feral Hearts.”
What is your favorite zombie
movie and why?
The original “Night of the
Living Dead.” I loved the stripped down, realistic sensibility. The movie
wasn’t overproduced with uber special effects laden zombies with state of the
art gore effects. The zombies looked very human, which I find terrifying.
What’s up next for you?
I’m wrapping up book one in a new zombie series for Severed
Press that should be out the beginning of 2015. I’ve been teaching a fiction workshop
leader at the Bronx Loaf Writer’s Conference for inner city youth, helping them
develop their work and identity as writers. I’m continuing to grow my
readership, and I’m enjoying interacting with old and new fans.
His Featured Works
Find Out More About Ed
Claire C. Riley Author Interview
Claire C. Riley says she is best characterized as an old-school horror writer, creating unique modernizations of classic horror themes. She likes fusing elements from different genres while making them cutting-edge and fresh.
I'm most familiar with her Odium series. This is fantastic series with engaging ideas and settings along with real characters that you can care about. It was my pleasure to interview Claire to get her perspective on horror stories and writing.
What are your works and what can you tell us about them?
My Odium The Dead Saga series is my most popular work so far. Of which there are currently 2 full books and 2 novellas, with both the third full length and novella in the making.
I'm most familiar with her Odium series. This is fantastic series with engaging ideas and settings along with real characters that you can care about. It was my pleasure to interview Claire to get her perspective on horror stories and writing.
What are your works and what can you tell us about them?
My Odium The Dead Saga series is my most popular work so far. Of which there are currently 2 full books and 2 novellas, with both the third full length and novella in the making.
Think zombies, apocalyptic worlds,
dystopian landscapes. It focuses more on realistic characters than just the
blood and gore though. Though of course
there’s gore a plentiful!
My other series is My Obsession Series – Limerence – that’s based around old school
gothic style Bram Stoker-esq vampires.
I also have several anthology
contributions under my belt such as, Fading
Hope: Humanity Unbound, State of
Horror Illinois, and Let’s Scare
Cancer to Death A charity zombie anthology.
Why do you
write about dark and scary things?
I honestly don’t know why. Every time I
have tried to write something, shall we say, normal (?) I end up killing
someone or having them be a monster of some sort. I’ve no idea why it happens
haha. From a young age I was fascinated with movies like The Lost Boys and Bram
Stoker and Night of the Living Dead, so it’s obviously stuck with me through
the years. I read pretty much any genre though, so I’d really like to be a
genre hopper myself and branch out…whether I can do that without killing
someone off is another matter though.
What is your
latest project/release and what is it about?
I’m
currently hard at work on two full length projects and two anthology
contributions. I’m working on the third in the Dead Saga series, which I’m
hoping will be out January time if all goes well, and I have a Super Secret
Project that I’ve been working on also. It’s 90% complete as I write this, but
I’m certain once this interview airs it will be completed and with the edited.
I can’t say much more about it than it’s a zompoc book and I love it. It’s so
far 85’000 words (again, only 90% complete) and has only taken 3 weeks to write
it so far., THAT’S how much I've loved writing it.
When did you
know you wanted to be a writer and how do you go about the writing process?
I’ve ALWAYS wanted to write. I have
notebooks and pads filled with horror stories that I wrote when I was only ten
or eleven. (Seriously, why were my parents not more worried?) For my twelfth
birthday I got a typewriter but it only lasted a year because I went through so
much ink for it my parents refused to buy me anymore and I went back to my
trusty pen and paper!
My
publishing journey actually only started in 2012 when I joined the writing site
Authonomy. I put online a couple of chapters of the book I was currently
writing – Limerence and got talking with other writers and learnt a lot about
my skill and how to mould it into something useable.
I
normally find an image I like and from that image I come up with the plot. I
try to write an outline, and in all honesty when I have done it’s made things
so much easier. BUT I really struggle with writing them. I’m a seat of your
pants writer and my plot changes as my characters become reckless assholes who
decide to ignore my demands of staying on one plot path, so I have to
constantly alter it as I write.
What advice do
you have for other writers?
Keep going, keep writing. DO NOT under
any circumstance, write one book and put all of your energy into promoting and
pushing it for the next two years. You’ll waste your time and your readers. A
reader wants to become invested in a writer, and to do that they need more than
one book. So write, write, write.
And
I mean that literally. Write every day. I aim for a minimum of 2k a day
regardless of if I’m at my boring day job, or my three kids are on school
holidays and I have to work until midnight. Write every day, hone your craft
and enjoy it. Because it shows in your writing.
What is your
favorite zombie movie and why?
Well I have two. Night of the Living
Dead because I love the old school zombies, and they are what I write about.
But I also love 28 Days Later because it scares the crap out of me! I freaking
hate that film, and 28 Weeks Later made me scream and run for my car after me
and my husband went to watch it at the movies hahaha! Don’t judge haha, it was
midnight and dark, and I would be dead within the hour if the zombie apocalypse
began and they were fast zombies!
What’s up next
for you?
Well, like I said I have my Super Secret
Project coming out Jan/Feb and Odium III The Dead Saga around the same time.
Then Odium Origins A Dead Saga Novella Part Three May2015 ish. I also have
several other anthology contributions coming up also, so I’m very busy.
In
2015 I’m also at my first book signings. One in London UK in April and another
in Birmingham UK in July, so I’m nervous and excited for those.
Her Featured Works
Find Our More about Claire
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Stories of the Dead - The Undead Works of R.J. Spears
Friday, November 14, 2014
Double Dead Book Release - 2 New Zombie Books
On November 21 (from 6:00 to 10:00 PM ET), I'm releasing Dead Man's Land and Forget America.
Dead Man's Land is the 3rd book in my Books of the Dead series and Forget America is the 3rd and final book in the Forget the Zombie series.
Dead Man's Land follows Joel, the reluctant hero, as he leads his group of survivors as they face off with an army of the dead and and one of the living. The odds of survival are slim.
Forget America picks up with Grant and his group of zombie refugees on the run again just ahead of the zombies. On their way to salvation, they encounter a scary group of living and a horde of undead.
Everyone is welcome. There will be free books, contests, and author interviews
Double Dead FB Release Party
Dead Man's Land is the 3rd book in my Books of the Dead series and Forget America is the 3rd and final book in the Forget the Zombie series.
Dead Man's Land follows Joel, the reluctant hero, as he leads his group of survivors as they face off with an army of the dead and and one of the living. The odds of survival are slim.
Forget America picks up with Grant and his group of zombie refugees on the run again just ahead of the zombies. On their way to salvation, they encounter a scary group of living and a horde of undead.
Everyone is welcome. There will be free books, contests, and author interviews
Double Dead FB Release Party
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Feast or Famine Anthology
I just received my contributor's copy of Feast or Famine, released by Zombie Fiend Press. My story, Ticket Out the Deadlands, appears in the anthology. I both proud and pleased to be a part of this fine anthology of zombie stories.
You should check it out:
Feast or Famine
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)