#Zombie Days, Campfire Nights #Excerpt by Leah Rhyne @Leah_Beth #Horror

Near the outskirts of our sprawling town, the mob started to thin. The rain let up, and I began to breathe again. I reached over and took Michael’s hand, and he squeezed it, pulling it to his lap and rubbing my hand with his thumb. We were in this together, whatever this was. We weren’t alone.

But I didn’t have my parents. They’re dead. Mom and Dad are dead. We killed them. My mom and dad.

I hyperventilated. Wheezing, gasping, I tried to calm down but couldn’t catch my breath. “It’s my fault. Our fault. Dammit, Michael, we caused this, and my parents are dead, and now we’re going to die, too.”

He took his eyes off the road momentarily to stare at me. “What are you talking about? How could we have caused this?”

I tried to speak, and cried harder. “We…” gasp, hiccup “had…” sniffle, snarfle “sex.” I took a deep breath, and then said again, “And now we’re going to die. I’m Lynda. I’m Tina. I’m every slutty girl in every single horror movie, and I had sex and now the zombies are going to get me. They’re going togetus.”

I stopped, shocked at the fact that I had just said “zombies” in a non- ironic fashion. Zombies. They were real.

Even though he’d just swerved to avoid another one feasting on a person writhing in the middle of the road, Michael started to laugh, which only made me cry more. He shook his head and said, “You’re crazy, Jen.”

Millions died when the zombie plague swept the country. For the survivors, the journey has just begun. Jenna, Sam, and Lola are still alive. Jenna avoids human contact, traveling East Coast backroads with her boyfriend, a dog named Chicken, and a Louisville Slugger. 

Sam escapes to the mountains, where he’s conscripted into a zombie-slaying militia sent on nightly raids to kill the undead…and innocent civilians. Lola’s imprisoned in the “safety” of a zombie-free New Orleans hotel, but life grows more dangerous when her brother gets bitten by a zombie. Jenna arrives in the French Quarter, lured by the false promises of New Orleans’ drunken leader. There, she’s ripped away from her boyfriend, drugged, and dumped in a death camp after refusing Franklin’s sexual advances. Jenna and Lola’s lives collide there, where the dead live and the dying are victims of gruesome medical experiments. 

Escape isn’t easy: release the genetically-enhanced zombies from the lab to create a diversion, slip away, and don’t get eaten. When Sam arrives, will he join the right side of the battle?

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Genre – NA-Horror, Sci-fi

Rating – PG-13

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Connect with Leah Rhyne on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://www.leahrhyne.com/

@EileenMaksym on Writers as 'Architects and Gardeners' PLUS #Giveaway #YA #Paranormal

When asked about outlines in an interview, George R.R. Martin, author of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, said “I think there are two types of writers: the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house… The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it…And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.”

Some authors come down very heavily on one side or the other of this issue.  Some say that when you start writing, you must have an end in mind.  Others say that having a strict plan is sure to produce stilted, artificial work.  But most end up in the middle here with Martin.  They personally lean one side or the other, but ultimately recognize that they can be shades of both, and that what’s important is what works for the individual author.  To use Martin’s terms here, if you’re an architect and planning out every intricacy of the story is what works for you, go for it!  And if you’re a gardener and you let your ideas take root and grow on their own, great!

Personally, I tend to be a gardener.  As my mentor and friend, author Paul McComas, puts it, I “write to find out.”  I feel that this method helps me produce organic fiction, where the characters develop and deepen into three dimensions and the plot is natural and surprising (even to me!)  This is how I wrote Haunted.  I had an idea that I wanted to write about three college friends who were interested in researching the paranormal.  I had Tara, bright but troubled, Paul, a smart ass with paranormal abilities, and Steven, my viewpoint character who had a crush on Tara.  I gave them something to do -- a haunted house to investigate and a question about the neurological basis of paranormal experience to research – and then let them go and wrote what happened.  Everything sprung from those seeds; I just let the vines grow where they wanted.

When I started writing Crisis, a sequel to Haunted, I realized that I had to do things a little differently, because I did have an end in mind, and a vague idea of how I wanted to get there.  It was an interesting experience, because it was really the first time I had been on the architect side of the dichotomy.  I didn’t plan it all out in detail – to continue the metaphor, I didn’t know what color the walls were going to be, what the counters would be made of.  There was leeway there for my garden to grow.  But I had a structure for it to follow, like a trellis.

If you’re not sure whether you’re a gardener or an architect, try them out!  Try writing a short story where you plan everything out.  Then try writing one where you start with the seed of an idea and see where it takes you!

Tara Martin – exceptionally accomplished neurobiology major with a troubled past. Steven Trent – confident political science major with an irresistible attraction to Tara. Paul Stratton – history major who is able to hear spirits. Together, they make up the Society for Paranormal Researchers at their prestigious New England University. When they’re not in class or writing papers, the three friends are chasing their passion….ghosts.

When the group learns of a local retired couple trying to sell a house they claim is haunted, they decide to investigate. As the clues unfold, a familiar spirit interrupts their investigation and Tara finds her life in danger. Can her friends save her before it’s too late?

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Genre – YA paranormal, NA paranormal

Rating – PG-13

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Connect with Eileen Maksym on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://eileenmaksym.wordpress.com/

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