So, if you follow @xHeatherxMariex on Twitter or her blog, you should see that she is giving away a…..KINDLE! I love to support other writers so I thought I would just share that she is doing this fabulous little giveaway. Make sure to mosey over to http://heatherxmarie.blogspot.com/2013/05/kindle-giveaway.html?m=1
and get your chance to win. And while you’re there, make sure to read some of her other posts. Enjoy!
Thank you all for participating. I loved everyone’s and it was a tough decision but the winner stuck in my head after I read it and kept making me think about it. To everyone else, your stories were fabulous. I’m so glad I got to read them! And now, here is our winner:
Natalia Lopez-Woodside
The bus stopped with a jerk. Passengers closest to the windows crammed their faces to the glass while the rest pushed themselves up to see what the commotion was about.
Zoe bit back a laugh. They were looking the wrong way. Oh, they’d see him out there. He’d step out from within a shadow, and smile with only his dead black eyes, and they’d scream and cower and wish they’d never looked out the window.
But they wouldn’t see her. They never did.
And even if they did, they wouldn’t think anything of it, except maybe, why is that little girl sitting all by herself? Where’s your mommy, sweetie?
Zoe concentrated on making him appear again. It wasn’t easy to summon something from nothing, a monster from a shadow, but Zoe was good at it — just as they’d known she would be.
There. There he was, wearing the shadow she made him from like a cape, tilting his head as if asking a question, and every person on that bus heard it as a whisper in their own thoughts: When did you realize you were going to die today? The screams started almost instantly and Zoe drank their panic in like thick, pulpy juice.
She wanted to make it last forever, but that’s not why she was there. Zoe scanned the frantic faces. One of these would not be like the others. Somewhere in here would be someone having fun.
You think you’re looking for me.
Zoe calmly weighed the words in her head. It was in her own voice. Had she thought them without meaning to or…?
Are you jealous of little sister?
Zoe smiled. The one she was there to find was far more advanced than she had been told. Good. A challenge. Zoe cleared her mind with practiced ease, let white space fill into the cracks like cement. When she finally formed the thought, it echoed: Come play with me. I’ll show you horror you’ve only dreamed of.
Zoe scanned the people in the crowd again, more carefully this time. Nothing. She tried not to worry, but she knew that time was running out, that at some point she would falter and the veil of fear she had shrouded the people in would slip away. And then, the people would blink, and she would lose everything.
You’re dead. You’ve already lost everything.
Still no one in the crowd stood out to her. How could this be? She was the best. They’d told her that. They’d said they had never seen any human take to death like she had, not with such thirst, with such craving for more. She had never had trouble finding anyone she had been sent after before — finding and eliminating them. Then again, none of them had ever spoken to her in her mind before.
You think I’m like you. But I’m not.
You are me.
Zoe wasn’t sure which of them had thought it. Her voice, her mind, but how could it be true? They had sent her to find herself?
Everything spun. And then she heard it. The whisper. She laughed.
When did you realize you were going to die today?
I’m so lucky to get to do a post for a lovely writer I hope you all come to know and love like I do. Kai Kiriyama has now published her second book, Pathogen: Patient Zero through Lemorn Literary Works.
Kai was great enough to talk a little about her book and zombies for me so without further ado, a little zombie talk with Kai.
First off, I would like to say hello to everyone and a HUGE thank you to Red for hosting me on this, the very last stop of the Pathogen: Patient Zero blog tour. It’s been a pretty crazy 10 days and I’ve met and chatted with so many awesome people about my new book and about writing and life in general. I wouldn’t be here without the support of my peers and my friends and there are not enough words to thank you all for the support you’ve given me.
All right, enough of the sappy thank you crap. Let’s talk Zombies.
So, it’s pretty obvious that I’m a bit of a zombie nut. I mean, Pathogen is slated to be a trilogy. I have been working for Zombie Training Magazine (www.zombietraining.com) for over a year now and a serial novel of mine is being published there as well. My room is full of zombie stuff. I have a bunch of Walking Dead merchandise. I have met several key cast members. I have a little inflatable zombie punching bag on my desk that I named Joe and I use for stress relief when I’m busy writing. Hell, I have weapons in my room so that they’re close at hand in case of zombies. It’s pretty safe to say that I’m a little bit obsessed.
Now, I’m not saying that “holy hell, YES, zombies are gonna happen like tomorrow! Prepare! PREEEPAAARE!”
Mostly ’cause that’s crazy.
On the other hand, being prepared for a “zombie apocalypse” means that you’re very likely prepared to deal with a natural disaster or other major catastrophe. I’m rebuilding my emergency kits in my home, and I’m planning one for my mom’s car. Simple things like a 72 hour emergency kit – something that even the CDC tells you that you should have – are great steps forward in preparing yourself for zombies. Or floods, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, winter storms that knock out the power, or even major threats to a city like bomb threats.
To be honest, I also wanna get out of the city. I want a farm. If you’re familiar with Walking Dead, then you’ll know Hershel and his farm. I want something like that. But with a prison wall around the property. I’m not paranoid. I promise.
In one of the first stops on this tour, you’ll remember that I said that zombies are the one monster in pop culture that hasn’t “lost their bite” and I still stand by that. Zombies are scary as hell. They’re the one thing that you really can’t make sexy. (Unless you’re into necrophilia, and in that case I’d suggest that you walk away and please don’t talk to me.) Zombies are dead, rotting corpses. They are killing machines. They don’t feel pain, and they’re only after their next meal. Like undead sharks. (And I think I just wrote a B-movie. I’ll keep y’all posted on Necro-Shark.)
Zombies are the one monster that could theoretically happen at any given time. A lab accident that mutates salmonella, or a virus unearthed from deep inside the Congo. Or, and this is my personal theory, the makeup companies learn how to revive dead cells to make women appear younger and then that gets out of control and BOOM, we have zombies. Scary when you think about it, right? Especially in that context!
Anyway, I’m a fan of zombies, and I write zombie stories because it’s something that I love and want to share with everyone else. I really think that my stories are a little bit more unique than the standard run-and-kill stories and I hope that they’re something that you all will read and enjoy.
Thank you again for coming with me on this crazy journey full of undead mayhem and stuff. It’s been rad. I hope to hear from y’all soon, and I really hope that you’ll all read Pathogen: Patient Zero and lemme know what you think.
A question for you before I go, answer me in the comments: What’s your zombie apocalypse theory? How do you think the zombies are gonna start and what are you doing to prepare?
Thanks again!
Slainte,
-Kai Kiriyama
xoxo
So I loved the amazing stories I got last time, I’ve decided to do another contest! There will be Inspiration Dice involved! I will only give a blurb this time (no quizzes about me!) and you write 500 words or less to add to it. There might be some other things besides the dice for the winner, but you won’t know unless you try! You have from today until Sunday May 5th to get entries in. I will announce a winner on Wednesday May 8th.
And here’s the start to your mini-story:
The bus stopped with a jerk. Passengers closest to the windows crammed their faces to the glass while the rest pushed themselves up to see what the commotion was about.
And you’re off! Make it funny, make it scary, add some drama. Do whatever you please to write a great story!
seeredwrite 