I imagine most of the readers that check out my site already have it, but the eBook version of Dead Living will be on sale until Feb. 3rd. So, if you haven’t gotten a copy yet, or you have a friend that would enjoy a good zombie story, tell them to grab a copy of Dead Living. 🙂
I’ve been waiting nearly a year to make this post.
Dead Living is back on the shelves. Permuted Press has taken it under its wing and given it a fresh coat of paint. New cover, new editing, new marketing, same zombie goodness. It is now available in paperback and Kindle format, with an Audible version coming soon (here we are at Barnes and Noble). Give it a read and let me know if you enjoy following the journey of Aaron and Samantha.
It didn’t take long for the world to die. The dead rose with no explanation and only one purpose . . . to eat living flesh.
Born on the day everything died, the world of the living dead is the only world that Aaron knows. Kept in relative isolation from the walking corpses, his family teaches him how to read and write, how to survive on his own. After a tragedy hits close to home, he discovers he is different than any human left alive.
The undead want nothing to do with him.
The survivors of the old suburb of Lexington call a high school their home. They survive day to day, without any of the luxuries mankind used to enjoy, and surrounded by the living dead. Samantha is a product of the new world. Alone, cold, looking out only for herself. She and the other residents of Lexington feel their hope dwindling. They need change. They need someone who isn’t afraid of the walking corpses. They need someone who would rather live in a city of the dead.
They need Aaron.
It didn’t take long for the world to die. The dead rose with no explanation and only one purpose . . . to eat living flesh.
Born on the day everything died, the world of the living dead is the only world that Aaron knows. Kept in relative isolation from the walking corpses, his family teaches him how to read and write, how to survive on his own. After a tragedy hits close to home, he discovers he is different than any human left alive.
The undead want nothing to do with him.
The survivors of the old suburb of Lexington call a high school their home. They survive day to day, without any of the luxuries mankind used to enjoy, and surrounded by the living dead. Samantha is a product of the new world. Alone, cold, looking out only for herself. She and the other residents of Lexington feel their hope dwindling. They need change. They need someone who isn’t afraid of the walking corpses. They need someone who would rather live in a city of the dead.
They need Aaron.
Permuted Press has posted a shot of what the full cover to Dead Living will look like, including the back. Here it is. I have to say it looks just awesome. 🙂
Less than a month now.
I came across my own “Dead Living Will Be Out In December” post, and realized I never posted an official update on this. This changed, obviously, by a month. We’re now looking at the end of January, the last week. It’ll be out in paperback, eBook, and Audible. So, one more month. 🙂
Everyone that knows my writing by now knows I like to write about the unusual, typically supernatural type stuff. All my heroes have powers in some way, whether they’re creatures or just as simple as a psychic. Dead Living follows this tradition, but with a slight difference. Dead Living takes place after the undead have taken over the world. It follows a young man named Aaron, and his generation has known only the undead. He doesn’t possess any special powers, but discovers he can walk with the undead unharmed, and this creates a very unique perspective for him. It’s a pretty fun novel, I think, and probably my most successful, even with the year absence (if you go to Amazon, you can see 60 mostly positive reviews).
So, check it out at the end of January. I think you’ll like it. 🙂
Here it is. 🙂 I think it looks very awesome. They captured what I was hoping to get across very well. I think the appeal of Dead Living is the main character of Aaron, and following him in the undead world. I think the main question that comes up when looking at the cover is “Who is that guy hanging out with zombies, and why doesn’t he look afraid?”
Again, here’s the gist of Dead Living, in case anyone missed it:
It didn’t take long for the world to die. The dead rose with no explanation and only one purpose . . . to eat living flesh.
Born on the day everything died, the world of the living dead is the only world that Aaron knows. Kept in relative isolation from the walking corpses, his family teaches him how to read and write, how to survive on his own. After a tragedy hits close to home, he discovers he is different than any human left alive.
The undead want nothing to do with him.
The survivors of the old suburb of Lexington call a high school their home. They survive day to day, without any of the luxuries mankind used to enjoy, and surrounded by the living dead. Samantha is a product of the new world. Alone, cold, looking out only for herself. She and the other residents of Lexington feel their hope dwindling. They need change. They need someone who isn’t afraid of the walking corpses. They need someone who would rather live in a city of the dead.
In December. Just in time for Christmas. 🙂 I obviously wish it would come out sooner, but December is a good month to kill some zombies . The cover you see here won’t be the final cover, however. That’s another thing I’m waiting for. I can’t wait to see the new cover.
For those who don’t know, Dead Living has actually been out there in the wild already. I released it last year, and it did pretty well. You can see the old reviews on Amazon still. In fact, it did so well it caught the attention of Permuted Press, a press that specializes in apocalyptic fiction. I figured they could do some things with it that I could not, put it in front of more eyes, and it’s been a joy to work with them. I honestly think it will be a success a second time around as well.
I don’t read many zombie books. I do that on purpose, as I don’t want the ideas of other authors to seep into mine. Because of that I can’t tell you how Dead Living differs from other zombie books. I can tell you I’m still proud of the two main characters I created in this novel, Aaron and Samantha (Sam). Dead Living is sprinkled with side characters as well that somehow stuck with me. Richardson, Larry, Garrett and Ray, young Amanda, Derek, Nikki, Aaron’s family, and of course, the corpses themselves. 🙂
If anything changes in regards to release date I’ll post an update. I’m also hoping I’ll be able to share the cover early when it’s done. Cross your fingers on that one.
Dead Living has been optioned for a screenplay. I’ve seen some reviews mention that Dead Living would make for a pretty good movie, a very nice compliment. I tried to keep Dead Living close to the rules we’ve all become familiar with (except for, of course, my own little twist on the main character). The zombies are relatively slow, are dangerous in groups, there is no explanation for how they came to be, etc. When you read a book or watch a movie, some scenes stay with you more than others. The same thing goes for writing. Scenes like Aaron first saving Samantha in Baltimore, the escape back to the school, the hospital raid, the slave camp assault, I can see very clearly in my head, and I think would make great movie scenes. Any scene with Aaron walking with zombies would be cool. I know they’re not action-packed, but I think watching Aaron and Samantha grow closer in a dead world would be neat to see.
What do you guys think? Would Dead Living be cool to see on a screen? What scenes would work? What would you change?
If you’re reading this post, you may have read an excerpt for Dead Living in the back of one of my other books, and are looking to find it. 🙂 Dead Living has been taken “off the shelf” for a while, as I recently signed a contract with Permuted Press to have it published. So, it will emerge once again, at a later date, fresh from the grave (haha) with a new cover, better editing, etc.
I’m nervous and excited at the same time. I had this opportunity before, and passed up on it. There were a lot of factors, but most of the negative reviews for Dead Living cited editing and cover art as a drawback. So, I’m hoping we can introduce a much more improved version of Dead Living to some new fans who have never heard of it.
There is a short question and answer over on The Indie Spotlight about Dead Living. Nothing major, just about how the novel was created, information about me, things like that. Hopefully it’ll catch the eyes of a few readers interested in a pretty cool zombie tale. 🙂
