Above Ground: The Return

Guess who’s back… back again.

Guess who’s back, guess who’s back, guess who’s copying song lyrics shamelessly….

You heard it. Above Ground has begun posting again! Long time no see, I know. New updates will come every Tuesday at midnight London time (which is Mondays at 7pm New York time — you work out your own time zone if needed).

First off thanks for stopping by. I really appreciate your support and would never have gotten this far without awesome readers.

The GOOD news is it’s going to be a lot better than it was originally. I think that’s already clear from the first chapter, even though Chapter 1 hasn’t changed too much from the original.

The BAD news is that I haven’t finished the rewrite yet, so can’t jump straight into the serial+ model as planned. I blame it on a number of factors, including: lots of 1889 editing work (boo), extended summer holidays (yay!), writer’s laziness (boo), new boyfriend (yay!)… and more besides.

I know, I’m lame. Eugh. However, I’m thinking of offering a compromise: for anyone willing to stump up $20, I’ll give you the chapters as they’re ready (meaning ahead of posting schedule), plus an individualised ebook when it comes out, plus a print book (shipping included). Haven’t worked out the details 100% yet, but that’s the general gist.

Thoughts, opinions, suggestions etc welcome.

Guest fiction: The Second Kiss by Jan Oda

_Author’s Note: Anna didn’t know who Kathleen Woodiwiss was, so I decided to try and write her some fanfiction in a similar style. Expect some purple prose, frail and torn dresses, and probably a whole lot of non-canonness :)_

————–

#### The Second Kiss by Jan Oda

Lilith leaned on the balcony and sighed. It was a cool night, but the breeze that pressed her gown against her body felt nice on her skin. It helped clear her mind. She liked the wind, the fresh air all around her. And at night, the sky was less frightening, like she was underground again. A life she could never go back to…. Her stomach tensed, but she refused to let her mind embrace the memories. The night was too peaceful for that. Lilith looked at the stars.

She should get some decent sleep. After all, when was the last time she had experienced a night like this? Without immediate danger? No need to run away? Nothing to be scared of? It must have been back home. So she really should enjoy this peace and quiet and go to bed.

He had kissed her.

It hadn’t been the perfect moment, he hadn’t said the perfect words — in fact, she still wasn’t sure if he’d said anything at all — and yet it had almost been a perfect kiss. Had they not been interrupted. But disaster had followed her as usual, they had had to run again, and now he wouldn’t even speak to her any more. Not in his usual less-is-more grumpy way, but in an I-loathe-the-ground-you-walk-on way.

And yet she yearned for his touch, his hands upon her body, his breath across her skin. She yearned for his approval. She wanted him to be pleased with her, to want her.

_I want him to kiss me again._

She sighed, her hands trembling slightly. This was stupid. He obviously didn’t want her, and she didn’t want him either. Stupid, stubborn man.

Then she saw a lonely figure walking into the park, and her heart fluttered. Before she knew it she had run down the stairs and outside, the grass cool under her feet. She didn’t realise the moonlight made her dress slightly see-through as she ran after him. Panting, she came to a halt when she found him, staring at the lake.

“Silver, I–”

“You felt you hadn’t made this day bad enough yet?” Silver’s ice-cold voice hit Lilith like an avalanche.

“What have I done?” Her voice sounded small, but Silver didn’t answer. He just kept staring at the lake, his shoulders stiff, anger radiating out of his body.

“Silver? I saw you walking away, and I thought–”

Silver turned around snarling and shoved her so she stumbled backwards against a tree.

“You thought? You _thought_? Do you ever think Lilith? Did you think what it would do to me when you decided to make me your packmate? Did you think about the consequences? Do you have any idea how it feels to fight this claim you have on me? How it feels to cave into the urge and kiss someone you detest? To kiss someone against your will?”

“I didn’t do it on purpose! Do you think I want to be kissed by an obnoxious, arrogant beast?!” Lilith’s voice rose, anger overtaking the initial shock of his rebuffal. How dare he!

Silver raged on as if she hadn’t spoken at all, as if she weren’t pushing against his chest with all her might. “Do you know how it feels to wake up filled with the lust to kiss the one person you hate the most? The person who has taken over your brain? Someone who’s controlling your every thought so I can only think about kissing you?”

“I… I didn’t mean to.” Lilith tried to fight back the tears welling in her eyes. He hated her. He never wanted to kiss her. It wasn’t real. She had fooled herself, thinking he wanted her like she wanted him.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better? That you didn’t mean to? That you were simply being ignorant? You are such an arrogant and stupid, stupid girl.” Silver slammed his hand into the tree, caging her between his arms.

“I hate this,” Silver mumbled, and then his lips crushed hers in a furious mock of a kiss. Her shoulders pressed painfully into the tree bark behind her back. She tried to push him away, but her hands on his chest eloped to caress his bare shoulders and his neck. She couldn’t not kiss him back. Bury her hands in his hair, pull him closer. He stroked down her side, down her thigh, pulled her leg up. With a low grunt he lifted her and pushed her against the three, ripping her frail gown. He devoured her.

Lilith trembled with the sensation of his body pushing her against the tree, his groin grinding against hers, his teeth biting her lower lip, his tongue playing with hers. Inside, a fire was building, and her skin burned like it had never before. She couldn’t help but moan.

He froze. Lilith buried her hands deeper into his hair, but he pulled back nevertheless. He looked down at her, his grey eyes dark and empty.

“Curse you.”

Lilith tumbled to the ground, half-heartedly trying to close her gown, while she watched him disappear into the woods.

—————-

_Many thanks to Jan Oda for writing this short ficlet._

Changes Afoot On Qazyfiction

Despite my recent endeavours in promoting webfiction through an online podcast, I’ve rather shamefully let my own webfiction projects slide into obscurity.

That’s right. Some of you may have dim memories of qazyfiction.com, my online fiction website where I serialised my first novel, Above Ground. It also features the start of the sequel, Between Worlds.

The last six months have seen no new updates on Qazyfiction.

It’s embarrassing, I know.

I’ve come to realise I’m not entirely suited to serial publication. Or better yet: unless I want to drive my readers insane with unpredictable update schedules, I need to have a large portion of the story written before I begin posting.

Why? Because I don’t write a story sequentially. I post chapters 1-3 online, then I get excited and write chapter 13, then I scribble out a brilliant chapter 37 which makes me realise that the dog needs to die in chapter 8 and the cat is identified as the killer in chapter 19, and THEN I’m all of a sudden two weeks behind schedule with no chapter 4 in sight.

If I had my way, I’d write chapter 4 last, but I have to post it before I can post all my brilliant dog/cat murder mystery chapters, and so I push out a mediocre chapter 4 which I utterly resent. Then I start hating the story and it all goes down the drain.

So here’s a new plan which will spare me the scheduling anxieties and you the moaning of an erratic author:

1. Write a story for online serial publication.
2. Begin posting the story upon completion.

The wheels are already in motion:

I’m working on a brand new revised and expanded edition of Above Ground, which will follow three characters’ struggle for survival. It’ll begin posting mid-September.

I’m getting 1889 Labs to design a cover and ebook/print edition, meaning I’ll be able to test out the serial+ business model – I’m very curious to track those results!

Lastly, in the next few days, I’m launching a new website which will make everything prettier. All old story content will be unavailable from then on, but that’s no great loss.

So changes are afoot on Qazyfiction!

Exciting times lie ahead.

Why Zombies Should Smell Roses

Zombies weren’t always carnivores.

There is an excellent cross-examination of the rise of the 21st century zombie over in the New York Times called The State of Zombie Literature – An Autopsy, discussing just how zombies came to be the flesh-hungry beasts they are today and why we find them so appealing.

I particularly enjoyed the author’s suggestion as to why zombie fiction has seen a recent surge in popularity:

“You have to wonder whether our 21st-century fascination with these hungry hordes has something to do with a general anxiety, particularly in the West, about the planet’s dwindling resources: a sense that there are too many people out there, with too many urgent needs, and that eventually these encroaching masses, dimly understood but somehow ominous in their collective appetites, will simply consume us. At this awful, pinched moment of history we look into the future and see a tsunami of want bearing down on us, darkening the sky.” – The State of Zombie Literature – An Autopsy

I think that’s exactly what terrifies me about traditional zombies, and that’s why I walked a different path with Hungry For You: by giving my zombies personalities — the ability to think and feel — they evolve from faceless, insatiable voids mindlessly destroying the world and become people, individuals with whom I can relate.

If a zombie can take the time to stop to smell the roses… then maybe the world isn’t so bad, after all.

(Thank you to Toni of nzreader for linking me to the article.)

Ebook Author Month!

July is super special.

Why? It’s the first annual Ebook Author Month over on Feral Intensity!

The ever-so-lovely GL Drummond (whose books I cannot recommend highly enough to werewolf lovers) has spent all of July spotlighting ebook authors over on her website.

She was even gracious enough to allow a vampire and zombie enthusiast like me along for the ride, so if you’re curious to know what my current and future writing plans are, check out my interview.

The question I most enjoyed answering was whether I found it difficult to come up with character names — I ended up rediscovering my enthusiasm for phonetics!