Category Archives for Hungry For You

Hungry For You: Week 4

Interviews: 2
Formal dinners planned: 1
Books sold: 45
Menus printed: 130
Reviews: 9
Dresses tried on: 7
Amazing pancakes eaten: 1

Hungry For You is now a month old! And what a panicked month it has been — the release of this collection has coincided with my absolute busiest time (so far) in my day job, what with a trip to Argentina only to return to London and finish off planning a fancy dinner in under two weeks. The dinner’s tomorrow, after which I can breathe a teensy sigh of relief before throwing myself back into the thick of event planning.

But enough about my day job and on to Hungry For You news!

OMG PRINT?!

The print version is fast approaching. I’ve received the proof copy today (haven’t seen it yet!) and will need to check it over — hopefully in a couple of weeks you’ll be able to get your own hard copies through Amazon! As a teaser, here’s the print book jacket:

Soleil Noir kindly reviewed Hungry For You a short while ago, and she has my heartfelt thanks for giving me permission to quote her review on the jacket. Speaking of wonderful reviews, thank you as well to M. Jones and Lauren for their lovely words. [EDIT: Woo, one more review from Tina too.]

GIVEAWAY!

If you haven’t yet got your mitts on a copy of this ebook you now have a chance to win one entirely scott-free. That’s right — just head on over to Black Sun Reviews, where you will find a slightly insane interview of yours truly. Leave a comment on the post (not on here!) to enter the lottery.

That’s all for now — keep feeding, and keep breathing!

Hungry For You: Week 2

Guest posts scheduled: 2
Kilometres travelled: 11,102 km
Promotional postcards sent: 9/60
Books purchased: 3
Books sold: 32+ (?)
Hours spent at Heathrow airport: 4
Airplane meals consumed: 3
Reviews: 4

Hungry For You has been on sale for 2 weeks now, and there’s been a little bit of a slowdown, exacerbated by the fact that I am in Argentina for work right now so can’t really do much promo. I do however have slaves to do promo for me (ha!).

Zombie ValentineFirst off are the Zombie Valentine’s Cards, such as the one on the left. Tell your loved ones that you really love them with these unique ecards — guaranteed to make their hearts stop pumping. Head on over to 1889 Labs and check them out — and send a couple while you’re at it (it’s free!).

I also rather excitingly got my first few reviews! On Smashwords, Nina Martinez says HFU is “interesting, quirky, imaginative . . . impossible to put down once you’ve started”. J.C. Hart and Heather Faville also said some lovely things that brought a smile to my face, and to round things off I also received a review from Mari Juniper as well! So far it seems that what reviewers have enjoyed the most is my unusual take on zombie lore, which is a relief as I was worried that zombie fans would be annoyed that I strayed from the norms. Yay!

Overall I’m happy with how things are going. And I managed to get past 25 sales, so as promised I owe you all a photo of myself with a giant cookie. That will have to wait till I’m back in London, sorry!

Hungry For You: Week 1

Kindle forums joined: 2
Book bloggers emailed: 32
Promotional postcards sent: 1/60
Books sold: 24
Chocolate consumed: 600g
Alcohol units consumed: 12
Interviews: 1
Reviews: 0
Embarrassingly large photos of my face: 1

Hungry For You launched a week ago and so far it’s been a rollercoaster of emotions. I go from loving the book, to wondering why I ever unleashed it on the world (and charged people money for it — the cheek of me!). Then I skim through the book and realize that actually, I’m pretty happy with it.

I haven’t sold a heck of a lot of books in this first week, but considering that I have no reviews yet and haven’t done much in terms of promo, I’m pretty pleased to be averaging on more than one copy a day. As book reviews begin to trickle in, I expect to see a boost on sales — and hopefully the exciting Valentine’s Day tie-in MCM is planning will create some buzz.

Speaking of MCM, he’s promised me a cookie if I get to 25 sales, and keeps holding the number over my head like a bully. So if one of you could be so kind as to grab a copy (from Kindle or Smashwords) then I will take a photo of myself with a suitably large cookie and laugh in MCM’s face. (If I get to 50, I’m open to taking photo requests.)

On the topic of photos, that mysteriously large photo I mentioned in the round up? It’s over on 1889 Labs, where MCM interviewed me about HFU and asked some silly questions about socks and zombies. Go check it out.

What’s the World Without A Little (Zombie) Love?

One of my brother’s favourite stories about me has to do with my absolute laziness when it comes to going to the shops when there’s no food in the house. He came home one evening to find me hunched over my laptop, a half-empty plate of undistinguishable mess on the table beside me.

“What did you have for dinner?” my brother asked, ever-concerned that I wasn’t feeding myself properly.

I barely glanced up from my laptop, intent on writing. “There was nothing to eat, so I invented this kidney bean and rice thing.”

“Oh? How was it?”

A frown crossed my face. I looked up. “Weird. It was really weird.”

(Somehow my successful experiments — like the sausage & avocado scrambled eggs — never get mentioned. Figures.)

What does this have to do with zombies, you ask?

I’d like to present to you my latest release:

Introducing Hungry For You, a haunting speculative fiction short story collection.

This is the result of hours of experimentation in the kitchen living room with only two ingredients: zombies, and relationships.

Are you curious to discover the results? Trust me, it tastes better than kidney beans.

EDIT: Grab a copy today from Kindle (US) or Kindle (UK)! (Other retailers to follow.)

Weather Changes

Snow is coming down in buckets today in London. Winter is well and truly here to stay.

I huddle down under layers and layers of cardigans and t-shirts and tank tops, artfully ordered to make the combination look semi-intentional. I wrap my fingers around steaming cups of tea, clutching the porcelain so tightly I burn my palms while the backs of my hands remain frozen.

I don’t mind the cold, in small doses. But the onset of winter brings about a strange restlessness, a cabin fever. Part of me wants to stay snug at home, under my duvet. The other part is frustrated that the weather’s so miserable, because all of a sudden staying at home seems a necessity rather than a choice.

There’s something about the winter that makes me write better, though. Perhaps I go out less, have more time to think and edit. Maybe it’s the channelling of that restlessness into creativity. Maybe it’s my way of dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder. Who knows.

I’ve been quiet on the fridayflash front, but I have been busy writing.

I’m working on a short story horror/dark fantasy anthology which I plan to release early next year. Some of the stories are old fridayflashes, edited and reworked and repurposed. Others are brand new tales. All of them are around the same theme.

Writing around a theme has really pushed my creativity to its limits. How to write a solid number of stories about one particular topic without making them all sound the same?

I am, ultimately, left-brained. While I consider myself a pantser, I always have a plan. I like to do lists and schedules and calendars and deadlines. I like to do lists OF to do lists. So I approached the anthology problem as logically as possible.

I gave myself ten minutes and wrote down every possible storyline I could think of. Then I told myself I couldn’t use any of those, because they’re the obvious plots, the clichés.

That’s where the real work started. Every single story idea I’ve had in the last few months has been twisted to fit my theme. I keep a detailed list, try to avoid similar plots, similar protagonists, similar voices and moods. I take disparate story prompts and mash them up together.

Sometimes it’s like pushing a square peg into a round hole, but I keep trying anyway, keep trying until one day the weather changes, and it works.