Book Details:
Dead New World by Ryan Hill
Published by: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication date: October 13th 2014
Genres: Dystopia, Young Adult, Zombies
Published by: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication date: October 13th 2014
Genres: Dystopia, Young Adult, Zombies
Synopsis:
Zombies aren’t mindless anymore.
Before the world fell into chaos, the undead existed only in the imagination. Now, more of them walk the earth than living. Zombies move about freely, while humans entomb themselves inside concrete barricades to stay alive.
All that, while the leader of a powerful cult – known only as Reverend – becomes the next threat to the rebuilding United States. Believing zombies to be God’s latest creation, making humanity obsolete, he wants to give every man, woman, and child the chance to become one. With his combined army of humans and zombies, he may well get his wish.
Best friends Holt and Ambrose went up against the Reverend once. Holt lost a foot and a zombie bit Ambrose…though he survived the virus, only to become a human-zombie hybrid, reviled by the living and unwelcome among the dead. When the Reverend kidnaps the woman Holt loves, the race is on to save her from a fate worse than death.
Book Links:
Excerpt:
Disgusted
with myself, I let go of Nancy and walked, alone and with a heavy heart, to
Ambrose’s room. I could see him through the window,
asleep on a twin bed.
“Push the
red button to talk into the microphone,” Nancy said.
I pressed
the red button on the control panel next to the door. “Hey, man, wake up.”
Ambrose
slowly stirred from his sleep. “Who is it?”
“Your
mother.”
“Ha.”
Ambrose stood, draping bed sheets over his white scrubs. The days of being
stuck in this small room seemed to have sapped his strength. He leaned against
the wall, too tired to stand on his own for long. “Nice to see you on your
foot.”
“Funny. I
could say the same for you. I hear you got one hell of a hickey. Didn’t your
mother teach you to stay away from strangers?”
“I never did
mind her like I should have.”
I tried to
get a good look at him, but the lack of light made it impossible. “They said
most people don’t last a day after being bitten. You’ve made it four. I guess I
should congratulate you.” Surviving this awful disease longer than most. What a
terrible silver lining. I bet he wished the virus would get it over with and
turn him.
“Yeah, lucky
me.” Ambrose coughed into his bed sheets. “Maybe they’ll give me a prize, like
some bacon or something.”
“What… what
does it feel like?”
Ambrose
shrugged. “Kind of like being sick. Had a fever at first, then some numbness
over part of my body.”
“Is it
getting any worse?”
“No.”
Ambrose sniffed. “Some parts still feel like me, others… like these gray parts,
nothing.” He pointed at his arm where the skin had turned a sickly gray.
“They’re dead, I guess.”
Nancy loudly cleared her throat. “We need to get you back to your room.
They patrol this place pretty regularly, especially when we have… guests.”
I nodded to
her, then turned my attention back to Ambrose. “I have to go. I’m sorry. I wish
it was me in there, instead of you.”
Ambrose
stepped up to the window. The light from the hallway revealed his face. For the
first time, I got a glimpse of what his loyalty to me cost him. I froze, unable
to take a breath for a long beat. One of his eyes remained normal, but the
other took on that awful redness. Patches of dead skin were all over his face.
The guilt rising up seemed almost too much to bear. What kind of hell had I
sent my friend to?
AUTHOR BIO:
Growing up, Ryan Hill used to spend his time reading and writing instead of doing homework. This resulted in an obsession with becoming a writer, but also a gross incompetence in the fields of science and mathematics. A graduate of North Carolina State University, Ryan has been a film critic for over five years. He lives in Raleigh, NC, with his dog/shadow Maggie. Ryan also feels strange about referring to himself in the third person.
Author links:
Handling Negative
Reviews
The rule of thumb
for writers is to avoid reviews at any cost. Just don't look at them. If you're
Gillian Flynn or JK Rowling and get thousands of them, it's easy to do that.
For those of us who haven't sold a few million books, reviews can be important.
They help get the word out about your work, exposing it to people who otherwise
wouldn't be aware of it. This is HUGE. On Amazon, if a book gets enough
reviews, it gets bumped into an algorithm that exposes it to more people.
Reviews can be great. Sadly, they can also be negative.
Negative reviews
can hurt. A lot. A writer spends so much time slaving over a manuscript, making
sure it's ready to submit out to agents or publishers. If accepted, the writer
then is faced with several more months of editing. When it's all said and done,
a writer may spend almost two years working to get just one novel published.
It's hard to put that kind of commitment into something, and then read a review
where someone says "This is drivel. Terrible writing. This stinks. Blah blah
blah." To dismiss something as if it were nothing hurts. A lot. At least,
it can hurt.
Negative reviews
are a fact of life. People are going to know a writer's work for an infinite
number of reasons. Maybe they're jealous. Maybe the book touched a nerve in the
reviewer that made them uncomfortable. Or, maybe they genuinely disliked the
book. It happens. And it's not up to a writer to worry about it. Most writers
can be insecure (myself included), which makes a bad review that much more
difficult to get over. But it can be done.
When I get a
negative review, the first thing I do is laugh. Period. I laugh at the
review. Sometimes, if I think it's an especially ridiculous review, I'll copy
and paste snippets to my friends, so they can share in the laughter. Then, I
put it out of my mind. What's one bad review among, say, ten? That means 90% of
the people who read your book really liked it. That's a pretty good number,
don't you think?
Also, to even get
to a point where your work is published, a writer has to go through an endless amount
of rejection. Agents, publishers, contests, etc. will have all told a writer no
several times before they reach that elusive yes. Even Harry Potter got
rejected 32 times (or so. Too lazy to look it up.). So, as a writer, you should
be used to rejection. Yes, it's a little different, since this is the public
trashing your novel, so more people see it, but the principle remains the same.
Even during edits with a publisher, a writer will have to deal with criticism
(at least constructive criticism). It's okay. And here's why:
•
People
can say whatever they want about a book you wrote. They'll NEVER be able
to take away the fact that YOU WROTE SOMETHING A PERSON LIKED ENOUGH TO
PUBLISH. That is a massive achievement!
•
Some
people may leave a negative review without reading the entire book. This is
extremely bad form, and not worth anyone's time, especially the writer's. The
others... well, on the bright side, THEY READ YOUR ENTIRE BOOK. That's a
good thing!
•
Haters
gonna hate. That's what they do. It's a part of life, accept it, and move on.
Nobody needs to dwell on negativity in their life.
•
YOU'RE A PUBLISHED AUTHOR AND WHOMEVER WROTE A
NEGATIVE REVIEW PROBABLY ISN'T.
In short...YOU WIN.
•
So...
smile! While you're working on getting another book published, that
person is working on another negative review. Ask yourself this: which person
would you rather be?
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