Welcome to the 7th annual A to Z Blog Challenge in April!
Come back daily for more exciting posts and even some giveaways!
“S” is for Strandville
First, a big
thank you to Christine for asking me to be part of her A-Z Blog Challenge. I
don’t know if she intended me to have “S” or if the day was random, but it’s
perfect since I’m the author of the Strandville
Zombie Series.
Where is
Strandville?
As far as I know,
it’s in my head. A quick Google search on a town called Strandville led me to Strandville
Ave, in Dublin. That’s as close as I
can get.
My fictional
small town is nestled in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, far from any
city (and unfortunately for the residents, far from alternate medical care).
The series starts at the Nixon Healing and Research Center where a brilliant
scientist is researching the z-virus as a viable cure for cancer. Virus as a
cure does exist and I have seen it crop up since Cure. Total coincidence, I swear.
Book one is an
outbreak story featuring one of the absolute worst ways of becoming “infected,” my preferred term since we’re
dealing with a lethal virus. We have a brilliant scientist gone mad, a thug to
do his bidding, and a host of captive women who are unknowingly growing the
offspring of the undead inside of them. Yeah,
I mentioned it was bad, right?
Miranda Penton is
the star of the series; strong, determined, and capable, she’s also the most
likely to carry one of these fetuses to term.
Cure is the story of her attempted
escape from Nixon, and the outbreak that spreads uncontrollably into
Strandville and beyond. It is also free for all e-readers (iTunes, Nook,
Smashwords, Kindle,
and even Kobo). The story continues with Afterbirth
and is going further now with Departure
set to release later this year.
It’s been a blast
writing medical-themed horror. With a decade of hospital experience and five
years working in various private medical practices, it would be impossible for
all of that time around doctors not to influence my work. The great thing about
writing Cure is that the setting felt
natural to me (a group locked down in a hospital with a growing horde), which has
translated to the authenticity that has the books well-reviewed.
I’ve been away
from Strandville while working on my medical thriller series (Fatal Reaction published by Amazon’s
Thomas & Mercer imprint and Fatal
Intentions self-published earlier this year) and I have so missed the
post-apocalyptic landscape and the dynamic characters that never cease to
surprise me. Departure marks a new
chapter for the Strandville survivors and hints at a new breed of zombie. What
happens when the undead aren’t actually dead? Does conscience factor in when
the decision is to kill or cure? What does all of this mean for our sole immune
survivor, five-year-old Amelie Penton? A valuable commodity, Miranda’s daughter
is the centerpiece for a story about being careful who you trust.
As part of the
A-Z blog challenge I’m posting an exclusive rough draft excerpt from my
upcoming release, Departure. I hope
you enjoy it.
Departure excerpt
© 2016 Belinda Frisch
All Rights Reserved.
The ambient quiet should have
made Nolan less nervous but he couldn’t shake the feeling of a stare at his
back as he cut through the woods toward the inn. Sweat rolled into his eyes,
the unrelenting heat only slightly more forgiving under the lush canopy shade.
His heart raced as he cast backward glances. He would have given anything to
hear something other than his own labored breathing and his sneakers on the
hard packed earth, until he heard breaking branches both ahead of and behind
him.
“Hello? Is someone there?” A
lifelong horror fan, Nolan felt stupid for even asking but he needed to hear
someone respond. When no one did, he looked back, deciding he was as close to
the inn as he was far from the trailhead. He slowed his pace to regain his
breath, to muster his strength, and pressed on. Each sound demanded his
attention, each step fraught with the likelihood that someone was out
there—someone who, not a hundred yards away, made their presence known.
A girl, younger than him probably
by at least two or three years, appeared from behind a large oak tree, her pale
face smeared with dirt and her mouth bloodstained. Brush and twigs were tangled
in her matted, long dark hair and her dirty clothes looked weathered—clinging
to her frail body as though they had been soaked and dried to her shape. Nolan
would have described her as feral, confused and operating on some kind of
altered mentality, but not undead. Other than her disheveled appearance she looked
every bit as alive as he did—not pale or particularly ghoulish, but
fair-complected and with an awareness that made the idea of killing her all the
more unpleasant. She stared at Nolan with one brown eye and the other
white-blue, a trait Nolan took as a sign of mutation. He checked his
surroundings for an exit route, finding nothing but a dense thicket of trees.
His choices were either fight or run, assuming the girl intended to harm him.
Nolan decided to retaliate only
if she attacked first.
“Hello?” He sidestepped to get a
better look at her, the curved machete lowered tight to his side but ready. A
beam of light came down through the trees, reflected off the blade, and warmed
a space on his leg. “What’s your name?”
The girl whiffed the air, not moving
forward or back.
“My name’s Nolan. Nolan
Alexander.” He checked the girl over for bite marks or scratches, finding
nothing and making him second-guess his assessment. “Can you talk?” A thick
branch snapped as something too large to be a squirrel or a bird appeared
behind him. He glanced over his shoulder, afraid to take his eye of the girl
for too long, and couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Another girl, not only a
mirror image with identical facial features, the same dark hair, and mismatched
eyes, but wearing identical clothing—tattered skinny jeans and an oversized
pale pink T-shirt. Even their black Chuck Taylor sneakers were the same.
Twins.
The girls made eye contact as
Nolan alternated looking between them, wondering if and for how long they had
been stalking him. Had their waiting to make themselves known been a conscious
decision, an organized strike to make sure he was isolated before they
attacked? The first girl twisted her head, the light reflecting off the blue
eye making her look more cyborg than human. The other mimicked her, shifted her
weight, and assumed a starting line position, ready to run.
Nolan took a couple of tentative
steps to see what the girls would do. One moved left while the other went right
in a synchronized quickstep. Nolan raised his blade, an intended threat that
caused the girls to move simultaneously closer. Their wordless communication
and matched speed warned of something altogether different than any infected
Nolan had ever encountered or dispatched. He wasn’t only up against the mutated
virus, but some sort of psychic twin connection as well.
What happens when a pair of twin infected zombies catches up with their
prey? Find out soon in Departure, Strandville
book three.
In the meantime, Cure and Afterbirth (see
series page) are available and ready for you to read or listen to on
e-book, in paperback, and available as audiobooks from ACX/Audible, narrated by
the talented Julia Farmer, voice of The
Walking Dead’s (video game) “Sarita.”
* Get a free copy of CURE at Amazon.
Thanks, again, Christine for
inviting me to post during your A-Z challenge. I’m looking forward to reading
your other posts.
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