“Nowhere to Hide” Super-Sale Excerpt #5

Since the “Nowhere to Hide” e-book is on sale for $0.99 this month (go get it now!) I thought that I’d spend this week sharing excerpts from the book to entice you to buy it amuse you. 😀

Today is the last excerpt, #5: in this scene Nancy is having a feverish dream…

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Gramma Sarah shook her head and sighed a sad sigh. “I’m so sorry, my little baby girl.” Her voice was full of sorrow. “I’m so sorry that you’ve had to go through all this.”

The sky began to turn gray as the sun disappeared behind a wall of clouds. Gramma Sarah’s eyes seemed to go glassy and her skin became pale.

“Gramma?” Nancy cried. “Gramma, what’s going on?”

“I’m sorry, Nancy. I’m so sorry.”

Nancy jumped back in alarm as Gramma Sarah’s arms began to shrink and shrivel. Her hair dried and cracked and the sun dress turned black and moldy. “Gramma!” Nancy screamed. “Gramma, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me here in this world!”

The sky was red. The world lit up under and enormous bolt of lightning and a crash of thunder shook the ground. Nancy screamed and dropped to her knees. She threw her arms over her head but she couldn’t escape the light or the noise. A hand touched her shoulder and she looked up with tear-filled eyes. Gramma Sarah, shriveled and crawling with all manner of insects, set a pair of blood-filled eyes toward her, and opened her mount in a blood-curdling shriek.

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What? I’m going to end it there? Yup! If you want to find out what happens next, you’ll have to head on over to the “Nowhere to Hide” Amazon page, where you can, if you so choose, support your favorite new indie author by picking up the e-book for only $0.99! 😀

“Nowhere to Hide” Super-Sale Excerpt #4

Since the “Nowhere to Hide” e-book is on sale for $0.99 this month (go get it now!) I thought that I’d spend this week sharing excerpts from the book to entice you to buy it amuse you. 😀

Today is excerpt #4: in this scene Nancy and Greg go from the frying pan into the fire…

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Secure that they’d finally made it to safety, they sprinted for the main entrance to the hospital. Boards had been nailed horizontally across the door’s moldings, but they were ableto pry two off by jamming Nancy’s katana in behind them, making a hole just big enough for them to squeeze through and shove the door open. They burst into the main foyer with twin gasps of relief.

And found no fewer than ten guys being pointed directly at their heads.

“Who are you?” a man’s voice demanded. It was a gruff, angry voice.

Nancy didn’t know which gun to look at. Her vision began to swim in front of her eyes.

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What? I’m going to end it there? Yup! If you want to find out what happens next, you’ll have to head on over to the “Nowhere to Hide” Amazon page, where you can, if you so choose, support your favorite new indie author by picking up the e-book for only $0.99! 😀

“Nowhere to Hide” Super-Sale Excerpt #3

Since the “Nowhere to Hide” e-book is on sale for $0.99 this month (go get it now!) I thought that I’d spend this week sharing excerpts from the book to entice you to buy it amuse you. 😀

Today is excerpt #3: in this scene Nancy and her comrades have just gotten themselves into a little accident…

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Nancy was only out for a few seconds, but it was enough to disorient her. Her vision was filled with whiteness and she felt as though she was being smothered. There was a loud, ceaseless horn screeching at her from somewhere nearby.

“Nancy?” a voice called. “Nancy, are you okay?” The voice sounded panicked. Nancy wondered what had upset him so much.

“Are you okay?” This was a different voice, older, calmer, but also with a note of concern.

“I’m fine,” the younger voice insisted. “I think I bruised a few ribs flying into the back of your seat, but I’ll be okay.”

“You should wear your seat belt, you know.”

For some reason that statement made Nancy burst into giggles.

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What? I’m going to end it there? Yup! If you want to find out what happens next, you’ll have to head on over to the “Nowhere to Hide” Amazon page, where you can, if you so choose, support your favorite new indie author by picking up the e-book for only $0.99! 😀

“Nowhere to Hide” Super-Sale Excerpt #2

Since the “Nowhere to Hide” e-book is on sale for $0.99 this month (go get it now!) I thought that I’d spend this week sharing excerpts from the book to entice you to buy it amuse you. 😀

Today is excerpt #2: in this scene from the second chapter, Nancy has just seen her first zombie, and her world is starting to fall apart…

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Slowly, puppet-like, Nancy looked down at her friend, passed out on the burned section of the carpet and found a purpose amid the madness. While others screamed and ran for help, or entered the apartment only to get caught up in the bloody horror, Nancy hoisted Terri-Lynn up over her shoulder and began to drag her out of the apartment. People ran by, screaming, but she paid them no mind. It was slow going, but she breathed deeply and pressed on, one foot in front of the other.

At the bottom of the stairs little Jenny Jeffries was peering out her apartment door like a curious little kitten. When Nancy looked at her the girl’s eyes went wide and she pulled herself back inside with a slam of the door. Nancy stared after her for half a moment before pressing on.

Terri-Lynn’s feet dragged along the floor. Nancy’s strength was beginning to wane. She started, first, for her own apartment, before remembering that it was directly below the carnage that was going on upstairs. Instead she turned for Terri-Lynn’s. Two doors down on the right, she dragged Terri-Lynn to the living room couch, dropped her down, and stumbled back to the door to lock and bolt it.

There were more sirens now, of many different pitches. Ambulances, police, firemen, and possibly others as well.

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What? I’m going to end it there? Yup! If you want to find out what happens next, you’ll have to head on over to the “Nowhere to Hide” Amazon page, where you can, if you so choose, support your favorite new indie author by picking up the e-book for only $0.99! 😀

“Nowhere to Hide” Super-Sale Excerpt #1

Since the “Nowhere to Hide” e-book is on sale for $0.99 this month (go get it now!) I thought that I’d spend this week sharing excerpts from the book to entice you to buy it amuse you. 😀

Today is excerpt #1: this scene is from the first chapter of the book, in which our protagonist, Nancy, watches a disturbing news report…

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The boys called out disparaging comments, much of which was being bleeped out by the news’ censor; so much was being edited out that it was barely possible to tell what they were saying. One boy threw an empty beer can at the woman. It hit her square on the top of her head, but she didn’t react with so much as a flinch. Laughing raucously, a black-haired boy stepped foward and leaned down beneath her so he could look up into her face. He made a scathing comment: “Are you even alive in there?”

The woman’s head moved upward, very slowly, and a pair of dark, empty eyes stared through the curtain of hair to look at the boy’s face. Nancy felt a chill go down her spine. Christ, she thought. Those eyes…

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What? I’m going to end it there? Yup! If you want to find out how the news story ends, head on over to the “Nowhere to Hide” Amazon page, where you can read the entire first chapter for free. And while you’re there, if you so choose, you can support your favorite new indie author by picking up the e-book for only $0.99! 😀

Rave Reviews (and a Book Sale!)

When I wrote and self-published “Nowhere to Hide”, I had very low expectations for any kind of success. After all, self-published books have a tough time being discovered in an over-saturated sea of options, and it’s my first book, making me an unknown that people might not be willing to take a chance on. And on top of that, it’s a zombie story, which definitely isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

Now, no, I’m not going to turn around and tell you that, despite my low expectations, the book had been a success. It definitely hasn’t. However, I’ve sold a number of copies, and to my pleasant surprise it has gotten excellent reviews. It hasn’t gotten anything lower than 4 out of 5 stars so far, and a common theme seems to be that you don’t have to be a zombie fan to enjoy the story. So today I thought I’d share the awesome reviews I’ve gotten on Amazon and GoodReads, because just reading them gives me the warm-and-fuzzies.

Sean P MacKinnon – 5 Stars
Great little zombie story, with a strong female lead and a lot of tense, nail-biting moments as she tries to survive. Really gets you thinking about what it’d be like if a zombie apocalypse really happened. If you’re into stories about zombies, complete with gory fight scenes, a good sense of humor, and a bit of romance mixed in, this is a nice way to spend an afternoon. Was definitely worth the read. Be warned though: There are some pretty violent scenes and harsh language within, so this book is not good for children or the faint-hearted!

Eric Wood – 5 Stars
Great read… couldn’t put it down!

Sandi Rapp – 5 Stars
Great read, with just the right amount of nightmare-inducing storyline!

Darren MacLellan – 5 Stars
Not quite finished the book yet but it is an exciting read so far. I would highly recommend this one. Especially if you are a fan of the Walking Dead.

Tammy Gracie – 5 Stars
Loved it!

Jackie Tobin – 4 Stars
Thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I thought the ending was different and inventive. Read it over two days, kept wanting to see what happened next.

Jordan – 5 Stars
This quick read follows Nancy and a few fellow survivors as they fight for their lives and attempt to find shelter from the swarm. At first, Nowhere to Hide seems like a classic zombie tale: ordinary people in the modern world begin rising from the dead to munch on other ordinary people. It’s the unexpected twists to the undead themselves that make this zombie novel unique. (Especially toward the end!)

Dark and well-paced, mixing action and suspense with character and personal struggles, it’s a great read whether you’re looking for another zombie/apocalyptic story to add to your “read” list or just starting to checkout the genre. Recommended!

Melissa Vickers – 4 Stars
Although typically this is not my favorite genre of book I made a pledge to start supporting local authors and I am glad I came across this one! This book surprised me with many twists and I love when a book isn’t predictable! As a first time published author I look forward to reading more from Tracey.

Megan – 4 Stars
Have to say this genre is not really my usual read, it’s more my sister’s, but I loved the book and truly enjoyed the plot and the characters. With that being said I cannot wait to read more books by this author.

Victoria Haddon – 5 Stars
I don’t usually read books that are to do with zombies because I think they’ll be just too much blood and gore. But this book isn’t filled with too much blood and gore and was a really good read.

I just had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next whether the characters were going to survive and what was going to happen next. The ending of the book was really inventive and different.

I bought the paperback version of the book instead of the kindle just because I fancied a good paperback book to read, and this book was well worth the money.

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Pretty nice, right? I can’t tell you how happy it makes me every time I get a good review, especially when it’s coming from some random stranger around the world who took a chance on an unknown indie author.

So, because I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy today with the glow of good reviews, I’ve decided to put the “Nowhere to Hide” e-book on sale. From now until the end of June, the e-book will be a ridiculously-affordable $0.99. So hop on over to Amazon and Kindle and check it out…anything is worth trying out for a buck! ^_^

~ Goodreads Book Giveaway! ~

Okay, so let’s be honest: at this point it looks like I’m not going to have a ton of participation in the comment-on-my-blog-for-a-chance-to-win book giveaway. In fact, I think that up to today I’ve only had comments from three different people since the giveaway began. Now, I’m still going to go ahead with that giveaway (come on people! talk to me for a chance to win a book!) but at the suggestion of a reader (hi S!) I’ve decided to run a second giveaway via GoodReads.

The GoodReads giveaway is simple: all you need to do is sign up if you don’t already have a GoodReads account (it’s super quick, I promise), and click on the link below to enter. GoodReads chooses the winners, and I ship out the books. Bada bing, bada boom, and hopefully the winners of the giveaway will be kind enough to write a review once they’ve read their prize (hint hint).

Nowhere to Hide

by Tracey Lynn Tobin

Giveaway ends April 11, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I wanted to leave the giveaway open for at least a few weeks so that hopefully lots of people will enter, so it will remain open until my birthday, April 11th. I hope to see lots of entries, so shake your buts over to GoodReads ASAP!

February 2015 – Goals in Review

Geez, has it already been another month? It feels like I just wrote January’s Goals in Review post! I must be getting old, man. *shudder*

This post is obviously several days late, but I wanted to get the contest post and my buddy Eric’s guest post out of the way first, so I imagine you’ll all forgive me.

Goal #1: Take care of myself more.

If I’m going to be totally honest, February was a horrible month for this goal, mainly because I returned to my work out on the Alberta oil sands and it is not easy to “take care of myself” from there. Between the 12-hour days, freezing cold weather, heavy and uncomfortable work gear, and the fact that almost all of the available food at camp makes me horribly ill, I spend most of my 14-day shift just trying to make it back to my crappy camp bed so I can collapse and binge-watch Castle until I pass out.

My days off at home were better, of course, but of those 14 days I spend almost a full two of them on cramped, overcrowded planes, another day recovering from the jet-lag, and two or three at the end of my days off getting more and more cranky by the second as I realize that I’m about to head back out for another shift. I did manage to have a couple of relaxing baths, snuggled up and watched a few movies with the little missy, and enjoyed some time spent fixing up the basement with my husband, so that’s all nice. I just feel like I really could have used some more relaxation time, you know?

Side note: one thing that I enjoy doing to relax is to paint my nails cute colors, but ever since I returned to work my nails have been splitting like crazy and constantly cracking off right to the skin. Grrrrrrr….

Goal #2: Continue to build my readership/viewership.

It wasn’t the best month for this goal either, unfortunately. I missed several blog days for a number of reasons (some of them good, some of them bad), and though I filmed a couple of YouTube videos I didn’t manage to edit and upload them yet. Despite my lapses I did manage to pick up a few new followers on the blog, Instagram, and Twitter. What I’m really looking for, however, is to get more people interested in checking out “Nowhere to Hide“. I’m expecting two semi-professional reviews in the future, but I don’t know if it’s going to be the near future or, like, months down the road. To be honest, the anticipation is killing me.

Goal #3: Write. Write a lot.

February was not as good as January, but that’s to be expected since it has fewer days, and I spent 14 of them working 12-hour shifts. Regardless of the obvious roadblocks, between blogging and working on “The Other World”, I did manage to write a respectable 15034 words last month. I had hoped to write quite a bit more since I was working on completing the current draft of my manuscript, but it just didn’t turn out that way. I am, however, satisfied with the result, though I hope to blow that number out of the water during March.

So that was my February; not great, but not horrible. How about you? Did you accomplish anything during the shortest month of the year? Please share!

Also, a reminder that I am running a contest throughout the month of March. For each comment you post on my blog throughout the month, you will receive one entry toward a draw for a hard-copy of my zombie apocalypse novel, “Nowhere to Hide”! Please note that in order to accept the prize, I will need you to give me a mailing address where I can have the book sent. If the winner drawn did not intend to enter the contest and/or does not want the book, I will draw another name. Please also note that obvious spam/duplicate comments/etc. will not be counted toward an entry…play fair! And good luck! ❤

~ Contest Time! Win a Free Book! ~

Ladies and gents, I think it’s about time I had a contest.

It has now been approximately five months since I self-published “Nowhere to Hide”, and I’ve yet to give away a free physical copy of the book. I would like to rectify that, so throughout the month of March I’m going to run a “comment contest”.

Exhibit 1: The Prize!

All throughout March, every time you comment on a post on my blog, you’ll get an entry into the contest. The more you comment, the better your chances are, keeping in mind that I’ll ignore any comments that are obvious spam/doubles/etc. At the end of the month I’ll randomly draw a name from the entries, and that commenter will receive a free copy of “Nowhere to Hide”! If the name drawn is of a commenter who didn’t intend to enter the contest, already owns a copy, or otherwise does not want the book (make me cry, why don’t ya?), I’ll continue randomly picking names until someone accepts the prize.

So what do you think? Want to win a book? The contest begins with this post, so feel free to let me know that you’re going to be trying your luck! ❤

Blood-curdling Books

Movies, television shows, and video games are all awesome, but for me there’s nothing quite like curling up with a good book, and that goes double for a good horror book. I love a book that can give me the chills, which is how I got into writing about monsters myself. Some of my favorites, which may have even influenced my writing style and preferences? So glad you asked.

When I was a kid I loved spooky stories, especially the ones about ghosts. I had a number of scary books for kids, but as many kids from my generation would tell you, it was all about Goosebumps. If you never read a Goosebumps book as a child, you’ve definitely missed out. The series by R.L. Stine featured short novels about every kind of ghoul, goblin, monster, and creature a kid could imagine. Some of my favorites included the killer ventriloquist dummy, and the Halloween masks that came to life and took over kids’ bodies. And then there were always the “choose your story” editions in which you got to choose how the story progressed by jumping back and forth between the pages (I usually died four or five times before finding the correct path). Those were the bomb.

Every kid I grew up with has read this book.

But if you want to get a little bit creepier – while still maintaining the illusion of reading a “kid” book – you should take a look at Coraline. The short Neil Gaiman book appears, for all intents and purposes, to be a book for tween-aged kids, but it’s a lot creepier than you might imagine. Maybe it’s just the subject matter of a young girl traveling to an “Other” world and being essentially kidnapped by a creature with her mother’s face. Or maybe it’s the creep-factor of all the “Other” people having buttons for eyes. Or maybe it has something to do with that childhood pain of having something awful happen and no one believes you. Either way, the story is actually a lot deeper, darker, and more disturbing than you would ever assume by simply looking at the book cover. Trust me; it’s worth giving it a try.

Honestly, I really did think it was a kid’s book…@_@

Of course, you knew that eventually I was going to bring up Stephen King, since you can’t really talk about horror books without mentioning him. Well, the whole and honest truth is that yes, I do think King is an amazing writer, and some of his books have seriously scared the pants off of me. But the thing is, how do you pick just one? King currently has published something like 55 novels, plus nearly 200 short stories (which are compiled into book collections). Of those some-255 stories, over 20 of them have been made into horror movies. So yeah, clearly he’s got something going on, right? Well I haven’t read all of his books by a long shot, but if I’ve got to pick one today I think I’ll go with Cell. I know that it’s not a lot of people’s favorites, and I’m definitely not saying that it’s King’s best book or anything, but I really enjoyed it. It’s a different take on zombies, and I really liked the not-quite-concluded ending of the story. In fact, Cell is what I was reading when it suddenly occurred to me that, “Hey…I could totally write a zombie novel!”

Yep. This was the face of my inspiration.

And, of course, you know where I’m going with this. (I’m the master of the segue, admit it.) Maybe it makes me sound a little full of myself, but how can I honestly not talk about my own horror novel in a post specifically talking about horror novels? There were times when I wanted to throw the manuscript for Nowhere to Hide out the window, but I can honestly say that I do love the story and I’m very proud of it. I tried to work in as many creepy, gross, and disturbing moments as I could while still focusing on the whole point of the piece…survival. And because I love the book so much, and because I love all of you so much, for Halloween day only the digital copy of Nowhere to Hide is going to be free! So even if you aren’t sure you’d like it, why not try it out anyway? It’s free! So click the link and check it out quick, because by the time all the trick-or-treaters are in bed tonight the promotion may be over!

Freeeeeeeeeeee!

Do you enjoy scary books? Why or why not? What’s your favorite horror book? Favorite horror author? Have you ever had a book genuinely scare you? Please share!