My hubby likes to wait until the Very Last Minute to go shopping for birthday or Christmas gifts…which explains why I got a shower head for Christmas one year. Or why I got a can opener for a birthday present some time later. It’s taken him a long time to finally learn that those are not the sorts of gifts one gives to the woman he loves and cherishes, not if he wants to live, at any rate.
It’s not that I’m all bling-bling (though I do like my sparklies) or high maintenance. I just think a gift should show you know what the recipient likes or would like. It should reflect his or her personality, desires or interests. Which is why I was delighted when hubby gave me The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks for my birthday.
I can see you scratching your head but stay with me.
I write science fantasy romance with a few forays into science fiction or fantasy romance or urban fantasy. So The Zombie Survival Guide is, for me, a reference book. There’s lots of good information in there, especially if you encounter, well, zombies. Don’t laugh–I believe I worked with one for several years before the economy went south and we all needed other employment. My daughter claims her first grade teacher was a zombie. I met the woman once. My daughter may have been right.
Back to the book, it teaches you a lot of fairly good, logical things to do to survive a zombie attack. And it tells you how to avoid becoming a zombie victim (basically, don’t stand and scream like a Hollywood starlet). It shows how to create a bug-out bag (a backpack easily carried that holds items essential for survival. It also explains the necessity of head shots when whacking zombies and why to avoid closed, cramped quarters like sewer lines when trying to evade zombies (a piece of advice I didn’t need).
The book is actually quite amusing in a grim sort of way.
That’s the key point for all fiction…to amuse the reader, to entertain and maybe to teach a little something.
HEARTSTONE, my novel, was written to entertain the reader. That was my goal–to write a love story full of adventure, wondrous places and filtered through human emotion. While there are some science principles in it, I didn’t write it as a science ed book. If it teaches anything, it teaches that Love Is Strong and True.
And no matter how amusing The Zombie Survival Guide is, it just can’t compete with a good love story.
Excerpt:
Eric d'Ebrur is out of time. He must find the legendary Heartstone and fulfill the ancient Gar'Ja bond he shares with the Stonebearer. But when he finds her, he discovers that love can be more dangerous than the Gawan threat. Eric can defeat the mind-controlling Gawan but will it cost him the woman he loves?
After terrifying episodes of hypersensitivity, Keriam Norton thinks she's losing her mind. When handsome shapeshifter Eric d'Ebrur saves her from the monstrous Gawan, she's sure of it. But insane or not, she'll find the Heartstone and, if she's lucky, a love to last a lifetime.
HEARTSTONE is available in both print and ebook format. To buy:
Mundania: http://www.mundania.com/book.php?title=Heartstone (Great News! If you buy Heartstone through the Mundania site, you can use the code LSCOTT10 at checkout and receive a 10% discount on your total
purchase)
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Heartstone-Lynda-K-Scott/dp/1606592335/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281979082&sr=1-1
To get or stay in touch with me:
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I’d love you to go to my website and check out the prologue for Heartstone. My editor and I decided that the novel was just fine without it but I thought readers might like to see the scene that originally started the story.
25 comments:
Thanks for having me, Keena! I hope you all have enjoyed my blog. I'll check back in a bit for any comments...since I love to talk, LOL
Heartstone sounds wonderful, Lynda - may your sales soar!! :)
Nice, very nice, Lynda. I enjoyed reading your comments. Wish you great success in sales.
Thanks Tina & Dr, Norm.
Sometimes these late purchased gifts are just the thing...especially if you're a writer :-)
Happy to be here and read about you and your book. I had to laugh about your hubby and his gift giving. I think he may live by the rule..better late then never. ha ha I wish you much luck on your books and hope to be able to find and read Heartstone. susan L.
KOK, Susan. I think my hubby lives by the rule 'better a gift of some kind than no gift at all'. He is getting better though 'cause the Zombie Survival Guide was a hoot.
KOK???Now I'm creating new mnemonics. I meant LOL :-)
Lynda, I'm glad you could join us today. Can you give us one more tip about surviving the coming Zombie plague? I'm going to have to go out and buy the book, I think. It sounds like so much fun.
Sure, Keema. One really good tip is to use daylight. The way we're built with superior day vision and poor night vision, less acute hearing and sense of smell, it's far more efficient and safer to fight a zombie in daylight as opposed to night time. Not that they can see any better, but why toss aside an advantage when you have one? :-)
Hi Lynda and Keena,
I used to get some very strange gifts from my husband. Then I hit upon the idea of giving him a list of things I liked, complete with sizes, colors, and order numbers. Sometimes he stays on script, but others he gets something like the item I selected. Invariably his pick is better than mine, so I feel very lucky in that regard. And some years, he decides that its a grocery shopping list and buys everything.
Hope I don't run into any zombies any time soon. And I'd never crawl into a sewer pipe to escape them either. Well, probably never **smile**
Maggie Toussaint
MUDDY WATERS coming Oct.22 from The Wild Rose Press
Sultry secrets and hidden treasure in a coastal paradise
www.maggietoussaint.com and http://mudpiesandmagnolias.blogspot.com/
LYNDA--the title is great and while out of my realm of thinking, the plot does sound unique and intriguing.
You have it right about the gift-giving. It's not an easy thing, finding the right gift for the right time. I think it's a special "gift" if a man does surprise his woman with something that's just right. Men, it doesn't have to be much, either. Celia
Hi Maggie,
I used to give my hubby a list but he rarely used it. I think he lost it, lol. I have to say though, it's always an adventure when it comes time to open the present :-)
Celia,
No, it doesn't take much to make us happy...I sometimes think that's part of the problem. The guys want to get the big 'AH' or 'OH' presents and when they wait too long or simply can't find them, they get desperate just to have a gift, lol. I remember a tv show, don't remember the title, where the dad and son forgot mom's birthday until quite late. They ended up buying something from a gas station...the hanging pine tree car freshener and a tire gage, I think. The mom was not amused, lol
Lynda, you are so funny. I should send you my hubby to learn about gifts. Now he sticks to flowers in order to avoid mistakes.
Hi Mona,
Send him with flowers :-) I LOVE flowers but I've only gotten flowers from my hubby about 3 times. I usually have to buy flowers for myself if I want them...come to think of it, I usually buy myself a birthday or Christmas gift, too, to make sure I get something I really want, lol
Hi Lynda,
I'm glad I'm not the only one who's hubby ignores the gift list. I got the zombie survival guide for my daughter then followed it up with World War Z. Brilliant books and I don't even pretend they're for research. I just love zombies.
I love the cover of Heartstone, is the hero a werewolf or shapeshifter?
Linda
The Zombie Survival Guide sounds like a fun book. I still remember the first time I saw Night of the Living Dead!
Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
http://facebook.com/morgan.mandel
Hi Morgan, wasn't that a great movie? I like the old b/w, original version best (though the gals in the movie have 'bite-me-itis where they throw the head back and expose their necks to the vamp/ghoul). Actually a lot of the gals in these types of movies do that...or fall when they're running from the Big Bad.
I think a shower head and can opener are wonderful gifts, as long as they come with diamond earrings taped to them.
And everyone should have a zombie survival kit ready.
A fun post. I enjoyed reading it.
Good luck with the sales.
Hi Linda, somehow I missed your comment yesterday. I'm hoping I get World War Z for Christmas this year. If I don't...I'll be getting it for myself. They're really fun, aren't they?
Eric, the hero in Hearstone, is a shapeshifter. But as he says, the canid form is his favorite :)
Hi Lorrie, oh, yeah, good point. Diamond earrings on the showerhead, maybe a diamond bracklet on the can opener. I could deal with that :)
Absolutely, everyone should have a zombie survival kit ready. A bug out bag (or as I sometimes call it - a boogie bag (cause I thing that sounds cooler)) is a good idea even if you're not fleeing from zombies. Cause you never know when the ghoulies or vamp's are gonna show up :)
After the year I got a hot-air popcorn popper for Christmas, I gave up on teaching my husband what constitutes a thoughtful gift. So now, when we can afford it, we buy each other a vacation!
Hi Bernadette,
That's not a bad idea...though we'd probably have to save for a bunch of years to get a vacation/gift :-)
Very intriguing, Lynda. *grinning* to your list of unusual gifts. My husband and I couldn't get it right for years so we decided to get tell each other about our gifts. There's never a surprise, but hey, I get flowers & GCs on my special events and he gets what he wants.
Smiles
Steph
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