Blurb
When Dallas resident
Callie Taylor died young, she expected to go to Heaven, or maybe Hell. Instead,
when she met her fate early thanks to a creep with a knife and a mommy complex,
she went to Alabama. Now she's witnessed another murder, and she's not about to
let this one go. She's determined to help solve it before an innocent man goes
to prison. And to answer the biggest question of all: why the hell did she wake
up dead in Alabama?
Excerpt:
As
Molly straightened up, the man slipped the wire over her head and twisted it
around her neck. She struggled, but he pulled the garrote tighter and tighter.
I
was screaming at the top of my ghostly voice, for all the good it did me. I
moved up behind the man and beat at his back with closed fists--fists that
slipped in and out of his back without ever making real contact. He shuddered a
little--clearly he was one of the very slightly sensitive ones--but he didn’t
loosen his hands.
I
reached up and tried to grab the wire, tried to pull against the pressure he
was exerting on the wire and it did loosen for an instant. But only for an
instant. The living have more control over solid
objects than the dead do. I never resented that fact more than at that moment.
But
I kept trying. I kept trying as Molly’s face turned purple, then blue, then
black, kept trying even as she drooped in the man’s grip.
Then
he loosened the wire and it was too late. I watched that wispy, light-on-fog
life force slip out of Molly and move on to wherever it is that other people go
when they die. I was glad she didn’t show up next to me as a full-blown ghost.
At that moment, I wouldn’t have wished my impotent half-existence on anyone.
I
couldn’t help thinking that if I’d been alive, I might have been able to save
her.
If
I could have cried real tears, I would have. As it was, I was sobbing hoarsely
and calling the man every dirty name I could think of.
I
was still cursing as I followed him around the kitchen. First he opened the
pantry and pulled out a box of Hefty garbage bags. Then he grabbed a knife out
of the block on the counter. And finally, he picked up Molly’s body and carried
it to the bathroom.
_____________________________________________
About the Author
Margo Bond Collins lives in Texas with her husband, their
daughter, several spoiled cats, and a ridiculous turtle. She teaches college-level
English courses online, though writing fiction is her first love. She enjoys
reading urban fantasy and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of
her free time daydreaming about vampires, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, and
other monsters. Waking Up Dead is her first published novel. Her second novel,
Legally Undead, is an urban fantasy, forthcoming in 2014 from World Weaver
Press.
_____________________________________________
Interview
Please
tell us about yourself.
In my other life, I’m a college professor; I teach
English courses online. I live in Texas with my husband and our daughter and a
number of thoroughly silly animals. Waking
Up Dead is my first published novel. My second novel, Legally Undead, is an urban fantasy forthcoming in 2014 from World
Weaver Press. I got the offers to publish the two novels in the same month.
That was officially the best month of my life!
Tell
us about your book.
In Waking
Up Dead, when Dallas resident Callie Taylor died young, she expected to go
to Heaven, or maybe Hell. Instead, she met her fate early thanks to a creep
with a knife and a mommy complex. Now she's witnessed another murder, and she's
not about to let this one go. She's determined to help solve it before an
innocent man goes to prison. And to answer the biggest question of all: why the
hell did she wake up in Alabama?
What
inspired you to write Waking up Dead?
I wrote Waking
Up Dead when I lived in Alabama for a few years. I remember driving to work
one morning and seeing just a wisp of fog move across the statue in the middle
of the town square. The statue was of some Civil War figure, and thought that
it looked oddly ghostly. In between teaching classes that day, I started
writing Callie’s story.
How
many hours per week do you spend writing?
These days I do my
very best to spend at least an hour a day writing fiction. But I do a lot of
non-fiction writing, too, so I spend much more time than that writing overall!
If
you could meet three authors, which authors would you choose?
I’m worried I would
go all star-struck and not be able to say anything coherent! But assuming I
could keep my wits about me, I would like to meet (in no particular order):
Neil Gaiman, because he’s so bloody brilliant; Charles Stross, whose sense of
the absurd always delights me; and Anne Aguirre, because she’s so beautifully
outspoken about what it means to be a woman who writes science fiction.
What
are you working on at the moment?
Piles of projects!
I’m currently doing a round of edits to Legally Undead, the first of the
Vampirarchy urban fantasy series coming out from World Weaver Press in 2014.
I’m working on the sequels to Waking Up Dead and Legally Undead. I’m working on
a contemporary romance novel. I’m editing a number of academic projects,
too—mostly collections of essays about science fiction and fantasy televisions
series like Farscape, The Vampire Diaries, and Supernatural.
When
did you know you wanted to become an author?
I’ve always known, for as long as I can remember. The
first story I remember actually writing down was basically fan-fiction of The Wizard of Oz. I wrote it in
long-hand in a yellow legal pad. I’ve been writing ever since.
How
long did it take you to write Waking up
Dead from start to finish?
Six weeks. I tend
to write very quickly and steadily anyway, and Waking Up Dead flowed fairly
easily.
What is
your editing process like?
I edit on the
sentence level as I go, changing things around as necessary. But I also tend to
write in scenes, and if a scene isn’t working, I will simply put a reminder in
brackets—something like this: [FIX THIS SCENE].
Then I move on. So the first editing step is always to do a search for
those brackets and do my best to address the issues. Once I’ve done that, I do
a read-through for plot coherence. Then I do a final read-through for any other
issues. And then I quit for a while so I
can get some distance before I come back to it for a final proofreading session.
What
was the most challenging part about writing Waking
up Dead?
Making sure the mystery made sense! About halfway
through I figured out that I was going to need to solve the mystery before the
characters did! So at that point I decided where I was headed, generally—but
the characters took me where I needed to go.
What
are your writing goals for 2014?
Always keep
writing! I have three works in progress that I plan to complete. And I also
have two others that I want to get to. So I guess that means my goal is to
finish five novels. (I’m suddenly realizing that I might be insane . . . )
Connect with Margo
Be
sure to add Waking Up Dead to your
Goodreads bookshelves: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18428064-waking-up-dead
_____________________________________________
Book Trailers:
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