Amanda Hocking

I was originally going to call this the “Halloween Zombie Package” but I changed it to “Ultimate,” because it’s just that ultimate.

I gathered together a number of zombie items that I felt truly represented the spirit of Zombiepalooza, and I will be giving them away in one ultimate package. What will be included in said ultimate giveaway? Well, I’m glad you asked. Here it is:

One “Brains” 24×36 poster so you have a reminder of what the undead look like

One soundtrack to “28 Days Later” on CD to listen to while you battle zombies

One copy of “Zombie Survival Guide” by Max Brooks in paperback to ensure your survival in the zombie apocalypse

One copy of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” in paperback because even zombies love the classics

One copy of “Breathers” by S. G. Brown in paperback because zombies need love, too

The first book in “The Walking Dead” graphic novels that spawned the hit zombie TV show

Season one of “The Walking Dead” on Bluray

See? I told you it was the Ultimate Zombie Giveaway.

Here’s the details about the giveaway itself:
1. All seven items are included in one grand prize. All books listed are paperbacks, because in the event of a zombie apocalypse, there might not be any power to charge your Kindles and nooks. And the season of “The Walking Dead” is on Bluray.
2. The giveaway runs from today until midnight on Friday, October 21, 2011, so I can get it out to you in time for Halloween.
3. To enter: Comment below and with a way to contact you in case you win (email addresses work best).
4. Only one entry per person.
5. Winner will be chosen by Random.org.

Robert Duperre is offering up a pretty fantastic giveaway. One grandprize winner will get four paperbacks, and two runner-ups will win four four ebooks in a format of their choice. So what are these books up for grabs?

An ancient evil, trapped in the ruins of a lost Mayan temple for centuries, has been unleashed. It takes the form of a deadly virus that causes violent insanity in the living and the recently departed to rise and walk. The blight spreads around the globe, throwing the world into chaos and war.

Regular people are hurled into an existence outside their control, left to deal with a terror they aren’t prepared to handle. Life becomes a nightmare, and that nightmare is spreading.

THE RIFT is comprised of four books:

The Fall
Dead of Winter (available now)
Death Springs Eternal (January 2012)
The Summer Son (June 2012) 

Winter arrives, and with it the Storm. Snow piles up, turning the landscape into a white prison. The survivors of Wrathchild’s plague struggle to survive. With loneliness and doubt creeping in, they must choose: stay in isolation with their dwindling resources, or journey south, taking a chance in a realm where the undead walk.

This is the terror facing the characters in Dead of Winter, the sequel to The Fall by Robert J. Duperre. With darkness all around them and the mystery of humanity’s unraveling growing deeper each day, they must delve into their reservoir of strength to move forward.



 …Three brothers traipse across a post-apocalyptic landscape, encountering unspeakable horrors…
A young boy growing up in suburban hell thinks there might be more to his home town than meets the eye, what with all the children going missing…
…A woman dying of cancer is given a way out, if only she is willing to pay the price…
…The crew of a space station must battle their fears and a strange alien relic when they are isolated from humanity…
These stories and more await inside the pages of The Gate: 13 Dark & Odd Tales, the new compilation by Robert J. Duperre. Also contributing to this collection are the talented Mercedes M. Yardley, David Dalglish, David McAfee, and Daniel Pyle. 

In Silas, Ken Lowery is a man at odds with his life. He hates his job, is disappointed in his marriage, and feels resigned to leading a mundane existence.

That all changes when his wife brings home a rambunctious Black Labrador puppy named Silas, who forges a remarkable connection with Ken and begins to heal his inner turmoil. When some neighborhood children start to go missing, he takes it upon himself to protect those around him and is thrust into a surreal world where monsters roam. Not everything is what it seems to be, he soon discovers, including his new best friend.

Now that you know what you’re winning, here’s how you enter:

1. Leave a comment on this blog with a way to contact you. (Email addresses work best).
2. Only one entry per person.
3. The giveaway runs from now until midnight on October 31, 2011 with the winner announced November 1, 2011.
4. Winners will be chosen by random.org.
5. One first prize one winner will receive the four paperbacks listed above, and two runner-ups will receive four e-versions of the same four books listed above.

The first post of Zombiepalooza comes from Robert Duperre, author of The Fall (The Rift Book I), Dead of Winter (The Rift Book II), and Silas. He’s also going to be offering a pretty awesome Zombiepalooza giveaway tomorrow. Here’s his take on the Top Ten Horror Movies of All Time:

Horror movies rock…well, at least the well-made ones do. Through the years I’ve immersed myself in the genre so much that sometimes I feel like I need to watch at least one every week. There’s just something about what a good horror flick can make you feel – scared, disgusted, relieved – that draws me in. So right now I’d like to give you all a little taste of my favorite ten horror movies of all time.

Spoiler – you’re not gonna find any slasher flicks here, folks.

#10 – Hellraiser

So what do we have here? Despicable humans? Check. Inter-dimensional demons? Check. A frightened yet strong female protagonist? Check. A storyline involving a creepy puzzle box and a spinning pole covered with sharp hooks and human remains? Check, and check. In other words, even though Clive Barker’s adaptation of his own novella, The Hellbound Heart, doesn’t quite reach the levels of dread and terror achieved in the source material, it’s still a damn fine film…and the perfect sinister date movie, at that. Well, if your date appreciates dismemberment and cannibalism, that is.

#9 – Alien

When I first saw this movie at twelve years old, the chest-burster scene frightened me so bad that I had nightmares for weeks. With the passage of time this particular flick has gotten much less terrifying, but it still has to be appreciated for being the movie that brought the female heroine into vogue, which I’m sure we all appreciate. Also, its subplot involving a group of blue-collar muckers on their way back home, being looked at as expendable by their employers, who only want a buck, resonates quite true in our modern times.

Oh, and the alien itself is freaking awesome.


#8 – An American Werewolf in London

Now this one is an oddity. At first I wasn’t sure whether I should put it on this list, even though I love it. It is strangely more of a comedy than a horror flick, though the horror elements, especially toward the end, really start to take over. The transformation Rick Baker created – when David turns into the werewolf – remains, to me, the greatest in film history. I suppose what I’m saying is that the film is just too good not to be on the list, and who’s saying a terrifying story can’t be humorous, too? And I guess that’s the point. Life’s too short to not laugh at even the most horrific of circumstances sometimes.

#7 – Rosemary’s Baby

I’m not usually a fan of movies that use Satanism and the occult as a plot vehicle. This isn’t because I’m opposed to the use of that particular aspect as a rule, but because, let’s face it, most of the time they’re boring. (The Devil’s Rain, anyone?)

In fact, to some Rosemary’s Baby might also fall into this category of tedious Devil-obsessed filmmaking. But to me, it’s almost perfect. Yes it moves slow (as many films made in the seventies tend to be), but that gradual buildup to the big reveal at the end is a practice in patience, letting the plot unwind as the tension and mystery mounts. What could have been hokey ended up as a gritty and chilling tale that doesn’t utilize gore or violence to build its terror, but atmosphere. And Mia Farrow is absolutely stunning as the tragic Rosemary Woodhouse, a woman who suffers the grandest injustice imaginable – being raped by the devil. And yeah, there’s more than a little metaphor to be found there, as well.

#6 – Videodrome

From one extreme to another, coming to a film that uses violence, gore, and graphic images of self-mutilation as its major storytelling vehicles. Cronenberg’s paranoid opus about the onset of the television culture, censorship, and mind control is a frightening – and disgusting – experience. James Woods is fantastic as the conflicted Max Renn, and Debby Harry is alluring, sexual, and oddly sinister as Nicki Brand, a woman who may or may not end up existing wholly in Max’s head. In fact, plots influenced by concepts from this film can be seen much later, in movies like 8MM, Shocker, The Ring (Ringu), and Cronenberg’s own eXistenZ.


#5 – Frailty

My first thought when I saw the trailer for this movie was, Thanks but no thanks. Bill Paxton and Matthew McConaughey carrying the day? The overactor and the pretty surfer boy, in one movie, and a movie that’s supposed to be genuinely scary, too? I don’t think so.

Eventually I relented, though, and I’m glad I did – obviously, since Frailty is number five on my list. It’s a deeply haunting, depressing, and truly freaking menacing tale of a father who kills people, believing it to be God’s Work, and indoctrinates his sons into his craziness. Paxton reels himself in for once as the father, and McConaughey is refreshingly understated as his son, all growed up. The tone is extremely bleak, and sad. And the twist at the end I completely didn’t see coming, which made me love it all the more.

#4 – The Thing

A bunch of guys stationed at an Antarctic research facility run across an alien being. We all know the plot (at least we should), and we’ll just ignore the fact that, even though this is a scientific expedition, there seems to be only 2 scientists among the 12 team members. These are unimportant facts, people. We want aliens, we want blood, and we want terror…with maybe some uncomfortable situations added in.

Well, that’s what we got.

Though similar to Alien in certain regards, including the fact that the interplay between the characters gets much more screen time than the respective monsters, Carpenter did a fantastic job in this movie of ratcheting up the tension through paranoia. Since the thing can assimilate any living organism, no one knows who is human and who isn’t. The silent moments, such as when Kurt Russell’s McCready goes down the line, testing his compatriots’ bood samples, speaks volumes. There are quite a few instances where a simple look or shake of the head is used in place of dialogue, and it really, really works. Not only that, but the monster’s appearance, once we do see it, is so disgusting and visceral that it seems to take all the anxiety built up through the rest of the movie and unload it in one final, ghastly wallop.

#3 – The Descent

I’ll be honest with you here – The Descent was one of those movies that I had to shut off in the middle, just to catch my breath. It follows the travails of six adventure-seeking female friends as they have to battle demons, both real and personal, when a spelunking escapade goes horribly wrong.

What sets this film apart for me, and makes it beyond great, is that it’s really two movies in one. The first half is pure rigidity, watching as these girls become sealed into the claustrophobic underground cavern they’re exploring. The tension is real-life stuff, and my heart was racing just watching it. And you know what? This actually enhances the second half of the movie, when the nasties show up and the body count grows. If it had started with the creepy crawlies, without first setting us up for the fall with the brilliant opening sequences, it could have ended up as a rather sucky film. But it doesn’t. In fact, I’m tempted to put this on my All Time movie list, not just horror. It’s that good. Full of shocks, angst, and offering a refreshing look at the nature of female relationships, it’s pretty much the perfect movie.

#2 – Jacob’s Ladder

Most great art has something to say, even if that something is left to the viewer’s imagination. And that’s what Jacob’s Ladder embodies – the ambiguity of abstract art, replete with frightening images and personal angst. Tim Robbins does a bang-up job, and the mystery of the world he exists in never makes itself known until the end – and even then, what happens leading up to that point of the tale is open to interpretation. I can think of no greater praise for a film than the fact it’s remained viable ever since the day I first watched it, and each subsequent viewing brings an even fresher perspective. That makes this more than a horror movie, and puts it in the realm of simply great moviemaking, period.

#1 – Dawn of the Dead

Ah, the pinnacle of my movie-watching experience. The reason I write what I write, the director who changed my life, the film that got me obsessed with zombies and directly led to my first novel.

For myself, there’s never been a movie more inspirational than this. The entire storyline is one huge metaphor, with bunches of smaller metaphors scattered throughout. The unknown cast (never seen them before, nor since) lends a sort of believability to the film, as they pretty much look and act like anyone we’ve ever met. Yes, the look is a bit dated, but in a way that adds to its charm. It’s a reflection of where we were as a society in the late seventies, which I love. Seeing our survivors running past Foxmoor Casuals only serves as a reminder of how fickle and temporary our consumer society can be. And when the bikers arrive and the intestines start flowing? Heavy, man. Just freaking heavy.

Number one in my book. All-time, regardless of genre. Without a doubt.

What do you all think?

It’s that time of the year again, folks. There’s a crisp chill to the air. The leaves are changing colors. The stores are filled with slutty costumes. And the undead are roaming the Earth.

Yes, it’s Zombiepalooza! Last year I did 31 posts, and that ended up being a bit much. So this year I trimmed it down a bit, but there’s still plenty of great posts and awesome of giveaways. It’s kicking off tomorrow with a guestpost from Robert Duperre with a lost of the greatest horror movies to help you plan this holiday season’s viewing.

I’ll also have some Hollowmen info as the month goes on, which I know a lot of you are excited about. However, Hollowmen will NOT be out this month. It won’t be out until November, and I’m not sure of the exact day.

Meanwhile, you can keep track of the cool Zombiepalooza stuff going on this month thanks with the tab at the top.

But for right now, here’s Jonathan Coulton’s “Re: Your Brains” to get you in the mood:

I have good news! The release date for the St. Martin’s edition of Switched has been bumped up from January 24th to January 3rd! That’s a whole three weeks earlier!

Word on the street is that the reasoning for this is because a major retailer wanted to give Switched a big push, and they didn’t want it so close to the Hunger Games film release, so Switched doesn’t get eclipsed by all you Hunger Games fanatics.

And me, I’m excited about it because I won’t have to wait so long for you guys to read the books. I’m on pins and needles waiting for you all to check out the three brand new short stories and a couple choice extended scenes in each of the books.

Onto the second bit of good news – OMFG! Have you checked out blink 182’s new album “Neighborhoods?” It’s crazy awesome.

I’ll admit to being at first skeptical that blink would ever come out with a new album, and then afraid that it wouldn’t be any good. But it totally picked up where their last album left off 8 years ago, and it exploded into something awesome and better. They managed to combine my favorite parts of both Mark and Tom’s side projects – (+44) and Angels and Airwaves, respectively – into their new music but still keep it sounding uniquely blink.

If you haven’t bought the album yet, go buy the deluxe version. It’s completely worth for the bonus track “Fighting with Gravity,” which I am ridiculously in love with.

Meanwhile, I’ve been reading Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, and it’s very interesting. I want to start a book club to talk about because none of my real life friends have read it. After that, I plan on reading Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt. It’s gotten some flack over the years, but I think it’d still be a worthwhile read. So if you want to get in on the book club, that’s what’s next.

Also, I’m not taking a vote on what we read for this book club. I’m just picking things that I feel like reading, and asking you to join me. You don’t have to. But if you want to, I’d like it. Right now I’m going through a WWII phase. It happens.

I’m congruently re-reading Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut along with Auschwitz, because it’s such a fabulous book. But reading Mother Night along with actual accounts of what happened in WWII really adds a whole new layer to the book. I’d highly recommend it.

In conclusion: Switched out January 3, 2012! Go buy blink 182’s Neighborhoods (Deluxe Edition)! And read Auschwitz if you want to join my unofficial book club!