BOOK BLITZ & GIVEAWAY & INTERVIEW - SIEGE by RHIANNON FRATER - AS THE WORLD DIES # 3

Today on Novels On The Run I have a BOOK BLITZ for SIEGE by RHIANNON FRATER. I have the synopsis, giveaway and an interview for you to check out.

Enjoy!!

Michelle

Siege by Rhiannon Frater 

Series: As the World Dies, #3

Publication date: April 30th 2013

by Tor Books 

Genre: Adult Horror 

Synopsis: 

Siege is the conclusion to Rhiannon Frater’s As the World Dies trilogy, which should appeal to fans of The Walking Dead. Both The First Days and Fighting to Survive won the Dead Letter Award from Mail Order Zombie. The First Days was named one of the Best Zombie Books of the Decade by the Harrisburg Book Examiner.

The zombie illness has shattered civilization. The survivors who have found tenuous safety in Texas defend their fort against the walking dead and living bandits.

Katie has made peace with the death of her wife and is pregnant and married to Travis, who has been elected Mayor. Jenni, her stepson, Jason; and Juan—Travis’s righthand man—are a happy family, though Jenni suffers from PTSD. Both women are deadly zombie killers. In Siege, the people of Ashley Oaks are stunned to discover that the vice president of the United States is alive and commanding the remnants of the US military. What’s left of the US government has plans for this group of determined survivors.

An Interview With Rhiannon Frater 

What was your inspiration for Nerit’s character and do you know anyone with similar military background?

I was inspired by three women I met at various points in my life. One was a young Israeli woman that inspired Nerit’s name, the other two were older Israeli women who were beautiful, intelligent, kind, and former Israeli snipers. While speaking to one, she explained that women made better snipers than the men because they are better shots and she shrugged off her talent as if it was nothing really unusual. She alluded to having taken lives, but didn’t seem particularly ruffled by this fact because she was doing her job. I marveled that someone so normal could have done something so extraordinary.

Nerit was born in a split second when I was writing the book and saw her standing on top of the old hunting store. I instantly understood the character and what she was all about. I think she is such a popular and fascinating character because she is the person who does what no one else can do. She is the master of doing the monstrous and terrible, yet retains her dignity. I love the fact that she’s 62, a woman, and yet a complete bad ass.

Did you do any research on psychopathology to write about the after effects on your character’s psyche?

A ton of research. Both by reading and speaking to people who have gone through terrible calamities. I was able to talk to survivors of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina and it gave me enormous insight into the mind of someone going through a life-altering experience like a national disaster.

Also, I read up on historical events that adversely affected humanity and how we survived. I remember one article that really struck me was how humans survive through community. That was just a profound realization. Most of the time zombie fans are in love with the lone survivor, or the groups of people fighting and destroying each other, but the reality of our history is that in the end we survive because of community.

As for the personal struggles, I did a lot of research on battered women for Jenni. The real challenge was Calhoun. Since Calhoun is schizophrenic, I had to understand how the illness affects his perceptions. I watched several videos where they depicted how someone who has schizophrenia and is unmedicated sees the world. It was extremely eye opening.

I’m a firm believer in creating realistic characters.

You could have chosen any place in the world for your characters to hole up in during the end of days, yet you chose to keep your setting close to home. What were the perks & drawbacks to writing about a setting familiar to you, as opposed to choosing one you must research or create?

Actually, the characters are in a setting that is not familiar to me. I live in a big city. I’ve not experienced the small town community that exists in the book. I observed how these small towns operate during my former job and was exposed to the reality of a small town. I remember marveling at how a city secretary knew the name of every person in her town and where they lived. I was amazed. During my travels, I absorbed the whole energy of these small towns and the people who lived in them and transferred that into Ashley Oaks. It was a great experience.

I think the only book I have written so far where I didn’t have to do research on the location was PRETTY WHEN SHE DIES because it takes place mostly in Austin, Texas where I live. That made writing a whole lot simpler!

If you were stranded on a desert island (with electricity?) what 3 things could you not live without?

My computer, my husband, my pets.

What book would you absolutely have to have with you, and why?

My novel THE TALE OF THE VAMPIRE BRIDE. It is the one book I definitely wrote just because I wanted to read it.

What 5 words would you use to describe yourself?

Texan, author, Goth, goofy, boring.

Goodreads:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15795539-siege

Book 1 Goodreads:

www.goodreads.com/book/show/9648068-the-first-days

Book 2 Goodreads: 

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6350211-fighting-to-survive 

AUTHOR BIO 

Rhiannon Frater is the award-winning author of the As the World Dies trilogy (The First Days, Fighting to Survive, Siege,) and the author of three other books: the vampire novels Pretty When She Dies and The Tale of the Vampire Bride and the young-adult zombie novel The Living Dead Boy and the Zombie Hunters. Inspired to independently produce her work from the urging of her fans, she published The First Days in late 2008 and quickly gathered a cult following. She won the Dead Letter Award back-to-back for both The First Days and Fighting to Survive, the former of which the Harrisburg Book Examiner called ‘one of the best zombie books of the decade.’ Rhiannon is currently represented by Hannah Gordon of the Foundry + Literary Media agency. You may contact her by sending an email to rhiannonfrater@gmail.com.

Author Links: 

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

GIVEAWAY TIME

USA/CAN ONLY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

BOOK BLITZ & GIVEAWAY & GUEST POSTS - PAPER BACK RELEASE OF FIGHTING TO SURVIVE by RHIANNON FRATER - AS THE WORLD DIES # 2 - TOR

Today on Novels On The Run I have the pleasure in helping spread the word about Rhiannon Frater's second book in her 'As The World Dies' trilogy, 'Fighting To Survive' going into paperback. * claps hands*  Very exciting to hear.

Giselle over at Xpresso Reads has her own Book Tours going on. So  if you are in need of a Book Tour for your book, head on over and chat to her.

Xpresso Book Tours

I have been following Rhiannon ever since I saw how enthusiastic Ashley over at The Bookish Brunette got for this series, back when The First Days she was reviewing. I am super excited I have the whole trilogy available to read and more excited knowing they are working their way into paperback format. Nothing like holding an exciting book, gripping the pages. I am a HUGE zombie fan. Thanks to Carrie Ryan , Jonathan Maberry, Lia Habel, Rusty Fischer  ......

I only just got a Kindle at Xmas time , so this will help in getting me reading loads of awesome books. Saves the butt being planted at the non laptop computer and the back aching after hours of staring at a computer screen. I highly recommend a Kindle. Also I won't get that chair pattern stamped into my butt and thighs. Always a bonus!! Woot!!

I had the choice of 3 Guest Posts to choose 1 for this Book Blitz. I had so much trouble choosing between 2 of them that I am breaking the rules and including both of them. You will see why.

Keep reading to see the AWESOME giveaway.

It is only open to USA and Canada.

Check the Rafflecopter. 

Fighting to Survive by Rhiannon Frater

 (As the World Dies, #2)  

Adult Zombie Series

Paperback Release: January 29th 2013

Tor Books

It’s time to clear the hotel.

The fort has grown crowded as survivors of the zombie apocalypse have found safety between its walls. Winter is coming; soon it will be too cold to live in tents and other makeshift shelters. The leaders of the survivors—Katie, Jenni, Juan, Travis, and Nerit—decide it’s time for an assault on the zombie-occupied hotel that looms over the town square.

A pitched battle in the banquet room is the start of a harrowing, room-by-room struggle from Reception to roof. As the sun sets, the people of Ashley Oaks gather in the hotel’s rooftop ballroom and gazebo to celebrate their survival. Gazing out over the beauty of the surrounding Texas countryside, it’s hard to believe that death and danger lurk around every corner.

The fort’s search and rescue teams have attracted unwanted attention from bandits who see the fort as competition for food . . . and as a ready source of women. The first attacks are minor, but everyone knows there is worse to come.

And beyond the fort’s walls, the zombies shamble, moaning, eyes fastened hungrily upon the living. 

GUEST POST 1

“It’s okay to cry now,” Katie murmured.

Jenni covered her face with her hands and wept.

For her dead children, for the dead world, and for her newfound freedom . . .

--THE FIRST DAYS

Genevieve Maria de la Lourdes Sanchez Williams Blakely (Jenni for short) is by the far the most complex and difficult character I have ever written in any of my novels. Perhaps for that very reason, she is the most beloved, yet hated character in the AS THE WORLD DIES trilogy.

Here are some examples of some of the comments in reviews and emails:

• "Jenni is so immature!" (I agree.)
• "Jenni is ignoring the fact her kids are dead!" (Yes, she definitely is.)
• "Jenni is crushing on Travis and her kids are dead!" (Yes, I know.)
• "Jenni's kids are dead! How could she not be catatonic?" (Yes, they are. She's wired up not to go catatonic.)
• "Jenni was abused! How can she deal with zombies?" (She can deal with zombies because she was abused.)

Jenni was the first character of the story that appeared on the movie screen in my mind. It was the image of her in her pink nightgown and robe staring at those tiny fingers under the front door that compelled me to jot down the short story that would evolve into AS THE WORLD DIES.

Without a doubt, Jenni was my muse throughout the trilogy, yet at times she was the most difficult character to write about.

Jenni's complexity really upsets some people. They want her to react how they would in the same situation, but Jenni is incapable of doing that. In fact, Jenni's past as an abused housewife is exactly why she will not respond the way people expect her to.

WHY JENNI FUNCTIONS WELL IN THE DEAD WORLD 

Battered women are some of the most misunderstood and vilified people in this country. People who have never been abused cannot fathom how anyone could possibly remain in an abusive relationship for years on end.

"If someone hit me, I'd be out of there!"

What people don't understand is that by the time the first blow is struck, the victim has been slowly broken down piece by piece both emotionally and mentally. Sadly, women like Jenni have been brainwashed into believing that they are the ones who brought on the violence. They take the responsibility for the action.

The abuser even says, "If only you wouldn't make me do this."

When Jenni was abused by Lloyd, she believed she deserved it. And she also believed she could change it. The abuser always gives the victim a false sense of control. "If only you wouldn't make me angry. If only you wouldn't make me be this way."

Add in the cycle of abuse with its honeymoon phase where the abuser becomes Prince Charming and it's very easy for a victim to grasp onto the idea that their actions can somehow make it all better. What they don't understand is that the honeymoon stage is followed by the tension building stage which ends in the explosion of violence.

And then it starts all over again.

Living in a high-stress, violent situation from day to day forces the mind to create coping mechanisms that both help and hurt the victims of abuse. The mind will neatly slice away memories so that the victim doesn't remember that the abuser was recently violent. The mind will compartmentalize the emotions and reactions of the victim so they can go about their every day life in a "normal" manner.

For example, the victim could have been strangled nearly into unconsciousness that morning, but the mind's coping mechanisms will kick in allowing the victim to cover up the bruises and carry on with the day with a smile.

When researching for Jenni, I realized that her ability to live in a life threatening situation on a daily basis in her abusive household would enable her to survive the zombocalypse. All the coping mechanisms everyone at the fort needs to develop to survive the emotional turmoil of the death of the world are already firmly entrenched in Jenni's mind.

Jenni definitely ignores the death of her children and not even on a conscious level. Her coping mechanisms have compartmentalized all the pain and terror into one portion of her mind, allowing her to continue living. Her mind is more than able to deal with the high levels of stress Jenni experiences when the zombies rise, because it is used to coping with life and death situations.

JENNI'S IMMATURITY 

When THE FIRST DAY opens, Jenni has been living in a very violent marriage with a man who controlled her every waking moment day by day. Married and a mother since eighteen, Jenni's whole adult life has been as a trophy wife to her control freak husband. She is immensely immature when it comes to social interactions.

Jenni wasn’t sure she liked any of them. But then again, Jenni had never really had any real relationships with any women other than members of her family and, now, Katie. It annoyed her to feel her past insecurity returning. --THE FIRST DAYS

Jenni's first real friendship is with Katie. Katie becomes her best friend, her sister, and at times a mother figure. Because of Jenni's past, she doesn't know how to interact with Katie at first. This leads to an awkward moment when she tries to comfort Katie with sex (even though Jenni is straight).

“Don’t. I’m not your husband. I don’t need sex to comfort me.” Katie held Jenni firmly. She realized in that instant that part of her had been waiting for this. Subconsciously, she had recognized that Jenni was looking for security in this new world. And that would mean fitting Katie into a role Jenni understood. Jenni was used to a strong male figure, one she could calm with sex, follow obediently, and maybe fear a little.- THE FIRST DAYS

Jenni is also looking for a protector in the men she meets in the fort in Ashley Oaks. As a battered woman, she was under the false impression that Lloyd was protecting her from the evils of the world. Unsure of herself, she clings to the idea of someone protecting her (as Katie protected her when they escaped the city). Her very childish and immature crush on Travis, the man she sees as the leader of the fort, is a coping mechanism.

JENNI'S DEAD CHILDREN 

One aspect of Jenni's character that baffles some people is the fact that she doesn't completely fall apart because of the death of her children and become catatonic.

Throughout the series, Jenni refuses to discuss her children and when she does it is only to Katie and in a very limited way. Basically, Jenni lives in a state of denial and disassociates from reality. Her mind is very adept at compartmentalizing her darker emotions. By not thinking about her dead children, she doesn't cope with their deaths.

One of the main arcs of Jenni's personal story is that she does not fully deal with the death of her children. In her waking hours she is able to recreate herself as a zombie killer and molds her persona to be something other than the cowed woman she was before the zombocalypse. This is even noted by Katie on more than one occasion. When Jenni loses everything, it allows her to remake herself into someone she wants to be.


But her past does haunt her. Jenni suffers severe nightmares about her children and has several bad moments when she loses her grip on reality.

JENNI ISN'T OKAY AND THAT IS WHY SHE SURVIVES 

Jenni is probably the most popular character in the books because of all of the issues addressed above. Jenni's ass-kickin', zombie-killin' exterior is at war with her fragile, tormented interior. Jenni's fans understand that for her killing zombies is revenge for the death of her children. Over and over again, she kills the creatures that destroyed her life. Each and every zombie is a substitute for her dead husband Lloyd, the man who abused her and eventually killed her children. Jenni's need and desire for the love she never had in her life before the zombies draws her to people in sometimes unhealthy ways, but it also enables her to form strong friendships. The guilt she suffers for not saving her two younger children compels her to be a better mother to her stepson.

In the end, the death of the world gave Jenni a new life. And she embraced it. 

GUEST POST 2

The AS THE WORLD DIES trilogy was optioned for TV in 2009. Yes, that long ago. At the time many people hoped that the option meant that we would get to see a zombie TV show in the very near future.

To some degree they were right. Soon after the AS THE WORLD DIES trilogy was picked up by Tor, AMC announced THE WALKING DEAD TV show. The producer who had optioned my books had hoped ATWD would be the first zombie TV show, but we were beaten to the punch by Frank Darabont. It was soon apparent that Hollywood was going to sit back and wait to see how THE WALKING DEAD TV show performed before greenlighting anymore zombie TV shows.

The last few years have been an tremendous learning experience for me about how Hollywood works. Every book I have written thus far has been optioned for a possible film or TV project. I have seen the various projects moving through the process at different speeds. I have read three scripts based on my work and have enjoyed having some input. I have spoken to the director attached to one of the projects, which was very exciting.

Will there be an AS THE WORLD DIES TV show? I really have no idea. I'm an optimist by nature, but a realist by life lessons. If it happens, I will be ecstatic. If not, I will still have learned a lot about the process of bringing a project to the small (and big) screen and how to write a script! I have been very lucky in that everyone I have worked with so far has been a really great person.

A lot of my fans ask me who I would like to see in the roles of my characters. I don't cast actors in the roles of my characters when I write. My characters just tend to look like themselves. But I have given some thought to who I would like to see bring Jenni and Katie and the others to life.

Jenni and Katie

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15792856-fighting-to-survive  

Rhiannon Frater is the award-winning author of the As the World Dies trilogy (The First Days, Fighting to Survive, Siege,) and the author of three other books: the vampire novels Pretty When She Dies and The Tale of the Vampire Bride and the young-adult zombie novel The Living Dead Boy and the Zombie Hunters. Inspired to independently produce her work from the urging of her fans, she published The First Days in late 2008 and quickly gathered a cult following. She won the Dead Letter Award back-to-back for both The First Days and Fighting to Survive, the former of which the Harrisburg Book Examiner called ‘one of the best zombie books of the decade.’ Rhiannon is currently represented by Hannah Gordon of the Foundry + Literary Media agency. You may contact her by sending an email to rhiannonfrater@gmail.com.



Author Links:
Website: http://www.rhiannonfrater.com

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2310121.Rhiannon_Frater
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rhiannon.frater
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rhiannonfrater

GIVEAWAY TIME

The giveaway is for one copy of book 1 and one copy of book 2--the mass market releases. 

Open to US & Canadian addresses.

 Ends February 10th, 2013.

a Rafflecopter giveaway