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
Okay. Maybe hell. It’s not like I was perfect or anything. But I was sort of hoping for heaven.
Instead, I went to Alabama.
Yeah. I know. It’s weird.
I died in Dallas, my hometown. I was killed, actually. Murdered. I’ll spare you the gruesome details. I don’t like to remember them myself. Some jerk with a knife--and probably a Bad-Mommy complex. Believe me, if I knew where he was, I’d go haunt his ass.
At any rate, by the time death came, I was ready for it--ready to stop hurting, ready to let go. I didn’t even fight it.
And then I woke up dead in Alabama. Talk about pissed off.
You know, even reincarnation would have been fine with me--I could have started over, clean slate and all that. Human, cow, bug. Whatever. But no. I ended up haunting someplace I’d never even been.
That’s not the way it’s supposed to work, right? Ghosts are supposed to be the tortured spirits of those who cannot let go of their earthly existence. If they could be convinced to follow the light, they’d leave behind said earthly existence and quit scaring the bejesus out of the poor folks who run across them. That’s what all those “ghost hunter” shows on television tell us.
Let me tell you something. The living don’t know jack about the dead.
Not this dead chick, anyway.
Interview with Margo Bond Collins
Q:Welcome Margo, first I'd like thank you for stopping by, it's nice to meet you. Please
tell us about yourself.
Q: Congratulations! That definitely qualifies as a good month. Tell us about Waking Up Dead.
A: 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?
Q: Sounds like a fun read! What inspired you to write Waking up Dead?
A: 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.
Q:I agree creepy statues can be very inspirational! So on to the fun questions, If you could meet three authors, which authors would you choose?
A: 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.
Q: Gaiman is one of my favorites too! He doesn't know it yet, but he plans on taking me to dinner and telling me bedtime stories ;) but that is not what we are here to talk about is it. So, what are you currently working on?
A: 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.
Q:Whew, more power to you! A busy writer is a happy writer. What was the most challenging part about writing Waking up Dead?
A: 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.
Q: When did you know you wanted to become an author?
Q:Fun stuff. I did a similar thing with Pippy Longstalking when I was a kid. I wanted my own adventure with her, so I wrote myself into the story...two redheads can get into a lot of trouble -- I had some great adventures with Pip. You mentioned earlier that you were a fast writer - you said it took you six weeks from start to finish to write Waking Up Dead, I'm interested in what your editing process is like?
A: 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.
Q: Thank you so much for visiting and writing interesting stories. I have one more question for you, and by your level of busyness, I can tell that this will be easy for you to answer -What can we expect from you in 2014?
A: 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 . . . )
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.Buy Waking Up Dead on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Waking-Up-Dead-ebook/dp/B00FOXWLM8/
Email: MargoBondCollins@gmail.com
Website: http://www.MargoBondCollins.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MargoBondCollin @MargoBondCollin
Google+: https://plus.google.com/116484555448104519902
Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/vampirarchy
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/MargoBondCollins
Facebook Novel Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Waking-Up-Dead/502076076537575
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