Book 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?
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“Hey,” I said, hurrying after the woman. “Wait up.”
“I know you’re not talking to me,” she said. She stared straight ahead and pushed her cart down the middle of the aisle toward housewares.
“I am talking to you. Look. I know this is really weird, but I need your help.”
“Well, I’m not talking to you. I don’t know what your problem is, but you can take it somewhere else.”
I wanted to reach out and grab her cart, to make her stop and talk to me, but of course I couldn’t. Which gave me an idea.
I scurried out in front of her, planting myself in her path.
“Move,” she said.
“Not until you hear me out. Please?”
She moved her cart to the left. I stepped out to intercept her. She moved to the right. So did I.
“You got some kind of death wish or something?” she asked.
I laughed and shook my head. “If only you knew.”
“I’ve got no time for this,” she said. And she slammed into me with her shopping cart.
At least, that’s what she planned to do.
The shopping cart, however, slid right through me. When it stopped, the basket had sliced cleanly through my midsection. The bottom rack merged with my ankles. From my perspective, it looked like two perfectly solid objects--me and the shopping cart--had melted together. I don’t know what she saw.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
The woman’s eyes widened, then rolled up into her head as she slumped to the ground in a dead faint.
I bent down to try to wake her up, but no matter how hard I concentrated on making contact, I couldn’t even touch her.
I hate being a ghost.
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.
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 . . . )
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.
Connect with Margo
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/margobondcollins
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
Tumblr: http://vampirarchybooks.tumblr.com/
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/mbondcollins/
Book Excerpt
“I know you’re not talking to me,” she said. She stared straight ahead and pushed her cart down the middle of the aisle toward housewares.
“I am talking to you. Look. I know this is really weird, but I need your help.”
“Well, I’m not talking to you. I don’t know what your problem is, but you can take it somewhere else.”
I wanted to reach out and grab her cart, to make her stop and talk to me, but of course I couldn’t. Which gave me an idea.
I scurried out in front of her, planting myself in her path.
“Move,” she said.
“Not until you hear me out. Please?”
She moved her cart to the left. I stepped out to intercept her. She moved to the right. So did I.
“You got some kind of death wish or something?” she asked.
I laughed and shook my head. “If only you knew.”
“I’ve got no time for this,” she said. And she slammed into me with her shopping cart.
At least, that’s what she planned to do.
The shopping cart, however, slid right through me. When it stopped, the basket had sliced cleanly through my midsection. The bottom rack merged with my ankles. From my perspective, it looked like two perfectly solid objects--me and the shopping cart--had melted together. I don’t know what she saw.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
The woman’s eyes widened, then rolled up into her head as she slumped to the ground in a dead faint.
I bent down to try to wake her up, but no matter how hard I concentrated on making contact, I couldn’t even touch her.
I hate being a ghost.
Book Trailers
Trailer 1
Trailer 2
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.
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 . . . )
Author Info
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/margobondcollins
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
Tumblr: http://vampirarchybooks.tumblr.com/
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/mbondcollins/
Thanks for hosting Waking Up Dead today!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the interview, Toots, Margo. Looks like it's going to the top of the charts. I''m looking forward to the read. My list is so long I need a surrogate reader.
ReplyDelete