Dead Trees By Eli Constant, On Sale NOW!

21/3/2014

One of my favourite authors has her first novel DEAD TREES on sale.

If you're a follower of this blog, you'll have heard me big up her talents on numerous occasions, and today is no different.

With the release of DEAD TREES 2 only weeks away (Woooo- freaking-hooooooo) it's time to grab a copy of DEAD TREES while it's on SALE catch up with Elise and her family, and be prepared for the sequel.

If you love post-apocalyptic horror novels with a taste of innocence, you'll love this book.



Eli's Social & Website Links

www.eliconstant.com | Twitter
Facebook | Books on Amazon
Goodreads | Wordpress

Dead Trees Blurb

Subterranean humanoids, existing since the dawn of man, arose from the belly of the planet. Humanity was unprepared. The undergrounders came with nails and claws and speed to kill people in the night, dragging bodies downward into dark tunnels teeming with rabid life. Civilization is now a ghost of yesterday and the remaining humans fight for survival.

One thing’s for sure- a scientist mommy battling beasties better be handy with a scalpel.

Elise Swanson is a widow and mother. She fights and prays that she can keep her little, broken family safe. She drives and drives, day after day, trying to escape a threat that seems… inescapable. Her hope fades, food is scarce and she watches her eldest daughter’s attempts to soothe the younger babe. Then she meets Jason- a father mourning the loss of his son, masking his pain with bravado and charm. He’s strong, despite his sadness, and love re-grows within him. Weeks pass and Jason’s singular desire becomes the continued safety of Elise and her daughters.

Bloody fights with beasties define the survival-road the companions travel. Even a few moments of safety and relaxation elude the group; time and time again, Elise must kiss her children goodbye, just in case tomorrow never arrives.

Against all odds, they reach a government safe zone. Even there, Elise finds that there’s no rest for the weary.

Doctors O’Toole and Peters have been studying the beasties under lock and key, trying to find an answer, but the doctors aren’t interested in saving humanity. Forced to lead two lives, Elise assists the good doctors in their pursuits while working secretly in sublevel lab 8 with her own team, Nick and Jamie. Their combined knowledge may be the key- the only hope humanity has of reclaiming the planet from the beasties. As long as they can keep their research secret, safe from O’Toole and Peters, they might discover the way home, the formula to click Dorothy’s sparkling red shoes three times and begin to recreate Earth as it was… before the humanoids came out to play on the surface.

What will happen when Elise, a neural engineer, Jamie, a medical researcher, and Nick, a computer wizard, are humanity’s best hope? The answer might be surprising. Wrapped up in all the uncertainty, violence, science lingo and beasties, they will find a strange solution to a new Earth.

And her name is Margaret.

Below is an excerpt to give you a taste of how brilliant Dead Trees is!

Dead Trees Excerpt & Cover

As my eyes adjusted, the details became clearer.

The form seemed to be a human child, well past the normal gestation period. It was roughly the size of an 18 month old toddler, maybe a tad smaller… or bigger. It was hard to tell through the distortion of water and curved tank walls.

There was a feeding tube connected to the lower abdominal area that stretched to the side of the tank where an external device pumped nutrients. The hair was under grown for the age and floated away from the scalp- about two inches in length.

Something in the appearance of the child wasn’t quite normal. The face was a tad too elongated and the fingers a bit too bony.

The reality of what was before me hit me like a freight train. I staggered back in horror and fell over my own feet. My ass hit the ground hard and my tailbone ached from the impact. The jolt gave me a reminder of my not-so-healed ribs and bruised side.

“No… no way. No way did they do… what I think they did.”

I got up from the ground and stumbled to the monitor. The lines of code and command had stopped. In its stead was an analysis report on subject: Sheila-2.

I moved the cursor around the screen. When it hit the subject name, an underline appeared. I clicked and the screen shifted. Now I could see a conception date, vitals history, and a link to a genetic profile. That link confirmed my fears.

The human genome had been crossed with undergrounder and not by splicing or cloning. It was achieved through basic fertilization of Sheila-1 eggs with Anonymous-XY sperm. I had a feeling I knew who that XY might be. One of two candidates…

Like a bad accident on the highway, I couldn’t stop looking at the data.

Sheila-2 was growing at a fast rate, but not nearly as fast as a pure beastie. Obviously, the human factor had tempered that growth. The vitals were stable. The heart beat a little faster than the average human heart, but not so much that Sheila-2 could be identified as nonhuman during a normal physical.

I was pouring over the makeup of the synthetic amniotic fluids (which had been modified to accommodate new needs), when I heard a door open in the distance and lights spring to life in Lab-3. I quickly flipped the screen back to the analysis report and ran. Then I realized that this lab only had one exit- and that exit involved strolling right through Lab-3.

“Shit.” I exhaled the word softly and scanned the room desperately. Another door in the back. Thank goodness. This door had no window. Inside was dark and small… a closet.

I worked my body between obstructions on the left and right and ended up contorted and restricted, but able to pull the door closed behind me.

I heard voices in the laboratory. Funny. Outside these walls, I hid from undergrounders, but inside these walls, I hid from very different monsters.

I wished I could make out the words, but the voices were just a continuous string of mumbles punctuated by sporadic pausing.

I was stuck in the damn closet for well over an hour. I waited quite a while after the talking died down. Better to be cautious.

It took forever to wiggle out of the closet. I knocked something over as I extracted my body from the cramped space. Whatever it was hit the ground with a resounding crash.

Opening the door lightened the shadowed closet a bit. I could see the outline of shelving. When I was officially un-stuck, I found the light switch and flipped it upward. I stared at the shelves. They were lined with gigantic mason jars, each containing a malformed fetus. At my feet lay the broken remains of one of those jars.

I was standing on a tiny arm… a tiny arm with tiny fingers.

If I was hoping to leave no trace of my presence behind, I failed. Not only did I leave glass, fluid, and flesh; I left a pleasant smelling and steaming pile of vomit.

Funny how much I vomited nowadays.

SALE LINKS

AMAZON USA

AMAZON CANADA

AMAZON UK

Pretty Great Right? You Can Purchase Dead Trees At The Following Links!

AMAZON USA | AMAZON CANADA | AMAZON UK

Eli's is also holding a FACEBOOK EVENT for the release of DEAD TREES 2, So please go follow her and show some support to a wonderful author!

DEAD TREES 2 RELEASE EVENT