Eli Constant & BV Barr release - Z-CHILDREN: Awakening!

10/6/2015

Bam! Eli Constant has a new release! Did you hear me? Is this thing on? Eli-Freaking-Awesome-Constant has a new release! And it has zombies, and children, and child zombies, lots and lots of child zombies! Sorry, I'm rambling. Let me show you the book, and then you can come and drool with me!

ELI CONSTANT:

Eli is the author of Dead Trees, Dead Trees 2, Mastic, DRAG.N, and is a contributor to the following anthologies: Let’s Scare Cancer to Death, benefitting the V Foundation, State of Horror: New Jersey, State of Horror: Illinois, & Fading Hope. Her books are available in eBook, paperback, & audio formats.

Her upcoming releases include Z Children: Awakening (Available June 9th, 2015), “The Water is Sweeter” (TBD 2015), & Dead Trees 3 (TBD 2015).

Eli lives in Virginia with her husband and three daughters. She is surrounded by battlefield country, farmland, and lakes. Currently, she spends her days being a devoted mother and, of course, writing. Eli feels fortunate that her marriage is one of real love and she thinks her children are the coolest people in the world. She also feels so lucky to have an extended family that is ever present with encouragement and kind words.

Over the past decade, Eli attended several universities- USC-L, Columbia College, Texas A&M, George Mason U- and studied everything from Mariculture to Material Science to Differential Equations. Settling on Biology, Eli participated in research fellowships in Texas and at NIH in Maryland until she finally settled into a lab in Sterling, VA where she focused herself on mastering diagnosis procedures and implementations of histology and pathology.

While pregnant with her first child, Eli and her husband decided they wanted someone at home with their children, at least until they were school age. That decision gave Eli the opportunity to rediscover deeply buried passion- writing. With each word penned, she desires to become better at her craft, more in-tune with the nature of humanity, more imaginative, more focused.

Stalk Eli on social media:

Twitter | Facebook | Books on Amazon | Goodreads | Wordpress

BV BARR:

Ben has been teaching Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) continually since 1981 when he joined the USAF as a “Survival Instructor”. In that Thirty+ year period, he has taught all aspects of SERE, trained at both domestic and international schools, written SERE doctrine and instruction, researched and developed cutting edge programs for dealing with both the psychological and physical challenges of survival, tested new equipment, written numerous papers on equipment and SERE-related disorders, and taught thousands of classes. Ben’s research and program development is the basis for many of the national and international survival schools in operation today. He is a USAF Master SERE Instructor.

Members of the Rangers, Green Berets, Para-rescue, Combat Control, Navy SEALs, Air Force Crew Members and MARSOC have all been his students. Outside the military, he has taught people from the DEA, Local Law Enforcement, Department of Natural Resources, the FBI, and other Federal Agencies. With over 12 years in the disaster mitigation and security fields, his advice on the development of advanced survival systems is irreplaceable and his knowledge of the physical and psychological aspects of both manmade and natural disasters is unparalleled in the survival world.

Z Children: Awakening, written with Eli Constant, is Ben’s first official foray into fictional writing. His technical expertise has proven a valuable asset in the development of plausible situations, appropriate survival responses, and how the world would really operate at the ‘awakening’ of an apocalypse.

Check out Ben’s survival company:

www.usiusa.com

Z Children Awakening Promo Art, Teasers & Cover

Teaser 1 – Z CHILDREN: AWAKENING

The second scream did nothing to calm Grandma’s nerves. I patted her arm, all the while searching the store for the source of the agonizing yells. “It’s okay, Grandma. It’s okay.” I murmured; trying to soothe my own brittle nerves as much as those of the little, white-haired lady beside me.

“Clary, Clary, it’s Momma. Sweetie, Baby, stop. Please stop.” The voice was desperate, full of fear. “Please, Baby. I know you aren’t feeling well. I’ll let you pick out any kind of ice cream you want, Baby. Just please stop.”

A woman in dark wash jeans and a burgundy blouse stumbled out of aisle five. Pasta-Sauce-Canned Vegetables. Her jeans and shirt were damp, but the dark coloring made it hard to discern the liquid on her clothes. Just marinara or maybe olive oil. Bonnie assumed. Some jar must have broken. Maybe her daughter threw a fit and tossed some things around. Brat needs a spanking. Daddy would never let me act like that, let alone offer me ice cream. No wonder so many little kids act like animals.

I was about to comfort Grandma and turn back to the bacon, when a small girl came stomping out of the same aisle. Her mouth was painted red and her face was contorted in pure hatred. I wasn’t the only person staring now. The belligerent, bloody child had attracted a crowd of store clerks, shoppers, and cashiers. “Clary, Clary… please, Baby. Baby, what’s wrong with you?”

The woman’s body was pressed up against the beef display now; her hands were behind her, pushing into packages of ground chuck as she desperately tried to get further away from her own offspring. I wasn’t sure why, but the thought inappropriately popped into my head that I could understand a mother leaving a child who behaved like that… I mean… if I had been like that, I could understand my own mother leaving.

The woman’s shrieks sliced into my thoughts, bringing me back to an unreal reality where the brunette girl Clary was mounting her mother’s body, her small face buried against delicate neck. The squelching sound that accompanied the girl ripping away a dripping chunk of flesh turned my stomach like a tilt-a-whirl on acid.

“Grandma, I think we need to go home.” I pulled on her hand roughly. She was still calling for Grandpa. I wanted to slap her, scream at her, but that wouldn’t help. For a split second, I debated leaving her. She’d lived a good long life and… well, I hadn’t! I wanted to get out of this town, do something big with my life, not get attacked in the pork aisle with a demented senior citizen.

Teaser 2 – Z CHILDREN: AWAKENING

It didn’t open! What the hell? I pushed harder and looked down to see if the door was locked. My eyes were greeted by a little red sign over the release lever. HOLD FOR 15 SECONDS UNTIL ALARM SOUNDS. Crap. That’s less than ideal. They’re going to hear that sucker a mile away and make a beeline for my ass. Holding my breath, I pushed and held the release in place.

The emergency alarm blared to life and a split-second later, the door clicked and swung open. Without hesitation, I bolted across the threshold and ran. My legs pumped back and forth, my sensible shoes slapping the pavement in a rushed rhythm.

A gunshot sounded to my left and I turned quickly, almost falling over my own feet and face-planting on the asphalt. John Croxton, one of the deputy sheriffs, was firing warning shots over a crowd of people moving toward him. Coming to a halt, I opened my mouth to yell, to warn him that the mob couldn’t be reasoned with. I saw the children in the crowd, they moved faster than the adults, moved toward John… closer, closer. John fired again. I couldn’t look away. Morbid fascination- a brutal car crash on the freeway.

The children were upon him now. I watched as his body disappeared beneath the swarm of ringlets and bloody, cherub cheeks. I listened as he fired a last desperate shot into the air. And then his gun was silenced, replaced by his screams… an infinitely more disturbing sound than a gun shot.

Something told me to move, something primitive, something ancient. My inner self prodded me to run- like a hot poker on my backside. I snapped into action. The emergency alarm was still screeching and the infected children were beginning to look my way. My feet started pounding against the pavement again. I counted the footfalls, trying to ignore the snarling and spitting in the distance behind me.

I was almost at my house. So close. Only one more street to cross.

Everything around me was in ruin. People were screaming; a man was beating a child with a garbage can; an elderly woman was lying on the ground, an old wooden cane her only defense against an attacker with blonde pigtails. Percy, the local handyman, was fending off a preteen with a hammer. But he couldn’t defend himself from all sides. I gasped as a boy bounded on all fours towards Percy from behind. I was close enough to hear the squelching, flesh-ripping sound as the man lost a chunk of his calf. I flinched as Percy fell forward, the hammer useless against such calculated viciousness.

It was too much. I couldn’t handle this. How could I survive on my own? When so many were dying… so much fear?

I pushed harder, sprinting as fast as I could, fully focused on getting to my house. Getting to a phone. Because I realized that I didn’t have to be alone. It was a stupid, stupid time to realize that I needed Chris. But I did. I needed Chris. Not just because the world had gone to shit, but because if the world went to shit, I’d want to be with Chris until the end. It was just that simple.

Right foot down. Left foot down. Right foot down. Left foot down.

I could do this; I could make it home, pack a bag, and take the Jag to Dallas. I’d get Chris. We’d be safe together. And I’d wear that damn engagement ring with pride.

All I could think about was Chris now. I should have been paying attention to my surroundings.

Crossing the last street, I didn’t look left or right.

Just a little further and I’d be home.

The car seemed to come out of nowhere- they always do when you aren’t paying attention.

Purchase Links & Link To Goodreads

AMAZON USA

ADD TO GOODREADS

AMAZON UK

Z Children Awakening: My Review

Eli Constant has done it again, and this time she teamed up with author B.V. Barr to co-write this instant hit.

This awesome woman never fails to surprise me, taking one of my favourite horror genres and twisting it into something even more brutal and chilling than I thought possible.

Children. Z-Children to be more precise. What could be more horrifying than watching your own children turn into flesh eating monsters? Not much, and neither author held back on the gore and guts in this gut-wrenching horror story. (see what I did there? wink!)

The story takes on an interesting layout, of several stories that cross paths at the beginning of the outbreak? Apocalypse? End of mankind? So many ways to describe these scenes... The stories show different angles, and different versions of events from several characters that I very quickly grew to like and dislike, but regardless, the end was always inevitable for them.

The Z-children came.

The Z-children fed.

And the only way to stop these once beautiful little darlings is to kill them.

It's both equal parts disturbing as it is awesome!

I can not wait for book 2!

Happy reading my little book whores!

Claire xxx