Read a Sample of Both Sides. Now! Um… now! For Free!

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Both Sides Now, free fiction, free sample, funny science fiction, Gender Bending, Gender Swap, humour, Ira Nayman, preorders, science fiction, Sociological Science Fiction

From time to time, I like to feature other great work from author friends on the blog, and Ira Nayman has a very funny project on right now that could use your help. Please enjoy this free sample from Both Sides. Now!. I’ve preordered my copies. That’s right… I said copies.  –Liz

Pete’s dad Jerry was a cop. Okay, he was the field agent who had been taunted by the coded messages of the Sagittarius Slaughterer which meant nothing top him because of his lack of knowledge of the Fibonacci Sequence or the life cycle of rutabagas. The Sagittarius Slaughterer, who took credit for forty-two murders, was never caught, although Jerry was the leader of a team that was convinced they had him cornered in an abandoned toaster oven canning factory. Still, Jerry lived and died a cop.

Pete’s granddad, Noah, was a cop. He was, to be sure, the cop who arrested the wrong man for the Nantucket Chum Bucket robbery, but you have to understand that there was considerable outrage, especially on behalf of the three year-old, whose injuries would ensure that she would never grow up to appreciate Van Halen, and the media circus had five rings and pressure to make an arrest was intense and unrelenting and came from the highest offices in the city. In any case, it only took forty-two years for the real robber’s conscience to get the better of him (after the money ran out), leading him to confess, so justice was done. Eventually. In the end. Still, Noah died in the uniform. In an old age home. Long after he had retired. People at the home are still trying to understand how it was smuggled in to him. Still.

Pete’s great-granddad Ezekiel was a cop. Forty-two of his cases had to be retried when it turned out that he had built a workshop in his basement where he manufactured evidence. You have to understand that that was how it was in those days, although few cops handcrafted their own used cigarette butts and lipstick-stained bar napkins. That speaks to a certain kind of dedication to duty, if nothing else. Family sentiment was split on the rumour that Orson Welles’ character in the film Touch of Evil had been based on Ezekiel, although they all agreed that it was a classic of the genre. Despite this unfortunate blot on his record late in his life, Ezekiel was one of the most decorated officers on the force.

Peter Docherty-Baye came from a long line of cops. They may not have been particularly good at their jobs, but they filled the uniform heroically, and broad shoulders and piercing blue eyes are often enough to instil confidence in a wary public unsettled by high crime rates and general social unrest.

At the age of forty-two, Pete found his level of incompetence: security detail for the President. Returning from an unsuccessful trip to Europe to try and get the British Prime Minister to wind down the War on Nouns and lower tariffs on processed American asparagus spears, Pete mused about how much his job sucked. Six hours in the air without access to ESPN or beer! This was the thanks he got from a grateful nation for safeguarding the life of the most powerful man on the planet (outside of Bill Gates…a couple of Russian oligarchs, oh, and the Chairman of the Communist Party of China – mustn’t forget the Chairman of the Communist Party of China!)? He should have gone into private security with his brother!

The President was sleeping in The Cocoon. This was not the group of like-minded politicians, staffers and media types who surrounded the President at all times and kept him away from anything approaching an original idea (something they did, all agreed, with the purest of motives: the President was a smart man who could be dangerous with an original idea, especially in these times of high crime rates and general social unrest). No, that was The Bubble. The Cocoon was a section of Air Force One set apart from the rest of the plane by a thick black curtain that allowed the President some privacy when he wanted to rest. And after dealing with British politicians for three days, he really needed to rest!

Pete checked his watch. We’ll be getting into Washington in less than half an hour, he thought. Time to wake up POTUS. (That would be Pain-in-the-ass of the United States, but Pete had never shared that opinion with anybody – it would probably get him permanently busted to traffic cop – even though he had really enjoyed the calm, measured rhythms of most daytime traffic that one week – but, it would just kill his mother – so you didn’t hear it from me.)

Pete pulled back the curtain and respectfully said, “Mister President? We’ll be landing in a few mi – WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?”

Five hours earlier, a middle-aged black man with short-cropped prematurely greying hair (it was the office) had gone to sleep in The Cocoon. In his place, there was now a twelve year-old white girl, with flowing blond curls and achingly adorable dimples.

Pete drew his gun and trained it on her.

“What are you yelling about?” the girl woke up irritated. She wiped the sleep out of her eyes with her knuckles.

“WHO ARE YOU?” Pete shouted.

“It’s me, Pete,” the girl calmly stated. “The President.”

“The President does not have flowing blond curls and achingly adorable dimples!” Pete loudly insisted.

The President, sitting up in the bed, looked at her hands. They were small. Dainty. And very white. “What the hell…?” she said.

The Chief of Staff appeared next to Pete. The Chief of Staff was a pleasant, slightly roly poly man with a crown of white hair that gave people the impression of a halo. It was a misimpression of a halo, of course, given the thirty plus years he had spent as a political fixer, but that was one of the main qualities that made him so good at his job. “Hey, hey, hey,” he calmly stated, “What’s all the shouting abou – HOLY MOTHER OF CHRIST, WHO ARE YOU?”

“Not you, too, Dave,” the President sighed. “Say – why is my voice so high?”

The Chief of Staff ducked out of entryway to The Cocoon for a few seconds, then returned with a mirror, which he handed to the President. She studied herself in it for a minute or more, reflected this part of her and that. Finally, setting the mirror aside, she told Pete, “I can see how this could be awkward for you.”

“Thank you for your understanding,” Pete replied. “Now, who the fuck are you?”

“I’m the President.”

“All due respect, ma’am,” Pete insisted, “the President of the United States does not look like Shirley Fucking Temple.”

“Pete,” the Chief of Staff, who had quickly recovered, “is the drama really necessary? And by drama, I mean primarily the gun, although the language and shouting are a part of it, too.”

“All due respect, sir,” Pete replied to him, “yes. The leader of the free world has turned into a beloved children’s entertainer! Yes. Yes, I would say that, under these circumstances, the drama is necessary. I can’t think of a situation in which the drama would be more fucking necessary!”

“Pete,” the President coolly asked, “do you think of me as the Pain-in-the-ass of the United States?”

“Who told you that?” Pete roared. (I didn’t tell the President! Did you tell the President? How could you tell the President? I told that to you in confidence! How am I supposed to trust you if –)

“Joe Rigoletto, who was on my first security detail, told me that’s what he thought of me,” the President said with a smile. “I’ve asked all of the men and women who guard me if they think of me that way, and all of them, every single one, said they did.” (Okay. Phew. Dodged a bullet, there. I…I’m sorry I doubted you.)

“Lucky guess,” Pete said, never taking his gun off the little girl in front of him. “It doesn’t prove shit.”

“Okay,” the President thoughtfully nodded. “Do you remember when you were first assigned to me? You nearly shot me because I was in the White House kitchen after midnight looking for cookies.”

“You always did like your chocolate chips,” Pete almost smiled. Then, he shook his head. “Okay, in the first place, I am a highly trained, highly decorated peace officer. I would never shoot the President by accident in the middle of the night.”

“Never said you did,” the President stated. “I –”

“Second,” Pete continued, ignoring her. “How did you know that? It’s not possible that you could know that.”

The President stared at him with a level gaze. “Think this through, Pete. What makes more sense? That somebody found a way to access Air Force One in mid-flight and replaced the President with a young girl, one that seems to know everything that the President knows, or that, for reasons we have yet to determine, while he was sleeping, the President was transformed into a little girl?”

Pete didn’t particularly care for either option. Before he could express this opinion, though, the Chief of Staff said, “I believe you, Mist – uhh, what should we call you? Under the circumstances, Mister President doesn’t seem entirely appropriate, and Mistress President has…unfortunate connotations.”

The President considered this for a moment. “POTUS still works,” he finally said.

            Yeah, that sounds like something the President would think, Pete thought.

“Hey, guys, what’s going on back –” the Press Secretary started to ask. The Chief of Staff quickly drew the curtain on the scene, turning to face her.

“Oh, hi, Linda,” he cheerfully greeted the Press Secretary.

“Okay,” she said, “what’s going on?”

“The President is…changing,” the Chief of Staff stated. “His clothes, I mean. He’s changing his clothes. He’ll…need a couple of minutes to…make himself presentable.”

“Sure,” the Press Secretary responded. “Only, I thought we should talk about the trip before we land. There will be reporters at –”

“NO!” the Chief of Staff exploded. “No reporters! Not now!”

“The trip was a disaster,” the Press Secretary reminded him. “Reporters will have questions – gleeful, gloating, hurtful questions – that they will demand the President answer.”

“Tell them the President is tired from the trip, and will hold a press conference in two days.”

“How are you gonna get the President past them?”

“Oh, she’ll…uhh…no, I meant –”

“Sheila? Who is Sheila?”

“Sheila? Oh, Sorry. Woman I met in London. Long story. I meant, he – he – the President, will leave the plane by the back door. It’s the middle of the night. Reporters will never know he’s left until it’s too late.”

“Your plan is to sneak the President past the reporters?”

The Chief of Staff glanced at the curtain. “Honestly, that’s going to be a lot easier than you think.”

The Press Secretary gave him a penetrating look. Then, deciding that there was nothing to be gained by fighting it, that she would find out what was going on when she needed to know, she said, “Tell him that we really need to get out ahead of this thing, okay?”

“Couldn’t agree with you more,” the Chief of Staff agreed. He watched the Press Secretary walk away for a couple of seconds. Then, he parted the curtain just long enough to walk through it.

“…through the rotunda and halfway up the stairs before he realized that he still had the chicken on his head!” The President laughed. Pete, his gun still trained on the young girl, almost allowed a corner of his mouth to tic upwards a minimally small amount.

“Mister Pre – POTUS,” the Chief of Staff firmly stated, “we really need to get out ahead of this thing!”

“What would you suggest?” the girl responded.

“Well, to start,” the Chief of Staff suggested, “you should fire all idiot Secret Servicemen who train guns on you.”

“I don’t believe she is the President,” Pete responded, “so she does not have the authority to fire me.”

“You could authorize me to fire his ass on your behalf.”

“Same problem.”
“Don’t worry too much about it,” the President said. “Pete would be almost as embarrassed about shooting a little girl as he would about shooting the President, wouldn’t you, Pete?”

“I hope not to have to shoot anybody,” Pete answered.

“There you go, then,” the President said. “So, what was that about getting ahead of this thing?”

“Okay,” the Chief of Staff started. “First: we need to convince the public that you are the President. I would suggest that you tell stories of your childhood…”

“You know I’ve never liked to do that,” the President mildly objected.

“I know that,” the Chief of Staff continued. “But, I think you can appreciate that it will be an uphill battle to convince people that a young white girl is actually a middle-aged black President. Even the low information voters.”

“I’ll try to come up with some stories that I would be comfortable telling.”

“Good. Next, we have to do something to show that you’re up for the job, that you’re still tough. I would suggest invading another country.”

“Hmm…you know I don’t approve of unnecessary military interventions.”

“That’s the great thing about the War on Nouns,” the Chief of Staff argued. “Any military intervention can be justified as necessary!”

“Can’t we just wait for the next budget crisis?” the President insisted. “I can be tough.” The Chief of Staff rose an inquisitive eyebrow. “I can be tough!” the President pouted. She was adorable.

“Putting that question aside, a budget crisis might not come soon e –” The Chief of Staff was cut off by the squawk of the plane’s intercom system. “Uhh, this is your co-pilot speaking,” the co-pilot spoke. “We’re about to start our approach to – WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?” The intercom quickly cut out.

The Chief of Staff looked at the two men for a moment, then said, “I’ll be back.” He ran past the curtain, through most of the body of the plane to the cockpit. He tried the door – it was ajar. So, he opened it and walked in. Co-pilot Simon Turklington, a good looking young blond was sitting in his chair. A bombshell brunet, a little past her prime but with still enough good looks to cause forest fires to smolder, stood awkwardly next to him.

“What’s going on here?” the Chief of Staff demanded.

“I…I don’t know,” the woman, a little dazed, said. “I laid down to get an hour’s sleep before we landed, and I woke up like this.” She swept an arm down her body.

“Captain Johanson?” the Chief of Staff asked.

“Yes?” the woman responded.

The Chief of Staff laughed. “What’s so funny?” Turklington asked.

“It could be that something strange is happening on the plane,” the Chief of Staff told him. “I prefer to think, though, that it is a worldwide phenomenon that will sooner or later happen to everybody.”

“What is?” the woman asked.

“Men turning into women and women turning into men,” the Chief of Staff informed him.

“And you hope that will happen to everybody?” Turklington asked.

“Sure do.”

“Why?

“I like to think I’m an optimist.”

© 2014 by Ira Nayman

If you would like to read more of Both Sides. NOW! go to the Inkshares Web site(https://www.inkshares.com/projects/both-sides-now-). If, after reading the excerpt there, you would like to help make this book a reality, please preorder the book (you’ll find a handy button on the right side of the page), then share news of the existence of the book with your friends.

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How to Dive Into Indies (Without Getting Lost at Sea) A Handy Five-Step Guide

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book buying, books, discovering new books, discovery, indie publishing, reading

This post is the beginning of a series of posts about the vital role that fans play to indie publishers, and simple things that fans can do to help indies along. One of the most important, and obvious, things that a book lover can do to promote indie authors is to buy their books.

It sounds simple, but fishing around for indie books has some unique challenges. First of all, there’s usually very little advertising and fewer reviews to help weigh decision-making. Second, there is a lot of material out there to choose from, and thus the vast ocean metaphor I chose for the title of this post. And thirdly, with infinite choices, how do you deal with finite time and money?

As someone who not only publishes indie books, but has been a long-time buyer and consumer of indie books (since the early 2000’s) I thought I might be in a favorable position to offer a few tips.

Liz’s 5 Tips for Sailing the Indie Book Seas and Arriving With Wallet Intact

1. Know what kind of book you want to read.

I know it sounds simplistic, but narrowing down the kind of book you want to read can really help to navigate the vast sea of indie offerings. If you go into the search with a kind of book, or even a genre, in mind, it can be easier to decide which works you want to purchase. From there, you can browse popular book sites by category and keyword, and narrow the number of selections down to something that seems manageable. You can also search out ‘best of’ lists and reviews for that category. A warning, though: indie reading is all about discovery, and sometimes lists and reviews can actually hinder your progress rather than help. As in any industry, it’s not always the best products that reach the eyes of the reviewers… just the ones that have the best budgets or the most persistent promotional efforts. I’m not in any way questioning the integrity of the reviewer here, as they can only review works that they know exist, obviously. I merely wish to point out that there can be amazing books out there that don’t have any formal reviews due to lack of resources.

2. Try E-books.

E-books are great, because they’re very low cost, and low stakes. Don’t like that book you’ve downloaded? It’s just a file, rather than something that will sit on your shelf until you finally haul it over to Goodwill. You can ignore it, or delete it. Plus, there are a wide variety of indie offerings available in e-book that would be hard or impossible to get a hold of in real life. Another e-book perk is that there are a lot of freebies, depending on the title and platform. Make a Smashwords account, and watch for deals. Smashwords often holds promotions where they encourage their authors to deeply discount their books, and even offer them for free! Other e-book sites offer a pay-what-you-wish format, with incentives for paying their desired price. Look around and see what deals you can find. Beware mass downloads, however tempting they may be. Some e-book users hoard thousands of titles, but read very few of them, and it’s easy to just forget about what you have. Conscious consumers get more out of their e-reading experience! And, needless to say, if you’re doing this because you care about indies, try to find a legal way to get the file, that benefits the creator either through download numbers or money.

3. Start an indie reading circle.

Because I want to be aware of what’s going on in my local publishing community, I have a lot of new material to read very year, especially after conventions, but I’m proud to say that I manage to read most of what my friends and colleagues are publishing, despite being of relatively modest means. How do I do this? Well, I use tip #2 when I can, because it helps with storage and e-books still give the author a fair cut while lowering price. I do book trades. This is something, unfortunately, that is out of reach for those who are not in the writing/publishing business, although you may have something else that an author may want to trade in kind. I also team up with friends to get maximum coverage on the physical books that I want. Often, my friends and I will try to buy as wide a variety of books, with as few doubles as possible, and then we will share them. I, personally, do not see this as the same thing as widespread file sharing. This system has many upsides, including having at least one reviewer you really trust, and somebody to discuss your latest finds with! And hey, if you both like a specific book, you’ve got a ready-made birthday or Christmas present idea for them.

4. Always read the blurb and sample chapters.

Sure, it has a cool cover, but what are the chances that the author actually made the cover? Unless they’re a multidisciplinary art freak (like yours truly) the old adage about books and covers holds true here. All a good cover proves is that the publisher had $200. That’s why the blurb and sample chapters are so important. First, the blurb: accurate, concise writing is an art form, and if someone can give you a clear vision of the contents of the book with just a few hundred words, there’s a good chance they could steal your heart with 70,000 or so. Good blurbs also mean that the book likely has an organized, consistent plot that can be described easily, which is almost always a good thing, unless you’re really into avant-garde literature. As for the sample chapters, look for spelling mistakes, run-on sentences and formatting errors. If it’s going to grate on you when you read the book, it will probably show up in the sample.

5. Start Local.

Another way to sort your indie book explorations is by region, rather than by genre. Go to local arts events and meet some authors and publishers face to face. Take a trip to your local independent book store and ask what local authors they recommend. Attend a convention geared to writing or fandom and browse the dealers’ room. Or better yet, talk to that guy who’s selling his books out of his coat or his car… there’s always at least one per convention! This is one of the most fun ways to explore indie books, if you’ve got the time and inclination. Not only do you have new books, but you may just end up with a whole new group of local literary friends!

Conclusion

One of the things I love about the indie publishing community is the richness and variety of offerings out there, and the above techniques are some of the ways I’ve found to turn that variety from a confusing minus into a big plus. Another thing I love about these explorations is the sense of community that develops from getting to know an approachable group of grassroots artists.

In that spirit, I want to open up the floor to you… what do you do to discover new books that are off the beaten path? What do you think of my tips? Comment, tweet, or come to our Facebook and let us know!

Praise for Distant Early Warning… Yay!

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Book, Distant Early Warning, Elizabeth Hirst, fan response, fan thanks, fantasy, paranormal, praise, reader review, review, reviews

So, I know I’ve been posting a lot about Love, Time, Space, Magic, and the launch lately, but during all of the hustle and bustle of getting our new baby ready for the world, we missed some majorly awesome praise for our last title, Distant Early Warning!

Since we’ve been working so hard lately, I thought I’d share some of the wonderful feedback we’ve had lately, from readers just like you, about Distant Early Warning:

“I think this book is well-written and compelling. It uses the “zombie invasion” backdrop for a very different story about family and finding a place where you belong… if you’re looking for a book with a lot of references to Canadian life/culture, it’s great for that! I enjoyed the descriptions of things I could relate you. If you’re also looking for a book with references to geek culture then this book brings that too…thus far it’s the best self-published book I’ve ever read, and I’m really glad I bought it!”

-Rai

I loved Distant Early Warning! I look forward to hopefully reading more about Denny!

-Suzanne

Thanks, Rai and Suzanne! Rai also had some great constructive suggestions that I’m really glad fans are open enough to share with me. I’m just overjoyed to be part of this community of readers, and I can’t wait to bring you more, both from myself and the wonderful selection of other authors that are growing the Pop Seagull family.

Tomorrow… cookies!

Candy Previews (aka Blatant Book Launch Bait)

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Ad Astra 2015, book launch, candy, chocolate, free food, green tea kit kat, Japanese candy, love time space magic, pocky

I received a package in the mail on Friday from my new friend Clint Spivey, whose story, ‘Faster than the Speed of Sleight’ is appearing in Love, Time, Space, Magic. This picture of what was inside just proves that it pays to have friends in Japan. And that Clint is a total badass.

That’s right… authentic Japanese candy. We’ve got green tea Kit Kats, cookies, chocolate squares, Pocky… and even some things I’m pretty sure are supposed to be pizza flavoured.

I’m not eating any of this goodness, people… I’m passing it all on to you, at the launch for Love, Time, Space Magic! The afternoon of Saturday, April 11th, at Ad Astra!

Be there… or don’t have Japanese candies. It’s not really a choice, in my book.

Post Book Fair Bits and Bites

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book fairs, book lovers, books, buttons, Elizabeth Hirst, Inspire, Pop Seagull Publishing, slogan, slogan buttons, TIBF, Toronto International Book Fair

Pop Seagull was at the Toronto International Book Fair this weekend! We invaded the Metro Toronto Convention Centre with hundreds of other book-related professionals, including Anne Rice, Kathy Reichs and Chris Hadfield. It was an overwhelmingly positive weekend, and I had a great time meeting all of the wonderful book lovers who came out.

I must say that this was the best organized big event that I’ve ever been to, and despite the fairly high price tag to attend, I will be going back. TIBF offers a great value for money, both for vendors and attendees. Who can argue with $15 to attend for the weekend? I also had the most wonderful, transcendent fries ever to grace this planet.

Another thing to come out of the book fair experience is a new product for Pop Seagull… buttons! A couple of years ago, I had buttons made as a promotional item that bore our company colours and slogan: “Sleep is temporary, reading is forever”. There were only about six of them to begin with, but after the fair, I’m down to the last one, and we got so many comments! So, starting with our next appearance at the Memorial School Christmas Bazaar on the 6th of December, we’ll be selling slogan buttons in three colours! Show your reader pride, and introduce new people to Pop Seagull at the same time!

I’ll have pics as soon as we get them in. I can’t wait to show them to you all!

 

Interview: Felicia Dennigan

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Book, character interview, Denny, Denny interview, Distant Early Warning, Distant Early Warning Book, fantasy, Felicia Dennigan, interview, Novel, paranormal, pre-orders, Urban Fantasy

As a writer, it is my pleasure to bring the reading public opportunities to experience things that they would never have been able to access otherwise. In that ‘spirit’, our guest here today is just one of the unique interviewees that you’ll find here, and only here, on the Pop Seagull Blog. I reached across time and space to talk to the one, the only, Felicia “Denny” Dennigan, star of the upcoming book, Distant Early Warning. Denny is quite the elusive character, since she hails from, well, the future. I think I’ll let her take it from here.

Elizabeth Hirst: So, Denny, you’ve come a long way to be here. Tell me about what it’s like to live in your time and place.

Denny: Honestly? It’s total crap a lot of the time. There’s way too much water and rain everywhere, and a lot of stuff is broken down and badly maintained. I remember a time before the super storms, and the flooding, when people had way more tech and everybody drove cars… but that was when I was really little, and even then, I think we knew it couldn’t last. I’m from a place along the border called St. Catharines. Liz, I think you grew up there too, didn’t you?

EH: Yep. It’s got… character.

D: Well, you complain about it now, but try living in my time. We’ve got refugees, beggars everywhere, and only a select few people ever get the kinds of jobs that they want. I was lucky enough to have a teaching job for a while, but I had to give that up after some… major life upheavals. The Screamers threw things badly out of whack for a lot of people.

EH: Tell me about the Screamers. I don’t think anybody from our time and place has ever experienced anything like one, barring a really bad drug experience.

D: There’s still a lot of fear and disbelief surrounding the Screamers here too… but they’re no legend. Society lost our special effects capabilities a long time ago. I don’t know if anything I say can really fully capture them, but I’ll give it a shot. Picture an animated corpse. Let your imagination run wild with the gruesomeness of the injury, and the state of decay. Now picture it on fire… but it’s not normal fire either. It can be green, or blue, or red… any colour you can think of, and blinding. Sometimes they have smoke, or ribbons of mist reaching out from them. Now that you’ve got the visuals in your head, picture the harshest, most dissonant heavy metal song you’ve ever heard in your life, so loud that you can’t tune it out, and mixed with a bit of brake squeal, earthquake and dog whistle. These things come out all night up North. It’s no wonder people were going crazy and doing awful things. I feel sorry for the people up there. They had no choice but to come down south, and there was nothing to support them when they got there. My friend, Mrs. Mandrake, who lived in my old backyard…

EH: Whoa, hold on a second. You weren’t kidding about it being a different world out there! I think you’ve set the scene pretty vividly for our readers, so maybe we should get a little more personal at this point and talk about your Dad. What kind of relationship did you guys have?

D: Wow… you’d think this would get easier to talk about over time, but it’s still pretty fresh for me. My Dad was my world. For the longest time, I felt like we had each other, and we didn’t really need anybody else. I’m pretty sure nobody would understand him like I did anyway. We were our own brand of crazy, he and I, a legacy that I carry forward proudly. (Laughs) I think if the Dennigan family had a crest, it would have a big ol’ cracked pot in the middle of it, front and centre!

EH: Like all of us, he had a darker side, though, didn’t he?

D: Dad didn’t have an easy life. There was tension in his home as a kid, and he had to make some pretty hard choices at a young age. He didn’t always make the right ones. He did all right, though, until my step-sister Kendall died in a car accident while he was driving. After that, he just kind of fell apart. He had PTSD, and he found it hard to stay in one place for very long. People he met in his travels just saw a shabby guy, a bum with mental problems, but nobody who really knew him could think that. He was sweet, and funny, and always supported me when he could. That’s why, when he went missing, and his dog, Geoff, showed up at my house alone, I knew I had to do whatever it took to bring him back. Even after I saw him on TV as a Screamer, and I knew he was dead… I just couldn’t let him suffer like that after everything he’d been through.

EH: So you risked everything. You packed up, and took off, and ran after him to try and solve not only the mystery of his death, but the mystery of the Screamers themselves. How did that make you feel?

D: I was equal parts terrified, determined, and certain that he would have done the same for me, if he’d been able. There was also this weird lawless feeling, like I’d just cast off all the moorings of the civilized world, and I didn’t know any of the rules anymore. I think just about everybody has a map of where they think their life should go, and mine kind of got blown away in a gale of supernatural disaster. I’m still making it up as I go along at this point, but I’ll never regret making that first leap into the unknown.

EH: What do you hope people will get out of reading your story?

D: I know it sounds corny, but a lot of my story is about coming to terms with yourself. I think, looking back, that the most important thing I learned through everything that happened is that you can’t run from the parts of yourself that you don’t like, or that scare you. They’re still a part of you, and will follow you wherever you go. Repressed memories and personality traits are the real ghosts, because they never really die. I also learned that you can’t run away from other people forever, either. People need other people. We need help, and somebody to open up to. I mean, Geoff is a great guy, but I’ve learned that we all need people as well as pets around us to really thrive.

EH: What do you say to the people who think this interview is a book spoiler because we’ve just proven you don’t die at the end?

D: Give me a break. Having a viewpoint protagonist die at the end is so pretentious.

Thanks, Denny! And, if you’d like to read the rest of her harrowing tale of survival, we’re now accepting pre-orders on iBooks and Kobo.