Can't-miss Author interview with Dead City's James Ponti

DEAD CITY
Book One
by James Ponti
Available Now
ISBN-13: 978-1442441293
Publisher: Aladdin
Pages: 288
Find it on Amazon, B&N, Goodreads
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Most kids have enough to deal with between school, homework, extracurricular activities, and friends, but Molly Bigelow has something else on her list: hunting zombies. By day, Molly attends MIST—the Metropolitan Institute of Science and Technology—but outside the classroom she’s busy dealing with the undead. Because not only do zombies exist, they’re everywhere, and it’s her job to help police them and keep the peace. Sure, she’d like to be a regular kid, but given that her mother was the most revered (or feared, depending on your perspective) zombie hunter in the history of New York City, “regular” just isn’t possible. Molly’s got some legendary footsteps to follow—and some undeadly consequences if she fails.

IB Teen's Review of Dead City:

Are you a science nerd? Did your parents have you do martial arts instead of ballet? Are you more comfortable hanging around a morgue than you are in a social setting?

Dead City is a wonderfully crafted gem of a novel, the beginning to a great series, and containing many a twists and turns that you never fully trust you'll know where it will take you. It leaves us with one hell-ova cliffhanger (although one I had anticipated, it was still awesome that the author delivered on that macabre detail!). Maybe you identify more with Carl Grimes when you watch Walking Dead, maybe you want a less snarky and more socially awkward version of Buffy. Dead City is so smart, and it's characters are so endearing, I hope everyone who reads it falls for this series as well.

It may be geared towards a slightly younger demographic, but I still think it's a worthy addition to the zombie genre, and people should read it without a middle grade prejudice. There are enough older and teenaged characters to land it comfortably in the YA realm.

IB Teen chats with author James Ponti:

IBT: How goes progress on a Dead City sequel? When can we look forward to it hitting shelves? 

JP: It’s called Blue Moon and I think it’s going really well. I just got an email today saying that the ARC’s have arrived at Simon and Schuster. (Hurray!) I think the book comes out in October. I have to admit I was a little worried when I started writing it. I didn’t have the story for Two worked out when I finished Book One and I was a bit nervous that it wouldn’t feel as full and complete but I like it even better than Dead City – which is kind of the goal when you’re writing. 

IBT: What are your ingredients to a good story? 

JP: When I make spaghetti sauce, I like to mix it with everything. (I’m Italian, so it’s relavent, just stay with it.) I use hamburger, sausage, chunks of pepperoni, onions, three types of pepper, and a variety of whatever I find in the vegetable drawer. I like it this way because I like how the crossover flavors enhance each other. If they cook together long enough they’re connected and there’s a continuity of taste, but you’re also liable to get a bite that is dominant in one taste over the other. It gives you a nice combination of meeting expectations but maintaining surprise. I think the same goes for a great story. You need a variety of things to pull out the best of each other. Plot exposes character, conflict drives tension, setting brings reality… That said, if you don’t have a great fully developed protagonist then you’re not going to have a satisfying story. Character always comes first. (I guess that makes it the tomato in the above analogy.) 

IBT: If you're facing the zombie apocalypse, who would you want at your side? None of your characters are applicable but you may choose someone that is not listed: Rick Grimes, Carl Grimes, Buffy Summers, Hermionie Granger, or my favorite choice Harry Dresden? 

JP: You’re forcing me to make a confession here, I’m not well versed on the genre. I came to zombies around back and through the window. They just kind of worked for the story. I think that tweens and teens really need to figure out which people in their life are real and which are fake. This just seemed like a much more fun way to have them do that. Is it fair to say that if we were facing the zombie apocalypse I’d like to have you by my side? After all, you (unlike me) are well-read in the genre and have great instincts and training. Furthermore, your experience dealing with library patrons – priceless skills during the ZA. 

IBT: What makes a good hero? 

JP: I think a good hero has to be real with real flaws who makes real mistakes that have real consequences. All throughout Dead City Molly makes mistakes but she does them mostly for the right reasons. Her intention is always to do good. I also think a good hero needs a central conflict that works like a motor driving the story. I’m much more interested in stories set in motion by protagonists who act and then deal with the repercussions of those actions than stories driven by plot in which characters react. Finally, I think it’s really good when the reader can see themselves in the main character. I try to write as little physical description of main characters because I want the readers to think that the characters look like them, think like them, make the same decisions that they would make. 

IBT: New York was like a character in the novel, we read about things and places I'd never even knew existed. Did you already know about the landmarks, or did you also discover them in your research? Marble Cemetery in NYC's Lower East Side, the tunnels under NYC, and top of the George Washington Bridge are some of the most notable examples from the book. 

JP: Setting is always very important to me and trying to create a realistic place that comes to life is a main goal. With Dead City I had an added problem. I was trying to get the reader to accept a story with a very unreal element – the thought that the undead roam the streets of Manhattan. To make that work I thought that I had to make everything else as realistic as possible. With the exception of MIST – their school – everything mentioned in the books is an actual place, even the palatial abandoned subway station. I really love New York and knew some of the places from when I used to produce shows for the History Channel (I interviewed someone in the exact place I describe on the top of the George Washington Bridge. Although technically I did the interview on the tower on the New Jersey side of the bridge.) When I used to write the Mystery Files of Shelby Woo for Nickelodeon, I’d go up to New York to meet with the other writers (one of whom was Suzanne Collins by the way) and after our writing sessions they’d all go home and I’d just wander around the city. I also did a lot of research on line and sometimes I’d go back and research by walking around the city. I shot video on my phone of my son lying dead on Roosevelt Island where the three zombies are found and one time I got lost and took the wrong subway. When I went out to the street I was at J. Hood Wright Park and when I saw the giant Manhattan schist I thought, this is perfect! 

IBT: Your zombie mythology came fully loaded with a caste system; the rambling rabble, the mid-level workers, and the high functioning leaders. Did you create them this way to make them more formidable, as well as more sympathetic, and therefore harder to kill? 

JP: As I said earlier, I’m not very familiar with the genre, so I decided just to make my own mythology. I thought it would be more interesting if they looked like regular people – in book 2 you find out some are lawyers, newscasters, etc… But I also thought readers would want some classic zombies doing the “wail and flail” which is a term Molly coins in book to describe the classic locked-limb moaning walk that movie zombies traditionally do. So I tried to just logic out what different zombies were and why they were. In the end I came up with the 3 levels. Level 1 – look and act like regular humans. Level 2 – look like regular humans but have no soul or moral compass. Level 3 – Classic zombies. Book 2 spends a fair amount of time explaining more intricate differences and more importantly how and why they become the way they are. 

IBT: What makes a good villain? 

JP: Many of the same things that make a good hero. The most important being, to a certain degree the reader has to identify with the villain too. A villain can’t just do something because he’s crazy and the plot needs it. He has to follow reason and logic. These are often twisted by his specific condition or situation but they still have to make sense to him. Also, a good villain should be really smart and potentially charming. That’s what drives Molly crazy when she meets Marek. If she didn’t know what she does know, she’d think he was awesome. I think this ties in big time to what I was saying about the ability to identify real and fake, good and bad people. If the villain has a top hat, cape and Snidely Whiplash moustache, there’s not a lot that goes into identifying him. You want someone who makes the protagonist use all of his or her skills to defeat. 

IBT: Will book two- whenever it comes out (hopefully soon) include a bit of romance? With a team member and not a zombie- although there was one zombie who didn't seems so bad on one of Molly's ill conceived solo missions....

JP: I don’t see romance coming any time soon. Certainly not in Book 2. (I know this because I’ve already written it.) That’s because the story’s told through Molly’s eyes and that’s not where she is right now. She’s just made her first real friendships, she’s trying to come to terms with what happened to her mother, she’s found out that she’s the ultimate zombie hunter. That’s a lot. I think we might hint toward it, but it’s not a major storyline. (Funny because the other books I wrote were all romantic comedies that were about the romance first. I like the change of pace.) 

IBT: How did you survive your teen years? 

JP: I believe all writing, at least all of my writing, has a lot of autobiography in it. So, there’s a lot of me spread across the four Omegas – more so on the Molly/Grayson side of the equation. I didn’t care so much for Middle School and really enjoyed High School most of the time – although there were definitely ups and downs in both. The key was that somewhere along the line I came to peace with the person I was – a somewhat dorky, somewhat smart kid who got by with humor. That’s why high school was more fun because I’d accepted who and what I was and worried less about what others thought. (For the most part, I mean I was still a teenager.) That’s the same thing I want for Molly, although she’s not totally comfortable with herself yet. There’s a funny story though, when I was working at Nickelodeon there was a moment when two producers, a director and I were all hanging out on a soundstage after we’d finished shooting. Somehow during the conversation it came out that for each of us at one point during middle school times we’d said something funny and got a laugh. And each had decided, “Hey, that’s what I can do. I can make people laugh.” And what was great about it was that we had grown up in California, New York and Florida, Catholic and Jewish, male and female, gay and straight. We represented so many different groups – but we were connected by this one common thing and it had led each of us onto the soundstage to make that show. 

IBT: In this “Golden Age” of zombie storytelling, how difficult is it to stand outside of the crowd? 

JP: It’s hard. I can’t complain because I knew it going it. I knew it when I picked the topic. The hardest part is getting people to read it. I think once they do, it feels very different. But that’s because I don’t think of it as a zombie story. I’ve always loved genre writing, but I like to mix up the genres. To me, the zombies aren’t that different from the cheerleaders I went to high school with – fake, heartless and soulless. (Just kidding if any cheerleaders read this. Well, kidding a little.) 

Keep an eye out for Dead City book two, BLUE MOON....

BLUE MOON

Dead City, Book Two

by James Ponti

Coming 10/01/13

Publisher: Aladdin

Find it on Amazon, Goodreads

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Synopsis coming soon....

New Cover! Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

DEARLY, DEPARTED
by Lia Habel
Coming 10/18/11

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A maximalist, post-apocalyptic, neo-Victorian steampunk zombie novel in which a girl, whose blood is impervious to the “Z-virus,” searches for her missing dad, is kidnapped by (good) zombies, falls improbably in love with a rather sweet zombie boy, and sets out to save the world from a zombie plague beyond imagining. 

As far as romantic pairings go in the year 2195, you don't get much more unlikely than an upper-class schoolgirl and a poor miner from enemy tribes. Filter in the fact that he's a zombie, and you're definitely talking about star-crossed love.

Dearly, Departed is a cyber-Victorian/steampunk romance that takes place in the shadow of a new ice age. Nora Dearly, a mouthy teenage girl and apparent orphan, leaves school for Christmas - only to be dragged into the night by the living dead. Luckily for her, though, the good ones got to her first. From her reanimated rescuers she learns not only that zombies are roaming the countryside, but that her father is one - and that he's in terrible trouble. She also meets Captain Bram Griswold, a noble, strong, and rather sweet undead boy for whom she starts to fall. 

Meanwhile, her best friend, Pamela Roe, is just trying to carry on with life as best she can in the wake of Nora's disappearance - when she ends up killing an evil zombie in self-defense. Pam is galvanized into action, and ends up leading a group of survivors as the city of New London is thronged by the ravenous dead. 

Upon hearing of Pamela's plight, Nora and Bram set out to rescue her friends, find her missing father, and maybe just save what's left of the world.
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For a book that's synopsis defies logic, I have to say I am extremely excited to read this novel. Sure each sentence, nay, each word in the book description seems to be daring itself to be more improbable than the next, but that's exactly what's awesome about it. Standing so far apart from all other books in neighboring genres and subgenres, this looks to be a unique reading experience. Nora Dearly and Captain Bram Griswold take starcrossed lovers to a whole new level. All that and the gorgeous cover is absolutely jaw dropping. Here's an excerpt that can be found on Amzaon.com.

HOLD ME CLOSER NECROMANCER Review and Author Interview

Hold Me Closer Necromancer
Book One
by Lish McBride
Available Now!

Sam leads a pretty normal life. He may not have the most exciting job in the world, but he’s doing all right—until a fast food prank brings him to the attention of Douglas, a creepy guy with an intense violent streak.



Turns out Douglas is a necromancer who raises the dead for cash and sees potential in Sam. Then Sam discovers he’s a necromancer too, but with strangely latent powers. And his worst nightmare wants to join forces . . . or else.


With only a week to figure things out, Sam needs all the help he can get. Luckily he lives in Seattle, which has nearly as many paranormal types as it does coffee places. But even with newfound friends, will Sam be able to save his skin?

Necromancer A Novella
DEATH AND WAFFLES
A Short Story by Lish Bride
Includes an excerpt of HMCN
Now available for Free Kindle or PC download!
(Read it!)

Matt’s childhood friend, Ashley, has been stopping by a lot lately. That might seem pretty normal, but Ashley died years ago and now she’s Death.

And tonight she wants waffles and fries.


Review

"This is a SCARy funny book OR a FUNNY scary book, in either case, it is a GREAT book. I LOVE IT." --Sherman Alexie

Hold Me Closer Necromancer- We all know a Sam don't we? Guy living on his own but not up to his potential. Miserable at a dead-end job- in this case a fastfood joint- but who is crazy good people. An awesome friend and son/brother, counter culture, heavy metal or omniverous music lover, skateboard, a lot of running gags and inside jokes type of guy. That's Sam.



But unbeknownst to Sam, he is also a necromancer, and that my friends is some pretty heavy you know what. Having the power over the dead- ala King of the Zombies or Mayor of Deadtown, and having to be constantly bothered by ghosts who have no one but you to talk to, can make for somepretty wack-a-doodle brain scramble. Sam has no idea that he's this supernatural wunderkind until a fellow necromance spots him by total fluke. There must be destiny involved, the fates at play for this meeting to take place because a series of totally random events HAD to occure in order for one of the worst bad guys to meet one of the most underachieving guys.


Soon Sam's entire world is upside down and everything in his life is changed forever. Relationships and truths are not what he believed them to be, and inside him is this dormant and trapped giant of a "superpower". Events literally drag him into deadly and truly scary situations, butwe as readersare introduced to one amazingly constructed and intruiging world of paranormal creatures, mansters, adn all that goes bump in the night.


Told with a healthy does of humor and well actualized cast of characters Sam and his crew comprise one awesome and truely worthy read. I can't wait for the next book in the series- which is rumored to be titled "Romancing the Necromancer", but that can change. So if you love Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series, you will enjoy and maybe even love this one, I know I do.

IBT Interviews Lish McBride (Spoilers ahead read with extreme caution!)


IBT: I know you most likely cannot answer this question, but, it is my duty to ask as a new devotee of your Necromancer series: Did Sam really absorb Douglas's powers à la Highlander, or did his own latent and trapped power (the one bound by his uncle) get unleashed instead? Is all that extra wattage coming from himself? Meaning that Douglas is not actually dead but is huddling somewhere Voldemort style getting stronger by sucking
the lifeforce from snakes?


LMcB: Yeah, I totally can’t answer these questions. Okay, that’s not entirely truthful. I am able to answer your questions, but I won’t as it would give things away. You’re just going to have to be patient. It sucks, I know.


IBT: (I know you already answered this question in your last blog post, but I wrote these questions before it posted so sorry to make you answer it again!) Will we get more illumination regarding the presence of the Crow whenever Sam is having a milestone- e.g. there for his birth, and then there for his "necro-corination"?


LMcB: You will definitely see more of the crow. He shows up a bit in book two, though not in any sort of necro-corination kind of thing. Mostly, my inclusion of the crow had to do with the fact that, throughout mythology, they have been linked as harbingers of death. No doubt this is stemming from the fact that they eat some carrion, and so likely showed up at battle fields and anywhere they could snatch an easy meal. Since they have that strong association, I wanted that link for Sam. I don’t know if the crow will meet the expectations people seemed to build after book one, but they will certainly be around.


IBT: Is there really enough Lysol, Clorox Bleach, Fabreeze, and good 'ol elbow grease to de-spookify Douglas's old property? It must be like a very clean version of the House of 1,000 Corpses in there. I can only see bad things for a new necromancer to go live in a place that must be chalk full of bad juju.


LMcB: The next book certainly has a lot to do with Sam dealing with Douglas’s house. First, he has to come to grips with living in the place where he was held hostage. Talk about immersion therapy, right? But also there are all kinds of…things…that Douglas left behind that Sam has to deal with. I don’t think the house was exactly what he expected, and so I don’t know if the issues he faces will be what the readers expect either.


IBT: Ashley, Brid, and Brooke are seriously awesome ladies. A Harbinger, a
tanaiste (or Alpha Pack Leader Lady if you must), and as Sam described her a "devil in pigtails", respectively, where did these chicks come from? Usually there aren't that many great secondary female characters in books, they tend to fall into cookie cutter roles. But these are fully rounded and dynamic supporting characters who I can see easliy as a hero in any other novel.


LMcB: Characters come from all kinds of places. Orginally, Brooke was more of a throw away character—in the first draft she died in a zombie attack and that was the end of it. But as I revamped the plot, she grew into the lovely girl she is today. Ashely actually comes from a short story I did for class (I went to graduate school and majored in fiction). She was one of those characters that sort just came out fully formed. I had an image of this little girl in a catholic school girl outfit and saddle shoes that worked for death and for some reason I found that really amusing. (The short story is called Death & Waffles and you can find a link to it on my website should anyone want to read it.)


Brid sort of developed as a foil for Sam. Sam is a lot like most of the guys I know—sweet, funny, intelligent, and fairly geeky. Not uber masculine for sure. And most of them, over time, have found very Brid-like girls. Also, I think there are some aspects of my own personality in Brooke and Brid—I grew up in a house full of boys—I have three brothers—and I think that adds something to your personality. I’m not sure if any of that answered the question. Anyway, I always think that if you respect your characters and listen to them, they sort of build themselves. At least mine do. You’d be surprised what your characters will tell you if you just take the time to listen.


IBT: Ramon is too adorable for words, the loyalist of friends and resident
funny guy, what can we expect from him and his "special circumstances" in the
future?


LMcB: Most certainly. Ramon is Sam’s best friend and no matter what, those two will just keep on truckin’. I couldn’t separate them if I tried…nor would I want to. You will definitely see Ramon in book two. There’s a little of him dealin with his new lifestyle and a lot of Sam dealing with the fallout of what happened in book one. All of their lives and their world changed in book one and that takes some adjustment.


IBT: What are your key ingredients to a good story?


LMcB: To me, character is number one. You can hang a lot on a good character. Besides, once you have one, they tend to tell you what to do when it comes to plot. And yes, plot is important, but tension and complication, which are also necessary, come out of how your characters handle the plot being thrown at them…and it’s not always what the writer has in mind. I had some set ideas for book one, but when I got there, my characters would shake their heads and go, “No, that’s not the way we want to do it.” And you have to listen to that kind of thing.


When I read a story, I pay attention to these questions:
Do I like the character? Is the plot interesting? Does the dialogue sound natural? What do I get out of it emotionally? What do I learn? Am I engrossed, or can I set it aside and not think about it? Does it make me think?


As for the last one, I’m not saying each book should make you think DEEP HEAVY THINGS. But it should hang around in your mind, even if it’s just you wondering what the next book will involve. What will happen? I don’t care if it’s literary fiction, fantasy, scifi, mystery, comic books, if it doesn’t hit all or at least some of these points, then I probably won’t pick it up again.


And of course let’s not forget the obvious thing—how’s the writing? I’ve been reading a lot of Terry Prachett lately, and what I love about his stuff is that it’s funny, he has great characters, and he has an almost magical way of stating a profound idea in very simple (and often very funny) terms. He makes it look effortless. Good writing should look like it took no work at all…even though we all know that a writer spends days/hours/weeks/months just trying to get it to sound okay on the paper.




IBT: Which of the characters voices came easiest to you?


LMcB: I like writing Sam even though he’s not the easiest because, well, he’s nicer than I am. He’s just a sweet guy. I’d say the two that come the most natural are Ashley and Douglas. Which is kind of disturbing, really. I mean, Ashely is easier because her level of snark is fairly close to mine. And she’s a very outspoken character, so I just have to sit back and let her go. Douglas is easy because he’s more like channeling. He is very clear in what he wants and how he wants to achieve it, so again, I just have to sit back and listen. Douglas’s stuff tends to need the least amount of editing. But no one really likes to know that they write psychopaths easily. It’s a little creepy.


IBT: What is your favorite type of hero?


LMcB: When I read, I love them to be, well, human. No one wants to read a perfect character. For example—I’ve never really liked Superman (so many of my friends are going to twitch when they read that statement.) because, well, he’s too perfect, you know? He’s smart and good all the time and damn near squeaky-clean. If it wasn’t for kryptonite, he’d be insufferable. I don’t want to be around the goody-two-shoes all the time. But I do like characters who try to do good, even if it doesn’t work out or they screw up along the way. Like I said, I like characters that are human. I’ll give you some examples. I love Harry Dresden from the Dresden Files books—he’s smart, he’s powerful, but he screws up. A lot. But you feel for him because he’s trying so damn hard to be the good guy. I like Percy Jackson. He’s not the smartest guy, and he knows that. But he’s loyal and has a good heart and he always tries to do what he can, even if he fails most of the time. But he gets up and keeps trying, because he really can’t stomach any other way of doing it. I just read White Cat by Holly Black and I loved Cassel, her protagonist, because he’s kind of a mess. He’s a good guy, only he doesn’t think he is. And he’s had a lot stacked against him—it’s difficult to be a good, functioning, person, when you have no example of that to build on.


Let’s bring in some ladies—there’s been a lot of good female characters lately. I love the main character, Flavia, in Sweetness in the Bottom of the Pie. She’s smart, devious, precocious, and always getting a little a head of herself. And she’s spends most of her time thinking about poisons. What’s not to love? I love Kelley Armstrong’s characters—all of them. I’m not even going to pick. She has a good variety of female characters though and does a nice job of making them flawed and real. I also love Thursday Next from the Jasper Fforde books. She’s well rounded and smart and she owns a genetically engineered dodo bird named Pickwick. Again, what’s not to love?




IBT: As an author how do you respond to those who think that censorship is a necessary evil?


LMcB: Well, I don’t think it’s necessary. I really don’t. I think that, as a person, you should learn what’s good for you to put in your brain and what isn’t—on your own terms. If you don’t know how to do that yet, have someone help you like a parent or a librarian. I was allowed to read whatever I wanted as a kid. If I didn’t understand something, my parents would explain it. If it was a curse word or a racial slur (like in the recent Mark Twain fiasco) then we had a discussion on why those words aren’t okay to say anymore, but used to be used more freely. That’s how you learn. Again, using the Mark Twain example—removing the word doesn’t change history. Instead it takes away from a work and removes a potential learning experience. When you don’t learn from history, you repeat it.


There are many different kinds of books in this world, and there are many different kind of readers. To me, a lot of my stuff wasn’t too scary, but for some it was too much. For others, not a big deal. You can’t anticipate who’s going to be okay with it. You just have to let the story unfold as it does and trust that the reader will put it down if they don’t like it.


IBT: When writing YA, do you find that you censor yourself knowing that what you write in intended primarily for a younger audience?


LMcB: Not really. Sometimes things get trimmed because editors think it won’t interest the audience as much. Like we trimmed some of the stuff with Sam’s mom because it was slowing down the plot and for a lot of teens it would be kind of boring to hear about the stuff new parents go through. But I didn’t cut it. As for language, violence, and sexual stuff, no, I don’t. In fact, I didn’t have any audience planned for book one. I just wrote it. Then someone told me it was YA. My first, and really only, question was, “Do I have to cut anything?” and they said no, that I was actually kind of tame, and it was no biggie. The only time I’ve had to cut a bad word is when it isn’t working for the plot or the moment—my editors are great in that they treat that stuff the same as everything else in the book. If it’s working, they leave it. If it’s not, we rework it or cut it, but it’s never a decision based on censorship.


IBT: A little birdie at ALA Midwinter told me that the next book in the
Necromancer series is called Romancing the Necromancer, is this true? How
many books are planned in the series?


LMcB: Your birdie is wrong, sorry. I think they misheard, which makes sense because I talk fast and I mumble. A lot. Right now, the working title for book two is Necromancing the Stone. That being said, titles change and I never commit to anything until they are actually printing the book.


As for the plan, well, that’s kind of up to the readers. I’ve only been contracted for these two books. If they sell well enough, publishers will let me keep going. I don’t really have it set up like a traditional series. Basically, if you guys keep reading them, then I will keep writing them until I’m out of ideas.


IBT: And finally, if you could have dinner with any three people (living,
imaginary or dead), who would they be and why?


LMcB: Shakespeare—I know, everyone says that. But I think he’d be really interesting and I’d like to find out if he really wrote all his plays or if some of them were by Fracis Bacon or what.

Charles Dickens—but just so I could punch him in the face. I really don’t like Dickens. But I feel that one solid pop in the mouth and we’d be okay. (Kids-violence is never the answer, unless the question is “Charles Dickens.”) And then I’d only let him order things off the kid’s menu. He’s earned that, I think.


And for my third choice—a velociraptor. Is that still a dinosaur? They keep changing them on me. Anyway, I want one so I can train it and ride it every where. If they don’t have velociraptors, I’ll settle for a T-rex.

Winners of this contest will receive:

•A copy of Hold Me Closer Necromancer by Lish McBride.
Contest ENDS 02/28/11 at 12:59 pm                                                        

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