The promised Thing (tm)

Hey guys!

Apologies for the silence over here. As I have tweeted about a few times, I came down with a pretty nasty skin infection and got laid low for a while. At the same time, one of our household computers decided to do some belching and, well. The combination made for quiet, quiet days.

Happily, I am staying mostly away from the codeine these days and am improving. I hope to be fully recovered in another week or two. While sitting up is not yet a joy, I did actually manage to get back to editing this week, which means we're  moving closer to an actual book, finally.

I had plans for last weekend that sadly had to be canceled due to illness. One of them was to attend the San Jose Fantasy Faire and do some pre-release author promotion. To that end, I made up some promotional stuff.

And now...here it sits, waiting for release day. Typical, right? But that doesn't mean I can't share it with you. So without further ado, the Immortal Lies bookmark!

How's it look? Piqued your curiosity? I'd be lying if I didn't confess that I hope the answer is yes.

If you head over to the website, you'll notice there's nothing there yet. That will be coming as well. Another thing held up by the frailty of the human body.

But enough about that. How about another peek at some pages, hm?

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I feel compelled to point out here that, despite being old, I'm not a Luddite. I am comfortable with a remote in my hand and I don't fear the microwave. I have a cellphone and I can make it do what I want nine times out of ten. I have programmed a VCR. Technology neither bores nor excites me. It's simply a fact of life these days.

It doesn't make me particularly proud, then, to admit that a wolf howl at high volume made me flinch. Logically, I knew there couldn't be a wolf in the room. The door hadn't opened, we were far above the bottom floor and even the werewolves in the neighborhood couldn't have found a way in with that sort of silent speed.

The sound still triggered a primal reaction, something that came with the transformation from living to undead. The hairs at the back of my neck stood on end. The room seemed to lighten as my pupils splashed wide and I made fists while the muscles in my back tensed. I managed to resist the urge to drop into a crouch. It was a dead man's version of fight or flight.

It made Zach glance up, look back at his screen, and then tap a button several times until the volume dropped. "It's just a sound file. Happens every time I load this page. Sorry, I should have warned you. I'm used to it by now."

I forced my shoulders down to their normal place and uncurled my fingers slowly. "It's all right," I told him and managed a smile. "Just wrapped a little tightly. It's fine. We're fine." A glance at Violet proved she nodded along with me, though her eyes were a little too wide as well. I winked, she beamed and all was right with the world. All right, not everything, but it made me feel less like a fool, at least.

"So," I said, attention back on the laptop screen. "What's the howling page about?"

Zach brightened. I'd given him an opening and true to form, he charged right through. "It's a forum. For all kinds of supernatural things. People post ghost stories, pictures of what they think are spirits trapped on film. It's like a hub for all the people trying to prove that you guys are real."

"Does it work?"

Zach snorted quietly. "Depends on your definition of work. Most of these people are hacks and liars, making stuff up to get attention. But every now and then, you find the real deal."

There went the hairs on the back of my neck again.