I mean what do the really ‘say’ about my novels?

My Zombie Fever covers are a bit too ‘implied zombie’ and I don’t know what to think about my ‘Buddy the Rat’ cover.

So I tossed them all and went back to the drawing board. I bought a stock zombie photo and manipulated it a bit and then did the same with a rat and a barn.

And…voila!

They’re much brighter, in-your-face, and I think will sell better.

Also, I started writing the new Zombie Fever novel, entitled “Zombie Fever: Singapore Falls” yesterday. It will be a third-person narrative that centers around Tomas’ search for Abigail and their escape from Singapore which had turned into a zombie hell. I plan to make this novel a gore-fest and something of a budding love story between the two protagonists.

Oh, one more thing, sales have nearly tripled this month so far. Yay!

I know, I know, it’s been a month and a half since I posted anything. You probably thought I’d abandoned my blog. Not so, not so. I took an extended trip back to the States with my wife and daughter. We visited my home state of Utah for an entire five weeks so that my two-year old daughter could get to know my family. Truth is, I hadn’t been back to the U.S. for over eight years, so it was a bit of an odyssey to step back into yesterday’s memories and try to fit back in. I did what I could to keep the Singapore side of me at a mellow level and donned a vague resemblance of the mask of my former Utah self that the extended family and friends would be comfortable with. But I couldn’t keep the tiger in the cage with the people closest to me.

Anyway, I also slacked on marketing, but my sales have remained steady and now that I’m back I’m going to crank up the self-promotion for the next couple days, then retreat to my writer’s cave to begin writing the sequel to Zombie Fever: Malaysia Outbreak tentatively titled, “Zombie Fever: Singapore Falls“.

Here are a couple photos of my trip back to the States as prove that I’m not fibbing about my whereabouts these past weeks:

Zombie Fever: Origins is a short-story prequel to Zombie Fever: Malaysia Outbreak. It fills in details about the origins of  zombie fever (hence, the title), Vitura Pharmaceuticals and Tomas, the mysterious hero who appears in the latter half of the novel.

******

Synopsis

Tomas Overstreet is stuck in a rut. After graduating university summa cum laude at the age of nineteen, he has no idea what to do with his life. So he flies to San Diego to spend the summer with his estranged father Andy, who works for a nondescript multi-national called Vitura Pharmaceuticals as a security guard.

After dropping Tomas off, Andy leaves for work and disappears. Tomas grows concerned and goes to Vitura to ask around about his father’s whereabouts. Tomas discovers that Andy has been killed in an accident while trying to contain a release of IHS, a bio-engineered virus that turns people into zombie-like creatures.

However, Andy is still alive and being held inside a laboratory and Vitura Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is much more dangerous than it seems to be.

*******

I’m so happy about completing the short story prequel to Zombie Fever: Malaysia Outbreak that I want give a free copy to my friends, family and fans. But only if you download it within the next 3 days, otherwise you’ll have to pay 99 cents, boo-hoo.

Cheers,

-B

I’ve been hard at work putting the finishing touches on a prequel that some of my fans have requested for the Zombie Fever series. The prequel is around 30 pages and adds a bit of background to the virus’ creation, Vitura Pharma and Tomas, who appears in the latter part of Zombie Fever: Malaysia Outbreak and will play a prominent role in the second and possibly third installment.

Here’s the cover.

If your interested in a copy, I’m happy to send you one for free. Just let me know. And if you like it, you could even post a review on Smashwords.

Of course, the little man in the back of my mind keeps whispering, “Just wait for  that inevitable 1 or 2-star review that’s going to shatter your esteem for weeks to come. Don’t forget you’ve sent your book off to impartial bloggers and reviewers. Their reviews are coming and you know they’re the ones that will affect you the most.”

Yeah, yeah. Shut up, little man. Let me bask for a moment in triumph at the thought of another reader enjoying my novel.

Oh, here’s a cut and paste of the four reviews:

Review by: Tiffany Bancroft on March 17, 2012 :
If you enjoy zombies, this book is a must read! It is wonderfully written in the style of an action film, I could picture every scene like the story board of a movie. At first, I thought the reality television angle would be uninteresting, but I found Hodges’ prose to be so spell-binding that I was actually quite disappointed when I turned the last page as I didn’t want it to end! But I’ve heard there’s a sequel in the works. I can’t wait!
(reviewed within a week of purchase)

Review by: Greg Delaune on March 14, 2012 :
Awesome book! I never got bored reading it. Loved the reality show taping scenes almost as much as I enjoyed the nail-biting zombie scenes. It seemed so realistic it’s scary!
(reviewed within a week of purchase)

Review by: nancisplace on March 09, 2012 :
What got me was the night they were in the jungle and the car would start. The suspense was crazy! I like this book and his writing style a lot!
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Review by: Debra Watkins on March 04, 2012 :
A superb story with memorable geographic details about Malaysia and Singapore. More suspenseful than gory, fast paced, easy to digest and with a storyline that sticks to you. Especially the part where they found Gemma’s forearm gnawed off exposing some of her star tattoos, gets me every time!
(reviewed within a week of purchase)

Pretty cool, huh?