Book
Name: Black Hurricane
Author
Name: Erica Pike
Author
Bio: Erica lives in
Iceland with her adorable little twin boys. She often says that her real name
sounds like Klingon to foreigners. Seriously, if “Eyjafjallajökull” looks like
a random strings of characters, it’s nothing in comparison to Erica’s name.
She’s been
writing for several years, or ever since reading became an obsession. Aside
from a business degree, Erica has taken English courses at the University of
Iceland and gulped down anything that might help her in her career as an
author. She takes great interest in English, but will break every single
grammar rule for the sake of The Voice.
Author
Contact:
Cover
Artist: Scarlet Tie
Designs
Publisher: MLR Press
After a
catastrophic reunion, Dean seems bent on destroying Jazz’s life. It all started
when an impromptu bar performance ended up on YouTube and Jazz became an
internet sensation overnight. The name “Jazdean” keeps popping up in headlines
and the paparazzi stalk his every move. To make matters worse, Jazz is about to
end up on the streets for the second time in his life.
In a
desperate attempt to keep his home, Jazz signs a deal with Dean’s band, Black
Hurricane, to perform at a couple of concerts. It feels like one of Dean’s
feeble attempts to get Jazz back, but painted into a corner like he is, Jazz
has no choice.
Excerpt:
“Jazz, take
pictures!” Eric pokes me hard in the side with his bony elbow.
I wince and
raise the camera, clicking a shot.
“Go to the
front, like they’re doing.” He points at the photographers running to the front
and clicking madly on their cameras.
Heaving a
sigh, I drag my ass off the chair to walk forward. I rake my hand through my
hair before I glance back at the monstrosity on the platform. Never in a
million years would I have thought I’d be in this position. Suddenly oil paint
and new guitar strings don’t seem all that important. I just wanna get out, but
Eric needs these pictures for the magazine and I’d rather die than let one of
my friends down.
My heart
thuds when I see Dean looking right back at me as I approach. His brow furrows
as if he’s trying to place me. Typical. Of course he wouldn’t remember me. Why
would he? My heart hammers a fast beat as my body breaks out in sweat. The
inside of my throat thickens, stopping half of the oxygen from reaching my
lungs. And still, I’m having the hardest time looking away.
Am I nervous under his green-eyed gaze? Or is
it just the hate? It’s been years since I last saw him.
Not wanting
to give the wrong impression of an adoring fan, I narrow my eyes and spew out
all the venom I feel for this man into one, hateful glare, just before I raise
the camera and snap my shots.
Tour
Dates/Stops
September
15: Up
All Night, Read All Day, Love Bytes
September 22: Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Smoocher’s Voice
September 22: Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Smoocher’s Voice
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Code:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Prize: A $50 Amazon Gift Certificate and
signed paperbacks of A Life Without You, Hot Hands and The Walls Have Ears. One
(international) winner for the lot.
Sales Links:
All Romance: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-blackhurricane-1271227-149.html?referrer=5314fed11fb4f
My all-time favorite genre is easily M/M
post-apocalyptic. I understand that a lot of romance readers aren’t very fond of this
genre, but a romance in such a setting? The possibilities are endless.
What I like the most about the post-apoc
setting is the survival aspect. There’s limited food, they have to find water,
they have to evade attacks from humans or zombies, they may have to live in a
society that’s anything but kind. I like the roughness, how the rules change
when you have to do whatever you must to survive, and how people change. Your
friendly florist is suddenly wielding a machine gun to protect his kids; the
bank teller is running out on dangerous missions to scavenge food; the high
school English teacher joins a group of marauders because he figures he’ll
never make it on his own. After a complete breakdown of society, it’s an eat or
be eaten world. At least for a while. We’ve all seen what happens when panic
and desperation takes over: people group together to protest, violence breaks
out, and people break into stores to loot and burn down cars and buildings. It
doesn’t take a complete breakdown of the system for this to happen - it
happened in New Orleans during and following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and it
happened in Ferguson this year (although most of the protesters were peaceful,
there were some who looted and vandalized). Imagine that times a million if the
whole system goes down.
After an apocalypse, there are so many
possibilities to build up new civilizations, with new rules and new morals.
Some post-apoc stories take place in the far future where people have risen up
from the ashes and the brutality of the first years of the apocalypse. Maybe
the people have reverted back to basics, living in small tribes, and hunting
for food. Or maybe there’s
new science, a new world order with new laws. As things are now, people try to
learn from the past but people also tend to forget, so even if we know what
breaks down our society we either ignore it and don’t stop it from happening
again or we try to grab the reins, but sometimes it’s too little too late.
Today, the human creature has the tendency to live in the present and often
forgets the long-term goals. But what if, in the future, the new society thinks
of nothing BUT the long-term goals to prevent another systematic breakdown?
What if they tighten the leash so much that the people need a hero to step up?
What if that hero has to go against the society, and what if that hero falls in
love with another man during his struggles, preferably someone in the inner
circle of the regime to make things even more impossible? But it’s the
post-apoc, so anything is possible.
Some post-apoc stories contain zombies or
other supernatural beings. Naturally, there’s going to be blood and gore if there are
zombies. Except if the zombies are written by Z. Allora, in which case they’re
after a different kind of fluid from the human body. Zombie stories become even
more focused on the survival aspect, because people tend to be on the run all the time. There’s
often little downtime in between zombie attacks, and finding safety to sleep
for more than hour at a time is always in the forefront of a zombie survivor.
That and food. Just imagine having your whole world yanked from under you and
you don’t know if this moment is going to be your last. These kind of stories
excite me, but there has to be more than just violence. There has to be
survival and a good plot.
I’ve often wondered if I should write a
zombie novel set in Iceland, but it would be so boring. They’d never be able to
break through the thick concrete of our houses and double/triple glazing of our
windows. There are very few guns in Iceland, so the characters wouldn’t be able
to go out on a decent killing spree. However, survival without running water
and electricity would be very hard, because getting food in Iceland isn’t easy.
We can’t grow anything in the winter and our summers are short. That, along
with the danger of zombies lurking around would make getting food even more
challenging. That’s why I decided to go with Florida in the young adult m/m
zombie novel I’m writing (under the YA name Erica Archer - if you’re
interested). There’s plenty of guns and the climate is warmer. Maybe it also
had something to do with how rainy, windy and cold, the month of July was, when
I was writing the novel. We did get two sunny weeks in August, but that was it.
Sometimes Iceland sucks.
Anyway, as you can see, the first years of
post-apoc, and possibly even the far future, is all about the survival. But
what if you were to fall in love with someone on the run? Suddenly it’s not just you anymore.
In fact, if you love the person enough, you might be ready to sacrifice
yourself to save them. Now, there are many ways to prove your love in
contemporary romance, but being ready to sacrifice your life to a hoard of
zombies to save the person you love? That’s romantic.
So, I’m here to promote Black Hurricane, which
has absolutely nothing to do with this topic. It’s a contemporary rocker book,
but I was asked about my favorite genre and that’s post-apoc. I do enjoy sexy
rockers, too, or else I wouldn’t have written this book. If you’re interested
in reading a short story version of the zombie novel I’m writing, you can read
it on Goodreads (you have to be a member of the M/M Romance group to read it,
but membership is free). The story is called The Shopping Mall Massacre: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1926469-the-shopping-mall-massacre-by-erica-pike-7-24 I didn’t
publish it on ebook because I’m extending it into a novel.
Thanks for having me over! It’s been a pleasure to
share my love for post-apoc, and if I’ve managed to convince at least one
person that post-apoc is awesome, then I’ve done a good deed. Oh, and check out
Black Hurricane while you’re at it ;)
