Dying Days 2 (18 page)

Mike Ross – motorcycle fanatic, Steve’s biggest fan, and driver of Steve’s tour bus

Ellen Harden – runs Scarlet’s bar but just wants to go home to her family

There are a couple more that will be added in later (and a shitload of people that will die… it’s a zombie book, people!)

Now, back to writing… I’m ahead of schedule but need to keep it moving…

February 26
^th
2012

I wrote the very last lines of
Dying Days 2
at exactly 11:58 pm on February 25th… with exactly 2 minutes to spare in my deadline.

Once again, I cut it to the very end, but I am happy I did. I think it’s my best work so far in my career (we’ll call it a career, I’m excited right now)… I was so worried about being behind, but I managed 27k words of this rough first draft, and my three beta readers have already begun the task of marking it up with problems.

Today I think I’ll toy around with promotions, updating the Twitter account, pulling out a new index card for the week ahead and figuring out what the next 15 projects are going to be.

It is such a great feeling to finish something, but I’m also sitting here feeling sad. Another group of great characters perished, and the Darlene Bobich saga is stopped once again. Will there be more? I think so.

I guess only the readers can really tell me if it’s worth sweating another month of deadlines…

March 8
^th
2012

Just uploaded
Dying Days 2,
my latest extreme zombie novella, to the printer…

What a great feeling! Even though this is my 40th book (or eBook) I’ve had published, I still get that excitement bubbling to the surface when I hit that send button and see it’s getting ready for sale.

Of course, having a physical copy in my hands will be another thrill for me… and it never lessens.

The print version usually takes a day or so to be finished, and then I’ll order my proof copy early next week. Once it’s in my hands and I OK it, we’ll be ready to go live.

Expect the eBook versions on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble and SmashWords by Monday, right in time for my Dying Days Blog Tour 2012…

Now, I’m going to go dance around the living room in my M&M sleep-pants…

May 17
^th
2012

I’ve been very blessed over the last few weeks. My sales (especially when it comes to my
Dying Days
zombie series) has never been better, I had my best month in sales ever last month and I’m on pace to beat that by 20-25% this month so far… good times.

One reason (I think) for my success was the Dying Days Blog Tour I did from mid-March thru the end of April. It generated great buzz, I had a blast doing so many interviews and guest blogs, and my sales spiked constantly.

With my
Still Dying: Select Scenes From Dying Days
collection coming along and ready for a summer release, I decided to do another blog tour. But, if you’ve read my blog, you’ll know that I never do anything the easy way or the safe way…

I’d been kicking around an idea for a blog tour with another zombie author, but didn’t know how to approach it. Hell, I didn’t even know who I should pair up with.

I wanted someone I respected, an author that had a few books out and ideally a zombie series to promote. I am friendly with quite a few zombie authors, especially since putting out the non-fiction
Zombie Writing!
book not too long ago. But who?

Mark Tufo asked a question about putting a blog tour together, since the summer is generally slow. The proverbial lightbulb went off in my head. I contacted Mark, we talked, and decided to put something together.

And here’s where my personality comes in. Once again, just finding another writer to do the tour wasn’t enough for me. I decided to think bigger, think grand.

I invited TW Brown and Ian Woodhead, another two authors that fit the bill for what I was looking for. The original idea was for five of us to do this tour, from June 1st until the end of July. We invited a fifth but he couldn’t commit.

Mark suggested John O’Brien and Ian suggested Dave Jeffery. I knew both of their names and knew they were good at their craft. I asked, they were both excited, and the Summer of Zombie Blog Tour was born.

As dates are announced I’ll be posting them here, and we’ll be moving right along.

We’ll have individual interviews, round-robin group interviews, guest blogs from each of us and group ones, and tons of giveaways of eBooks and print books.

Stay tuned for a fun summer of zombie reading.

The original flyers for the very first Summer of Zombie blog tour

July 11
^th
2012 interview I did for Karen’s Different Corners website

Please Welcome Armand Rosamilia!

Hi Armand I am so happy that you dropped by to visit!

And don’t worry, I’ve banished the dogs to the other

 room.

Armand many people don’t like the name they were given at birth. Do you like your given name? If not, what would you rather have been named?

I hated Armand growing up (It’s actually Armando) but love it now. My friends call me Mando. When I was in high school, Anne Rice’s Vampire Armand was quite popular and people thought it was a fake name… so many idiots were running around calling themselves Larry Lestat and crap like that.

Do you write under your given name or a pseudonym?

I guess just using Armand Rosamilia instead of Armando is a bit different, but everyone in my family with this name (Italian family, so every first-born male is named Armando) goes by Armand.

Is there a routine you go through before you begin writing?