Suckers (40 page)
Authors: Z. Rider
Insylum
is available now at Amazon.
Z. Rider
Z. Rider grew up in New Hampshire and lives in the mountains of northeast Tennessee with her husband, two dogs, and a skeleton named Knuckles. Suckers is her first horror novel. She has two releases coming in 2015: Insylum on June 9th and Man Made Murder (book one of the Blood Road trilogy) October 13th.
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INSYLUM BY Z. RIDER
THE LAST ONES IN…NEVER COME OUT
A.J. changed in boot camp, coming out all straight-backed and short-haired. His best friend Nate hardly recognizes him anymore, especially when it comes to the way he acts. His priorities. Now he’s about to ship out to Afghanistan, and despite the rift growing between them, the two decide to have one last hurrah—at Insylum, the extreme traveling funhouse they’ve been waiting for a chance at for years.
They’re last in line on the last night of the show. They are the last two to go in.
And they may never come back out.
COMING OCTOBER 2015
FROM DARK RIDE PUBLISHING
MAN MADE MURDER BY Z. RIDER
BOOK ONE OF THE BLOOD ROAD TRILOGY
When the police can’t track down the man Carl Delacroix believes murdered his sister, he takes matters into his own hands. It takes two years and every penny he has, but he tracks the biker down to a bar on the other side of the country.
And when he gets there, he discovers that killing isn’t as easy as aiming a gun.
Knowing he can’t live with himself until he puts his sister—and his own guilt involving her disappearance—to rest, he chases the biker into the night.
But the road is dark and full of monsters—and the one he’s chasing has a deadly bite.
Man Made Murder
, book 1 of the Blood Road trilogy, comes out October 13, 2015. Pre-order starts July 18th.
I need to thank Mr. Rider, first, for giving me some of the most important gifts: space, understanding, and patience. Also, it turns out he missed his calling: developmental editing.
My good friend Nick also helped a great deal in getting the story as good as it could be before it went to editing.
My Dirty Birds, Kate Lowell and Ana J. Phoenix, provided help for this book even when we weren’t at all talking about this book.
I also need to thank my mom, Mary Ann Wells. I don’t know that I wouldn’t have reached this point without the care package she sent to me in Okinawa back in 1992, but I like to think the message of “I believe in you” that those two books carried, at a time when writing was the farthest thing from my mind, was one of the flutters of butterfly wings that eventually got me here.
My editor, Ashley Davis, was a great help. And Damon Za designed a gorgeous cover that was miles better than anything I could have imagined on my own. Illustrator Nate Olson made my creature “real” with his talent.
Thank you to my awesome Kickstarter backers, who made possible things that would not have been otherwise: Sue Bibeault • Maria J. Blakely • Elizabeth Broderick• Matt Butler • Michael Cammarata • Rhel ná DecVandé • Duke • Skeet Dupree • Fred • Lia hmq • Richard Kashinski • Kelpie • George Lee • Amy Linsamouth • Ron Locke • Bridget Loo • Peter McQuilian • James Moss • Ashley Oswald • Chan Ka Chun Patrick • Wit Phelps • Ana J. Phoenix • Jake Pierson (of the Savannah, GA-based band At Heart) • Megan Reed • Adriane Ruzak • Jeri-Lyn Thomas • Uncle Howard and Aunt Judi • Christinna Viruet • Collin Wells • Mark W. Wells • Mary Ann Wells • Jay Wells • Peter Wells • Ron & Aggie Wells • and Cheri Woods—YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!
THANKS FOR THE MUSIC
A number of actual bands/musicians were mentioned in
Suckers
:
- Dead Confederate
played over the P.A. in the first chapter. - Dan mentions
Jimi Hendrix
&
Greg Ginn
as influences on Ray’s early playing. - Dan puts
Bass Drum of Death
on in his bus bunk. - On the way back from taking Jamie to detox, Dan plays
Louisiana Red
. - Leaving town, Dan starts up “The Likes of You” by
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
. - One of the girls in Esmy’s shop tells Ray he looks like “that guy from
The Dead Weather
.” - On the way to the donation that goes bad, Dan’s got
METZ
’s “Negative Space” stuck in his head. - Dan plays Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground,” and Robert Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues” on Ray’s guitar after he gets Ray home from
Sound Block. - While watching the news with the sound off, Dan listens to
Black Pistol Fire
’s Hush or Howl. Later that night, Dan plays a some stuff he and Ray listened to in high school: The
Violent Femmes
and
Nine Inch Nails
.
None of these bands were in involved with or endorse
Suckers
. They’re simply a few of the (many) musicians who’ve given me great music to listen to over the years.)
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
