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10 Kindle copies of The Zombie Always Knocks Twice
1Bewitching zombie prize pack contains: zombie bag, zombie zone caution tape, fake brains in a meat container (because what's a zombie prize pack without brains right), two rubber duckies, a large bloody hand print sticker, Bat Bite hand sanitizer, Halloween theme bottle stickers, a purple skull mug, and a Bewitching notebook, pen, and necklace.
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The Zombie Always Knocks Twice
E. Van Lowe
Hollyweird #1
Genre: YA Paranormal
Publisher: Imajin
Cover Artist: Ryan Doan
Kindle ebook: 978-1-926997-74-2
Trade paperback: 978-1-926997-81-0
Page Count: 177 pages
Book Description:
Hollywood California, Swimming pools,
movie stars… and now the risen dead
Hollywood can be a difficult place to grow
up, especially if you’re Kristine Golden, a
fifteen-year-old necromancer with a sworn duty to lay the risen dead back to rest
and no desire to be in the movie business.
When handsome deadie Alex Romero swaggers into her life, Kris must keep her
promise, despite her growing feelings for him. If that’s not enough to give a girl
a headache, a murderous zombie comes knocking at Kris’ door, rocking her world
and threatening her family.
Can Kris solve the mystery of the rampaging zombie before someone else winds
up dead? Or will the walking dead take over Hollywood and turn it into…
Hollyweird?
Excerpt
The man coming up the block toward us in the hooded sweatshirt stopped directly in our
path, about ten feet away. The hood dropped revealing his face. The hair on the left side of his
head had been shaved off revealing tiny bits of bony white scalp. Huge staples held his crooked
jaw in place. There was a large indentation in his forehead from some sort of blunt force impact.
His left eye was covered with a milky, white cataract, and the right drooped unnaturally into his
cheek.
My breath caught yet again. Standing before us was a zombie.
‘LEAVE US ALONE!” the zombie screeched. Then he took off on a dead run and
plowed into Alex with the impact a freight train.
Just great, I thought. Hollyweird—where the dead come out to play.
Zombies aren’t what the movies make them out to be—slow moving, brain dead,
brain suckers. They’re the result of a raising gone bad. They can be strong, and fast, and very
dangerous. Also, a bite from a zombie won’t make you a member of the living dead, although
I’m sure it must hurt like hell.
The one that plowed into Alex was almost six feet tall and about seventeen years old. He
hit Alex with inhuman force, propelling him backward. They slammed into a parked car that
seemed to explode on impact. The twisting metal and shattering glass sounded like a horrible
automobile accident. The car was totaled, and Alex was embedded into the passenger side, like a
toy soldier into a wad of Play Doh.
“Oh, God!” I screamed.
Alex’s eyes were closed. He wasn’t moving… but the zombie was. He peeled himself
away from Alex and the wreckage.
“Zombie!” I called at the top of my lungs. “I command you to tell me who raised you
and what you are doing here.”
The zombie faced me, a puzzled look on his distorted face. It dawned on me he hadn’t
known I was a necromancer until then—not that it made a difference. He wasn’t bound to me so
he didn’t have to answer my questions. I was bluffing.
“LEAVE US ALONE!” He screamed in response. He started for me and a wave of fear
rippled my gut.
“I command you to stay back!” I called, but my voice was cracking, my words lacked
conviction. I took a few shaky steps backward. The zombie continued toward me.
Just then the sound of twisting metal snagged both our attention. Alex’s eyes were open,
and he was separating himself from the wreckage. He shed the automobile with the ease of a
snake shedding an old skin. He began advancing on the zombie.
“What’s going on down there?” We all looked up and saw three men, all Johnny do-
gooders, running up the block in our direction.
“Leave her alone,” one of them called.
The zombie looked from the advancing men to Alex and me.
“Hhhhh!” Hot breath hissed angrily at us. Then he took off past us like a deer, bounding
up the block. By the time the men reached us he was nowhere in sight.
“You ok?” one of them asked.
“Yes. He… attacked us?”
“What the heck happened here?” Another of the men asked. He was staring at the
twisted pile of metal that used to be a Buick.
Before I could open my mouth, Alex launched into an explanation. “My girl and I were
out for a stroll, and he was taking a sledge hammer to that car when we happened upon him.
Guess it was some kind of vendetta. And when he saw us he decided to add us to the list.” The
lie flowed from his lips effortlessly.
“Hey, aren’t you on that TV show?” the third man asked.
Alex smiled. “The Beloved. Yes. You watch it?”
“No, but my girlfriend does. She can’t get enough of you vampire guys.”
Any suspicions the men may have had about our presence on the street or Alex molesting
me immediately vanished. Alex was a bona fide Hollywood star. I guess they thought all stars
were boy scouts. Where have they been?
Several minutes and three autographs later the men were gone, and Alex and I were
walking back to the party.
“You told that lie like you do it all the time,” I said.
“I’m a dead person among the living. I do do it all the time.”
That wasn’t what I was talking about, but I didn’t push it. He seemed annoyed. I guess
being attacked by a zombie wasn’t an everyday occurrence for him either.
“If it makes you feel any better, I memorized the car’s plate number. I’ll take care of the
damage,” he said, his words softening.
“Thanks. That does make me feel better.” I wanted to hold my tongue, but I couldn’t.
“So, you have any enemies who’d want to send a zombie after you?”
“I don’t have any enemies. I’m a lover not a fighter.” The annoyance was back.
“Maybe you loved the wrong woman.”
“I’m dead. I can’t love any woman,” he replied. The words were seething with anger or
pain. I couldn’t tell which.
“He said ‘leave us alone.’ Who’s us?” I asked.
“I don’t know!”
He was getting agitated again so I dropped the subject. But not without noting there was
more to Alex than he was telling me. A vindictive zombie had been set loose in Hollywood.
It was something I needed to look into along with the deadie from the diner. My, my, I was
suddenly a very busy girl.
About the Author:
E. Van Lowe is an author, television writer, screen-
writer, playwright and producer who has worked on
such TV shows as "The Cosby Show," "Even Stevens,"
and "Homeboys In Outer Space." He has been
nominated for both an Emmy and an Academy Award.
His first YA Paranormal novel, "Never Slow Dance
With A Zombie," was a selection of The Scholastic
Book Club, and a nominee for an American Library
Association Award. His Best Selling
novels, “Boyfriend From Hell” and “Earth Angel,” are
the first two books in the Falling Angels Saga. “The
Zombie Always Knocks Twice” is the first book in his
Hollyweird series.
E lives in Beverly Hills California with his spouse, a werewolf, several zombies
and a fairy godmother who grants him wishes from time-to-time.
http://evanlowe.com
http://vanlowe.blogspot.com/
@evanlowe
http://www.facebook.com/author.e.vanlowe
Writing About A Gifted Child
If you are a fan of paranormal stories, one thing I’m sure you enjoy is reading about how our
heroes and heroines deal with their paranormal gifts. This is also true for me. In exploring
the relationship between Kris, the protagonist in The Zombie Always Knocks Twice, and her
ungifted sister, Anne Marie, I delve into my own past.
I grew up in a gifted household. No, not me. Definitely not me. I am about as ungifted as they
come. However, my older brother was gifted with an ability in mathematics. As kids, while I
was busy outdoors playing and getting into as much trouble as I could find, my brother was at
home working on equations. By the age of twelve he had already gone through all the algebra
and geometry books my parents could find and was delving into calculus.
I remembered all the attention my brother got. It didn’t bother me. I thought he was weird. I
mean, what twelve year-old doesn’t want to play? Yet in writing my new book, I wondered
how Kris’ gift might affect her sister. A single gifted child in a normal family can have an effect
on the entire family. That is the underlying premise of The Zombie Always Knocks Twice.
Of course, Kris has all sorts of other problems like a rampaging zombie, a girl who was raised
from the dead and wonders if she was murdered, not to mention a budding romance with a new
deadie.
For me, however, the key to the book is exploring my own reality. It’s what I love most about
writing paranormal. I get to explore my normal in an abnormal way.
My Review:
For me E. Van Lowe is one of those authors that never fails to entertain. His writing is easy to read and fast paced. His characters are quirky and fun, the plots unique and suspenseful. The Zombie Always Knocks Twice reads like a paranormal Veronica Mars which is one of my all time favorites, and I can see this being an amazing tv series if done right.
I love the way Lowe works family dynamics into a zombie book, of all things. Kris and her dad seemed to have such a great relationship until her sister Anne Marie showed up after running away and being gone for two years. Not only does her sister come back but all of the sudden Kris's gift is needed more than it has been, and with Anne Marie is quick to point out to dear old dad that Kris's gift is endangering everyone's life. Gee, thanks sis. Now let's just throw a little more at an already stressed Kris and give her a hot dead guy that needs her help as well.
If you're already a fan of Lowe's books I think you'll be glad to know that this series is starting out just as great as his others. If you haven't read Lowe yet and you like paranormal stories then you should definitely check out this book and his others. I can't wait to see what Kris gets into in the next book.
