Book Review - Hungry For You, by A. M. Harte

 From the cover of Hungry For You, by A. M. Harte, we can see that this book is set for zombie lovers. Each of the ten stories and the opening and closing poems are related, directly or indirectly, to "zombiness". 

We are not talking only about stories featuring the traditional zombie apocalypse though. There are creative post-apocalypse settings ("Hungry For You"), surreal ones ("Seven Birds") and others very simple and familiar ("Dead Man's Rose"). 

These are no ordinary zombies either. In some stories they have feelings, they talk and fear and love as their limbs fall apart. There are zombie humans and former humans, dogs, roses and swans. The cause of their disease - no curses in this anthology - is as varied as it can be: from ordinary bites to tea bags. 

The story that gives name to the book is my favorite. It's set in a post-zombie apocalypse where the remaining zombies feed not of flash or brains, but of human sins. Their feeding method is quite surprising, and it's the same for zombie humans and animals. Although I'd warn the purists for some strong wording and sex references (which fit perfectly the context), this story created a world worth exploring further; I'm curious to see more of it. 

I had fun seeing very creative explorations of the zombie theme, but I was a little disappointed at a few editing issues I found. The first story starts with an apparent typo and an impossible to ignore grammatical error. There are some plot issues I'd like to see fixed at "Dead Man's Rose" and "The Cure", and sometimes the pace suffers from over description of the character's actions, as in "Dead Man's Rose" and "The Perfect Song". 

Despite these problems, the book is a very pleasant and even surprising reading. The opening poem, by Gabriel Gadfly, and the final one, by the author, are another highlight of the book. Overall, it's a recommend. 

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A. M. Harte is a speculative fiction enthusiast and a chocolate addict. She's a writer, editor, practical joker, and the author behind the online dark fantasy publishing project Qazyfiction. She is excellent at missing deadlines, has long forgotten what "free time" means, and enjoys procrastinating over at http://amharte.com. She can also be found on Twitter and Facebook. 

#ZombieLuv - The Honorable Mention

With no further adds, let me introduce you to the winner of both the poll and the honorable mention of the Zombie Luv Contest, Sam Adamson!

*big applause*

*

For the Love of Mike!

by Sam Adamson

'Ma! He's doing it again!'

Maggie sighed and, apologising to the spirits, opened a door in her circle, stepped through and carefully closed it again behind her. Picking up the candle she'd left burning on the dresser, Maggie hurried through the darkened cottage to the kitchen.

Bartholomew stood on his hind legs in his cage on the counter top, nose and whiskers quivering as Maggie snapped on the light and set the candle down on the kitchen table. Bramble sat on the floor staring intently at the mouse in its cage, swishing his tale back and forth and moaning, flexing his claws against the tiles. Mike was over by the sink, giggling.

'See Ma, Bramble's at it again,' Mike slurred.

'Bramble! What have I told you?' Maggie scolded. Bramble turned, fixing her with a pair of milky, dead eyes.

'Yes, you!' she continued. 'Leave that mouse alone. Come on, shift.' She flapped her hands at the cat, who lurched unsteadily to its feet and shuffled stiffly across the floor towards Mike, the tip of his tail hanging at a strange but jaunty angle. Midway across the floor, Bramble's left ear quivered then dropped off onto the tiles.

'Oh not again,' Maggie muttered, hunting through a drawer for the glue.

Bramble let out a low, moaning meow as he approached Mike. Mike grinned a lopsided grin.

'You hear that?' He sounds like me.' Mike stuck his hands out in front of him and shuffled towards the cat. 'M-O-U-S-S-S-S-E,' he moaned, and even Maggie had to smile. It had never crossed her mind when she'd raised Bramble that a zombie cat would retain the instincts it'd had in life.

Mike stooped awkwardly to pick Bramble up and Maggie froze. As he straightened up she released the breath she hadn't been aware she was holding, nothing important had come adrift. While Mike wasn't looking, she poked his eyebrow out of sight under the table with her toe; she'd stick it back on later while he was sleeping.

Seeing the love Mike still had for Bramble brought a lump to Maggie's throat, casting her instantly back to the night of the accident. She'd been driving them back from the vet's after getting Bramble's booster injection when their car had been T-boned by a drunk driver in a horse box. Mike and Bramble had died instantly, yet she'd walked away without a scratch.

It had taken her months to perfect the spell, Bartholomew was proof of her first successful attempt. She preferred not to think about the previous ones, and wouldn't be caught outside after dark for love nor money. Even so, it was neither as simple, nor as quiet a procedure as she'd thought, so Maggie had sold up and moved to the cottage – nothing for miles around in all directions except fields. The perfect place to re-build her family.

She'd done the best she could with Mike, even shopping online for a preparation popular among undertakers, which really did seem to help arrest the decay. It had even seemed to help Mike retain his speech, at least for a few weeks, but recently she'd noticed his vocabulary diminishing and he seemed to be having increasing trouble forming words. Regular baths of strong-smelling herbs helped with the odour, whether Mike enjoyed them or not. The only thing that saddened her was she could do nothing about the ugly gash running across Mike's face, loosening his right eye, which had ended up in his dinner on a few occasions.

Mike seemed happy to be back, though isolated as he was in their new home, he was lonely. When the nightmares had got so bad he'd stumbled into her room and tried to wrench the top of her head off, Maggie had resolved to get him another pet. A zombie mouse was hardly the pet for a growing lad she thought, so Maggie had performed the ritual again to bring back Mike's beloved Bramble.
Seeing Mike cuddling Bramble and tickling him behind his remaining ear had Maggie all misty eyed. She recalled vividly as she dabbed her eyes on her sleeve, their first night together again as a family. A pet-food commercial had played on TV featuring a small boy and his cat. Mike had dissolved into hysterical moaning, which Maggie took for laughter, and when she'd asked him what was so funny, he'd fixed her with his lopsided grin and moaned, 'My cat loves braiinnnsss, and I love my cat.' He'd even emphasised the “t” of cat, just like the little boy in the advert.

* * *

Completing the ritual for the final time, Maggie exhaled slowly as the body of her husband William, dead from leukaemia these past four years, began to twitch within the circle. As she lay down next to him, Maggie prayed this ritual would work. William had been dead longer than anyone, or anything, else she'd raised, and she'd had the devil's own job exhuming his body and driving it to the cottage by herself.

A single tear slid down Maggie's cheek as the spell took the last of her life-force to power William's awakening. It would be okay, it had to be, she thought as her heart finally stuttered and stopped, she'd built into the spell that she would join him, an undead wife to an undead husband, undead mother to an undead son. The spell had been complex to construct, but after all, a growing boy needed both his parents. William's eyes flickered open slowly, his head lolling to the side where Maggie lay entwined in his arm. Recognition seemed to flicker across his face.

'Hello, love,' he moaned softly, planting a passionate, foetid kiss on her lips, his cold, clammy tongue tentatively exploring her mouth. Maggie shuddered with elation – it had worked, it had! Her family was complete again.

We will have to do something about that formaldehyde breath though, Maggie thought as she returned the kiss.

*

Sam Adamson is an aspiring writer, blogger and fountain pen enthusiast from England. When he’s not enjoying a good cup of coffee or writing, Sam is engaged on the perpetual hunt for the perfect writer’s notebook and pen combination. His hobbies include medieval Britain, herbal medicine and cats…there has to be cats.

You can find more of Sam’s writing at his blog Future;Nostalgic. You can also follow him on Twitter at @FutureNostalgic.

#ZombieLuv - Poll's Result

That's it folks. The Zombie Luv Flash Fiction Contest is officially over.

Tomorrow I'll announce the big winner and the honorable mention, but in the mean while I'll tease you guys with the poll's results, heh. *evil grin*

The poll had:

-- 37 entries (candidates)

-- 52 voting people

-- 93 valid votes

Thank you everyone who read the entries (they were many!), who voted, and who spread the word mainly on twitter. The contest's success is due to your participation as well, dearest readers! :)

Now I'll leave you with the most voted stories. Many congrats to the most popular #ZombieLuv writers! :D

1º For the Love of Mike - 9,7%

2º Rose - 7,5%

3º Tainted Love & Till Death Do Us Part - 6,5%

4º The Balad of Nate and Carla & Dead Flames - 5,4%

Finally, I'd like to remember that, as I mentioned, these results will influence the decision of the judges on granting the honorable mention.

However, please bear in mind that the poll is not the sole criterion. So, if your story amongst the most voted, please don't take for granted that you're running for honorable mention. ;P

The poll's result means that people loved your story, and not only, they took the time to come to Randomities and say how much they loved it. This is great by itself!

Many congrats once again! You all deserve it. :)

#ZombieLuv News!

Aye, aye! We have news, zombie lover folks!

We've got almost 40 entries on the Zombie Luv Contest, which in our view is huge! We're totally *doing crazy dance*, heh.

There's some great stuff there, which makes it all the more difficult to judge and choose a single winner, even if there'll be at least one honorable mention.

We need more time to decide, so we'll make the winner's big announcement on July 22th.

Please bear with us. It's just an extra week. ;)

Also, we feel that the poll was too large in options and too short in voting time. We'd like to give you more time to read and choose your favorites, this way you can also help us out with our dilemma. (the honorable mention one ;)

That's why we're extending the poll up until July 20th, midnight EST.

Another reason for this extra time is that the blogger widget wasn't working well for everyone, the lazy bastard! heh

The solution I came up with is transferring the poll to the comments. I'll consider all votes accepted by the widged so far, and I'll compile the votes you leave on the comments in a spreadsheet.

The poll's result will be announced on the same day as the contest's winner.

Here are the guidelines for voting:

• You may vote for as many entries as you like. Just name them on the comments.

• Anonymous votes will be disregarded.

• Contestants may vote for themselves, but they must vote for at least one other entry as well.

• If the widget has decided to work for you, please be a good sport and refrain from voting again. I have no way of controlling this.

You'll find the complete list of entries at the bottom. Have a great reading time! :D

*

Now, since you'll have an entire extra week to read all these fantastic stories, you can also take a peek at the my interview at The Penny Dreadful twitter chat -- Tuesdays, at 4pm EST -- where I talked about how the contest came to be and other things.

I had much fun and I hope you'll have some reading it too. :)

Psst, don't miss the chance to explore the TPD's website. Awesome stuff in there!

Finally, I'd like to show you the funny poem Tony Noland wrote on a single tweet.

I loved it and felt most honored, Tony. Thanks! :D

#zombieluv contest is done

be weeks 'til we find out who won

but lose or win

it all made me grin

Thanks, Mari, this contest was fun!

It seems you have some foreseeing ability, as originally it should take only a week to know who won, heh.

*

List of entries by order of submission:

-- Forever, by Angie Capozello

-- At the End, by AJ Brown

-- Island Nights, by Laura Eno

-- Love After Death, by Joanie Rich

-- Romeo and Juliet are Dead, by Tony Noland

-- Heartless, by Monica Marier

-- And Then There Were None, by Emma Newman

-- Three Steps, by Tomara Armstrong

-- Scent of a Zombie, by KeMari

-- Love is Just Another Weakness, by Mia Hayson

-- Dead Flames, by Angel Zapata

-- Lloranda, by David A. Hernandez

-- Advantages, by Rebecca Thompson

-- Burning Zombie, by Erin Cole

-- Yes, by Casper Wood

-- Light, After All, by Mark Antony Crittenden

-- Cooties, by Donald Conrad

-- Rose, by Delia

-- Undead Love, by David G. Shrock

-- Gonna Fucking Do Ourselves In, by Lee Hughes

-- Chained Love, by Eric J. Krause

-- A Small Misunderstanding, by Gracie Motley

-- Benching a Wolf, by Cathy Olliffe

-- Tainted Love, by Melissa L. Webb

-- For the Love of Mike!, by Sam Adamson

-- Something Not Hunger, by Matt Merritt

-- The Tell-tale Beat, by Nishida C.

-- Til Death Do Us Part, by Stefanie Howerton

-- All-consuming Passion, by Barti Ddu

-- The Lovely Tale of Toothgroan, by Nathan Dean

-- The Balad of Nate and Carla, by David D. Sharp

-- Chick-Chick-BLAM: A Headshot Love Story, by Gabriel Gadfly

-- Leaving Gary, by Jason Beymer

-- Marrying the Dead, by Lexx Clarke

-- Charcoal Muse, by h.lee

-- Dead, Long Dead, by Tim King

-- The Forgotten Thing, by C. Dominique Gibson

Zombie Luv Contest Closed for Submissions + Poll

Edited to add: Except for the list of entries and the gratefulness for the people quoted here (check them out!) the dates and voting system have changed. For more information click here.

That's it folks! The winner will be announced on July 15th, so stay tunned! ;)

We had 37 entries to the contest, so I think I can call it a success? heh

Thank you everyone for your awesome entries, for all the tweets and shout outs, and for your hilarious zombie-talk.

A special thanks for these people who kindly helped spreading the word about the contest in their own special way:

>> Jodi McArthur, of Fiction Author Jodi McArthur, for her awesome blog post.

>> Joanna Penn, of The Creative Penn, for a most generous tweet.

>> M. Jones, of Zombie Romance webzine, for her enthusiasm and shout out about the contest.

>> Jon M. Strother, of Mad Utopia, for sharing the news to the awesome #FridayFlash community.

>> Anne Tyler Lord, of Don't Fence Me In, for featuring the contest on her weekly writing news, the Coffee Klatch.

>> Roland D. Yeomans, of Writing in the Crosshairs, for being such a gentleman and spreading the word about the contest on his blog. Roland, I forgot your twitter name! *head on desk* Please tell me on the comments (or elsewhere) so I can add a link? :)

>> Chris Allinotte , of The Leaky Pencil, for his hilarious zombie adds.

>> Jemi Fraser, of Just Jemi, for her kindness on twitter.

>> Jason Warden, of Experimental Muse, and Shane Benavides, of I Amuse Me, for being such good sports. :)

Soo, I had much fun, but it's time to get me and Randomities back to life.

"What? You can't undo death!" you say.

Of course I can't!

However, since I know some very powerful wizards -- who you'll get to know on the zombie dragon series ;) -- I've asked them to work on a potion or spell to help out on my condition. These guys are good!

I took the potion just after midnight GMT (as per instructions) and after some weird stuff happened all my limbs are perfectly attached again and I can actually breathe! Hurra! heh

See how Randomities got its looks back? The wizards said that unzombifying Randomities was much easier than making my concotion. *grinz*

Now that I'm alive again and I can think better, it's time to get to work on judging the entries.

Hey, why don't you help me out?

I've mentioned that there'd be an honorable mention published here at Randomities, right? Tell me which is your favorite entry and influence the judges opinion on the honorable mention!

Since I really want to know your opinion, the pool will be up until July 14th, midnight EST. There are so many good stories that you can vote for more than one entry. ;)

Here's the list of entries. Happy reading! ;D

-- Forever, by Angie Capozello

-- At the End, by AJ Brown

-- Island Nights, by Laura Eno

-- Love After Death, by Joanie Rich

-- Romeo and Juliet are Dead, by Tony Noland

-- Heartless, by Monica Marier

-- And Then There Were None, by Emma Newman

-- Three Steps, by Tomara Armstrong

-- Scent of a Zombie, by KeMari

-- Love is Just Another Weakness, by Mia Hayson

-- Dead Flames, by Angel Zapata

-- Lloranda, by David A. Hernandez

-- Advantages, by Rebecca Thompson

-- Burning Zombie, by Erin Cole

-- Yes, by Casper Wood

-- Light, After All, by Mark Antony Crittenden

-- Cooties, by Donald Conrad

-- Rose, by Delia

-- Undead Love, by David G. Shrock

-- Gonna Fucking Do Ourselves In, by Lee Hughes

-- Chained Love, by Eric J. Krause

-- A Small Misunderstanding, by Gracie Motley

-- Benching a Wolf, by Cathy Olliffe

-- Tainted Love, by Melissa L. Webb

-- For the Love of Mike!, by Sam Adamson

-- Something Not Hunger, by Matt Merritt

-- The Tell-tale Beat, by Nishida C.

-- Til Death Do Us Part, by Stefanie Howerton

-- All-consuming Passion, by Barti Ddu

-- The Lovely Tale of Toothgroan, by Nathan Dean

-- The Balad of Nate and Carla, by David D. Sharp

-- Chick-Chick-BLAM: A Headshot Love Story, by Gabriel Gadfly

-- Leaving Gary, by Jason Beymer

-- Marrying the Dead, by Lexx Clarke

-- Charcoal Muse, by h.lee

-- Dead, Long Dead, by Tim King

-- The Forgotten Thing, by C. Dominique Gibson

Random Cool Things #7 - Zombie Luv Webcomic

Lena S., from Fictious Flashes, pointed me to this awesome webcomic zombie love related, by Shazzbaa. Thank you Lena!

You can click on the images here at Zombie-Randomities to enlarge, or visit her webpage here.

Please notice that, if it were the case, this story would not qualify for the contest, as it's about a zombie and a human. Entries for the Zombie Luv Contest must have romance between two zombies. ;)

Now, talking about the contest, we have yet 4 days to go until the deadline (July 10th) and there are already more than 30 entries! All the judges are very excited! :D

If you stick around at Randomities next week, you'll see that while we (the judges) make a decision you'll have the opportunity to give your own opinion on the entries.

Psst! If the pool results are expressive, they may influence on who's going to get the honorable mention. ;)

Now have fun with this awesome flash comic! :)

Random Cool Things #6 - I Like Turtles

Yeah, the zombiness contaminated even the cool # series.

Keeping up with the Zombie Luv Contest, we've got 15 entries you can read by clicking on the links on the side bar. :) There's only one more week to go, so gather your words and kill them!

Obviously you'll want to relive them by any means you can, so they'll become properly zombified, heh.

Now, if you're still with me, watch something amusing. I've wondered if this kid is the real thing... O_o

Uh, oh! Randomities is Dead!

I was celebrating having received the first entry to the Zombie Luv Flash Fic Contest that I missed Randomities' lack of reaction.

Did you notice the change in its color? O_O

Randomities died, and it's my fault! *sob*

My body parts keep falling on the keyboard and it contaminated the computer, and now Randomities too. Poor thing!

*nose falls, catches it and glues back at once*

Err, I hope it all goes back to normal after July 10th, the contest's deadline, but in the mean time, let me present you: *drumroll*

Zombie-Randomities

Zombie-Randomities is proud to showcase the entries to the #ZombieLuv Contest -- by order of submission -- on the sidebar, just below the contest's logo. Enjoy the reading! :)

And there's more! Every week until the end of the contest the cool # series will be zombified as well. Keep your living eyes open that new zombie funninesses are coming your way!

But hey, keep these yummy eyes away from me. Too yummy. *licks lips* Just saying, heh. :P

Psst, click on the link for the guidelines .

Edited to add: Click here to find out how Randomities got unzombified. ;)

Zombie Luv Flash Fic Contest is Here!

Welcome to the Zombie Luv Flash Fic Contest!

Please excuse the hostess odor. Being (almost) immortal comes with a price, you know? heh

If your reaction to this statement was, "Uh?" check out this post that explains the birth of this zombie romance contest, and how Susan H. Gottfried got me into this stinky situation.

(When you can, don't miss her website and blog. it's all Rock 'n Roll! ;)

All right, if you've followed the #ZombieLuv hashtag on Twitter, and if this is not your first visit here at Randomities, you know already a few things, like, there's a double prize and one of them is having your story published at Flashes in the Dark!

So, if you like zombies, you're most welcome to participate! If you don't, why don't you give it a try? I used to dislike undead, smelly, brain/corpse eating things, but I've changed my mind. I've even become one of them!

Convinced? ;)

If so, here are the guidelines for your enjoyment. (or horror? heh)

*upper teeth fall, preventing hostess from keeping babbling*

*moans*

*sprints towards the bathroom to fetch Mari-girl's super glue*

* * *

Zombie Luv Flash Fic Contest

Judges:

>> Mari Juniper (or zombie-Mari, if you will)

>> Lori Titus (editor of Flashes in the Dark and friend of werewolves)

>> Jim Bronyaur (owner of scary zombies)

>> Jodi MacArthur (owner zombies and other scary things as well)

Dates: Contest begins on June 20th and runs until midnight July 1oth. (GMT)

Winners will be announced on July 15th.

Contributors: Flashes In The Dark ~ Be Devoured by Horror

Prizes:

• The winner entry will be published at Flashes in the Dark.

• The winner will receive a paperback edition (new) of Pride Prejudice and Zombies.

• An honorable mention might be granted, which will be published at mari's randomities: http://marisrandomities.blogspot.com

Guidelines:

• Word count: maximum 1.000

• The story must be a romance between two zombies. Make it as horrific as you like. ;)

• Stories containing animal cruelty, torture, graphic sex or violence, any form of exaltation of violence, racism or other forms of prejudice will be immediately disqualified.

• Post your entry on your own blog, with a title resembling this:

Zombie Luv Flash Fic Contest: Story Title

• Leave your story title and a link to the story entry post as a comment at mari's randomities: http://marisrandomities.blogspot.com

• Copy and paste the contest logo and the guidelines at the end of your entry post.

Note: If you have any doubts, please give me a shout on the comments or through the #ZombieLuv hashtag. ;)