I imagine myself sneaking in through your window with a knife between my teeth to steal velvet ribbons out of your brain, but then you wake up and we just have tea instead.
—McCormick Templeman (to me, via email)
My dear friend McCormick Templeman’s new novel, The Glass Casket, is on sale today! I read an advance copy and I can tell you that I very quickly lost count of how many times I felt that I-wish-I’d-written-this envy. ZOMBIE SNOW WHITE, how brilliant is that? It’s an awesome idea, but even more importantly, it is beautifully executed. Here’s the full synopsis:
Death hasn’t visited Rowan Rose since it took her mother when Rowan was only a little girl. But that changes one bleak morning, when five horses and their riders thunder into her village and through the forest, disappearing into the hills. Days later, the riders’ bodies are found, and though no one can say for certain what happened in their final hours, their remains prove that whatever it was must have been brutal.
Rowan’s village was once a tranquil place, but now things have changed. Something has followed the path those riders made and has come down from the hills, through the forest, and into the village. Beast or man, it has brought death to Rowan’s door once again.
Only this time, its appetite is insatiable.
Now you want a copy, right? I’m giving one away! (Read on.)
Because McCormick and I have already done a couple of Q&As on the blog (see The Little Woods and Dipping Your Toes in Different Realities), we thought we’d do a round of this-or-that.
Zombies or cannibals? Romero zombies.
Typing or longhand? Longhand for notes, typing for drafting.
Juice or smoothie? Smoothie.
Telepathy or levitation? Telepathy.
Austen or Shelley? Both Shelleys.
Peaches or pears? Peaches.
Krishna or Zeus? Krishna.
Tea or coffee? Coffee (but secretly, tea.)
Sky-diving or scuba-diving? Scuba-diving (but also sky-diving)
Rapunzel or Cinderella? Cinderella, but mostly the mice.
Angels or witches? Witches!
Gaiman or Pullman? Pullman.
Poker or tarot? Tarot.
Chocolate or chocolate? Pickles.
Ha!
To enter the novel giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment answering one of these this-or-thats. (And/or you can tweet, retweet, or share on Facebook, all of which get you more entries.) Contest closes Thursday at 5pm ET.
Congratulations to my dear friend!
Edit, February 19th: and congrats to BekahCat, who has won the giveaway! Thanks so much to everyone who entered.
Peaches, definitely peaches. But I’d pick Gaiman over Pullman.
I’m so glad I paused to take look at this. The title Glass Casket caught my eyes on Twitter and then of course I had to do some further reading. I’d say I’m entering this for my young adult reader, but it’s for me too!
Gaiman!
Levitating Chocolate Zombies.
— Oh, I am sorry, is that NOT how this game is played. I just want either of you to write a romantic horror story about levitating chocolate Zombies (either the zombies themselves are made of chocolate– in which case they would all be cannibals too, or the zombies are also just big chocolate fans.)
I’m struggling between Gaiman and Pullman, I loved His Dark Materials, but I’m reading Stardust right now…and it’s sooo good! So today I’ll say Gaiman.
Rapunzel over Cinderella, I like long hair!
The Glass Casket looks so good too!
Gaiman or Pullman?
I would have to pick Gaiman for the wonderful subtleties in his writing…
Zombies or cannibals?
ZOMBIES!!!
Vivien
kellis_amberlee at yahoo dot com
Typing or longhand? Longhand. It’s more personal.
Typing, levitation, peaches and pears (how can you choose?!), Cinderella (not that that surprises you), and of course both skydiving and scuba diving (how can you choose between terminal velocity and breathing under water?!)
Dark, dark chocolate. Preferably with Mealey.
Tarot definitely. Once I inadvertently started reading cards for my friends using only the Major Arcana cards. We we all thrilled about the amazing things that life had in store for us, until someone showed up and explained my error – lol!