Putting on Zombie Make-Up

This is the tutorial I did last year for the Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator blog tour. Hope you enjoy it and it helps.



For More Tutorials:

http://youtu.be/DuMt-N0bnww
http://youtu.be/9DzAwvJCHI0
http://youtu.be/_bVMr-JtyaU

Neeta Lyffe Zombie Exterminator Book Tour

By the 2040s, the shambling dead have become and international problem. While governments and special interest groups vie for the most environmentally-friendly way to rid the world of zombies, a new breed of exterminator has risen: The Zombie Exterminator. When zombie exterminator Neeta Lyffe gets sued because a zombie she set afire stumbles onto a lawyer's back porch, she needs money, fast. So she agrees to train apprentice exterminators in a reality TV show that makes Survivor look like a game of tag. But that's nothing compared to having to deal with crazy directors, bickering contestants and paparazzi. Can she keep her ratings up, her bills paid and her apprentices alive and still keep her sanity?



Excerpt:
The workout room had a weights set and an elliptical in one corner, but Neeta ignored them. She needed more vigorous exercise than that if she wanted to burn off her emotional funk.

None of the plebes had done the routine she'd just set for herself. It didn't really reflect the reality of zombie movements, either. Although the crew had designed the targets to look much like actual undead, they moved too quickly, changed direction too suddenly, lunged and retreated in ways zombies couldn't imitate. They zigged and zaggged, dropped from the ceiling to zoom back up, flung themselves from the ground to trip the unwary. For once, this wasn't about training.

Neeta steeled herself, found an opening and dove in with a roar. She swung high, tagging the first zombie with the edge of her blade just as it got within her reach.

This was about reflexes,

She jumped over the arm that sprung up in front of her, doing the splits as she brought down her chainsaw to slice the hand off at the wrist.

…about burning aggression,

She spun a full circle, moving the saw in a sine wave. She took one target out at the knees, sliced another sideways across the chest, beheaded a third.

…about moving beyond thought and planning and negotiations with writers and directors and people who cared more for ratings than lives,

She lunged, spun, kicked and swung, her battle cries a perfect accompaniment to the pounding music.

A buzzer sounded, and the lights brightened and steadied. The targets stopped their frenetic motions and presented themselves for her to examine. She dropped the saw where she stood and braced her hands against her knees to catch her breath. Her arms felt like lead. A good feeling. She moved among the grimacing targets, noting the strikes that would have severed limbs, the ones that would have beheaded... When she came to the long-haired one with the pot belly, she gave a feral grin.

She's landed the blade in perfect position to slice Dave's manic smile right off his face.

Want more fun? Check out the Zombie Death Extreme show website!

Check out the Tour!

Dec http://www.lindaandrews.net/id14.html Interview in newsletter
4-Dec http://frederation.wordpress.com/ interview
6-Dec http://www.suhalfwerk.blogspot.com/ Guest post: why write about zombies?
7-Dec http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.blogspot.com Guest Post: what do you do with a zombie novel
8-Dec http://acewriters.com/books interview
8-Dec http://naomi-jay.livejournal.com/ Guest Post : Building Neeta's World
9-Dec http://ysfetsos.blogspot.com/ blog--why zombie fic
10-Dec http://vbt-writersonthemove.blogspot.com Guest post
10-Dec http://snoringscholar.com/ interview
11-Dec http://kbaccellia.livejournal.com/ review
12-Dec www.tmarquitz.com/blog interview
13-Dec http://writersandauthors.blogspot.com feature
14-Dec http://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com Character interview
15-Dec http://cfvici.blogspot.com review
17-Dec http://afortnightofmustard.blogspot.com/ Character interview
17-Dec http://catholiconceagain.blogspot.com/ Catholics and Fantasy
18-Dec http://joyce-anthony.blogspot.com/ interview
19-Dec http://kat-findingangel.blogspot.com/ review + interview
19-Dec http://splashdownreviews.blogspot.com review + interview
20-Dec http://tributebooksreviews.blogspot.com/ Review



Order it now: (Print coming soon!)

From the publisher: http://www.damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615722723

From Amazon: KINDLE:

On Doors and Relationships, Part 2

I'm still plugging away at Neeta Lyffe. I'd hoped to be in the editing stage, but life (not Lyffe) had other plans for my time and attention. However, we got our furniture on Saturday, which means we have the kids' stuff, and that might help some.

At any rate, I did get the second half of the Door subplot done. As you may recall from a couple of weeks ago, Neeta's boyfriend, Brian, offered to buy her a new door because her old one sticks and he thought it was annoying her. She compromised by getting it repaired so that it opens smoothly, but it didn't feel as secure to her. Her friend, Ted, then gave her a door limiter that he got at a wild party.

A couple of days later, Brian comes over and discovers that not only didn't she take him up on his offer of a new door, but she put on Ted's door limiter.

She shut the door and took his hand, but he didn't budge, still staring at the door as if it offended him.

"So I offer to replace your door, let you have the fanciest one you could ever want even, and all you asked for is some paint and a door stop?"

"It's called a door limiter, and actually Ted gave it to me. It's got kind of a funny story--"

"Ted? You asked Ted to fix your door?"

"What? No! See he got the door limiter at this wild party--Seventh Day Inventists, surely you know about them--and I own a door and he doesn't so--"

He pulled his hand away from her and gestured at the door. "I could have bought you a door limiter if you'd wanted one."

"I didn't! At least, it never occurred to me--"

"Yet there it is!"

Neeta looked at Brian's face, flushed from heat that had nothing to do with the day. Her jaw dropped. "Are you jealous?"

He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, then burst out, "Yes! Yes, I guess I am!"

"Of a door limiter?"

Again, he opened and shut his mouth, looking something like a giant carp, but this time nothing came out.

Part of Neeta seethed, but mostly she just thought he looked silly and pitiful.

"Wow. Maybe next time, I'll get Roscoe to get me a doorknob."

A pause, and then his anger turned from real to mocking. "Forget it, babe," he said. "If anyone provides the doorknobs in this relationship, it'll be me."

So what's this really all about? Is Brian jealous of a piece of metal? Is Neeta stubborn to have not accepted his offer of a great, new door?

Yes and no. The underlying issue is one of control and understanding. Brian has a romantic notion of Neeta as the strong but lonely heroine who needs a man to understand and protect her. Neeta, however, does not want to be coddled and cared for. She does just fine on her own. She really wants someone she can buddy with, who understands that she's not psychologically fragile because she whacks off the heads of the living dead. Someone who's going to give her a door limiter because he's thoughtful, not because he wants to rescue her.

Guess you know that means she prefers Ted, but will she get him in the end? If you want a spoiler, go buy The Zombie Cookbook and read "Wokking Dead."

My Novel's Journey: Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator: Origins

Since my computer snafu and subsequent loss of Gapman and Discovery, I decided to forge ahead with a novel I started on New Year's Day: Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator.

I have to credit this novel with The Writers' Chat Room, www.writerschatroom.com. A bunch of writers of all experience levels, genres and interests meet in the chat room on Wednesday evenings to talk writing, answer questions, share news, victories and rejections, and get silly. Get very silly very often.

During one of these silly episodes, we somehow got the topic of zombies and cookbooks merged. On that day, publisher Kim Richards came up with the idea of an anthology The Zombie Cookbook. She asked us to contribute stories and I came up with "Wokking Dead," where zombie exterminator Neeta Lyffe deals with a zombie invasion of a Korean restaurant. It was silly fun, full of jokes and political satire and something I figured I'd never revisit again.

Then in a chat in December, Kim mentioned that someone asked her if they'd ever see a novel with Neeta Lyffe. In that chat we also started talking about reality TV, and someone shared what he thought was the greatest first line of a novel he'd read: They ate Jorgenson first. Those two ideas got my imagination going, and on the drive to whale watching on New Year's Day, I decided to play with the idea of Neeta training up new exterminators in a reality TV show in 2037.

It's turned out to be such fun, and Kim did ask, so I'm setting aside the others to finish this one. I'm averaging 1000 words a day, 4-5 days a week, so if I can keep the momentum, I'll finish in March. Then I'll try to rediscover Discovery and begin anew with Gapman.

So join me in my novel's journey with Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator.

Here're a few lines from the opening scene:

They ate Jorgenson.

Dammit! Neeta thought. I was still training him.

The zombies were gnawing on his leg, his fine, tanned leg, while he screamed and blubbered and somehow still managed to make his surfer-blond hair flow effortlessly.

Not that anyone noticed. The zombies, contained unfed for the past week in the abandoned brewery, had more interest in his meat than his pelt. There were only eight, but was too many for a bunch of unwashed trainees, particularly with the idiot film crew hounding them and getting in the way. Around her, seven panicky apprentices screamed and flailed with their tools, forgetting everything she'd taught them over the past six weeks, while through their headpieces Dave shouted directions that had more to do with good drama than good tactics. One cameraman continued to film while another had abandoned his camera and had fallen to his knees vomiting.

Grunting, screaming, someone calling for her mother...

Wait, that was Neeta. And she wasn't calling; she was apologizing. She just knew Mom was spinning in her grave.

Zombie Defense no Laughing Matter--or is it?

Truer words have never been spoken.

Incidentally, I am about 20,000 words into my latest novel, Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator. This was actually a suggestion/request from Kim Richards of Damnation Books. I wrote "Wokking Dead" for DB's The Zombie Cookbook, and readers liked Neeta so much, they asked if she would get a novel. (Neeta exterminates zombies for a living. She'd rather do roaches, but no one calls her for that, anymore. Must be the chain saw.)

There's no guarantee it'll get accepted, but it's a lot of fun to write. I'll tell you more later.

I'll be part of a virtual book tour for The Zombie Cookbook, edited by Kim Richards. I have two stories in it: "Wokking Dead," where zombies invade a Korean restaurant, and "My Big, Fat, Zombie wedding."

It's the Zombie Cookbook Virtual Book tour!

Check out the invasion schedule:

October 5 Virtual Book Tour de Net www.virtualbooktourdenet.blogspot.com  info + tour schedule

October 5 Midlist Writer http://www.midlistwriter.blogspot.com   review

October 5 It Came From Ryan's Brain; Goodreads http://theorangemonkey.livejournal.com/ review

October 5 Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1341280.Ryan_Harron  review

October 6 New Book News http://doylebooks.blogspot.com/  information

October  One Writer's Journey http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.blogspot.com/  review

October 7 Unwriter http://unwriter1.wordpress.com/  review, interview

October 7 One Writer's Journey http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.blogspot.com/  interviews

October 8 Virtual Book Tour de Net www.virtualbooktourdenet.blogspot.com  interviews

October 8 Joyce Anthony information http://joyce-anthony.blogspot.com/

October 9 The Writer Apprentice http://novaham.blogspot.com/  Interviews

October 9 Lily's News, Reviews and Interviews http://lilyauthor.blogspot.com/ interviews +

October 9, 10, 11 The Writer Apprentice http://novaham.blogspot.com/  interview of ZC authors

October 9, 10 Joyce Anthony interview http://joyce-anthony.blogspot.com/

October 11 Joyce Anthony  review http://joyce-anthony.blogspot.com/

October 12 Word of Fennatia http://www.worldofenantia.com/musesblock review

October 12 Virtual Book Tour de Net www.virtualbooktourdenet.blogspot.com  review

October 12 Yes We Can! http://kbaccellia.livejournal.com/ interview

October 1: If You Give a Girl a Pen http://giveagirlapen.com/ Guest blog

October14  Chelle Cordero's XANGA Blog http://cce613.xanga.com/  Interview with Kim Richards

October 14 The Writers Chat Room http://www.writerschatroom.com/blog.htm  guest blog

October 14, 8-11 pm Eastern: The Writers Chat Room http://www.writerschatroom.com/Enter.htm join the chat to talk about writing for anthologies

 October 15 Kim Richard's Blogs     http://kim-richards.livejournal.com/

http://www.myspace.com/kim_richards

http://kim-richards.blogspot.com/

October 17: If You Give a Girl a Pen http://giveagirlapen.com/  Review and Interview

October 17: Trent Kinsey http://www.trentkinsey.com/ Review

October 18  Rites of Romance Reviews http://rorreviews.wordpress.com/ information, reviews

October19 Chelle Cordero's XANGA blog http://cce613.xanga.com/  book promo  

October 20 Virtual Book Tour de Net www.virtualbooktourdenet.blogspot.com  wrap-up of reviews

Order From Amazon