Guest post and Giveaway with Author Donna Burgess ~ '

THE END IS ONLY THE BEGINNING

On the eve of winter Solstice, a massive flash envelopes the Earth and then there is nothing. The sun no longer shines and civilization is plunged into unending darkness. Those exposed to the mysterious flash have changed—they have become bloodthirsty, cunning, and determined to devour anyone who is not infected.

They are Ragers.

In Sweden, uneasy travelers Tomas an architect, his young son, Christopher, and university student Melanie, hear a broken broadcast. There is hope. Something called Sanctuary waits, but it is thousands of miles away, somewhere on the shores of the British Isles.

Meanwhile, in a London supermarket, Stu, a high school English teacher from the States finds himself stranded along with a handful of students on a senior trip. Outside, hoards of hungry Ragers await, ready to tear them limb from limb. Their only hope is to find Sanctuary.

Solstice is a tale of hope, terror, survival, and finding love at the end of the World. *amazon.com*

I began this blog in August of 2012, my FIRST Interview and Review was with Donna Burgess. It is a huge honor for her to grace my pages with her thoughts again in 2013! With a couple new release out later this year, I hope to be seeing a lot of Burgess in the coming months. Here is my review of Solstice, A Novel of Zombie Apocalypse.

A real life, honest to goodness, Zombie book! WooHoo!!!

My favorite genre of books are Zombie books; I especially enjoy a good zombie book; this was a great zombie book!

Burgess unfolds such an interesting post apocolyptic world for us, you are drawn in more and more with every page as you learn about these blood thirsty zombies in a human shell (Ragers).

Another aspect of this book that I enjoyed was the justification; how these "Ragers" came to be. They also retained their human memories, locked up somewhere in their psychotic mind, but still there in the forefront. Then we have the human aspect of the story with our characters like Melanie and Tomas, Stu and Tana, adding to the gravity of the situation at hand and delving into the how far would you go to survive? To ensure the survival of and to protect the ones you loved? How far is too far, is that even a question in this type of situation.

This is a very dark, bloody, dystopian world Burgess has created and I thouroughly enjoyed it.
I give it 4/5, but that's just my two cents!!

And now Burgess is going to share a little news on her upcoming releases for 2013, and some of her favorite zombie reads from 2012.

It looks like we made it through the latest doomsday apocalypse without the appearance of a single zombie (although it was looking sort of promising with the cannibal/bath salts incidents earlier last year). I hate to admit it, but there was a twinge of excitement surrounding a possible zombie invasion and I know I’m alone, judging from the Facebook posts I read on December 21st. Right now, it seems we’re going to have to wait a bit longer before we get some real-life Walking Dead action, but the fictional zombie apocalypse remains alive and kicking.

I would love to spend most of this guest post tooting my own horn and talking up my zombie novel, Solstice and I will get around to mentioning it in a moment, but I also wanted to give a shout-out to some incredible zombie fiction from 2012. And if you haven’t noticed, zombie fiction is no longer a man’s world. The chicks now rule this realm of horror. If you love zombie fiction that doesn’t pull punches, you’ll need to add these titles to your collection, if you haven’t already.

* Siege by Rhiannon Frater. This is the third installment in Rhiannon’s As the World Dies trilogy. Rhiannon uses strong female characters that stay miles away from the clichéd protagonists who inhabit the pages of the more recent urban fantasy and paranormal fiction. This was a great finish to an awesome trio of books. If you love The Walking Dead or Dawn of the Dead, you’ll eat these books up. You’ll also want to download the As The World Dies Untold Tales.

* The Becoming: Ground Zero by Jessica Meigs. This is the second book of The Becoming series. The first novel introduced the world to the Michaluk Virus. In this sequel, we catch up with the survivors a year after the devastation.

* This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers. One reviewer called this novel Breakfast Club meets Dawn of the Dead. I can’t think of a better description. A terrific cast of characters, some you’ll grow to love, and others you’ll end up hating by the end. It was riveting. I read it over a couple of days (and I’m a SLOW reader).

* Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter. Sure, this novel has nothing to do with Lewis Carroll’s Alice and these zombies aren’t the Sunday night walkers we’ve all grown to love. Instead, these are infected spirits drawn to the living. A nice change of pace and an interesting relationship between Ali and Cole, if you’re into that romance stuff.

* Undead by Kirsty McKay. I loved that this was UK novel because I’m a sucker for novels set on the other side of the pond (see Solstice!). These are straight up zombies at their best. The kids are snarky and bitchy and not always likable, but ultimately entertaining. Lots of good gore and black humor. Worth the read despite the cheesy cover art.

So, that’s that. There were dozens of other awesome zombie reads in 2012, but these were a few standouts, at least for me. 2013 should shape up to be just as great. Back to tooting my own horn, I want to mention my own YA zombie offering Notes from the End of the World, which will be available later this year. If you liked Hollowland by some chick named Amanda—something, or This is Not a Test, you’ll want to check it out. For a taste of what it’s like, I’d like to suggest my short ebook Dead Girl’s Blog.

In addition to Notes from the End of the World, I’ve also started outlining the next Solstice novel. After the wonderfully encouraging feedback I received regarding the first novel, I realized I owed it to Tomas and Melanie to give them another shot at survival and hopefully some contentment (I won’t say happiness. The world of Solstice is pretty desolate). I invite you to join Tomas, Melanie and a group of engaging new allies as they continue their search for the illusive and possibly mystical Sanctuary in Solstice Book II: The Hunter, coming late 2013.

In the meantime, I’m giving away two digital and two print copies of Solstice: A Novel of the Zombie Apocalypse to the readers of Tammy’s Blog. Tammy was key in helping get the word out about my novel. I can’t say enough about how awesome she and her blog is.

Thank you Donna Burgess for taking the time to visit with us today, and for offering up copies of her book so even more people can dip their toes in her world!