Hello friend! Today, I am excited to host Chloe Longstreet and chat about her Paranormal Sci-Fi novel, The Undead Uprising. It’s the perfect book for the Halloween week and you may remember it from October’s new releases. Let’s dive in.
Get to know the author: Chloe Longstreet
Hi Chloe! Welcome to Armed with A Book. Tell me and my readers a bit about yourself!
Hi everyone! I’m Chloe Longstreet and I have dreamed of being a writer since I was a little girl. I got lost a little along the way, but here I am, finally publishing my first book, The Undead Uprising. When I am not writing, I am spending time with my daughter, my fiance, and our plethora of animals. We have two cats, two bunnies, a bearded dragon, and a revolving number of chickens and fish. I love homesteading and gardening, and I am always looking for ways to include more healthy and fresh food in our diets without breaking the bank.
What inspired you to write this book?
All of my book ideas start with dreams. These dreams are always unique, because I am never myself in them, I am either one of the characters in the scene, or looking down from above like an omniscient narrator. For The Undead Uprising, the dream that started the book is a scene in the middle of the novel. It’s a fight scene, and in my dream, there was a bus parked outside a motel and a bunch of people were fighting with someone else standing on a hill in the distance, using their bow and arrow to pick people off. Then I had the idea of combining vampires with zombies to create a new kind of monster, and the rest of the book followed from there.
How long did it take you to write this book, from the first idea to the last edit?
I wrote the first draft of this novel in November of 2013. Then I got pregnant with my daughter and spent the next several years trying to edit it, and failing. I’d make a little progress here and there, but nothing significant. At times, I felt like a fraud or a failure, like I’d never be a writer even though it was my lifelong dream. But about a year ago, I was doing some meditations and I realized that I needed to stop being afraid of whether or not I would be successful as a writer. Whether it was fear of failure, or fear of success, I had been letting fear keep me from my dream for my whole life. I did a lot of inner work after that realization and now I am finally publishing my book. Let’s just hope the next one doesn’t take as long from start to finish.
What makes your story unique?
The most obvious answer here is that the book combines vampires and zombies to create a new monster. But there are a few other things. For one, the book follows the general trajectory of a typical zombie apocalypse novel. But I focus less on the blood, gore and fighting (not that there isn’t any, it just isn’t as prominent) and more on the relationships that the characters end up developing. My homesteading and quasi-prepper mentality shows through as well, so there are characters who are thriving despite the collapse of the world, which is also unusual for a zombie novel. Finally, the lead vampire in the book is female. Most of the famous vampire books, especially the ones that have a human/vampire relationship in them, feature a male vampire. I didn’t necessarily do this on purpose, but Trisha came to me as a character and she is perfect for the role.
Who would enjoy reading your book?
I tell people all the time that this book definitely has a niche market. Not that I don’t think the themes and story would appeal to others, but when I tell people I’m writing a zombie-apocalypse novel with vampires, they either get excited or look at me like I’ve grown another head. This book is for people who enjoy reading books about survival. There’s a sapphic romance with a major age-gap, which is a trope some people look for and enjoy. There is a lot of science that looks like magic. I tried to make vampirism realistic by exploring it as a disease instead of a supernatural power.
Did you bring any of your experiences into this book?
Absolutely. There is a lot of homesteading and prepper stuff sprinkled in. I am absolutely not at Lacey’s level of prepping, but I kind of low-key obsess over that stuff, and I have known some pretty serious preppers so I modeled her after them a little. I’m more of a Mara though, and I shared a lot of my knowledge through her character. She’s a minor character in the book, but I may do something more with her in the future, to further share that knowledge, but also because she interests me as a tech employee who runs away from the pre-pandemic world to live on an isolated communal farm and becomes its head. There are other experiences sprinkled in, I think it’s impossible to write anything without some personal experience included.
What’s something you hope readers would take away from it?
I have a friend who has introduced me to the idea of “Fiction for a Better Tomorrow.” It’s not something I ever considered before him, and it’s now something I think about a lot as my writing tends to be dark and often revolves around apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic themes. The fiction we read as a society shapes our hope or lack thereof for the future. And in today’s world, I think a lot of us don’t have a lot of hope for the future. We are being bombarded on all sides by threats to our planet and our livelihoods. And, while I agree with my friend that we should have more stories of hope, where the future is one where we have overcome these struggles, I think that the allure of apocalyptic fiction also embraces this idea a little. An apocalypse is a way of starting over for some. So, I think what I’m trying to say here is that I want readers to walk away knowing that we will survive. No matter what the universe throws at us, we will survive. And also that maybe returning to some of the old ways of living isn’t such a bad thing, that the conveniences of modern life aren’t always making life easier for us.
What is something you have learned on your author journey so far?
That you can’t do it alone. I first wrote this book in 2013 and I spent the next several years trying and failing to get to where I am today. It was partially a mindset issue, which I had to do a lot of mental and spiritual work to fix. But at times, it was also a support issue. I tried to do it alone, and each time, it was a mess. This time around, I found a great book cover designer, awesome editors, and I have several support networks with other authors that I can turn to for help. Without all of those things and people, the book wouldn’t be what it is today.
Where can readers find you on the Internet?
The Undead Uprising
Paranormal Sci-Fi
An experiment gone wrong releases a virus into the water supply of New York that transforms vampires, causing them to create a new breed of deadly creatures called Monstrums. Their insatiable hunger for human flesh poses a grave threat to humanity’s future.
Lacey, a prepper who works for the BioTech company that released the virus, has been waiting for this moment her whole life. She and her friends have the training and the resources to stay safe. As long as everyone cooperates with her plan.
Trisha, the oldest living vampire, realizes what’s going on before anyone else, and seeks help. Armed with over a century’s worth of research on vampire genetics, she holds the key to finding a cure. Can she find a scientist willing to work with a vampire in time to save both humans and vampires from the clutches of this deadly disease?
The Undead Uprising is a fast-paced zombie apocalypse story that will appeal to both science fiction and paranormal horror fans. It includes a sapphic relationship, secret private labs, prepper utopias in the midst of collapse, and technology that looks like magic.
Trigger warning: This book contains some graphic violence and mentions suicide among the vampire populations.
Book Excerpt from
The Undead Uprising
They walked most of the way. At first it was because the congestion from stalled cars was too hard to get around. Later, it was because there weren’t enough cars on the road to adequately supply them with gas. After a few days, Al started complaining. They kept up a fairly brutal pace, trying to get to the lab in Michigan as quickly as possible. Every day that passed without a trace of human activity made Trisha worry more, and she pushed even harder to get there.
Then she spotted some motorcycles. “Look. I bet these would get us the rest of the way. At the very least, Al, you could rest your feet a little.” Trisha looked at him.
“Nope. Nope, nope, no way. I’m not getting on one of those death traps.”
Jamal laughed. “Death traps? Are you kidding?” He waved his hands to the world around them. “We’re living in a death trap, man!”
Al sniffed. “Not for you. You can protect yourself.”
Trisha eyed Al, wondering if he had started to figure out the truth. “We offered to train you. Besides I’m getting sick and tired of hearing you complain.”
Trisha, who had spent most of her life traveling by foot or horse, didn’t mind walking, but Al’s whining was getting on her nerves.
“To make things worse, you keep telling us that the lab is just around the corner.” Jamal had straddled one of the bikes and was eyeing the horizon eagerly. “If we ride these babies, it will be.”
“I don’t care. I’m not getting on one.”
Trisha rolled her eyes. “Fine. How much farther is it again?”
“Oh, it’s just around the corner.” He smiled at Jamal. Trisha rolled her eyes. He had refused to give them more details, saying he was worried they would try to get rid of him if he told them where they were going. But maybe he just didn’t know what he was talking about.
The next day, they had been traveling for an hour when Al started moaning and groaning again. Trisha turned, ready to tell him to shut up when she heard some commotion in the distance. She grabbed Al’s arm and dragged him toward the noise. Jamal followed close behind.
As they began to crest the hill, Trisha pulled Al to the ground so they wouldn’t be seen. The three of them crawled on their stomachs the last few feet until they could see over the hill. In the valley below was a large hotel and a group of humans attempting to fight off a much larger group of Monstrums.
Jamal let out a low whistle as he saw the fighting. “Damn, that’s impressive.”
“What?” Al lifted his head, but Trisha shoved him back down. “I can’t see anything.”
“You need to stay down,” Trisha hissed. “There’s a huge pack of Monstrums down there.”
“I just want to know what’s impressive.”
Jamal pointed down to the humans, who Al clearly couldn’t see. “There’s a group of people fighting a horde of Monstrums down there, and it looks like they actually stand a good chance of winning. I’ve never seen an attack with such skill and coordination.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve seen any survivors. I imagine the ones that are left have learned to protect themselves,” Trisha said.
“Yeah, but those are some skilled moves. There’s no way they taught themselves that quickly.”
“I wanna see!” Al tried to lift his head again.
“No.” Trisha pushed him back down to the ground and looked over his head at Jamal. “They might be skilled fighters, but they could use our help.”
Jamal rolled his eyes. “Really? It’s bad enough that we’re helping this human, uh, guy. Why more?”
“Watch what you’re saying.”
“You’re going to help? Is it safe?” Al squirmed out from under Trisha’s grip. “I won’t try to look again, I promise. But you’re telling me that I can’t look because there’s so many Monstrums down there, but you’re going to offer to help?”
Trisha nodded as she stood and pulled out her bow and arrow. “I’m not going to go down there. And don’t worry. I’ll be careful. I’m just going to help enough to give them a chance.”
She peered into the group below, trying to determine who was human and who was not as she drew her weapon. She had to focus if she wanted to be able to see distinctive facial features from that distance, so she waved her hand at Al, trying to shove him back down so she could concentrate. As she was scanning, she saw a woman who looked familiar to her.
“No way,” she whispered.
“What’s up?” Jamal peered into the crowd below.
“It’s one of the scientists that was on my list. And she is definitely not one of the Monstrums. I thought she was living in New Mexico. And I never would have expected to see her out and about. My research pegged her as someone who was going to ride this thing out in a well-stocked bunker with close friends.”
Jamal snickered. “Who would have known it? Your research was wrong.”
“Lacey Thomas,” she breathed as she notched an arrow into her waiting bow. “Fancy meeting you here.”
Interested?
Find The Undead Uprising on Amazon or add it to your shelf on Goodreads.
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