Friday, September 10, 2010

DRACULAS Teaser Chapters

Now up on Kindle are teaser chapters for the horror novel DRACULAS, written by Blake Crouch, Jack Kilborn, Jeff Strand, and F. Paul Wilson.

http://www.amazon.com/DRACULAS-Chapters-Upcoming-Release-ebook/dp/B0042ANZBU

This comprises the first 50 pages of the novel, and it's free. The pre-order page will be up shortly. DRACULAS is being released October 19, for $2.99. You can preorder it here: http://www.amazon.com/DRACULAS-Novel-Terror-ebook/dp/B0042AMD2M

A DYING MAN’S GREATEST TREASURE…
Mortimer Moorecook, retired Wall Street raider, avid collector, is losing his fight against cancer. With weeks to live, a package arrives at the door of his hillside mansion—an artifact he paid millions for…a hominoid skull with elongated teeth, discovered in a farmer’s field in the Romanian countryside. With Shanna, his beautiful research assistant looking on, he sinks the skull’s razor sharp fangs into his neck, and immediately goes into convulsions.

OPENS THE DOOR TO AN ANCIENT EVIL...
A rural hospital. A slow night in the ER. Until Moorecook arrives strapped to a gurney, where he promptly codes and dies.

WHERE DEATH IS JUST THE BEGINNING.
Four well-known horror authors pool their penchants for scares and thrills, and tackle one of the greatest of all legends, with each writer creating a unique character and following them through a vampire outbreak in a secluded hospital.

The goal was simple: write the most intense book they possibly could.

Which they did.

A word of warning:

Within these pages, you will find no black capes, no satin-lined coffins, no brooding heartthrobs who want to talk about your feelings. Forget sunlight and stakes. Throw out your garlic and your crosses. This is the Anti-TWILIGHT.

31 comments:

jeroentenberge said...

Read the sample (way too short!) - I fear a sleepless night reading DRACULAS is on the horizon. Thanks Joe (and your band of brothers).

JA Konrath said...

Thanks, Jeroen. Feel free to leave a review on Kindle. I fear we'll get some negative reviews because some folks will think they're getting a whole book, and be angry when it's just an excerpt.

wannabuy said...

Excellent!

Anti-Twilight is what I'm looking for.

Please, a link to the pre-order when that is ready.

Neil

JA Konrath said...

http://www.amazon.com/DRACULAS-Novel-Terror-ebook/dp/B0042AMD2M/ to preorder.

wannabuy said...

Pre-ordered.

At 6:31PM (Pacific), I'd love to know what order # I am. :) Note: for marketing reasons, I recommend you keep it secret until after the launch.

Neil

wannabuy said...

Oh, I should note that so far the 'people who bought this book also bought' list is empty. I should have bought something else at the same time. :(

Hint authors. ;) (Does it work that way that quickly? Please note I'm kidding.)

Blake Crouch said...

Bless everyone's heart who pre-orders.
Remembre....
Buy is like
pre-order is love
Blake

Marcus Blakeston said...

I tried to download it from the UK, thinking I could use it to practice converting Kindles to epub, but it wanted £2.29 from me. Is that for the whole book, or just the free sample?

JA Konrath said...

Marcus--

We're still working out the UK kinks. Give it until Tuesday, you'll be able to get a free sample.

Karly Kirkpatrick said...

Can't wait! Looks like an awesome Halloween read! Will def. be downloading!

John Smith said...

The sample was way too short! It didn't even end in a suspenseful scene...

JA Konrath said...

Oasis going into the Birthplace isn't suspenseful? And fifty pages is too short?

evilphilip said...

Important safety tip: When you begin your novel with the words "Mortimer Moorecook" you lost all anticipation and edge that you had from the novel description.

Terrible beginning.

evilphilip said...

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea and the beginning chapters are good, but that character name is right out of a cartoon or a comic book.

It doesn't scream "serious horror".

It screams "Twilight parody".

John Smith said...

My sample stops at 6 or 7 pages. Did I do something wrong?

John Smith said...

Sorry, never mind. I got it

jeroentenberge said...

Not for the lovers of flossing

Heinrich August Ossenfelder. Remember that name. He started it all in 17something with a poem about a guy who after being rejected by the woman of his fancy intends to seduce her in the middle of the night by giving her the vampire's kiss, drawing her blood. It was considered quite erotic at the time. Flash forward to now, a day and age where vampires have become immensely popular among the young and older readers. Twilight introduced the metrosexual vampire, gay but not gay, in touch with his feelings, highly emphatic, any girl's best friend forever (and ever), and probably source for many a wet dream. Del Toro's and Hogan's The Strain was quite different fare, offering a brutal and ferocious breed of blood suckers. The Fall, second installment of their vampire trilogy, will hit stores soon. Most recent is The Passage by Justin Cronin, an epic dystopian tale with bloodthirsty and glowing vampires. I tried Twilight, loved The Strain, and devoured The Passage.

And now we are offered DRACULAS, written by Blake Crouch, Jack Kilborn/J.A. Konrath, Jeff Strand, and F. Paul Wilson. Is it any good? Do they bring anything new?

F*** yeah!

These guys don't mince words - they mince meat. The pace is warp, the pain and fear is palpable, and their take on blood sucking creatures is frightning. Like the authors their draculas don't pull punches, with an unrelenting appetite for 'warm red candy'. These suckers don't brush between meals, they're an orthodontist's worst nightmare. DRACULAS is full on pedal to the metal bloody horror. This is not for the faint hearted, nor for those who like their vampires touchy-feely, well behaved and classy dressed. And you would have to be seriously deranged to find anything remotely erotic about this tale - no wet dreams here.

DRACULAS has the potential to become a classic in its genre, it will certainly be a much discussed book. Can't wait for 19 October, when the complete novel will be available.

evilphilip said...

More comments:

Neither hospitals or airliners have cell phone jamming equipment.

Hospital's can't use that kind of equipment -- if they did the Dr.'s couldn't get pages or phone calls when they had trauma patients coming in.

And that would pretty much kill a lot of the electronics in an airliner.

Are you guys sure you don't need an editor? :)

JA Konrath said...

Neither hospitals or airliners have cell phone jamming equipment.

I could swear I read somewhere that they did.

Thanks for pointing it out.

William J. Thomas said...

"We suspend our disbelief, and we are entertained."

Rush - Mystic Rhythms

JA Konrath said...

Are you guys sure you don't need an editor?

Not if we have guys like you to catch mistakes. Thanks. Just killed that and uploaded the fixed version.

Which is why the teaser chapters have the line:

Advance uncorrected proofs. Please do not quote for publication until verified with finished ebook.

I owe you a beer. :)

JA Konrath said...

"Mortimer Moorecook"

That's not our fault. That's his parent's fault.

evilphilip said...

"We suspend our disbelief, and we are entertained."

I'm a big fan of this idea and if Joe and his co-authors decide to ignore my comments then I will totally understand.

I still think it is worth bringing up any little things that bring you banging out of the story.

I've done a lot of hospital runs and they will chew your head off for using a cell phone, but they still work fine. To add insult to injury -- while the nursing staff like to ride down on top of you if you use a cell phone every single one of them has a cell phone or pager or both attached to their belt.

A train that jumped the tracks might hit the cell phone tower. Just saying. :)

JA Konrath said...

I still think it is worth bringing up any little things that bring you banging out of the story.

Hell yeah. Keep it up. And thanks big time.

evilphilip said...

"I could swear I read somewhere that they did.

Thanks for pointing it out."


More places would use cell phone jammers than do except for one thing -- they work.

They have experimented with using cell phone jammers at jails and prisons and the big issue that they run into is that it will break up the cell phone signal of any buildings near the building that is using the jammer.

I'm pretty impressed with the story so far. It is a little more "Pulp Fiction" than I was expecting, but not in a bad way.

JA Konrath said...

More places would use cell phone jammers than do except for one thing -- they work.

I used one in Cherry Bomb, and I could have sworn while researching them that they were being used on planes and in hospitals. But what you said makes total sense. My bad. I'm glad you caught it before it was put up for sale.

Pulp Fiction? By the end, it turns into ALIENS, with a much higher body count. :)

Blake Crouch said...

@evilphillip...

Seriously, thanks for the catch.
and Pulp Fiction/Aliens is probably not a bad description of the tone we're shooting for...ultraviolent, tongue-in-cheek fun

evilphilip said...

"Seriously, thanks for the catch.

and Pulp Fiction/Aliens is probably not a bad description of the tone we're shooting for...ultraviolent, tongue-in-cheek fun"


You guys are welcome. Please try to remember us little guys when you are (more) famous.

evilphilip said...

And if it looks like I was begging to be included in your next multi-author project then consider it a job well done! :)

evilphilip said...

I finished reading the sample chapters. It was great stuff and I'll be in line to buy the story when it is available.

*Akilah Sakai* said...

Loved the sample and I've preordered as well. Countdown to October 19th!