Need Me Some Zombies! A Great MG Read & Giveaway!

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Last Siege of Haven (Undertakers 4) by Ty Drago

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Last Siege of Haven (Undertakers #4) by

Ty Drago

Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.

Age Group: 12 & up

Pages: 250

Description: While away on an undercover mission, Undertaker Will Ritter has made an unthinkable alliance...with a Corpse! But though Robert Dillin (aka 'The Zombie Prince') is indeed one of those alien invaders who animate and possess the bodies of the dead -- unlike the rest of his kind, Dillin isn't evil. In fact, he wants to help. And Will needs that help, because the Queen of the Dead has learned the location of Haven, the Undertakers' secret HQ, and is planning a massive and deadly assault. 

With the last day of the Corpse War finally upon them, Will and his friends find themselves in a desperate race to close the Rift between worlds and forever kill the Corpses. But can they do before Haven is overrun? 

For that matter, can they do it at all?

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | TBD | Chapters | BAM | IndieBound | iBooks

<<Care for a teaser? Then by all means read on! >>

“Follow me,” I said. “All of you!”

We headed down the alley toward the rear parking lot.

That’s when a figure stepped in front of us, blocking our exit.

A Corpse. But not just any Corpse.

The principal.

Robert Dillin.

“Mr. Kessler,” he said. He was a Type One. Very fresh and very strong, his stolen body probably dead less than a week. I didn’t see too many Type Ones. The Corpses found them hard to come by. The fact that Dillin wore one suggested that he ranked high among the Malum.

Leader caste.

I held up my Taser and readied myself for his attack.

It didn’t come.

“No need for that, young man,” the deader remarked. Then he said something that I would never in a million years have imagined coming out of a Corpse’s mouth.

 “I’m here to help you.”

Ty Drago does his writing just across the river from Philadelphia, where the Undertakers novels take place. In addition to The Undertakers: Rise of the Corpses,The Undertakers: Queen of the Dead, and The Undertakers: Secret of the Corpse Eater, he is the author of The Franklin Affair and Phobos, as well as short stories and articles that have appeared in numerous publications, including Writer’s Digest. He currently lives in southern New Jersey with his wife and best friend, the real Helene Drago née Boettcher.

Author Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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What's the last scary, spooky, horror sort of story you've read? 

You Want To See Parent Trauma?

It's been a while since I shared a Sherism with you. So here's to one from my mommy files.

Now, as you read this please keep in mind that I am 1. no expert and 2. the mother of four children - both male and female, currently ranging in ages from 11 years old to 21 years old. I've experienced ... well ... as much parent trauma as the next guy. ;)

Some of you may recognize this image. It's of a restaurant owner from Portland, Maine - my home state and city I lived in while in college. You may have already heard about the incident linked with this image - this woman (said restaurant owner) yelled at a screaming child after the child's parents allegedly did nothing to control (or console, depending on how you look at it), her.
It's been on CBS & NBC News, all our state's larger newspapers and news programs, all social media, and even a subject of debate within Consumerist.com. But unbelievably, it's not on YouTube (or at least I couldn't find it). Thus I can't share the video feed with you. You can click on the links above to get that, though.
Communities at-large have numerous opinions about how this woman - running a business - chose to handle the situation. Some praises for her actions could be heard from the top of the Appalachian Trail. These voices claim it's about time someone took a stand against young children acting out in public - which is really a cry for their parents to set boundaries for their kids - aka Sherism #1. Other voices firmly condemn her for verbal abuse of a young child and crossing the line.
Now I'm not saying she was fully just in the manor with which she yelled at the young toddler. Nor am I here to judge the child's parents in any way, shape, or form. I do not know anything about these young people. But in general, there must be exercised decency and delicacy when bringing young children in public. 
Is there an invisible parental line in public in today's society?

I grew up in a small town within the confines of close-knit, nearby communities. No one would bat an eye if a child was scolded by an adult other than the child's parents. I'm not talking about yelling at a child to degrade him. But those times when mom and dad were either absent or distracted and didn't notice Little Jimmy stuffing a piece of candy in his pocket. In my youth, the adult would tell the child to put it back or even give a simple evil eye. And guess what? The child would comply. More importantly, the child learned that society is a whole and we are all in it together. Thus, if we all want to enjoy it, we must respect it. And the real kicker here is that the parents would thank the other adult for helping them out. 
It takes a village to raise a child. Yeah, that's where that probably came from. A village. Not an overly, abusive, condescending, belittling, or accusatory village. But a village that guides for the betterment of all.
I will not lie. In today's world, this social ideology is much harder to achieve. There is deceit and crime all around us. The news is the most depressing and negative entity out there, spreading the hate and discontent of the few instead of nurturing the connected concern for humanity among most. Stranger danger is a norm in our children's vocabulary. You can't ride your bike to the playground with your buddies anymore and make a pit-stop at the corner store. Not everyone is out for the betterment of another; sadly, most are not. And honestly, if tomorrow another adult bellowed at my child, my gut reaction would be to swipe at the person with my momma bear claws.
The key: don't allow yourself or your child to be in that situation - if you can help it. Give them the tools right from their beginnings and be there to exercise those tools for them when they can't. 
Parenting nightmares are well within my personal mothering lineage. Please, I have an ADHD kid with the high achiever let's-drive-myself-crazy gene, the Evil-Knievel kid with more broken bones and medical expenses then you want to know, the tomboy girl with a gift for athletics yet has suffered setbacks because of major foot-reconstructive surgeries on both feet, and the generation internet kid with no idea how to hold a conversation without a controller in his hand.  
Let me use my ADHD kid as an example. (BTW - he's a senior in college with a 4.0. Keep your chins up, ADHD parents.)
Child #1 was label ADHD, when the label was only two years old and most people knew nothing about it. I had people telling me that if I spanked my son often he'd eventually learn to listen. People just didn't get it. We could have beat him with a bat and it wouldn't have helped. His brain didn't work that way. 
Now let's gear this conversation to the incident above. Going in public with this kid for the first eleven years of his life was like going grocery shopping and bringing a pack of lions along. My head was on a constant swivel. My arms were windmills tugging, pressing, and keeping items on the shelves. He was always getting hurt or touching things.  
One day when he was two years old and still our only child, he and I went to Church alone. After struggling to keep him in the pew for over half an hour, feeding him Cheerios and reading him books, I was exhausted. The straw that ripped the coat off the camel's back was when he pulled a shoe off the lady in front of us and threw it. I knew Church was not for him. At least, not for some time. Why? Because it wasn't fair to the other people trying to spend time with God. I was a pretty faithful Catholic, so it pained me to stop going. But I had to adjust. So, I set a boundary.
Going out to a restaurant was unheard of in my family until he was nine years old. Before that, he couldn't sit in a seat at a table, on a stool at a bar, or in a booth. He'd go limp at a table and then slide beneath until my poor husband would have to crawl under there to pull him out. It was way too much work for us and it was too disturbing to other patrons. So, I set a boundary.
I could go on and on with these experiences as well as others from my motherhood arsenal. That would just be redundant, because, in the end, they all revolve around the main theme of this post - setting boundaries - Sherism #1. 
Setting boundaries for our children is not always pleasant, and it sure as heck is rarely convenient. Nonetheless, it MUST be done. Boundaries are teaching tools. There's nothing wrong with using them.