Review: Funeral Pallor by Sean Cummings Plus Giveaway

Funeral Pallor by Sean Cummings
Valerie Stevens #2
Snowbooks Ltd.
July 2010
Urban Fantasy
Available formats Ebook, Paperback
Pages:
ISBN10: 1906727929
ISBN13: 978-1906727925

E-ARC provided by author for this review.








Book Description:

There's a nest of rotting husks in an old Calgary warehouse and they've got a hankering for human flesh, but that's the least of Valerie Stevens' problems. While necromancers are a dime a dozen, these mindless killing machines all share one thing in common: they're former occupants of every funeral home in the city.

The evidence points to the zombie Caroline, especially now that she's been experiencing short term memory loss and an inability to account for her whereabouts. If Valerie plans to clear her best friend's name, she'll have to move fast: someone has dispatched a zombie assassin and Caroline's only hope may rest with a pair of middle-aged head-bangers with a few secrets of their own.

My Thoughts

Things have certainly changed for our kick ass heroine, Valerie Stevens. She's currently without her ever lovin' boyfriend, Dave.  Dave is currently out of the city on a job assignment and has left Valerie in not so good mood. Yet life has a way to keep Valerie distracted from her sorrows of being without Dave.

If things weren't bad enough, Valerie finds herself in the middle of zombie infestation. More and more zombies are rising. Along the way she discovers two zombie killing brothers with a spirit directing them to the locations of all zombies so they can rid the city of them.

Along for this ride sees the return of the Valerie's friends, Caroline the zombie, her ghost Fifty Dollar Bill and DT the mage dwarf troll who is still teaching mage in training Valerie.

But now she is getting help courtesy of her boss Vishesh in the name of a bounty hunter, Tim Reaper. 

With only Caroline and Tim as her backup, Valerie is now in the fight of her life where things just get more dangerous for everyone.

May I say that this sequel of Valerie Stevens series is much better than the first book. It has more action, mystery and drama. No matter how many times I wanted to see her get beat the hell out of Caroline and it did not stop me from enjoying Funeral Pallor.

Sure something was controlling Caroline yet it did not keep me from wanting to see this zombie get beat up by Valerie or anyone else.

Valerie is on the hunt for the mysterious Harold Newby who seems to be the key to everything.

Funeral Pallor is one engrossing and wildly entertaining action packed novel. Valerie Stevens is one kick ass heroine who keeping on ticking even when life and danger is determined to keep her down. I really loved the way things were ended. A Perfect ending for Valerie.

Thank you, Sean for creating another awesome novel!

I give Funeral Pallor a rating of 5 out of 5 Stars.

Bonus part!

To enter to win a copy of Funeral Pallor.

Just tweet with tag #ValerieStevens +4

+ 4 follow Sean on twitter @saskatoonauthor

+ 5 Leave a link annoucing this giveaway/review at any other places, i.e. facebook, blog, myspace, etc..

And leave a comment below. +3

Add up points including this one for +1

Giveaway open only to the residents of Canada and US.
Sorry to everyone else. Giveaway ending July 7th 2010

#Authorpalooza2010 Featuring Sean Cummings @saskatoonauthor

A warm welcome and special shout out goes to author Sean Cummings!! Lucky for us we get two wonderful authors for the price of one today!!

Many Thanks Sean for participating in my celebration. *hugs*

How long have you been writing?

I've been writing since I was a kid. I've been writing with the goal of getting published for about two decades now.

How thrilled where you when you heard Shade Fright was going to be released?

Oh... bouncing off the walls, jumping for joy, beaming at people, grinning from ear to ear. THEN I got excited. :)

What's one day in the life of Sean Cummings like?

I get up at around 3 AM to write - I seem to have better focus for putting words into my word processor when it's super quiet and the world is sound asleep. I write for a couple of hours, head off to my day job (because I'm not in a position yet to write full-time - I hope to, eventually.) and then work until 4:30 P.M. I come home, eat, hit the blogs and do a bit more writing then off to the land of slumbery goodness. Back at it the next day.

Do you have a current project you’re working on or something you plan to begin soon?

I'm just doing the finishing touches on book two in the Valerie Stevens series. It's called Funeral Pallor and it will be in bookstores on July 1st. I'm also doing revisions for an agent on a young adult novel about a teen witch and her geeky best friend. I'm drafting the outline for a new book about a failed grim reaper.

In your opinion, what is the most difficult part of being a published author?

That's a good question. Being published isn't hard ... getting published is the real challenge. If I experience any difficulty at all now that I'm published, it's trying to figure out how to strengthen the quality of my writing and of course, trying to foster a fan base for my work.

What’s the most rewarding?

Seeing that book for the first time. It's about a jillion kinds of cool.

If you could co-author a book with any of your fellow authors or anyone from anywhere, who would you choose and why?

I would love to co-author a book with Nancy Holzner who wrote the fantastic "Deadtown". She's a brilliant author and her book kicks ass.

Describe your writing process.

I flush out what I want to happen in my head and then I do a point form summary of what I think should happen in a book - that's sort of my outlining process. Then I sit down at the computer and begin to type. I bounce ideas off some of my geeky colleagues both online and in the real world and I see where the story goes. Once the draft is done, I read it over and start to pick it apart, looking for loose ends that don't match up with the outline. I start working on the second draft and I'm usually finding places where the plot needs work or where the dialogue could be better, so I work on fixing those areas. Eventually, after about three months, something resembling a finished second draft is complete.

What is the most interesting place you’ve ever visited?

The Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

What can we expect to see from you in the near future?

As mentioned, I have the young adult novel I am working on. I'm flushing out book three in the Valerie Stevens series and of course, I'm plotting an outline for a spinoff novel involving that grim reaper dude I'd mentioned.

You can find Sean online here:

Website http://sean-cummings.ca/

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/people/Sean-Cummings/1580080339

Here's some blurbs about Sean's books:

Shade Fright

Valerie Stevens Book #1

"I fell into this job quite by accident, when I discovered that I possessed the ability to see the preternatural world. There are a handful of people with similar abilities, and part of my job is to locate them, since Government Services and Infrastructure Canada likes to keep track of these things. Don't ask me why."


There's a malevolent force in town, and it's quite literally Valerie Stevens' job to determine who's behind it and why they want to destroy the world, starting with Calgary.


She'll have help, in the form of her best friend (now more or less a zombie, unfortunately), a powerful dwarf troll, and the ghost of former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (but he goes by 'Bill' these days). But that's not all - Valerie has some tricks up her sleeve and, she hopes, luck on her side. Oh, and her boyfriend, Dave. He drives a dump truck.

And coming soon:

Funeral Pallor

Valerie Stevens Book #2

There's a nest of rotting husks in an old Calgary warehouse and they've got a hankering for human flesh, but that's the least of Valerie Stevens' problems. While necromancers are a dime a dozen, these mindless killing machines all share one thing in common: they're former occupants of every funeral home in the city.

The evidence points to the zombie Caroline, especially now that she's been experiencing short term memory loss and an inability to account for her whereabouts. If Valerie plans to clear her best friend's name, she'll have to move fast: someone has dispatched a zombie assassin and Caroline's only hope may rest with a pair of middle-aged head-bangers with a few secrets of their own.

To enter for chance to win a copy of Shade Fright you must do some of the following:

Tweet with #Authorpalooza2010 hashtag and include link of this post.

Follow Sean on twitter @saskatoonauthor -Say hi to Sean and tell him V sent ya! ;-)

Those who don't have a twitter, facebook, myspace, etc accounts can just click to become one of my blog minions.

Sorry the only eligible blog minions that can enter this giveaway would be from Canada, U.S. and the U.K.  But worry not my blog minions as there are still plenty of other author's giveaways you can enter to win some awesome books or prizes.

Answer me this..

What would you do If you discovered you had usual talent/gift for communicating with ghosts and fighting off evil beings?

Shade Fright by Sean Cummings - Book Review & GA Now Closed

Shade Fright by Sean Cummings
Snow Books Publishing
March 2010
ISBN 978-1-906727-46-8
Urban Fantasy
Ebook ARC Review Copy Received by Author




Description from Goodreads


'I fell into this job quite by accident, when I discovered that I possessed the ability to see the preternatural world. There are a handful of people with similar abilities, and part of my job is to locate them, since Government Services and Infrastructure Canada like to keep track of these things. Don't ask me why'. There's a malevolent force in town, and it's quite literally Valerie Steven's job to determine who's behind it and why they want to destroy the world, starting with Calgary. She'll have help, in the form of her best friend (now more or less a zombie, unfortunately), a powerful dwarf troll, and the ghost of former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (but he goes by 'Bill' these days). But that's not all - Valerie has some tricks up her sleeve and, she hopes, luck on her side. Oh, and her boyfriend, Dave. He drives a dump truck.






My Thoughts...


Shade Fright is not your ordinary story. You know it is different from the way the author starts of this tale. Normally authors start their novels by giving readers a mini description about what their books are about. Instead we get to hear about the heroine Valerie Stevens’s boyfriend…which is a relatively exciting twist that peak many readers attention.

In Shade Fright we meet a government civil worker, Valerie Stevens. What few people know is that Valerie works in a secret organization that works with to keep the humans safe from things that go bump in the night. People will definitely not find her name anywhere in any government agency.

On what should have a routine job to a farm, Valerie discovers that something wicked this way comes. A new mystery surrounds Valerie that is seeking to see just how powerful she is. With the help and guidance of her mentors that include a two thousand year old troll named DT and ghost named Fifty Dollar Bill.

As the story progresses, I found out that Valerie is one strong kick ass heroine who has to deal with lots of things… Things that could very well kill her before she can say “L” word to her boyfriend, Dave. I definitely loved and felt bad for the way Dave found out about what Valerie does for a living. And boy am I glad that the author gave us plenty of pages of the background on the place Valerie works for.

Then the shit hits the fan… Valerie learns that there is a hell of lot more going on and she can lose more than her life this time. With time running against her, Valerie has to discover who or what could they want? Why is she being plagued with all these attempts on her life? And when she does discover what is behind all of these attempts, can she save the day?


Sean Cummings, you got a new fan in me. I love Shade Fright! Like the heroine, Shade Fright is one kick ass novel! A novel that will surely become an instant sensation to plenty of readers after they first read it. You have created such an amazing new world for me to lose myself into. Thankfully for me and other fans there is a sequel which I am sure I will devour in one sitting like I did this one.





I happily give Shade Fright a rating of 5 Stars!



Veronica
Strictly Reviews


Bonus Time!


Thanks to the wonderful author, Sean Cummings and Snow Book Publishing, I can set up one of you with a giveaway Print copy of Shade Fright.


This contest will Only be open for residents of Canada, U.S. and the U.K.

To enter just do these three things:

+5 Tweet the following message:

I just entered to win a print copy of Shade Fright by Sean Cummings at #StrictlyReviews http://bit.ly/9yRYUL

+2  Follow this blog
+3  Follow Sean Cummings on twitter @saskatoonauthor



Contest will end March 3rd, 2010
Thanks & Good Luck!