This is the blog of Samie Sands, author of Lockdown. There will be many great books and projects reviewed here. For more, check out thelockdown.co.uk.

Monday, 12 March 2018

Forgotten - The AM13 Outbreak #Zombie #Boxset


Samie

The deadly AM13 virus is taking over the world, creating hordes of zombies and turning the few survivors into the hunted…

Survivors can only watch humankind dwindle to extinction.

They fight to protect their loved ones, to reach sanctuary, to keep their sanity as civilization is destroyed around them, never knowing if their next breath will be their last.

Will the person they fought beside soon be a flesh-hungry corpse, or even worse, their own prey?

Read the bestselling series by author Samie Sands, now available in a complete box set!

Forgotten Sample

Bang.
That noise.
Bang. Bang.
So loud. It feels like it’s coming from inside my own head.
Bang.
I cover my ears with my hands, pulling my knees up to my chest, trying to block out the whole world for a moment. I just need to think. I don’t know what to do about her, I really don’t. I can’t just do nothing. She isn’t right, however much I try to convince myself otherwise. I have to accept the truth. I have to admit that whatever is behind that door isn’t my cousin. Not anymore. But that doesn’t make this any easier.
When I found her, outside the door collapsed and covered in blood, I completely freaked out, what if she had this thing, the illness? I had to block out all my deep-rooted fears about catching the disease while I carried her in and cleaned her off. I didn’t have any choice, did I?
There’s no one else left—as far as I’m aware, anyway. I don’t even know how she got here. Was she heading this way on purpose, coming to see me? Or was it simply a coincidence that it’s my door she passed out in front of? I left her to sleep. She slept for days. She slept for so long I started to fear that I was too late, that she was already dead. Then, there was movement. I heard her get up out of the bed and move about the room. I waited. I didn’t talk for fear of what she might say, for fear of learning what had truly happened to her.
She switched.
Day to day.
Minute to minute.
One moment she would be speaking, albeit very slurred and stilted words that I could never really understand. The next I’d just hear screaming and smashing, as things would be thrown around in a violent rage. It was terrifying. Now, I’d give anything for that emotion. Now all I can hear is growling, moaning, shuffling. And banging.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
I fear she’s going to bring that flimsy door down soon, making my decision for me. I’m not ready for that, not yet. I’ve already lost too many people. She might be the only one I have left.

Lockdown - The AM13 Outbreak #Zombie #Boxset


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The deadly AM13 virus is taking over the world, creating hordes of zombies and turning the few survivors into the hunted…

Survivors can only watch humankind dwindle to extinction.

They fight to protect their loved ones, to reach sanctuary, to keep their sanity as civilization is destroyed around them, never knowing if their next breath will be their last.

Will the person they fought beside soon be a flesh-hungry corpse, or even worse, their own prey?


Lockdown Sample

I barely sleep again that night. This time it’s different though. It has nothing to do with everyone else, and everything to do with me. My brain just won’t switch off, no matter what I do. As the worry consumes me, I miss the numbness. I thought that was terrible, but it’s preferable to this. Having anxiety about something you can literally do nothing about is dire.
Before it’s even light, I step out of bed. Lying down restlessly is achieving nothing, so I’d rather chill out by myself for a while with a cup of coffee in hand. I plod across the canteen quietly, listening jealously to all of the random bursts of snoring. I’m too tired to even get annoyed.
As the kettle boils, I idly glance out of the window. I stop in my tracks and move to get a closer look. There’s a lone, dishevelled woman walking past the wall. She’s in a seriously bad way—her clothes are all torn and bloody, her hair is matted with grime, and she has a massive gushing gash on her leg. Something dreadful has happened to her, that much is clear. The awful possibilities race through my mind, sending me into a tailspin.
I bang on the window to let her know I’m there and cry out for someone to call an ambulance. I’m desperate to do something to help her, but she doesn’t even acknowledge me. It’s as if she’s crazy, comatose, like she’s sleepwalking or something. Maybe the loss of blood has sent her into a state of delirium.
Not knowing what other option I have, I turn to race outside. I can’t just stand here and leave her to die of her injuries. I’d never be able to forgive myself! But just as I’m about to rush out of the room, a feeling of unease spreads over me and stops me dead on the spot. I flick my gaze back out to the road and a cold chill comes over me. Now she’s looking this way and I can see her face fully. Her jaw has disconnected and is hanging down from her face and in her hand is a severed human arm.

Sunday, 11 March 2018

Win This Exclusive Horror Book Bundle

 

Win a bundle of HORROR novels ~ competition runs until the 14th March!

  • 3 winners will receive the book bundle comprising of these books...
Game Hunter - Mark Kloss - Zombies in the deserted ruins of the City of London are an endangered species. The only thing keeping them from extermination is the hit reality tv show ‘Game Hunter,’ where people pay to go on zombie killing safaris.
Errant Gods - Erik Henry Vick - Hank is one of New York’s best criminal profilers, and he loves his job. But when he meets the Bristol Butchers, all that changes. They are a pair of psychopaths — cannibals. He chases them in spite of the disabling curse they cast on him, in spite of their threats to his family, and when he catches up to them, his horror begins.
Demon King
Damnation Robot - Aaron Crash - a misfit crew of aliens and monsters to track down demons, snare ghosts, and destroy hellish creatures bent on murder—all to discover how to close the Onyx Gate for good. 
Ravens Ridge - Connie Myers - Rose Compton moved into her family’s old lumber baron mansion, looming near the edge of a Lake Michigan cliff. She loves her adult children and will do anything for them, except move out of Raven’s Ridge. Spooky and menacing events make her wonder if she is developing dementia like her deceased mother, or if a ghost is haunting the estate.
Last Another Day - Baileigh Higgins - Trapped in the shower by the monster that was once her husband, Morgan's survival hinges on her willingness to kill the man she loves. She escapes, only to find that the horror has spread and now threatens everything she holds dear.
Last Another Day    Outbreak
Lockdown - Samie Sands - The government is calling the virus AM13. As the outbreak spreads, citizens are forced to stay indoors while they assess the gravity of the illness. Most people are quarantined in their homes, but Leah, Jake, and Leah’s best friend Michelle are some of the unlucky few who are stuck at work when the Lockdown occurs.
Joe Coffin S01 E01 - Ken Preston - Joe Coffin is fresh out of jail, but going straight is the last thing on his mind. The sickos who murdered his wife and child are still out there, and he’s going to get revenge. The problem is, Joe Coffin is in much deeper than he realises, and his wife might not be as dead as he believes.
Hell Holes - Donald Firesmith - It’s August in Alaska, and geology professor Jack Oswald prepares for the new school year. But when hundreds of huge holes mysteriously appear overnight in the frozen tundra north of the Arctic Circle, Jack receives an unexpected phone call.
Hell Holes
The Haunting of Hellfleet Point Lighthouse - Cat Knight - To escape city living, Nora and Felix moved into a lighthouse. Now city noise was replaced by screams on the wind and a disembodied rasping voice. Not what they'd hoped for, and the fall that almost killed her didn't help. 
Plus you can see more Book Hub Horror books HERE.
Enter to win a thriller book bundle
* By entering you understand your email will be shared with the authors participating so they can inform you about future giveaways, promotions and updates. You may opt out of any list at any time in the future.

nanasbookreviews: Tour Kit - AM13 Outbreak Series

nanasbookreviews: Tour Kit - AM13 Outbreak Series: AM13 Outbreak Series: Books 1- 3 by Samie Sands Genre: Zombie Horror The deadly AM13 virus is taking over the wor...

Just a Little R&R: {Book Tour} AM13 Outbreak Series by Samie Sands

Just a Little R&R: {Book Tour} AM13 Outbreak Series by Samie Sands: AM13 Outbreak Series: Books 1-3 by Samie Sands Genre: Zombie Horror The deadly AM13 virus is taking over the worl...

Friday, 9 March 2018

Charlemagne: Father of the Franks, Leader of the Lombards, and Premier Holy Roman Emperor by in60Learning

Charlemagne: Father of the Franks, Leader of the Lombards, and Premier Holy Roman Emperor by [in60Learning]
Get smarter in just 60 minutes with in60Learning. Concise and elegantly written non-fiction books and audiobooks help you learn the core subject matter in 20% of the time that it takes to read a typical book. Life is short, so explore a multitude of fascinating historical, biographical, scientific, political, and financial topics in only an hour each.
Charlemagne’s name means “Charles the Great,” a title he earned after an impressive life filled with military conquests. After the fall of the Roman Empire, invaders came from all sides, and Charlemagne fought out of loyalty to his people and the Catholic church. While he led many campaigns that helped to reunite Europe during the “Migratory Period,” Charlemagne primarily aimed just to claim land where he and his people—the Franks—could live in peace. His life inspired countless tales, including the legends that he was twenty feet tall, that he slept under the guard of 100 armed knights, and that he rose from the dead to aid in the Crusades. While these fantastical tales are false, the truth is equally fantastic: by the end of his life, Charlemagne had been king of the Franks, king of the Lombards, and the first emperor of the newly formed Holy Roman Empire.

Electromagnetism @SamieSands


"Anytime you give an electronic device a brain, it has the capabilities to outgrow the possibilities that were set forth in the plans."

The Unit by Katie Jaarsveld
From the Depths by McKenzie Richardson
Everything Has a Price by Sheri Velarde
Fulfilling Killingsby M Earl Smith
Touch by TW Iain
Dark Web Demon by Kevin S. Hall
Ocean’s Bounty by Andrew J Lucas
Catfish by Samie Sands
Viral Venom by Alex Winck
Domain of the Dragon by L.H. Davis
My Skin Crawls by Katie Jaarsveld
My Name Is Human by Rob Shepherd


Electromagnetism Sample
Catfish by Samie Sands

Jake86: What are you doing right now?
I smirked to myself as my fingers hovered over the laptop keyboard ready to type out my response. I tuned out the sound of screaming children, of the television blaring out one of those terrible western movies I hated so much, of the cat scratching at the door begging to be let in, and I fell into my wonderful fantasy world.
The only thing in the world that I had just for me.
Rose_Petal: Oh you know, just the usual, sitting out in the garden, basking in the sun.
Jake86: I hope you’re wearing sun cream ;)
Rose_Petal: Always, wouldn’t want to burn my wonderfully pasty skin!
Jake86: God I wish I could be with you. Factory work is so boring.
Rose_Petal: It can’t be that bad, can it?
Jake86: Oh it is, my mental boss is giving everyone hell today.
Rose_Petal: He sounds horrible, I’d yell at him if I could. If I was there.
Jake86: Ooh, what I wouldn’t give for you to be here.
Rose_Petal: What would you do if you were with me right now?
Jake86: One day, I will show you. One day, all of this will become real.
I sighed deeply, reality hitting me like a thump in the face while I clicked on the log off button. It was all well and good losing myself in another world, pretending to be someone else entirely, but it didn’t really change anything however much I wanted it to. My life was still exactly what it was.
I would always be Rose Dugger; mother of two screaming brats who would never respect me or listen to me however hard I tried, and wife to Alex Dugger, the man who might as well be awarded for being the least attentive man on the planet.
As I glanced around the messy house, noticing all the things that had been chucked haphazardly on the ground for me to pick up again, I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone would blame me for what I was doing. This life wouldn’t ever be enough for anyone, would it? Could anyone be happy having only this? How was it possible to be satisfied with nothing?
I didn’t start out this way, in fact, I used to be really content. When me and Alex got married after a whirlwind five-month relationship which resulted in a secret pregnancy that everyone still assumes happened after we said our nuptials, I thought I was the luckiest woman alive. My dating history had sucked up until that point, so I was overjoyed to have someone actually really caring, someone who adored me more than anything else in the whole damn world.
I thought I’d found my happy ever after.
Fast forward five years and everything had well and truly gone to hell.
I found solace in the Internet, accidentally of course. It was just nice to escape the loneliness, the drudgery of motherhood by speaking to others. It was just all forums for other lonely people at first. Then something else happened.
I found the answer to my issues, the solution to my sadness.
I didn’t mean to start talking to Jake, and I certainly had no intention of falling for him, but that was what had happened regardless.
Jake86: Hey, I liked the meme you shared in the chatroom, it made me laugh.
That one comment, an observation on something I had shared had been the start of something new. I responded, we chatted, then everything spiraled out of my control from there. It was like a rollercoaster, I sat willingly in the seat, but I wasn’t prepared for the twists and turns that followed. I didn’t think I would end up stuck on the ride, however much it threw me all around.
The problem was what I felt for Jake was real, I loved him truly to the depths of my soul, What I felt for him had me soaring higher than air, it gave every cloud a silver lining, it just made the world a brighter place to live in.
Only now it had become just another issue to add to my ever-growing list because he wanted to meet me, he wanted us to be together, to restart both of our lives as a unit, and damn it I wanted that too. I needed the life Jake would offer me, I dreamt about it all the time, but I couldn’t take it even if I was free to do so because I’d been so dishonest with him. Aside from me feelings I had for him, not a single thing I said was the truth.
Jake would be waiting for me, with the dark curly hair and deep blue eyes he had in his profile picture on the forum where we first met and still talked all the time. His face would be the one I’d been thinking of, imagining touching and caressing, his life would be exactly as described.
I didn’t even look like the person he thought he was in love with.
At first, I stole another girl’s picture for my profile because I’d never been comfortable with the way that I looked. With hindsight, I could see how stupid that was, but at the time it felt totally logical. I could just be someone else for a little while. She was pretty too, the girl I chose at random. Her dark hair was sleeker than mine, smoother, and her eyes shone brighter. Her face was similar to mine, but almost like an edited version.
She was me, but better.
How the hell would Jake feel when he was expecting her and I turned up? I couldn’t stand to be a disappointment for him.
And then there were the details of my life, none of that was true. How could I say that I was a mother, a wife, a woman that lived in hell? It just didn’t feel right, it wasn’t every fun, so I chose much more fun details. According to my online personality, I was a freelance writer who spent too much time out in the sunshine, I had no commitments, just a wild, totally invented, group of friends that sometimes took me on night time adventures when my family needed me in the evenings.
Still, it was all coming to an end somehow, it would have to. This couldn’t ever transgress into the real world for so many reasons. I would have to find a way to cut the chord, but I didn’t know how. It was going to be the hardest thing in the world to say goodbye to the one person I truly loved, but it was the only thing for both of us. I just didn’t know what to say.
“Oi, Rose?” Alex’s voice was gruff, angry, the way that it always abounded these days. “Will you shut these fucking kids up? I’m trying to get some work done here?”
No, you asshole! You parent for once, you lazy fuckwit!
“Of course,” I answered with a false happiness to my tone. “I’ll be right there.”
My heart yearned to turn around and to walk out that front door, to leave this nightmare for someone else to deal with, but I couldn’t. I’d effectively locked myself in this cage and thrown away the key. This was my own mess, I’d made my own bed, now I had to lie in it.
“Come on, kids,” I ushered them away from their father who was staring daggers into the back of my neck.
“Let’s go and play somewhere else, shall we?”
“No,” my youngest, Brax, snapped back. “No way.”
“Come on.” Almost instantly there was a desperation to my tone, which the children picked up on. “It’s time to go and play with the toys in your bedroom now.”
“Fucking toys,” Maria, my eldest, commented casually, as if it was the sort of word that should be said in passing.
I whipped my eyes towards her and widened them in shock. “What did you just say?” I hissed, my heart thundering in my chest. “You understand that’s a really bad word, don’t you?”
“No, it isn’t. Daddy says it all the time.” She shrugged as if it meant nothing in the world.
I desperately wanted to glare at him, to make him understand the implications of his crappy parenting, but there wasn’t any point. He’d only turn it back around on my anyway, so instead, I closed my eyes and pressed my knuckles into them, blocking everything out for just a second.
“Kids, you’re coming with me right now. I don’t want to hear even one word of arguing.”
“No.”
“Nope!”
A scream brewed in my chest, I had to clamp my lips tightly together not to set it free. Because of the pressure of this frustrated tears filled the corners of my eyes. This was the life I was choosing, this was the existence I’d picked, and sometimes I wasn’t sure why.

Cincopa Gallery

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