Hi, lovelies!! It gives me great pleasure today to host Chad R. Hunter and his new book, “DedKode – Connected,” here on FAB!! For other stops on his Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.
Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $10 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with Chad and to increase your chances of winning!!
Thanks for stopping by!! Wishing you all lots of good luck in this fabulous giveaway!!
DedKode – Connected
by Chad R. Hunter
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GENRE: Science Fiction / Horror
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BOOK BLURB:
Without warning, the demonic computing device rose up. Red arcs of crackling electricity snapped out from the server and struck the men and women in the chest. Involuntarily, they each screamed out in dying shrieks. Each worshiper hovered off the floor, transfixed and held for feeding.
DedKode moved forward but James knew it was too late. He placed his hand out and stayed the young, undead hacker.
The worshipers continued to undulate and now fluids ran from their orifices; heavy thick drops collected in puddles beneath each of them.
Faces sunk in.
Eyes rolled back.
Limbs twisted and cracked.
After what seemed like hours, but was only minutes, of watching these men and women sucked dry of their lives, the bodies collapsed to the flooring. Several landed in the pools of their bodily fluids - that which the server did not demand.
The server hovered still, humming like a thousand computer room fans and the singing of a damned chorus. The crimson energy that had drawn life from the worshipers crackled and snapped in oscillating arcs around the device.
The room was still empty as DedKode's hacks were still running and fooling the security systems.
"What's the plan now, Devon?" James asked, keeping his eyes on the demonic equipment hovering either obliviously or without care at his presence. "Do we still try to shut this thing down and take it back or—"
Suddenly DedKode held his hooded skeletal head. Palladino's attention shifted to his teammate.
"What is it?"
There was a feeling that stirred up from a buzzing between where DedKode’s ears once were to a deafening roar he could not ignore. It was an energy, a swelling that circled the room, and DedKode could feel it in part. "Shit, King James, look —"
He pointed a gloved bony finger towards the now pulsating vibration only he could feel. The zombie hacker directed Palladino's gaze to the dead, robed corpses.
They were rising to their feet.
Their hoods fell away and it was clear that they were once alive and were now resurrected dead. Jaws were sunken in, eyes pulled back into black sockets completely void of life. Mouths hung in slow, smacking moans and patches of hair fell with each step, covering the floor along with tears of desiccate flesh.
Arms lifted up and bony hands reached out in trembling grasps.
A hoarse cry rumbled from within breathless, shrunken lungs.
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EXCERPT ONE:
The street was once Lake Shore Drive.
It had been considered one of the most beautiful stretches of road ever constructed. From nearly any point on the arterial Chicago road, one could stop and see the lake, Museum Campus, and other aspects of sheer magnificence.
Testaments to humanity's architecture, designs, and vision literally reached up to the sky. Willis Tower was legendary. Floors and floors of beautiful windows that once caught the rising sun were now almost completely shattered. Unimaginable amounts of flesh-cutting shards of shining triangles littered the streets.
The Cloud Gate, lovingly referred to as "The Bean," was a mind-boggling, visually-stunning stainless-steel sculpture that had once captured the imagination of both locals and visitors. Its mirror-like surface played tricks with reality, reflecting the city's vibrant life in mesmerizing ways.
Now, the Bean was covered in scarred marks and awash in dark splotches of foul-smelling liquids. Instead of laughing faces and optically-twisted visitors, what reflected in the artistically crafted curves was now a sea of countless reddish white deathly stares of layers and layers of skulls laying under the landmark.
The air was layered with gut-churning rancidity not unlike the reek of meat left exposed atop rank garbage in offensive summer heat.
Even on a chill-bitten fall night, the gore was overpowering to all aspects of human interaction.
Nearby, the Crown Fountain had once captured onlookers with its interactive art, projecting the faces of Chicagoans on towering screens, spouting water from their mouths into the reflecting pool below. Tonight, the fountain did not spray immaculate pristine waters but instead bubbled from time to time, as would a swamp. The fluid within was greenish in color and reeked of acidic bile and vomit. Flies had made the site a place of egg laying and maggot rearing.
The Adler Planetarium once world-renowned for its celestial studies was a broken half-dome. Immense cracks ran atop the once majestic structure that had brought countless visitors from across the globe.
The Field Museum had been a cauldron of the past and the present with future aspirations and wonder. It was once the place where history was held in honored perpetuity. Now, whatever remained of mankind's history had violated and pulled from the museum's halls.
Glass cases had been shattered.
Exhibits had been torn out and thrown asunder.
Red, pink and white littered the stairs as intestines, blood and bone made a carpet atop the museum’s walkway.
Chicago was a city known for its sides - its South Side, North Side and West Side. Each was unique from its ethnic communities to its dominant food vendors and carts to its well-known struggles of parking. Yet now, there were no sides anymore.
Now all that was gone. Sides were identical - each area of the city, like each area of other metropolitan sprawls across the globe - were miles and miles of death.
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GUEST POST:
Bring on the boo’s! Everyone loves to hate the villain! Tell us all about this truly loathed character and the inspiration behind their development.
The Connected
1.) They are legion – The Connected, the main villain presence in the book (they are even mentioned in the title!) are countless. As is shown in the early chapters of the book, the Connected have conquered the world and humanity as we know it with their numbers and their overwhelming presence. It is very clear that there is no defeating the Connected.
2.) They are both mindless and hive-minded – The one-eyed, skeletal faced living dead exhibit the classic actions that everyone has come to expect from zombies – they shamble, they claw and bite and they move about with a broken purposelessness. However, as readers will see, the Connected live up to their title and in an instant, become linked to perform specific functions. They are lethal both in number and in function.
3.) They are us – Like any great horror creation, the Connected are us. Victims of an unknown plan, they were once our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters. They were once us. And if you’re not Connected yet, just let one sink its teeth into you and all that changes quickly.
4.) They win – It is no surprise that in five years, the Connected have slaughtered humanity. Cities have fallen. The world is in its last days. Nothing makes a villain more interesting than seeing them after they’ve won. Some antagonists gloat, some fall apart from the success. The Connected are merely still hungry.
5.) They are the best aspects of the undead – The Connected will hit all the spots for zombie lovers. They have the overwhelming numbers. They have caused societal breakdown. They have forced us to face our deepest fears such as the loss of our loved ones, the loss of safety and even the loss of ourselves as we are lost to the infection of the Connected.
The
inspiration behind the Connected is the classic zombie and the genre of the
living dead. I wanted to touch on that
trending monster but also on what zombies represent. I wanted to take the aspects of primal fear,
of societal breakdown, of questioning who we are and what we hold dear and also
examining our relationship with technology and incorporate that into an enemy
that has been with us since George Romero in Pennsylvania.
I wanted to tie them into DedKode, the hero of the novel because it is his one of his greatest fears – to be the cause of a zombie apocalypse. They are reflections of himself and they are an all-devouring force that kills indiscriminately and without any of his personality or soul. And I think that is where you see your protagonist really shine, really stand or fall, is when they are faced with their greatest most paralyzing fear.
There you go, a snapshot introduction to the Connected. I hope you enjoy reading them (from a safe distance!) as much as I did creating them.
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AUTHOR BIO:
Chad Hunter was born in East Chicago, Indiana. Raised by a single mother in the city's Harbor section, he is the youngest of four. Growing up in the Midwest and a proudly self-proclaimed "Region Rat," Hunter has written and published several books and novels. He has written for magazines and newspapers throughout North America and has been published in several languages. His writings have been called sophisticated yet humorous, sharp witted and unrelenting.
Most often, Hunter's writings have been considered so wide and diverse that they span a scale that would include multiple writers with multiple forms. If anything binds his varied styles, it is Hunter's theme of the human condition, humor and family closeness - all to the backdrop of romantic love, vibrant remembrance and even monsters themselves.
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CONNECT WITH CHAD:
Website:
Blog:
X:
TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@dedkode3
Join the Community List:
https://thededthread.aweb.page
Author’s Shop:
https://my-store-cf841e.creator-spring.com
Hy.page:
Goodreads Author Page:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13446511.Chad_Hunter
Goodreads Book Page:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200992060-dedkode---connected
Amazon Author Page:
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AMAZON BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon US Kindle eBook:
Amazon CA Kindle eBook:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CM2FPYKH
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
Chad will be awarding a $10 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card (Winner’s Choice!!!) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase is made, I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those fabulous community outreach projects and awesome giveaways on here**
This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions. Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
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