Bret Jordan - Author & Freelance Artist
Instead of a Christmas Giveaway this year we have decided to do something a little different. We wanted to give back to the writing community. After a lot of thinking we decided to select one member from our community who will receive the following:
A mentorship from an HWA member for a completed novel
The mentor will help this person polish their manuscript before submitting it to Graveside Tales.
After stepping back and taking a long look at all our family here at Graveside Tales we have chosen Bret Jordan to be this years receipent. Bret has done so much for Graveside Tales and without him I have no idea where we would be. Bret dedicated a lot time doing artwork and several other projects. He was the first person to take us up on writing an online eSerial with his novel Plague. Bret’s outstanding attitude, drive, dedication and determination is exactly what we look for.
His mentor will be HWA member and community member Rio Youers author of Everdead and Endtimes.
Plague by Bret Jordan
Story Synopsis
Renier is a port city that stands as a glorious gem on the edge of the kingdom. The people are justly ruled by their beloved Duke with the assistance of a benevolent wizard and a self-involved priest. Within twenty-four hours everything changes as a small group of strange lepers enter the port and cause a mysterious and deadly illness to rage through the city, killing most of the residents. Violent illness and gruesome death isn’t the end of the horror for the residents of Renier. Not by a long shot, as thousands of dead bodies rise from the cobblestone streets in search of living prey. Sword and sorcery battle against an unstoppable hunger as the few living residents try and escape the walls of an undead nightmare.
“Bret Jordan’s Plague blends dark fantasy and zombie horror with genuinely chilling results. You won’t be disappointed – get hooked on this serial!”
~David Dunwoody, author of Empire
“Bret Jordan has created an intriguing medieval world where blood & guts zombie mayhem is delivered with the brutal edge of a sword, not the barrel of a .45. Read it – you’ll dig it!”
~Vince Churchill author of The Dead Shall Inherit the Earth & The Blackest Heart
Mr. Youers has delivered us a flavorful new vampire tale just as the genre needs rescue from the paranormal romance shelves. In Luca, he's given us a new and classic monster. As an added bonus, we get drama, action, and vivid characterization. "His senses were so finely tuned … the beating of her heart filled his head with the furious sound of bombardment … raw emotion … stripped to its core …" Rio Youers is a bright light among the new wave of writers coming forth. He delivered his audience a terrific impact with his recent End Times novel, and now he's given us a helluva story with his new book Everdead and it's intertwined plot. His fans will be delighted, and new readers will be entranced. He writes with a literary style but gives the reader a page turning drive. Luca doesn't start off to be a bad person, but he gets there anyway. Lust has a way of doing that. We learn of his origins, how he abandons his family, his sleepy country-side 19th century world, and eventually even abandons life itself in pursuit of something greater and more exciting. Maybe all serial killers lust for a fantasy they can't have, and thus are how monsters born. We are very afraid of Luca, but like a horrible accident, we can't turn away and Youers makes us care for him. However, it's one thing to read about evil, and another thing to experience it. Youers brings it home to a resort and party town, and the fireworks spark. Scenery. You are there with the narrative of this book. "The music jumps … people come and go … they spin. They dance. They sing … laughter, a thousand lights gazing at the black curve of the Mediterranean." Characters. That's how a strong American novel transcends the ordinary book, and Everdead gives us real people within its pages. Cass, Toby, Sheri, Natalie, Maria, Johnny, and Ben do what comes natural for young people on the sunny beach of San Antonio, Spain. They are young, looking for fun, sex, and maybe love. They're blood runs hot. They are full of life. What more could a vampire want? Youers introduces a few twists to the legend of the vampire which is refreshing, and in doing so he resurrects some energy from the late Richard Matheson. There is a lot of humanity to Luca's monstrousness and it turns out that even monsters have enemies. It's not only the sun that makes Luca sleep in the shadows and among minions of cockroaches and rats. If you're a human-cum-vampire, you need to be very afraid. In real life, when evil bursts into your house and attacks, you rarely recover even if you live. This novel is gritty and real, so just when Toby and Cass meet and begin to dance the rituals of love, terror grips them. However, pluckier than most, they are not going to let Luca steal their passion for one another, steal their youth away, without putting up a fight. And what a rip rousing fight it is, too. Two predatory worlds are exposited, and while the blood flies, the real desperation is the fight to not be lonely. In our ever changing, over crowded world, loneliness is the one darkness that we can't tolerate. Even death may be more preferable, than to not be able to live, love, and have friends. Perhaps loneliness is the worst death of all – to be separated from all that you care about. That's the real battle. Graveside Tales has burst from the gate with clever anthologies, online serials, and most recently Hawg by Stephen Shrewsbury. Now, Graveside Tales and Mr. Youers have a winner with Evedead. I predict that it'll sell fast. Grab a copy – before it's too late. 
