Scott Nicholson is here!

Scott Nicholson was nice enough to come visit us again.  This time he's here to talk about his new book, Liquid Fear, which comes out tomorrow.  I'm reading it right now, and it definitely sucked me in from the very beginning!!   I can't wait to see how it all plays out.   Anyway, enough about me - for now.  ;)   On to Scott and his post!

Liquid Fear: A drop or two will do
By Scott Nicholson


(Liquid Fear: A Mystery Thriller—Ten years after a tragic clinical trial testing a secret fear-response drug, the subjects realize the experiment never ended…available for 99 cents at Amazon, BN.com, and Smashwords)


Did you know the U.S. president has a special council that wonders how much your mind should be changed?
The council’s job is to advise on how emerging technologies and medical innovations should be used, as well as provide layers of oversight in how clinical trials are conducted. Of course, such a board can also have a hand in covering up any necessary ethical concerns that might make the government look bad.
For example, while the Germans were killing millions in concentration camps in the 1940s, the U.S. sponsored clinical trials in which Guatemalans were deliberately infected with sexually-transmitted diseases in order to test the efficacy of penicillin. True, the atrocities of genocide are exponentially more horrifying, but you could make the argument that both stem from the same moral failure—treating classes of people as less than human.
In my mystery thriller Liquid Fear, I drew on the work of the President’s Council on Bioethics (in the true spirit of ever-expanding government bureaucracy, the name has now been inflated to The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.) The board currently has 13 members, all doctors or professors.
In Liquid Fear, two of my characters serve on the council—neurobiologist Dr. Alexis Morgan and former U.S. Representative and fundamentalist Wallace Forsyth. One subplot involves their diverging views on the purpose of altering the brain to supposedly “help” people and what the moral limit might be for tinkering with the mind’s normal functions.
I’d been interested in fear response and the use of medicine to “help” people precisely because of the dangers of another person presuming to know what’s “good” for someone else. In fact, “good” and “helping” are purely subjective terms defined by the attitudes of the one doing the helping. Both scare me to death.
In my suspense thriller Liquid Fear, volunteers in a tragic clinical trial learn the experiment in fear response never ended, and 10 years later they must recreate it. I used a report published by the bioethics council called “Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness.” (You can order it yourself for free from bioethics.gov—after all, if you a U.S. taxpayer, you paid for it anyway.)
Part of the debate centers on the value of memory and whether it is merciful to chemically or even surgically wipe out “bad memories” in order to “help” someone suffering from, say, post-traumatic stress disorder. You may say, “Sure, sounds good to me,” but what happens if you erase the memory of someone whose hand was badly burned when they touched a hot stove eye? Then they haven’t learned that the stove eye can burn, and they may have to learn it all over again.
Bioethics. It’s a gray area, just like the brain. All I know is I don’t want the government making those decisions for me.
Liquid Fear. How much is enough?


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Scott Nicholson has written 20 other books, including the bestsellers Disintegration, The Red Church, and Speed Dating with the Dead. He’s also written six screenplays, three comics series, and the children’s books If I Were Your Monster, Duncan the Punkin, and Too Many Witches. Visit him at http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/ or follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Dakota Cassidy, er...Nina Blackman-Statleon's Visit (and giveaway)

As promised, we have Dakota Cassidy here today talking about the latest book she's working on for her Accidental series.  Well, actually she sent Nina!   So without further ado, I'll let Nina get to it!  

 Wherein Nina Gets A Sister

Nina Blackman-Statleon here with a rant on writers and their crazy quest to keep a series going at all costs.

In some cases, it’s at my cost. Actually, now that I think about it—it’s almost always at my expense. More on that later. 

First, let me introduce myself. I’m the second accidental in Dakota Cassidy’s series about women who’re accidentally bitten by all sorts of paranormal creatures. I was once a court reporter, got downsized, tried to supplement my lost income by selling Bobbie Sue Cosmetics, thus hookin’ me up with the most annoying efftard on the planet, Marty Flaherty. Dakota finally gave up on trying to get me to talk color wheels and lip plumping products to anyone in the free world who would listen, and she gave me a real job. As a dental hygienist. No. Fluoride and tartar aren’t glamorous, but it was a damn job. With bennies. No sooner was I there than I was “accidentally” (rolls eyes), bitten by a hot dude named Greg while I was just trying to do my job.

Okay, fine. The hot dude became my lifemate—but I went through some serious madassery before she was done with me and I got the guy. And I was only book 2.

So, add in the subsequent books where I’m doing all sorts of crap I wouldn’t if I had a choice. Like have friends. Shop with said friends Marty and Wanda at designer outlet malls. Hang out and hook up for lunch. Lunch I can’t even flippin’ eat. When Dakota really got the ball rolling, all of a frickin’ sudden I was meeting demons and having fireballs lobbed at my person. Then, to my utter effin’ shame, I was forced to be kind to complete strangers who’ve had a stupid “accident” like the one’s I mentioned above while I answered phone calls at this place she created titled OOPS. Out In The Open Paranormal Support. It’s a 1-800 hotline for morons who’re in paranormal crisis.


All of a sudden, I’m a paranormal crisis counselor who’s supposed to be “nurturing” when someone calls to tell me they have an oversized paw or some scales. Nurture this, I say.


To say Dakota strains credibility is like saying the tornado didn’t have a good time in the trailer park. And c’mon. What a lame premise for a bunch of books, and while I know I’m not alone in saying that (read some of this broad’s Amazon reviews), apparently, I’m in the minority. What is wrong with people?


Anyway, suffice it to say things have gone okay for her madness and she’s working on books 6 and 7 in the series right now. Book 6 is called Accidentally Dead… Again. I know, I know. She already did vampires, but here we fargin’ go again.


Anyway, this is the book where not only does she have her first ever male accident occur (his name’s Sam McLean, and okay—he’s cute. Whatthehellever). He’s bitten by a woman he thinks is just dressed up as a vampire at a Halloween party, then dumped on OOPS’ doorstep—still in his Halloween costume—his drag Halloween costume. It’s also the book where I get a sister (bleh). A half-sister, if you want to be technical, that falls on Sam during a throw down with me and is turned into a vampire, too.


And I just wanna say, I’m not skipping through fields of buttercups about it.


Dakota calls this evolution. She said nothing ever stays the same and that all of the characters and plots have to evolve. I say she’s overrated evolution, and if evolving means I have to have a whiny, mouthy, dresses like Marty, pain in the ass for a sister, screw evolution!


But as you all know, I don’t have a choice in the matter. I’m her puppet, people. Just a playa in the master plan. 


So my question to all of you is, what the hell is next? These next two books only mean more asshattery for me. So for the love of God, when do we call it “end game” and quit clinging to this stupid concept? How much longer do I have to suffer for you readers and your idea of amusement? 


So I’m secretly here to beg you all for a favor. Don’t tell Dakota or for sure, this next book, I’m doomed to have to do something huge like save the world as punishment for speaking out against her abuse. Heh. Maybe I’ll start my own support group. Like Characters For The Ethical Treatment Of Fiction. We’ll lodge complaints. Start a class action suit against abusive writers. Maybe we can even get that Jacob from Twilight to come and speak out against shirtlessness every twelve seconds in a movie!


I digress.

Anyway, here’s the favor—quit buyin’ her books! Please. If not for my own sanity, then for your poor eyeballs and the future of all eyeballs that might mistakenly land on her idea of “junk food for the brain.”

In essence, save a downtrodden friggin’ character, ride somebody else’s book!

Nina Blackman-Statleon as written by Dakota Cassidy (the puppet master) J

Giveaway Details

There are two prizes to win. 

Prize #1

We are giving away a copy of Dakota's latest book, Accidentally Catty. 

Or, if you haven't started the series yet, we'll send you a copy of the first book - The Accidental Werewolf. 

Prize #2

Ms. Cassidy was awesome enough to offer a prize, too.  She's giving away the winner's choice of any mass market book that is already out.

There are three steps to be entered into the giveaway.

1. Follow Seduced by Books on Google Friend Connect

2. Follow ("like") Dakota Cassidy on facebook. 

3. Leave a comment on this post with your e-mail, GFC name, and facebook user name, so we can verify the following and the liking! 

The giveaway will end Friday, April 1st at midnight. 

Winners will be chosen by Random.org and announced by the end of the day Monday, April 4th.  The first name pulled will win prize #1 and the second will win prize #2. 

Both  prizes will be sent directly from Amazon.

Good luck!! 

Author Visits - Dakota Cassidy, Scott Nicholson, and more!

Hey there! 

We have some really great author visits coming up that you don't wanna miss.  Some of them are in just a few days! 

Dakota Cassidy will be stopping by with a guest blog on Tuesday.  She'll be promoting the latest book in her Accidental series - Accidentally Catty.  She may also promo her upcoming book in that series - Accidentally Dead Again!

  

 

Scott Nicholson is coming back for a visit on Thursday.  He'll be talking about his book Liquid Fear, which comes out April 1st. 

  

We also have a couple other authors who have graciously agreed to come visit us, but we haven't set dates yet. 

 Michele Bardsley, author of the Broken Heart, Oklahoma series, will be promoting her latest book, Never Again.  It's the first book in her new Wizards of Nevermore series.

 

 Joann I. Martin Sowles, author of Laney: The Brookehaven Vampires,will also be coming by for a visit. 

We'll definitley keep everyone posted as to when we set dates for their visits!