Claire C. Riley’s Odium II released!

It is always such a pleasure to have talented writers come for a ride on the Dark Hayride. This is no exception…Claire C. Riley rocks. \m/. Here latest novel, Odium II has been released and I have her here, just for the Jackverse. Enjoy, my peeps.

1. Explain what “Odium” is to you and what it is to the characters in your series.

When I was thinking up the concept for Odium I went through the entire dictionary in hunt of the perfect word for the title. When I came across the word ODIUM I asked my husband what he thought of it, and he was like ‘no, that doesn’t sound right’ I replied, ‘but Odium means hate, a deeper darker hatred than anything. And my character has so much hate—hate for the deaders, hate for the city behind the walls, hate for the way the cards have fallen for her, and hate for this new life. Hell, not just her, but everyone is feeling like this. This world overtaken by deaders and Mother Nature is filled with hate.’ My husband just looked at me and told me that I had my answer.

2. Why did you choose the zombie sub-genre to play in?

I’ve always been deeply fascinated in the whole apocalypse thing. Not really the ‘how’ it started or happened, but more the ‘what would people do’ ‘how would they survive?’ The whole zombie thing came from my love of Romero’s work and the weird fact that I think that it could actually happen!

3. What is your first memory of horror and did it help shape you into the writer you are today?
My first memories of horror are Night of the Living Dead and Bram Stokers Dracula. Actually, that’s a big fat lie and I should probably delete that. My VERY first memory of horror was watching Chucky with my brother and some of his friends when I was 10. He said that I couldn’t watch it because it would scare me but I laughed my arse off all the way through while ‘they’ were scared. Then it became a thing of, ‘what WILL scare me?’ Weird thing is—the whole doll thing freaks me out now! Ha ha. So anyway, yes, all those things shaped me and my writing. For years I wrote darker and darker things, but as I got older I realised it wasn’t just graphic gore that made horror, and that things were truly scary when you went back to the more psychological root of things.

4. Does your family read your work? If so, what do they think of it? If not, do you haunt them in their dreams for refusing?
My immediate family doesn’t but they all buy the books and make me sign them ha ha. My Auntie Milly is actually one of my biggest cheerleaders. She buys all my books – kindle and paperback, makes me sign them, leaves me reviews when she’s finished AND has long conversations about the apocalypse with me. Love her. Everyone else better sleep with one eye open!

5. How far do you plan on taking the Odium series? How much do you already have planned out?
I have book three pretty much planned out already, and where I’m finishing that it should leave room for a fourth. I’m also partway through writing Odium Origins part Two and there’s a spin off book about Nina’s origin coming out later this year too. I love the world and characters I’ve developed and can’t imagine leaving them just yet.

6. What inspired Odium II?
When I started writing Odium I had a HUGE story in my head, it was always way too much for one book. As I started to write it, I realised that it was actually way too much for just two books. That’s where the Origins books came from.

7. What is your favorite aspect of Odium II?
Nina. I love that she has no filter. All those thoughts that whirl around your head each day—those snarky, sarcastic comments that you bottle up, she doesn’t. She just says it as it is. She’s not a bad person, she just doesn’t believe in bullshit.

8. When do you NOT think about writing?
Ha ha ha. Is that a trick question? I’m always thinking about writing, either a new book, a plot problem, a new story arc. I stress over the time that’s just slipping away from me when I could be writing and developing.

9. What is your favorite snack food.
Sweets. I think you guys call it candy. I like sour sweets, Nerds, Fangtastics, fizzy cola bottles. I have a really bad sweet tooth.

10. If you could, would you? If not, why? If that question doesn’t make sense…you’re a writer, make it make sense. 😉

If I thought I could get away with it, hell yeah I would. But I don’t tell lies—like ever, so I’d get caught out. Damn it.

Odium II

Fortune favors…the DEAD!

Some secrets are too horrific to ever be forgiven, and some people should never be trusted.
Tortured, starved, and on the run, Nina thinks she’s faced the worst that mankind has to offer, but she’s wrong. She may have survived this long, but she hasn’t come out of it unscathed, and there’s worse to come.
Nina’s trusty Doc Martens are showing signs of the zombie apocalypse, and she isn’t faring much better. With her snarky attitude guaranteed to get her in trouble, Nina needs to forgive the past, to live once more in the present, and learn that sometimes she needs to place her trust in other people.
Because when people are faced with the end of times, they’ll do anything to survive.

BIO

Odium. The Dead Saga is a top #100 dystopian selling book on Amazon.com for 2013, Indie book of the day winner December 2013 and Indie Author Land 50 best self-published books worth reading 2013/14

Limerence featured book in the Guardian newspaper for best Indie novel 2013

Claire C Riley’s work is best described as the modernization of classic, old-school horror. She fuses multi-genre elements to develop storylines that pay homage to cult-classics while still feeling fresh and cutting-edge. She writes characters that are realistic and kills them without mercy.

Claire is the author of “Limerence,” “Odium. The Dead Saga,” “Odium Origins. A Dead Saga Novella Part One,” “Odium II The Dead Saga” “Odium Origins A Dead Saga Novella Part Two” and a proud contributor to the charity anthology “Let’s Scare Cancer to Death.”

Claire lives in the UK with her husband, three daughters and one scruffy dog.

Coming up in 2014 are several projects including, “Odium III The Dead Saga,” “Odium Origins A Dead Saga Novella Part Three,” “Nina’s Odium,” “Limerence II: Mia,” plus anthology contributions to several exciting projects including “Fading Hope,” “The Murderous Campbell’s,” and “State of Horror: Illinois.”

CLAIRE’S LINKS