Monday, July 1, 2013

Blog Tour (Guest Post & Giveaway): Voodoo Moon by June Stevens





Title: Voodoo Moon (Paranorm World #1)
Author: June Stevens
Publisher: Classy Scribe Publications
Release Date: June 24, 2013

Zombies aren’t supposed to exist, yet they are turning up all over Nash City. As a member of the Elite Black Blade Guard, Fiona Moon is tasked with hunting down the most dangerous Paranorm criminals. Now she must find out who is kidnapping mages and sucking the life energy from their bodies. To make matters worse, she has to work with the one man that embodies everything she despises.

Ian Barroes is the rich founder and head of the Necromancers Guild and a professor of Necromantic Studies at the Academy of Science and Magic. There is one thing he wants more than anything else in the world… Fiona.

They each hold secrets that could destroy them but could also be the key to destroying the evil Voodoo priest, Bokor. They must learn to trust each other track down Bokor before more innocents are taken, and murdered. To make matters worse, when Fiona becomes a target of the evil madman she is lured into his trap. Now she and Ian have to fight for survival and their very souls.


Researching Voodoo and Zombies for Voodoo Moon
June Stevens

Creating a new world loosely based on our own was both liberating and daunting at the same time. I knew from the very beginning of this story that I wanted zombies in it, but not the flesh eating, virus caused zombies so prevalent in fiction today. I didn’t want just another zombie apocalypse plague. I wanted my zombies and my villain to be something just a bit different.

So, of course I went directly to Voodoo, Haitian Voodoo to be exact. I spent hours and hours, probably more than a hundred, scouring the web and library absorbing every bit of Voodoo and zombie lore and fact. I even emailed a bit with a curator at a Voodoo Museum in New Orleans. However, anyone who knows anything at all about Haitian Voodoo (or Vodun) might think I hadn’t researched a bit.

It’s true, the version of Voodoo in my story only loosely resembles the actual religion that is practiced today. But that was very, very deliberate. After compiling pages and pages of notes, I realized that two hundred years in the future, after a Cataclysm that destroys whole states and where knowledge and information is held by the lucky few, the pure knowledge and the ability to learn things the way we do would not be there.

All things handed down generation to generation by spoken word will eventually become convoluted, most especially things concerning religion and even more especially, religions that are already shrouded in mystery and mysticism. So, in order to create Bokor’s own brand of Voodoo I mixed together actual fact, common modern misconceptions, and a little of my own fiction. I also threw in an extra Goddess that I never name by name, but anyone familiar with Nashville or Greek Mythology will be able to figure out.

I will say again, my zombies are nothing like the walking dead, virus infected, flesh eating things we watch on TV and the movies so often these days, but I think they are just as creepy, maybe even more so. I had a ton of fun researching and creating them, and I hope you will have just as much fun reading about them!

Ebook
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Print
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About the Author

June Stevens, AKA DJ Westerfield is a wife, step-mom, sister, auntie, daughter, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, friend, and Mommy to three adorable and mischievous four-legged babies.

She writes non-fiction, blogs, and co-hosts an internet radio show as DJ Westerfield. She uses the pseudonym June Stevens to write fiction in a variety of genres including contemporary romance, romantic suspense, romantic fantasy, paranormal romance, urban fantasy.

June Stevens creates new worlds in the form of short stories and books. When you step into one of June Stevens worlds you will encounter at least one (or a combination of many) of these elements: ROMANCE, mystery, suspense, magic, ghosts, vampires, witches, werebeasts, elves, faeries, other magical creatures, space ships, aliens, space travel, time travel, angels, demons, gods and goddesses, and who knows what else. If it can be dreamed up…it may be in one of her worlds.

Find June Online
Website | Paranorm World Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Giveaway

Open to anyone who can receive ebooks.
Ends at 12:01am EST on July 15th

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3 comments:

  1. One of my favorite series is by Diana Rowland, My Life as a White Trash Zombie, I also love the Rhiannon Frater zombie series, plus the Day by Day Armageddon series by J.L. Bourne.

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  2. I also wanted to say this sounds really interesting. It's in my wish list at amazon and hope to check it out if I'm not lucky enough to win a copy. Thanks!!

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  3. Thanks so much for hosting this! I'm sorry I'm just now checking in... it has been a crazy month! I'm so excited at the feedback everyone has been giving, both on this post and the other one.

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You are going to put words in my box?! *squeezes you* Now I shall stalk YOUR blog!