One the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

My first guest author and the kick off my 12 Days of Christmas Extravaganza is.....PIPER VAUGHN!!! To get us started I asked Piper (and each of my other guest authors) to answer a few holiday themed questions for us. =)


Me: What winter holiday, if any, do you celebrate?
Piper: I celebrate Christmas. I was raised Catholic, though I'm not anymore, and it's so deeply ingrained that I know I will always celebrate it. Besides that, all of my family is still Catholic, too, so there are always celebrations. =)


Me: What is your favorite family holiday story/recipe/tradition/etc?
Piper: When I was young it was getting together at my grandparents' house because the entire extended family would converge on them and it was great getting to see all of them. Once my grandparents moved to Puerto Rico after they retired, that tradition died and we never really started another one. Now we alternate what we do, including what food we make. So I suppose at the moment, aside from normally hanging out with the same cousins every year, our only tradition is that we have none. ;) My mom wants to start a new one this year of us all getting together on Christmas day, playing board games, watching movies, etc. Now that my brother is back--he lived in Hawaii for several years--I'm looking forward to it.

Me: What is your favorite holiday story and why? You can choose one m/m and one not if necessary. =)

Piper: In M/M, probably "Christmas with Danny Fit" by Amy Lane. I'm just a big fan of hers, and I loved everything about it. I don't really have a traditional favorite, though. I like "A Christmas Carol," but I'm ashamed to say I've only watched the film versions and never read the book itself.

Me: What is your favorite thing that you have written and why?

Piper: Hmmm...tough call. It would probably be a tie between "The Luckiest," which is the sequel to the book I co-authored with MJ O'Shea, "Moonlight Becomes You," and "One Small Thing," which was also co-authored with MJ, but is the started of a totally different series. No rockstars there. :) Neither of these books are released yet, but "One Small Thing" is due out in May, and we're waiting to hear back about "The Luckiest," but we're hoping for early 2012 for that one also. :) 

Why? For "One Small Thing," it's because I really bonded with the character I wrote (Erik) and I loved watching him fall in love and get his HEA. He is like me in a lot of ways, so it was kind of hard to let him go. But, at the same time, he is also very different from me and was probably the most difficult character I've ever written. With "The Luckiest," I went in loving Nicky, who is one of our protags, and somewhere along the way I fell in love with his love interest, Luka, as well. Nicky is a rockstar going on 30 and still trapped in teenage immaturity a lot of the time because he got famous really young and really fast. It was awesome watching him grow up. I think he might be my favorite out of all of my characters so far. I know a lot of readers might wonder why, if they've read "Moonlight Becomes You," but you'll just have to read his book to see. He really is a lot more than what he seems like on the surface. :)

So there you go folks...go out and out and put The Luckiest and One Small Thing on your to buy shelves! =)

And now a little from Piper on her book Zombie Wonderland. Be sure to read all the way to end for info on how to enter the trivia contest and win a $10 giftcard to the online retailer of your choice!!!

Hi, all! The following is an excerpt from my newest release, a Christmas-themed romantic horror novella called Zombie Wonderland. A lot of people have been surprised by the combination of zombies and Christmas. To be honest, I was, too. The idea came to me totally at random last holiday season. What if the zombie apocalypse started on Christmas Eve, I asked myself, and what if a lonely waiter had to fight to stay alive beside the crush he'd barely even spoken to before that night? And that's how this story came to be. I suppose it probably sounds kind of odd, but underneath all of the action and zombie gore, you just might find a sweet little holiday story at its heart. :)

The Excerpt:

"I don't know how to say this without sounding completely insane." He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "That guy in the diner, he should have been dead. I was on my way here, coming down Jefferson, when I saw these two men chasing a woman down the street. I started to pull over to help her when this guy jumped out in front of my car. I slammed on the brakes, but there wasn't enough time, and I hit him. I thought I'd killed him at first, but when I got out of the car and started walking toward him, he sat up and just came at me."

"Like the way he did in the diner?"

"Yeah. He already had those wounds on his side too, and I wondered how he could even be walking around with an injury like that in the first place. But then he launched himself at me and went for my throat. I wasn't expecting it, so he managed to get me on the ground, and he tried to bite my arm. Luckily, his teeth didn't break through the material of my jacket, but he kept just gnawing at it like a fucking dog with a rawhide bone." Ross stopped and laughed, but it was a humorless sound. "I knocked him out while he was distracted and hauled ass out of there. Tried to call the cops a few times to report it, but no one answered. Just a busy signal. And then I got to North Avenue …"

I swallowed, dread clawing at my stomach. "And?"

"It was insane." Ross inhaled shakily and ran his hands through his hair, mussing the strands even further. "People were running around screaming. There were bodies in the street, on the sidewalks. I saw a couple of kids kneeling on the ground, hunched over this woman, and they were … eating parts of her. Their faces and arms were covered in blood, and they were chewing on …" He trailed off and shook his head, breathing hard.

Nausea welled inside me. "No—that's not—I can't believe—"

"Emery, I wouldn't make this up. You saw that guy in the diner."

"But what are you saying? That he was … some kind of zombie or something?"

"I honestly don't know."

He looked so sincere and confused that I couldn't help but believe him. Plus, he had a point—no sane person would make up such a story—and then there'd been the guy who attacked us in the diner, who'd been seemingly impervious to pain. But … "That kind of stuff isn't real. It's just not possible."

"Before tonight, I would have thought so, too. But, trust me, there is something terrible going on, and I have no idea what or why." Ross reached across the seat and grabbed my hand. "Every instinct I have is telling me to get out of the city. My grandfather left me a cabin up north. We can make it there in a couple of hours."

"You—You want me to come with?"

"Of course. That's why I came for you."

"But you barely know me. Why would you—"

"Clara has told me bits and pieces about you," Ross said, referring to one of my co-workers and the only person who I considered to be somewhat of a friend. He looked down at my hand and brushed his thumb over my knuckles. I shivered at the feel of it. "And I definitely want to know more."

He turned his hand over and linked our fingers together. In the dim interior of the car, the action felt strangely intimate, almost too much so, especially when his eyes lifted to meet mine with an intensity I felt all the way down to my toes. My last boyfriend hadn't been much for physical affection, and it'd been a long time since I'd been touched in anything more than a casual way. Even longer since I'd held someone's hand.

"I was coming to the diner tonight to ask you to spend Christmas with me," Ross went on. "When I realized what was happening, there was no way I could just leave you there. You would've walked into it, totally unsuspecting. That is, if they hadn't gotten to you in the diner first." He held my gaze, his thumb circling on the sensitive skin of my palm. "I'm glad I made it in time."

His eyes were so dark, the color such a deep black, that I hadn't been able to emulate it on canvas or paper, no matter how many times I'd tried. Their magnetism drew me in, tugged me forward almost against my will. Not that I'd given much thought to resisting. Unconsciously, I tilted my face up, and I think he might have kissed me then, zombies be damned, if something hadn't rammed into the side of his car with enough force to make the entire vehicle rock and shudder.

~*~

Zombie Wonderland is available for purchase from Less Than Three Press, as well as Amazon, ARe, Barnes & Noble, and other online retailers.

Visit Piper Vaughn at her website for the latest news on current/upcoming releases or at her joint blog with M.J. O'Shea, Babes in Boyland.

Trivia Question:  At what age did Piper write her first love story?

The answer can be found on her website so go explore! Email me your answer at kchayes54@gmail.com for one entry into the drawing. You will have a chance to enter each day and the winner will be drawn on Christmas Eve.

Also, don't forget you have until 7pm EST tonight to enter to win this and all the other great books I am giving away. For rules and where to enter see this post!


If you haven't already signed up and you don't want to sign up for all the drawings, and you only want to sign up for this one, comment below with a valid email address.