Bella Street – Guest Post

Today we’re having the author Bella Street here at the blog! She’s one of the the Small Blogs, Big Giveaways featured authors, and we’ll learn how she came up with the Apocalypse Babes series!

Living so close to Nashville has provoked me to take up fiddle lessons. Until my tunes are fit for human consumption, I enjoy paranormal stories (Buffy, Sookie Stackhouse, Kitty Norville, Kelley Armstrong) or anything that combines romance with the just plain weird.

It’s been said that a sure sign of the coming apocalypse is an 80s roller skate disco movie coming to DVD (with special features). In the first book of my science-fiction novel series entitled Apocalypse Babes, a stylish group of twenty-something friends are torn from the Babylonian arms of 2006 West Hollywood and flung nearly thirty years into the past. It might be because one of them purchased the taboo film in a nostalgic moment, setting off a chain of events more disturbing than a roller skating conga line. They wake up in an apocalyptic but strangely familiar landscape, complete with a hidden mountain compound and retro survivalists, hinting at hidden and retro secrets they must face if they want to survive.

At least this story seemed like a good idea at the time. I blame it on my years marinating in material by Joss Whedon, Wes Anderson, and Edgar Wright. Makes for some crazy, angsty ideas.

Add to that my contrary nature. I felt that there was a dearth of slightly pathetic females amidst all the leather-clad, kick-ass heroines out there. My heroine, Seffy (short for Persephone), wears a pink velour tracksuit and sometimes gets a little whiney (hey, zombies and psychonautics aren’t exactly a cake walk). But instead of being Too Stupid To Live, she’s on an epic journey, whether she knows it or not, and is pushed to meet unexpected challenges—from her past issues to her present love triangle.

I added the zombie element to editorialize about the relationships and lifestyles of the friends. In Night of the Living Dead, the zombies represent the mind-numbed pointlessness of racism. Another film, Shaun of the Dead, highlights the shambolic lives of English pub-crawlers. What I love so much about zombies is that they represent something you can’t outrun, whether it’s death or your past. It will always catch up to you when you least expect it. The ‘Apocalypse Babes’ friends have quite a few secrets and issues they’d like to keep on the down low, but are forced to deal with them when they realize they’re stuck in the past, literally and figuratively.

Apocalypse Babes is a six book series. The first three books (The Z Word, The X Factor, iRobotronic) are available on Kindle and Smashwords. The Z Word is free at Smashwords and part of a contest where prizes include a Juicy Couture tracksuit, Pink perfume by Victoria’s Secret, a $30 Amazon GC, and signed copies of my books.

Where you can follow the author:
website | blog | facebook | twitter

Where you can buy THE Z WORD:
Amazon | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks

*Bella has donated copies of her book, THE Z WORD, as a prizes for the Small Blogs, Big Giveaways !*