Verna Loves Books: The Beautiful Dead by Daryl Banner *Tour stop & Giveaway*

Title: The Beautiful Dead

Author: Daryl Banner

Genre: Post- Apocalyptic

Publication Date: August 2013

Tour Host: Dreams Come True Promotions

She’s dead.

In fact, the whole world’s dead. Every single person, apparently. Unburied and reimagined into a beautiful living-dead woman called Winter, she is doomed to spend the rest of eternity in a quaint, peaceful city with no hunger, no sickness and no bills to pay. Her Second Life is perfect in every way possible.

So why is she so bent on destroying it all?

After angering the mayor, befriending rebel headless teenagers and igniting romance with a dark and brooding neighbor, she finds herself wrestling madly with a First Life she cannot remember and this Second Life she cannot accept. Not to mention the maniacal army of rotting corpses who want her dead. Again.

But none of that matters in comparison to an even worse problem. There’s a guest in her house. A rude, good-looking man on the run ... a man with a heartbeat.

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Daryl Banner is a writer and composer who graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in Theatre and Psychology.

He does not write in any single genre, as his stories tend to span several. He is most inspired by the smart and unlikely hero, but urges you (the reader) not to fall in love with them; they may deceive you with their innocence. He is thrilled by putting his characters in terrible situations where they must face choices and challenges that seem impossible to overcome.

Daryl Banner writes contemporary fiction, sci-fi/fantasy (both in medieval and futuristic senses), unique takes on the apocalypse and paranormal romance genre, as well as magic realism. He cannot wait to hear what you think about his stories and welcomes (and responds to!) all feedback.

1. I was born and raised on video games, from Nintendo classics to Final Fantasy. I even have a scar on my right eyebrow from a fight I had with my brother over a game when I was four years old.

2. I'm miserably single and enjoying every miserable minute of it. Anyone who says they're happily single, y'er a liar! Just kidding, everything's amazing.

3. I have an unhealthy obsession with Lego, ever since I was a kid. I even still have five Lego castles that I've rebuilt from my childhood (ah, what calming therapy that was) that my nephew destroys every weekend.

4. When I'm having a particularly stressful night and cannot calm myself to sleep, I watch an episode of Bob Ross's The Joy Of Painting. Really feeds the soul, too. (Look at all that burnt umber and magic white in the sky!)

5. I have spent hundreds (maybe thousands) more hours than I will admit on such time-draining life-consuming games like World Of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, and RollerCoaster Tycoon. I maybe still do.

6. For my acting resumes, I round up and say I'm 5'5 because I count the thick-soled shoes I'm wearing and no, I don't have a shortie complex. What, you think I'm short? You calling me short? You better not be calling me short.

7. I double-majored in Theater and Psychology at the University of Houston, and at my time of graduation, I was exactly one hour short of being able to proudly say that I earned a "double degree" ... Whatever that is.

8. I was the first person in Katy High School history to be invited onto the Yearbook staff without having taken the prerequisite Journalism class.

9. I have not spent a single dollar on movie tickets or popcorn in the last nine years, as I've been (and currently am) a senior manager at a movie theater since 2005.

10. My brother is kinda named after the hulk by accident. Don't piss him off.

11. Though I was born and raised in the south (Texas) both my parents are from the north (Canada & New York)

12. I've been a suburban cat my whole life, born and raised in the burbs, dangerously close to the farms and countryside of my small-yet-growing hometown of Katy (which rests just outside the smoggy clutches of Houston)

13. While initially writing "The Beautiful Dead", I typed with black background and glowing green letters in my word processor to "set the mood" of the story.

14. My fanboy letter written to Chuck Palahniuk resulted in him sending me back a box full of glitter, toys, and a homemade necklace, as well as a letter of encouragement. He says sometimes even he gets sick of words, but felt it necessary to write me. I couldn't stop smiling for weeks.

15. I taught myself to play piano when I was still a little Nintendo-playing kid, learning all my favorite video game tunes by ear. There are two full-size upright pianos in my house that I sometimes refer to as my two goddesses. Seriously. They were both passed on to me, one from a dear friend, the other from my mom's ex-husband's ex-friend's ex.

16. I tour in a trilogy of comedy musicals with two opera divas in which I act, play piano and keyboards, and beatbox. We will be touring the Houston area this summer!

17. I had a black cat named Stormy ever since I was five. She developed diabetes and sadly passed away six years ago. I sometimes see her in the shadows of my house.

18. My late-night cravings are Chinese food, crispy tacos, and freeze-n-squeeze margarita pouches.

19. For fun, I do digital covers of popular songs and TV show themes (and a lot of 80's-and-90's-born radio hits) in an old-school Nintendo 8-bit music style. Because I bend some of the strict four-track-only rules of 8-bit (and sometimes include real drums instead of the obligatory noise track), I call my remixes "Hyper 8-bit" and release them on my YouTube page. "http://www.youtube.com/darylbanner"

20. Though I primarily write novels now, my main focus throughout highschool and college was playwrighting. At 16, my first play "Seeing Slowly" won a contest, earning it a production at a regional theater in Houston (Alley Theater, HYPE 2001) and at 18, I directed my second play "Fake Love" at my high-school as one of two senior-directed shows. In college, my play "Permanent Daylight" was selected from hundreds to be produced as part of the Edward Albee Playwrighting Workshop, mentored by the great (and late) Lanford Wilson, who taught me more about writing and people than I could ever express in mere words. I owe him so, so much, and sometimes when I'm writing, I hear his voice in my head telling me "No!" and "Ugh!" and "!??" and then "There you go, Daryl ... That's better."