RED DUST, THE FALL by, BEN DIXON & SAM CAMPBELL

Today I'm super excited to introduce you to our
young Authors, Ben Dixon and Sam Campbell.
From Fire and Ice Book Tours,
Red Dust, The Fall.
I began reading this book and LOVE what I've
read so far….as a matter of fact I can't wait to get
back to reading it soon.  They show real promise with their
writing abilities.  The story begins in the perfect spot and 
grabs your immediate attention.  I was happy to interview 
the lads and I think we were able to garner some real 
insight to what it's like working as a team.  So please enjoy 
our meeting with the Authors.  And don't forget to put 
your name in the hat to win an Amazon Gift Card 
worth 20.00.  As usual, please leave a comment so that 
we know you were here…thx, and enjoy this really 
fun duo….from PLP.

Virtual Book Tour Dates: 4/16/14 – 4/30/14
Genres: Horror/Zombies/Western/Short Stories

Blurb:
Red Dust is a series of zombie western short stories.

Red Dust: The Fall is the first trilogy of short stories in the Red Dust series. These stories are The Lost Party, Feud and The Last Rider.

The Lost Party
When a party of settlers go missing on the Wasatch Mountains of 1846 America, a lone mountain man tasks himself with finding the lost pioneers. Upon the discovery of the remnants of a diary, George Masterson finds himself pulled into the dark story that befell the ill-fated travellers.

Feud
America 1853, seven years since the disappearance of the lost party, the undead have emerged from the wilderness crossing the Great Plains to assault the civilised world. Communication has broken down and settlements now stand alone as the Rising Plague spreads across the eastern border.
In the town of Little Rock inhabitants of the New World thrive to create normality in the midst of chaos. With the arrival of a mysterious rider named Griffin, the true dangers of the town become clear. The illusion of civilisation quickly dissolves as Griffin’s appearance sparks the violent conclusion of a deep-rooted vendetta.

The Last Rider
The Rising Plague continues to spread mercilessly across America, leaving the remnants of the US government to lead a desperate defence in defiance of the undead. Yet in the face of their doom, the beginnings of a civil tension arises, as the Southern State’s succeed, leaving a dire split across the US and its people hopelessly divided.
Isaac, a young courier, volunteers himself to deliver a mysterious package for the Union military. His task will lead him deep into the heart of the unknown, through the decaying civilisation of a country that he can no longer call his home, as his eyes are opened to the horrors of the New World.


Excerpt:
“This is it, boys,” Custer shouted. “Form a line Sergeant Major.”
“Line,” shouted the Sergeant in response, and the cavalrymen spread thin, length ways into a single file. Isaac followed Griffin who fell into the very flank of the line. They urged their horses forward, scrambling to the peak of the ridge and stopped.
The downward slope on the far side had been stripped bare of all life. Only a barren ruin of dirt remained of what was once. The cannons had been dug into the earth of the slope, below which lay at the very bottom a fortified trench.
The smoke from the cannons and the rifles of the soldiers still hung in the air, but through the light cannon smoke, Isaac could see them. He had never seen anything of such horror. Coming from the treeline beyond the trench were the dead. Thousands of them cascading through the forest into the open ground, marching towards the defences with a single purpose. Isaac saw a cannon fire and the ground rumbled beneath him as the machine of war kicked back, slamming into the wall of dirt where it was entrenched. It erupted in haze of smoke, spitting burning embers and coughing fire. Isaac watched the cannon ball hit the ground hard, bounce, and then strike into the front rank of the undead horde, slicing through the mass of ungodly figures. The creatures that took the brunt of shot exploded in a mist of red.

                                                                    

      OUR INTERVIEW:

1.  So how does this writing process work for you both?  Do you toss ideas back and forth via internet, phone, or do you actually sit and write together, dialoging as you brainstorm?

A1. We start with a brainstorming session where we plan the full story and divide the chapters by which ones we will write by ourselves and by which we will write together. Then we write as much as we can separate and then meet up to write together. We always tend to write the endings together and once the full story is complete we meet up and edit together. 

2.  Why westerns...zombies?  What attracts you to the paranormal?  Will you take on other genre’s?

A2. Red Dust was just an idea we have played around with for a while before we took up writing. So when we decided to write together Red Dust was our first choice. We are both huge zombie fans! Books, television and movies! We have started with this genre but we are planning several other books that will be in different fictional genres. 

3.  I have to say I began reading and I didn’t want to stop.  Seriously, not only is the story instantly grabbing, and even if you are aware that at some point a zombie should appear, you just want to know what’s going to happen next.  I simply didn’t want to put it down, and I wouldn’t have if it weren’t for the timing.  This has everything to do with the quality of your writing.  You knew exactly where to begin the story and it simply flowed without effort forward.  Your choices were advanced and spot on.  So where did this ability come from...I’m guessing you are both fairly young, looking at your photos....did you both study writing, or is this a case of becoming the storyteller you were born to be?

A3. Thank you so much for the kind words! You guessed right, we are both 23. Neither of us studied writing. We both studied history at University and that’s where we met. We are close friends and we have a lot in common when it comes to reading and TV. We love great stories and when we found out about self-publishing, we just decided we had nothing to lose and gave it ago.  

4.  How did this all morph for you...did you just meet as friends and over lunch one day realize that you had similar ideas to write?  As an aside, I spell realize with a z and at first I thought, oh, they misspelled some words, all with s’s instead of z’s, that’s when I realized you’re British.  So that adds another intrigue, two young lads writing American Western Zombie...it’s really interesting.  How did this all start?

A4. We are British and not a lot of our readers notice this. Quite frequently reviewers message us to say words were spelt incorrectly and it is just a difference between British and American English. We love America, so writing an American Western Zombie book was always on our to-do lists. 

How this all started I guess was with our friendship. We’ve been friends for years and we always talk about story ideas. We once created an idea for a graphic novel but unfortunately neither of us can draw very well! The game changer was an article about author Hugh Howey and that was the first time we had ever heard of self-publishing on Kindle. Once we did a little research we jumped right into it. 

5.  Who does most of the work?  Ha!  Actually, the idea of linking short stories is very cool,  I can’t wait to move on in the book to see how it really works out, however, I like the idea, how did this evolve?

A5. Red Dust was always planned to be a world for a variety of short stories but as we came up with more and more ideas they just began to merge and link naturally. We can talk for two or three hours just about the series and where we finish the conversation is far from where we started it. 

6.  Are you seeking representation?  How’s it going getting this work out there?  Fans yet?  Because from what I see, you should be very successful. And I want to help anyway I can, I’ve hit all the appropriate buttons and links.

A6. We are still new to writing. We would love to have our books backed by a publisher so they could provide the resources to really push our work to the new level but for the moment we are trying to build a small fan base. I’d like to say we have fans but if we do I’m not really aware of them. We have some great reviewers from the Goodreads Zombie group, they always give us great honest feedback and as new writers that’s what we need. 

Marketing a book is far harder than writing one, that is all I will say Ha!

Thank you for the help! We need all the help we can get!

7.  I always save this question to discuss the dedication..”We would like to thank our friends and families who have supported us through this crazy dream.”   Please elaborate for us.

A7. To us this has always been a dream. To create a story and a fictional world for other people to enjoy. Our families and friends…well they’ve been the volunteers in all this. They have been proof-reading our work for us over and over and over until they cannot stand it! They are the support which holds our work together. We’d also like to give a shout out to our friend Joel who designs our book covers. He did the cover for Red Dust: The Fall and we love his work. So thanks again Joel!

Thank you for this interview! The questions were really personal and thoughtful, we loved it!



Buy Links:
Amazon
Amazon UK
Smashwords 


About the Authors:

Ben Dixon and Sam Campbell are two friends who met while studying history at University. Red Dust is their first piece of work, it features a story told through interlinking short stories.

Author Links:

Twitter

Facebook

Blog 

Giveaway:

The authors are giving away a $20 Amazon gift card! Open internationally. The giveaway will run the length of the tour. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway