Meet Rebecca Treadway... And Callie

Welcome to Day Nine of the Twelve Days of Creepfest!

Click on the logo to the right to visit the Creepfest home page, and please take a moment to visit a site or two. Remember, with the changing world of publishing, independent writers don't have a marketing machine behind them. They have rely on their own promotion and referrals from readers to get the job done. So, help out an indie! It's the best holiday gift of all!

As a special treat for today's readers, Rebecca has generously offered a Very Special Contest. Who doesn't want a sneak-peek at a just-completed Callie story? I know I do! Read on, and you'll learn how you can win!

Details for my giveaway of five free downloads of Monsters Unmasked - and one of Make or Break - can be found at the bottom of this post, along with the Question of the Day.

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Online networking is a remarkable resource for any professional, but perhaps for writers most of all. I can't imagine a "real world" scenario in which I'd ever have encountered Rebecca Treadway, but through social media and friends-of-friends I did, and I'm happy about that fact every day.

Besides being the author of one of my year's favorite creepy stories, Rebecca writes darkly evocative, intense, in-your-face poetry. As if that weren't enough, she's a talented artist, creating stunning book covers and trailers. She is brilliant, sets high expectations for herself, and doesn't suffer fools lightly. Believe me, the woman can snark with the best of 'em! One of the many reasons I love her.

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Let's talk about her short story, Chilly-Eye Callie.

Story Description:

When she has your eye, she has your mind. Chilly-Eye Callie is a supernatural horror story with humorous elements. As Miss Callie rides the Sacramento transit train, she comes across a young man about to get into some serious trouble. Will she be able to stop a rape and subsequent murder?

Review:

Miss Callie is a genteel woman "of a certain age." Don't try to guess what that age is. You have no idea. You'd think a well-dressed, dignified woman like Callie shouldn't spend a lot of time riding a metropolitan transit train after dark, but she's not worried. Well, maybe she's a little worried, but not for her own safety.

One night, she encounters a teen she knows from the neighborhood, Philip "Stanky" Stanko. When her eerie blue eyes, startling in the setting of the face of a woman of color, meet his, she knows he's up to no good. He's not stupid, but he's about to get stupid, unless Callie can change his course. The blonde woman who is the object of this potential trouble isn't innocent herself, but Callie knows how to handle that. It's a woman thing, you know.

And, really, is it too much to expect a little bit of good manners from people? Callie doesn't think so.

It's often hard for me to get into a short story. I'm a novelist, and if you read my publisher's press about me, a "long novelist." I'm somehow intellectually unable to think in short format, and therefore it's tough to read short format.

So here's the good news and the better news. I was pulled into Chilly-Eye Callie immediately, and savored every word. Callie's ethnic dialect, rather than being overwhelming or off-putting, is perfectly and charmingly done, truly conveying her background and personality.

As you might have guessed, Callie isn't at all what she appears to be, but this realization comes slowly and doesn't bludgeon you over the head with the obvious. (Unless Callie wanted you blugeoned. If she did, you'd better believe there'd be bludgeoning!)

When I finished this story, I wanted more. More!!! Even in this short work, I could sense Callie's back story, and the potential for future events.

That was all the good news. Now for the better news!

Rebecca Treadway has just completed the first draft of a Callie novella! (I can't tell you how excited I am about this.) As a special treat for readers of this post, she has agreed to give ONE interested commenter an exclusive sneak-preview. Leave a comment below, and we'll have Callie use her spooky mojo and select the lucky recipient.

The winner will receive a .pdf file via email before January 1. The winner agrees not to share or forward this work to any other person. This is a rare opportunity, and I hope to see lots of comments! As further incentive (as if you needed any), scroll to the bottom of this post for an EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT of the new Callie novella! I kid you not, this is so hot off the presses I'm reading it for the first time as I add it here! This teaser is a rough scene, subject to editing and revision, but it will give you a "taste" (heh heh) of Callie.

About the Author:

In her biography, Rebecca says, "I'm a writer, artist, and photographer - everything else is self-explanatory"
I freelance novel cover art, illustration and design, and work as the Art Director for Angelic Knight Press."


A Sampling of Rebecca's Art (Click to see larger images):





Where to Find Rebecca:

My Facebook art page is: http://www.facebook.com/rebeccatreadway
My website with service and rates: www.atrtink.com
My writerly blog: www.creepywalker.blogspot.com
My Twitter: @CreepyWalker

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MY LINKS:

Official Lori Whitwam Author Page (visit for buy-links to me books, and to find the answer to the Question of the Day)
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Okay folks, this is it. Answer this question correctly - and I could hardly make this any easier - and you'll have a chance to receive a free e-format gift of Make or Break, my romantic suspense novel!!!!

What are the first names of the hero and heroine in Make or Break?
(Email answers to me at ripleygold@gmail.com with Question of the Day in the subject. Do not leave your answer in the comments below.)

Details for entries for one of FIVE free downloads of Monsters Unmasked:
Comments on one of my Creepfest posts earns you one entry. You may comment daily if you wish. Correct answers to the Question of the Day earns two entries. Drawing will be held Friday, December 23, at 9:00 PM US Central Standard Time. Winners will be notified by email. If your email is not apparent through the profile associated with your comment, it is your responsibility to check the announcement of winners on this blog on Saturday, December 24. Unclaimed prizes will be forfeit and given to a new recipient.

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EXCLUSIVE BONUS EXCERPT OF REBECCA TREADWAY'S NEW CALLIE NOVELLA!

Teaser of the novella:

Calpurnia Bowens, is well known by the Sacramento City Police's third watch officers, as well as those they tend to arrest. From the punks, thugs and the occasional freed jailbird looking to go back to the “County Hotel” there's something about "Chilly Eye Callie" that earns their respect. When a man she sets on the straight and narrow is dumped on the path of her nightly walk, drained of blood, Callie must do her own investigation, for the murderer is a creature spawned from her father’s dark necromancy and her favorite Officer Diaz is in a little bit o'trouble.

Excerpt:

"Running Around The Time"

“--so the burglar asks,” I’m listenin’ to Diaz tellin’ a quick joke where he’s parked along his beat partner’s unit at the greenbelt between the Bridge and the State capital. I stopped huntin’ this Project Three so’s I can hear a joke that’s brand new to me. You live to be my age and you hear it all, you know? A new thing is precious.

“-- what kind of people name a parrot, Moses?”

Hmm..I dont know...

“And the parrot said, “The same kind of people that named a Rottweiler “Jesus.”

“Haa!” The K-9 officer slaps his door and his damn dog starts to barking.

Lord that’s funny! I like a good Christian joke.

Diaz’ makes a face at that German Shepherd sticking his big ol’ head out the window. He’s like me, we don’t like dogs ‘cause they nosey, ass kissin’ for food and always up in your coochie tryin’ to do a dominant thing, but he get along with his partner, at least now. They had some problems once Diaz got off probationary period and wasn’t a rookie anymore. Officer Burberry wasn't taking him too seriously, being so young and good-lookin'. That’s the first night we met, his first night as a "real cop". I saw him doin’ that body slam on some punk who rough up an old lady with a knife and thought he could outrun that young Navaho. Mmhmm.

I couldn’t help but stick my foot out and trip that ape. Ain’t right dissin’ on old women like that.

I hide right quick when the two of them separate. I don't want Diaz to see me as we already had our little chat at the end of the Blue Line and he was tellin’ me to be careful more than usual ‘cause two murders happen on second watch, and it’s right around the part of town I like to stroll. He offered up a ride home and I declined to his displeasure. He didn’t think I know how he tried to follow me until he got a call and had to go.

It’s three in the mornin’ now and I done passed the areas where this Project Three had its victims. I got the smell and it’s bad. Human flesh mixed up with some animal I can't discern just yet. That’s Kaas’ thing...experimenting with different sorts’a critters from the natural world and turnin’ a human into somethin’ with that critter’s abilities.

I can’t right figure out what kind of thing he invoked but it went bad and spoilt inside Project Three's mind. In the old days when that happened, they used to let it run loose and wreak some havoc on humanity for the fun of it.

In this day and age, ain’t got the luxury - not with everyone walking’ around with camera phones.

I sidle up against the wall of a service alley. This is where I take a short cut in my walk so I can sidestep Diaz’s routine. They got a camera halfway down there but it won’t mean nothin’ to a failed project.

I checked the riverbanks already and it didn’t molest none of them that bunker down o’er by the Firehouse. I can’t help but think it’s more clever than they tellin’ me, or than they realizin’. That makes it three times worse.

Hmm. Hold up.

Some gruntin’ sounds like people gettin’ it on across the street from the alley intersecting 8th. That's bold, cause its wide and clean and the officers cut through there all the time. There's some dead end corridors in that alley where vendors deliver their products to the back door...

I move fast along the wall here, that camera won't show nothing but a blur and I peeked around the corner into that dead end.

Oh dear. That's some kinky sex happening in that alleyway, the man sounds like he in some pain with that shapely little blonde thing riding on him like that - and I got a smell coming to me I recognize from a confrontation on the Blue Line last year. I think I'll tip toe on out of here and..

No there's that smell. Menthol cigarette and...and…have mercy, he bleeding out from under her ministrations...

“Oh Lord, girl!” I couldn’t help yelling that. I recognize the poor thing. She my Heather snack! "What they do to you?"

What used to be Heather turn and look at me.

Oh hell...

Shit now she’s up and runnin’.

Whoa! I move out of the way just in time. Now I know why I couldn't find her, she's fast as I am but not as methodical...

“HEY YOU WAIT UP BITCH!”

I’m gonna flag her nekkid ass down and chase her away from them camera’s.

Well goddam it a rainin’ a little but that don’t matter. I pull off a shoe, one foot at a time while I’m flyin’ after her, herdin’ her across the street and down an incline into another grubby alley synched between some old buildings. There’s about half a block of nothin’ but darkness here, and no camera.

Oh my goodness. Yep, she’s run out of places to go right here, I cornered her between the fence lining a vacant lot and the wall. The only way to go is to her left and right back out on the street.

“Honey...” I hold my hands out. “I see a little humanity in there...you remember me, girl?”

Uh oh. She showing her teeth, still wet from that blood she suckin’ out of that man.

"Child it not too late."

She has enough humanity in there to know she's in trouble.

I ain't afraid to admit when I'm wrong, and I'm real wrong.

She's chargin’ at me.

I think I got myself into a bit o’ trouble here...