He wears neither cape nor cowl, but Zulu is a superhero, nevertheless.
Raised from the dead as a revenant more than a century ago, Zulu possesses superhuman speed, undetectable stealth, and a keen intellect. His only companion is Morgan the Seer, an old man cursed with longevity and the ability to see the future. Zulu has spent a lifetime training with Morgan to save the people in his visions from certain and violent death.
Malchus, Morgan’s long dead twin brother and a powerful necromancer, returns to the living to settle a score with Morgan. Believing Morgan responsible for his death and out for revenge, Malchus raises an army of undead minions to hunt Morgan down. As Malchus closes in on Morgan and his charge, they soon realize the people most in need of saving are themselves.
Targeted Age Group:: 12 and up
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I’ve always been intrigued with vampire lore in popular culture, and I don’t know why. Most sources will tell you it’s the romance, the association of blood with other bodily fluids, and the parallel of tooth penetration with…well, you get the idea.
I just like a good story. Vampires (and other supernatural creatures) live by a set of rules they can’t escape–like not going out in the daytime, or having to be invited into a residence–and there’s something comforting and familiar about that.
I’m a teacher, and I was introduced to peer mediation around the same time I started writing seriously. Peer mediation is when students are trained to mediate problems between other students. As the teacher liason for the program, I did a lot of reading around the mediation process, and that’s when the idea struck: write the story of a mediation between a vampire and a hunter. I knew all there was about the characters, their histories and how they got to the point of mediation, I just couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to end it.
My cure for writer’s block is to read around the subject, so I went to the Internet and started researching vampires. I knew the vampire would probably kill the hunter in a fit of rage. I also knew the hunter would not be satisfied unless he’d killed the vampire. Maybe I could find some other sort of happy medium for the two? It was while searching I came upon the idea of revenants.
How Did You Come up With Your Characters?
I started out wanting to write a vampire story, but couldn’t figure out how to differentiate it from what was already out there. Whenever I get stuck, I do research, which is where I stumbled upon the idea of the revenant, a term usually used to describe someone who returns after a long absence. This is tied to vampires because stories, both of vampires and revenants, abound in historic lore involving people who had died but were reported being seen after death. When villagers dug up the bodies, they were often bloated and ruddy. Because they had no knowledge of the decomposition process, people assumed it was because they had been up and feeding. Revenants were thought to return from the dead to terrorize friends and family. They were also said to have died under violent circumstances and come back to complete unfinished business. Because little else is known about revenants as supernatural creatures, I was able to mould them into pretty much whatever I wanted.
About the Author:
Teacher of English and Computer Studies by day, wife and mother by night and author whenever she can steal some time, Elise Abram is the proud author of PHASE SHIFT, THE MUMMY WORE COMBAT BOOTS and THROWAWAY CHILD, available on Amazon and KoboBooks. She pens a blog about literature, popular culture and the human condition whenever the muse moves her.
Elise’s fourth book, a young adult paranormal thriller entitled THE REVENANT is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Nobel or the Black Rose Writing page!
Links to Purchase Print Books
Link to Buy The Revenant Print Edition at Amazon
Link to Buy The Revenant Print Edition at Barnes and Noble
Link to The Revenant Print book for sale via other sites
Links to Purchase eBooks
Link To Buy The Revenant On Amazon
Link to The Revenant on Barnes and Noble
Link to The Revenant for sale on iBooks
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