Zombified Release Party with Author Jean Booth!

My good friend and fellow author Jean Booth is stopping by my blog today to share the news about her latest Zombie War book, Zombified. These books are awesome zombie fun! Be sure to keep up with this blog tour to win some great prizes! Check out her other books as well on her Amazon Author Page.

Zombified Release Party!!

Join us on Friday, June 21, for the release of Zombie War: Zombified, the final chapter in the Zombie War Trilogy by Jean Booth!

Zombie War: Zombified

Supporting her brother during his experimental treatments, Jessica finds herself betrayed by the one person she loves more than anything. Now she's forced to either give up, or find a way to survive with what he's done to her. Craving things she never imagined, her body has transformed into a killing machine, bent on consuming the one thing she can't live without - brains.

After months of killing, Jessica searches for a way to either end her existence or continue on without having to constantly kill others. She hears of a group of survivors and knows this is her chance. Now she'll either live or die. The choice would be Sarah's, the leader of this band of survivors.

Wounded from the fighting, infected blood mixing with hers from the slaughter, Sarah finds herself fighting for her life. Will her boyfriend, Matt, help her end it all, or will she become the monster they've been fighting against and devour all those she'd come to protect?

While watching Sarah struggle with the infection, Matt wonders, "Could I kill the one I love, to survive?"

On Friday, June 21, there'll be a crazy fun blog party going on – The Zombified Release Party!  Jean will be hosting on her blog that day and is inviting anyone who’d like to participate, to join.

Here’s all you need to do –

Stop by Jean’s blog on Friday, June 21 and leave a comment – this’ll enter you in the drawing for signed copies of any two of Jean’s books – your choice!

Post a picture on your blog of you dressed up for Halloween and tell us a little about that fun time in your life, link it to Jean's blog and you'll be entered into the drawing for signed copies of any three of Jean’s books – your choice! 

On Friday, June 21 post a review of any of the Zombie War books (Zombie War: The Beginning, Zombie War: Little Apocalypse on the Prairie, or Zombie War: Zombified) or an interview of Jean on your blog and get entered into the grand prize drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card!

Zombie War: The Beginning

As a nurse in the genetics department, Sarah witnessed firsthand the mutation of the AIDS vaccine. The affected patients attacked other people, craving the power of the human brain. The vaccine turned viral, spreading quickly. Sarah was among the few survivors of the initial attack, quickly learning how to defend against the undead horde. Would she make it in time to save those she loved? Even if she did, how would they survive in this horrific new world?

Amazon/Kindle

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Zombie War: Little Apocolypse on the Prarie

It's been six months since the vaccine went bad and introduced zombies into the world. Matt and Sarah have gathered all the survivors they could find, protecting and teaching them how to survive in this post-infected world. They've arranged for one last raid into town to try and survive through the oncoming winter. Trouble is, no one could truly prepare them for what they encounter once they arrive. 

Those remaining on the farm have been trained and organized into a cohesive unit. Would they be strong enough together when it really matters? Would any of them survive the Little Apocalypse on the Prairie?

Amazon/Kindle

Barnes and Noble/Nook

Jean Booth was born in the sweltering Vegas desert. She moved about during her childhood until returning to her roots in Northern Nevada. She's happily married with 9 cats as her children. For the entirety of her adult life, she's worked in healthcare, battling insurances and poor staffing to provide great care to those who need it. Her greatest escapes are the stories found in books and in her head that she's finally decided to share. She can be found at http://www.JeanBooth.com

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IRS Abuse of Power Part 2 - Our Struggle

After writing the blog about the trouble we are having with my father and  the IRS (read it here), I have been overwhelmed by the response. People have offered encouragement and tips, expressed outrage, and have even shared their own IRS horror stories. I am so grateful to all of you who have commented, shared my blog on Facebook and Twitter, and sent me private messages of support.

What I didn't talk about in the last blog is our attempts to resolve this issue with the IRS. When my dad moved in with us after finding out about his terminal neurological disorder, I helped him apply for disability. Not long after he started receiving benefits, the IRS put a levy on his social security benefits and started taking $300.00 a month. We didn't know about his tax problem at the time, so my brother and I sat down and talked to him about it. He said the original tax bill was somewhere around $50,000. We found out that he sent them a check for $25,000, but could not afford to pay the entire amount. Due to his medical condition, he had started to make bad business decisions and had trouble keeping track of his finances including things as simple as balancing his check book.

I told him that the tax bill needed to be taken care of, so if the IRS was taking $300.00 a month, that would help pay it off. After that first year, the IRS increased the amount they were taking to 70% of what my dad was getting, causing some financial problems for him, and also for my husband and myself since we were having to pay more of his care costs.

In the meantime, my brother called the IRS to find out what was going on with dad's case. They asked him fill out a power of attorney which was standard and then fax it to them while he was talking to them the next time. We got the necessary paperwork and filled it out putting my brother and myself on the power of attorney to be able to act on dad's behalf. This was in 2007.

My brother called the IRS back and faxed the paperwork while he was talking to them on the phone as they requested. They only gave us minimal information even with the power of attorney and said it would take several months to process it, so we needed to call back. We told them we needed all the paperwork concerning our father's case, so we could get the matter resolved. They said we would have to wait until the power of attorney was processed. We waited several months and called back. They had no record of our power of attorney, so my brother faxed it again and sent them certified copies by mail, but we got the same story every time we called. This nightmarish circle continued for over a year. No matter how many times we mailed or faxed powers of attorney, they were never recorded or approved.

We decided to get a certified tax specialist involved who is actually an Enrolled Agent -- a CPA who has to take a special test administered by the IRS. These people can act on your behalf with the IRS. She was very experienced and accepted my father's case. When she contacted the IRS to get his paperwork, she ran up against the same problem. No matter how many times she sent in a power of attorney, it kept disappearing. They never registered her power of attorney. She eventually dropped our case.

We have continued in that same circle with them saying they want us to fill out a power of attorney and expense/earnings report, but they never get approved or processed, and you can NEVER speak to the same person twice. This last year, my brother lost his mind on the IRS person he talked to, threatening a lawsuit, and they started sending the paperwork. It still took a year and numerous phone calls to get all of the paper work we needed to take to the new CPA.

On the last report we received, we were relieved to see that my brother was finally listed as having power of attorney. When they pulled this last trick and started taking 100% of my dad's funds, leaving him with no money to live on and no money for us to move him into the facility he needs for his care, my brother called to try to talk to them about this issue. The person he talked to told my brother that he didn't have power of attorney. My brother told him that he did, and that he was listed on the paperwork we received from the IRS as having power of attorney. They IRS employee said that he didn't and hung up on him.

I tried to call since dad was here. I could have him talk to them and tell them they could talk to me. When the IRS employee got dad on the phone, she started grilling him for information until he got so upset and confused he turned red and couldn't talk. I took the phone from him and tried to explain to the woman that they were taking 100% of his benefits and that he needed care. I told her I had a letter from UC Davis explaining his medical condition and his need to be placed in a care facility. She said she didn't want to see it because it wasn't important. She directed me to fill out a power of attorney, and threatened to hang up on me for being upset and raising my voice.

It has finally dawned on us that they don't want to resolve the issue as long as they can keep taking his money. The people you talk to at the IRS are not authorized to resolve anything. They are there to gather information and try to get more money. Their offer to resolve tax problems is just a bunch of smoke and mirrors to keep you running around in circles filling out forms they never process while they continue to take your money. You have to hire professionals to actually fight them, but they don't leave you any money to pay for it. We were told to contact the tax advocate who helps when the IRS is not cooperating. They told us to fill out a power of attorney.

What started out as a $50,000.00 tax bill that my father paid $25,000.00 towards has ballooned out of control. With interest and penalties assessed by the IRS, they now say he owes almost $250,000.00. When we figured out the money they have taken from his disability benefits and the $25,000.00 check he sent them, he has paid close to $100,000.00. The $250,000.00 is what they say he still owes for a grand total of about $350,000.00 for that initial balance of $25,000.

The IRS has a list of tax payers rights including this one -- it is your right not to pay more than you owe. I figure that keep that list in the garbage can along with all the powers of attorney. 

Cover Reveal - Where Will You Hide?

I am so excited! The new cover for Where Will You Hide? is here! This cover grabbed me the first time I saw it. Something about the look on his face and his blue eyes reminded me of Reinn. This book is the second one in my Díon series, and I’m hoping to have the third one out this summer!

Reinn Gunnarson had heard rumors about a blood thirsty draugr terrorizing the surrounding villages. When it took his nephew, he had no choice but to gather some men and follow the creature to its lair knowing they would never return. Mortally wounded, Reinn faced death with visions of his new life in Valhalla only to awaken later to find the gods had cursed him to the same fate as the creature he had fought so hard to destroy. As a draugr, Reinn could not return to his village. To keep the humans safe, he isolated himself inside the creature’s castle. This had worked well for over 1000 years until one rainy night when Kylee Shanon, a stubborn, foul mouthed woman knocked on his door looking for help, unaware of the danger she was in.

After escaping Raith Macrae and his team in San Francisco, Christopher Collins set up shop in a new location in Europe. A mistake by his men led to the discovery of a legendary draugr. Collins had heard the stories of how the draugrs were hunted to extinction by the Díon because it was too dangerous to allow even one to exist; but if he could control it, he could use it to kill Raith and bring Mari Lucas back to his side where she belonged.

When Reinn is forced to carry out Collins’s plan, an odd twist of fate gives Raith the chance to catch Collins while keeping Mari and his team safe. To do this; he will have to trust Reinn, a draugr. The type of creature Raith had been created to kill.

Seeing Ghosts by James Garcia, Jr.

Love having my friend James Garcia, Jr. here on my blog. I can’t wait to read his latest release Seeing Ghosts, a paranormal romance. This was supposed to be a cover reveal, but I was surprised to see that it was already out! So I already bought my copy.

Here’s Jimmy to tell you more about Seeing Ghosts.

So, you ask, how in the world could a guy who started reading and writing horror fiction end up writing a romance? Well, it is a paranormal romance, so it really isn’t that big of a leap…

Truth be told, although I grew up reading The Amityville Horror and early works by Clive Barker and Mr. King, and watching films like The Thing, Poltergeist and the original Friday the 13^th films, my tastes have evolved with age. Now in my 40’s I find myself more comfortable with horror suspense than horror gore. If it’s splatter or torture porn, I’m really not interested. As one may excuse language and nudity when it’s necessary for the plot, I feel the same about violence. There’s certain rough aspects to The Exorcist, The Silence of the Lambs or more recently Let Me In, but the stories are so good that they work on every level.

Though I grew up with horror fiction and heavy metal music, my teenage years and a real lack of dating brought me to face issues of the heart. Even though my wife and I have been together now for twenty five years, I still remember those teenage years where every sad song seemed to be about me. Perhaps one might suggest that there is still a small part of me that wonders if love can be forever, and whether I might yet find myself alone once more? Only God knows. We have a wonderful life together, yet there’s still a part of me in touch with those feelings of love and loss.

My favorite novel is not scary in the least: Beach Music by Pat Conroy. It is a work of genius. It is not paranormal, and I never wanted to read it; however, a sister in law of mine coerced me into picking it up. All these years later I have yet to put it down, reading it or at least parts of it periodically over that time. It is great drama and has a bit of everything in it. I will go to my grave a happy man if I’m considered half as good a writer as Mr. Conroy. Couple this with the fact that I’m most comfortable with a romantic comedy on my television, and you will now begin to understand how it came about that I ended up writing Seeing Ghosts.

I always hoped to write a haunted house story before my writing days were finished, but I did not want to rush it. I had seen too many films or books begin with so much promise, but fall flat in the end. This is not to say that I have written the greatest haunted house story in the history of mankind. But I do think I have come up with something that is very special – it certainly is to me.

And I hope it is for you as well. You’ll have to let me know.

As I say over at my blog, we’ll talk soon.  

Book Synopsis:

Paul Herrera finds himself bequeathed a mysterious old house near the California central coast by a deceased aunt he never knew. The woman who shows it to him is the spitting image of his wife, taken from him three years before in a senseless car accident which also took his unborn son. While he deals with the ghosts of a past he cannot let go, there are new ghosts Paul must deal with - alone for the week in the expansive two-story house that he will soon discover holds many secrets. Eventually, he will see that he is surrounded by ghosts as he struggles to hold onto the only thing that he has left in this world - his sanity.

Get Seeing Ghosts on Amazon!

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IRS Abuse of Power - A Personal Story

I have shared some information about my family here, but mostly good news or funny stories. I rarely air my problems on my blog, but I think what is going on in my life right now is something that needs to be shared because it effects everyone in the United States. I'm writing this blog because I am absolutely desperate.

Many of you may have read the abuse of power stories lately concerning the Internal Revenue Service. The personal story I am about to tell you is incredibly frightening. Here is my story...

I talked about my father's illness in my blog about my book dedication to him. He has a terminal genetic illness for which there is no treatment and no cure, and we are not likely to see one before he succumbs to this disease. It's like a combination of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. There is a mutant protein that is destroying his brain cells.

He moved in with us about nine years ago while he could still take care of himself and was mostly independent with the idea that when he needed more care, he would move. Not long after he arrived, we were able to get disability benefits for him since he had no income. He was forced to retire because he could no longer perform his job due to the progression of his disease.

When he started having symptoms, he made some bad business decisions including refusing to pay his taxes one year. We knew that was an issue when he moved in, so we started trying to help him with the IRS issue. As soon as he started receiving disability benefits, the IRS immediately put a levy on it and started taking about $300 a  month. I told dad that he would just have to cope with the loss of funds while we were trying to deal with the IRS.

What we didn't know is that the IRS did not want to deal with us. Now that they had a way to get to dad, they refused to help us unless we could write them a check for what he owed, which none of us could afford, including dad.

We called and called the IRS and time and time again got no cooperation from them to help resolve the issue. We finally just thought he would have to put up with losing the $300 they were taking. But the IRS was not done. About a year after they started withholding money, they upped the amount they were taking to 70%.

I panicked. Now dad couldn't even afford to pay his bills, and he started to become a financial burden on our family. I didn't see how it could be legal to take 70% of anyone's income, much less a disabled person with a terminal disease. I looked it up and found that the IRS does indeed have the right to do this. I was stunned, How did they expect people to live? I tried calling the IRS again to explain dad's illness and his need for care and medication, but it fell on deaf ears.

We hired a CPA, but the IRS kept running her around in circles too and wouldn't provide her with the paperwork she needed. Now we have had to hire another accountant and even consulted a lawyer, but they have both said that we may go through all of the IRS hoops, and still be right where we are.

The problem is that dad's condition has deteriorated to the point where it is no longer safe for him to live with us. He needs more care than we can provide, but we can't afford it. He can't go up our stairs, and we don't have a full bathroom downstairs, so I have to take him the gym to shower. We are hoping the new CPA will be able to help us get this matter resolved.

But all that isn't the scary part. We recently received a letter from Social Security saying that the levy had been removed and the IRS was no longer going to take 70% of his funds. We were cautiously optimistic that maybe the statute of limitations had passed and they could no longer take dad's money.

Nope. What we found out is that they put a levy on his bank account instead. You see, they are limited to 70% of his income; however, once his disability funds are directly deposited into his bank account, then that is considered an asset, and the IRS can take 100% of your assets including any money you have in the bank. Again, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself. I am absolutely stunned that a terminally ill person in this country can be left absolutely penniless and unable to afford the medical care they need.

I am absolutely heartsick. This last year has been so hard on my family having to deal with dad, and it has been hard on him too. Now even the few hundred dollars he was getting a month to live on is gone, and we can't afford to move him into the assisted living home we had set up to care for him.

We have appealed to his bank and Social Security, and both of them said they were helpless to change anything. We have pleaded with the CPA to rush dad's case through, so we can file all the necessary paperwork the lawyer will need to try to stop the IRS, but at this point, I'm not very hopeful.

Even more scary, I had dad's accounts connected to mine, so that I could monitor his activity to make sure he didn't spend too much, and I have occasionally had to transfer money into his account to cover overdrafts. As a result, I found out that the IRS could take every cent of mine as well claiming that his funds were part of mine, and it would be up to me to try to prove them wrong while I had no money to hire a lawyer. I had to rush dad to the bank to make sure all of our connections to his account was severed.

As a side note, the IRS tried to bully me into turning on my father. They sent me threatening letters, and then they sent a letter saying that I had made a mistake on my taxes, and that I owed them a large sum of money. I had made a mistake, but in my favor, and they actually owed me money. My one small victory in all of this.

I knew they had powers that extended beyond what should be legal, moral or ethical, but I had no idea what they were capable of and allowed to do to Americans under the law. I know they follow things on the internet and even posting this blog makes me uncomfortable, but people need to know. This is the United States, and I shouldn't be afraid of the government because I'm talking about the IRS. Something needs to change...

Book Sale - Shadows of the Realm by Dionne Lister

Love book sales! Here's another one. Shadows of the Realm, an epic YA fantasy by Dionne Lister, is on sale for $1.99 through the end of this week, but don’t wait! The buy links are at the end of this blog. I’m not a big fantasy reader, but I loved this book, and I’m currently reading the second one in the series, A Time of Darkness.

Book synopsis:
Bronwyn and Blayke are two strangers being drawn into the same war. Their world is facing invasion from the Third Realm. While they move unknowingly toward each other, they are watched, hunted, and sabotaged. When the Dragon God interferes, it seems their world, Talia, will succumb to the threat. Can they learn enough of the tricks of the Realms before it’s too late, or will everything they love be destroyed?

The young Realmists’ journey pushes them away from all they’ve known, to walk in the shadows towards Vellonia, city of dragons, where an even darker shadow awaits.

Get a copy of Shadows of the Realm on

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Stepping Outside of My Writing Comfort Zone

“Stepping outside of your comfort zone,” I heard that phrase a lot growing up. It what people say to challenge others to try something they wouldn’t normally do in order to learn and grow. For me, applying that to writing involves putting on paper stories my brain comes up with even if I’m not comfortable with them to learn and grow. It’s being honest with myself and putting my stories out there, letting the readers judge for themselves, no matter how uncomfortable I might be.

Now that’s not to say I’m going to publish garbage I don’t like, but stories that stretch my imagination into areas that may be dark, exploring the uglier side of humanity. Recently, I did just that. I wrote something that was completely unlike anything I’ve written before. Basement Games is a serial killer short story that had been rattling around in my head for awhile, but I didn’t want to write it. It was dark and used words I wasn’t comfortable writing. But the characters wouldn’t leave me alone, so I wrote it, intending to keep it to myself because it was dark, ugly and downright creepy.

I told a few trusted friends who offered to read it, but I was hesitant. I finally relented, and they were kind enough to encourage me to publish it, and to let the readers know that it was not my usual HEA romance story.

There is a lot of advice out there to stick to a certain genre or closely related genres, so that readers know what to expect from you. There are a few writers out there who like to mix it up, so I decided to take a chance and publish Basement Games.

Excerpt:

Hiding behind a VPN, he could mask his IP address and no one could find him. It was harder to hide on the Internet these days, but not impossible for someone who knew what he was doing. And John knew what he was doing.

The ding of the microwave pulled his thoughts back to the tiny kitchen. He pulled the steaming tortilla-filled goodness out onto a paper plate, grabbed a cold beer, and headed to his room.

He smiled as he fired up his computer and connected to the VPN. After he knew his IP address could not be traced, he signed on to his favorite dating site where all his little piggies went to market.

You can get a copy of Basement Games on

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