Deadly Destinations & Giveaway: Christine Cody’s Mariah Lyander’s tour of the New Badlands from BLOODLANDS

**Visit Dark Faerie Tales today for her Deadly Destination tour of Kendra Leigh Castle’s Chicago’s Mabon from Lily Quinn & a chance to win DARK AWAKENING**

We’re heading out West for today’s Deadly Destinations thanks to Christine Cody's Mariah Lyander from BLOODLANDS (available on July 26, 2011 from Ace books), the first in a new “paranormal Shane meets Mad Max” series of the same name.  My review will be up later today, but I’ll tell you right now that I loved it.  Three of you will get a free chance to love it thanks to Ace books and one of you will snag an ARC of the next book, BLOOD RULES.  Leave a comment and see details below.

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Mariah Lyander’s Guide to the New Badlands
by
Christine Cody

So you found me.

Not many people can lay claim to doing that out here in the New Badlands, and far fewer can say that they tinkered with my visz monitor system to contact me underground on a hand-held, two-way visz.  You’ve got some guts, but I suppose it took a lot of those to leave the urbans in the first place, especially if you were one of the house-bound citizens who locked herself away from the crime and fear that now fill the urban streets.  I don’t know why you left your hub, but I hope you know that life out here won’t be any safer.  Not nowadays, in particular.

I suppose I should just introduce myself.  Mariah Lyander.  As you’ve probably surmised, I live below the desert’s surface, along with my dog Chaplin and a few other settlers whose quarters branch off from the main, root-strewn center.  Years ago, before my father took his life, he, my dog, and I left the old Dallas hub we lived in.  After the attack on my family…well, we couldn’t stay there, and we built this underground home out here, where we can mine water from an aquifer, grow hydroponic food, and trade with the other settlers who hide from all the terrible things that changed our world.

Down here, we try not to think about how things used to be before ice caps melted and the weather altered the planet, and how the mosquito epidemic wiped out so many people.  And as for the paranoia that happened afterward, when all those rumors circulated about a “monster gene” that made certain folks immune to the mosquitos and most other diseases?  Hell, the feds started to tell us that those monsters don’t exist—that the government-sanctioned Shredders took care of any and all threats.  They say there’re no more monster/parasites who lived off the precious water in our blood.  No more reason to fear.

But, if you ask me, humans are even worse monsters.

That’s partly because bad guys have run of the urbans, and they aren’t content to stay in their hubs anymore, either.  A whole band of them moved in to a settlement just over the hills, beyond the Joshua trees and loto-cactus plants and scrub.  We settlers have been wary of them.  They’ve started skulking round, looking in our visz monitors, just as you are right now, although they’ve never approached with an offer of good will, right off the bat, as you did with your promise to get going after I’ve told you how to get to some shelter for the night.  I don’t know how you discovered the visz lenses, because all of them are camouflaged well and good, but here you are.

I’m sorry we can’t offer shelter here, but take my advice: there’re caves nearby that you can duck into during nightfall.  You should keep your heat-suit on--it helps mask your scent.  Then, come dawn, you can make your way to wherever you’re going.  I’d leave quick, too, before the sun sets in the New Badlands.  There are…things…out here that you won’t want to meet after dark.

Just look behind you if you don’t believe me. See those creatures circling in the air in the distance?  Those gargoyle-looking mutants are called shades.  Carrion eaters.  They’ve honed in on something, so avoid them before they see you.  Maybe you should even head for the loom-tree gully off yonder.  You’ll know it because there’s a stand of trees with branches like big black webs.  I see you’ve got a zoom bike, so you can take off there right now, since the gully’s near an old silver mine that’s sure to offer good shelter.

I hope you fare well, but, again, I just can’t afford to let you in, even if your approach was peaceful.  Caution is a matter of survival out here—that’s why I didn’t climb out of my quarters and go outside to talk to you face-to-face, either.  In fact, none of my neighbors in our small settlement would do that lightly.  But you’ll survive easily if you listen to my final words of advice.  For sustenance, there’s plenty of moisture you can get from loto-cactus—stab it with your knife to get at the liquid, but watch out for the prickles.  They can grab onto you if you’re not careful.  And there’re plenty of smaller creatures you can catch, like sand rabbits and foxes.  Don’t let their mutations scare you because most of them are all hiss and spit, and they can be chased down without much effort.  You’ve got a knife to kill them—when you approached me on the visz, you laid it out in clear view, just to show that you didn’t mean any harm.  I’m glad you have a big blade.

The sun’s starting to go down, and there are things that happen outside that even I can’t face, so be careful, and always look behind you…

 

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About Christine Cody

Christine Cody is the author of the new postapocalyptic supernatural Western Bloodlands series.  The first book, Bloodlands, launches July 26, 2011, followed by Blood Rules (August 30) and In Blood We Trust (September 27).  www.bloodlands.net  Twitter: http://twitter.com/ChristineCody   Visit Christine Cody online: Website|Blog|Facebook|Twitter

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Giveaway provided by Ace and Christine Cody

3 copies of BLOODLANDS & an ARC of BLOOD RULES by Christine Cody

Available on July 26, 2011 from Ace Books

Description:

The New Badlands—a desolate area in the West forged by the terrible events that altered the entire country, where a few frightened citizens retreated underground to shelter from the brutal weather . . . and from a society gone deadly dangerous.

Then the vampire arrived—and they started calling it the Bloodlands.

Not because Gabriel, the so-called monster running from his true self, was searching for his lover’s murderer. Nor because Mariah, the woman who reluctantly took him in, was willing to do anything to survive in the changed world.

No, the Badlands officially became the Bloodlands the moment a gun-for-hire who’d decided to slay every monster left in the country came after Gabriel . . .

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