What’s your one line pitch or teaser for the book? Grab a reader’s attention with one line.
Horror and thriller readers who like their settings contemporary and realistic will find Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding, embraces modern times and horror scenarios alike.
Tell readers a little about your characters?
Sybil Crewes is a curly red-haired vampire with a mission to keep America safe from terrorism and the supernatural. Part-time ATU (Anti-Terrorism Unit) agent and full-time hotel manager of Nightbird. Sybil clips her own fangs and buys pigs’ blood from a butcher in downtown Boston. She is romantically involved with Harry Brown.
Felicity Walker is Sybil’s skilled techie (and friend) and the daughter of Mayor Walker. She makes sure all computers and main-servers work. Felicity is married to Vanessa Dogscape, an ATU data analyst.
Harry Brown is a former CIA agent and works as a freelance agent for the ATU branch in Boston to fight terrorism. He’s good with firearms and in love with Sybil Crewes.
Catherine Crewes is Sybil’s niece and works as a receptionist in Sybil’s hotel Nightbird. She’s romantically involved with Jack Hunter, head of the ATU branch in Boston.
Jack Hunter is the head of the ATU branch in Boston. He’s the one who calls for Sybil Crewes’ help to handle X-Files no other agency dares to touch. He lives in a rented apartment with Sybil’s niece, Catherine.
Vanessa Dogscape is a skilled ATU data analyst and married Felicity Walker in 2015 after she came out of the closet. She lacks social skills.
Tony Rodriguez is second in command of the ATU, and friends with Jack Hunter and Vanessa Dogscape. He lives with his girlfriend, Helen, in Boston.
Natalie Principal is a Medical Examiner, working for the coroner’s office in Boston. Natalie became friends with Sybil Crewes in 2013. She referred to Sybil’s friends (Catherine, Felicity, Vanessa, Harry, Jack, and Tony) as the Scooby Gang. When Natalie examines a murder victim and suspects it has something to do with the supernatural, she informs Sybil.
Where do you like to write? Do you have an office or writing nook?
I have a six-foot-tall, L-shaped, desk with two computers separately attached to two monitors. I use one computer solely for 3D computer animations, and I use the other computer for writing. Sometimes I write in bed, using my Surface Pro Windows tablet, or I’m lying next to my furry friend Max (he’s a roam free tan rabbit) on the floor in the living room, using my Surface Duo cell phone to write.
What is one of your best marketing tips for other authors?
Use social media to announce your book(s), and if you’re a self-published writer, use Kindle Direct Publishing and enroll your eBook with KDPSelect so readers with a Kindle Unlimited subscription can read your book for free. You get your royalties based on the number of pages people read. If your book is crap, no one will finish your book. Otherwise, you’ll see the numbers of pages grow.
What websites or tools have you found that offer the best results?
I use Goodreads to organize book giveaways. I use Facebook to inform my friends about my books. I’m always actively looking for reviewers to get them interested in reading and reviewing my book. There’s not an easy, one-way solution to promote your book. I regularly use a search engine. I use YouTube to publish my book trailers.
Any advice for aspiring writers?
Never give up on writing. If you have a story, start writing. Don’t rewrite until you finish your story. After you’re done with your story, and your rewrites, start to look for beta readers (not friends and family, because they’re afraid to say what they really think of your story) and listen to what they say about your story. Based on their feedback, it’s up to you to decide if you’re going to the next phase: sending your manuscript to an editor.
Then it’s time to think about publishing. If you self-publish, you will need a good-looking cover that makes your book shine. Otherwise, you’ll need to look for a publishing agent who will try to bring your book to the attention of publishers. This will take more time and you’ll get many rejections. But it will save you money.
In case you self-publish, don’t think it’s cheap and easy. Because then you’re the publisher, the designer, and marketeer of your own book(s). It will cost you money. Each book I’ve published costs about eight hundred dollars (and that’s only for the editor). I do my cover designs because I’m a skilled computer tech nerd with too much time on my hands.
After you’ve published your book, it’s time to spread the word about your book. Use Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads. Search for reviewers, including editorial reviewers.
Don’t be afraid of critical reviews and always respect someone’s opinion. If they say your book sucks, then it’s because they didn’t enjoy the story. It doesn’t mean they don’t like you. They just don’t like the story, while someone else might like it.
Never take criticism too personal. But that’s easy for me to say because I never take things personally.
And lastly, do you want to publish your book in a foreign language? I know, this is a bit off-topic, but if you think about publishing your book in a foreign language, you might consider using deepl.com. I use this website to translate a few of my books from American English into Dutch and German. English is my first language in writing. Dutch and German come in second and third place.Deepl translations are better than the ones offered by Google Translate and Bing Translator.
Two of my books in Dutch are published by a Dutch book publisher. The German editions are self-published. Of course, for each translated book, I hired an editor.
Bottomline. If you want to publish your book, it will cost you time and money. If you choose a book publisher, you have no control over the cover design. You have to trust your book publisher when it comes to royalties because you won’t have access to statistics on book sales.
If you self-publish, it will cost you even more money, but then you have full access to your book sales statistics. You retain all copyrights. Am I making money with my books? Yes. But it still costs more than I earn.
I love writing, and I love sharing my stories with the rest of the world. I love America (even though I live in Europe, Amsterdam). America is my favorite country to spend my vacation.
I hope my stories enrich the lives of my readers. Bringing them hope because there is always a silver lining. That’s why I decided to become a writer and I don’t mind sharing my knowledge of becoming a writer with you.
Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding Cynthia Fridsma
Genre: horror/thriller/urban fantasy
Publisher: CynhiaFridsma.COM
Date of Publication: November 24, 2021
ISBN Paperback: 979-8773139225
ISBN Hardcover: 979-8779427166
ISBN Audiobook: 978-1669614173
ASIN: B09MJXPCMY
Number of pages: 280
Word Count: 67,415
Cover Artist: Cynthia Fridsma
Tagline: Since the pandemic, she stayed home. Then they kidnapped her friend.
Book Description:
Since the pandemic, Sybil Crewes hasn’t left home. She stopped her duties as an ATU agent (Anti-Terrorism Unit). But then, she got a disturbing phone call. Her friend, Harry Brown, has been kidnapped, and this forces Sybil out of her house.
While doing so, she uncovers an illegal lab where they created a deadly COVID-19 variant that turns its victims into skinned zombies. She contacts the ATU to resume her duties as an ATU agent to stop the new threat and save the world from its undoing.
Pandemic: Chaos is Bleeding is a fast-paced modern horror/thriller novel, and partly based on true events.
Excerpt
The cold air was
refreshing as she sprinted to her Ford Mustang in the parking lot. After she
sat down in the driver’s seat, she opened Windows Maps on her cell phone to
search for the address her evil handler had texted. Since Microsoft stopped
supporting Windows Phone, she couldn’t use her voice to enter the address in
the navigation app of her cell phone.
It felt weird to go unarmed, on a mission unknown, while the navigation
calculated the best route from her current location. Whoever captured Harry
held all the cards. At the moment, she had no other choice but to follow up on
their instructions. She started the car and drove off. Luckily, there wasn’t
much traffic on her way to the mansion.
Since the pandemic, life
was slow. People had more time on their hands, working from home, distracted by
their kids and spouse. Eating more comfort food—watching TV all day, or in
Sybil’s case, spending time with her pet rabbit, Max, and trying to avoid the
news. She didn’t have a TV. Well, she did, but she used her 70-inch display as
a monitor. It was connected to a Windows 10 laptop with an external soundcard
attached to a Dolby digital surround set. Felicity installed the equipment and
showed Sybil how to use her dinosaur cell phone as a remote control for the
laptop.
The laptop offered her a
safe window to the world. She had online meetings once a week, on Sunday night
at eight, and sometimes she watched the news on CNN. Most of the time, she used
the laptop to binge-watch streaming media. Prime video, Netflix, Disney Plus,
and reruns of her favorite TV shows: Body of Proof, Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
and she loved movies starring Denzel Washington. My life during the pandemic.
She wanted to floor the
gas pedal, but then she noticed a police car and she slowed down considerably.
The police vehicle turned left at the intersection. She glanced over her
shoulder. A truck came into sight, and a few more cars appeared on the street
ahead of her. Morning rush hour was about to begin, even though she hadn’t
expected it.
Sybil reached her
destination in twenty-six minutes after she floored the gas pedal when she
reached the outskirts of Boston. She had some time to kill, but she didn’t want
to waste it by sitting in her car. So, she explored the area. The mansion
didn’t stand out by itself. It was a wooden, two-story building, Victorian
architecture style, late 1800s, set in a rural landscape outside Boston,
normally a thirty-five-minute drive if she hadn’t gone way above all posted
speed limits. Its shingles used to be white at some point.
She exhaled and contacted
Vanessa Dogscape—an ATU data analyst, and currently married to her friend and
coworker Felicity Walker. Perhaps Vanessa could help her—off the record. She
didn’t want to involve the ATU. It took a while before Vanessa answered the
phone.
“Sybil. You know what
time it is?”
“I’m aware of what time
it is. Look, I need your help. Harry’s been kidnapped by—I don’t know who.
Anyway, they want me to do some errands.”
“My God!” Vanessa replied
in a worried voice.
“I need you on this. But
please, keep it off the record. I don’t want to endanger Harry’s life.”
“Sure. How can I help?”
“Perhaps you can pinpoint
them somehow and get their location so I can kick some ass?”
“I need more intel before
I can do anything,” Vanessa said.
“They contacted me via my
cell phone and sent me a text message. Oh, and a picture of Harry’s battered
face.” She gritted her teeth at the thought.
“Send the text message
and the picture to me. And please activate the ATU app Felicity programmed
three years ago for your Windows Phone, so I can tap into each conversation and
perhaps ping their location while you talk to them. Are you sure you want me to
help you off the record? It’s better to make this an official ATU investigation.
At least, let me inform Jack.”
Sybil closed her eyes for
a moment. If the criminals found out she had informed the ATU, it’d complicate
things. Perhaps endanger Harry’s life. But then again, she sure could use all
the help she could get. Otherwise, she wouldn’t bother Vanessa with it. Taking
that into consideration, and the knowledge that Jack was a professional, Sybil
agreed to Vanessa’s suggestion.
Despite the sun in a
clear, blue sky, her body responded with a shiver that ran down her spine. She
did not know what to expect as she stood near the abandoned mansion with its
weather-beaten, cracked walls covered in pointless graffiti. But she knew she
had to go inside as she sat down on her haunches, studying the rusty sword
lying in the mud. She took a deep breath before she carefully touched its sticky
handle. Blood! Clotted blood.
Her stomach gnawed at the
sight. She smelled. It wasn’t human. She stared at the mansion as she heard a
strange sound she couldn’t identify. Immediately, her old instincts kicked
in—weird sounds coming from an abandoned mansion equals danger. She grabbed the
sword in both hands, jumped up, kicked the battered door wide open and ran
inside. It was time to act; this was no time to be cautious. Lives were at
stake.
The wooden planks creaked under her feet as she rushed into the dark
hallway. The sound of rasping breathing reached her eardrums when she entered a
dark room with just enough light to see the overturned furniture and the
bloodstained, fractured walls …
As far back as she can remember, Cynthia Fridsma has been listening to exciting stories told by her mother. She grew up reading books by Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, and Philip K. Dick, among others. It was Cynthia’s mother who inspired her to start telling—and writing—her own stories.
Ms. Fridsma’s writing career started after a handicap in 2014—she has a tremor in her right hand, numbness in the fingers, and pain in her wrist. She had to give up her other creative outlets, such as photography, computer programming, and gave up on juggling, so focused on what she could do rather than what she couldn’t do. Besides writing, she sometimes plays guitar—in Jimi Hendrix style.
Cynthia lives with her husband and pet bunny, Max, in Amsterdam.
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