Wake the Dead by Sophie Whittemore

Sophie Whittemore has a new queer dark fantasy/paranormal mystery out (Ace, demi, bi, gay, gender-fluid, lesbian, non-binary, poly, trans, queer): Wake the Dead. And there's a giveaway.

An ominous presence awakens in the small town of Gamin.

Fairies murdered by crazed monsters. Magic that makes immortals lose their minds and their heads (literally). Whispers of a vendetta against the fairy crime lords who own the infamous Kraken Club.

One ace siren detective, Lili, is dragged back into defending her turf…and hopefully, she doesn’t die this time around.

Warnings: violence, survivors, mental illness.

Universal Buy Link | Goodreads

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Giveaway

Sophie is giving away a $20 gift certificate for Nine Star Press with this tour:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47303/

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Excerpt

Prologue

The Kraken Club

The Kuntilanak’s name was Indah, at least, it was in the strip club. Her long, black hair wrapped like a shroud around her body as she circled the pole. When her hair coiled past her shoulders, it revealed the nail sticking out of the back of her neck, thick as a child’s fist, the color of rust and blood. Black rope was tied around her legs, cuffing them to the soles of the boots she wore as heels. A tall and thin man, a fairy, with willow-emerald skin and eyes the color of lotus leaves, held out a wad of dollar bills. He placed them at her feet.

“Smile,” he told her.

She did, baring her fangs.

The fairy grinned. “Ah.” He traced his thumb against those fangs, still grinning as she sank them into skin that tasted of rotting leaves and nectar. The fangs retracted when he didn’t flinch. “Like a vampire.”

Indah laughed, bending over to pocket the bills in one smooth movement. “The vampires wish they were Kuntilanak like me.”

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As soon as she pressed the bills to the glittering zipup pouch at her thigh, they disappeared. The fairy waggled his long, thin fingers. “Alakazam.” He chuckled even though this wasn’t a laughing matter. Being of fairy blood, he couldn’t care less.

“Fae magic doesn’t feed me. Money does. So, if you’re not willing to pay with real cash, then get out.”

She spat at his eye, praying he went blind. “Setan.”

She moved toward the bathroom, taking the long way around so she wouldn’t run into the handsy Ljósálfar manning the bar with his light-blond hair and translucent skin. He thought he was handsome, and he took many a mortal woman to bed, but his overconfidence turned the Kuntilanak girl off him.

Overconfidence just made you all the more of an asshole, and she knew his type. Pelle was just another elf acting as a handler in this gods-forsaken place.

She slammed into the bathroom and took the sink covered in the least amount of glitter and wadded tissue paper. She splashed under her armpits and near her groin, counting the feeble bills she’d collected in the first hour of the night.

The blue bathroom door swung lazily open behind her, screeching against tile. “Fuck off, Pelle!” She screamed it out, hoping she could scare him off.

Instead, it was the green fairy. He stood in front of her with his legs splayed wide, his eyes focused on her face.

“You again? I’m not for free.” She raised her middle finger, water trickling down the sides of her face. Smelling a sweet-smoky mix of nail polish and cigarettes in the back.

No reaction. His eyes stayed focused on her face. “Hello? Fairy dude, you doing all right?”

His neck bent backward then slammed forward again. Something splintered: wood, blood, and bone.

“They’re coming,” he said. “The ones who see all.” Then he struck.

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Author Bio

Sophie Whittemore is a Dartmouth Film/Digital Arts major with a mom from Indonesia and a dad from Minnesota. They’re known for their Gamin Immortal series (Catch Lili Too) and Legends of Rahasia series, specifically, the viral publication Priestess for the Blind God. Their writing career kicked off with the whimsical Impetus Rising collection, published at age 17.

They grew up in Chicago and live a life of thoroughly unexpected adventures and a dash of mayhem: whether that’s making video games or short films, scripting for a webcomic, or writing about all the punk-rock antiheroes we should give another chance (and subsequently blogging about them).

Author Website: https://www.sophiawhittemore.com

Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/sofia.margareth/

Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesophiewhit/

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15057772.Sophie_Whittemore

Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Sophie-Whittemore/author/B01CHOEOFS

'20 Facts About Lili of the Gamin Immortals Series
 
               Lili is an immortal who wanders into the small town of Gamin with only her peacoat from the Victorian era on her back and absolutely no memory of how she got there. The cynical, depressed immortal turns into a hardboiled detective when a nosy poltergeist drags her into an absolute mess of a murder mystery. She’s a jaded asshole who turns into a semi-softie when it comes to finding her queer found family. And we love her for it!
Without further ado, here’s a game of twenty questions… no. Twenty fun facts about Lili! 

1. She has a wrapper from the Victorian era hidden in her peacoat pocket. She tends to cling onto older possessions (being thousands of years old has still made her oddly sentimental). She’s also a bit of a procrastinator. Why throw away the wrapper fifty years ago when you can do it tomorrow?
2. Speaking of letting old things go– Lili has an absolutely rancid feud with modern day technology. She cannot stand modern day technology and will often curse out her cellphone when she can no longer fix the settings and it gets stuck in Italian… again. 
3. She still owes gambling debts to a garuda she met back in NYC (though she insists the garuda cheated)
4. She is terribly (wonderfully) in love with the effervescent, shotgun-toting Jo Kim. Her gangshi girlfriend and partner in crime.
5. She’s demisexual and queer! Meaning that her identity as a siren was definitely put to the test considering that was her entire line of work/surviving for centuries. 
6. Demisexuality means having one’s sexuality be linked with emotional intimacy– and not being sexually attracted to others without it. 
7. She loves getting Bloody Marys (served with real blood) at Grid’s Diner
8. This may be related to her obsession with puns
9. She breaks the fourth wall so often that she doesn’t have to break it anymore. She kind of just gently knocks on it now. 
10. She secretly loves receiving attention from her friends. She just pretends to be an asshole because it’s her coping mechanism 
11. Don’t make her mad, or she’ll go Super Saiyan on you.
12. No, seriously. She grows to a height larger than the tallest forest. 
13. Her nails, when fully extended into talons, can impale someone similarly to a broadsword
14. She has never met Sherlock Holmes, despite being consistently compared to him by her favorite poltergeist bestie: Byron. 
15. She would, in fact, love to meet Sherlock Holmes.
16. She would never admit fact 15 willingly. She’s too cool for that
17. She partially wears her peacoat for sentimental reasons, and partially just for the aesthetic.
18. She saw Blade Runner with hot-chocolate loving shapeshifter Detective Ikiaq and quickly wanted to adopt Deckard’s aesthetic. Then she saw the Matrix and also wanted Neo’s aesthetic. 
19. Detective Ikiaq is determined to make Lili a nerd. Lili would never admit to it… but if she ever did cosplay. She’d want to dress up as a character who wields playing cards: because it’s all “aces” for her. 
20. See fact 6 and 8 regarding fact 19. 

 
BONUS: If Lili could choose an alternative life path aside from being a monster detective–she'd be a rockstar. She’s just not the kind of siren that sings! She prefers kicking ass, taking names, raising hell, helping her friends raise the dead, and occasionally, losing at cards to a garuda : )