READ IT BEFORE YOU CAN BUY IT:The Loving Dead Free Online Serial!

Zombies are seemingly everywhere these days, but with all the permutations of the zombie we've seen in recent years, no one has dared to make zombies sexy...UNTIL NOW.

The Loving Dead by debut novelist Amelia Beamer is a zombie-comedy-romance that reads like the zombie love-child of Chuck Palahniuk and Christopher Moore. It tells the story of Kate and Michael, twenty-something housemates working at the same Trader Joe's supermarket, who are thoroughly screwed when people start turning into zombies at their house party in the Oakland hills. The zombie plague is a sexually transmitted disease, turning its victims into shambling, horny, voracious killers after an incubation period where they become increasingly promiscuous. Thrust into extremes by the unfolding tragedy, Kate and Michael are forced to confront the decisions they've made, and their fears of commitment, while trying to stay alive. Kate tries to escape on a Zeppelin ride with her secret sugar daddy -- but people keep turning into zombies, forcing her to fight for her life, never mind the avalanche of trouble that develops from a few too many innocent lies. Michael convinces Kate to meet him in the one place in the Bay Area that's likely to be safe and secure from the zombie hordes: Alcatraz. But can they stay human long enough?

Named one of the "20 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2010" by science fiction blog io9, The Loving Dead will be published in July, butio9 doesn't have to wait till then to read it, and neither do you!

Starting Monday, March 8, we'll be serializing the complete text of The Loving Dead on ameliabeamer.com. We'll start off with the first four chapters, then will be releasing one chapter a week thereafter, leading up to the publication of the novel in July.

Still not convinced? Check out some advance praise for The Loving Dead:

* "Zombies are all over the place right now, but trust me, you've never read a zombie novel like this! Amelia Beamer's The Loving Dead is about zombies, all right, but it's zombies with Xanax, zeppelins, Trader Joe's, iPhone apps, sex, humor, adventure, NPR, Ikea, and Indiana Jones! It's a rollercoaster ride of a read and a true original!" --Connie Willis, Hugo Award-winning author of Doomsday Book and Blackout

* "The Loving Dead is really kind of hot, in a very creepy way. Read it. You know you'd love you some sweet zombie sumpin' sumpin'. Buy it, bitches! Ride this zombie zeppelin of love like there's no tomorrow." --Christopher Moore, New York Timesbestselling author of Lamb and A Dirty Job

* "Amelia Beamer's The Loving Dead is strange, sick, sexy and scary. It's also wickedly funny and a damn good read." --Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestseller and multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Dragon Factory andPatient Zero

* "If you like raunchy comedy with whips, brains, and zombies, this is the book for you." --Mario Acevedo, author of Werewolf Smackdown

* "Promising young writer Amelia Beamer delivers plenty of requisite zombie gore and sex, but adds well-observed characters you get involved with, plus a kink ending that makes you glad she did." --Cecelia Holland, author of The Witches' Kitchen andVaranger

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Amelia Beamer works as an editor and reviewer for Locus: The Magazine of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Field. She has won several literary awards and has published fiction and poetry in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Interfictions 2, Red Cedar Review, and other venues.

As an independent scholar, she has published papers in Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction and The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. She has a B.A. in English Literature from Michigan State University, and attended the Clarion Writers' Workshop in 2004. She lives in Oakland, CA. The Loving Dead is her first novel. Her website is www.ameliabeamer.com.

Visit www.ameliabeamer.com/category/the-loving-dead-online-serial to read each new chapter and to subscribe to the RSS feed!