Today I am thrilled to welcome back Andrea Speed to the blog.  Peek-a-Boo, the newest book in the Josh of the Damned series, has recently been released, and Andrea is making a stop here at Joyfully Jay for her blog tour.  And not only did she bring a great giveaway, but we are getting a sneak peek at Josh’s diary!

Diary of the Damned #1

In hopes of eventually publishing a book about his experiences at the Quik-Mart, Josh has decided to start keeping a work diary of his times on the night shift. Here is one random page.

11:55 – I take over for Julia, who tells me she’s already had a crappy night. It seems a drunk came in and peed on the counter about ten minutes before I showed up. That explains the cop car I saw driving out of the lot. Instead of pee, the check out smells like bleach. Fun.

12:13 – A trucker tells me some big dogs are hanging around the parking lot, and he would swear he saw them rip a bumper off a Hyundai. Damn werewolves!

12:22 – First creature checks in for the night. A lizard guy, who buys an armful of chips and leaves me $3.96 in change. I put the coins in the “take a penny” tray, and pocket the three dollars. (What Mr. Kwon doesn’t know won’t kill him.)

12:30 – 12:42 – Werewolf chasing time. I can’t tell you what an idiot I feel like chasing werewolves around the lot with a silver broomstick. The Dumpster’s padlocked, so there’s no dinner for them tonight. Why can’t they hang out at a cemetery or something?

1:07 – Yeti returns. This time, he brought me a handful of dead grass with half a mole in it. I’ve decided I need to give him – her? – a name. What do you call a yeti?

1:48 – The werewolves have bitten through the padlock on the Dumpster. Now the parking lot looks like Times Square on New Year’s Day. Goddamn werewolves.

1:52 – 2:15 – Search in vain for werewolf exterminators. Found one guy who put an ad in the back of The Stranger, but it turned out he was just into cosplay.

2:28 – A first – a drunk vampire comes in, buys a box of Fiddle Faddle with a fifty dollar bill and tells me love is a joke. I didn’t even know vampires could get drunk! I find him sitting in front of the outdoor ice machine five minutes later, weeping and shoving handfuls of sticky popcorn into his face. There’s a decapitated werewolf corpse at his feet. I don’t ask him where the head is, or how he did it. At least he made them go away.

3:02 – The vampire has passed out in front of the ice machine, and the werewolves are back. They have been peeing on him for the last couple of minutes. I’d stop them, but I’ve never seen werewolves in such an orderly line before.

3:35 – Colin shows up, for one of our now usual fooling around sessions. I point out the now sopped vampire, and Colin knows him. He says his name is Leonard, and he’s kind of a dick. Also an alcoholic. He so reeks of werewolf piss Col doesn’t want to touch him.

3:45 – 4:25 – Fooling around with Colin.

4:30 – Colin leaves.

4:35 – I throw a bucket of water on Leonard, which kind of wakes him up. I suggest he go back to the hell portal before it disappears, which it usually does around sunrise. He thanks me, and it takes him two tries before he manages to stand up. When he asks me why he’s wet, I tell him it rained. He seems to buy this. If he’s noticed how bad he smells, it doesn’t show.

5:52 – Jorge shows up to relieve me for the 6 AM shift. He asks me how the night was. I tell him same old same old, which is kind of true. More or less.


Pretty Monsters

Josh knew the night shift at the Quik-Mart would be full of freaks and geeks—and that was before the hell portal opened in the parking lot. Still, he likes to think he can roll with things. Sure, the zombies make a mess sometimes, but at least they never reach for anything more threatening than frozen burritos.

Besides, it’s not all lizard-monsters and the walking dead. There’s also the mysterious hottie with the sly red lips and a taste for sweets.

Josh has had the hots for Hot Guy since the moment he laid eyes on him, and it seems Hot Guy might be sweet on Josh too. Now if only Josh could figure out whether that’s a good thing, a bad thing, or something in between. After all, with a hell vortex just a stone’s throw away, Josh has learned to take nothing at face value—even if it’s a very, very pretty face.

This title is #1 of the Josh of the Damned series. Read an excerpt and purchase Pretty Monsters here.

Peek-A-Boo

As night-shift clerk at the go-to Quik-Mart for
monsters with the munchies, Josh Caplan believes he’s seen it all. Battling lizard men, werewolves chasing cars in the parking lot . . . nothing fazes Josh anymore.

Or so he thinks, at least, until a yeti with poor communication skills drops a dead skunk on the checkout counter. Josh can’t figure what a living, breathing shag carpet wants with him, or why it won’t leave him alone no matter how hard he ignores it. But hey, at least it seems harmless . . . if perhaps a little slow on the draw.

But Sasquatch is plenty fast when two of Josh’s human customers try to out-monster the monsters. Times are strange when creatures from the hell portal save the day, but in the protective hands of a lovesick yeti and a sexy vampire boyfriend, Josh realizes that maybe his new normal isn’t so bad after all.

Read an excerpt and purchase Peek-A-Boo here.

You can find Andrea at the following places:

Giveaway!

Andrea is offering a great giveaway for one lucky winner on her blog tour.  The Grand Prize winner will receive the Infected series ebook collection!  To enter the contest you must email Andrea with the answer to the following question:

What two things does the yeti try to give Josh?

Simple, but you’ll have to have read the story!

Send your answers to Andrea at andreaspeed2@gmail.com, along with “Joyfully Jay Contest Answer” in the subject line. Even if you have already entered at other blog stops, you can still enter through Joyfully Jay for an additional chance to win!