The Confessions of Sylva Slasher by Ace Antonio Hall: Interview, Excerpt, and Review

By Lauriej

 
CHARACTER INTERVIEW
An Interview with Teen Necromancer, Sylva Slasher
Real Name: Sylva Fleischer
Birthplace:  Honolulu
Age: 18
What a treat to have you visit.  Thanks for this chance to find out a little more about you.   As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? 
Mostly, I just wanted to grow up to be a normal person, and be accepted by everyone. But once I realized that wasn't going to happen, I wanted to be Starbuck, played by Katee Sackhoff in the TV series Battlestar Galactica. For a long time, I wanted to be a nun. Yep, a nun. Can you believe it? I was so afraid of death, and I thought that the only way to escape it was to be friends with God. That is, until I discovered necromancy. Now that the dead speak to me, I no longer fear the afterlife.
What songs are most played on your iPod?
First, and foremost I'm a Directioner ... so ALL of One Direction's songs are on my iPod. I also listen to Gwen Stefani, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and Bob Marley, but mostly a lot of K-Pop like M-pire and Taeyang. Omigod, I love Taeyang. If he asked to marry me, he wouldn’t even have to give me a ring—well, maybe a small diamond—but still! He’s so cool, and he looks hot in every thing he wears. Just imagine, if we dated, I'd go to all the awesome parties!!!
What do you do to unwind and relax?
Sleep, mostly. I love sleep. However, when I get bummed out over some loser guy, instead of drowning myself in a tub of ice cream and watching Twilight movies over and over again, I love flying to Colorado and spending the weekend skateboarding at Arvada Skate Park. It’s forty-thousand square feet of pure adrenaline rush, and by far one of the most challenging parks I’ve been to in the world. Also, I ride my BMX bike a lot. If I’m not stuffing my face with Sava’s Bite Chews, which are a delicious blend of burnt animal blood and fine chocolate, I’m eating some kind of delicious sweets. 
If you could apologize to someone in your past, who would it be?
My adopted grandmother. I miss Gammy so much, and wish so much that I didn’t, well, kill her. When I had my breakdown over my BFF's death (or supposed death), I thought she was one of the people in the hospital sent to do me harm. I had no idea Mom hired her to be my guardian. That’s one mistake that really sucks. No pun intended. I was really confused back then, and I regret what I did to her every day. Believe it or not, she's with me everyday. Somehow her consciousness has connected with mine, and whenever I go into the 'death realm', I can speak to her. Hey, I'm a necromancer. Sue me, if I can speak to the dead. Lol.
Who should play you in a film?
I think Jamie Chung would be perfect. When Emily and I saw her Samurai Girl, we thought she’d be a cool person to play me. The publishers at Montag Press and my agent are in talks with a few studios about a doing a biopic series of my life. I hope they reach out to Jamie. Katee Sackhoff could be my mom, or even better, my nemesis, Anya! 
What would we find under your bed? 
I have a big comfy bed so ... a bunch of mags with One Direction on the cover, a truckless Sector 9 Peru 44" bamboo complete longboard, a dusty 31”Punisher cherry blossom complete skateboard, two pairs of blood-stained sea blue Converses, a tin can of graveyard mold, crushed datura, pig iron, cans of herbs, spices (to disguise the corpse’s smell when I raise them from the dead), and last but not least, a small jar of coup de poudre. Yeah, I know, kind of creepy. Hey, I raise the dead for a living. 
What is something people would be surprised to know about you?
I put olives in everything, even my ice cream, and I’ve watched every single episode of The Walking Dead, thirty-seven times each. It’s my favorite show and I think Michonne is badass. I want to see more scenes about her back story. Also, whenever I put something in the microwave, I always have to punch in an even number. I don't like uneven numbers, except number 9. That's Tony Romo's number. He's the cute QB who plays for the Dallas Cowboys. 
Is there a piece of advice that you have received that has really stuck with you? If so, what was it? 
One day, when I was having lunch at a Hawaiian Barbeque restaurant with Blade (Vampire Hunter) and Shang-Chi (Master of Kung Fu), Blade said to me, “Treat every swing of your kukri knife with respect, and you can expect life to cut you the best deals in the deck.”
I think he meant that I should strive to be excellent in everything I do, but personally, I think he has a bit of Asperger Syndrome and has difficulty just saying what’s on his mind in a social setting.
Thanks for the Interview, Laurie! I hope you check out my next adventure coming soon. It's called Sk8board Xombies, and in this story, I'll be doing a lot of fighting zombies while riding my skateboard. There will be a ton of action and horror. Also, you'll meet Hawk Lodin. He's so hot, and I will have many, many scenes with him, if you catch my drift.   
Until next time, Keep Slashing. -Sylva  BOOK INFO

Title: The Confessions of Sylva SlasherAuthor: Ace Antonio Hall Published:April 14th, 2013Publisher: Montag PressPage Count:   273 pagesGenre: YA Horror Recommended Age:12+Synopsis: A spring break trip on a cruise presents a new problem for Sylva. Passengers on the ship turn into flesh-eating zombies, unlike the harmless ones she's used to raising from the dead. She and her friends are trapped on the Pacific Ocean, and their only escape comes from a guy Sylva had a crush on she thought was dead, named Brandon. Sylva doesn't normally hold grudges, but when someone plays with her heart they have to pay. However, with the fate of the human race on the line, Brandon convinces Sylva to join him in a secret mission, yet she can't shake the feeling that he's hiding something.
It didn't take long for her suspicions to hold true when it's revealed that Brandon has been romantically involved with the very enemy he now wants her to destroy. This villainous female would rather kill Brandon than let Sylva have a chance to patch things up between them. Sylva is not the kind of girl to walk away from love without a fight, but with a strange virus threatening extinction of human life, she shoves her own feelings in her back pocket to face her greatest nightmare, and that nightmare starts with something that is eerily growing right inside of her own mind and body.
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EXCERPT
"A treat for Buffy fans--but 100% Ace Antonio Hall's own twisted vision. Breathes new life into the living dead; run, don't shamble to get a copy."  --Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Red Planet Blues---The deadheads slithered, scraped, and shuffled closer and closer. There must have been more than twenty of them ready to tear me apart like hungry wolves. The stench of old rot surrounded me like poison vapors. A chorus of low moans, high whines, and wispy breaths oozed hymnals of my persecution into my ears. Judgment day. I laid at the altar of the dead waiting to be sacrificed to whoever won ownership of my soul, fear or fearlessness. I’m not afraid. Their mangled, distorted faces came into view. How could eyes be so distant, yet so full of hunger? It seemed like they were looking past me—through me into another dimension. Or maybe they could already see which organs they wanted to devour. Their moans found a common craving for death, but their minds were lost somewhere in those useless bodies that kept creeping closer and closer to me, bending and turning in awkward movements. From the ground looking up, they lurched over me like oversized lumps of tumorous blobs, drooling with their mouths agape on their sagging grotesque faces.I lied. I am afraid. Pure terror crawled into my ears, listening to their sliding and scraping—more and more deadheads appeared, crowding around me, stretching their necks, and spilling those long vacant looks all over me. They filled my blurry vision with various shapes of disheveled hair and blended shades of disfigured bodies. The horror of my eyes being torn from my face and viscera clenched between their teeth as they gnawed on my bones and licked the fluids from the insides of my body from their lips became too much to bare. Something ticked on the ground like an animal approached, its claws pecking as it crept cautiously. Kla-tick. Kla-tick. Kla-tick. Kla-tick.It came toward me from a distance. Each step grew louder, bigger. I inhaled, realizing that for some time, I had been holding my breath, frozen with fear. Could it be? No, not now—not now. With my head too stiff to turn and my back broken, I locked my tearful blurry vision on a hazy full moon that seemed to shine a spotlight of death upon me. I spat out a tiny whisper. It’s time to die, again. REVIEW  
5 STARS

Zombies seem to be a new passion of mine lately so I was excited to get the opportunity to read and review The Confessions of Sylva Slasher by Ace Antonio Hall.I was pulled into the story quickly as Sylva discovers odd behavior and weird stuff aboard the party cruise.Rapidly escalating terror soon has Sylva fully occupied and had me intently tagging along with her as she and a small band of heroes become mired in the blood and guts battle for survival.  
Several twists left me reeling, as the book took several macabre turnsbefore ending in a highly satisfactory and unforeseen manner.I had a lot of fun reading this tale.Slyva is a spunky, smart protagonist who always had me in her corner regardless of the situations she landed in.This is not your run-of-the-mill Zombie bash but rather a cleverly structured story unlike anything I have come across. Suspend disbelief and enjoy this fast-paced romp.
This book was provided to me in exchange for my honest review.
Reviewed by Laurie-J    
About the Author:Ace Antonio-Hall was first published in 1998 in an Adelphi University publication called Luna, with a short story titled “1936.” After earning his BFA degree from Long Island University, he taught middle-school English for over ten years.
He now lives in southern California, and was the Vice President of the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society (2009-2011), and still holds an executive position in the organization which gives him a huge platform to market, sell, and promote his work through the many conferences, meetings and book fairs that GLAWS holds each month. He is also a member of LASFS and the International Thriller Writers.
His first novel, a coming-of-age YA zombie story, The Confessions of Sylva Slasher, was released April 2013 by Montag Press. It is part of a series with the next book Skateboard Xombies, expected for release early next year.
About the writing life, he says: “I harmlessly dream in Technicolor nightmares, watch a ton of horror flicks, eat more donuts than I should, and refuse to stop reading Spider-Man. All of those combined give me a sweet tooth to write about the suite life of zombies.”
Ace's true labor of love is writing fast-paced fiction with character-driven plots featuring female protagonists. He continues to write short stories and build on the world of teen necromancer Sylva Slasher as she reigns as Princess of the Undead.
You can find out more about Ace, including his music and screen acting credits, and his involvement with the Hollywood Actors Academy as part-owner, Acting Coach and Creative Director, at the IMDb Biography web site.
  
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Giveaway Details:
There are two tour wide giveaways. Prizes include the following:

Giveaway # 1
• A Kindle copy of The Confessions of Sylva Slasher
• Giveaway is: International

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Giveaway # 2
  • A Kindle Fire HD featuring 7" display and Wi-Fi
  • Giveaway is: US Only
 
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