Let's Stalk Rex Jupiter by Allison A. Spector - Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Allison Spector will be awarding a signed copy of book with original plot outline notes (loose sheets of paper) inside and additional notes at end or in margins of story (US/Canada only) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Five Things You’d Probably Never Guess about Allison A. Spector

The fun part about being a writer, and participating in blog tours, is that you get these opportunities to plumb the depths of your soul and share random flotsam and jetsam about your Inner Being. It’s really an intriguing exercise, and leads to an extraordinary amount of navel-gazing.

Well, my navel is ready to be gazed (lint and all). So per the request of my lovely and talented hosts at It's Raining Books, here are five fun-facts for current and future (readers, lovers, haters, neutral-ers, analysts, over-analysts, browsers and grazers) of my work.

These revelations have been provided haphazardly, in no particular order:

1) I’m an extrovert, but I live in my head

These things may sound contradictory but it’s true. I’m a genuine extrovert. I love parties, social gatherings, dancing, and generally keeping company with other human beings. It energizes me, and makes me feel refreshed. And yet I’m pretty much always deep in thought, running social algorithms, daydreaming. My exterior is just a means to an end—a jar for my brain to play in, pulling levers and pressing buttons to move my ungainly form point-to-point. I give a speech. I twirl. I laugh. But I take my home with me, peering out the curtains of my eyes as I interact with the big wide world.

2) I’m an energy policy geek

My greatest dream in my college years was to get into political management and spin-doctoring, (sweet naïve thing that I was.) So I found a job in DC after I graduated and served as an advocate for a decent environmental cause. I’m pretty good at building bridges and giving impassioned speeches so it worked out for me. But I soon learned that not everyone wants to build bridges. So over the years, I’ve moved further and further into program development and policy analysis and finding ways to get people to work together in the formation of meaningful, nuanced partnerships that are good for the Earth and support sound business principles. Yup, I am a total People, Profits, Planet geek. And I love every minute of it!

3) I am a lucid, sensory dreamer

For as long as I can remember, I have been able to interact with my dreamscapes. I find myself wandering the same locations over and over. I have entire imaginary campuses, and city blocks mapped out in my mind, that I explore at leisure in my subconscious. And since I usually know I’m dreaming, it allows me to “test play” story concepts and work out spiritual and emotional conundrums. It’s an awesome tool to have as a writer. Strangely, however, I struggle greatly to mentally picture and/or form tangible images in my mind during waking hours so I’m an extremely poor visual artist.

4) I try not to eat smart, cute animals

I remember vividly in middle school I had a rather young and idealistic health teacher tell the class that one day we would all realize that eating meat was wrong. The words stuck with me until this very day. Ultimately, I developed a personal philosophy that leads to me avoid meat in general, although I don’t really have any major problem with dairy as long as the animals are treated in a humane manner. However I do have a dietary code that I stick to do matter what, and it goes as follows:

(1) I won’t eat mammals. They are fuzzy, complex, and have mothers.

(2) I won’t eat anything that is capable of problem-solving and/or emotions.

Pretty much anything else is food. So fish and chicken are sometimes on the menu. But never pigs or squids. This can end up being quasi arbitrary, but it’s my compromise with The Universe (and or my middle-school health teacher).

5) I totally invented cake-pie!

It was back in the summer of 2011. I was 38 weeks pregnant, and ready to give birth like you wouldn’t believe. It was days away from my husband’s birthday. I was feeling exhausted and didn’t have anything to give him. All I could think about was f-o-o-o-d!

There was this awesome cake shop in the town were we lived. It is called Barbs Pies and Pastries in Ferndale, WA. Barb and her team are amazingly talented people. I called and told her I wanted to commission a New Kind of Dessert for my husband. Something that had never been done before. They offered some suggestions of the different types of cakes and pies they were capable of making. But my hungry, pregnant brain was not satisfied.

So I said the words that would change the course of culinary history…forever. “Can you combine cake and pie together? Like, you know, into a CAKE PIE?” Barb was intrigued. She began to talk through the structure such a creation would require in order to maximize both stability and deliciousness.

The work she made was so delicious and amazing that the gods wept tears of happiness. Or at least, I did cause it was super tasty and amazing. My husband was absolutely thrilled and felt very loved that someone cared about him enough to commission a special dessert just for him.

From there, folks started hearing about Cake Pie and requesting them for themselves.

So, let it be known, oh great Internet. Cake Pie (what is now known as pie-cake, or pie-caken)was originally commissioned by Allison Spector, as a love letter to her husband, Charles Van Zee.

And was created by the amazing and talented Barb’s Pies and Pastries.

Thanks again for the opportunity to post some fun facts about myself. This has been a ton of fun to write. For more zaniness and hijinks be sure to check out my novella, Let’s Stalk Rex Jupiter! And also, check out the other fine books available through 1888.center and Black Hill Press!

Trouble’s brewing in the Evergreen Jungle. When controversial author Rex Jupiter plans a visit to a Bellingham bookstore, news of his arrival attracts the attention of the mysterious Paladin, who plans on leading a mob of rioting housewives against him. But the Paladin has competition. Sleuth-extraordinaire Marian Krause has her own bone to pick with Jupiter as she scrambles to solve the death of a woman who has stolen her identity. Rex may think he has the situation under control, but when the wrath of the local Druids is incurred, pitchforks and torches may be the least of his concerns.

Enjoy an excerpt:

The Paladin knew just where to go. The Shipment had arrived an hour beforehand if his Intelligence was to be trusted. It could be. His Sources never failed him. He was sure the payload would be kept in the stockroom before it was added into the inventory. And he was correct.

The Paladin grabbed a box cutter from the pocket of his cape. It was hard to see in the dark and the eyeholes of his Guy Fawkes mask were too small, but these were mere trifles. Soon, dozens of the Heretic’s novels of Shameful Smarm would be loaded into his bag and artfully recycled in a socially responsible manner. No longer would readers be burned by the white-hot radioactivity of the inflammatory passages he knew lurked within those covers.

Passages housed within chapter titles like "How to Fan a Flame War," “White Privilege Rocks!," and “I Objectified Your Mama (and She Loved it).”

Whether the appropriations of the tools of troll-dom were ironic or non-ironic, it mattered little to the Paladin. The only thing that mattered was that he would soon be the agent through which a great Cultural Transformation would take place. And a glorious new age would dawn…

Or something like that.

But for now, he would start small. Yes, for now, he would have to be satisfied that the five hideous cardboard cut-outs of the arrogant, smirking Rex Jupiter would be hacked to—no, wait! Only four would be shredded. On the fifth, he would draw devil horns and a twirly moustache with, dare he imagine it, Permanent Marker.

About the Author:

Allison Spector was born and raised in the hedonistic playground of the Jersey Shore, but finds herself oddly allergic to spray tan. She is a proud graduate of Goucher College, and started her environmentally-focused career in Washington DC in 2005. She moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2008, and fell in love with its beauty and people. Allison is currently on a Midwestern Adventure and is determined to live as much life as possible—to accomplish her dreams one at a time—and to nurture her loving family, and blaze a trail of wit, whimsy, and eccentricity wherever she goes.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/inspectorallie
Website: http://www.allisonspector.com
Buy the book at Amazon.

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