March 30, 2021
Alone Post Two
Week 13, Day 2 – Alone
Genre: Young Adult Post-Apocalyptic Zombie
Release Date: March 29, 2016
Cover Design: Kate L. Mary
Formats: ebook, audiobook, and paperback – grab the ebook for just $0.99 for a limited time!
Amazon US
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UK Audiobook Listeners Can Grab A Code for a FREE Audiobook HERE!
For the past two years, Jules has floated through life.
When the virus was released it changed everything about the world. Jules lost her mom and her home, forcing her to live with the father she barely knows. Now, even as society works to rebuild, Jules still feels like she doesn’t quite fit in.
Then she meets Roman.
Even before the zombies, he only had himself to depend on. Brooding and rebellious, Roman isn’t anyone Jules would have pictured herself with before the zombies came. But now she finds herself willing to give up everything to be with him.
The attraction is too strong for either one of them to ignore, but Roman and Jules soon discover that the uncertainty of their new world extends much farther than just the zombies. When disaster strikes, Roman must race against the most terrifying clock imaginable to save Jules, or once again end up alone.
What was it like to write and publish Alone?
The original title for this novel was The Room, and even though Broken World was already out, it wasn’t connected to that zombie universe. I needed it that way because of how it ended – my original virus didn’t fit with the idea I had because in this novel, people begin to change into a zombie before their heart stops beating. Three years passed and I put a lot of other books out, and when I finally got around to revising this so I could publish it, I realized that having two different types of zombie outbreak would be confusing for readers. Which is why I decided to write in that the virus had mutated. At the time, it didn’t make much of a difference because Alone takes place 2 years into the apocalypse and the Broken World series, while not yet done, was coming to an end. I hadn’t yet written the last three books, but I did know that my original group of characters would eventually end up in the walled city of New Atlanta, so when I had Roman head there in Alone, I decided it would be fun to have some crossover. (I’ll get to that later.) I had zero plans to write the Twisted series at this time, so when I did write it, I had to go back and read the part that took place in New Atlanta.
When writing this, I knew how I wanted it to end, but I also knew some readers would be really, really angry at me. My solution was to add an alternate ending, and while I prefer the original, I like the second ending as well. It’s funny, because Alone is clearly a Romeo & Juliet story – the characters are Roman and Jules – but for some reason, people were still shocked by the ending. I got some really aggressive reviews for it with one person leaving a 1 star review that said “Please, from now on, keep your husband’s nightmares to yourself” because she hated the original ending so much, and another actually going so far as to lecture me in her 1 star review by saying, “Shame on you Kate Mary… as an author you need to be true to your characters and writing. Not worry about readers getting upset.” For the record, I write what I want, which is why I added the alternate ending. Because I wanted to. And being true to myself, I’ll just say that if you don’t like it, feel free to read someone else’s book. There are a lot of other authors to choose from.
