L. Marie Wood, (Author), Martinsburg, W. VA. is an award-winning author and screenwriter. She is the recipient of the Golden Stake Award for her novel The Promise Keeper and the Harold L. Brown Award for her screenplay Home Party. Her short story, The Ever After is part of the Bram Stoker Award Finalist anthology Sycorax's Daughters. She was recognized in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, Vol.15 and as one of the 100+ Black Women in Horror Fiction. Active in the horror community, Wood is an officer in Diverse Writers and Artists of Speculative Fiction. Lynne Hansen is a horror artist who specializes in book covers. She loves creating art that tells a story and that helps connect publishers, authors and readers. Her art has appeared on the cover of the legendary Weird Tales Magazine, and her clients include Cemetery Dance Publications, Thunderstorm Books and Raw Dog Screaming Press. She has illustrated works by New York Times bestselling authors including Jonathan Maberry, George Romero, and Christopher Golden. Her art has been commissioned and collected throughout the United States and overseas.
""They call it the Death House. For the women awaiting execution at Raskin Correctional, it's the last place they'll ever know. This is where Lucky meets Angie, and the two forge a friendship through the walls of their cells. But Angie is no regular inmate. She is an asiman, a vampire-like creature from African folklore, and she's lived many lives before coming to the Death House. Before she's executed, Angie begs Lucky to become an asiman herself, return to the world, and protect Angie's son from the creature that turned her the Promise Keeper. This is a lush horror story that crosses continents and spans decades, with all the sex and bloodletting of the best vampire tales. But Wood goes deeper, using vampire lore to paint a moving portrait of two women forced to make impossible choices in an unforgiving world where the evil lies in both monster and man. Vampire fans will get their fill here, as will horror readers thirsty for a fresh, unexpected take on one of the genre's oldest mythologies."" Library Journal ""For those who cannot get enough of erotic horror and want more diverse characters, The Promise Keeper is required reading. Fans of Jewelle Gomez's The Gilda Stories to L.A. Banks's Vampire Huntress series must read The Promise Keeper . It is addictive and compelling, and it will keep you turning the pages to race to the ending."" Eva Roslin, Librarian, reviewer and author of Dark Heroes