Here come many more excerpts! -- starting with this one

 I'm counting down to October 17th, aka Release Day for That the Dead May Rest -- and that means an excerpt a day! 

Next up: two short passages from Chapter 3, when the spirits in the afterlife move from reacting to taking action.

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A woman who looked a little like Millie’s grandmother ground her fist into the palm of her other hand. “If we only had some way to reach our families! To warn them if they don’t know, and to find out if they’re all right!”

If only there were a way, indeed. The living could find out so much more about what was happening: when it started, whether it was happening more or less — and maybe, what was causing it. They must have some ideas, maybe even ways to test those ideas. If she could only know whether her own body had attacked anyone else!

But there was no way to reach back into the world, to contact the living. She muttered as much, apologetically, and expected either glum agreement or anger at saying the obvious. But another member — younger than most, only a girl, thin and with the energy of an adolescent vibrating through her, said defiantly, “How do we know that? Isn’t that like someone saying the dead never come back, that zombies — that’s what we’re talking about, we shouldn’t be afraid to say it! — are just a superstition? Or saying there’s no life after death, when here we all are!”

Out of the mouth of babes? Millie turned to her and asked, “If it’s possible, how would we do it? What can we try?”

A man who had said nothing so far stirred in his chair, cleared his throat, and raised his hand as if it were up to someone else to let him speak. When everyone else went silent and waited for him, he cleared his throat again and finally said, “Maybe it’s like the other things that are coming true. Maybe things like Ouija boards or crystal balls or séances actually work.”

. . .

“We could ask around to find out about friends or family or acquaintances — people still living — who would be most likely to hold séances or tarot sessions or the like. And then some of us could all try together to, to reach out to that person, over and over, in the hope of getting through.”

He stopped there, and the silence quickly filled with murmurs and exclamations quiet and less quiet. The thin girl leaned forward so far she looked folded and said, tripping over her words, “Yes! We’ve got to try that! If we get through, what should we say?”

Suggestions came from all over the room. “Ask if they’ve heard about bodies rising from the grave!” “Are people being attacked by zombies?” “Are people being attacked by anything unexplained? Are they finding bodies ripped up as if by animals?” And from the man who’d suggested Ouija boards, “Has anyone encountered a revived body that didn’t attack?” There was an idea that tempted one to hope. . . .

It was like a different group, now that people had something that passed for a plan of action. It was a plan that could fail at the very first step, let alone the later ones, but for the moment, at least, it eased the overwhelming helplessness that had been choking them.

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As usual, I'm including the preorder link for Amazon. (The nice part about folks ordering from Amazon is that I can easily see it's happened.) Or if you don't want to wait, and have joined (or want to join) NetGalley, you can download the book there. NetGalley is intended to increase the number of reviews a book gets, so if you use it, please seriously consider leaving a review -- on Goodreads before Release Day, or on any of many options after.