Valentine’s Day is typically a season of predictable tropes: red roses, candlelit dinners, and the promise of a love that “lasts forever.” But I’ve always been more interested in the literal interpretation of “undying.”
When I set out to write The Duct Taped Dead, I didn’t want to write another generic survival horror. I wanted look at humans from a different angle, and explore the truth behind what it really meant to be undead and what that life would look like.
This Valentine’s Day, we are celebrating the unusual, the monstrous, and the deeply human with a special sale on the 2-book Zombie Saga. But before you grab your copy, I want to take you down the rabbit hole of how this “Star-Crossed/Death-Crossed” romance actually works.
The Duct Taped Dead Sale
The Duct Taped Dead Sale
The Biology of Undying Devotion
In most zombie lore, the “ghoul” is a blank slate—a vessel of pure hunger with no remnants of the person they once were. But in this universe, the transition from human to “unhinged” isn’t a clean break. It’s a messy, biological disaster.
The protagonist of The Duct Taped Dead isn’t a monster; he is a man trapped behind a veil of dying neurons. While the virus might strip away the logic, the speech, and the social decorum of a functioning human, the deepest emotional imprints—the ones carved by love and trauma—are often the last to go.
Writing from the perspective of the undead was a deliberate choice to provide an unusual perspective. We’ve all seen the hero with the shotgun, blowing off the heads of zombies. We know that story. But what does it feel like to be the one on the other side of the barrel? What does it feel like to be a romantic who can no longer express love through words, only through the agonizingly difficult act of not biting the person you care about?
In The Duct Taped Dead, there is a mild romantic interest that isn’t the main story, but rather a side quest of one of the main characters. But in that quest of figuring out love, there is also the juggle to maintain a sense of self while your body is literally being held together by duct tape and sheer willpower.
This Valentine’s Day, I want to challenge my readers to look past the “perfect” romance and find the beauty in the ruins.
The Valentine’s Day Sale: A Gift for the Intellectually Curious
Because I know my readers value the deep-dive and the complex over the superficial, I’m running an exclusive Valentine’s Flash Sale.
If you haven’t yet experienced the perspective of a man who is dead but still dreaming, now is the time.
The Sale Details:
- Product: The Duct Taped Dead (Physical and eBook), as well as the second book, Bloodlines and Rust (same – book and ebook)
- Offer: Up to 45% – differs from country to country.
- Timing: Today (Monday the 9th) to the 15th of Feburary, 2026
A Final Note to My Subscribers
Whether you’ve been with Fireborn Press since the beginning or you just joined, I want to thank you. It takes a certain kind of reader to enjoy a story that is “unhinged” by design.
This Valentine’s Day, don’t settle for a story that gives you all the answers. Choose one that asks the most difficult questions.
Stay unhinged,
Celeste Yates Author of all these books!
Fireborn Press 