Meltdown: Table of Contents

Synopsis: MELTDOWN is the story of a young woman and the ghost who haunts her. She doesn't remember her own name, but she knows that the ghost is angry. Now she must survive a deadly ungerground facility and attempt to reclaim her identity. Can she find herself quickly enough to outrun her fiery past... or prevent her bloody future?

As she makes new friends, grows dangerously close to old enemies, and grapples with the two sides of herself, Tasia edges closer to a deadly secret. One that might just free all of them from their underground prison, at the cost of humanity itself.

CW: This novel contains torture, violence, suicidal ideation, self harm, medical malpractice, stigmatization of mental illness, xenophobia, gaslighting, brief reference to sexual harassment/assault, domestic violence, death of a parent, drug use, bullying, and other mature themes. Not intended for audiences under 13 years of age.

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Why make Meltdown free?

This book means a lot to me. I processed a lot of my own struggle with memory loss, depression, suicidal ideation and attempts, through this book. At the same time, I wrote something I wanted to read. Something actiony, intense, filled with mystery and surreal, reality-bending action. But when I pitched it, it wasn't a success. Beta readers stopped before they finished the first chapter. I got the feedback that it was too weird, too confusing, too long.

I only took the advice on that last part. It WAS too long. So now it's two books.

But I love this story, even though it's weird. I still want to put it out there. If for no other reason than to force myself to stop tinkering with it and move on. So it's out there. It's free, and you can read it if you want to. I'll be releasing a paperback version and an ebook version that are paid, if anybody wants those, too.

This way, I guess it also kind of functions as a reader magnet for the rest of the series, as well. Fallout (Book Two) will be coming out later this year, with 2 more books to follow.

Where did you get your chapter images?

When I first started releasing the chapters, I had recently discovered this awesome new thing called AI art. I had a subscription to MidJourney, and I was loving the experience of turning my words into images. Most of my chapters have images I generated.

Then the controversy crossed my awareness. The potential ethical issues with the way the algorithm was changed, the outcry by the artistic community. Personally, I am in favor of AI art as a concept, and I do think there are cool, interesting, and ethical applications of it. But right now, in this climate, using AI art is enough to get you blacklisted in some Indie-author circles, even when it's only in a free context. It just didn't make sense to me to continue paying for a subscription to a service that was so widely repudiated, so I stopped.

The remainder of my chapters, stories, and poems, have free stock photo images.

Your style sounds familiar, where else have I seen your writing?

I have had work published in The Diogenes Lantern, Loud Coffee Press, and the horror anthology Fireside: Our Legends and Lore.

I have two blogs: Emily Finhill Writes (formerly Palabracadabra, Palabrakazaam). about writing, and Weenie the Holy Vessel, about parenting.