Allison Billedeaux:
A.C. Billedeaux is a small town girl, born and raised. She lives in southwest Michigan and went to school just down the road from Western Michigan University, where she later attended college. She is, as anyone from the Midwest can imagine, therefore very familiar with road construction, unseasonable snow, and thunderstorms in the morning that break up into glorious afternoons. Still—whether it’s the apocalypse, the fantastical, or the horribly true—she has always been fascinated by the darker things in life. For more information about her, her world, or her work, follow her at:
www.acbilledeaux.wordpress.com
About Ash Wednesday:
The world has ended, but the fight to live has just begun.
The boys in Pilot’s Coliseum have been killing each other for the better part of two years. Nuclear apocalypse destroyed everything, so now it’s the only way to get by. Pilot has the resources. He has the food, the water, the protection. He has the city, eating out of the palm of his hand. He has the way.
And his boys–Pilot’s boys, Pilot’s handcrafted monsters–have the will.
But no one has more of it than Red. He’s the greatest fighter in Pilot’s Coliseum, the golden boy, the best of the worst. It doesn’t matter what you put in front of him, he can kill with it. Doesn’t matter who. Doesn’t matter why. Red is Pilot’s perfect soldier. His perfect war machine.
But it might not be enough.
Because now Pilot is asking Red for more. He’s asking for everything–everything Red cares about, everything Red feels, everything human left in him. He’s asking him to give up everything but the knife, the bloody trophy of his last kill, so that Pilot can make him something more.
Pilot wants to make him a hero.