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The Summer of Zombie Blog Tour 2014 plods on through the dogs days of June. Today we put author Timothy Baker through the ringer. No, not action/thriller writer Tim Baker whom you may be familiar with but zombie/horror writer, Timothy Baker who you may also be familiar with but not through these channels, at least not until now.
Anyhoo...
On with the show folks! Meet, Timothy Baker.
Books, Beer and Blogshit: Are you a survivor or one of the undead?
Timothy Baker: Survivor. A large percent of the survivors of a zombie apocalypse will probably be zombie writers and their fans. We're just very educated on the subject.
The Blogshit: What is your latest piece of zombie fiction we should be concerning ourselves with?
Timothy Baker: Path of the Dead (Hungry Ghosts V.1) A rather standard zombie story (I mean, what z-tale doesn't have fighting, running, holing up, drama, fighting, and running?) in a radically different setting, told from a non-western POV. And you should be concerned with it, because Path of the Dead is risky and highly dangerous.
The Blogshit: Do you feel you are a classic or progressive type of zombie fiction writer?
Timothy Baker: Most definitely classic, if by that you mean the Romero zombie. He gave his undead so much humanity and potential for behavior, that I don't think that that potential has been fully tapped. Plenty of room for me to come in a play with his zombie mythos, expand on it, and give it a different twist, without trying to re-invent the zombie wheel. Path of the Dead could be seen as happening the say day as Night of the Living Dead, just on the other side of the world.
The Blogshit: What makes your zombies different from all others?
Timothy Baker: They fly and poop.
The Blogshit: What makes your living different from all the others?
Timothy Baker: Three of my survivor troupe are Buddhist monks, of which one is a nun trained as a Ldab Ldob warrior, the other a Shoalin Kung Fu trained hermit monk seeking his release from the world. Along with a young Chinese soldier and a ten-year-old boy, it makes for some interesting action and character dynamics.
The Blogshit: Do you think it's important, in this climate, to run with the pack or really try to reinvent the wheel in zombie fiction?
Timothy Baker: Whatever works for the writer, that's what they should do. Don't write it unless you like it. I simply took the normal zombie (is there such a thing?) and took a u-turn on the setting and POV. I guess I kind of did both in a small way.
The Blogshit: Zombie fiction seems heavily dependent upon working withing the construct of a series. Do you feel that is the way that makes it work best for you you or do you think there is still room for stand alone stories?
Timothy Baker: The nature of the zombie mythos lends itself to big stories needing several volumes. It is a world catastrophe and long-term after all. It isn't a night of a beast attacking your house in an isolated locale that you can beat and live to see the sunrise happily-ever-after. You can't go anywhere without the flesh-munchers popping out anywhere at any time, and survivors will have a drawn out story to tell. Saying that, I wrote Hungry Ghosts as a stand-alone book. Whether plucked as a series or not, it still had to feel like a complete story for me in which a reader can finish it and be satisfied even if they never read a sequel to it.
The Blogshit: Are you ever afraid of being pigeon-holed in this zombie fiction genre?
Timothy Baker: Being that this is my first novel, and having published only one zombie short story previously, I have yet to become concerned about that.
The Blogshit: For your next zombie story, stand alone or series, do you think you will need to go sicker or smarter to keep it going?
Timothy Baker: Sick is innate to the genre and thinking up original gory stuff is always fun, so that's pard and parcel. Whadya gonna do? I know I'm going to kick up the danger a few degrees.
The Blogshit: On last year's tour, we asked about what to put on your zombie sandwich. This year, we want to know: What special ingredients would you use to pickle the pickles on your zombie sandwich?
Timothy Baker: That is one weird question. I refuse to answer on the ground I might make myself sick.
The Summer of Zombie Blog Tour 2014 plods on through the dogs days of June. Today we put author Timothy Baker through the ringer. No, not action/thriller writer Tim Baker whom you may be familiar with but zombie/horror writer, Timothy Baker who you may also be familiar with but not through these channels, at least not until now.
Anyhoo...
On with the show folks! Meet, Timothy Baker.
Books, Beer and Blogshit: Are you a survivor or one of the undead?
Timothy Baker: Survivor. A large percent of the survivors of a zombie apocalypse will probably be zombie writers and their fans. We're just very educated on the subject.
The Blogshit: What is your latest piece of zombie fiction we should be concerning ourselves with?
Timothy Baker: Path of the Dead (Hungry Ghosts V.1) A rather standard zombie story (I mean, what z-tale doesn't have fighting, running, holing up, drama, fighting, and running?) in a radically different setting, told from a non-western POV. And you should be concerned with it, because Path of the Dead is risky and highly dangerous.
The Blogshit: Do you feel you are a classic or progressive type of zombie fiction writer?
Timothy Baker: Most definitely classic, if by that you mean the Romero zombie. He gave his undead so much humanity and potential for behavior, that I don't think that that potential has been fully tapped. Plenty of room for me to come in a play with his zombie mythos, expand on it, and give it a different twist, without trying to re-invent the zombie wheel. Path of the Dead could be seen as happening the say day as Night of the Living Dead, just on the other side of the world.
The Blogshit: What makes your zombies different from all others?
Timothy Baker: They fly and poop.
The Blogshit: What makes your living different from all the others?
Timothy Baker: Three of my survivor troupe are Buddhist monks, of which one is a nun trained as a Ldab Ldob warrior, the other a Shoalin Kung Fu trained hermit monk seeking his release from the world. Along with a young Chinese soldier and a ten-year-old boy, it makes for some interesting action and character dynamics.
The Blogshit: Do you think it's important, in this climate, to run with the pack or really try to reinvent the wheel in zombie fiction?
Timothy Baker: Whatever works for the writer, that's what they should do. Don't write it unless you like it. I simply took the normal zombie (is there such a thing?) and took a u-turn on the setting and POV. I guess I kind of did both in a small way.
The Blogshit: Zombie fiction seems heavily dependent upon working withing the construct of a series. Do you feel that is the way that makes it work best for you you or do you think there is still room for stand alone stories?
Timothy Baker: The nature of the zombie mythos lends itself to big stories needing several volumes. It is a world catastrophe and long-term after all. It isn't a night of a beast attacking your house in an isolated locale that you can beat and live to see the sunrise happily-ever-after. You can't go anywhere without the flesh-munchers popping out anywhere at any time, and survivors will have a drawn out story to tell. Saying that, I wrote Hungry Ghosts as a stand-alone book. Whether plucked as a series or not, it still had to feel like a complete story for me in which a reader can finish it and be satisfied even if they never read a sequel to it.
The Blogshit: Are you ever afraid of being pigeon-holed in this zombie fiction genre?
Timothy Baker: Being that this is my first novel, and having published only one zombie short story previously, I have yet to become concerned about that.
The Blogshit: For your next zombie story, stand alone or series, do you think you will need to go sicker or smarter to keep it going?
Timothy Baker: Sick is innate to the genre and thinking up original gory stuff is always fun, so that's pard and parcel. Whadya gonna do? I know I'm going to kick up the danger a few degrees.
The Blogshit: On last year's tour, we asked about what to put on your zombie sandwich. This year, we want to know: What special ingredients would you use to pickle the pickles on your zombie sandwich?
Timothy Baker: That is one weird question. I refuse to answer on the ground I might make myself sick.
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http://www.amazon.com/Path-Hungry-Ghosts-Timothy-Baker-ebook/dp/B00K4MZ1QM/
http://www.amazon.com/Timothy-Baker/e/B00K5A8H00/
Great interview...zombie sandwich??? Eesshh!!!
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