You're reading Books, Beer and BLOGshit! It's the only blog that loves to put mayonnaise on everything as much as the British! I am your cockney host, Mr. Frank!
Pip! Pip! Cheerio! And all that whatnot that we British folk love to go on about. Listen here Guv'nah, we're going to sit down and have us a spot of tea whilst we read the marvelous words of one Sir Duncan P Bradshaw, Knight of the British Empire.
Okay! I'm not British and Duncan P Bradshaw has not been knighted. BUT I think he may have watched several episodes of Knight Rider in the late 80's. That's gotta count for something!
Here nor there. Just open up a can of Spotted Dick and let's see what Duncan P Bradshaw has to saw to Books, Beer and BLOGshit.
Duncan P Bradshaw on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Duncan-P.-Bradshaw/e/B00OH6EVGC
Pip! Pip! Cheerio! And all that whatnot that we British folk love to go on about. Listen here Guv'nah, we're going to sit down and have us a spot of tea whilst we read the marvelous words of one Sir Duncan P Bradshaw, Knight of the British Empire.
Okay! I'm not British and Duncan P Bradshaw has not been knighted. BUT I think he may have watched several episodes of Knight Rider in the late 80's. That's gotta count for something!
Here nor there. Just open up a can of Spotted Dick and let's see what Duncan P Bradshaw has to saw to Books, Beer and BLOGshit.
The Blogshit: It’s
rarely ever talked about, but how do you envision the outcome of the zombie
world you have created? Is there hope? Will humanity succumb to the new world
order? What is the outcome of all this horrible zombie business?
Duncan P Bradshaw: Oh yes, one of my favourite zombie books is World War Z, by
Max Brooks. I loved how you find out what happened through the interviews,
which report on the events of the zombie plague. I definitely have an end in
mind, but that is years from when the trilogy is set. I think hope is one of
the most defiant human emotions/feelings that there is, even more so when everything
is just so crushingly oppressive and bleak. To seek better days when everything
has gone to crap, and zombies are tucking into your friends guts, and there is
nothing you can do, well, that is something worth writing about.
Personally, I love the post-apocalyptic world, technology is
gone, you’re back to the dark ages. Instead of twenty four hour news reports,
you hear of things around campfires, and messages in safe zones. To me, it
kinda builds this whole new era of legends again, where tales of heroism are
exaggerated, and acts of depravity embellished. It’s really cool to read these
myths in one book, and then expose the reality in another. It’s something I’m
very much looking forward to doing with this trilogy.
The Blogshit: As a
writer of zombie fiction, do you feel you can sustain your career writing about
zombies only or do you feel you will need to write outside the sub-genre to
continue? What avenues will you branch out to if you do feel a need to expand?
Duncan P Bradshaw: Excellent question, I think a lot of people fear being
typecast by sticking to zombie fiction, particularly these days when the whole
sub-genre is flooded. For me, yes, I will write about other ideas that I have,
and try out new things. But…I will ALWAYS go back to the undead world I’ve
created and fashion new stories to tell.
I’ve made it my mission to launch at least one zombie novel
a year, amongst my other releases. Zombies are such an intrinsic part of me,
that to even contemplate not writing about them, is…well…impossible. As long as
the story that you have to tell is an engaging one, and you can offer something
different, which is tricky, then I’ll be writing about the undead until I’m one
of them. Just need to make sure I can work a laptop once I’m reanimated…
The Blogshit: What is
more important to the story: A sympathetic human survivor or a zombie with an
interesting storyline?
Duncan P Bradshaw: Ooohh, that’s a cool one. In my first book, I had a
narrative which focused on a pair of zombies, one of which was kinda key to the
story, and I’ve had so many people say how cool it was to show something from
their point of view. Depending on how you set up your world, a zombies motives
and reasoning is going to be pretty basic, they’re all about sticking their
gore covered hands into someone’s torso and pulling out their intestines like
rope.
I really enjoyed
writing from that perspective, and would again, though as above, you are very
limited by what you can convey. They’re a very limited character, and once
you’ve used the historic angle, the only real use for them is so you can have
lashings of gore.
Human survivors, well, that’s a bit different. I think the word
‘human’, means that most people will have flaws which will cause them to be a
bit of a dick at one time or another. Ultimately, people are now in the
minority, resources are scarce, and if the threat of zombies isn’t bad enough,
you’re also going to get people who will take advantage of the end of the
world, and create their own empires of blood.
Personally, I write my lead characters to (hopefully) be
likeable, but it is clear that they, like the reader, have the ability to do
stuff that isn’t particularly nice. In the end days, it’s a dog eat dog world,
and if you lack the ability to do morally dubious things at times, you are not
going to last very long.
The Blogshit: For you,
who are the most important writers in zombie fiction at this moment?
Duncan P Bradshaw: I’d have to go with Robert Kirkman. A lot of people will
argue that comics are different to novels, and they are, but seriously, look at
what he has done with that world. It’s been going for TWELVE years, you have to
be doing something right, for something to last that long.
The main reason I say Kirkman, is that he has made the
apocalypse utterly brutal, no one is safe, just when you think that things are
going to be okay, he pulls the rug out from under you, kills off a main
character and throws in another curveball. I’d say that, for me, he has added a
new layer into the undead world, and it’s something I try to emulate, in my own
way, naturally.
The Blogshit: Is there
room for sex in the zombie apocalypse?
Duncan P Bradshaw: Ha, I was chatting to a mate of mine about this the other
day, he loves his pulpy stuff, and has at least one sexual encounter in his
books. He was making suggestions about what I could add into a future book, and
I can’t say I was too convinced. If it’s between survivors, it could add to a
scene, or show some raw intensity that might need to be conveyed. I’d
personally go for something a bit more subtle, leave it to the readers
imagination. My mate started laughing, he meant survivors who go around and
have sex with zombies.
No. Not for me.
I’m not saying that as a tool, it’s one to completely dismiss,
and I wouldn’t rule it out fully, but I think that I would then be putting my
books into a bracket that I wouldn’t be comfortable with. Plus…and this is the
deciding factor, I don’t think I could write a sex scene. Some writers have
trouble with dialogue, others with action scenes, me? Two people getting jiggy
with it.
The Blogshit: How much consideration
do you give to the seasons in your zombie stories?
Duncan P Bradshaw: It’s something I definitely consider when I’m writing. Not
just down to the conditions, and therefore what they’d be wearing, the
particular hardships, but also the time of year. Things like birthdays, or
Christmas, I like to explore these themes. It harks back to when things were
simpler, and less bitey, people reminisce over the times they had, and
everyone, I don’t care who you are, EVERYONE gets sentimental over certain
things.
You can use them for good parallels, or set up certain
setpieces. Diseases tend to ramp up more in hotter weather, so in my world, you
become a zombie when you die, not by getting bitten. So a bout of cholera for
example, can work through a previously healthy camp. Whereas you had twenty fit
survivors, you now have a potential death trap, just waiting to be stumbled
upon.
The Blogshit: Our
final question always revolves around zombie themed food. This Winter of
Zombie, Books, Beer and BLOGshit wants you to consider setting up a food truck
to cater to a zombie clientele. What would you name your Zombie Food Truck?
Duncan P Bradshaw: Hey! Yes you! We know what it’s like to be a rotting carcass
in the end days, shambling around from one boarded up safezone to another.
Watching your best friend take a fire axe to the face, and the food? Jeez,
don’t even get started on the food. When you first came back to life, and you
tucked into your first skull, pulled out and devoured your first eyeball, well,
that was heaven huh?
Well, if intestines have lost their tang, and liver has
become so last season, make sure you shamble over to ‘Zombie Clyde’s Ribs and
Limbs’. We take the choicest cuts from those humans stupid enough to leave a
door unlocked, or fall asleep on sentry duty. Then, using Clyde’s special mix
of bone marrow and pureed frontal lobes, we take your long forgotten favourites
and make them into a wonderful treat all over again.
Find us all over the wasteland, you get a free side of lungs
and kidney butter with your first order.
Zombie Clyde’s Ribs and Limbs – For zombies with
brainnnnsssssss
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| Duncan P Bradshaw After Eating A Big Bowl of Mayonnaise |
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