Winter of Zombie 2015: Thad David

You're reading Books, Beer and BLOGshit! It's the only blog on the internet that is posting the last Books, Beer and BLOGshit interview of the Winter of Zombie 2015 Blog Tour. I am you exhaused host, Mr. Frank.

This is it! This last and final interview this season. And who else do we end this whole shit and shebang with? That's right! Your pal and mine, Thad David. He is co-author of a zombie book talked about earlier this season with his partner in crime, J.L. Koszarek. Together they wrote DIVIDE THEN CONQUOR. But tonight, the last night we all spend together until the summer, I say we all Unite and Multiply!

Feel the love and read the interview!

The Blogshit: Let’s cut to the chase, what are you promoting for the Winter of Zombie?

Thad David:  We are promoting Divide Then Conquer – Book 1 of the Zombie Company Crusade Series.  The ZCC series is a collaboration between Jodi and myself that sparked from the creation of the Zombie Company Crusade video game that launched Sept 1^st.  I’m always fascinated with politics and the lengths that people go to “protect the party” as well as how much people think their one side can save the country.  I wanted to use Zombies as a catalyst to divide the United States and bring these political cleavages to light.  Jodi and I talked about this for over an hour and she asked me to send her what I had.  The next day I received an e-mail that blew me away.  She had taken what little I had down on paper and added a ton of info and turned it into an amazing story.  Since then that’s been our whole process, a constant back and forth collaboration on this really cool idea.

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?

Thad David:  Before we both answered these questions, Jodi and I agreed to not read each-others until after we wrote it.  I’m dying to hear what she put down for this one because its something we haven’t discussed yet in full detail.

As far as my answer, I see the outcome of the story to be a pretty messed up place.  We are basically taking 3 trains, putting them at full speed ahead, and blasting them into a head on collision.  We have a lot of action happening all at once coming from several different places.  I know this doesn’t fully answer your question so in short I do believe mankind will prevail here as long as they can get over their petty differences and beliefs.  The real question now is which faction of mankind will survive, good, evil… it’s a bloody political battle inside of this war.  Even if mankind wins the fight against zombies, they may still lose.

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?

Thad David:  Ill be as honest as I can here.  Divide Then Conquer is my first attempt with writing anything.  I have some outlines for several books but putting pen to paper is another story.  My strengths as a writer is the story creation and I focus on creating suspense.  J.L. Koszarek is the mastermind behind the writing in our story.  We get a ton of complements on the writing style and character development and that is all thanks to Jodi.  She is a true author and artist.  I have another Thriller storyline I would like to pursue in the future but for now I am trying to learn as much as I can from Jodi.  We are planning to make the ZCC series at least an 8 to 9 book series so we have a ways to go and I have a lot to learn. 

The Blogshit:  What is more important to the story: A sympathetic human survivor or a zombie with an interesting storyline?

Thad David:  I personally enjoy the human perspective, especially in survival situations.  In ZCC we have a TON of characters.  They range in a wide scope of human personalities.  I believe we have at least one character that a reader can relate to and enjoy following.  I started out the series as a huge fan of Jack Mason and I’ve really fallen in love with some of the other characters.  I would really hate to see some of them succumb to the virus that’s running wild across the country.  While I have others that I truly hate and would love for them to fall face first into a pit of crawlers.  A soft-landing though so they remain alive and can watch as they are eaten from the inside out.

The Blogshit: For you, who are the most important writers in zombie fiction at this moment?

Thad David:  I am very new to Zombie fiction as a fan and a writer.  For me personally I would say the most important writers are Shawn Chesser and Armand Rosamilia.  These two writers have been a huge help to me personally in so many ways.  They both care deeply for the Zombie culture and it shows in their actions and work.  I really enjoy their stories.  I’m jumping into some other stories as well and I can’t leave out Mark Tufo.  I am very excited for this blog tour.  I have met so many wonderful authors so far and I am really excited to read their stories.  To many books is a good problem to have right now.

The Blogshit: Is there room for sex in the zombie apocalypse?

Thad David:  I hope so.  I wouldn’t want to live in a world without meaningful relationships.  Love and sex are at the forefront of most of these stronger connections that we as humans thrive on.  Besides how will mankind truly survive if we aren’t reproducing?  If everyone around you is falling it doesn’t mean we have to stop having a little fun.  Obviously it may be tough to find the right time, place, or mate but I don’t see how we as humans would go without sex for too long.

The Blogshit:  How much consideration do you give to the seasons in your zombie stories?

Seasons have not played a large role in DIVIDE yet, but they will in Book Two. Surviving the zombie apocalypse in warm weather is difficult, but winter is coming and with it will come challenges specific to freezing temperatures and precipitation. The cold and snow will affect the zombies, too. In the apocalyptic world, the weather has a direct influence on our chances of survival.

The change of seasons is also a great literary tool to convey the passage of time. The ZCC series will span months, and possibly even years. It is my feeling that the change of seasons will come into play in this way going forward.

Thad and I are gearing up for our first Winter of Zombies in the ZCC series. As I sit here today, I wonder which character(s) aren’t ready. I wonder who will be alive in the springtime. 

Thad David:  A lot actually, as Book 1 ends winter is just around the corner in the story.  We are preparing and have discussed the different possibilities and ways that zombies will be affected by the colder climates.  It’s going to be interesting to see how everyone attempts to survive the cold in some of our mountain regions of the story.

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?

Thad David:  Small Bites – A Little Something To Gnaw On

Thad David on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Thad-David/e/B00QFMMV2C/

Thad David on Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10068886.Thad_David

Winter of Zombie 2015: Ted Nulty

You're reading Books, Beer and BLOGshit! Its the only blog on the internet that cuts to the chase. I am your host, Mr. Frank!

This afternoon on Books, Beer and BLOGshit, author Ted Nulty. He is awesome. The chase has been cut to. Read the interview now!

The Blogshit: Let’s cut to the chase, what are you promoting for the Winter of Zombie?

Ted Nulty:  My series ‘Gone Feral’ which features zombies that are made by ingesting a chemical. The ‘Ferals’ are psychotically violent and turn cannibal. My book ‘The Other side of me’ is the third installment of the series.
Zombies, I’ve loved them since I saw ‘Night of the Living dead’. The overwhelming sense of dread at facing a swarm of the living dead is a rush. But they really became cool when they got fast, Dawn of the dead, 28 days later fast. Now single zombies were a threat where before it took a whole town to be scary.
I wrote ‘Gone Feral’ as a homage to all the zombie writers before me, but I wanted it to be real, I wanted it to make sense where sometimes some of the other tales left a little too much gap in the realm of plausibility. Watching CNN in a bar one night with some Marines, we saw a naked man going cannibal on another man on a freeway overpass in Florida. The story about bath salts was my inspiration for the series. You see every single aspect of the chemical poisoning of the population was ‘Gamed out’ at the Marine Corps EOC (Emergency Operations Center) at Camp Pendleton. I learned how many airplanes it would take to disperse a water soluble drug to 60% of the population. Throw in a little artistic license, and I was ready to go.
I did want to stay as close to the zombie “rules” as I could. So I made the chemical transferable through a bite. I also made the affected, immune to pain and hard to kill. Add in some rage and you are looking at as close to a zombie as I can realistically get.
The positive response from readers was quite a shock, and I immediately began work on book II at the behest of my small but growing fan base. I wrote ‘Barry’s Walk’ in response to that feedback and it turned out to be wildly popular with folks. Barry was a minor character in the first book that people said they wanted to know more about. I wrote it as a stand-alone novel and therefore had to include some of the story from the first book for continuities sake. I burned that sucker out in 30 days and had a blast doing it. I left a little cliff hanger there at the end just because I had another novel in mind. But I had another flight of fancy first and decided to scratch that itch.
‘The Other Side of Me’ is my homage to Jekyll and Hyde. I wanted to write about a really good person who through no fault of his own becomes a very evil monster, then I want that tortured character to face the challenge of reconciling his acts with the knowledge that it wasn’t his fault. Kind of a PTSD on steroids type of thing. Again the plot twist bug bit me, and I had to throw a few curve balls in there. The story is set in the ‘Gone Feral’ universe, and the drugs the terrorists use are the vehicle used to catapult this whole new cast of characters through a wild journey.
Did I mention I’m a Marine? Well I am, and we like challenges. So not only did I make my zombies hard to kill, and fast. I made sure that all mammals were affected by the drug, making Cats, Rats, Dogs, and Pigs (Especially pigs) susceptible to the effects of the toxin. This made the world exponentially more difficult to survive in. It also gave me more ways to herd, corral, push, or otherwise guide my characters into more trouble.
I can’t get through a day without some form of humor, so I have taken the task very seriously to introduce some form of off color shenanigans into my books. It’s what us Jarheads do to cope with stress, and I know it would happen in the real world. I have to confess that the kid humor is always taken from my devil spawn children. You’ll have to take it with a grain of salt (pun intended).

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?

Ted Nulty:  Book IV will cover humanity’s attempt at rebuilding, but I like a challenge, therefore I think that even after the ferals are ‘cured’ I think that there will be a lot of former monsters having psychotic breaks and becoming serial killers.
In the first book, I have 1/3 of the population eat the second 1/3 with the rest of the population surviving. If you think about it, that means 2 out of every three homes empty. Think of all the stuff lying around! People will develop a user mind set instead of being productive (They just lived through the apocalypse remember) so they will be massive consumers. It would take years to get people to go back to being producers of anything but food. I mean there would be five new cars at the dealership for every person left alive! People would become wasteful. There would be a lot of unused but serviceable stuff lying around.

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?

Ted Nulty:  I am a science fiction writer at heart, I just haven’t written a book yet! I do very well with my crime fiction, but I need to write a metric shit-ton more books before I can live comfortably.
I am inspired by Keith Laumer and want to write a Bolo themed book. Especially when they first became self aware.
The same goes for Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle…I want to write a WAR World book. The Saurons are so cool to beat up on!

The Blogshit: What is more important to the story: A sympathetic human survivor or a zombie with an interesting storyline?

Ted Nulty:  In ‘The Other side of Me’, the main character is a Pastor who becomes a raging pscho-cannibal, but after he recovers he tries to redeem himself (Kind of a Jekyll/Hyde kind of thing), but my nasty nature intervened and I threw some plot twists in there. It helped develop the story line. My fans have said they like how I have an abundance of characters and they like how they all get developed. They say they get to know them, all the better when I have them eaten, shot, or otherwise torn apart!

The Blogshit: For you, who are the most important writers in zombie fiction at this moment?

Ted Nulty:  The Indie crowd is it! Eric Shelman, Mark Tufo, WJ Lundy, Shawn Chesser, John O’Brien, Gareth Wood, Z.A. Recht, James Cook and the list goes on! I am humbled when I actually see my name mentioned with these great writers. Three years ago I was reading all of their works and wishing I was that talented.

The Blogshit: Is there room for sex in the zombie apocalypse?

Ted Nulty:  There is always room for a good sex scene in a book. I however am a Marine and am woefully unqualified to write such things. I’m more of a bash the girl over the head with my club kind of guy who then drags her back to my cave. Probably why my picture is up at the post office. One of my shortcomings.

The Blogshit:  How much consideration do you give to the seasons in your zombie stories?

Ted Nulty:  A little bit. My stories start off in the summer, so the bodies can get ripe and pop from internal gasses. I just wish books had ‘smell-o-vision’ so they smelled like what you are reading. My kids wouldn’t let me back in the house with the number of zombie books I read!

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?

Ted Nulty:  You ask this after I get done describing how things should smell! ZOMPIZZA! I love Italian food especially pizza. Gotta have a ‘Brain Pie’! with a nice Corona to wash it down! DEEEE-EEEE-Lish!

THE Ted Nulty

Ted Nulty's Home Page: http://tednultyauthor.com/
Ted Nulty on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Ted-Nulty/e/B00MMWZNCY

Winter of Zombie 2015: James Dean

You're reading Books, Beer and BLOGshit! Its the only blog on the internet that looks cool as hell in a leather jacket with a cigarette dangling from its mouth! I am you sex symbol host, Mr. Frank!

Author James Dean is on The BLOGshit today. No, not the James Dean of breakfast meats fame. Nope, not that James Dean either, he's been dead a long time. We are talking about the James Dean that is sick and tired of hearing all these James Dean jokes. When you hear James Dean this is the only James Dean you should be thinking about. Have we said James Dean enough to get him far up in the SEO?

James Dean!

No! Not HIm!

The Blogshit: Let’s cut to the chase, what are you promoting for the Winter of Zombie?

James Dean:  I’d like to promote the fight for equal rights of all undead kind!  It’s time for Zombies to stand up…or crawl, or drag themselves along the ground…maybe just sit and rot in the corner…

You know what, screw it.  Let’s talk about my book, This Dying World: The End Begins.  It’s the story of Dan Foster, who wakes up in the middle of the night to find all these annoying zombie things making a complete mess of his neighborhood and really driving down the property value of his house.

Dan escapes with his wife Abby and daughter Katie and travels across the Midwestern United States during the middle of winter, trying to reach the safety of his brother’s home…which is conveniently placed about 3 miles west of the middle of nowhere.

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?

James Dean:   Well, the problem with a zombie apocalypse is that last little word…apocalypse.  Now I know there are a few different ideas on how absolute that word is, but generally it means a shitty time will be had by all.  The villagers will not rejoice, the local store will run out of good humor bars, and The Walking Dead will probably be cancelled.

With that being said, is there hope?  Sure, there’s always hope.  But I have a saying I use a lot.  Fill one hand with hope, and the other with crap…see which one fills up faster.  The world that the Fosters live in is dying, and humanity is going to take a huge hit.  Most have already succumbed, and the numbers of the dead grow every day. 

As far as the outcome…I’ll let you know.  It all depends on when the voices in my head stop arguing with each other long enough to clue me in on what will be happening.  The fun part about writing this story is I have no idea what will happen next.  In many ways, my characters tell me how their lives are going and what their next moves are.  If I try to force it, they don’t like it and they mess up the story for me.  I mean really, I created the jerks and they STILL don’t listen to me!

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?

James Dean:  I think it’s usually more of a want than a need to write outside the genre.  There are always people who want to read zombie fiction, so I would be willing to bet that an author can sustain themselves on zombies alone if they want to.  But for me personally, I love horror as a whole.  I can easily see myself branching off into other areas of horror fiction.  Plus my geek side still loves sci-fi and sword and sorcery genres too, and I may eventually write in those genres as well.  I guess it all depends on how I feel when I start typing.

NO! This is the James Dean of Pete The Cat fame.

The Blogshit: What is more important to the story: A sympathetic human survivor or a zombie with an interesting storyline?

James Dean:   What about a sympathetic zombie survivor with a pet human as his storyline? 

Honestly, I think you need a little of both.  The sympathetic human gives the reader someone to relate with.  The more real the character the more your audience can slip in to the role of that person.  (sounds dirty doesn’t it?)  A real person is a flawed and imperfect creature, and a character should reflect that.

But no matter how realistic your character is, if they don’t have an interesting zombie storyline to live with, the story can get stale really fast.  But if your zombie grows with your character, giving your human survivors new challenges to overcome, you end up with a story that stays fresh and interesting.

The Blogshit: For you, who are the most important writers in zombie fiction at this moment?

James Dean:  I’ll be sappy here and say pretty much the indie community as a whole.  If it wasn’t for all these indie authors paving the way for new authors like myself, I would probably have never given writing a serious shot.

Individually (and this should come as no surprise to anyone that knows me) Eric A. Shelman would rank on top.  Besides being a big fan of his writing, he’s helped me in so many ways to get my first book out there.  Through him I met the person who eventually edited my book, Ramona Martine.  He pointed me to Giles Batchelor, who is a top beta reader as far as I’m concerned.  He set me up with Jeff Kosh to do my cover art.  And indirectly because of Eric I got to meet a great supporter and soon to be author Lana Sibley.  (YOU BETTER BE WRITING LANA!  DON’T MAKE ME COME OUT THERE!)

Hey Eric, you can mail me my check now!

Now of course there are the ones I enjoy reading.  Mark Tufo, of course…Bobby Adair, John O’Brian, Shawn Chesser, Chris Philbrook, Ted Nulty…honestly I could keep going.  It will sound cheesy, but if an author can make all the voices in my head shut up long enough to carry me off into their story, I think that is a pretty important author.

No! That's country music's Jimmy Dean.

The Blogshit: Is there room for sex in the zombie apocalypse?

James Dean:  Umm, really?  Is there room for sex in the ZA?  If all you do is run, hide, eat, and sleep…what’s the point?  Now, should people get pregnant in the ZA?  I would say probably not.  But if you have a chance to get laid in the apoc and you turn it down, I’d shoot you out of principle.

The Blogshit:  How much consideration do you give to the seasons in your zombie stories?

James Dean:  Seasons are very important in my story.  The whole book takes place over the course of a couple weeks in the middle of a Midwestern winter.  The cold doesn’t really bother the zombies in my world, but it does pose a significant challenge to the survivors.  The roads become impassable, there’s frostbite to worry about, and there’s always that little issue of freezing to death.  Even simply walking can lead to serious injury from slipping on ice.

Of course, spring and summer come with their own challenges.  There are storms, floods, droughts, and all the other issues that come with changing of the seasons to challenge any survivor.  Throw the fact that rotting corpses are now getting warmed up into the mix and the world is going to start smelling worse than an outhouse on an asparagus farm.

Really?

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?

James Dean:  Dead Fred’s Meaty Masterpieces

Carol’s Cookies

The Shambling Gore-met

YES! THIS JAMES DEAN!

James Dean on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/James-Dean/e/B00WW7Y6GI/

James Dean on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jdean1975/

Winter of Zombie 2015: GG Silverman

You're reading Books, Beer and BLOGshit! Its the only blog on the internet that thinks YA stands you YouTube Anonymous, a new support group for YouTube addicts. I am your subscribing to everyting host, Mr. Frank!

While I peel myself away from YouTube for a brief moment, I'd like to introduce you to YA zombie author G.G. Silverman. I believe she is the first pure YA zombie novelist we've had on this or any Winter of Zombie tour. We are struggling to keep it PG here on the BLOGshitshoot. This doesn't bode well. I fear we are just going to be censored from here on out. Fuck it. Opps. Read G.G. Silverman's interview on the BLOGshit before we get in deep shit!

This is G.G. Silverman

The Blogshit: Let’s cut to the chase, what are you promoting for the Winter of Zombie?

G.G. Silverman:  I’m promoting my first novel, VEGAN TEENAGE ZOMBIE HUNTRESS. It’s a comedic YA horror novel, and my one-sentence description is that it’s a mash-up of some of my fave things from pop-culture: Daria, Mean Girls, and Shaun of the Dead. The main character is a feminist and vegan, and her non-violent principles come into conflict with having to kill zombies, and that conflict provides so many opportunities for comedy. But I’ve been told that as funny as the book is, it also delivers on the horror, but not so much gore that non-horror fans can’t get into it. The humor softens the blow.

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?

G.G. Silverman:  In my book, life starts returning to normalish after a year, but I gloss over it. Most of the action occurs during the z-poc.

In the real world, it’s such a big question to ponder. I think that so many things are possible. On the one hand, a dreadful cannibalism scenario like something out of Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD could happen for sure, if food became scarce. But then you’ll see some people creating great acts of kindness, and you’ll see others using the ingenuity to come up with great tools. But overall, I think there’d be a lot of destruction, and that part makes me nervous. Imagine if tomorrow your sewer line stopped working, and you couldn’t flush. That right there is the beginning of a horror show. Some of my neighbors can barely handle sorting their garbage into the right bins, if it even makes into the bins. I can’t even imagine what would go down even if everyone started crapping in the woods. SO. GROSS. <gags>

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?

G.G. Silverman:  not ever exclusively written about zombies. I’ve got a dark spy-ish thriller in the works, and I’ve had a science-fiction story published as well as a ghost story, and I’ve got some literary stuff coming down the pike. I like working in as many forms as I can. Keeps my writing fresh. That said, I will continue to honor my zombie fans with MORE BOOKS about their fave characters, Cokie, Clarissa, and Lila, and new ones too. That’s right. There’s several more coming down the road. Stay tuned!

This is G.G. Allin

The Blogshit: What is more important to the story: A sympathetic human survivor or a zombie with an interesting storyline?

G.G. Silverman:  Either can be interesting if done well. Take a look at WARM BODIES by Isaac Marion. It’s told from a zombie’s perspective, but is soooooo beautiful. It’s the first time I ever had a crush on a zombie. I’d totally make out with R from Warm Bodies. Is that weird? Making out with a zombie?  I mean, R is total sweetheart and I just can’t help myself.

The Blogshit: For you, who are the most important writers in zombie fiction at this moment?

G.G. Silverman:  I mentioned Isaac Marion above, because he’s doing unexpected things, not following the norm. Then there’s obviously Robert Kirkman, who’s WALKING DEAD took the world by storm. I also have to thank Max Brooks for WORLD WAR Z and THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE. About ten years ago, he truly did the hard work of paving the way for the rest of us zombie genre folks, and without him, none of us would be here, I think. He got everyone hungry for more, pun intended. And he’s still writing great zombie stuff. I have massive respect for him.

The Blogshit: Is there room for sex in the zombie apocalypse?

G.G. Silverman:  Um, there will have to be if the human race wants to survive! I mean, last time I checked, sex was how babies were made. Unless you know another easy way that someone can do at home without test tubes or turkey basters.

The Blogshit:  How much consideration do you give to the seasons in your zombie stories?

G.G. Silverman:  So far, my zombie books occur all the space of one night, so I consider the season so far as what the weather will be on that one night. So, if it’s raining because it’s spring in the Seattle area (my setting), there might be mud. And mud makes for fun pratfalls.

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?

G.G. Silverman:  <spits out coffee> Ohhhhh my goodness. So many fun things pop into my head. I’m a branding consultant by day so this naming gig is right up my alley. My dark, zombie-infested alley.

Ok, here’s a list of fun food truck names serving specifically zombie clients. Warning, they’re tacky:

• Pleased to Meat You

• Bone-anza Barbecue

• The Beefcake Bus

• Break-a-leg Barbecue

• Flesh-tone Foods

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for letting me play!

G.G. Silverman's Web Page: http://www.ggsilverman.com/

G.G. Silverman on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/G.G.-Silverman/e/B00F64HFQC

Winter of Zombie 2015: Nerys Wheatley

You're reading Books, Beer and BLOGshit! Its the only blog on the internet that has never dropped the spirit stick! I am your peppy cheerleader, Mr. Frank!

Today at Winter of Zombie camp, is the very suspicious camp counselor, one Nerys Wheatley. She keeps telling the kids all these graphic, creepy stories that are far too detailed to be something she made up off the top of her head. What I think is that she is the maniac murderer of Winter of Zombie camp.

Of course, being the first one to suspect that means my time in this movie is coming to an end soon. I only hope I can provide the first key clue as to Ms. Wheatley's true nature to the protagonist before my ultimate demise. So read the interview and get clued in so you can be the hero at the end of the day!

The Blogshit: Let’s cut to the chase, what are you promoting for the Winter of Zombie?

Nerys Wheatley:  I’m promoting “Mutation“, book 1 in my “Twenty-Five Percent” series, a zombie/action/thriller with scares, tension, and a few laughs.

After thirteen years, the world has learned to deal with the virus that turns people into mindless flesh-eaters. There’s even a cure, although those who come through the disease are physically changed and Survivors, like police detective Alex MacCallum, are often feared and hated. When a new, much worse strain of the virus causes a sudden, massive outbreak, Alex is forced to join with Micah, an anti-Survivor activist who hates him. Surrounded by hordes of eaters, the two enemies struggle to stay alive and find the cause of this new, and possibly not entirely natural, strain of the deadliest virus on earth.

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?

Nerys Wheatley:  There’s always hope!  My scenario is a little different in that the outbreak is localised and contained to one city. The virus has already been around for thirteen years so they know what it does. What they don’t know is that this is a new strain and not so easy to deal with and the authorities seriously underestimate the danger. As things stand now, the situation is grim, but my heroes will fight to stop the outbreak somehow. Whether or not they succeed has yet to be revealed (and I haven’t written it yet!).

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?

Nerys Wheatley:  I’m currently writing book three in the series and there will most probably be more in the future, but I won’t write another, separate, zombie series. It’s not a case of sustaining my career, it’s more that I enjoy all different genres and I want to write them too! I can’t stay in one place. Too many ideas! I have plans for future science fiction novels and I can see myself going into other genres too. I hope those that enjoy my zombie books will also enjoy them.  Being an author is kind of like being the Doctor, being able to travel anywhere, anytime, and into any story. It’s exciting!

The Blogshit: What is more important to the story: A sympathetic human survivor or a zombie with an interesting storyline?

Nerys Wheatley:  Well, in the best books you would get both! But if I have to chose, it would be the human survivor. An interesting, likeable lead character for the reader to root for is always what I want in the books I read.  Without that I tend to lose interest. I want someone I can take the journey with, experience things through their eyes and want them to succeed. Those are the kind of characters I try to write. Although in Mutation I kind of have both in that my ’zombies’ (called eaters) are not your typical walking dead (they’re not dead, for a start!) and my lead character was formally infected and cured. So I have a sympathetic human survivor AND zombie with an interesting storyline all in one person!

The Blogshit: For you, who are the most important writers in zombie fiction at this moment?

Nerys Wheatley:  This is difficult for me to answer as, to be honest, I don’t read that much zombie fiction! Should I admit that? I read more when I wasn’t writing it, but there’s something about writing the genre that makes me move away from it a little. Kind of like taking your work home with you! So as far as important goes, there are other people who can and I’m sure will answer that better than I can.

However, ask me what I think is important to zombie fiction as a whole and I would say more originality. I’ve had several reviews for Mutation that comment on how different it is from the other zombie stories out there and how refreshing it is to have something new. I’ve also heard many people say they are over the whole zombie genre because it seems to them like it is becoming all the same. It doesn’t have to be that way. There are always new stories to be told, and I know there are new zombies to create! Undead innovation, we can do it!

The Blogshit: Is there room for sex in the zombie apocalypse?

Nerys Wheatley:  Unless the human race is going to die out, there had better be! Are we talking human/human? Human/zombie? Zombie/zombie? Or, in a twist, zombie/werewolf? I’m not here to judge. Whatever floats your boat!

The Blogshit:  How much consideration do you give to the seasons in your zombie stories?

Nerys Wheatley:  My series so far only takes place over less than a (very action-packed) early autumn month so so far I haven’t had to!

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?

Nerys Wheatley:  My very upmarket zombie food truck  would be:

THE GOURMET STIFF

Tired of eating raw brains day in day out? Want something tasty and new to munch on, but can‘t quite shake a penchant for the grey matter? Try our new menu, for discerning zombies who like something a little bit different. From marinated medulla oblongata with a spinal fluid and parsley sauce, to fricasseed frontal lobe topped with spiced kidney wedges, we cater for all your undead culinary desires.

With covered seating area and full dessert menu.

Nerys Wheatley on the Web:  http://neryswheatley.com/

Nerys Wheatley on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Nerys-Wheatley/e/B00X6FP2KO/

Winter of Zombie 2015: Scott Lefebvre

You're reading Books, Beer and BLOGshit! Its the only blog on the internet that loves to over-pronounce the word croissant. I am your over-the-top French accented host, Monsieur Fraaaaank!

I'm busting into the word driven version of my world famous, flamboyant French accent and that can only mean one thing! Author Scott Lefebvre is up on The BLOGshit today. Le-fev-REH or Le-Fehvvvvvvv. Or Scott Le Fleh, all acceptable pronunciations if you do it with the proper French flair.

Viva La France and Viva Lefebvre!

The Blogshit: Let’s cut to the chase, what are you promoting for the Winter of Zombie?

Scott Lefebvre:  As with all promotional opportunities, I’m hoping to draw the attention to new readers to check out my work as an author/publisher, hoping that by checking out one of my books they’ll like it enough to check out the rest of my books.  For the Winter Of Zombie event, I’m trying to raise public awareness of two novellas that are part of a larger epic-length post-apocalyptic zombie-epidemic project I’ve been working on, called The End Of The World Is Nigh.

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?

Scott Lefebvre:  I know what the end of the story is in the world that I’m working on, but I think that the journey will be more interesting than the destination.  Plus I don’t want to give away the ending, because, like every other author I think I’ve come up with a unique and interesting solution to the problem.  Different authors use different kinds of zombies.  The kind of zombies that I’m using are of medium speed and an animalistic/instinctual intelligence, but they’re not immortal.  I’m giving them about a year until exposure and starvation kills most of the “zombies” off.  But in the world I’m working in 95% of the population of North America becomes dead/undead so I’m more interested in the living characters having to deal with a mostly abandoned and dangerous world in the absence of any kind of central power keeping society running smoothly.  There will be cities on fire, fortified encampments of survivors, and roving bands of cannibals.  My goal is to take the few things I liked from the zombie-epidemic and post-apocalyptic books and films that I’ve enjoyed and use what I thought worked while avoiding what didn’t work for me as a reader/viewer.

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?

Scott Lefebvre:  As a fan of the George A. Romero zombie movies, I loved the way that his films explore the way that different small groups of people experienced the same phenomenon.  After watching his films over and over I started to imagine what that scenario would be like where I lived and in some of the places across the country I have had the good fortune to visit.  I was also a huge fan of Stephen King’s The Stand.  After the fourth or fifth time through that book I came to appreciate the structure of the book and the post-apocalyptic theme, but the metaphysical duality of good versus evil felt too simplistic.  As an atheist, I don’t believe that there is a higher power that can be appealed to and I’m more interested in the way that relatively ordinary people would deal with an extraordinary situation.  I loved the comic book series The Walking Dead, but it didn’t fulfill my desire to experience the ultimate in post-apocalyptic zombie-epidemic fiction.  My goal is to gradually write novella length installments until I have enough material to put together an epic-length work where I can shuffle together all of the novellas into an all-encompassing work.  But, to answer your question more directly, I’ve written in a variety of genres and mediums.  I’ve done fiction, non-fiction, reviews, and screenwriting, so I don’t feel limited to writing about zombies.  I just want to write the post-apocalyptic zombie-epidemic book I always wanted to read.  After I finish this book, I think I’ll be able to walk away from the zombie genre feeling like I’ve done as much as I could to try to push the concept to its logical conclusion.  If you follow the arc of the George A. Romero zombie movies, he was trying to do the same thing but guiding the idea in a different direction.  Even though it’s a sub-plot of Day Of The Dead, Romero was exploring the idea of trying to domesticate the zombies, an idea he explored further in Land Of The Dead, where the zombies seemed to be nearing a self-awareness as a different type of human.  As much as I enjoy those films, I’m not as interested in the concept of trying to domesticate zombies.  I like my zombies persistent, feral, and hungry.

The Blogshit: What is more important to the story: A sympathetic human survivor or a zombie with an interesting storyline?

Scott Lefebvre:  I know that other authors explore the possibility of using the awareness of the zombies as themes.  Philip Nutman’s Wetwork is a great example of how that can be done well.  In my book series, I’m more interested in the “man vs. man” conflict of survivors living in a post-apocalyptic world than with the “man vs. nature” conflict existing as a constant threat driving the characters to work towards a common goal.  The role of “nature” in the background of the books would be the zombies and the collapsing infrastructure of the world the characters live in, but even more dangerous than the persistence of the hungry hordes of the undead is the danger of other people trying to survive in a desperate situation.

The Blogshit: For you, who are the most important writers in zombie fiction at this moment?

Scott Lefebvre:  Obviously Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard are hugely important as influences in zombie fiction considering that The Walking Dead is one of the most popular shows on the air.  But the films of George A. Romero and the writing of Richard Matheson and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road are much stronger stylistic influences on the style of work that I’m trying to create.

The Blogshit: Is there room for sex in the zombie apocalypse?

Scott Lefebvre:  Yes.  But the politics of sex and sexuality would by necessity be much different in the collapse of society that would occur in the wake of a full-blown zombie epidemic.  In civilized independent encampments of survivors, pregnancy would be an additionally stressful consideration without the modern amenities of hospitals with trained doctors on call.  Outside of the pockets of what remained of civilization the chances of being killed, raped, and eaten, not necessarily in that order, would likely be much higher than they already are in the absence of civil order.  In a world where resources are scarce and the threat of death is constant there may not be as much room for chivalry and courtesy as there is in our modern world.  That being said, I’m not planning on graphically exploring the consequences of roving bands of cannibals that want nothing better than to have rape for dinner.  I might mention it in passing, but I don’t want to describe it in detail.  My intention isn’t to write gore porn for rape fans.  There’s enough blood, gore, and violence in the books to earn the horror genre tag without having to use the “woman in peril” button too.

The Blogshit:  How much consideration do you give to the seasons in your zombie stories?

Scott Lefebvre:  In the project I’m working on, the seasons play a central role in the story arc.  I’m planning on working with between one and two years for the arc.  In the first year, the threat of the undead is constant and overwhelming, but the amount of resources available to the survivors, left behind by the dead/undead is considerable.  In the second half, the threat of the dead/undead remains, but the problem of survival in a world where the mechanisms of production that supply our desires for consumption becomes a much larger and more interesting problem than just having to escape from hordes of hungry zombies.  I’m interested in exploring life in a world where humanity has the chance to start over again, but with the constant threat of a disease that is incurable and could rise up again to end the human experiment.

Think Pink

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?

Scott Lefebvre:  In the interest of equality, and considering that to zombies, humans would be considered equal opportunity targets, I think I’d name my Zombie Food Truck: We’re All Pink On The Inside.

Paranoid or Steroid? You Decoid.

Lefebvre on Lefebvre:

Scott Lefebvre can write about whatever you want him to write about.

Mostly because when he was grounded for his outlandish behavior as a hyperactive school child, the only place he was allowed to go was the public library.

His literary tastes were forged by the works of Helen Hoke, Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Edgar Allan Poe, and H. P. Lovecraft.

He is the author of Spooky Creepy Long Island, and Condemned; and a contributing author to Forrest J. Ackerman’s Anthology of the Living Dead, Fracas: A Collection of Short Friction, The Call of Lovecraft, and Cashiers du Cinemart.

His reviews have been published by a variety of in print and online media including Scars Magazine, Icons of Fright, Fatally Yours and Screams of Terror, and he has appeared in Fangoria, Rue Morgue and HorrorHound Magazine.

Check out his publishing imprint Burnt Offerings Books here:

http://burntofferingsbooks.blogspot.com/

Check out his electronic music here: soundcloud.com/master_control

And here: master-control.bandcamp.com

Check out his Etsy here: www.etsy.com/shop/ScottLefebvreArt

Stalk his Facebook at: www.facebook.com/TheLefebvre

E-mail him at: Scott_Lefebvre@hotmail.com

Winter of Zombie 2015: Peter Welmerink

You're reading Books, Beer and BLOGshit! Its the only blog that is a little wet behind the collar. I am your five gilled blog host, Mr. Frank. 

Peter Welmerink on the BLOGshit today. He once turned down a role to play Officer Poncherello on the hit television series, C.H.i.P.s Instead Mr. Welmerink went on to become a relative unknown in the world of modern English fiction. We seek today to change all that and help elevate Peter to the upper echelons of the literary community or at the very least, sell a book for him.

So get on your tight fitting khaki motocycle pants and strap on your standard issue California Highway Patrol helmet and get ready to dive into the world of zombie author, Peter Welmerink.

The Blogshit: Let’s cut to the chase, what are you promoting for the Winter of Zombie?

Peter Welmerink:  I am promoting my TRANSPORT Post Post-Zombpocalyptic military action-adventure series during the WINTER OF ZOMBIE 2015. Zombies have always been my favorite “monster.” I have an extensive interest and knowledge of Military History, and basically just like to blow things up (fictionally) with big tanks and big guns.

As I got tired of all the apocalyptic settings being mainly in the larger cities, I thought FUCK THAT. LET’S BRING SOME ZOMBIE AND APOC CHAOS HOME TO MICHIGAN.

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?

Peter Welmerink:  We’re still here. They’re still here.

Like Humankind usually does, we survive even in a post-post undead-filled world.

But as usual human nature goes, we are going to continue to duke it out, debating and fighting over if the remaining zombie populace should be fully eradicated, or, if we can keep feeding the local ones the doped meat byproducts we’ve been feeding them, we can just leave our poor rotting friends and relatives alone until they…dissolve, turn into a steaming pile of sidewalk stew, whatever.

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?

Peter Welmerink:  I have several ideas and stories in which I could sustain writing about my little zombie world and characters I’ve created. However, as I enjoy writing Epic Fantasy and Steampunk, and whatever else strikes my fancy, I will most certainly delve into other worlds and genres beyond the shambling realms of Zombidom.

The Blogshit: What is more important to the story: A sympathetic human survivor or a zombie with an interesting storyline?

Peter Welmerink:  I’d say you have a 50/50 split there, though an interesting zombie in an interesting storyline would pique my interest. I have a 1950’s gas station attendant in my TRANSPORT storyline. He not only provides INTEL to my characters (not giving away any spoilers on how he does it) but also assists my transport commander in fighting off a semi-undead assassin in one of the books.

The Blogshit: For you, who are the most important writers in zombie fiction at this moment?

Peter Welmerink:  Armand Rosamalia. Of course. LOL

I am going to throw some perhaps names out there that people might not know but write some bomb shit when it comes to zombidom: Jay Wilburn, Jack Wallen, Rob E Boley and Brent Abell.

And Armand Rosamalia. Of course.

The Blogshit: Is there room for sex in the zombie apocalypse?

Peter Welmerink:  Yes, just don’t get caught with your pants down and rear car windows rolled down when you playing hide the pickle with your lover. Depending on your position, something already dead might crawl up your ass, or perhaps, claw up your ass.

Seriously, there is room for anything, anything is fair game, including sex I suppose, in the zombie apocalypse.

One of my more crude and lewd crew members in my TRANSPORT books alludes to having had , erm, relations with some undead female prostitutes. I do not go into detail on the how’s and why’s.

The Blogshit:  How much consideration do you give to the seasons in your zombie stories?

Peter Welmerink:  The first TRANSPORT book takes place in Autumn 2025, and there is a short epilogue piece where my characters are in Milwaukee that winter. TRANSPORT: HUNT FOR THE FALLEN takes place in Spring 2026 during some intense rain storms and flooding. TRANSPORT: UNCIVIL WAR takes place a few months later in the heat of summer.

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?

Peter Welmerink:  Funny you mention this. The name of the “zombie food truck” in my TRANSPORT series is called THE HURON, and it is 72-tons of wheeled and tracked armored personnel carrier, which (one of its jobs) stops and doles out doped meat to the local undead populace to keep them calm, docile, because the living city folk on the other side of the enclosure feel sorry for their effed-up, afflicted family and friends.

Peter Welmerink on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Peter-Welmerink/e/B00H0KBVN8

Peter Welmerink Home Page:  http://peterwelmerink.com

Winter of Zombie 2015: JL Koszarek

You're reading Books, Beer and BLOGshit! It's the only blog on the internet that is thorough about nothing. I am your Laissez-faire host, Mr. Frank!

We have a writer for the Winter of Zombie 2015 that is quite thorough. One JL Koszarek. If you want explicit details and full bodied answers you've come to the write blog today. JL answers interview questions like Italian wine sates the palletes of the most discerning wine connoisseur.  Did someone say wine? I'm thirst.  Read the interview, I'll be drunk by the time your done.

The Blogshit: Let’s cut to the chase, what are you promoting for the Winter of Zombie?

JJ Koszarek:  I’m actively promoting DIVIDE THEN CONQUER, the first book in the ZOMBIE COMPANY CRUSADE series. I am very excited to continue working with Thad David, my collaborator on the series and introduce readers of the Zombie genre to our literary collaborative effort. DIVIDE is the companion reader to Thad David’s ios mobile game app called ZOMBIE COMPANY CRUSADE, which to my way of thinking, separates it from other books in our genre.

DIVIDE opens with Jack Mason, our lone protagonist as he struggles to find his way across country from San Diego to Colorado Springs during the first days of the scourge, the viral outbreak that unleashes the Zombie apocalypse. Jack’s discoveries and the characters he meets along the way introduce the reader to the wide spread nature of the scourge and widens the narrative. DIVIDE introduces the safe zones that bring the reader into the dysfunctional halls of The White House, the secretive cold war era caverns under the mountains in Colorado Springs, civil unrest and search and rescue missions in San Diego, and a southern militia stronghold in Savannah, Georgia. Each setting has its heroes, villains, and colorful characters driven to survive in this new world disorder.

DIVIDE, for the most, part takes place in the United States, and explores human behaviors from heroism to duplicity, and illustrates our overall will to survive within the constraints of various contemporary moral, ethical, and political factions. The most challenging part about writing DIVIDE is the size of our cast of characters, settings, plots, and subplots, but it’s my feeling that Thad and I have done well to maintain continuity that lends itself to plot twists, surprises, and excitement without derailing the theme of the book. It’s my hope that our readers can find parts of themselves reflected in the characters who, in my opinion have come to represent the heart, mind, and spirit of the USA. I’m proud of this thought-provoking work, and believe our readers will enjoy it.

DIVIDE THEN CONQUER, BOOK ONE of the ZOMBIE COMPANY CRUSADE SERIES is available via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and ibooks in electronic format.

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?

JJ Koszarek:  Where there is humanity, there is always hope. Thad has more of an idea of where all this is headed where our project is concerned, considering ZCC is his brain child, so I’m speaking strictly for myself here when I say that adversity promotes harmony and ultimately brings people together, if not only temporarily. I experienced this first hand in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. For a short time, the people in my community came together like never before. Race, economics, politics, and even shared histories and long held grudges (as exist in any small town) were forgotten. It didn’t matter who you were, you were a survivor. Today, ten years later, our community is forever changed by the catastrophe and that short moment of pure equanimity, but those old social patterns are becoming evident again. The survivors are now regular people still struggling with the trauma of the catastrophe, but they’re back to dealing with the everyday trauma of getting along in life. We’re back to being singular members of a community, but a community none-the-less.

In terms of reality, every community lacks equanimity. This is one of the waypoints in the plot of DIVIDE. The work’s lofty goal of attempting to divide a nation to ultimately bring it back together hinges on this moment of catastrophe, survival, brotherhood, sisterhood, coming together to rebuild something. It explores how people who are thrown into an inconceivable situation make decisions. Altruism, power, greed, love, family, religion and spirituality, and the natural need for a new way are the parameters within which the human ability, or inability to make rational decisions occurs.

As a character based writer, the only answer I can give you regarding the outcome of all this horrible zombie business is that it’s up to my characters where this all goes. They have to decide whether to follow their hearts or their minds for the good of all or for the good of a few. The ball is in their court. I hope you’ll read it and discuss it with your friends and family because it can go to hell in a handbasket, or it can be a catalyst for real, lasting, meaningful change.

As an optimist, I vote for real, lasting, meaningful change.

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?

JJ Koszarek:  DIVIDE THEN CONQUER, Book 1 of the ZOMBIE COMPANY CRUSADE SERIES is my third book.  My first manuscript was unfortunately destroyed by hurricane Katrina. Due to extenuating circumstances not limited to the ones already discussed, I was unable to locate or rewrite the story. Maybe someday I’ll rewrite it. Bits and pieces of it are still in my head. Maybe everything I write is somehow akin to it, I don’t know. It was a great story, if I may say so myself; historical romance with a smattering of supernatural/magic/fantasy tossed in. My other book, Twisted Oak: A Sexual Odyssey was published in May of 2014. It’s full-tilt erotica/contemporary romance. It was fun as heck to write and the prequel is bouncing around my head.

There are so many things bouncing around in my head.

Variety is the spice of life. As a freelance writer, I pride myself on being able to adapt to any genre; fiction or nonfiction; academic, informative, fun; whatever. Sadly, I am the worst poet in the world, though. I read everything I can get a hold of, so I feel as if I am well versed in a wide variety of genres, but my preference is historical fiction because I believe history is where every good story starts. History is what produces the what, how, why, who we are. Stories don’t just fall out of the sky. They are created histrionically on both the micro and macro levels. History creates my characters, and as a character driven author, my characters draw from their history to create their stories that somehow end up on the computer screen.

Zombie fiction offers a unique opportunity for me to incorporate the many genres I enjoy into the story. Sure, DIVIDE is zombie fiction, but you’ll also find history, romance, sociology, psychology, science, political intrigue, military and wartime history, along with contemporary issues we find in our newsfeeds every day. DIVIDE is a spicy gumbo, a real intellectual thrill ride. I am enjoying the process more than I thought I would at the onset.

I plan to continue work on the ZCC series because I believe in it. It’s a great story. It’s a joy to write, and I believe our readers will find it a joy to read. As such, zombie fiction will continue to be an important element of my career. So will erotica. So will historical fiction. So will blogging. I’m a writer. Period. Will zombie fiction sustain my career? That remains to be seen. I’m not even certain this whole writing thing is sustainable at all at this point. I want it to be, so I keep writing. It’s up to my readers to decide whether or not it’s sustainable. I keep keeping on. It’s what I have to do…

If writing is a career, it’s a strange one. It’s more like a compulsion than a career, I think. Whether or not I make a penny (I really hope I do because eating is a good thing), I’ll keep at it because Jack Mason and the rest of my ZCC characters keep me awake at night. If I don’t write their stories, they will drive me insane. I invite you all to join my insanity and see where it leads.

The Blogshit: What is more important to the story: A sympathetic human survivor or a zombie with an interesting storyline?

JJ Koszarek:  They say to write what you know, so humans are always central to my stories. My degree is in Behavioral Science because I like to think about what makes people do the things they do. Without drowning in minutia here, the process of how humans make decisions and their associated behaviors fascinates me. Inner conflict, cognitive dissonance, we all experience it. It’s part of the human condition and makes for excellent fiction.

Zombies are also important to the story because they are the impetus that propels my characters toward their destiny. Like humans, zombies also have a history, but as of yet, theirs is unknown to this writer. Rest assured, zombies will settle into their important role as our story unfolds. Their destiny, however is a dark one because they are imprisoned in a diseased body, therefore have no influence over it. The only hope for zombies lies in the hands of the humans. Isn’t this where all of our destinies lay?

The Blogshit: For you, who are the most important writers in zombie fiction at this moment?

JL Koszarek:  Zombies having fell out of interest for me since the 1980’s, I was and still am not as well-versed as I’d like to be in the contemporary zombie fiction world. I am heavily influenced by Max Brooks. Alex Garland also comes to the forefront. Both authors are revolutionary in that they reinvented their zombies to reflect today’s world, today’s technology, dysfunction and swiftness. I am terrified by their zombies!

Writing has been such a singular activity for me; just me and my computer, but now having collaborated with Thad, I have found value in the voices of other authors in this genre and beyond. I am encouraged by and can’t wait to get to know the other authors involved in the Winter of Zombie Blog Tour. For me, the new, and not-so-new zombie authors are an aspiring group. Learning from them through this experience will prove to be invaluable for this author moving forward.  

The Blogshit: Is there room for sex in the zombie apocalypse?

JL Koszarek:  Of course! How will the human race survive without sex? Humans are sexual beings. Faced with the idea of extinction, I can only imagine the evolutionary instinct to procreate will become even more acute. Parents will protect their children with a vigilance that we may not have experienced before. Our human tribal nature will take hold again, which brings me to the previous question about hope. Herein through the creation of new human lives, the sexual act, is where humans will find hope for security, love, acceptance, and survival. Sex is very nearly always at the center of it, but as DIVIDE is a young adult novel, this element will be introduced with taste and will be age appropriate.

Most of the characters in DIVIDE haven’t had time to explore sexual relations yet. They’re still concentrating on surviving the day, however there is chemistry. Sparks fly between characters, and some are…well, some are just into sex for all the wrong reasons.

I'm JRUNK! (hic)

The Blogshit:  How much consideration do you give to the seasons in your zombie stories?

JL Koszarek:  Seasons have not played a large role in DIVIDE yet, but they will in Book Two. Surviving the zombie apocalypse in warm weather is difficult, but winter is coming and with it will come challenges specific to freezing temperatures and precipitation. The cold and snow will affect the zombies, too. In the apocalyptic world, the weather has a direct influence on our chances of survival.

The change of seasons is also a great literary tool to convey the passage of time. The ZCC series will span months, and possibly even years. It is my feeling that the change of seasons will come into play in this way going forward.

Thad and I are gearing up for our first Winter of Zombies in the ZCC series. As I sit here today, I wonder which character(s) aren’t ready. I wonder who will be alive in the springtime. 

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?

Roadkill!

Zombie Gastronomy Go-Go.

We got guts, glory, and gravy.

JJ Koszarek on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/J.L.-Koszarek/e/B00QFN6ERE/