Hi everyone! And thanks to Ashley for including me in her Zombie Craze blog series! I’m so pleased to be here. So the thing people always ask me when they see what kind of books I write is why zombies? Well, not all people, just the people who don’t “get” zombies.
For me, it started with movies rather than books. I was never allowed to watch many scary movies as a kid (too much imagination = too many nightmares) so as an adult and being married to a big movie buff, I’ve hadthis huge education in the genre. I found that I really liked the idea of the big, lumbering zombie who just wants to get to you and eat you. There’s no arguing with that or bargaining. Zombies are completely incorruptible that way.They just want what they want. Scary movies like Resident Evil or Night of the Living Dead or 28 Days Later scared the crap out of me.
And yet the movies I loved most in the genre of “zombie”were the funny movies. It’s silly to think of zombies, as much as it’s scary.They lose their arms and they still stagger on. They wear whatever they were turned in, so you can see funny things like stripper zombies or naked zombies or cop zombies, roaming around, staggering into yards and grunting and groaning.
So the movies that influenced me most as a writer were Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead. If you’ve never seen them, you really must.They are funny and human and silly and scary and just plain, AWESOME. In fact,after watching “Zombieland” was when I got the idea for my own zombie comedy, MARRIED WITH ZOMBIES. Starting with a couple in therapy, advancing to a therapist whohad been turned into a zombie and continuing with the couple trying to use marriage advice to make it through a zombie apocalypse. I played with all the tropes in zombie fiction, I watched every zombie movie ever made (or so it seemed) and I had a ball making brain bashing fun.
Luckily, Orbit Books also had a ball reading it and they bought the book and asked me to write two more in the “Living With the Dead”series. FLIP THIS ZOMBIE (business advice to survive a zombie apocalypse) and EAT SLAY LOVE (general self-help for your zombie apocalypse) follow my MWZ main characters David and Sarah as they continue to fight and love their way through zombie hell. EAT SLAY LOVE is out July 1, the others are available now.
So are you guys zombie fans? And what makes you love a zombie?
Oh and I am soooo thankful that Orbit Books loved the Living With the Dead series … or else I may never have discovered my love of zombie books! *ahem* Zombieland is also one of my favorite movies EVER…