Review: Zombie Writing! So You Want To Write About Zombies? edited by Armand Rosamilia

Writing Zombies! Is almost exactly like going to a horror con. Most of the pieces are conversational musings on how to or why the authors write zombie stories. Some try to be instructive, others are more enthusiastic conversations from fans, and most do a fair amount of self promotion (some more fluidly than others). However one has to wonder why we needed 44 authors to say mostly the same thing over and over and how, if many of the authors are new enough to still be dragging out the same most basic writing advice (and admit they only have been in the game for a few months, or a story or two) this book counts as being by ″Masters of the Zombie Genre″. I’m not saying these people have no right to write, or converse about their love of zombie tales, just that this book isn’t written by master writers, and a lot of it isn’t writing advice at all.

There are some excellent essays included here (Tim Waggoner, David Moody, David Dunwoody and Keith Gouveia’s all for sure.) But Writing Zombies! Desperately needs better editing on every level. The essays are too repetitive (to an eye-glazing level), there are profuse spelling and/or grammar errors included and even the formatting itself needs work.

If you’re a zombie fan and could spend hours sitting around talking about why you love zombies (and which ones you love) this is a good books for you. But it’s not what it’s billed as, valuable writing advice from Zombie writing masters.

*I live tweeted as I read this book. My essay-by-essay take is below the cut.

Jan 20- ″I’ll Have a Zombie With A Twist″ by Neil Kloster (LOL, sounds like a great drink, maybe gray with an olive eyeball.)Oh, um, ouch, there’s a four grammar mistakes in the first sentence. and clearly more editing issues here. And the “master” admits he’s published 2 zombies stories. But, I TOTALLY agree with what he’s saying about bringing something new to zombies, not just a new location. So, the essay is short, and it mostly talks about the author’s own stories, ends with the cliche stab at Twilight, and needs better editing BUT it’s pretty good advice, and the voice is happy, fun and enthusiastic. And I like one of the story ideas and would check it out.

″On Zombies″ by Mark Clodi. Again, many more editing errors, but I love the essay opening a great deal. Clodi’s humor works. But the essay is only a page and a half long, doesn’t really give zombie writing advice, just muses on the phenomena and ends very suddenly. I mean, like the sentence doesn’t even have a period suddenly. But now I’m going to see what else he’s written.

Jan 21- ″Anywhere Left to Stumble, Anything Left to Groan?″ by Richard Lee Byers reiterates the point of the first essay in Zombie Writing!, the overuse of tired subgenre conventions. It upkicks the tone by adding in a killer list of zombies books to add to ″To Read″ lists.

″Zombies and Their Haunts″ by Joe McKinney is an excellent essay about the symbolism of zombies. Originally written for Tor.com this is an essay to skip forward to.

″Death of the Undead: An Essay on the Zombie Subgenre″ by Jason S. Hornsby also talks about the metaphors of the undead. It’s more bitter and makes a vicious, but accurate point. Good stuff.

″The Lighter Side of Zombies″ by Rie Sheridan Rose is another ″Do something original with zombies″ essay steeped in a ton of self promotion. Meh.

″Am I Fucked Up Because I Love Zombies?″ by Christian Jensen wholly embraces the idea of zombie fiction being an outlet for sheer mind-blowing violence that society disallows killing your neighbor. He doesn’t urge writers to try something new and instead talks about his zombiefied love of anything undead-ish.

″Breathing New Life Into The Undead″ by Mainak Dhar also talks about bringing something new to zombie stories, however for every example he lists I can name a book or story that’s covered that territory.

″Zombie Writing″ by JD Gillam also covers originality in zombie fiction, but then says if you can’t think of something original it’s okay to cover the same interpretations of zombies that have come before.

″Flesh Eaters and Beer Drinkers″ by Mark Justice talks about making the zombies themselves real characters and how writing zombies, even if you don’t think you’d like to, is something that comes sooner or later. I totally understand (and agree with) where he’s coming from. I actually hated zombie lit before I read History is Dead ed. By Kim Paffenroth.

″The Modern Menace″ by Michael D. Griffiths is about why zombies are popular now, rather than hitting at another time period. This is a good essay, worth the read.

″Why Zombies?″ by Dane Hatchell stabs at horror monsters going romantic, saying that because zombies can’t be romantic they’re an isle of refuge for horror fans. (Except I can name half a dozen zombie books with strong romantic themes, if not outright zombie themed romance books without really trying.) Moreso it’s a personal essay about what real life events influenced Hatchell to write zombies and how it came out in the stories. It’s a fair bit of self promotion, but the conversational tone keeps it tolerable, even interesting.

″Creating Dead: Bringing Realism To Flesh Eaters″ by T.S. Charles encourages realism, or some level, in zombie tales. It’s contradictory and containing at least one grammar error I consider grievous (″Navy Seals″ have earned the right to their capitalization) and Charles attempts to cover lots of ground, which other contributors have covered ad nauseum already.

″De-individualization″ by David Moody. This essay gave me chills. Moody gets it, really and truly. I want to cheer.

In ″The State of the Zombie Genre″ by Todd Brown Brown talks about self publishing’s effects on zombie lit, but two of the three books listed were not self published (and the third was self serial pubbed on a blog, but then put out in book form through Permuted Press). Then he encourages readers to both support the good writers and call out the bad. Okay, then.

″Writing The Zombie Novel: Lessons on Craft″ by Craig DiLouie could be the book all on its own.

″Why I Write About Zombies″ by Lee Pletzers is like sitting down and having a talk with Pletzers at a con about zombies. You can feel the excitement coming through which is good. But it ends real suddenly, like it’s missing a piece.

In ″The Zombie Inside Me″ by Andy Taylor talks about reviewing as a zombie character and being a zombie lit fan. Mostly, though, the essay says it’s okay to be mean in reviews, even if people complain.

″My Zombie Holiday″ by Kevin Coryell shows enthusiasm, but, um, that the author feels the need to justify his presence (and that he’s only had a short story published in a micropress antho and done some self publishing, all in the last 4 months or so) makes me wonder why he’s in the book. I’m not questioning his right to be a writer, or a fan, just wondering how he fits into ″44 Masters of the Zombie Genre″.

″Zombies On The Brain″ by Brent Abell muses on the importance of the survivors and originality in zombie lit. Again. (48%, I’m getting close!)

″So You Want to Write about Zombies?″ by Sharon M. White advocates the use of ″The Zombie Rules″ as it were. Also, apparently, self insertion and making things get crazy if the plot or characters get boring. Also, curse. (49%)

″The Primal Nerve″ by Kelly M. Hudson insists werewolves and vampires are boring (insert stab at the creatures in romance here) but zombies are always exciting (and slow, because Romero is right). Also, he writes zombie lit because it’s popular.

Jan 22- ″Zomedy: Dark Humour of the Undead Kind″ by Chantal Boudreau is a fun little essay about the elements of humor in zombie lit. Plus Boudreau tips a hat to a ton of great zombie movies and a few books, which is nice.

″Zombies: Way to Go!″ by Carole Gill has a lot of exclamation points. Other than that it’s about how much fun the author has writing zombies.

″Keeping Science in Science Fiction″ by Marissa Farrar mentions a so far ignored zombie type, parasites. It’s more short self promo than writing advice, but it’s nice to hear something new.

″I Dream of Zombies″ by Tim Waggoner could also be the book in and of itself. It’s a good essay about why one might want to write zombie lit.

″The Zombie State″ by W.D. Gagliani is also about the metaphors that make zombies ring with audiences. I would have enjoyed it more if there weren’t so many other essays about the same topic in the book before this one.

″Expect the Unexpected: Embracing the Cliché to Add Humor and Surprises to Your Zombie Fiction″ by David Lee Summers encourages writers to embrace the zombie cliche as a jumping off point. I agree, but again, this is already covered territory.

″The Z Word″ by Lou Antonelli also muses on what the zombie means/has meant. However his claim to have written the only Christian zombie story ever is…very short sighted (might I point you to the career of Kim Paffenroth?)

″Writing in the Zombie Genre″ by Shawn M. Riddle is pretty encouraging, but the author is so new at writing that it’s filled with things most writers have figured out by now.

In ″Current Flavor if the Genre: Rotten″ by Keith Gouveia hits the nail on the head by saying ″Writing Zombie fiction is one of the easiest ways for any author to acquire a reading base, which is why the genre is overpopulated with mediocre carbon copies.″ Word, Keith. ″Just because the fans accept these examples as norms, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive for better.″ That is possibly the best piece of advice in the whole book.

″Lurching Back To Life: The Zombie Genre Comes Back″ by Ian DG Sandusky is another good essay about why zombies are popular, but again, this has been covered a lot in the book already.

″The Undead and Me″ by Tony Monchinski is a good, conversational essay about zombie lit in general. Bonus points to the author for being one of the few people writing about zombies to mention Alden Bell’s amazing The Reapers are the Angels.

David Dunwoody is the first author to embrace the idea of zombie romance in ″New Flesh: Bending an Blending the Zombie Formula″. His essay has a fun casual tone that makes reading it a joy.

″Why I Write About Zombies″ by DA Chaney is a straight-forward personal narrative about why the author likes zombie stories. Plus there are some good reading recs included.

″Gore And More: Writing Zombies″ by Adam Millard says that zombies are popular because there’s no rules to writing them (like there are for vampires & werewolves) but then also holds up the rotting undead/violence and gore/in a nifty new setting staple of the genre.

″Zombies…The Monsters That Ate A Genre!″ by Thomas Scopel (great title) proclaims a love of zombie lit for the gore, and the ease of writing (proving Keith Gouveia’s point earlier in the book, I think.)

″Just As Dead As The Reanimated Corpses We Write About″ by Jeremiah Coe also reiterates the dangers of not bringing anything new to zombie lit.

″Over-Drawn of the Dead″ by Jasper Bark has a pretty good history of zombie culture (though like other essays it ends up being more about movies than lit). It’s another decent zombie metaphor essay.

″Zombie Apocalypse: The Obvious Choice″ by Ray Wallace parallels writing zombie fic with reading Choose Your Own Adventure books. It’s a neat analogy. And Wallace sticks actual writing advice in.

″Zombies″ by Eric S. Brown is blatant self promotion, mainly of Brown’s non-zombie books. He encourages gore if you ″can’t wow them″.

″Writers Delving Into Zombies″ by Blaze McRob (which brings up all kinds of nasty mental images) advocates writing zombie lit because it doesn’t get predictable like the other monsters. And because it’s popular.

″Forget Pretty Vampires, Dirty Zombies Rock!″ by Kate Madison compares zombies and vampires in lit (and those moments when they become the same thing).

″Why I Write About Zombies″ by Armand Rosamilia is pretty self-explanatory. It’s another conversational-toned essay. And the last one.