Michele Lee

Interview with Eric S. Brown

Eric S Brown is a 34 year old author living in NC. He has been called “the king of zombies” by places like Dread Central and was featured in the book Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead as an expert on the genre. Some of his books include Space Stations and Graveyards, Dying Days, Portals of Terror, Madmen’s Dreams, Cobble, The Queen, The Wave, Waking Nightmares, Unabridged Unabashed and Undead: The Best of Eric S Brown, Barren Earth, Season of Rot, War of the Worlds Plus Blood Guts and Zombies, World War of the Dead, Zombies II: Inhuman, etc. He was the editor of the anthology Wolves of War from Library of Horror Press. Some of his upcoming titles include Bigfoot War, The Human Experiment, Anti-Heroes, and Tandems of Terror. His short fiction has been published hundreds of times. Some of his anthology appearances include Dead Worlds I,II, III, and V, The Blackest Death I & II, The Undead I & II, Dead History, Dead Science, Zombology I & II, The Zombist, and the upcoming Gentlemen of Horror 2010 to name only a few.
He also writes an ongoing column on the world of comic books for Abandoned Towers magazine.

ML: First, why don’t you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your most recent releases?

ESB: Some of my best releases last year were War of the Worlds Plus Blood Guts and Zombies, Season of Rot, World War of the Dead, and a zombie SF book entitled Barren Earth. Coming this year, I have my first two superhero books (The Human Experiment and Anti-Heroes), a new giant sized collection with John Grover called Tandems of Terror, and a paperback novella called Bigfoot War (from Coscom Entertainment). I think Bigfoot War is one of the most carnage filled and fun things I have ever written.

ML: You’re well known as a zombie author. Lately there’s been a lot of disillusionment with the sub genre, with many people blaming tired plots and recent mash ups, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, for a decline in zombie fiction. What’s your take on this?

ESB: I think Zombies are one of those monsters that rises up in popularity and hits the world like a nuclear bomb from time to time then goes back to being a cult thing until the dead rise again. There are tons of great zombie books out there but there are also tons of not so great ones. Like anything else, you just have to be careful what you buy so you don’t waste your cash. With War of the Worlds Plus Blood Guts and Zombies, my retelling of H.G. Wells’ alien invasion classic, I did my best to take it seriously and deliver a hard hitting Z tale not a parody.

ML: Likewise, horror in general is often dismissed or over looked by readers and libraries because of the belief that it’s all Freddy, Jason and Hostel type stories. Do you believe that horror is a genre that appeals to readers of more mundane stories, or do you think people are wrongly dismissing it?

ESB: I think it’s a bit of both. Horror fans expect a certain formula and go looking for that in general but the more discerning horror reader
stays on the quest to find that new and original masterpiece that will leave them having nightmares and talking about it for weeks.

ML: In the same vein, what are some horror classic that you believe deserve a place on more reading lists?

ESB: F. Paul Wilson’s The Keep is one of my favorite WWII horror novels. It inspired my own book World War of the Dead. I would also list
Earthworm Gods, Empire, Swan Song, and Dead in the West as must read books. If we’re talking school reading lists though, I think H.P. Lovecraft’s work should replace most of the Poe stuff they teach.

ML: What’s the draw to horror for you, as a writer and a reader?

ESB: I like to be terrified and disgusted. Can’t help it, it’s who I am. I also love action so I tend to steer more to horror with a war, military edge to it. Some good examples would be Aliens, Z. A. Recht’s books, and again F. Paul Wilson’s The Keep.

ML: What are some of your goals, as you write and edit your books? What do you want readers to take from them?

ESB: I always put a bit of me in each of my works whether that’s just my inner child/zombie fan part coming out and playing or deciding to
include a moral message behind the battle of good vs. evil. Above all, I want my readers to have a good time and read the kind of stuff I enjoy as a fan.

ML: So, why zombies and not vampires, or werewolves?

ESB: Zombies are the modern monster. They fit better with our world today and they are a lot scarier. The idea of a virus or plague alone killing so many people is disturbing enough in its self but toss in them getting back up and chewing your face off with no remorse and you have a winner in tears of fear.

ML: How do you think the sub genre has changed since the original zombie movies like, White Zombie, Things to Come and Night of the Living Dead? How has the zombie itself changed?

ESB: The zombie is constantly changing, getting smarter, faster, even hopping species. That’s one of the great things about the
sub-genre. Everyone is trying to do something new with it but keep that old end of the world, flesh eating fear intact.

ML: What do you look for in a good book?

ESB: Well developed characters that move me, an interesting plot, and above all, enough action to make me dream about it and keep me turning the pages as fast as I can read.

ML: Finally, what are you working on right now?

ESB: I just finished The Human Experiment and am for the moment caught up on longer projects so I am writing mostly short fiction and my columns until I feel ready to return hardcore to the world of zombies with a brand new book that has been growing in the back of my mind. You can find some of my short fiction this year in anthologies like The Zombist, Dead History, Dead Worlds 5, Gentlemen of Horror, an upcoming installment of the Zombology series, and others. I will also be adding chapters to Pill Hill Press’s upcoming collab zombie novel they will be releasing this Fall/Winter (2010).

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February 23

I wasn’t going to make this public…

…but then the author did it for me. This is exactly why you should NOT EVER snap back at a reviewer. There just is no way to do it without looking like you’re throwing a fit.

My review (which I absolutely stand behind):

“…She needed a man. Hell, maybe if she bothered to drop down below 220 lbs she might find one. That, and she’d have to not talk. Basically she’d have to become an anorexic mute and then she could possibly attract the attention of a blind man with no sense of smell.”

Want another excerpt?

“Oh, and this book is self published, so there will be typos. Oh yes, there will be typos. Think of them as easter eggs. Happy hunting!”

Under is the tale of two bad tempered middle aged office workers who are one small town’s only defense against cannibal creatures who are getting ready for a feast. Quinn tells the truth, there are plenty of typos to “hunt” for, mixed in with formatting errors, like words printed on top of each other. (Note: This refers to the original edition. In the revised edition these are supposedly fixed.) There’s plenty of violence and profanity, along with sexist and racist comments and female characters who are lined up like pigs for a slaughter.

Jacob, the lead character, is very hard to relate to, and framing him not with some kind of amateur knowledge that saves the day, but instead with a load of cops and state troopers who are bumbling idiots and jerks leads to this book feeling like a poorly spun Rambo fantasy. The lack of editing, the -ist jokes and complete stereotyping of every character who isn’t the hero leads to Under reading like a first draft, or first novel attempt that’s not quite there.

Horror is no longer and excuse for sexism, racism and homophobia and self publishing isn’t an excuse for typos and a complete lack of consideration for the money readers might spend on a book. Take your chances on this one, if you wish, but be forewarned it doesn’t have much to offer.

And the public response from the author from GoodReads, available here (behind the cut):

Continue reading

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February 22

Demon Possessed by Stacia Kane

ISBN: 9781439167618
I was given this book to review.

Book three in the Megan Chase series finds Megan, human ruler of a demon clan and psychiatrist, in more trouble. This time Megan is preparing for a big time demon meeting, where a cluster of inhuman beings will try to force her into performing a ceremony that would make her a full demon. It doesn’t help that an FBI agent arrives at her office, offering immunity if she’ll just testify against the other demons (most of whom run various illegal cartels, not to mention they all seem to attract bodies in large quantities), which includes Megan’s rather serious boyfriend, fire demon Greyson Dante.

Megan finds unexpected pressure put on her relationship as the meeting starts, not from the FBI, but from the realization that if she is to have any future with him she will have to become a demon, or let him go forever. Balancing her wants against her needs, and the needs of her clan of “personal demons” is hard enough without the appearance of an angel, who is most definitely trying to kill her. Now Megan must find out who sent the angel, defeat it, decide whether she values her humanity or Greyson more and most importantly: Survive.

Demon Possessed is fast, a little confused at the beginning as all the threads present themselves but before they come together as one related plot. Megan is a bold urban fantasy heroine, who unlike others doesn’t seem to be opposed to being rescued, married, and playing a female-oriented role, she just doesn’t want to lose herself to other peoples’ demands on her. As emotional as the previous book, Demon Inside, but focusing on Megan’s future rather than her past, Demon Possessed is at times hard to stomach due to intensity of emotion, not intensity of graphic violence. But it’s a good read, and a sad farewell to Megan and Greyson and their family, as this is the last anticipated book in the series.

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February 17

Feels like Monday

Two snow days and a bout of some sort of sickness later and it’s time to get back to work.

Agent Rachelle Gardner has an excellent post up. I wanted to blog about it, but she really puts it as simply as need be.

You’ve been told that the published-author life isn’t glamorous and in fact can get pretty stressful when you’re trying to write one book, while doing revisions on another, and maybe even marketing another. And you might think, “This is CRAZY, how am I expected to do this?” But I want you to remember all the times you read on blogs that it would be difficult. And I want you to tell yourself, “Okay, this is what I signed up for. They said it would be difficult, and this is what difficult looks like. I can do this.”

I was thinking of this last night, when I realized I’d wanted to up my daily word goal this week, and instead due to the snow days and the head cold hadn’t written a thing in that time. Another agent, Nathan Brandsford, is asking what keeps us writing, and I’m struggling to find a way to set more boundaries and stick to them, so that people around me know that this isn’t just me playing on the computer. I have a goal (not a deadline, but good practice for one). I have to put in the work. I have to keep the momentum going and take advantage of the opportunities I’ve been given. I’ve had my first taste of success and sitting back on my haunches and enjoying it is all fine and good, but to really use it I have to keep working and transition the momentum from one project to the next, and the next, and the next, to build the cohesive whole I’m looking for.

This is the work, folks. And Rachelle is right, it is harder that I expected. I knew it would take time. I knew it is a process, not just a choice. I knew about slush stats and how to get an agent and how the fight was won. I just didn’t expect it to take this much work.

But this is what this blog always was about. And the light blogging, or lack of deep meaningful stuff (or personal at least), is just part of the process as I focus what time and drive I have on making the most of the connections I’ve made and the accomplishments I can now list.

None of this happened over night for me. Go back, read my archives. Keep in mind that’s not where I started, that’s just where I started on WordPress. Before that I kept a blogger blog, and before that I was writing and submitting and just hoping to have my name recognized at some point.

When I first started out all I had to reference were a small handful of authors who were miles away from where I am now in my career, and I cried more than once because I knew I couldn’t do what they did. Years later I’m not trying to follow in their footsteps anymore, but to make my own way, which, let me tell you, is longer and harder that following anyway. But infinitely more satisfying.

So I share too much here. Or I seem to be a bipolar mess of unstable emotions and tiny victories. But, that’s what the work looks like. This is how it starts, and I want the writers coming up behind and around me to have far more realistic expectations that I had.

This is why they tell you to write every day. It’s not just habit, or practice, it’s how these things linger at a point of nothing, then suddenly (suddenly as in over a few months) snowball into a massive slide of accomplishment. It’s because whether you realize it or not working at it every day is creating a push against the wall and obstacles in your path that leads to the things you want (contracts, readers, books!) coming to be.

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February 13

Interview With David Dunwoody

This interview originally appeared on MonsterLibrarian.com

David Dunwoody is the author of Empire and the sequel this year Empires End.

ML: Your specialty, if you can say you have one still so early in your career, is zombie tales. How did you become the up-and-coming zombie writer? Is it a topic you pursued on purpose or did it just work out that way?

DD: It wasn’t the plan (not to imply I ever had one). In 2004, I hadn’t subbed anything to any market, and had no idea how or where to begin. I also didn’t know what “market” meant. Eve Blaack of Hacker’s Source magazine, for which I was writing film reviews, passed along word of a new publisher, Permuted Press. It had just opened to subs for a zombie anthology. “Grinning Samuel,” which appears in THE UNDEAD, was my first sale, and I think I was so energized by that success that I became focused on the walking dead, and what other creeps perhaps lurked just outside the frame in Samuel’s world.

ML: Especially lately, the zombie genre has been gifted with a surplus of titles to chose from. How do you think your stories stand out from the rest?

DD: I try to write tales that will surprise hardcore zombie fans, twisting the basic rules of the undead. A lot of my fellow fanatics feel the Romero rules are sacrosanct, and so they might not be into all of my rotters, but stories like those in the EMPIRE universe are written with respect for The Master and gratitude for the creature he’s given us – perhaps the last great monster, one whose impact and resonance was immediately recognized and who is already on par with the vampire and werewolf.

That said, my zombies range from slow and brainless to fast and/or smart – some almost human, others very far from it – and sometimes a headshot only pisses them off. There’s often an element of dark fantasy too, as with the Grim Reaper hunting zombies in EMPIRE.

ML: Your lauded first novel, Empire, first showed up as a free serial, then was published through Permuted Press. Now Empire will hit bookstores through Pocket books in the spring. Can you tell us a little about the differences you’ve encountered with each new edition?

DD: There’s not a ton of difference between the first and second print editions in terms of content. But in the transition from a 2006 web serial to a 2008 book, there were many minor tweaks and some major additions. I think the novel grew by twenty percent as I prepared it for print, mostly in deeper exploration of the military perspective and the 105 years of the plague prior to EMPIRE’s opening in the year 2112.

I think the greatest difference will be between EMPIRE and its sequel – you can still detect EMPIRE’S episodic origins in the print version. The process of writing the second book was very different, and from its first pages it begins hurtling toward a climax far bigger, and of far greater consequence.

ML: Your short story “Shift Change” in the Fried! Fast Food, Slow Deaths anthology remains one of my favorite zombie stories to date. How do you manage to keep the zombies interesting, and yet not change their essential nature?

DD: I try not to tweak everything at once and lose the source. Dan O’Bannon recently passed away – his RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD is a big influence for me, a beloved zombie classic that nonetheless plays fast and loose with the rules. Zombies that can run and talk, chowing down alongside desiccated corpses with nary an ounce of meat on their bones. Split dogs – SPLIT DOGS! The wild variety of zombies like Trash, Tarman and the jaundiced cadaver set my mind racing.

I do think some would say I’ve lost the essential zombieness on more than one occasion. Sometimes when I look for new undead, I dredge up something else entirely (as in “Shift Change”). But we gotta keep digging! There’s something moving down there, dammit!

ML: Some say there’s a divide between literary writers and genre writers and the debate between writing for art or writing for entertainment is a monster of its own. Which side do you stand on? Do you think zombies have a place in high literature?

DD: I think the divide only exists for those who choose to take a side. The rest of us are somehow walking on air in the middle of that chasm. Like Wile E. Coyote, I will not fall into that debate until I look down. And then I will die.

I don’t think art and titillation are always mutually exclusive. There are definitely works of mine in which I invested more thought and passion, works that meant something more to me – and for that reason I would consider them closer to art than, say, the one about sentient strips of zombie bacon. But that’s only because I say so – art is intent.

As to the question of quantifiable literary sensibility, I don’t really know what that is. I know I don’t have it. I’m not trying to be Rodney Dangerfield sticking it to the dean here, I just know that I write for me and other crazy people.

ML: Empire isn’t the only work you’ve released for free. Do you believe free online content is merely a trend, a valuable tool for today’s writers, or is it absolute essential in the new digital age?

DD: With so much out there, and with virtually anyone able to publish and make it available to the general public, I think free online content is a good way to get noticed, to connect and communicate with readers. The immediacy of posting an entry and reading someone’s reaction to it in the same hour is pretty cool. It’s also a sort of intimacy that might make you uncomfortable at times. But that’s the story of the Internet.

I don’t think it’s a passing trend, but I don’t know if it will become an essential either. For me it was an experiment from which I expected nothing, and I was lucky to be on the radar of a press who is all about looking for new permutations in horror fiction.

ML: Likewise, how do you believe that your choice to include readers in the actual writing of the book has affected your career?

DD: When I had the Halloween 2006 “Who do you want to die?” poll for EMPIRE, I think readers liked being involved in that way. I don’t know if anyone thought it was gimmicky or that I wasn’t taking the story seriously. Probably, but I was fully prepared to go along with whatever the results were, and was excited at seeing how it might challenge me. The essential plot wouldn’t have really changed, but…well, if they’d killed Voorhees (who came in second place), the sequel would be completely different.

ML: So if you couldn’t pick on zombies, what topic, if any, would you find similar fascination in?

DD: I think werewolves, which are tied with zombies for my favorite creature feature. I have some ideas for a werewolf story – nothing’s fleshed out yet, but it’s another case of trying to think of weird angles that’ll intrigue diehards.

ML: Where do you think the zombie genre, and horror in general, is going?

DD: Zombies are never going away. They may peak in the mainstream in a few years, but they’re definitely never going away. The Romero-type zombie can be taken in so many different directions, and speak to so many themes. I don’t know anything about trends, but I think the horror genre overall is gaining more and more legitimacy, and that’s certainly reflected in how zombie fiction is evolving.

ML: Finally, what do we have to look forward to when it comes to David Dunwoody fiction?

DD: Later this year, EMPIRE’S END, the sequel to EMPIRE. The Reaper discovers where he came from, and where he’s meant to go – undead aberrations encroach from both ends of that long road, and this time the great reckoning will take place not in a ghost town, but a snowbound city.

This year Library of Horror Press will release a collection of very weird horror tales called UNBOUND. Permuted Press has picked up my other serial, THE HARVEST CYCLE, which mixes Lovecraftian aliens and genocidal androids in a post-apocalyptic world.

I am currently at work on a volume of all-zombie short stories. I really think it’ll be my best stuff yet. I was burned out on the undead after EMPIRE END, but some things just won’t stay…well, you know. Thanks Michele!

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