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Interview with S.G. Browne

Interview with Scott Browne (Author of Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament) at the 8^th Annual West Hollywood Book Fair:

ZWN: You were inspired to write Breathers from a short story that you wrote, but what inspired you to write the short story in the first place?

SB: I’ve always been a fan of zombies, ever since I was young. I saw Night of the Living Dead when I was in 6^th grade; I was 11 years old. I’ve just enjoyed zombies all the way through, but I wanted to do something a little bit differently and I actually imagined, Well, what would I do if I was a zombie and I wasn’t your typical flesh eating mindless monster, but I reanimated and all of a sudden was a non human? What would I do? Would I have any rights? Would I be able to get a job or go to school? Could I eat out in public? What would that be like? So that’s where it came about and I’ve been writing for about 12 years and I’ve never written anything zombie-ish. So I wanted to write some kind of zombie story, but I wanted to do a different take than most everybody else.

ZWN: Breathers is your first published book, but can you give us an idea of the kind of stuff you wrote before Breathers?

SB: Sure, the general answer is kind of straight supernatural stuff inspired by Stephen King, Dean Koontz, F.O. Wilson, the holy grail of cool authors that I grew up reading. But, the first book was about witchcraft, reincarnation and demons. The second one was about supernatural creatures that lived in a town that haunted the town and there was a ghost story involved as well. The third one, which is the only one that I might go back to and try to redo is called Obsession. It’s about a main character that has OCD and because of his OCD he’s able to see these shadows out of the corner of his eye and he thinks it’s just him going crazy but what they actually are, are demons from another dimension intruding upon his town’s reality and gradually taking more and more control of the reality and so he starts to really go crazy but he’s actually the only one that’s sane because he sees what’s going on and how it’s affecting the town. It was a lot of fun to write and I could go back to that one; it’s first person but it wasn’t really dark comedy. It was more straight serious and natural but I think it has the possibility of being rewritten in a darkly comedic manner.

ZWN: The recipes in Breathers were pretty disgusting in a comedic way and some of the stuff described in Breathers seemed like it came from an episode of CSI, with the decomposition and such. Where does that sick stuff come from? Also, what kind of research did you do?

SB: I’ll take the research part first. The research, I went online and found a couple of good articles about human decomposition that were actually by Dr. Tricia McNair and I called her and I acknowledge her in the book. But the main crux of what I used for my research is Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Cadavers by Mary Roach. It’s an awesome book, if you’re curious about what happens to your body after death, what it’s used for in terms of medical experiments, those that are donated to science, the history of embalming. She tackles it with a somewhat irreverent flair, but it’s very humorous and it was a great source of material for me to use. It had all the stuff in there like I have one zombie haiku that says, “Maggots feast on flesh / Subcutaneous buffet / Sounds like rice krispies.” That was actually something that the concept was taken from Stiff. So definitely a lot of that came from there and in terms of the recipes, it just seemed sort of natural when they started eating for him to try to figure out how to cook it up. I actually used a Random House book and they wouldn’t let me use the term; it was a Random House cookbook because Random House is the publisher. So I couldn’t say it was a Random House cookbook. So it had to be a generic cookbook that he used.

ZWN: Breathers is a dark comedy. Is that a type of genre that you enjoy writing in?

SB: Most definitely, and I didn’t realize it until I started writing Breathers. I hadn’t thought about taking any of my short stories that were darkly comedic, ’cause I’d written a few, and make them novel length until I read Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk and I thought if he was able to make it work for a whole novel that when I started writing that it really resonated with me quite a bit more and so my next book is dark comedy with a supernatural edge. The ideals for my next three are all very definite supernatural, first person dark comedy and so that’s kind of where I see myself fitting in. Whether or not you consider it Christopher Moore or Chuck Palahniuk, it’s that type of deal.

ZWN: Breathers dealt with issues of racism and prejudice. Did that just come natural to you as you were writing it or were you inspired in some other fashion?

SB: Well, even though it became a definite theme throughout the book when I first started writing it, that wasn’t my intention to write something that dealt with issues of racism and prejudice and discrimination. It was just something that really developed out of the natural storytelling and as the story went along I knew that these issues had to be at least broached and I tried to do it without beating the reader over the head with it and making it the reason for telling the story. Really the reason for telling the story is these zombies try to find a purpose in a world in which they have no purpose and that’s really what thrives the narrative through.

ZWN: Breathers takes place in Santa Cruz. Was any of it based on places that you hang out at or knew?

SB: Most definitely. I lived in Santa Cruz from 1992 to 2006 and the house that Andy lives in, even though that’s not my house, the neighborhood is loosely based on it. There’s the ravine he has to go through when he takes his walks and when he goes to the community center for the meetings. That was right next to my house and the mortuary that he would stand in front of, that actually was there at the time I was writing it, but now it’s gone; it’s actually a health center now. The First Baptist Mortuary was definitely there and then a lot of the other landmarks when he’s going on his walks. There’s no real big Santa Cruz landmarks like the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk or anything downtown, or any of the things that most people associate (the Mystery Spot) with it, because that wasn’t necessarily my intention. He was going to spending his time going to specific things, but if you’re from Santa Cruz and you know Sir Froggy’s Pub, or the Crawfords Antiques, or The Pet Pals, or Elaine’s Dance Studio, that are mentioned in there, you’ll recognize it. I played a little bit with the geography in terms of the So Cal Cemetery, but that’s there.

ZWN: The zombies you wrote about in Breathers seem more like the slow George Romero type zombies. Is that true, and which do you prefer, slow or fast zombies?

SB: I would say that they’re not really like the slow moving zombies in Romero’s. Near the end, when they actually are moving and active, I think there’s a scene where Andy actually says, “We’re tenacious and we’re fast” and he actually moves with quite a bit of agility. Andy really is a slow moving zombie because of his injury, because his left ankle was pulverized and his shoulder is pulverized, so he’s your quintessential slow moving zombie. But the rest of them are just normal people who happen to deal with their behaviors and the way they move is based on their injuries. In terms of fast moving or slow moving: I thought the fast moving zombies in 28 Days Later and the remake of Dawn of the Dead really kind of upped the adrenaline factor, but the slow moving zombies- what’s great about them is their sheer mass of numbers that overwhelms you and it’s a little creepier with them. It’s a little more frightening, I think, when they’re moving fast, coming at you with so much ferocity, but when they’re just sort of slowly laboring toward you and there’s so many of them, it’s hard to top that.

Going back to one of the questions you asked me earlier. One of the reasons why I enjoy zombies so much and thought they would be perfect for this is they are tragically comical, they’re shuffling along, they’re decomposing, there’s just something very darkly comedic.

ZWN: Breathers, pro-zombie, anti-zombie, or somewhere in the middle?

SB: I think it’s somewhere in the middle. Somebody made a comment on a review on one of the sites I saw where they thought that I had lost the message in there, which was pro-zombie rights. Well, there wasn’t a message of pro-zombie rights in there. Really the message is that it would be tough to have them co-exist. So, it would be pro-zombie. I wanted to get the perspective of what it would be like inside the head of a zombie, albeit admittedly, these are sentient zombies, it’s not somebody whose brain is completely muddled and they have some grasps of thought, this is somebody who actually has all the emotions and memories and feelings, but they’re just dead.

So, it’s a different type of perspective. To write a perspective from a zombie that’s actually shuffling and wanting human flesh would be a different type of story, but this was definitely, I would say it would be more pro-zombie to give you pause, to think about the other side.

ZWN: What about a sequel to Breathers, or a spinoff, or a prequel?

SB: Never say never, but again if I can come up with something that’s not derivative. I don’t want to be derivative of Breathers, I don’t want to rehash the same material, I don’t want to go over the same stuff. If it’s fresh and it’s a different take on it or it’s something going in a different direction, then I would definitely do something that would be, while if not necessarily a sequel, it would at least be related to it. But, I don’t have any plans at the moment to write a sequel. At the moment all of the books that I’m doing now from here on out, like I said, dark comedy with a supernatural, fantastic, sci-fi, or horror edge, but not necessarily zombies.

ZWN: How goes the progress with the Breathers movie? How will you be involved?

SB: The progress with the Breathers movie right now is that a script is being written and it’s waiting to be approved and then once they are able to do that then the process will continue, obviously, and they’ll start to attach people to it. The studio is very excited about it and they’re looking forward to it. The people involved with it are excited. I have complete confidence that the screenwriter Geoff La Tulippe is going to create a very great script based on the book. In terms of being involved, they’ve let me know what was going on with it, the changes they’ve had to make. I don’t have any specific input saying I don’t like these changes and I don’t need to because I understand that I need to let go of control and let them do what needs to be done to make it the best possible movie it can be and I don’t want to get in the way of that.

ZWN: What has Andy been up to lately?

SB: Andy is still answering questions on the blog. You can always ask Andy a question. He does go around and sign books in the guise of me at pretty much any bookstore he comes across. He’s decomposing a little bit, I’m sure, and doing his best. He’s taking his “medicine” to make sure he maintains his personal hygiene.

ZWN: You are the founder of Undead Anonymous, correct? Tell us a bit about UA.

SB: Well, Undead Anonymous is an organization to help the recently reanimated adjust to their new existence and that includes the rules you have to follow within a world ruled by Breathers and twice weekly Undead Anonymous meetings, where you can go in and there’s a moderator who’s also a zombie and you can join with all the other fellow zombie brethren in learning how to cope with all of the challenges you have to face now that you are one of the living dead and have no rights and have been thrown out by society. The UA meetings are overseen by a Breather liaison from the Department of Resurrection through the county, in this case the county of Santa Cruz. So you do have to deal with a little bit of oversight, but for the most part so long as you behave like nice little zombies and you don’t go out and start behaving the way they do in movies, then you can co-exist with the living but you still have to deal with a lot of the problems, but UA is there to help. If you go to the website, it gives you basically some feedback and testimonials about how UA can help. http://www.undeadanonymous.com/

ZWN: One of the Undead Commandments for UA is “You will not develop on-line personalities.” Why is that?

SB: Well, if you go onto the internet, that the internet is communication, and communication, as everybody knows, is power and so if they’re on there and able to communicate with other zombies and they’re finding out what other zombies might be doing, plus the other problem is, they don’t want zombies going on and going into chatrooms talking to people like normal humans do. They’re keeping the zombie down. They don’t want them to have the same access as humans.

ZWN: Your next book is called Fated. Can we get a bit of information on that?

SB: Sure, my problem with Fated is that with Breathers I can tell people that it’s Fight Club meets Shaun of the Dead, only with zombies as the good guys and they’re like, “Ok. I understand completely.” Fated is a little bit  higher concept or different kind of concept and so I don’t have one line. One line would be, “It’s a dark, irreverent comedy about fate, destiny and the cosmic consequences of getting involved in the lives of humans.” But to expand that so that you understand a bit more, the main character is Fate and he has Destiny-envy because she gets to deal with all the people who are destined for greatness while he gets all the people who are slated for mediocrity or to not live up to their full potential. He gets all of the drug addicts. There’s nothing wrong with the people who are garbage collectors, but you’re just not destined to be a garbage collector and most of the politicians are fated to be politicians. He gets the one hit wonders, he gets The Knack and destiny gets The Beatles. His client list is much larger and has exploded with the population explosion, so he’s overwhelmed with his job, and he’s getting worn out and tired and he’s getting a little sick of all of his humans making bad choices and screwing up their lives, so he starts to get involved in their lives and that’s against the rules, which starts to have cosmic consequences. Also, he’s got a problem with Destiny, he’s got a five hundred year old grudge with Death, his best friends are Sloth and Gluttony and he also has to deal with Jerry, who is God, who of course is breathing down his neck about the problems he’s creating. It’s a lot of fun and there is some social commentary in there from the standpoint that Fate’s contagion is that the consumer culture causes people to make a lot of bad decisions about their lives and not live up to their potential because they are constantly accusing things based on what people think they should be or what they should own in order to define who they are rather than looking inside themselves to define who they are. They take the forms of humans; obviously they have some abilities so they can choose to make themselves invisible if they want to. They walk around in what are called “mansuits,” which are highly advanced suits that mimic the appearance of man. They’re also able to travel at the speed of light to be ubiquitous; they can be in New York at one moment, California the next, Las Vegas the next, and Amsterdam, Poland, Sweden, and they can pop all over to deal with all the people that they have to deal with and make sure that they are fulfilling the quotas and keeping up their workloads. It was a lot of fun to write.

ZWN: Time for the standard ZWN questions.

Do you have a zombie survival plan and if so, what is it?

SB: My only zombie survival plan-I’ve been asked this. There are five things I’d take with me and I can come up with a handful. A comfortable pair of shoes, definitely. I have my camelback, so I have my water. I probably would have my backpack filled with all my needs in it, but I’d have to make sure that somebody couldn’t grab that. Because if you’re wearing loose clothing, they can grab it, so at least I can shed the backpack. I have a Louisville Slugger that I’ve had since I was four years old, so it’s small and it’s a lot less cumbersome. It’s easy to wield that, because honestly people don’t know, if you hit a zombie in the head, it’s really going to kill them. So if you got a gun and all of a sudden the gun’s not working anymore and a zombie’s coming, you need something to take them down. Also, a gun triggers noise. I don’t have my fifth thing. I would probably hole up somewhere and make sure I had some kind of elevation. I live on the third floor of my apartment building. So I would definitely build up there and make sure I had access to the roof so if I had to take refuge up there I could.

ZWN: In dealing with zombies, what would be your weapon of choice?

SB: If I’m going with something I have in my apartment and I don’t have a gun, I’m not going to take a butcher knife, that’s too much close hand-to-hand. It would probably be my Louisville Slugger. My fifth item from the previous question would be my I-Pod, so I could have a soundtrack to fight with.

ZWN: Do you think zombies are overdone, or is there still room for growth there?

SB: I think there’s room for growth, that’s one of the reasons why I think they’re so popular. The sentient opinion as to why zombies are so popular- most people think it’s because of economic uncertainty and global fears about terrorism and a lot of things are going on right now and zombies are always popular when that happens. But I don’t really think so because they’re extremely popular now; they weren’t this popular back during the Vietnam War and Watergate, in the Iran hostage crisis and the gasoline shortage. They weren’t around during those times. When Wall Street crashed in 1987, they weren’t around then, not to this popularity level. I think it’s because they’ve been brought out of their box and they have more versatility and they’re faster, they’re funnier, they’re sentient, they’re doing marriage counseling, they’re on the internet, and like Jonathon Coulton’s song “Re Your Brains,” they’re serenading their ex co-workers about wanting to devour their brains. They’re doing a whole lot of things that they haven’t done before and so I think the fact that they are doing that adds popularity. I think so long as they’re able to stay some of the same- archetypal, but give them a chance to sort of grow and develop some new abilities, a new type of storyline, then I think they’ll continue to be popular.

ZWN: Who do you think is the best zombie hunter, alive or dead?

SB: I have to take Bruce Campbell. By the way, I would love if Bruce Campbell would play a role in the film version of Breathers. I think he would make a great father of Andy. Bruce Campbell is my favorite zombie hunter.

ZWN: Brains, yummy or gross?

SB: I would say probably yummy.

ZWN: Thank you for your time Scott.

You can see what Scott is up to here: http://sgbrowne.com/

Or you can ask Andy (the main character of Breathers) questions at: http://sgbrowne.com/category/ask-andy/

Or if you’re a recent addition to the Undead, get help, we mean it, get help at: http://www.undeadanonymous.com/

We asked Scott Browne a question on Librarything.com about the writing process:
ZWN: What kind of advice can you give to aspiring writers out there?

SB: Well, there are the usual suspects, like write every day (which we don’t all follow, truth be told), join a supportive writers’ group (which has been invaluable for me), and don’t take rejection personally (which you will, but you’ll get over it).

However, the one piece of advice, or the one suggestion, I like to throw out there is: write something you would want to read.

Don’t listen to what anyone else says you should write. Don’t try to write like a particular author or in a particular style or on a particular subject just because it’s popular or you think it’s what people want to read.

Write something that matters to you. Something that makes you laugh or cry or shudder in fear. Something that resonates with you on some level. Because if it doesn’t resonate with you, then it’s not going to resonate with anyone else.

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