Featured

Interview with Joe Schreiber

Joe Schreiber resides in Hershey, Pennsylvania and is a midnight shift MRI Technician and novelist primarily of the Horror genre. He is best known as the author of Chasing The Dead (2006) and Eat The Dark (2007) from Ballantine/Del Rey. Death Troopers, is his standalone Star Wars horror novel for Lucasfilm, but another one will be out in 2010. His most recent novel, a ghost mystery none-the-less is called No Doors, No Window. He also has written novels based on the TV show Supernatural and has a new novel coming out in 2010 called Supernatural: The Unholy Cause.

ZWN: Thanks for agreeing to do this interview. For our first question, we’re coming out swinging. We need to know-Space zombies? Or something else all together?
JS: Space zombies. Totally.

ZWN: Are you a Star Wars fan or are you a horror fan that wrote a Star Wars book?
JS: I’m a fan of the original trilogy. For me, it kinda stops there. Not sure if I’m really a horror fan at all. I definitely enjoy the ’70s style horror of Alien and the early Carpenter stuff. Stephen King, before he quit drinking. That sort of thing.

ZWN: There’s mixed feelings about Death Troopers being the first horror book in the Star Wars universe. Some say it is, some say it Isn’t. So, other than Death Troopers, have you had any experiences with horror in the Star Wars universe?
JS: None whatsoever, unless you count being seven years old and freaked out of my mind by the towering appearance of Darth Vader on the big screen. Not to mention that thing sloshing around inside the trash compacter. Anything brushing by your leg under the surface is instantly terrifying.

ZWN: Was Death Troopers a fun book to write, or was it a task, and did you feel restrained in what you could do since it is the Star Wars universe? It’s not like you could have Darth Vader become a zombie right?
JS: Death Troopers was one of the most fun experiences in my career. It was the best of both worlds — having access to an entire toybox of legendary iconography, and the bring a few of my own rubber monsters along for the ride.

ZWN: In Death Troopers you surprised us by bringing in 2 major characters from the Star Wars universe. How did you manage to pull that off?
JS: I asked Lucasfilm. They said, “Cool.”

ZWN: Did you have any particular characters in mind when you first started writing Death Troopers, that never made it into the book?
JS: I wanted to write a zombified droid that had stuffed itself full of human parts. At one point somebody fires a blaster at it and it explodes like a slaughterhouse dumpster all over everything. In the end, it didn’t really advance the plot.

ZWN: If you could turn anyone in the Star Wars universe into a zombie, who would it be? (Please say Jar Jar, please say Jar Jar)
JS: Jar Jar. But seriously, to my mind, the best zombies are the ones that start out most recognizable, and transform from there. Personally I’d love to see a Princess Leia zombie. Han goes in for the kiss and chomp.

ZWN: Any more Star Wars horror books planned?
JS: There’s another one coming out in October 2010. It’s another horror one, but not specifically a sequel.

Time for the standard ZWN questions:

ZWN: Do you have a favorite zombie book or movie?
JS: Big fan of the original NOTLD because it still looks like a documentary or an industrial film, which makes it almost ageless. Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead is pretty cool too. I like the dead thing that wags its severed spine like a tail. Plus the way it incorporates Romero’s movie into its reality in an almost post-modern kind of way. And the punk girl’s death fantasy about being eaten alive by a bunch of old men is one for the ages.

ZWN: Do you have a zombie survival plan and if so, what is it?
JS: Get infected early while the eating is good.

ZWN: In dealing with zombies, what would be your weapon of choice?
JS: A nihilistic attitude coupled with Jack Daniels and superior firepower.

ZWN: Do you think zombies are overdone, or is there still room for growth there?
JS: I think the word “zombie” is utterly played out. I’m in a bookstore and I see “A Very Zombie Christmas,” or whatever, I’m already onto the next thing. The notion of the undead, however, can still be very frightening when presented in the context of primal things that we fear the most…a noise downstairs in the middle of the night, the sudden realization that the person in front of us is not at all what we though he was.

ZWN: Who do you think is the best zombie hunter, alive or dead?
JS: I got nothing.

ZWN: Brains, yummy or gross?
JS: Megan Fox’s brains are probably pretty yummy. I suppose it depends on what she’s thinking about.

Thank you for your time Joe.

Be sure to check out Joe Schreiber’s blog at: http://scaryparent.blogspot.com/

Tags: Star Wars, stormtroopers, zombies