ZWN: What was it like being in the original NotLD? Did you have any idea at the time that it would have such a lasting impression and be such an infuence on other zombie films?

JO’D: Playing Barbra was a very exciting ‘next career step’ for me. Prior to the shoot, I had only performed on stage, radio, and TV. Having the opportunity to expand into film work was absolutely wonderful!

No, I certainly had no inkling (nor, I believe, did anyone else involved in the making of NOTLD) that our film would make such an impression and have such a long-running influence on other zombie films.

ZWN: There was a bit of controversy when NotLD first came out. The movie was criticized for its explicit content and a black man in a leading role as a hero. What did you think at the time? What do you think now?

JO’D: I was aware that NIGHT was initially criticized for what reviewers felt was ‘explicit’ content, but did not realize that having a black man in a leading role was received with such disfavor. I personally thought then, as I do now, that having Duane Jones play Ben was an excellent decision on the part of George and company. Duane was an excellent actor — the best to audition — and his being black made absolutely no difference to me. In retrospect, I feel that not making a big ‘racial’ deal about his character was one of the defining characteristics of the film — one that helped set it a part from others then and those soon to come.

ZWN: Is it true that there was a lot of improvisation going on with the dialogue? Do you remember any examples?

JO’D: Yes, there was a great deal of dialogue improvisation. One example in particular was my whole speech to ‘Ben’ about what happened to Johnny and me in the cemetery.

ZWN: You were quite a screamer back then, any comment?

JO’D: It’s funny you make that comment. Personally, I don’t feel I was as much a screamer as I was a terrified ‘yeller’ (if there is such a word )

ZWN: “They’re coming to get you Barbra”, is the most memorable line from NotLD and just about one of the most memorable movie lines in general as well. How often have you had that phrase uttered to you? Are you sick and tired of it?

JO’D: I don’t think a week goes by that someone doesn’t say that line to me. Do I get tired of hearing it? ABSOLUTELY NOT! I love it!

ZWN: Time for the standard ZWN questions. Tell us about your first zombie experience.

JO’D: My first zombie/ghoul experience was while filming NIGHT, and to be honest with you, some of those zombie scenes scared the beejeebies out of me.

ZWN: In dealing with zombies, what would be your weapon (if any) of choice?

JO’D: I’m not much of a weapons person, so I guess I’ll go with my legs. Running the heck away from them seems my best way of coping.

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

JO’D: With the feedback I hear at horror conventions, zombies are here to stay. Do you think there might ever be a story about zombies falling in love and having baby zombies? That might be a way to take it to the next level.

ZWN: Who (or what) do you think would be the best zombie hunter? They could be alive or dead.

JO’D: Woody Harrelson gets my vote!

ZWN: If you were a zombie, who would you eat first?

JO’D: Gee, that’s a toughie. How about Osama Bin Laden. But then if I did that, I’d probably get horribly sick to my stomach.

ZWN: Thank you so much for the interview. In addition to her signature role, O’Dea has appeared in the television movie The Pirate and the films Claustrophobia, Evil Deeds, and October Moon. She also appeared in November Son, The Ocean, and Women’s Studies. O’Dea owns and operates O’Dea Communications, a firm which deals in oral communications training (from Wikipedia).

ZWN: When and why did you begin writing?

Richard Lee Byers: I started writing in the mid-eighties. I’d had notions about being a writer ever since I was a kid. But as an adult, I detoured into working in the mental-health field. I eventually burned out on that as many people do, and then I inherited a little money. I figured that if I was ever going to try to be a professional writer, that was the time. So I left my job and had at it.

ZWN: What’s the first thing you ever had published?

Richard Lee Byers: My first published piece was a short story in a small-press horror magazine.

ZWN: In The Forgotten Realms, how are you able to write world changing stories like The Year of Rogue Dragons and The Haunted Lands? Do you have to clear these stories with Wizards of the Coast? Do you often consult other authors?

Richard Lee Byers: As a general rule, it’s actually people at Wizards of the Coast who come up with the idea for the big, world-shaking stories. Then they ask a writer to tackle the concept. Now, the writer may end up adding significantly to the premise. For example, Wizards asked me to write a trilogy about a Rage of Dragons. But it was my idea this Rage would be different and worse than any that came before it and that in the course of coping with it, my heroes would find out what causes a Rage.
I don’t have occasion to consult with other authors (as opposed to my editor) very often. I have bothered Ed Greenwood a time or two.

ZWN: What do you enjoy about writing? More so, what do you enjoy about writing in the Forgotten Realms?

Richard Lee Byers: I enjoy writing because I like making up characters and tinkering with language. I enjoy working in the Forgotten Realms because it’s an interesting, richly detailed fantasy universe that lends itself to the kind of plot I enjoy. I also like it that there are a lot of readers who are already fans of the property and likely to take an interest in any novel set there, mine included. Over the course of my career, I’ve published a number of stories that I thought were good and then never heard a word from anybody about them. That doesn’t happen when you do a FR story. You may not like everything you end up hearing, but you will hear something.

ZWN: What’s it like getting to play around with awesome characters that weren’t created by you (such as Sammaster and Szass Tam)? Do you have to step lightly?

Richard Lee Byers: I wouldn’t call it stepping lightly. I make an honest effort to do my research and be consistent with what’s already established. But in addition to FR characters, I’ve written about Elric, Spider-Man, and the X-Men, and the experience has always been the same. For the duration, you feel like the character belongs to you, and you work with him the same way you would work with any character to tell the best story you can tell.

ZWN: You have a story in an upcoming zombie anthology titled Zombiesque, Can you tell us anything about that?

Richard Lee Byers: It’s set in a future where the zombie apocalypse has already been dealt with. Civilization has survived, and the virus that causes the zombie plague has been turned into a recreational drug.

ZWN: If you could write a zombie apocalypse novel set in the Forgotten Realms, which one character from the Realms would you want to write in there?

Richard Lee Byers: I suppose Szass Tam. There would be some reason why the great necromancer’s magic couldn’t control the new breed of zombie, and the story would unfold from there.

ZWN: Who’s your favorite character that you’ve come up with, it could be The Forgotten Realms or other?

Richard Lee Byers: That fluctuates a lot. I tend to think that whatever story I’m current writing or just finished is my best, and that a character from that work is my best character. I recently wrote an urban fantasy novel that my agent is shopping around, and if you’d asked me while I was working on it, I would have said the hero was my best character ever. But after I finished that one, I returned to the Forgotten Realms to write about Aoth, Gaedynn, Jhesrhi, and Khouryn, and then I fell back in love with them.

ZWN: Furthermore, where do you come up with such rich memorable characters like Dorn Graybrook the Half-Golem Fighter/Ranger (The Year of Rogue Dragons) & Aoth Fezim the Thayan Fighter/Wizard Griffon rider (The Brotherhood of the Griffon)?

Richard Lee Byers: I generally come up with a vague idea of the plot, then try to create characters who suit it well. Dorn happened because I knew I wanted to focus on a team of professional monster hunters, and I decided it would work well to have the leader be a guy who hated dragons. So then I had to figure out why he hated them. The character’s tragic history, freakish appearance, and surly personality all followed from that and a dip into the D&D sourcebooks.

Aoth happened partly because I knew I didn’t want viewpoint characters who thought of Thay as an evil, hellish land. I wanted characters who simply thought of it as home and would hate seeing it devastated by civil war and black magic. Aoth fit the bill. At the start of the story, while he’s a highly accomplished person, he’s also a pretty simple, contented fellow. (Of course, he changes as his world blows up around him.) Initially, if he’s troubled about anything, it’s that he looks like a commoner but comes from an aristocratic family. I wanted to make him just a bit of an outsider because I think it makes his move away from simply being a good, obedient soldier more credible. Besides, you have to do something to make your major characters stand out from the crowd. He becomes spellscarred in the way that he does because I needed some way to keep him alive and active throughout a story that spans a hundred years. He’s a griffon rider because I found out from one of the sourcebooks that Thay had griffon-riding soldiers, and I thought that was cool. He had to be some kind of Thayan soldier to play his part in the story I had in mind.

ZWN: You’re a professional fencer? How good are you? Can you beat Bruce Dickinson (from Iron Maiden)?

Richard Lee Byers: I’m definitely not a professional fencer. I don’t think America has professional fencers except for coaches, and I’m not one.

I was never a really good fencer, and I’m not as good now as I used to be. I’m getting older, and I don’t have as much time to practice. But I still win a bout now and then.

I have no idea if I could beat Bruce Dickinson? What weapon does he fence (I fence epee), and how good is he?

ZWN: So, you’ve got two more books coming out in The Brotherhood of the Griffon series and a story in Zombiesque, what else are you working on?

Richard Lee Byers: I already mentioned that I recently wrote an urban fantasy novel my agent is trying to sell. I’m currently working on an on-spec comic-book miniseries with an artist friend of mine. I’m supposed to write a short story for a small-press fantasy anthology between now and the end of July. A publisher other than WotC has expressed interest in seeing a proposal for game-related fiction. My editor at WotC and I have discussed what Forgotten Realms project will follow my current trilogy, so I should be tackling that by and by.

ZWN: As a gamer/Gamemaster, do Undead and in particularly zombies ever make it into your games?

Richard Lee Byers: I don’t think I could run a fantasy game without having the living dead show up occasionally. But the last campaign I ran (in theory, I still am running it, but I haven’t had time lately) was built around Lovecraftian concepts and monsters. The players would probably have been happy to see a bunch of zombies shamble onto the stage.

ZWN: Do you have a favorite author or book?

Richard Lee Byers: That’s a tough question because I admire so many. I really can’t narrow it down to just one book. I suppose my favorite writer is Fritz Leiber, who did brilliant work in science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

ZWN: What was the last book you read?

Richard Lee Byers: It’s sad that my memory is so bad that I’m blanking on the answer to this question. I can tell you that I’m currently reading Deeper, by James A. Moore.

ZWN: Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?

Richard Lee Byers: The last three writers I discovered and liked a lot are Simon R. Green, Charles Stross, and Matt Taibbi. I don’t think any of them is a “new” author anymore according to any sort of objective standard. But I hadn’t read them before, so they were new to me.

ZWN: Do you have any advice for other writers?

Richard Lee Byers: Don’t limit yourself with preconceived notions about what kind of writer you are and what sort of material you want to write. At least consider any opportunity that comes you way.

ZWN: Time for the standard ZWN questions.

ZWN: Do you have a favorite zombie book or movie?

Richard Lee Byers: World War Z is a really good book. Fido, 28 Days Later, and The Last Man on Earth are really good movies, but the original Night of the Living Dead is still the champ.

ZWN: Do you have a zombie survival plan and if so, would you care to share?

Richard Lee Byers: I don’t. I’ll have to wing it. I have friends who are gun enthusiasts, and I will probably try to team up with them.

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

Richard Lee Byers: A shotgun.

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

Richard Lee Byers: There are an awful lot of zombie stories that all employ essentially the same schtick. But it is still possible to come up with a variation on the theme.

ZWN: Who (or what) do you think is the best zombie hunter? They could be alive or dead, real or made up.

Richard Lee Byers: I believe Marvel Comics is about to do a miniseries where the Punisher fights zombies. I haven’t read it yet, but I imagine he shows considerable aptitude for the job.

ZWN: If you were a zombie, who would you eat first?

Richard Lee Byers: Someone lean yet juicy.

ZWN: Brains, yummy or gross?

Richard Lee Byers: Depends on the brain, I imagine.

ZWN: Thank you for your time Richard and long live Jivex!

Check out what Richard Lee Byers is up to at: http://www.richardleebyers.com/

You can buy his latest book, The Captive Flame (Brotherhood of the Griffon, Book 1) at bookstores now, or online at: https://www.amazon.com

ZWN: I know you go over this on your website www.zombieportraits.com, but please briefly tell the folks out there in your own words what it is you do and what they get for their money they send you.

RS: Well, primarily what I do, are Zombie Portraits of people from all around the globe. I am emailed a JPEG head shot, and I use the photo as reference to produce a painted illustration of the subject, or subjects as zombies. These are hand painted with no computer generated imagery whatsoever. They are also not caricature zombie drawings. I try to come as close to the subject’s actual likeness as possible. Sometimes, I get sent a few pics to use for reference… the hairdo in this, the face in that one, etc, although I prefer to work with a really clear head shot. I generally use watercolour, ink, and pencil crayon for the colour paintings. I am just launching a service where I do a super detailed black and white portrait in ink as well. A single’s portrait is 9” by 11”, while a couple’s is 12” by 15”. Although, I do get requests for special orders, and can do as large as a 20” x 30” inch size… That’s the biggest size the watercolour paper I use comes in. I use high quality watercolour paper and the customer gets both a digital copy of the scanned painting, so they know it’s done, and of course the original painting which I mail flat, in a bubble wrap envelope, reinforced with foam board so it doesn’t get damaged. I can manage to fill an order within a week maximum. Usually within a matter of days. And we always offer rush shipping if someone wants to pay the extra S&H costs to get it extra fast.

ZWN: Do you keep your prices for zombie portraits relatively fixed? Or is it like the price of gas and goes up each year?

RS: The price has always reflected the cost of materials, the hours put in and the sheer uniqueness of the item. When you order a Zombie Portrait, it isn’t something that I can simply pull off of a shelf and ship out. It is an organic, one of a kind piece of art designed specifically with the likeness of the recipient in mind. It’s not a computer print out, but the actual one of a kind original painting. I love when someone gets the original and they say they love it even more ‘in person’ so to speak. I don’t even have premixed paints tor use templates of any kind. So even if I did the same person’s Zombie Portrait 10 times in a row, all of them would be unique and different in many ways. Also the price reflects my overall experience. As of this writing I’ve done over 900 to Portraits among many other living dead projects. The price has been fixed since we started in late 2006, but this year it will finally edge up slightly. It’s pretty weird when our own customers tell us we should be charging more.

ZWN: So, on your website www.zombieportraits.com you take people’s photos (headshots) and turn them into zombies. You also do couples too. Have you ever had any weird requests?

RS: Yeah, like I said, people send me their pics and I turn them into zombies. I think at this point I may have even done more couples portraits than single ones in fact.  A lot of wedding/anniversary presents. Family portraits, etc. As for weird requests, so far nothing has been too weird for me to do. I’ve been zombifying pets, like dogs and cats, I did a dolphin once for a couple who got their photo taken at SeaWorld, full frontal nudity, toddlers, babies, and I once did a guy holding a chicken! They’ve all been a wonderful challenge!

ZWN: Do you have a name for the process? Are you ‘zombifying’ or ‘Zombizing’ people?

RS: We’ve always called it zombification or zombifying. It seems to be the appropriate word. I think that the first time I heard that phrase it was in “The Serpent and the Rainbow”.

ZWN: Have you ever done any celebrities?

RS: Yes, quite a few actually. I think that it was our first Christmas season that Scott Ian from Anthrax got himself and 10 of his friends done including Brian Posehn and Kirk Hammond from Metallica. I’ve done many others since then. Too many to mention, some big celebrities and many many minor ones as well. Some I’ve done just for fun, like the Zombie Spock I did for fun. Other than Spock, those have been orders through Zombie Portraits, and then of course, all the celebs I chose to parody in Zombiewood.

ZWN: Have you ever had anybody that might’ve looked better after you ‘zombified’ them?

RS: Courtney Love.

ZWN: You also sell t-shirts, greeting cards, posters, and mini posters. I particularly like the Deadface (parody of Scarface) poster. Have you ever thought of doing more parodies like that? Maybe like Zombatar (parody of Avatar) or Twilight Zombies (parody of the Twilight Saga)?

RS: Basically it’s like this; if people request to see it I’ll do it.  I require very little motivation when it comes to drawing zombies… even you just mentioning those two has got me thinking…  I’ll probably do those now… Although, I did do the three leads from Twilight for the Zombiewood book.

ZWN: What’s this Zombiewood Weekly: The Celebrity Dead Exposed?

RS: That was a whole lot of fun to do! I was basically given free rein to zombify tons of celebrities for a parody of those horrible entertainment mags. It was quite a challenge. I referenced tons of pics out there, like I do with the portraits and took the best/worst elements of each to use for likeness. The end result was just fantastic. It’s been available for pre-order for some time now and should be in stores by the end of July.

ZWN: Care to tell us a little about some of the other zombie or non zombie stuff you’ve worked on?

RS: Wow, well, I’ve got lot of fun products that are in Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million stores. Stuff likes zombie puzzles, bookmarks and journals. There’s my Zombie Handbook that came out last year and is still going strong. I still draw a new zombie image every day for my blog. I’ve got about four hundred tattoo designs and counting on Tattoofinder.com which include a mix of zombies, animals, babes and monsters. I was just included as an actual character in fellow zombie aficionado Jonathan Maberry’s book Rot and Ruin, as, what else, an ‘erosion artist’, and did some character ‘zombie chase cards’ for the book as well. I’m also working, albeit slowly, on a large anthology zombie comic with some great writers, like D.G. Chichester. But I’m sure I left tons of stuff out…

ZWN: I ran across portraits you did of George A. Romero and Tom Savini, what was that all about?

RS: Those were, among others including myself, done for a zombie documentary called Zombiemania which runs on the Space channel here in Canada and on Starz in the U. S. We, meaning Romero, Savini, Greg Nicotero, Max brooks and others that are interviewed at one point all end up in a freeze frame on the screen and we each morph into our zombie counterparts in the sequences. I basically illustrated each interviewee as zombies. It’s really very neat to watch.

ZWN: Stupid question, but is there any relation to Dardano Sacchetti the Italian screenwriter known for his work in the horror and zombie genre and he also worked with Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci (Italian horror and zombie film Directors)?

RS: No, but I imagine he and my dad came from the same region in Italy.  They may have even shared a glass of wine when they were four or five years old.

ZWN: What’s the first piece of art that you truly felt proud over?

RS: Years ago, before I was doing zombies fulltime, I wrote and illustrated my own comic concept in its entirety. It was, or is called, Rob Sacchetto’s Cape Fear. It has never been published. I very much want it to see the light of day at some point. I’m very proud of it because it’s still really looks good even after all these years. It was an astonishing amount of work. Definitely a work of passion. I’m very proud of it.

ZWN: Who’s influenced you in your art?

RS: Well, there are the obvious guys, Bernie Wrightson, William Stout, just about anyone from the EC horror comics’ era. The late, incredibly great Frank Frazetta was a very early influence, also Jack Kirby and John Romita, Neal Adams and John Buscema. I love a lot of the impressionists and well gee, it there’s more fantasy and comic book guys too. Let’s say I’ve got many influences. Some you can see readily in my art and some are great inspiration.

ZWN: Who’s your favourite artist?
RS: Forget it. No way can I answer that one in just one name.

ZWN: How would you describe your general creative process?

RS: I generally regard any piece of art as a story, a message that I am trying to convey to an audience. Even in the Zombie Portraits. As much as I could just do a straight cut and dry likeness of the subjects as zombies, I tried to instil a certain character, be it stoic, humorous, bizarre or whatnot.  Again, even with so many portraits done, I feel each one deserves its own brand of unique care and handling to see it shine. With any image comes a background story. Why does the image need to be drawn? Every drawing I have ever done comes with its own back-story I’ve created in my mind in order to exist. Then, it’s easier to breathe life into it.

ZWN: Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your art?

RS: Yes, finding the finishing point. Knowing when to let go. Because I’ve done hundreds of images in the last few years, I’m getting better at this.  You don’t want your work to be overdone or overworked. Also, even after so many zombie portraits done, I still feel a little nervous or anxious. I still treat each one like it’s one of the first. And because each photo you get is so radically different from the last, you can’t just blast through them, or work on autopilot. They each require 100% of your concentration.

ZWN: Do you have any advice for other artists?

RS: Yes… practice, practice, practice. And learn to draw from life.

ZWN: You did the writing and the art for The Zombie Handbook: How to Identify the Living Dead and Survive the Coming Zombie Apocalypse. It’s a great book full of your gruesomely fantastic art. How did you come up with it?

RS: That too was a labour of love. I was given a blank check to discuss and draw many aspects of the zombie’s life or death or living death. And to produce a guide outlining all of the different types of zombies. It was a lot of work that again was very rewarding in the end. I only wish I could have had 200 or 300 more pages to fill.

ZWN: What’s coming up next for you? Do you have any big upcoming projects?

RS: Well, as I mentioned earlier, a huge comic anthology. That is going to take some time. I love comics that doing them is very difficult. I have the greatest respect for comic book artists. It’s a hard job. Of course Zombie Portraits and Zombie Daily keep me quite busy. I’m currently over 560 posts on Zombie Daily, and counting. My wife/agent and I are soon to be pitching a new zombie book and gee, once again I’m sure that I’m leaving some stuff out…

ZWN: Time for the standard ZWN questions.

ZWN: Tell us about your first zombie experience.

RS: I saw Night of the Living Dead one night when I was really young. I was already into big monster movies like Godzilla and things like that, but NOTLD really freaked me out. It was creepy, truly horrific. Even in black and white it was gory and unsettling. I was definitely hooked from that moment on.

ZWN: Do you have a favorite zombie book or movie?

RS: I think the favourite on the movie has to be Return of the Living Dead, followed closely by Dead and Buried. Of course, Zombieland was as fun as it was gory… I could almost get my total zombie movie fix just watching the opening credits of that flick! As far as on the books go, I’m a fan of Jonathan Maberry’s many zombie books for sure.

ZWN: Do you have a zombie survival plan and if so, would you care to share?

RS: Yes, I certainly do, doesn’t everybody? Well, not to go into too much detail, but let me just say there is a map. Several hiding places and base camp staked out. Some weapons and transportation secured. That’s all I can say…

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

RS: I would definitely want to carry a variety of weapons. A baseball bat adorned with lug nuts, an automatic weapon of some sort and a slingshot, believe it or not. Those three I call the unholy Trinity. Of course, the more weapons, the merrier.

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

RS: Oh my goodness, we haven’t even scratched the surface!  How many good zombie movies, I mean really good zombie movies have there been?  Be honest. The only thing that can kill zombies is repeating the same old stuff. Or mainstreaming them to death. There are so many areas that the living dead can populate that have never been explored. I could write a 700 page essay on the subject.

ZWN: Who (or what) do you think is the best zombie hunter? They could be alive or dead?

RS: Hmmm, I would love to see Zombies vs. Aliens, or Zombies vs. Predators, or even Zombies vs. Terminators. But I think that the best zombie hunter killer would be another intelligent zombie with lots of guns and the ability to regenerate. Yeah, he could pull weapons out of his own body. I am doing this for a comic story.

ZWN: If you were a zombie, who would you eat first?

RS: My wife, so that we could be together in the afterlife.

ZWN: Brains, yummy or gross?

RS: Yummy!!

Check out Rob’s artwork at: http://www.zombieportraits.com/

Also, be sure to pick up his illustrated books at your local bookstore or online.

The Zombie Handbook: How to Identify the Living Dead and Survive the Coming Zombie Apocalypse

Product Description:
A few years ago, building an acid pit and stocking skull-splitting machetes would have been seen as an overreaction to the zombie threat. No longer! To survive the coming zombie apocalypse–and it is coming–you need to know everything about zombies and how to kill them.
Thoroughly illustrated, this book is the definitive guide to zombies and all their blood-soaked traits, from feeding habits and dietary needs to sexual practices and political activities. The Zombie Handbook lays out your step-by-step plan of attack to now only survive the zombies’ assault, but to counter it and obliterate the army of the undead, including tips for:
·         Zombie-proofing your home
·         Setting lures and traps
·         Choosing the best weapons
·         Exploding their brains
http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Handbook-Identify-Survive-Apocalypse/dp/1569757054/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236949033&sr=8-3

Zombiewood Weekly: The Celebrity Undead Exposed
Synopsis:
What’s it like when the public’s insatiable lust for gossip turns its focus on the grotesque, flesh-eating habits of celebrities? Hilarious mayhem, that’s what. In this paparazzi-inspired collection of images, America’s bad and beautiful are revealed as never before — in their undisguised, flesh-rotting, zombified, day-to-day existence. Fans of TMZ, US Weekly, and other star-chasing rags will love the imaginative presentation of their favorite subjects — including undead versions of Brangelina, Lindsay Lohan, Kanye West, Michael Phelps, and even Glenn Beck (yes, he gets even scarier!). The vivid full-color portraits pair the smiling faces of today’s most famous stars with the horrid features of their true zombie forms. Laugh-out-loud descriptions deliver detailed information on these flesh-feasting personalities, including their favorite eats and secret haunts.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Zombiewood-Weekly/Rob-Sacchetto/e/9781569757802/?itm=1&USRI=Zombiewood+Weekly

In a world overtaken by zombies, the only hope for survival lies in learning the language of the undead. How to Speak Zombie demonstrates how to blend in and avoid being eaten while carrying on with everyday activities like ordering a latte from a zombarista and shopping at a zombie-infested mall. This essential guide features an electronic sound module that demonstrates proper zombie pronunciation (“RAHHHhh!”), helpful text that explores the customs and etiquette of the zombie world, and detailed illustrations that show the undead doing everything from pumping iron to dancing the night away. Deeply informative, this handbook also includes an all-purpose BRAINS button that can be used in any situation, deadly or otherwise. (From Amazon.com)

ZWN: How to Speak Zombie: A Guide for the Living is out now. Where did this come from?

SM: The idea—actually I’m not sure where it came from—but the idea is that the world’s overrun by zombies, you know, inevitably. There are a few humans around and rather than flee they’re just trying to get by, not attract too much attention, trying to blend in and carry on doing they things you need or want to do: go to the cafe, the gym, to work, etc., among the zombies. Zombies used to be human, and so human culture’s still around in a way, but it’s shifted to cater to zombie interests.

ZWN: Art plays a big part of this book. Tell us a little about it.

SM: I love the art. It’s by an artist named Travis Millard, who really took the brains and ran with them, I think. He has a great vintage Mad magazine sensibility to his work. There were a few visual jokes that were in the text, but the humor in the art is pretty much all Travis: the zombie vendor at the stadium selling “garlic eyes,” the “Brain Zone” store at the mall, zombies losing limbs while working out at the gym, etc.

ZWN: Figures vary on exactly how many languages there are in the world, but is there room for “Zombie”?

SM: Well, I don’t know how many human languages will survive the emergence of Zombie. “Killer app” isn’t quite the right analogy, but the emergence of Zombie as a language, and the way it acquires speakers, is kind of a game changer; history has proven that a pretty effective way to kill a language is by killing those who speak it.

ZWN: Is “Zombie” like love-a universal language?

SM: Just the word “brains,” the tone and inflection you give it can make the meaning change dramatically, different like snowflakes. In that way it’s the one word that can probably get you into or out of any situation. It the word universally on everyone’s minds thses days.

ZWN: If “Zombie” is a universal language, what about accents? Everybody knows that folks on the west coast sound different from folks on the east coast, not to mention folks from Wisconsin.

SM: It’s true that my book approaches Zombie as it’s spoken by post-humans whose native tongue was English, when they had tongues. I’ll have to leave it to others to create works that help us with the tonal intricacies of Vietnamese Zombie speech, but they should probably hurry up. In terms of accents in English, though all zombies tends to slur and use protracted consonants—it sounds like the speaker is drunk and has a head injury—you can still tell regional differences. California zombies have a more mellow tone, New Yorkers are a little more clipped in their diction.

ZWN: I’m sure you get folks asking you to translate for them all the time. But I just have to ask. If France is full of zombies but I’m planning a trip there to go to Euro Disney and I get off the plane and ask some French zombies for directions, what do I say?

SM: Luckily you’re looking for something that has the same name in both languages, and (I believe) Mickey Mouse is also untranslated. So you could start with Disney Land: “Ddddduuuzzzzznuuhhhhh NNnnlllaahhhhh” You could also try Mickey Mouse: “Mmmuuhhhhhh MMmmoooooahh” Maybe for Mickey also hold your hands up above your head sort of like ears.

ZWN: Don’t get me wrong the book is great, but some people aren’t that visual. Are there any foreign language classes available that teach “Zombie”?

SM: Boy I wish I agreed with you that people would rather read than look at things. I sure hope so. What we did was try to create a primer to get people engaged with the idea/necessity of learning how to speak Zombie, offer some phrases, pronunciation tips by way of a sound module that comes with the book, and some illustrations of scenarios to try to demonstrate the way the material is relevant to readers’ lives, if they want to remain alive.

ZWN: If “Zombie” becomes a bonafide language, how soon till zombies start asking for Healthcare?

SM: It’s interesting. When zombies drink, they tend to prefer the hard stuff, which seems to help pickle and preserve their innards. They also like the beach almost as much as humans do. We find it rejuvenating and they find it therapeutic, too: the flesh-tanning and bone-bleaching glare of the sun and the salty sea mist work as natural disinfectants. So there are hints of health consciousness, or subconsciousness. On the other hand, they also tend to still want to own dogs, and that might work for a while but, never really ends very well for the zombie. You know how dogs feel about bones…

ZWN: What’s coming up next for you? Any more zombie books?

SM: Actually I’ve been invited to speak at ZomBcon in Seattle over Halloween weekend this year, which I’m excited about. I’ll be holding a workshop and talking about the finer points of zombie pronunciation.

ZWN: Time for the standard ZWN questions.

ZWN: Do you have a favorite zombie book or movie?

SM: Night of the Living Dead, my favorite by a mile, but I also liked 28 Days Later & 28 Weeks Later quite a bit. Fast zombies: scary.

ZWN: Do you have a zombie survival plan and if so, would you care to share?

SM: I think even if I had a firm plan it’s likely to get upended by whatever happens in the moment.

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

SM: Machete, I think. I don’t have the strength to keep swinging an axe for very long, though I like the idea of the long handle.

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

SM: I think there’s always room for something that’s well done in anything. There’s always someone ready to say that something’s “dead”: art, rock, irony … but those things are only disappointing if you don’t spend the time to seek out the good stuff. Sometimes the good stuff presents itself to you, and sometimes you have to look, but it’s always out there. Someone’s out there writing a cool zombie book or comic or making a film that we haven’t heard about yet, it’s a sure thing.

ZWN: Who (or what) do you think is the best zombie hunter? They could be alive or dead?

SM: Though he didn’t survive the film, I would go with Ben (Duane Jones) in Night of the Living Dead. Maybe because of how foundational the movie was, and it also being the first zombie movie I saw, it felt like in watching the film that the character invented survival strategies for the first time that later were known and taken for granted.

ZWN: If you were a zombie, who would you eat first?

SM: I live in San Francisco and the pickings are kind of slim here, literally, too much yoga, hipster cycling, too many vegans. I guess I’d head downtown to the more touristy areas, or maybe Fisherman’s Wharf, and look for more substantial eats.

ZWN: Brains, yummy or gross?

SM: There are some great taco trucks here. Sesos tacos are tasty, like scrambled eggs, so I’m going to say yummy.

ZWN: Thanks for your time Steve. You’re truly a master linguist.
Steve Mockus is a San Francisco based writer and the world’s first zombie translator, well actually he’s probably the worlds only zombie translator. Steve enjoys writing, reading, hiking and socializing with zombies.  Be sure to pick up the book at major bookstores now or you can order it from Amazon.com.

Roger Ma is a writer and the founder of the Zombie Combat Club, a civilian organization dedicated to providing accurate training and information to fight the living dead without a firearm, and survive. He is also a Team Chief for one of New York City’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), which assists first responders in the event of a city emergency – including zombie attack. He lives in Brooklyn. (From Amazon.com)   The Zombie Combat Manual is his first book and it is printed in much the same style as Max Brooks’s Zombie Survival Guide. That being said, it is an entirely different book with a specific focus on fighting the undead with or without weapons of all types. The book has sections on conditioning, choosing and maintaining weapons and defensive equipment, techniques for combatting the undead, how to deal with terrain and environment, there’s even a section on child protection. The drawings in the book are great and lend that ‘survival guide’ authenticity to it. There’s also the great combat reports and one on one interviews as well. It is quite in depth, well written and is a must for anyone interested in self preservation.

ZWN: Does growing up in Brooklyn make you tougher than most, especially against zombies?

RM: I think growing up in Brooklyn makes a person more street-wise than most, but against zombies, I think it’s not as great as an advantage. One thing I’ve learned writing this book is that zombie self-defense requires a very specialized skill-set.

ZWN: Tell us a little about the Zombie Combat Club that you created and do you get together on weekends and stage zombie cage matches? Is Tyler Durden a member?

RM: My objective with the Zombie Combat Club was to accomplish two things – one, to help formulate my thinking around what I wanted to feature in the Zombie Combat Manual, before I knew it would result in a published book, and two – to have a place where like-minded zombie combatants could gather, bond, and perhaps train together. I’d love to see fans starting their own training sessions based on the exercises in the book.  Unlike Tyler’s club, the first rule of the Zombie Combat Club is that you talk about it as much as humanely possible.

ZWN: In the ZCM it states Misconception #1-Zombies Can Run. Personally I loved that. It was like you were bowing to Romero and giving the finger to the “28 Days Later” zombies. Any further comment on this?

RM: That whole opening section was my way of stating the zombie universe that I’m working from. There are so many variations of the zombie nowadays i.e. running/not running, brains/no brains, that I knew I needed to set up my own zombie lore so that readers wouldn’t be confused.  I’m definitely more of a Romero/Fulci traditionalist.

ZWN: What was your inspiration for writing the ZCM?

RM: I’ve been a zombie fan since I was a kid, when my dad took me at eight years old to see Dawn of the Dead. I’ve always loved them, and always knew the first rule: shoot them in the head. The only problem is, I don’t own a gun. I began thinking of ways I could bring down a zombie using a variety of different weapons, and thinking about combat techniques that would work. Thus, the ZCM was born.

ZWN: What was the hardest part of writing the ZCM?

RM: The research was the toughest, but also the most fun part. My consultants in medical, fitness, weapons, and combat really helped. The result is that all the anatomy and techniques are based in real-world data.  In fact, if you take out “zombie” in some of the sections, the recommendations could be used in actual combat or defense.

ZWN: Do you have any actual training of a sort? Medical, Martial Arts, etc?

RM: Not only have I been a zombie fan my whole life, but I’ve also been a martial arts and weapons fanatic, so I have some experience with both. I also train currently in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, but I am definitely not an expert. This was also part of my logic – you don’t have to be a black belt or professional fighter to defeat the living dead, you just have to be trained properly.

ZWN: Where did you come up with some of the names in this book? The Kabab is priceless.

RM: Thanks, this was also a part of my martial arts background. There are lots of fun names for techniques in jiu-jitsu: Kimura, Americana, Peruvian Necktie. I used those as inspiration to come up with names for my zombie combat moves.

ZWN: The illustrations definitely have that combat manual feel. Like the SAS Survival Guide. How did the illustrations come about?

RM: I knew I wanted the illustrations to mimic those you see in combat books, like the Marine Close Quarters Combat Manual, so those were my inspiration for the drawings. YN Heller, the illustrator for the book, has been the guy I’ve worked with since I started the idea as the Zombie Combat Club. He’s a fantastic artist and captured exactly the mood of the book.

ZWN: How did you know/learn some of the things that you wrote in the ZCM. As an example: Taking a coconut, encasing it in 2 layers of duct tape, placing it in a double layer of plastic bags. Then if you can shatter the hard coating of the coconut you then have a good approximation of the strength and accuracy required to deliver a crushing blow. How would you know that…..and why?

RM: That goes back to the research I conducted. My sister-in-law is an orthopedist, a doctor specializing in bones and the skeletal system, which you can imagine helped tremendously.  There is some artistic license in there, but it’s pretty authentic.

ZWN: What’s with the word ‘Zuke’?

RM: Again, the martial arts influence. In Japanese, the “Uke” is your training partner, the person with whom you practice your technique.You can see how I came up with my variation.

ZWN: Okay, here’s a scenario for you:

It’s 11pm, you’re in a convenience store (7-11) buying a pack of smokes (or a candy bar…damn that sweet tooth!) and your car is in the shop, so you walked the 2 blocks to get there. All of a sudden the bums loitering out front become zombies and start eating people. What do you do? What do you defend yourself with?

RM: If I’m only two blocks from home, I would probably book it the hell out of there and get my family on the road. If I absolutely had to get into it with the ghouls, I would check behind the register.  It’s a 7-11, they’ve got to have a weapon under the counter.

ZWN: Any plans for a book tour or any lectures planned?

RM: Depending on how things go, I’m hoping to do more book signings and lectures. The launch signing I did in Brooklyn was great with more than 100 people, and only a few of them were my relatives.

ZWN: Have you played any zombie games and if so, what’s your favorite?

RM: I’m a big Left 4 Dead fan. I haven’t had time to play L4D 2 much because of the book, but I spent many hours watching that plane crash in L4D 1.You can find me on the servers playing as ZombieCombatClub.com

ZWN: Who’s your favorite author?

RM: I don’t have favorite authors as much as I do favorite books, but as far as horror goes, I’ve enjoyed the work of HP Lovecraft and Stephen King very much.

ZWN: I know it’s still early, but what’s next for Roger Ma?

RM: You’re right, it’s still early. Who knows!

ZWN: Is there any last bit of advice you’d like to give the people out there?

RM: Keep training, stay vigilant. Remember: anyone can train to be an effective zombie fighter.

ZWN: Time for the standard ZWN questions.

ZWN: Do you have a favorite zombie book or movie?

RM: My favorite zombie movie is Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, 1978

ZWN: Do you have a zombie survival plan and if so, would you care to share?

RM: All I can say is that it involves a backpack, a mountain bike, a tomahawk, and a map of upstate New York.

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

RM: I’m a fan of blunt trauma instruments at medium range, so I would prefer a medieval mace as my go-to melee weapon.

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

RM: There’s definitely room – just when someone says “zombies are yesterday’s news” something like Zombieland kills at the box office.

ZWN: Who (or what) do you think is the best zombie hunter? They could be alive or dead.

RM: Here’s where I’m going to get technical – I don’t believe there is a best zombie hunter. To hunt, you have to be at the higher end of the food chain, above your prey. In the case of a zombie outbreak, I don’t believe we’re the hunters. But to answer your question in a general sense, one of the best historical zombie combatants in my opinion is the medieval knight, because he trained with a variety of edged and blunt trauma weapons at various ranges like the lance, sword, mace, and war hammer. The armor helps too, but can be cumbersome.

ZWN: If you were a zombie, who would you eat first?

RM: Hmmmm, tough question, but I would probably say one of my brothers. Not because I want to eat them, mind you, but because I know they would take my ass out before I had a chance to chomp down, and thus end the misery.

ZWN: Brains, yummy or gross?

RM: Yummy, if made from Jello. Otherwise, gross

ZWN: Thanks for your time Roger, we’re already testing out some of the combat simulations and techniques-Whack-a-mole being our favorite.

Check out the Zombie Combat Club (ZCC) at: http://zombiecombatclub.com/

or you can find them on Facebook. The Zombie Combat Manual (ZCM) can be found at any major bookstore or online: http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Combat-Manual-Fighting-Living/dp/0425232549/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272664379&sr=1-1

ZWN Interview with Max Brooks Part One

ZWN Interview with Max Brooks Part Two

Interview Transcription:

ZWN: Your new story presented in this anthology (The New Dead), where did this come from?

MB: This is mainly just a fear of the living dead, just wanted to explore it further. I wanted to see sort of how these people would react in a post zombie world, since this story sort of takes place in a post war. Because you know there’s just as much suffering and misery that happens in a post world war as in the actual combat. I’m sure if you’d wandered the streets of Europe in 1945 you’d probably agree with me.

ZWN: Is that when it takes place?

MB: No, it takes place after the zombie war.

ZWN: It’s a spin off of World War Z?

MB: Yeah, it’s after World War Z. It’s within the World War Z world.

ZWN: Any of the continuing characters?

MB: Nope, well there’s the narrator guy, but none of the other guys.

ZWN: Which is you.

MB: No, which is Jon Cryer. He’s gonna play me.

ZWN: What was the first real piece of literature you wrote? It could’ve been on SNL or wherever.

MB: When you say literature, that’s a very broad term. How do you define literature and I’ll give you an answer.

ZWN: Just run with it. What did you feel good about that might’ve been published?

MB: So alright, criteria number one-had to have been published. Alright, criteria number two, I had to like it.

ZWN: You know, it gave you that warm feeling.

MB: Okay. Many years ago, I think it was 97’ or 98’ my first writing gig was to write content for the website Fandango.com and I came up with the idea of doing trivia questions. So I came up with the idea of writing, “How do you feel about teen movies?” This is when teen movies were popular and I wrote, I gave them three different answers A, B, or C. This one was “love em, keep em coming”. Number two was “don’t really care for them”. Number three was “Anyone under thirty should be put behind barbed wire.” Now that draft didn’t make it into the original website of Fandango.com. However, I was extremely proud of it and that to me was literature.

ZWN: Who’s your favorite Author?

MB: Michelle Collis, yeah I think she’s brilliant. She has an ability to really get into darkness and misery without sort of the things that I do. Nobody comes out of the swamp and gets shot in the head, you know what I mean and yet it’s still just as much sadness. So yeah, Michelle Collis.

ZWN: What’s your favorite book?

MB: That’s an excellent question. It depends on which one you’re talking about. If I want to talk about the end of the baby boomers dream, it’s Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. If I want a realistic war book, of a war that never happened, I would want Red Storm Rising. If I wanted a positive view of the baby boomers, sort of before Hunter S. Thompson, it would be On The Road by Jack Kerouac. It’s sort of different books for different things.

ZWN: Talking about the Zombie Survival Guide, what was the hardest part to write?

MB: The hardest part in writing the Zombie Survival Guide was doing the homework because I wanted it to be real.

ZWN: The research?

MB: Research, yeah. I mean, once I was writing, that was the easy part. It was just scribble, scribble, scribble, but to get it right, because I knew that I would have to answer to myself if something was wrong, if I had screwed up. So you know when I recommend the AK-47 as a more reliable weapon than the M-16, I know what I’m talking about.

ZWN: Because you did your homework.

MB: Yes, I mean actually in that instance I cheated because in ROTC I had a chance to work with the M-16 and it is a P.O.S.

ZWN: Over the past few years in writing your books, have you learned anything you may want to share with people or aspiring writers?

MB: Yeah, the only way to fail as a writer is to write something that you don’t believe in but you hope your audience will, because then if they don’t believe in it and you don’t believe in it, then you’ve just wasted your time and that’s a failure. But, if you love it and they don’t, fuck it, it’s got one good fan and that’s where it’s got to start with.

ZWN: There’s a lot of people that when the Zombie Survival Guide came out, that really thought it was real. In the Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, can you give a percentage on how much might be real?

MB: Oh, you mean my fan base that think it’s real? I can tell you that 10% of my fan base thinks it’s a witty social satire for the times we live in. I can tell you that 80% are just zombie nerds like me that are just really into zombies and just want to take it to the next level. And another 10% are really ready and 80% of those 10% live in Utah.

ZWN: What’s your next project?

MB: Next project is G.I. Joe. I heard that G.I. Joe was coming out and I don’t know if you guys know Christos Gage the comic book writer. He wrote something for Avatar (Avatar Press), I was writing something for Avatar. I said “hey I’d love to do something for G.I. Joe” and he said, “Well I’ll make an intro.” God bless him.

ZWN: So is it a book?

MB: It is a comic book mini-series. It’s called Hearts And Minds. It is five issues, each issue is divided up into one story about a Joe and one story about a Cobra. Each story is either a day in the life, like what does it take to be one of these people, what’s their job entail? Or how did they become who they are? So it’s really like an up close and personal of a Joe or a Cobra.

ZWN: Without giving too much away, who can we expect to see in that?

MB: I can tell you the first ones that are coming out are Spirit and Major Bludd. Remember those little cards on the back of the action figures that had like a paragraph? Well, I just gave them a few more pages.

ZWN: How do you write Major Bludd because he has that weird lisp?

MB: Funny that you should say that. Major Bludd, I gave a…I don’t know if it’s a whole new take on him. But I definitely put a whole new side to him.

ZWN: Kind of refined him?

MB: You’ll see, you’ll see. Major Bludd!

Time for the standard ZWN questions:

ZWN: Do you have a favorite zombie movie or book?

MB: The original Dawn Of The Dead. I can watch that all day. 1978 I believe, maybe I’m wrong, I don’t know. In the mall running around, I can watch that anytime.

ZWN: Why were they so green though?

MB: Because they were just dead.

ZWN: Do you have a zombie survival plan and if so would you care to share?

MB: Yes I do, next question.

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

MB: It’s right behind you. (whispers:”they’re looking at a machete that Jason is holding”) Well because let’s face it, most weapons, most melee weapons for those of us that played Dungeons and Dragons as kids. Melee weapons never start off as weapons, they start off as tools, they have practical uses. Wars used to be fought by peasants, their weapons weren’t government issued. Nobody ever invented a battle axe. At one point Bjorn Bjornsen was chopping woods in Norway and had to go on a raid and he didn’t have a weapon and he said, “well, I’ll just bring my axe into battle, it is a battle axe!” and so it was invented. So yes, something that has to be practical, a machete is practical.

ZWN: So would Robert Trujillo (meant to say Danny Trejo), the guy who played Machete, would he be a badass zombie killer?

MB: Well, I’ve seen him in Blood In, Blood Out and I’d want him on my side.

ZWN: In literature and movies, do you feel that zombies are overdone or is there still room for growth?

MB: Good question, I feel there’s always room for growth. Whether that growth will actually happen, no ideal because I think zombies are so popular, everybody is jumping on the band wagon and most of it that comes out is just people trying to make money, who never would’ve done zombies otherwise. Now, my problem with them is that they may blow out the market, because somewhere out there there’s a guy who is thinking of doing a zombie book infinitely better than World War Z and he may write it but it may never get published because someone will tell him the market is saturated, we’re past zombies, and that’s what bothers me.  Somewhere, some kid is thinking, “I’m gonna make a zombie movie better than the original Night Of The Living Dead”. It’s not gonna happen because by the time they get it done, the market’s gonna be saturated. So, there’s always room to do it better than me for crying out loud. I just hope that somebody does it.

ZWN: Have you noticed that now the big thing in zombie books is that they’re kind of putting a spin on zombies, there’s the pro-zombie characters now.

MB: The pro-zombie people tend to hang out with the pro-aids people, the pro-cancer people, you know, people that say, “C’mon I don’t think that ball cancer has enough fans.” So, yeah there’s always gonna be those people.

ZWN: Who do you think is the best zombie hunter? It could be living or dead.

MB: That’s a really good question. The best zombie hunter? Hunter’s a broad word. Best zombie shooter, I personally would want Vasily Zaytsev on my side, the Soviet sniper. I would want that guy. If I wanted a survival guy to help me out, I’d want Les Stroud, not the other guy who goes in the wilderness alone but with a camera crew, because the zombie revolution will not be televised. So I think it all depends, like I’d want, she’s not with us anymore, but I’d want Julia Childs. If I’m alone in a cabin and I need someone who’s willing to whip up those squirrels and potatoes into something, I’d want Julia.

ZWN: Last question, brains, yummy or gross?

MB: You’d have to ask a zombie.

ZWN: In closing I’d like to say that we think of George Romero as kind of the father of the modern zombie and we pay him a lot of respect immensely. But, a few years ago when you wrote the Zombie Survival Guide, you brought about this resurgence of zombies, because up till then I really don’t even know if I can think of a zombie book, I really can’t, unless you think of some of the short Stephen King stuff. Vampires were all over the place (in literature) and they’ve been around since the 70’s when Anne Rice wrote them. So, in my opinion, you brought about all this zombie resurgence.

MB: Well, that’s a brilliant opinion, however, I don’t know. That’s up for guys like you to decide. All I can say is there were zombie movies before Romero just like there were space movies before George Lucas. Y’know Romero, he created the world, we’re just living in it, it’s Romero’s world. He deserves all the praise.

ZWN: But because of you, there’s guys out there that are now buying AR-15’s and M-16’s, AK-47’s and stockpiling their storage.

MB: Which is why I put in the Zombie Survival Guide, “Please obey the law.”

ZWN: The disclaimer.

MB: I’m covering my ass on that one. I’m from the suicide solution generation so I understand what happens when people get sued. But no seriously, it’s Romero’s world, he rewrote the zombie narrative. When I hear about Romero, I kind of slip into the Malcolm X character, talking about Elijah Mohammed, but it’s kind of true. All praise is due to the honorable George Romero and only the faults are mine.

ZWN: Well Mr. Brooks I want to thank you for your time and thank you for the interview.

MB: Thank you.

Max Brooks takes a phone call…

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/

ZWN: It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Zombies has an Introduction by Christopher Moore, how did that happen?
MS: Chris and I are friends and have known each other a long time. When I told him I had a goofy idea for a Christmas Carol book, and if I could get it published, would he consider writing an introduction. He said “‘kay.”

ZWN: On your website you state several books as being your influence, but this is a zombie Christmas carol book, what could possibly have influenced you to write this?
MS: This is somewhat of my loving homage to Mad Magazine. I read it religiously as a kid and they were famous for this style of parody.

ZWN: The Illustrations in this book are great, how did that come about?
MS: Jeff Weigel and I share the same agent. When we sold the book, we asked him to come on board as the illustrator. It was just kismet.

ZWN: “We Three Spleens” and “Good King Wenceslas Tastes Great”, where do you come up with this stuff? Is it just natural talent, or are you disturbed?
MS: I like to think I have disturbing natural talent.

ZWN: You were recently at an event in Irvine, California called the Men of Mystery Conference. That would insinuate that you’re a Mystery Writer, but how is that possible since you write kids books and zombie Christmas carols? Is there more to you than meets the eye?
MS: Well my kids books are mysteries or at least thrillers. My first novel SPY GODDESS: LIVE AND LET SHOP was nominated by MWA for an Edgar for Best Young Adult Mystery when it was first published so I guess that’s how I qualify. It’s a technicality.

ZWN: Do you have a favorite zombie movie or book?
MS: I tend to prefer the classics. I’m reasonably sure NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was a documentary and not a ‘movie.’ I did see ZOMBIELAND and thought it was excellent. As for Zombie books STUPIDEST ANGEL by the aforementioned Christopher Moore (Zombies and Drunk People at Christmas!) and WORLD WAR Z are my favorites.

Time for the standard ZWN questions.
ZWN: Do you have a zombie survival plan and if so, what is it?
MS: Not really. I’m pretty much a pacifist. It would depend on the Zombies. Slow lumbering Zombies, I’ll probably be okay. Fast Zombies like I AM LEGEND or 28 DAYS LATER, I’m so over.

ZWN: In dealing with zombies, what would be your weapon of choice?
MS: Machete. No question. You never have to reload a machete.

ZWN: Who do you think is the best zombie hunter, alive or dead?
MS: Gotta go with Woody Harrelson and Bruce Campbell on that one.

ZWN: Brains, yummy or gross?
MS: Gross.

Thank you for your time Michael and we look forward to cracking open this classic book every year for Christmas.

Be sure to check out Michael’s website at: http://www.michaelspradlin.com/ where you can buy the book or look at his other notable works, such as The Youngest Templar, which also has it’s own website: http://www.theyoungesttemplar.com/

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.

Buy the book at any Barnes & Noble, Borders, or a bookstore near you, or order it online:

Stacey Jay is the author of teen fiction books: “You Are So Undead to Me” and the upcoming “Undead Much?” and “My So-Called Death”. She has four kids and a husband, she loves to write and is very hyper. She has a dark sense of humor, loves zombies and all manner of creepy stuff, but she likes unicorns and romance too.

ZWN: How long have you been writing and what authors (if any) are your influence?

Stacey: I wrote my first poem in kindergarten (about concrete deer lawn ornaments, they really freaked me out). But I’ve been doing this scribbling stuff professionally since 2005. I’d say my biggest influence has been Stephen King. I love his fiction, but it was his book for writers, On Writing, that got me on the road to being published. He’s so practical and self-disciplined, a great example for aspiring authors.

ZWN: You’re a young mom with four kids and a prolific writer. How do you manage it?

Stacey: Ah, this “manage” stuff that you speak of, what is that? I think I beg, borrow, and steal it, more than “manage” it.  I simply set goals and work my butt off to achieve them. That’s it. No magic potion. I am very driven, however. I need to be doing something every single second. Usually two things. I’m excellent at brainstorming story lines while racing my crawling baby around the couch. (I’m also a very fast crawler. If it ever becomes an Olympic event, I could be a contender.)

ZWN: Why did you choose to write Young Adult books? Furthermore, why Young Adult romance zombie books?

Stacey: I love drama, and there are few times in life as dramatic as the teen years. I’m also a huge fan of YA books, especially romance. I never stopped reading them. The zombies (and other scary things coming in my future books) found their way into my work because I love being scared almost as much as I love romance. Horror and romance in one book=happy Stacey Jay.

ZWN: The main character in “You Are So Undead to Me “is Megan Berry, a teenage girl that’s also a Zombie Settler. What exactly is a Zombie Settler?

Stacey: A Settler is a supernatural shrink and intervention specialist for people recently troubled in death. Megan helps zombies with issues solve their problems so they can return to their graves and rest in peace. She also kicks evil zombie tail when the need arises. (Not all zombies are the same, you know.)

ZWN: Lately, there seems to be a lot of pro-zombie books. Would you consider this book to be a pro-zombie book or an anti-zombie book? Or somewhere in between?

Stacey: “You are So Undead to Me” is neutral. Some of the zombies are innocent people in need of help, others are evil and bloodthirsty. My book with Flux [the teen fiction publisher], “My So-Called Death” (March 2010), is totally pro zombie, however. In that book, the zombies are genetically undead and have to go to a special, top secret, zombie boarding school where they eat brains in the cafeteria. It was a lot of fun to write. I’m team zombie all the way. (Though, I can appreciate unicorns and sparkles, as well.)

ZWN: This book is very busy and emotional on a teenage hormonal type level. Is that what it’s really like to be a teenage girl?

Stacey: Hmm…that’s kind of like asking, “Is that really what it’s like to be a woman?” Who’s to say? I know what it’s like to be me, I’m not sure what it’s like to be you or any other girl/woman. As a girl, my friends and I were very interested in boys on just about every level–including the hormonal level. The drive to find a mate and reproduce is secondary only to the drive to acquire food and shelter. So…yeah…I guess, if pressed, I’d say that’s what it’s like for many teenage girls. But then, I know girls who are in their twenties who have never had boyfriends and have no desire to have one. We are all different. Thankfully, there are books out there for all of us.

As for the busy part, I did mention I can’t stop moving, right? I’m very hyper and busy, always have been. I think that comes out in my work.

ZWN: You tend to use a lot of slang and shorten names in this book. Is that the inner teenage girl coming out of you? Or are you just cool like that?

Stacey: I’m the coolest person on the entire planet. I ooze cool from every pore. I bleed cool. I eat cool for dinner and it comes out of the next morning even cooler than when it went in. I–

Seriously, what is cool? Whatever it is, I’m not it. Lol! That was just how this book evolved. When I wrote this book I’d only been out of college four years and I think that affected the voice of the character, but mostly Megan just came to me with slang. That’s how “she” talks. My newer books are different because the characters are different.

ZWN: If a zombie is spotted staggering down the street, how would we go about contacting a Zombie Settler?

Stacey: You wouldn’t. They are top secret. They would find the zombie or the zombie would eat you. Hopefully the former!

ZWN: You have a second book coming out about Megan Berry in January 2010 called “Undead Much?”.  What can we expect in this one?

Stacey: More Undead thrills and chills, some secrets revealed, a death, more romance, and a darker continuation of Megan’s coming of age story.

ZWN: You’ve also got another book coming out in March 2010 with a zombie girl as the main character. Care to tell us a bit about that?

Stacey: Why, of course. : “My So-Called Death” follows Karen, a freshman who’s just found out she’s genetically undead–a zombie–after she falls off a cheerleading pyramid. Now she has to negotiate the world of zombie boarding school, solve a murder mystery, and convince the rest of the zombie kids that just because you’re dead, it doesn’t mean you can’t be perky. This is a lighter, tongue-in-cheek story aimed for slightly younger readers than the Megan Berry books. There is a romance, but it’s very simple and sweet, and takes a backseat to our heroine’s story.

Time for the ZWN standard questions, ready, okay:

ZWN: Do you have a zombie survival plan? If so, what is it?

Stacey: I work out every day. I am strong and fit and have a sharp chainsaw in my garage. Those zombies won’t stand a chance.

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

Stacey: Chainsaw, please .

ZWN: Do you think zombies are overdone?

Stacey: I think zombies are made of awesome with kick-butt sauce on the side.

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

Stacey: Don’t know a lot of zombie hunters. Will have to plead ignorance on this one.

ZWN: Brains, yummy or gross?

Stacey: I don’t judge.

Thanks for your time Stacey!

Be sure to check out Stacey Jay’s website at: http://staceyjay.com

Purchase “You Are So Undead to Me” at Amazon!