But obviously, this is not the only reason I'm posting. I took some time and interviewed Eric, the author of this fantastic book. He's brilliant, did you know? I had a wonderful time hearing what he had to say and I'm sure that you will too!
Also, I'm giving away a copy of Zombie Love: The Outbreak because I know that there are many of you out there who would enjoy reading it very much. So read the interview and enjoy, then enter to win.
- I’m sure you get this question all the time, but I have to ask. What is it that inspired you to write a book?
- When you first began to write, what was your biggest fear concerning writing?
- Tell us about the process involved in book publishing.
- When did you know you wanted to write books and what convinced you of it?
- Was The Outbreak your first idea for a novel, or were there others that came before? If so, what were they?
- I imagine you are working on future installments in the Zombie Love series. How is that going? Any spoilers for us?
- Does music inspire you when you write? What do you listen to when you write and why?
- What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
- Do we get to learn more soon about how the zombies were created?
- Anything you can tell us about the new character you introduced at the end of The Outbreak?
- Do you consider Daniel similar to yourself? If so, how? Is he based on someone else?
- Was it difficult to write mostly the point of view of a female character, Summer?
- The villains in your novel are mysterious. Will we ever get a deeper view into their world?
- The Outbreak involved drama regarding coming-of-age confusion and death. Did you feel it was a risk to write about such deep subjects in an otherwise humorous novel?
- Totally random, but just one last question: do you prefer the word sparkle or glitter? In all honesty.
I felt that zombies as a genre had become locked in a place where people immediately understood zombies and knew to just shoot them in the head. I thought that in the real world, in our world, if your brother became a zombie, you would want to know more about what happened to him and how you could help. Just like any debate, I think people would choose sides. Some would want to exterminate, and some would want to find a way to cure or help.
My biggest fear was that coming from a world of writing screenplays, would I be able to carry my love for writing to a longer form. I think that is a large part of why the book is short and very “to the point”. I am used to writing action. It was hard to slow down and build a story.
The path that I chose with self-publishing was to go through Amazon and use the tools they had to offer. The downside was the self-editing. Even after multiple passes by myself as well as my girlfriend taking multiple passes at it, we still find errors. My best friend did the cover design, which I think is vital to standing out as a self-published author. There are literally books upon books written about this subject, so I will keep it brief, but it takes about as long to get your book ready to publish as it does to write it. If it doesn’t, then it’s not ready.
I’ve been writing since the seventh grade. I mostly wrote short stories and poetry until I hit college and started writing screenplays. After doing that for a few years, I found myself craving the long form again. A screenplay is great, but in the end your screenplay becomes a movie that may not be your vision. When you write a great book, you are putting the entire story in a person’s head, and they can take it and run. Each person takes something different away from it, which I love.
The Outbreak was actually one of five ideas. I don’t want to spoil the others, because I would like to return to them at a later date, but once I realized Zombie Love could be a trilogy, I really just couldn’t resist it. The others are a little more serious, personal, and dramatic. I wanted my first series to be light hearted and fun to read.
I am currently working on the second book, The Road, and the third will be next year. It is going great! The one spoiler I would like to pass along is that Daniel is going to have a little competition for Summer’s heart, and the new person is not dead, so he has an advantage. We will see how that plays out.
Oh man, music is key for me while writing. Not so much for inspiration, but for matching the mood of what I am writing. I have my set of movie soundtracks that I use for various sequences. The Hanna soundtrack is my go to for more energetic sequences or action scenes, and my personal favorite right now is the Drive soundtrack. Loved the movie, and love the soundtrack. The key for me is instrumentals; lyrics just get in the way of my thoughts.
Write. Write in your free time. Write like it’s your job. If you can’t be writing, be thinking about writing. Writing, just like any skill, takes practice, and the more you do it, the better you will be. And research other authors. I always enjoy researching popular authors because as you learn about them on a personal level, you find that they aren’t superhuman. They are just people who work really hard at their passion.
We won’t be learning too much else about how the zombies were created, but we will learn a lot about how they are spreading, and how it happened. The genesis of the zombies will remain a cure gone wrong.
I would love to tell you all about him, but all I can say is that he is in the second book, and he plays a very big role in it.
Daniel definitely has some similarities to my teenage self. Most of my characters have aspects of myself in them, but I try to not let that go too far, otherwise, you have ten characters who are all the same. Daniel definitely reminds me of myself in high school though.
I will leave that up to the readers to decide if she feels real or forced. I actually really enjoy writing as Summer, I think she is awesome. I hope that people like her as much as I do.
Books two and three will be revealing a lot about the villains, especially because the villains will be changing, expanding, and adapting. There will be a lot more than the men in black coming for Summer and Daniel.
Not at all. I feel that great humor is grounded in a serious world. I did want the book to be fun to read, but I did not want it to be forgettable and silly. Also, as the second and third books come to life, the serious subjects will still be present. There will still be my weird sense of humor present, but we will be dealing with very serious subjects; watching a loved one wither away, jealousy, religious fanatics. It’s going to get interesting.
I would much prefer sparkle, because it is something sort of intangible. Glitter just makes me think of cheesy celebrations with people throwing glitter. Also, sparkles makes me think of that old Simpsons episode with "Mr. Sparkle!" Most readers may be a bit young for that reference, but oh well.
SO. Tell me that wasn't fantastic.
(And that last question? Talk about good taste!)
And now for the giveaway! It will close on April 13, 2012 at 12:00 P.M. PST. I will choose the winner with a random number generator and contact them via email. I will give them 48 hours to respond, and after 48 hours a new winner will be chosen. I will choose a winner every 48 hours until I receive a response.
Just a few guidelines:
- You must be at least 13 years old. If you're under 18, please have a parent's/guardian's permission before entering.
- This giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY as long as The Book Depository ships to your country. (Is your country on the list? Click here to find out.)
Lovelovelove,
