The Zombie Group! discussion

This is a question explicitly for the authors: What was first thing that got you interested in writing about zombies? What was your first exposure to them?

Patrick: I sort of answered this in another post earlier, so if you don't mind, here's the same story again:

My first exposure to zombies was Romero's original Night of the Living Dead. I grew up in the UK in the 1980's, when crazy censorship laws meant it was impossible to get hold of any horror movies here (they were banned and labelled as 'video nasties'). A friend of mine's dad ran a comic store, and he brought back a laser disc player (remember those?!) and a stack of movies from a shopping trip in the US. We sat and watched Night one dark afternoon in the middle of winter, while a huge thunderstorm battered the house. Priceless!

I guess my first exposure to post-apocalyptic stories was when I managed to get hold of copies of The War of the Worlds and The Day of the Triffids when I was probably too young to read them. Both stories had a profound effect on me. Triffids in particular has a lot of the traits of a classic zombie story.

When I came to write Autumn, I originally started with an 'empty earth' story - 99% of the population died on page one, and the book was concerned with how the survivors coped. But it was clear pretty quickly that the story needed more, and the logical solution was to reanimate some of the billions of people I'd killed in chapter one! I originally wrote Autumn in 2001, and I've been hopelessly addicted to zombies ever since.

Thanks for that, David. The Triffids link is really interesting. They scared the crap out of me as a kid too. I hadn't considered the likeness to zombie stories before though. I'd like to hear more about that.

I love that Video Nasty list too. I'm still making my way through those films one by one.. :)

the "invisible invaders," a really cheesy and frightening film that i saw as a kid. aliens come to earth and take over the bodes of the dead. that was the start of my love affair with zombies and creepy subject matters in general. and i've always loved the combo platter of humor and horror.

Ruby... so I'm not the only one working through the video nasty list! The sad fact is it looks like we might be heading back down that route in the UK. The censors seem to be clamping down again...

As far as Triffids are concerned, I think the creatures themselves have a few zombie-like traits. They herd, they're largely silent, they eat human flesh, they're emotionless and driven... Okay, so they're also eight foot talking walking plants, but you get the idea. Some of the imagery in the novel (and the 1980's BBC adaptation - forget the other movie/TV attempts) was really reminiscent of zombie stories: the living barricading themselves in a farmhouse, for example, surrounded by high metal fences.

The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse
Boy - depends on how you define interest. The construct of an impersonal threat, the notiopn that something or someone who cares not a bit about you, either postively or negatively, but still will kill you nonetheless (a lot like a virus) has been one of my nightmares since I've had nightmares. In an odd way, I think the 1978 Dawn of the Dead got to me viscerally because I watched it just as the Reagan - Soviet Cold War Era was heating up. I was in middle school and then high school during those years, and I honestly couldn't get my mind around the very real possibility that we might very likely blow each other up without ever even shaking hands. I know that sounds trite, but it's how I felt. It was all so damn impersonal. And then along comes Dawn of the Dead, and these stumbling ghouls couldn't give two you-know-what's about the folks they were interested in tearing to pieces. That felt wierdly familiar, and I couldn't figure out why until I thought of my recurring worry that I wouldn't live to see 30 because a nameless, faceless guy in a silo somewhere who had never seen me swing a baseball bat or ask a girl on date was gonna blow the world, my world, to pieces. Zombies? They were the ultimate impersonal threat, and I like things personal.

I let it go for a while, and then came back to it nearly 30 years later, still a life-long horror fan, not thrilled by the events of modernity, and wondering as a phsyician how we would really deal with a zombie plauge. It seemed the perfect platform to explore a realm of speculative fiction - the medically plausible nightmare - that I find fascinating and creepy and oddly compelling even now.

Hey Steven, are the rumours I'm hearing about Romero and your book true?

Great to meet you here, by the way. As a fellow child of the Cold War, I understand completely where you're coming from in your last comment.

Steven wrote: "The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse
Boy - depends on how you define interest. The construct of an impersonal threat, the notiopn that something or someone wh..."

I think that's something we often overlook in zombie/horror media. We are often too selfishly focused on how one would simply survive such an occurrence, that the majority of us just don't see any other way of looking at the genre. It's always refreshing to see new perspectives on the idea, and a very "practical" one at that!

For me, I never thought I would write horror let alone zombie horror. I've always been kind of squeamish about gore in reading, although I am a retired life flight nurse, go figure.

Although I'd seen the movies over the decades, it really wasn't something classic.

What caused me to write about zombies was a story which formed in my mind and wouldn't go away. It has since blossomed into me now writing three more zombie based novels.... amazingly enough it was the May 18th CDC Zombie Apocalypse Alert which spurred the ideas flooding into my brain and now I'm a die hard zombie fan go figure.

I published "Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption" in September and sales have been great.

David wrote: "Hey Steven, are the rumours I'm hearing about Romero and your book true?

They are. We are collaborating on the project. Wanna pinch myself. thanks also for your comments

Great to meet you here, by the way. As a fellow child of the Cold War, I understand completely where you're coming from in ..."

Well now you have us all intrigued! What are these rumors?!

Looks like George Romero is gonna have a go at making the book I wrote into a movie. Still trying to gym mind around it

That is fabulous news! I've seen your book around. Next time I'm at the store I'll have to grab it.

Patrick wrote: "This is a question explicitly for the authors: What was first thing that got you interested in writing about zombies? What was your first exposure to them?"

I think it was movies I saw as a kid. Later, it was the original Dawn of the Dead. My new book, Swords of the Dead, soon to be a movie, features a new kind of zombie -- Ninja Zombies.

I adapted the book from my original screenplay.

You can read a sample at http://swordsofthedead.com

Congrats Steven!


And as for the original question...what prompted me to write about zombies? And what was my first exposure to zombies?

Well my first exposure to 'zombies' came when i was about 7 or 8. My older sisters boyfriend was killed in a car accident and we were the ones to find the body. It scared the ever living crap out of me. So a friend of the family started telling me about zombies. Later, at BJ's funeral, my mother prompted me put a carnation on his chest and kiss his cheek. I was short, so I had to stand on a stool and put my hand on his chest. Well, some air was expelled and he 'moaned' And that started and cemented my fear of all things undead.

After that zombies or vampires were my favorite monsters. Because they legitimately scared me, I got so obsessed with morbid topics my mother's friends started calling me 'Elvira', even though I was a bit young to get the reference.

As for what made me want to write about them? Well, partially that was your fault JL! I loved DBDA. LOVED it. But at the same time I just could not connect with the protagonist.

I searched for a few years for ANY zombie books that had a protagonists I could identify with, and with the exception of a few excepts from WWZ was unable to find any.

So...I decided to write my own. I started a book about a very normal, average girl who manages to survive. Mostly with the help of others.

So...that's it really. What got me started was a simple love for the genre and a search for protags I could easily identify with. Rather plebeian I guess. But that's ok with me.

@Cassandra,
As for what made me want to write about them? Well, partially that was your fault JL! I loved DBDA. LOVED it. But at the same time I just could not connect with the protagonist...

How was that my fault? DBDA, not sure what this is.

Jo

@Cassandra,
As for what made me want to write about them? Well, partially that was your fault JL! I loved DBDA. LOVED it. But at the same time I just could not connect with the protagonist...

How was that my fault? DBDA, not sure what this is.


LOL sorry. Wrong JL. I post in another group with an author named JL Bourne. DBDA is an acronym for his first book, Day by Day Armageddon. This is what happens when I have 19 tabs up at one.

I lose track of where I am! Sorry!