George L. Cook III's Blog, page 26
September 13, 2014
Interview with PM Barnes the author of Zombie Seed
TDWZS (The Dead War Zombie Series) What inspired you to become an author?
PM Barnes: I have been writing for as long as I can remember. I actually have some books that my mother preserved from my childhood. A few of them are actually bound and date back almost 30 years.
I feel that my love of books and of writing came from my parents. I often hear tale of my father taking my mother to the park when she was pregnant with me and sitting her under a tree so he could read to her belly.
It’s also possible, that my father is to blame for my dark literary leanings. Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner and Poe were pretty frequent guests at these “readings”, so it’s not too hard to see why much of my work leans into the macabre.
TDWZS: Why write in the zombie genre?
PM Barnes: For one, I am a huge z poc and post apoc fan. I feel like as a writer, the love of a genre generally means that you are always thinking about ways to improve it or bring in some new elements. It’s part of not being able to turn it off.
I would often be reading these really great books and thinking about twists I wished they would take. When I set out to start my own series, Zombie Seed, I actually made a list of all the things I really wanted to read about in the genre and also, all the clichés and things I felt were really played out.
In addition to that, I am a student of human psychology and I feel that we see a more clearly represented human experience in times of adversity.
What drives people to still find z poc and post apoc stories interesting, is because they maintain their relevancy and may have even increased over the last few decades.
As we consistently are reminded of how tenuous our hold is on the current arrangement of society, our fear of what will happen when it all falls down grows.
The end of the world is our favorite concept to play with. We recognize the inevitability and our powerlessness against it.
TDWZS: Lets's get to your book. What's it about? Is it a series?
PM Barnes: Zombie Seed is a culmination of all the elements I just discussed. I’m trying to view the apocalypse from the psychological side of things and focus on the carnage that humans can exact in times of uncertainty. It was really important for me to blur the lines of good and evil. While reading the series, you will at times find yourself as frightened by some of my “living” characters, as you will of the undead ones.
As of right now, the series is set to have five books in it. The book that is currently out, is actually book three. There will be two before and two after.
TDWZS: As I'm sure you know there are thousands of zombie books out there right now. What makes yours stand out?
PM Barnes: Great question and I agree. There are some really good z poc books out there and I have had a pleasure to read quite a few and get to know the authors.
I feel like what sets mine apart, is my main focus. Again, I have chosen to zero in on more of the living monsters, than the undead ones. I also bring in some turns that are not usually associated with the z poc (which I would love to list, but finding out about them is part of the suspense in the book). It’s pretty much a guarantee that while reading my books, you’ll have an “I did not expect that”, moment.
TDWZS: What's the cause of the zombie apocalypse in your books?
PM Barnes: The cause of the z poc in my series, is discussed in the next installment, ZS II: CONCEPTION. I don’t want to give too much away and blow the feel of the book, but I can say that it is not an accident. My z poc is actually a synthesized event, in response to another event.
TDWZS: Are your zombies the fast or slow moving type?
PM Barnes: Another great question. I actually have both in my book. You have once again stumbled upon one of the elements that adds to the suspense and also sets Zombie Seed apart.
TDWZS: Are you trying to make any greater point with your books or just write a good zombie story?
PM Barnes: My main focus is to entertain. There are some laugh out loud moments and ones that will have you cringing on the edge. That being said, I did want to bring a mirror up to ourselves, by showing that the depths of human depravity are something that we all are subject to.
If I had to sum my book up into one quote, it would be one of many great ones by Golda Meir, “…nothing human is alien to me.”
TDWZS: Do you have an online presence? If so where? Blogs, web sites, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
PM Barnes: You can pick up Zombie Seed in e-copy at Amazon:
Or you can pick up the paperback copy at: https://www.createspace.com/4823824
I have Youtube channel that I will be using to post weekly video blogs: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK8to-LH0k7SJmTsERk3mRw
You can find my author page on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/PMBarnesAuthor
There is also a Facebook Page for the ZOMBIE SEED series: https://www.facebook.com/zombieseedseries
September 7, 2014
Give Z Nation a chance!
Z Nation premieres Sept. 12 and although few have actually seen it many have decided it sucks or will suck. I have already read where people state that it's no "The Walking Dead. Of course it's not that's why it has a different title.
Why does the show have to be like or compared to The Walking Dead? I know that there are few zombie shows on television so the comparison is inevitable but is it fair? I love The Walking Dead but we all have to admit that at times it drags and can be depressing as all hell. If there is a zombie show that actually uses the word zombie, that's more heavy on the action and gore what's wrong with that?
Some worry that because it's brought to us by Asylum the same folks who brought us the Sharknado movies that it may be overly campy or overly ridiculous (like the concept of a zombie apocalypse is not ridiculous itself). That's an understandable worry given Asylum's track record. But then again it could be ridiculous or it could just be plain goofy fun.
I think it's possible to like different types of zombie shows. Look at it this way. Isn't it possible to love both the original Night of the Living Dead and Return of the Living Dead at the same time? Of course it is! Both zombie movies but very different in style but great in their own right. So it doesn't have to be an either or situation when it comes to The Walking Dead and Z Nation.
I'm going to give Z Nation a fair shot, hell it can't possibly be worse than Dominion and I watched that whole series so I will give Z Nation a shot. I suggest we all give it a shot and I write this as someone who hates fast zombies. I mean how can you resist a show with a zombie baby?
George Cook thedeadwarzombieseries.com
September 3, 2014
Interview with Jeffrey Littorno author of The Most Uncommon Cold Series
TDWZS (The Dead War Zombie Series):
Jeffrey Littorno: What inspired you to become an author? Well, I’m not sure I was inspired as much as just knew that I was a good writer and enjoyed creat-ing a good story. Of course, life has a way of getting in the way of writing. But over the last few years, I have made sure that nothing stopped me from finishing a few books.
TDWZS: Why write in the zombie genre?
Jeffrey Littorno: Like many people, I was scared sleepless by Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead. And I guess that excitement never left me. The reemergence of the genre with 28 Days Later and The Walking Dead gave me a strong nudge in the direction of the undead.
TDWZS: Lets's get to the The Most Uncommon Cold series.What's the series about? How many books are there in the series?
Jeffrey Littorno: The series is told from the point of view of Kevin Turner, a newspaper reporter. When the books start, he is investigating a riot at SFO. Of course, everything goes off the rails from there. The second book Surviving in the Time of Zombies comes out on September 13th, and I am currently working on the third and last book.
TDWZS: As I'm sure you know there are thousands of zombie books out there right now. What makes yours stand out?
Jeffrey Littorno: Other than the great characters and story? Well, I hope that The Most Uncommon Cold books stand out because they focus on the interaction between people and their reaction to the zombie and let that drive the action. I think zombie books are most engaging when they focus on the smaller, more personal view rather than the huge picture.
TDWZS: What's the cause of the zombie apocalypse in your books?
Jeffrey Littorno: As the title gives away, the zombie apocalypse is brought on by a new strain of the cold. The idea that the apocalypse could be caused by something seemingly innocuous as a cold truly frightens me.
TDWZS: Are your zombies the fast or slow moving type?
Jeffrey Littorno: I split the difference on speed. Newly-created zombies are fast and have some language ability. However, as the disease progresses over time, the zombies become slower and possess less in the way of intellectual skills.
TDWZS: Are you trying to make any greater point with your books or just write a good zombie story?
Jeffrey Littorno: I set out just to write a good story. Of course, as I am writing, some greater points occur to me. To tell the truth, when I started writing the first book, my plan was that the zombies were just going to be inside of the narrator’s head. Later, I realized that this would make a strong point about our isolationism in the real world. A few readers have commented that they didn’t know if the narrator was insane or not, which is because I didn’t know either until about halfway through writing the book. I read a review that credited me with a number of deeper concepts that I really hadn’t consciously considered. Nice to be given credit though!
TDWZS: Do you have an online presence? If so where? Blogs, web sites, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Jeffrey Littorno: I have a few spots online.
Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Jeffrey-Littorno/e/B004UMNNVW
Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLittorno
Website - http://thingsofhorror.weebly.com/
Twitter- @JALittorno
But The Most Uncommon Cold Books
September 1, 2014
Syfy has another zombie series, Town of the Living Dead
Zombie fans know of the Syfy series Z-Nation set to premiere Sept. 12 but how many know about their new docudrama "Town of the Living Dead" that premieres October 7th?
Synopis: Town of the Living Dead is a new unscripted series that follows a small Alabama town trying to complete their own independent zombie movie – which has been six years in the making. The colorful folks of Jasper, Alabama are determined, once and for all, to complete their zombie movie, Thr33 Days Dead… now six long years in the making. Based on a town urban legend, their film centers on a group of friends trying to survive a zombie apocalypse in rural Alabama. The series will follow the intrepid and motley crew of amateur filmmakers as they struggle against every obstacle imaginable to get to a final cut of their film…which could someday become a movie!
Interview with William Bebb author of Chronicles of the Undead
TDWZS (The Dead War Zombie Series): What inspired you to become an author?
William Bebb: While hunting for a hobby I read a very bad novel written by a successful and famous author. I don't want to drop names but probably everyone has heard of him, and to be fair there are a great many stories by this writer that I really loved reading up to that point. I simply couldn't focus on that particular story and kept being forced to read the same few pages in a vain attempt at understanding what was happening. The main problem was excessive long winded descriptions that caused me to lose interest. And I thought, Geez, I could at least write something that captures and keeps a reader's attention. I've been a life-time fan of zombies and decided to give writing a story about them a shot. After a couple of years of work and what felt like a million rewrites Valley of Death Zombie Trailer Park shambled its way onto the literary stage.
TDWZS: Why write in the zombie genre?
William Bebb: I could not ONLY write novels or stories about zombies. The second book I tackled was a science fiction story called The Tiniest Invaders. Next year, in 2015, I plan on finishing the trilogy on that. But, yes, zombie tales can be quite a bit of fun. I've read other author's zombie books and felt... most had problems. World War Z was dry and I couldn't come close to caring about the characters. Someone told me it was supposed to be a 'dry objective historical accounting of humanity versus the undead' and I wasn't supposed to make me care about the characters. That's nice, I guess, but not for me. Brian Keene has a very good handle on the zombie genre, but his tales always end (Or at least always seem to end) badly for everyone. I might be able to create a book about zombies and their adventures without including the living but I believe it would be a problematic endeavor. Zombies, of and by themselves, bore me. To write a compelling story about zombies I need for there to be characters (living ones) that I can relate to. There have been a great many bad zombie movies over the years that are so formulaic and annoying that I want to slap whoever made them. Many typical badly made zombie films usually includes the following: SCENE 1: Scared people running from zombies. SCENE 2: Brief fight scene where some zombies are destroyed. SCENE 3: Survivors find a safe, secure, well stocked, location to stay in. SCENES 4-99: Almost no scenes with zombies and everything slides into conflicts involving the survivors and their personality quirks. LAST SCENE: Either a nuclear bomb explodes and simply atomizes everyone and everything, a helicopter picks up survivors and flies them to 'safety', or everyone dies. Shaun of the Dead actually had one of the more satisfying conclusions, at least for me. I prefer stories with interesting living characters in struggles with the undead but that's just it. They HAVE to actually deal with them, not hide in the cliche safe place and then spend most of the time talking about how life used to be, get in fights with each other, blah-blah-blah. At the same time, not every page in my zombie stories is dripping with gore. I was doing clean-up, revisions, and a bit of expansion to Valley of Death Zombie Trailer Park and came across a scene that seemed more powerful now than it did when I wrote it. A traveling evangelist that is searching a run-down trailer finds the skeletal remains of someone that over dosed on some narcotics back in the 1980s after her son was taken away because she was an addict. It had absolutely NOTHING to do with zombies, was maybe 2 or 3 pages at most, and yet the tragic feel was and still is intense to me. Another thing I enjoy about a world filled with zombies is that all the rules of regular life and laws are suspended. Survivors are forced to either deal with things themselves or die, reanimate, and then possibly get shot in the head and die again. I don't believe in relying on other folks or the government too much. In a world where everyone is looking out for themselves and the people they care about- that's where heroes or villains tend to be made.
TDWZS: Lets's get to the zombie books. What's the series about? How many books are there in the series?
William Bebb: Actually there are two concurrent series dealing with zombies that I am working on. The first came about because of VODZTPARK and is unofficially called the Keck Series because a deceased executive that worked at Beaumont biochemical corporation in Albuquerque New Mexico was named Stephen Keck. He was directly responsible for the virus that turned normal folks into ultra-violent murderous creatures, that when killed reanimate as more traditional undead zombies. There are 3 completed novels in that series with more in the works. The other series is called Chronicles of the Undead and focuses on a 20 something year old man named George. The cause or reason dead humans reanimate has nothing to do with a virus and everything to do with radiation that coming from a freak interstellar cloud that is making its way through the solar system. No biting is required to change into a zombie either. Anyone that dies simply reanimates and becomes a nasty problem.
TDWZS: As I'm sure you know there are thousands of zombie books out there right now. What makes yours stand out?
William Bebb: Nothing much. I mainly focus on the characters and how they struggle to survive and sometimes question themselves whether it's even worth trying. Both series have light/humorous moments without getting overly silly.
TDWZS: Are your zombies the fast or slow moving type?
William Bebb: Fun question. Keck virus victims are alive and usually very quick. My take on the traditional dead zombie and their speed is a bit complicated but makes sense to me. A 'fresh' recently reanimated dead zombie should be not only fast moving but extremely fast. For the first few hours there's no reason a zombie couldn't or wouldn't move or run at least as fast and sometimes faster than the living. Zombies don't breathe or get tired. They wouldn't worry about over exerting or injuring themselves thus for a brief few hours they'd be fast and much more dangerous. Of course, as rigor mortis sets in- muscle stiffening etc, plus as gravity causes blood and other bodily fluids to pool in the lower legs they will gradually slow down to the typical slowly shambling zombies that we all know and love.
TDWZS: Are you trying to make any greater point with your books or just write a good zombie story?
William Bebb: I enjoy spinning a good story. I'm a believer in karma and like to see the bad characters get what they deserve. In George's case, in Chronicles of the Undead, he's driven by a need to make up for some things he did that ended up killing the girl he loved. Motivation for my characters is something important to me. As to a greater point being made in my tales... I'd guess it might be something like no matter how bad things seem never give up.
TDWZS: Do you have an online presence? If so where? Blogs, web sites, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
William Bebb: Email can be sent to handsonppbooks@gmail.com
BUY William Bebbs Books
August 30, 2014
Interview with Mikhail Lerma, author of Z Plan: Blood on the Sand
Check out my interview with Mikhail Lerma. The author of The Z Plan zombie series.
TDWZS (The Dead War Zombie Series): What inspired you to become an author?
Mikhail Lerma: It was kind of an accident really. Just one day, while deployed in Iraq, I just started writing. At first, just to entertain myself and my close friends. It just evolved from there. So I'd say my inspiration was a combination of boredom and the desire to entertain.
TDWZS: Why write in the zombie genre?
Mikhail Lerma: The experts say, so I hear, to write what you know. And from a young age I've always been fascinated by the concept of the dead returning to life and eating the living. A fear/interest introduced to me by my mother. Damn Romero movies. So I paired my zombie hobby with my military knowledge.
TDWZS: Lets's get to the Into Zombies series. What's the series about? How many books are there in the series?
Mikhail Lerma: It starts as a group of soldiers, deployed in Iraq, desperately trying to get home amidst a zombie apocalypse. The members of this group are whittled down by the undead to one man. His goal; to get home to his wife and daughter alone as the world crumbles around him. His story spans three books. In the first he attempts to escape the Middle East. Book two ends with him "making" it to the United States. A book three? Well, I'm still working that one out. But I can promise that just being on American soil doesn't make his travels any easier.
TDWZS: As I'm sure you know there are thousands of zombie books out there right now. What makes yours stand out?
Mikhail Lerma: Most, if not all, zombie books start with their main characters being fairly close to their home. My characters aren't even in their home countries. Another factor that makes my story standout is that a lot of military characters in stories are Special Forces, Rangers, Seals, just absolute badasses. The group of soldiers I created are just regular military personnel. They are, in my opinion, more believable this way.
TDWZS: What's the cause of the zombie apocalypse in your books?
Mikhail Lerma: I hint a some kind of virus hybrid that originates in Africa in book one. In book two I reveal its appearance was a little more widespread than just Africa. And without spoiling anything, book three dabbles in the virology and nature of my fictitious plague. But at this point it could be anything. A radioactive meteor passing too close to earth, a genetically engineered bioweapon, a parasite, or even rage infected monkeys.
TDWZS: Are your zombies the fast or slow moving type?
Mikhail Lerma: In general I'd say they're slow. Old Romero zombies were by far the scariest. A slow and silent killer that sneaks up. If they're fast it becomes more of an action novel than a horror. But I've got a couple of exceptions. Recently reanimated corpses are a little faster, but degrade quickly as decomposition sets in.
TDWZS: Are you trying to make any greater point with your books or just write a good zombie story?
Mikhail Lerma: My book is a lot more than its face value. My main character's story isn't just about his daunting task of getting home, but growing as he journeys. He's faced with a lot of real issues soldiers returning from a warzone experience. He and his friends share a deep bond. They're like brothers. So when they die he exhibits many signs of survivor's guilt and post traumatic stress. Book two is when the reader really starts to see just how badly he's been affected. And while it makes for great character development, the readers are reminded that he's mentally ill. If you remove the zombies from my book, what you have is a very real story of what our veterans experience when they come home.
TDWZS: Do you have an online presence? If so where? Blogs, web sites, Twitter, Facebook?
Mikhail Lerma: Yes I am very active online, and enjoy connecting with readers. You can find all of my social media links on my main website www.MikhailLerma.com.
Mr. Lerma will be hosting a Virtual Book Release Party on Facebook tomorrow August 31st. All are welcome, and he will be giving away a lot of prizes. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1538605889694853
BUY THE Z PLAN SERIES
August 29, 2014
[REC]4 Official Trailer
Here's the official trailer for the fourth and supposedly final film in the [REC] series, [REC]4
August 28, 2014
The Dead War Zombie Series weekly serial PLATOON
The Walking Dead Season 5 Teaser Trailer: Walkers close in on Tyreese
In this very intense trailer for The Walking Dead Season 5 Tyreese seems to be in a very bad situation.
August 26, 2014
New zombie book releases!
While I of course would love for you all to purchase my own zombie epic there are literally thousands of zombie books out there for you to check out. Here are five new titles you may not have heard of yet. Click the links to find out more about each book.
