Jonathon Fletcher's Blog: Captain's Blog - Posts Tagged "apocalypse"
The Captain's Blog welcomes Jenny Thomson...
Today the Captain's Blog welcomes Jenny Thomson, author of "Dead Bastards" and "Hell to Pay".
Jon: Tell us a little about yourself...
Jenny: I've been a freelance writer since I got my first piece published at 15, although I've had spells as a TV extra - I narrowly missed out on being an extra in World War Z when it was filming in Glasgow. I've been a big zombie fan since I watched the original Night of the Living Dead. Dead Bastards was published in December of last year and I've been overwhelmed with the response I've got. Zombie fans are fantastic. My crime thriller Hell To Pay was just published by Sassy Books and it's my first Die Hard for girls book. Like Dead Bastards, the book has a strong female character. I love The Walking Dead, but hate the way they've ruined most of the women characters by making it more about who they sleep with than fighting walkers.
Jon: Can you tell us what "Dead Bastards" is about?
Jenny: Glasgow couple Emma and Scott are in bed when there's a knock at the door. It's Scott's pal Archie and he looks like he's been mugged, but when he dies and comes back to life, they realise that the zombies are here. Teaming up with zombie expert Kenny, would be suicide bomber Doyle and Mustafa who works in the local shop, they have one goal. Just don't get bitten.
Jon: So what is it about zombies? I've been hooked on zombie films since my sister made me watch "Return of the Living Dead" when I was twelve and couldn't sleep for a month. What did it for you?
Jenny: I've been hooked on zombies since I first watched Night of the Living Dead. The way the movie's shot almost has a documentary feel about it and it's done in such a matter of fact way, you think, "Hey, this could happen."
Jon: So what makes your zombie story different from all the others?
Jenny: Dead Bastards is set in Glasgow and because it's not set in America there aren't many guns around, so people have to improvise when it comes to killing zombies. That makes it much tougher to survive. I have a strong female lead character, Emma, who can wield a baseball bat as good as any man. There's also a lot of dark humour and that's a very Scottish thing. Scots can stare into the bowels of hell and still find something to laugh about. I've also come up with a unique way that the zombie virus is transmitted that nobody, to my knowledge, has ever used before.
Jon: What's the most gruesome way that a zombie is dispatched in your book?
Jenny: At the start of the book, Scott hacks a zombie snowman to death with his axe. The body parts fly all over the shop because he can't see the man under the snow and has to keep on hitting him again and again to make sure he's finished him off. One of my characters, Mustafa, has to kill his own dad, who's a zombie, with a Samurai sword. In the movies, you see men doing it in one swoop, but Mustafa takes a few goes. It's always more gruesome when you have to kill a relative, but there's an element of absurdity about it too, because you think, "hey, is he ever going to hack this head off - it's so much easier in the movies." Throughout the book, I've tried to make things realistic. These people aren't killing machines, they've had no training. It's hard for them to kill anyone even when it's a case of kill or be killed. Eventually, though, they get to the stage where it's just routine and they've adapted to this new reality.
Jon: Is there anything different about your zombies, or are they the standard, shambling, moaning brain eaters?
Jenny: I've gone for the classic shambling zombies, although they can fairly shift when there's food walking by. To me it was important not to mess with the zombie genre because it's fine as it is. Because their brains are decaying or have completely decayed and have turned to mush, zombies shouldn't really be sprinting like Usain Bolt as the brain controls movement.
Jon: If you were caught up in a zombie apocalypse, what would be your weapon of choice?
Jenny: A gun if I could get one, but if not a chainsaw would be pretty cool. Watch all those zombie body parts fly off and blood everywhere. You'd definitely know that thing was dead. A katana like Michonne in The Walking Dead would also be cool - one swoop and the walker's headless or you could aim for the torso and split it in two. A scythe like the one they use to cut long grass would also be fantastic. Those things are sharp. Hey, I've thought of those things, a bit too much folk would say.
Jon: Are there any more books in the "Dead Bastards" series?
Jenny: For now Dead Bastards is a one off, but I might write another very different zombie book. If I can find the time. I'm writing the Die Hard for Girls revenge series of books. The first "Hell To Pay" is just out on paperback and it will be out on Kindle July 26th. The second is out next year. The next zombie book, that's just an idea at the moment, would be about a detective who goes from walled city to walled city investigating murders carried out by inhabitants. People live in these protected places because they haven't yet eradicated all the zombies and travel between them would be highly dangerous. The most common murder method used would be to throw someone out of these walled city so it's a case of death by zombie.
Jon: Do you have anything else that you want to tell your readers?
Jenny: Dead Bastards is a book with real people. They're not law enforcement or soldiers, so they react in a very realistic way to what's happening. The zombies in Dead Bastards are traditional Romero zombies and not the ones in the World War Z movie that zombie aficionados have been complaining about. I came up with the title for the book because in Scotland if the dead started to rise that’s what we’d probably call them. Well, you wouldn’t immediately think zombies if it was actually happening to you:) The castle in the book is real, although I've changed the name.
For writing tips, check out my blog at
http://ramblingsofafrustratedcrimewri...
I also have a dedicated zombie site at
http://deidbastards.blogspot.co.uk
and one for my Die Hard for Girls book at
http://diehardforgirls.weebly.com
The first book, Hell To Pay is out now in paperback and the follow up, Throwaways, is out next year.
If I'd to offer writers any advice it would be to write as many different things as possible, because you will face countless disappointments along the way. Hell to Pay, a revenge thriller, will be published by Sassy Books, on July 26th 2013 It's the first book in a series dubbed Die Hard for Girls. Read an excerpt here on my Amazon author page:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jenny-Thomson...
http://ramblingsofafrustratedcrimewri...
http://jennifer-thomson.blogspot.co.uk/
Jon: Thank you very much to Jenny for sharing her life and afterlife with the Captain's Blog... Keep that chainsaw handy folks, the apocalypse is coming for you!
Source: Uploaded by user via Jonathon on Pinterest
Jon: Tell us a little about yourself...
Jenny: I've been a freelance writer since I got my first piece published at 15, although I've had spells as a TV extra - I narrowly missed out on being an extra in World War Z when it was filming in Glasgow. I've been a big zombie fan since I watched the original Night of the Living Dead. Dead Bastards was published in December of last year and I've been overwhelmed with the response I've got. Zombie fans are fantastic. My crime thriller Hell To Pay was just published by Sassy Books and it's my first Die Hard for girls book. Like Dead Bastards, the book has a strong female character. I love The Walking Dead, but hate the way they've ruined most of the women characters by making it more about who they sleep with than fighting walkers.
Jon: Can you tell us what "Dead Bastards" is about?
Jenny: Glasgow couple Emma and Scott are in bed when there's a knock at the door. It's Scott's pal Archie and he looks like he's been mugged, but when he dies and comes back to life, they realise that the zombies are here. Teaming up with zombie expert Kenny, would be suicide bomber Doyle and Mustafa who works in the local shop, they have one goal. Just don't get bitten.
Source: Uploaded by user via Jonathon on Pinterest
Jon: So what is it about zombies? I've been hooked on zombie films since my sister made me watch "Return of the Living Dead" when I was twelve and couldn't sleep for a month. What did it for you?
Jenny: I've been hooked on zombies since I first watched Night of the Living Dead. The way the movie's shot almost has a documentary feel about it and it's done in such a matter of fact way, you think, "Hey, this could happen."
Jon: So what makes your zombie story different from all the others?
Jenny: Dead Bastards is set in Glasgow and because it's not set in America there aren't many guns around, so people have to improvise when it comes to killing zombies. That makes it much tougher to survive. I have a strong female lead character, Emma, who can wield a baseball bat as good as any man. There's also a lot of dark humour and that's a very Scottish thing. Scots can stare into the bowels of hell and still find something to laugh about. I've also come up with a unique way that the zombie virus is transmitted that nobody, to my knowledge, has ever used before.
Jon: What's the most gruesome way that a zombie is dispatched in your book?
Jenny: At the start of the book, Scott hacks a zombie snowman to death with his axe. The body parts fly all over the shop because he can't see the man under the snow and has to keep on hitting him again and again to make sure he's finished him off. One of my characters, Mustafa, has to kill his own dad, who's a zombie, with a Samurai sword. In the movies, you see men doing it in one swoop, but Mustafa takes a few goes. It's always more gruesome when you have to kill a relative, but there's an element of absurdity about it too, because you think, "hey, is he ever going to hack this head off - it's so much easier in the movies." Throughout the book, I've tried to make things realistic. These people aren't killing machines, they've had no training. It's hard for them to kill anyone even when it's a case of kill or be killed. Eventually, though, they get to the stage where it's just routine and they've adapted to this new reality.
Jon: Is there anything different about your zombies, or are they the standard, shambling, moaning brain eaters?
Jenny: I've gone for the classic shambling zombies, although they can fairly shift when there's food walking by. To me it was important not to mess with the zombie genre because it's fine as it is. Because their brains are decaying or have completely decayed and have turned to mush, zombies shouldn't really be sprinting like Usain Bolt as the brain controls movement.
Jon: If you were caught up in a zombie apocalypse, what would be your weapon of choice?
Jenny: A gun if I could get one, but if not a chainsaw would be pretty cool. Watch all those zombie body parts fly off and blood everywhere. You'd definitely know that thing was dead. A katana like Michonne in The Walking Dead would also be cool - one swoop and the walker's headless or you could aim for the torso and split it in two. A scythe like the one they use to cut long grass would also be fantastic. Those things are sharp. Hey, I've thought of those things, a bit too much folk would say.
Jon: Are there any more books in the "Dead Bastards" series?
Jenny: For now Dead Bastards is a one off, but I might write another very different zombie book. If I can find the time. I'm writing the Die Hard for Girls revenge series of books. The first "Hell To Pay" is just out on paperback and it will be out on Kindle July 26th. The second is out next year. The next zombie book, that's just an idea at the moment, would be about a detective who goes from walled city to walled city investigating murders carried out by inhabitants. People live in these protected places because they haven't yet eradicated all the zombies and travel between them would be highly dangerous. The most common murder method used would be to throw someone out of these walled city so it's a case of death by zombie.
Source: Uploaded by user via Jonathon on Pinterest
Jon: Do you have anything else that you want to tell your readers?
Jenny: Dead Bastards is a book with real people. They're not law enforcement or soldiers, so they react in a very realistic way to what's happening. The zombies in Dead Bastards are traditional Romero zombies and not the ones in the World War Z movie that zombie aficionados have been complaining about. I came up with the title for the book because in Scotland if the dead started to rise that’s what we’d probably call them. Well, you wouldn’t immediately think zombies if it was actually happening to you:) The castle in the book is real, although I've changed the name.
For writing tips, check out my blog at
http://ramblingsofafrustratedcrimewri...
I also have a dedicated zombie site at
http://deidbastards.blogspot.co.uk
and one for my Die Hard for Girls book at
http://diehardforgirls.weebly.com
The first book, Hell To Pay is out now in paperback and the follow up, Throwaways, is out next year.
If I'd to offer writers any advice it would be to write as many different things as possible, because you will face countless disappointments along the way. Hell to Pay, a revenge thriller, will be published by Sassy Books, on July 26th 2013 It's the first book in a series dubbed Die Hard for Girls. Read an excerpt here on my Amazon author page:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jenny-Thomson...
http://ramblingsofafrustratedcrimewri...
http://jennifer-thomson.blogspot.co.uk/
Jon: Thank you very much to Jenny for sharing her life and afterlife with the Captain's Blog... Keep that chainsaw handy folks, the apocalypse is coming for you!
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