Behind the Screens: Tuesday Author Interview
Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.
Zilla: We all need a good zombie story now and again, and even better if our human heroine is queer. This is why I invited Joseph Picard here to tell us about his post-apocalyptic novel, Lifehack. Joseph, can you introduce us to your book?
Joseph: Lifehack follows Regan as she breaks up with her cheating girlfriend then moves in with her brother. One of his peers twists a medical nanotech project into a zombie plague (the old slow/dumb kind) as a resignation letter.
Regan looks for her brother in the quarantined city for 2 years before she’s ‘rescued’ by a soldier she falls for immediately. Alisia’s a redead, and Regan’s been alone and going slightly batty. Priorities get a little jumbled, and the original culprit is still a potential threat out there somewhere.
Lifehack began my first series and impacts many of my books, even in my 3rd series.
Zilla : What inspired you to write this book?
Joseph: At the time, I’d only ever done one-shot short stories, but Regan and her exploits grew into 4 shorts, which eventually were refined into a book. I was drawing a lot back then—feedback on art of Regan actually resulted in Regan’s orientation… it seemed to fit her.
Zilla : Is your work more plot-driven or character-driven? Or a secret, third thing?
Joseph: Dungeons and Dragons-driven? I come up with a scenario, then sprinkle characters into it. Once they’re ‘active’ I lose most of the control. They reveal hang ups or quirks as events unfold. They fall in love, solve, or create danger. Sometimes they end up pitted against each other. I can kind of predict their path, but a few have surprised me.
Zilla : What’s your next writing project?
Joseph: The Daughter of Erebus series (which expands from the last book in Lifehack’s series, Echoes of Erebus) is coming soon. Daughter of Erebus: Sparrow is currently in the hands of my editor. Meanwhile, I’m chipping away at Daughter of Erebus: The Wronged.
There are still a ton of questions about Sarah’s future. She strives to lead a normal life, but being made out of tech made by Lifehack’s mass-murderer makes public relations a bit dicey. Sarah and her human found family have to face threats from other nano-creations, and public distrust. And despite wanting to keep life as simple as possible, romance finds a way, and Danielle finds a way, too… it confuses Sarah’s synthetic brain thousands of times faster than it would a human’s. She’s got neurosis down to a science.
Zilla : Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?
Joseph: Amazon has my kindle, paperback, hardcover, and audibles. But if you’re not an amazon fan, (who could blame ya?) my personal site has links to the books2read links for all my books. For example, you can find Lifehack.
You can find me hanging out on FB, (thoughI’m trying to back off a little from FB given some recent moves by zuck), and I’m settling into Bluesky.
