Author Interview: Devan Sagliani
Today I’m interviewing horror author Devan Sagliani. Devan’s books include the adult zombie novel ‘The Rising Dead’ and YA zombie adventure ‘Zombie Attack! Rise of the Horde’. Both of these books make my Top 5 Zombie Horror Novels for their brilliant characters, believable scenarios and tense horror scenes. Read on to find out more about these excellent novels and their creator.
Devan Sagliani
Hi Devan, thanks for agreeing to being interviewed! So, to start can you give us a one sentence synopsis that best describes your life so far?
A bitter sweet tale of redemption and triumph comes to life as one man decides to fulfill his lifelong ambition to write novel length fiction…about zombies.
Can you tell us five random interesting facts about yourself?
(1) I hate wearing shoes and jewelry for that matter. I think it’s because I’m a native Southern Californian, born and raised in Los Angeles. The weather is nice enough that you never need to wear shoes unless you’re going to the gym or court or maybe a funeral. I even got married barefoot on the beach. I grew up loving the beach and surf culture. I’m happiest in a pair of board shorts, a T-shirt, and flip flops. I don’t like being too far from the ocean. It makes me anxious.
(2) When I was 5 I used my birthday money to buy a toy typewriter. From a very early age all I’ve ever wanted to be was a novelist. I remember writing a short story when I was in grade school, a horror story about a man trapped on an island with a monster coming to kill him. It seemed totally normal at the time but I’m sure it set some bells off for my teacher. Still the people in my life weren’t very supportive of the idea of me writing books for a living. They told me I’d starve to death if I tried to go that route but they couldn’t kill the dream growing inside of me. My whole life I’ve fantasized about what it would be like to sign a book deal. I never had the audacity to imagine that when the time came I’d actually be signing 4 at once but that’s exactly what happened.
(3) I used to love hitchhiking around. I enjoyed the thrill of it, the danger, but also the freedom it offered. I’ve hitchhiked into downtown Los Angeles before, which was pretty freaky because a truck full of gang bangers tried to pick me up. I took off running and they started laughing and throwing beer bottles. Scary stuff. Generally though people were nice, telling me they’d hitchhiked when they were young too. It was like being admitted to a secret club for brave rebels who lived on the edge.
When I was 17 I hitchhiked from Los Angeles to Canada with a friend for fun, stopping along the way in Portland and Seattle. That’s the farthest I’ve ever gone by thumb. We met a lot of cool people, climbed Mount Hood, slept under the stars, and I even had a romance with a beautiful red head in Seattle that was my same age. I came this close to marching across Canada with an Indian tribe and coming down on the East Coast side in New York but I was homesick so I took the train back, going stir crazy in Santa Barbara and hopping off. I thumbed it back from there to home alone.
There were a lot of amazing stories on the road but there were scary moments on the trip too. We had a guy pick us up with a hunting knife jammed in his dashboard. I sat up front with my pack between him and me. My buddy sat in the back and I was so pissed at him for putting me up front. Turns out neither of the doors back there had handles to get out and the windows didn’t roll down. The guy then starts telling us how he was too violent and unstable to go to Vietnam and how he ran down a pedophile once with an 18 wheeler but no one dared to charge him for murder. He said he was headed up to meet his paramilitary buddies who lived off the grid in the Oregon wilderness. I was pissing myself but I didn’t want him to know it. I thought, ‘this is exactly why they tell you not to hitchhike. This is it. He’s going to murder us and wear our skin.’
An hour later he pulled over and let us out at our next stop. He waved and smiled as he sent us one our way. He couldn’t have been friendlier to be honest. I couldn’t believe it. Something tells me that guy is going to show up in one of my future stories. How can he not?
(4) I used to live in a broken down car and be what you might technically call homeless. It happened just after high school and didn’t last too long, but it made a permanent impact on me. I know just how quickly you can go from having everything to nothing. Friends helped me out during that time and I eventually worked my way out of it and put myself through college. I think it’s made me a tougher, more resourceful person, and also more compassionate in some ways.
(5) I’m a practicing Buddhist in the New Kadampa Tradition. Although I’ve always had an inclination towards Buddhism, I didn’t start practicing until in 2007, Shortly thereafter while looking for a church I discovered the works of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso and began to practice Modern Buddhism in the Mahayana tradition. It’s a pure lineage as passed down from Buddha made available to Westerners by his extraordinary kindness. While I’m far from the perfect example of a Buddhist I have found it’s brought a lot of peace and clarity to my life. There is so much wisdom in these teachings, enough to keep my busy for several lifetimes. They are amazing. If you look closely you will see elements of dharma woven into everything I write.
If you had to compare yourself to a character from ‘The Walking Dead’, who would you say you were most like and why?
Naturally I want to be Daryl. Who doesn’t want to be Daryl right? He’s strong. He’s loyal. He’s a survivor like me. And he looks badass on that chopper. Still some days I feel like I’m more like Glen than Daryl to be honest. Not to say that Glen is a bad character. He just doesn’t inspire the same kind of fandom that Daryl does. If I was a chick I’d want to be Michonne. You know how much I love the katana.
Go to: http://sharonstevensonauthor.com/auth... to read the rest of this interview, which includes an awesome extract from Devan's new book...
Devan Sagliani
Hi Devan, thanks for agreeing to being interviewed! So, to start can you give us a one sentence synopsis that best describes your life so far?
A bitter sweet tale of redemption and triumph comes to life as one man decides to fulfill his lifelong ambition to write novel length fiction…about zombies.
Can you tell us five random interesting facts about yourself?
(1) I hate wearing shoes and jewelry for that matter. I think it’s because I’m a native Southern Californian, born and raised in Los Angeles. The weather is nice enough that you never need to wear shoes unless you’re going to the gym or court or maybe a funeral. I even got married barefoot on the beach. I grew up loving the beach and surf culture. I’m happiest in a pair of board shorts, a T-shirt, and flip flops. I don’t like being too far from the ocean. It makes me anxious.
(2) When I was 5 I used my birthday money to buy a toy typewriter. From a very early age all I’ve ever wanted to be was a novelist. I remember writing a short story when I was in grade school, a horror story about a man trapped on an island with a monster coming to kill him. It seemed totally normal at the time but I’m sure it set some bells off for my teacher. Still the people in my life weren’t very supportive of the idea of me writing books for a living. They told me I’d starve to death if I tried to go that route but they couldn’t kill the dream growing inside of me. My whole life I’ve fantasized about what it would be like to sign a book deal. I never had the audacity to imagine that when the time came I’d actually be signing 4 at once but that’s exactly what happened.
(3) I used to love hitchhiking around. I enjoyed the thrill of it, the danger, but also the freedom it offered. I’ve hitchhiked into downtown Los Angeles before, which was pretty freaky because a truck full of gang bangers tried to pick me up. I took off running and they started laughing and throwing beer bottles. Scary stuff. Generally though people were nice, telling me they’d hitchhiked when they were young too. It was like being admitted to a secret club for brave rebels who lived on the edge.
When I was 17 I hitchhiked from Los Angeles to Canada with a friend for fun, stopping along the way in Portland and Seattle. That’s the farthest I’ve ever gone by thumb. We met a lot of cool people, climbed Mount Hood, slept under the stars, and I even had a romance with a beautiful red head in Seattle that was my same age. I came this close to marching across Canada with an Indian tribe and coming down on the East Coast side in New York but I was homesick so I took the train back, going stir crazy in Santa Barbara and hopping off. I thumbed it back from there to home alone.
There were a lot of amazing stories on the road but there were scary moments on the trip too. We had a guy pick us up with a hunting knife jammed in his dashboard. I sat up front with my pack between him and me. My buddy sat in the back and I was so pissed at him for putting me up front. Turns out neither of the doors back there had handles to get out and the windows didn’t roll down. The guy then starts telling us how he was too violent and unstable to go to Vietnam and how he ran down a pedophile once with an 18 wheeler but no one dared to charge him for murder. He said he was headed up to meet his paramilitary buddies who lived off the grid in the Oregon wilderness. I was pissing myself but I didn’t want him to know it. I thought, ‘this is exactly why they tell you not to hitchhike. This is it. He’s going to murder us and wear our skin.’
An hour later he pulled over and let us out at our next stop. He waved and smiled as he sent us one our way. He couldn’t have been friendlier to be honest. I couldn’t believe it. Something tells me that guy is going to show up in one of my future stories. How can he not?
(4) I used to live in a broken down car and be what you might technically call homeless. It happened just after high school and didn’t last too long, but it made a permanent impact on me. I know just how quickly you can go from having everything to nothing. Friends helped me out during that time and I eventually worked my way out of it and put myself through college. I think it’s made me a tougher, more resourceful person, and also more compassionate in some ways.
(5) I’m a practicing Buddhist in the New Kadampa Tradition. Although I’ve always had an inclination towards Buddhism, I didn’t start practicing until in 2007, Shortly thereafter while looking for a church I discovered the works of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso and began to practice Modern Buddhism in the Mahayana tradition. It’s a pure lineage as passed down from Buddha made available to Westerners by his extraordinary kindness. While I’m far from the perfect example of a Buddhist I have found it’s brought a lot of peace and clarity to my life. There is so much wisdom in these teachings, enough to keep my busy for several lifetimes. They are amazing. If you look closely you will see elements of dharma woven into everything I write.
If you had to compare yourself to a character from ‘The Walking Dead’, who would you say you were most like and why?
Naturally I want to be Daryl. Who doesn’t want to be Daryl right? He’s strong. He’s loyal. He’s a survivor like me. And he looks badass on that chopper. Still some days I feel like I’m more like Glen than Daryl to be honest. Not to say that Glen is a bad character. He just doesn’t inspire the same kind of fandom that Daryl does. If I was a chick I’d want to be Michonne. You know how much I love the katana.
Go to: http://sharonstevensonauthor.com/auth... to read the rest of this interview, which includes an awesome extract from Devan's new book...
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