Madikken Zelda Thomsen
asked
Isaac Marion:
Hi Mr. Marion, uhm sir. Well, I've just discovered that your book Warm Bodies is going to be a series, and personally I feel that the story ended, not a closed ending but I felt more than satisfied. My question; was it always your intention to follow up on the first book?
Isaac Marion
This is an important question that I get asked a lot and the answer is complicated, so I'm going to take my sweet time here...
No, I won't claim that I started writing Warm Bodies with the intention of it being a series. I expected it to be a standalone novel. But that wasn't because the story was over, it was because I was a broke young writer with nothing published and had absolutely no reason to think this book would generate enough interest to allow for a sequel, if it ever got published at all. It wasn't a time to be planning epic sagas.
So I ended the book with what was really the first act of the story, always knowing there was more. What would life be like for R as a newly human person? How would he fit into society? How would such an alienated, socially stunted infant handle a romantic relationship? Would he ever remember his past self, and what would that do to the new person he's trying to become?
There's a book's worth of drama just in R's own life, but there's a lot more than that going on. What happens to the Dead after this "cure" begins to spread? What is the cure? What are the Dead and why do they exist? What else exists? Just how weird has the world become if it's allowing mythical undead creatures to become real? How does humanity deal with this new reality, and how do bad people exploit it to reclaim power and rebuild the old status quo? And most importantly: how do R and Julie spread the revolution they started? Can something as ancient and tenacious as human nature be challenged? If given a blank page, can society rewrite itself? Can the world truly change?
Those were questions I was asking when I wrote the last page of Warm Bodies. I had a much bigger story in my head and had even hinted at it with references to militia groups and a strange, subhuman power behind the Boneys, but I knew it was too big and ambitious for where I was at the time, both career-wise and maturity-wise. So I wrapped up Warm Bodies as neatly as I could and prepared to move on.
I never DREAMED that this weird little tale would become an international bestseller with a hit movie and a beautifully insane fandom full of people who connect to its world strongly enough to write their own stories in it and paint pictures of its people and try to imagine what happens next. Once I realized that there were all these people inhabiting this world with me, eager to explore more of it, I knew I had to take on the rest of the story, even though it's fucking huge and scary. Warm Bodies is a satisfying first act, but it was never really a conclusion. This book will be a conclusion.
No, I won't claim that I started writing Warm Bodies with the intention of it being a series. I expected it to be a standalone novel. But that wasn't because the story was over, it was because I was a broke young writer with nothing published and had absolutely no reason to think this book would generate enough interest to allow for a sequel, if it ever got published at all. It wasn't a time to be planning epic sagas.
So I ended the book with what was really the first act of the story, always knowing there was more. What would life be like for R as a newly human person? How would he fit into society? How would such an alienated, socially stunted infant handle a romantic relationship? Would he ever remember his past self, and what would that do to the new person he's trying to become?
There's a book's worth of drama just in R's own life, but there's a lot more than that going on. What happens to the Dead after this "cure" begins to spread? What is the cure? What are the Dead and why do they exist? What else exists? Just how weird has the world become if it's allowing mythical undead creatures to become real? How does humanity deal with this new reality, and how do bad people exploit it to reclaim power and rebuild the old status quo? And most importantly: how do R and Julie spread the revolution they started? Can something as ancient and tenacious as human nature be challenged? If given a blank page, can society rewrite itself? Can the world truly change?
Those were questions I was asking when I wrote the last page of Warm Bodies. I had a much bigger story in my head and had even hinted at it with references to militia groups and a strange, subhuman power behind the Boneys, but I knew it was too big and ambitious for where I was at the time, both career-wise and maturity-wise. So I wrapped up Warm Bodies as neatly as I could and prepared to move on.
I never DREAMED that this weird little tale would become an international bestseller with a hit movie and a beautifully insane fandom full of people who connect to its world strongly enough to write their own stories in it and paint pictures of its people and try to imagine what happens next. Once I realized that there were all these people inhabiting this world with me, eager to explore more of it, I knew I had to take on the rest of the story, even though it's fucking huge and scary. Warm Bodies is a satisfying first act, but it was never really a conclusion. This book will be a conclusion.
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