Zombies have always intrigued me. They are shells of their former living selves. Mindless and soulless, wandering aimlessly, in search of food and nothing else.
In a way, aren’t we all like that? We are living and we don’t feed on flesh, human anyway, but we all pretty much do the same thing, day after day. Get up, go to work, come home, go to bed, etc. Sure, our lives vary at times, but we struggle to earn a living, sometimes sacrificing a life outside of working.
My main character, Ed Kirk, was a fairly popular young man who was just starting to live life, had a good looking girlfriend, when all of a sudden he is struck with this sickness that is slowly turning him into a zombie. Now his life has become about trying to keep his girlfriend and sister safe from the things that he is slowly turning into.
I wanted to use some of my memories from high school and growing up in the small town of Wilson, New York as a basis for the story. Growing up in a small town is so much different from a city, because everybody knows everybody and there’s very little that can happen that isn’t common knowledge, and for Ed to see undead friends and neighbors wandering around the village, it makes it more personal.
The best thing about writing these stories, is that I can live vicariously through the characters, especially Ed. I get to be the hero, the boyfriend, the brother, the zombie. I control the outcomes and the situations. The dialogue. That is one thing I really enjoy.
In the second book, Dead Like Me, I also set the beginning at the theatre at Niagara University. Having spent four years there as a theatre major, it was a nice place to revisit in the story, bringing back many memories. Not to mention that the theatre there has since undergone extensive renovations, and the theatre described in the book is the one from my memories, not the current design. Those who were theatre alumni before say, 1999, will know of what I speak.
The characters are fun to hang out with and I don’t ever outline, so I never quite know where the story is going to go. I may have ideas, but until I start typing, you never know.
How do you write? Extensive maps and outlines? Or by the seat of your pants?
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For more information check out the website: www.ZombieEdUndead.com
You can buy your own copy of Dead Like Me here: http://www.amazon.com/Dead-
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