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The stench of rotting flesh is in the air! Welcome to the Summer of Zombie Blog Tour 2014, with 33 of the best zombie authors spreading the disease in the month of June.
Stop by the event page on Facebook so you don't miss an interview, guest post or teaser… and pick up some great swag as well! Giveaways galore from most of the authors as well as interaction with them! #SummerZombie
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It
seemed like everyone and his brother was doing zombie apocalypse books as well
as comics, TV shows and movies for many years. And I fought the urge to jump
into the fray for a very long time, feeling that the genre had been done to
death; so to speak. I decided if I was going to take the time to write a
zombie-based book it would have to be different than anything else out there.
There
was actually a time when I swore I would never write a zombie story. Then I
broke down in 2010 and wrote a zombie short story, “Bright Of The Living Dead”.
And then I wrote another called “Happy Valentine’s Day”. Then in 2011 came the
humorously twisted “Call Him Maury” followed in 2012 by “Dinner With Andy And
Meg”. Things got a bit sicker with “A Love Best Served Cold” and last but not
least in 2013 I came up with the adventurous “Even The Great Will Fall”. In
every one of these short stories I strove to do something original and I think
I was successful. As such, I felt I might be ready to tackle a whole
zombie-based novel.
So
I gave the idea a lot of thought. Then as I usually do when writing a new
story, I asked myself about a thousand questions. I looked at the world today
and realized zombies destroying some of the world such as underdeveloped,
third-world countries might be possible and even probable. But I seriously
doubted that with the technology and the number of armed citizens we have in
the US we could possibly be overrun by a bunch of shambling, walking corpses;
no matter how many of them there might be. If you think about it, one single
state in the US has more firearms and ammunition per capita than the armed
forces of many countries.
I
chose to venture into what I believe is new and possibly risky territory from a
literary standpoint. I knew zombie fans loved to see the world destroyed and
civilization thrust into Darwinian chaos. However, I decided to write a story
where the zombie apocalypse happened and where 60% of the world’s population
was wiped out. But in developed well-armed countries such as ours the casualty
count was much less. This story takes place in 2053, in the United States, ten
years after the initial outbreak. Here zombies still exist and although deadly,
are much less of a threat and more of a nuisance. (Think in terms of a deer
wandering out onto the highway; but in this case if would be a dear that wants
to eat you alive).
Newly
reformed governments put bounties on the creatures and each citizen is rewarded
$100 per zombie. This act of putting down the creatures became known as a Dead
Kill. (Killing something already dead). This brought the population of undead
down dramatically and for a few years provided a good way for many people to
earn a decent living. There are new strict government regulations for dealing
with the dead and dying since the virus lives in every human and is only
activated at time of death.
Citizens
now live in protected fortified cities which are constantly expanding and
taking back more land all the time. They travel well-armed from city to city
passing through what are called the “outlands”, which are populated by not only
remaining zombies but by bands of wild and savage motor cycle riding renegades,
who are often more dangerous than the zombies themselves.
The
book is a thriller set in this post-zombie-apocalypse world. Zombies are not
the main focus of the book. The main focus of the book involves a psychopathic
character who makes his living illegally in the dark and perverse drug-infested
underworld of the outlands. That being said, I still found plenty of
opportunities for good old fashion zombie gore.
The Ridge of Death (Dead Kill) (Volume 1)
Now available in paperback and for digital download
