S.G. Browne

Mark Henry is the twisted author of Happy Hour of the Damned and Road Trip of the Living Dead, his Amanda Feral zombie comedy series that is equal parts snark, sex, and style. His heroine, Amanda, is a newly turned zombie navigating her way through Seattle’s undead club scene while jonesing for a vanilla breve latte and trying to keep her nails from breaking. Hey, it’s not easy being sleazy when your flesh is decomposing.

Although I haven’t had the chance to enjoy more than a few words with Mark, we have swapped meaningful glances on a couple of occasions. However, I have no doubts that most of the memorable comments from any conversation we might have would come from him.

Tell us about your first zombie experience. How did you lose your undead virginity?
Oddly enough, my own mother played a hand in my zombie deflowering. Let me take you back. It was 1978, and little I was an impressionable child—and by “impressionable” I mean “prematurely pervy”—on my birthday that year, my mother went down to our local lending library and checked out a God’s honest film projector and canisters of George Romero’s classic reinvention of the zombie mythos, Night of the Living Dead. She presented it like a gangsta on the wall of our 1960’s era rambler in full of view of a rather jittery gathering of pre-teens. I’m fairly certain young minds were traumatized that day, stunted even. But not mine, I…was in love.

What’s your favorite zombie film?
It really depends on the day, but today I’m feeling goofy, so I’ll go with Return of the Living Dead, that 80s classic of zombie comedy. And here’s why. One, Linnea Quigley dancing on graves topless with bleached out punker hair. Yes, please. Two, “Send more paramedics” is one of the funniest lines in the history of ever. Three, Braaaaiiinnnnnsssss! Before this ground breaker, zombies were content to just eat any old body part and be satisfied that there was no better flavor to be found in a squiggling panicked victim. Return gave them a flavor fave, and I’m all about the food obsessions, so thank you Dan O’Bannon. You’re okay in my book.

It’s the zombie apocalypse. Do you use a gun, a machete, or a Louisville slugger?
Gotta go with the machete. I’m a cook, so I’m most comfortable with a knife in my hand, if I can’t choose wiener, that is—of course, a penis is not a weapon, and if it’s being wielded as such ladies, please purchase a machete.

If you were a zombie, who would you eat first?
Because, above all else, I’m a loyal husband, I’d have to say…my wife! Plus, I can smell her spleen and I bet it’s as succulent as they come.

What’s the first thing you ever had published?
A short story called “An Acquired Taste.” It was actually the birth of Amanda and Wendy and not at all good. Not. At. All.

Who’s your favorite author?
That’s a tough one, because I love different authors for different reason. King, Barker, Rice. Hell, Sedaris and Burroughs are huge for me. I even love Alexander McCall Smith. I’m obsessed with some cozy mysteries. Now you have me all discombobulated. I guess I’ll go with Stephen King. He was my favorite as a kid and young adult and I still buy his stuff, though not this last one, Under the Dome. I didn’t buy that one. I got one of only 100 ARCs printed, bitches. Read it and weep!

What’s your favorite book?
Definitely The Stand by Stephen King. I’ve got a boner for apocalyptic epics that aren’t completely depressing **cough**The Road**cough**. Plus, I kind of have to say it because Randall Flagg is following me on Twitter. It’s safer that way. (If you want to follow me, I’m mark_henry, go to it!)

Name your favorite guilty pleasure.
God. I wish I felt guilt so this could be an easier question. I’ll tell you, I can’t resist the call of the Twitter. It’s so bad, I wouldn’t exactly call it a pleasure. Oh wait!!! I do have one. Gourmet Roach Coaches! There’s this one in Seattle that I’m obsessed with called Marination Mobile. It just won the Good Morning America best Food Truck in America and has the most awesome Hawaiian Spam sliders. Seriously, you’d sock your mom for these bad boys. Uhhhhhhh.

Other than your favorite author/book, name something that inspires your writing.
John Waters, the film director, is a huge influence. A bunch of my friends and I got into his early films in High School. Starting with the innocuous Polyester. I’m pretty sure that flick was my first exposure to 300 pound drag queens, but dammit, Divine was a lady and Waters crammed so much bizarre and irreverent imagery, characters and scenes into that one, I was hooked. Then of course we saw Pink Flamingos. What’s really funny is, I’ve been re-reading the third book in my series and was so proud that the dialogue read like a John Waters script. I almost wept.

If you had a theme song that played when you walked into a room, what would it be?
“Destroy Everything You Touch” by Ladytron. No question. If something can go wrong with me, it will. Every time. That’s no joke either. People in my life accuse me of being jinxed.

Shameless self-promotion bonus question: What’s coming up next?
What’s next, thankfully, is the mass-market paperback reissue of Happy Hour of the Damned (Jan. 26, 2010), the first book in my Amanda Feral zombie comedy series. A trade paperback does not fare well in the urban fantasy genre, where readers are used to testing new authors for no more than $7.99. Add into that the fact that the publishing industry took some pretty big hits in the past couple of years and what I’m left with is a series in jeopardy. So I started this little campaign to promote the re-release. Learn more about Save Amanda Feral at www.markhenry.us.

A month later, Battle of the Network Zombies (Feb. 24 2010), my third Amanda book hits store shelves. In this one, Amanda’s hit the skids both financially and with new(ish) boyfriend, Scott. You know what could turn her shit around? A guest judging gig on a super seedy reality competition show! But when the star, an oversexed wood nymph, turns up charbroiled, Amanda must pull a Miss Marples (minus the fugly sweaters) and solve the crime with a film crew in tow. It’s, at least, 50 percent dirtier than anything I’ve ever written and I’m in love with it, hope everyone else will be.

You can visit Mark and learn more about Amanda Feral at www.markhenry.us. Or follow his musings on Twitter at mark_henry.

Amanda Ashby is another YA author, having jumped into the world of zombies in 2009 with Zombie Queen of Newbury High, a playful romantic novel about a high school senior who unintentionally turns her classmates into zombies. Who knew all of these high schools were meccas for the living dead?

Although I have not had the pleasure of meeting Amanda in person, I’ve known her through e-mail and Twitter for more than a year. I hope one day to have the chance to buy her a cup of coffee. Or maybe some braaaaains.

Tell us about your first zombie experience. How did you lose your undead virginity?
Do we count Evil Dead as a zombie movie? I can never tell with these things but that was probably the first one I ever saw. Mind you, I was more concerned about the tree than anything else. Anyway, I went to see it with a group of friends at the drive-in back in the eighties! Does that date me?

What’s your favorite zombie film?
Shaun of the Dead closely followed by Fido and 28 Days Later.

It’s the zombie apocalypse. Do you use a gun, a machete, or a Louisville slugger?
Less known fact about zombies is that they really hate water so obviously I would go for my son’s turbo charged water gun (okay, and the machete because lets face it, purple and orange colored water guns don’t really look so tough).

If you were a zombie, who would you eat first?
Good question and considering that my motto is: you are what you eat, I think I would probably be ridiculously selective about what flesh passed my dainty little jaws, since no one wants to turn into a fat truck driver who has a builder’s bum. Or for that matter a school teacher with badly dyed hair. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think I’ll have to be a vegan zombie. I can do that, right?

What’s the first thing you ever had published?
You Had Me at Halo which was about a dead girl who got kicked out of heaven and sent back to earth in someone else’s body, in order to sort out her issues. Only problem is that they guy who owned the body hadn’t exactly vacated the premises so they are forced to do a bit of body sharing and soul searching all at the same time!

Who’s your favorite author?
Ack – this is an evil question. I seriously have so many favorite authors but Jane Austen is probably at the top of the list (and no, I haven’t read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies yet but it’s on the list!)

What’s your favorite book?
Again an evil question and one that I refuse to partake in so the best I can do is narrow it down to my top five:

The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula Le Guin
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Arabella by Georgette Heyer
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Magician by Raymond E. Feist

Name your favorite guilty pleasure.
I save guilt for boring things like feeding my kids too many chicken nuggets and not enough broccoli but when it comes to my own pleasure I’m pretty guilt-free. Which is probably lucky because I do spend a lot of time watching television and DVDs!!!!!! Right now I’m making my husband re-watch every episode of Friends and Buffy with me!

Other than your favorite author/book, name something that inspires your writing.
Movies and television. I have no desire to write them myself but I get endlessly inspired by watching them.

If you had a theme song that played when you walked into a room, what would it be?
Obviously that would be “Eye of the Tiger!”

Shameless self-promotion bonus question: What’s coming up next?
Fairy Bad Day is out in Spring 2011 and is about a teenage girl whose plans to follow in her mom’s illustrious footsteps as a dragon slayer are thrown into disarray when she suddenly begins to see fairies. Invisible, killer fairies…

Amanda Ashby is the author of You Had Me At Halo and Zombie Queen of Newbury High.

You can visit her at www.amandaashby.com and on Twitter at twitter.com/amandaashby.

Dan Waters is the author of Generation Dead and Generation Dead: Kiss of Life, a Young Adult series about “living impaired” teenagers trying to co-exist among the living. It’s tough enough trying to fit into high school when you’re not popular, but when you’re a zombie, it makes getting a prom date that much more of a challenge.

I met Dan this past October at the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose over Halloween weekend. He was kind enough to take some time out of his busy holiday schedule to sit down and answer some questions about zombies and other non-living impaired subjects.

Tell us about your first zombie experience. How did you lose your undead virginity?
I’m thinking that it was probably viewing some vengeful muck-encrusted shambler from an E.C. comic reprint like Tales From the Crypt. All of the writers whose work I enjoyed at the time would wax rhapsodic about the old E.C. days in interviews, and their kid protagonists would always be reading and hoarding E.C. comics, hiding them from their parents, older brothers, and “the Man”, etc. The legends made me very zombie curious. I had to get some of those brain rotting texts.

I always liked this one, with the girl mourning the death of her poor boyfriend, Ralph, wishing he’d come back to her.

Be careful what you wish for, especially if it is for dead boyfriends or more wishes. Those wishes never turn out well. Play it safe and wish for a decent sandwich.

What’s your favorite zombie film?
Zombie Nightmare, starring my good friend Thor. I’m partial to the MST3K version.

It’s the zombie apocalypse. Do you use a gun, a machete, or a Louisville slugger?
Well, Thor was seen wielding a Louisville Slugger in Zombie Nightmare and Thor is never wrong. He doesn’t use it to crush the skulls of the undead, preferring to employ it in more mundane tasks, such as actually playing baseball. Going 4 for 5 with three runs batted in didn’t help him much when the Voodoo Queen zombified him, though, did it?

If you were a zombie, who would you eat first?
Scarlett Johansson. She seems really brainy.

What’s the first thing you ever had published?
The first thing that I had published for money was a short-lived (har har) music column I called Dead Beats, where I reviewed horror punk music like Dr. Chud’s X Ward and The Rosedales. Getting paid was nice, but the best part was that I conned some music labels to send me free CDs that I otherwise would have wasted my Dead Beats checks on anyway. BTW, horror punk music labels, I’d be glad to flog your tunes on my blog if you want to send more swag my way. I have to like it, though.

Who’s your favorite author?
Webb Glass

What’s your favorite book?
Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace

Name your favorite guilty pleasure.
Dinty Moore Beef Stew

Other than your favorite author/book, name something that inspires your writing.
My children, music, puppies, long walks on the beach, horseback riding.

If you had a theme song that played when you walked into a room, what would it be?
“Where Eagles Dare” by Iron Maiden or “Crushing Belial” by Shadow’s Fall.

Shameless self-promotion bonus question: What’s coming up next?
The third volume in the Generation Dead series, entitled Passing Strange, will be out next June.

Dan Waters is the author of the Generation Dead series. He lives with his family in Connecticut.

You can visit him at www.danielwaters.com or www.gendead.com or visit Tommy and the gang at www.mysocalledundeath.com.

This is a story about love.
And desperation
And madness.

It’s about suffering and redemption.
Infidelity and infertility.
Betrayal and heartbreak.

It’s about the choices people make when at their most vulnerable.
Their most courageous.
Their most inebriated.

But mostly, it’s about peanut butter.

The players are the usual suspects. The hero. The villain. The doting wife. The overbearing mother. The comic relief sidekick. And the lovable dog who inevitably gets hit by a car or otherwise injured and yet miraculously survives in the end.

Nothing changes. There’s no character arc. No one learns anything. They all exist in a cocoon of consumer excess and designer drugs and reality television. So don’t expect growth and revelations. These are, after all, mostly men.

So why would anyone care about what happens to these people? That’s simple…

Because of the peanut butter.

Just a quick update to answer some questions that have been thrown my way about my next novel, Fated.

What is it about?
Fated is a dark comedy about Fate, Destiny, and the choices people make that determine their futures. The story is told from the POV of Fate, who has spent the better part of two hundred thousand years watching his humans make bad choices that lead to lives of mediocrity, while Destiny gets to watch her humans actually fulfill their potential. It doesn’t help matters that his best friends are Sloth and Gluttony and that he has a five-hundred-year-old grudge with Death.

But when Fate falls in love with a mortal woman on the path of Destiny, he becomes involved in the lives of his humans, altering their fates and creating cosmic repercussions that could strip him of his immortality. Or lead to a fate worse than death.

When is it scheduled to be released?
November 2010. I know. I wish it was sooner, too. But unfortunately, I’m not Sarah Palin or Barack Obama, so I have to wait in the publishing queue with the other rabble.

What’s happening with the book now?
As I’d just recently Twittered, the line edits for Fated are done and it’s heading for the copy editors. While I’ve heard different definitions, for me, line editing involves working with my editor to make structural changes to the manuscript in order to improve the flow of the story and resolve any questions that may remain. Copy editing addresses grammar, formatting, consistency, etc.

When did you write it?
I started Fated in December 2006 and finished it on the day before the Super Bowl in February 2008, a couple of weeks after I sold Breathers. That was just the first draft. I took more than a year to edit it and send the manuscript to my agent.

How did you come up with the idea?
Back in September 2003 (September 10, 2003 at 10PM actually), I’d written a journal entry about a character in charge of everyone’s fates and who gets annoyed with all of the characters in books and in movies who actually believe they control their own fates. Eventually, it evolved into Fated.

If you have any other questions, I’ll be happy to answer them. And as updates become available on Fated, I’ll be posting them here on the Novels page of my web site.