Tell us about Days with the Undead: Book One?
Days with the Undead:
Book One
is a story of survival. An unknown agent has started the Zombie Apocalypse, and
a group of friends who have been quietly preparing for an event such as this,
embark upon a journey to find a safe haven. They meet unexpected people and
encounter unexpected horrors, all in the name of survival. It’s heart wrenching
at times, heart pounding in others, and throughout it all, you feel the
collapse of society through the eyes of the main character Julie.
What sets your most
recent release, Days with the Undead:
Book One, apart from other books of the same genre?
The
way it’s told. It’s present tense and from the first person perspective. It
digs deep into the psyche of a world in chaos and transcends the layers of gore
and horror, making it more than just another book about a Zombie Apocalypse.
The characters are varied and flawed in many ways, but they still come together
to cope in the best way they know how – to fight tooth and nail for survival.
How is the book doing so
far?
Days with the Undead:
Book One
is doing very well. I really cannot complain about the reception it has
received. I was lucky enough to have started the series as a webserial which
later got picked up by my publisher Sirens Call Publications. The first book is
a small segment of what can be read on the web, but I have added more material
to the book version; things that I didn’t have time to include on my hectic
online publishing schedule, things I thought about including afterwards, and
anything that solidified what happens later in the series. Don’t get me wrong,
I’d love to connect with more readers. Each reader is an absolute gem to me and
I love to receive emails from them telling me what they loved and what they
wish hadn’t happened. It’s great to be able to evoke emotion with the written
word.
Any future releases
readers should be aware of?
Absolutely,
Days with the Undead: Book Two will
be out the beginning of next year. Anyone who has read the webserial will know
the general plot of the book, but there is lots of added material for new and
old readers alike. It’s the same way with the first book – if you read it
online, you’ll have the gist of the story, but there is so much more between
the covers of the book!
Are you reading anything
right now, or have you read anything recently that is worth mentioning?
At
the moment, I am reading Bloodlines by
James Rollins. I’m such a huge fan of his and I love the way that he incorporates
history and cutting edge science in such a seemingly effortless way. The last
book I read was something I edited so I cannot talk about it in too much depth.
I will say this however - when that book hits the shelves, people are going to
want to read it! It’s freaking fantastic!
Does music inspire or
motivate you to write? If so, what kind of music?
Music
can certainly inspire and motivate me but I don’t normally get inspired by
music, if that makes sense. I love the way that music can mellow me out, or
work me up. I strive for those highs and lows in what I write so if I’m going
to write a particular type of theme, I will listen to something that will help
to put me in the right frame of mind.
When
I’m writing, I find it hard to work in complete silence so I either have the
television or iTunes on as background noise. More often than not, it’s iTunes
as I can control what that background noise ends up being.
As
a rule, I love the sounds of heavy guitar and a great vocal. The 1990s and
early 2000s were a great time in music for me as many of my favourites were
popular during that time. As I’ve grown older, my tastes haven’t changed so
much as they have grown to enjoy the sultry sounds of poetic songstresses and
an almost bluesy, folk sound. That’s the beauty of music; there is much to
enjoy.
Who are some of your
favorite authors? Favorite novels?
Are
you sure you’re ready for this? My favourite authors have all written
favourites of mine.
The Wonderful Wizard of
Oz &
the rest of the series – Frank L. Baum
The Mistress of the Art
of Death
– Ariana Franklin
The Forest House – Marion Zimmer Bradley
Monster Island – David Wellington
Wicked – Gregoire Maguire
The Pine Deep Trilogy – Jonathan Mayberry
The Tell-Tale Heart – Edgar Allen Poe
Subterranean & The Last Oracle – James Rollins
The Case of Charles
Dexter Ward
& Herbert West – ReAnimator – HP
Lovecraft
Seeing – Jose Saramago
And
that’s just to name a few…
Are you one of those
people who don’t own a TV? Do you have any favorite TV Shows? Favorite movies?
I
own a television – trust me, when I need to relax, it’s sometimes the best way.
As for favourite television shows, I am a Survivor fan and have been since the
beginning, so I watch that. I watch The
Walking Dead, True Blood, The Big Bang Theory, and I started to
watch Revolution this year but it
failed to keep my interest. In the past, I have enjoyed shows like Six Feet Under, LOST, Dead Like Me, Red Dwarf, and Fraggle Rock. I also have a few shows that I watch exclusively on
DVD when the season comes out as I like to watch it all at once; those are Dexter and Fringe. There is too much on television to watch it all…
As
for movies, I love them! My favourites include Night of the Living Dead (1968), Identity, Peacock, Drowning Mona, The Goonies, Adventures in
Babysitting, The Princess Bride, Empire Records, and April Fool’s Day. If we’re just going to consider horror movies,
these are my favourites! Aliens, Halloween,
Carrie, The Mist, 1408, Saw, Devil, The Sixth Sense, Silence of the Lambs, and Resident Evil.
At what point in your
life did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
I
think I knew it all along but there have been times when I didn’t write. I grew
up writing everything down from silly story ideas to the things that were
happening in my day to day life. I wrote short stories and poems; some horror,
some not. I lost my way for a while as I pursued other endeavours but writing
found me again as a way to process a difficult time in my life. Since that day,
I have never looked back.
Tell us about your
writing process.
I
don’t know that I have a process; sometimes I’m a panster and in others, I’m a
planner. All I know is that when I sit down to write, I need the ability to
focus, some peppermint tea or mint hot chocolate, and my laptop. Once all of
those things are in place, the muses get to take the wheel and I am just the
vessel through which they write.
Are the names of the
characters in your novels important?
Absolutely!
Some have asked why I named my main character Julie, which is technically my own
name. As I mentioned previously, I was going through a dark time in my life
when I turned back to writing and much of the struggle in Days with the Undead: Book One is symbolic of what I was going
through. It seemed wrong to call her anything else.
My
other characters all have names that fit them – at least in my estimation. Even
in the short stories that I write, my characters names have to fit them in some
regard. How can I expect them to leap off the pages otherwise?
How do you define success
as a writer? Have you been successful?
I
define success by my own standards. I am doing something that I love to do, that
makes me successful in my own eyes. Money and fame would be great, but as long
as I’m happy doing what I love, I simply cannot and will not complain.
Do you have words of
wisdom about writing that you want to pass on to novelists and writers out
there who are starting out?
Write
something. Then read it. Then set it down for a few weeks and work on something
else. That break from your own words allows you to see some of the things that
probably wouldn’t have seen in the moments after finishing it. After you’ve
done that, send it to an editor. They really are your friends – especially if
you find a good one.
I
would also implore you to read everything you can get your hands on. Read
what’s in your genre, read what’s not. Just learn from other authors, both
seasoned and those just starting out. There will never be a time when you know
it all, so you can save yourself the heartache now.
Just
one last thing. Never, ever let anyone tell you that you work is subpar. Just
because they didn’t enjoy it, doesn’t mean the rest of the world won’t. You
need to continually believe in what you are doing.
What should readers walk
away from your books knowing? How should they feel?
This
is a hard question to answer… Ideally, I’d like for them to know that hard
decisions always need to be made and that waiting on something can ultimately
lead to your demise. Proactive steps are always better than reactive ones. As
for how they should feel, I want them ravenous for the next installment!
What is your End of the
World Playlist?
Set Fire to the Rain – Adele
Sigh No More – Mumford & Sons
Your Winter – Sister Hazel
Born to Die – Lana DelRay
Dog Days are Over – Florence the
Machine
Mad World – REM (their version)
Kyrie – Mr. Mister
The Cave – Mumford & Sons
Your Mistake – Sister Hazel
Comedown – Bush
Temple of Love – Sisters of Mercy
Three Pistols – The Tragically Hip
One Last Time – Veruca Salt
Not Afraid – Eminem
Somebody That I Used to
Know –
Goyte
Unforgiven – Metallica
Never There – Cake
Sorry – Buckcherry
Have You Ever Seen The
Rain –
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Ain’t No Sunshine When
She’s Gone
– Marvin Gaye
That’s
just 20 songs to get it started.
Do you have anything
specific that you want to say to your readers?
Thank you!
Bio: It was while watching Romero's Night of the Living Dead at the tender age of 6 that solidified
Julianne’s respect of the Undead. Since that day, she has been preparing
herself for the (inevitable) Zombie Apocalypse. While classically trained in
all of the ways to defend herself, she took up writing in order to process the
desire she now covets; to bestow a second and final death upon the Undead. As the only girl growing up
in a family with four children in the Canadian countryside, Julianne needed
some form of escape. Her choice was the imaginations of others which only
fostered the vibrancy of her own.
Days with the
Undead: Book One is her first full-length book, the basis of which
can be found in her popular web serial of the same name. You can find
Julianne’s The Living Dead of Penderghast
Manor in the anthology Women of the
Living Dead and stories in Sirens Call Publications anthologies Childhood Nightmares: Under the Bed
along with Twisted Realities: Of Myth and
Monstrosity. She has also published some of her short fiction in the online
literary magazine The Sirens Call.
Twitter: @CdnZmbiRytr
Facebook: Julianne Snow
Google+: Julianne Snow
Thank you for interviewing me, Dan! I truly appreciate it :)
ReplyDeleteJulie