Why I write about Zombies

(c)2014

In one word: Excitement.

Zombie fiction for me has a lot of potential. There’s a lot more that can be explored with these creatures than the standard lore. The basic zombie runs on survival instinct and that’s its driving force. Single-Minded focus, if you will.

The need to feed.

And for some reason all the books and movies have then do, is exactly that (to my knowledge) and it gets kind of dull. Yeah, we are meant to feel for the main MC and the struggles he/she is meant to overcome and grow so that by the end of the story the main MC has changed, hopefully for the better, but stumbling or Ducati fast zombies do only one thing.

Attack.

But what if…

They evolved? They got smart. They communicated. They hunted in a pack. Had a leader. Laid traps.

A lot of what ifs for a creature that is primal at its core. But weren’t we all like that at one stage. We evolved. So, what’s to say zombies won’t? These are some of the aspects I explore when writing a zombie story.

My second zombie sale was the Cold Flesh anthology by Hellbound Books. The Cold hints at zombies that are unconventional and possibly more dangerous than Romero’s usual fare. This was the first time I thought more could be done to this horror subgenre. I just hinted at communication and leadership.

My tale, The Zombie Virus puts zombies in space. A salvage crew gets an SOS from a ‘floating boat’. They scan the ship and find no life forms. Still they board the craft and find a little girl and a heap of the undead.

The Day of the Zombie has an infected human who is immune to the virus, yet he has all the signs of infection, the rotting skin, the violent eating habits and a wife. He documents the day the zombie virus finally reached their shores. He knows that once the document is done, the town leaders will kill him.

Now, I am penning a tweet by tweet zombie story that has already passed 3000 words which takes zombies one step closer to evolution…but they are still hungry. This was published as Rage.

In my novel, The Armageddon Shadow I show how one man is able to control them and bring thinking, army-like zombies to the world. This is book one of a two book series, though book one is complete in itself.

Still I like the mindless kill factor of zombies. I never get bored with them. I heard a while ago that zombies were the new vampires, and I was glad. Vampires bore me unless they do something out of the ordinary. I think this is why True Blood is a great show. But The Walking Dead kicks its ass.

People I know not interested in horror are watching zombie flicks and some are secretly reading zombie tales. There’s something about zombies that cross genres and people find them interesting. It’s a pity a lot of zombie movies are ‘so-so’ but I will give a big shout-out to Romero for bringing them into the forefront of an audience eagerly wanting something a little different. But I wasn’t hooked until The Living Dead 2004 remake. That blew my mind. And then there was 24 days later, Resident Evil (AKA Bio Hazard) and the awesome zombie dogs and 24 weeks later, and perhaps one of the best ever zombie movies: Contracted 2013 (relatively unknown but friggin awesome.)

It was something new added to the zombie genre. And adding something new keeps a genre fresh. Keep this in mind when penning a zombie tale, keep the basic principles but add a little something to it.

The zombie subgenre continues to grow and its audience appeal is expanding as we meet new people and explore the resources they use to get the job done.

I wonder if one day, we might feel remorse over the slaying of a zombie? I’m working on a Zombie novella of a vastly different kind of zombie. This takes place after the zombie uprising, it throws new light on zombies and again: evolution. This tale is told from a document that the main MC is creating.

A captured pregnant zombie gives birth to a normal child. But is he normal? Five years held in a lab for observation yields an intelligent child not afraid of his mother. Deeming the experiment a failure, the directors funding the project command the mother and child exterminated.

Lee Pletzers has penned 5 novels and published over 73 short stories around the world. He is a long time believer of the e-book and was reading them when they were still .pdfs.

Take care all, and if you hear a groan behind you—get ready to run.

END

Lee Pletzers