Today we're going to here from F.J.R. Tichnell, author of the upcoming YA novel "Confessions of The Very First Zombie Slayer (That I Know Of)." She's going to talk to us about the challenges of keeping zombie fiction new and exciting:
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With all the
zombie-related fiction out now, how do you make them seem fresh?
It's true, everyone does seem to be
zombie obsessed lately, myself included. As with any trend, lots of zombie
stories run together, following all the same tropes and rehashing the same
material.
Thanks to the significant lead time in
publishing, I had no idea while I was writing Confessions of the Very First
Zombie Slayer (That I Know of) just how big this whole zombie thing was
going to get by the time release day rolled around. I'm not one to jump on a
bandwagon, certainly not if I don't have something new in mind to contribute,
but with all the zombie fiction in existence both before and since I wrote Zombie
Slayer, I still see something missing from all there is to choose from.
Cassie’s story is that something.
The vast majority of zombie fiction is
written by men, about male protagonists, for a primarily male audience. That's
not to say that there aren't female zombie-fic lovers -- I'm proud beyond words
to be part of a healthy generation of she-geeks who don't fear the icky bits --
but we continue to be mostly an afterthought.
What zombie fiction there is that's
written with a female audience in mind, particularly a teenage female audience,
tends to be either unrelentingly depressing dystopia, or sentient zombie
romance that isn't particularly zombie-ish.
Now, I'm a fan of a broad spectrum of
horror. I like dark stuff, including serious zombie fiction, but zombies of the
unromantic and non-sentient variety also have a lot of potential for silliness
and humor that's only been widely explored in R-rated guy-oriented comedies.
I wanted to bring the fun of
zombie slaying to new zombie geeks, especially girls. I wanted to write about a
girl who can crush skulls, love a fellow human, and still crack a smile.
Zombie Slayer's categorical
distinctions aside, though, the most important part of making any story fresh
is not to depend on the gimmicks to make the story.
You can tell a story about
zombies or about vampires or about a machete-wielding slasher,
but unless you're the first person in a generation or two to use that device,
you'll have just another zombie (or what-have-you) story.
There are only so many stories you can
tell about zombies. People run from zombies. People hide from zombies.
People do bad things because of zombie and angst about it.
The stories that stand out, other than
the ones that can pull off being remembered simply for coming first, are the
ones that are about characters.
Ideally, Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and
contemporary settings should be support and seasoning for the story of the
characters' self discovery and relationships, not a crutch or replacement.
I had lots of fun with the zombies in Confessions
of the Very First Zombie Slayer (That I Know of). There's plenty of
brain-mashing action to go around, but at its core, it's a road trip story.
It's about a group of friends working out their issues, strengthening their
friendships, and coming of age together, and I hope that, as well as enjoying
the zombies, readers will come to love Cassie and her companions as much as I
do.
Confessions of the Very First Zombie
Slayer (That I Know of) blurb:
The world is Cassie Fremont’s
playground. Her face is on the cover of every newspaper, she has no homework,
no curfew, and no credit limit, and she spends her days traveling the country with
her friends, including a boy who would flirt with death just to turn her head.
Life is just about perfect—except that those newspaper headlines are about her
bludgeoning her crush to death with a paintball gun, she has to fight ravenous
walking corpses every time she steps outside, and one of her friends is still
missing, trapped somewhere in the distant, practically impassable wreckage of
Manhattan. Still, Cassie’s an optimist. More prone to hysterical laughter than
hysterical tears, she’d rather fight a corpse than be one, and she won’t leave
a friend stranded when she can simply take her road trip to impossible new
places to find her, even if getting there means admitting to that boy that she
might just love him, too. Skillfully blending effective horror with unexpected
humor, this diary-format novel is a fast-paced and heartwarming read.
F.J.R. Titchenell bio:
F.J.R. Titchenell is an author
of Young Adult Sci-Fi and Horror fiction. She is represented by Jennifer
Mishler of Literary Counsel and currently lives in San Gabriel, California with
her husband and fellow author, Matt Carter, and their pet king snake, Mica.
The "F" is for Fiona, and on the rare occasions when she can be pried away from her keyboard, her kindle, and the pages of her latest favorite book, Fi can usually be found over-analyzing the inner workings of various TV Sci-Fi universes or testing out some intriguing new recipe, usually chocolate-related.
The "F" is for Fiona, and on the rare occasions when she can be pried away from her keyboard, her kindle, and the pages of her latest favorite book, Fi can usually be found over-analyzing the inner workings of various TV Sci-Fi universes or testing out some intriguing new recipe, usually chocolate-related.
Confessions of the Very First Zombie Slayer (That I Know of) is F.J.R. Titchenell’s first novel. Her first novel
coauthored with Matt Carter, Splinters,
will be available fall of 2014.
Links:
Website: www.fjrtitchenell.weebly.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FjrTitchenell
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FJR_Titchenell
Other details:
Confessions of the Very First Zombie Slayer (That I Know of) is F.J.R. Titchenell’s debut novel, to be released
May 6th, 2014. It is a Young Adult Horror-Comedy.
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