Interview with the brain nomming Zombie Zak

Okay, Zombie Zak, this is a little Q & A to get to know a little more about you and thicken up those stalker portfolios.

1 – Milk or dark chocolate?

Milk, from the source of all the world's goodness, milk makes chocolate extra yummy.

2 – What are your feelings in reference to LEGO’s?

Need more; build more, more pieces, more zombie bits, aye, aye, aye!

3 – I know a lot of people ask what the favorites are in regard to horror movies, but my question to you...what is your favorite comedy and why?

Army of Darkness.  That movie is chock full of schlock, fun, silliness, corniness and out and out fun.  Not a scary movie in the least.  Full of one liners to make any deadite proud, AOD is my favourite comedy.  And, besides all that, did ya see all the dead things in that movie?  They own that story ...

4 – What is the story/novel you are most proud of?

"Zombie Unicorns" (published in Necrotic Tissue, 2009) - my first published piece of work.  Why am I proud of it?  Well, it was a challenge, a gauntlet thrown down, and I picked up my pieces and put something together that was just plain on the off kilter side.  And I liked it.  And, apparently, so too did the editor, so, win-win!  And, being my first published credit, that's just total groovy.

5 – What is the most interesting thing you have learned?

How to dial "9-1-1"...It's amazing what kind of delivery service you get from those guys.  You just call the number, indicate that there's a lot of killing and other so called bad things happening, and voila, they send out dinner ... tasty walking snak packs ...

6 – Do you do a lot of research for your writing?

Absolutely!  Texture, feel and ambiance are important; one can fake a lot of things, but facts are hard to refute.  If you can nail the sense of doing something right in the written word, then little details can be worked out and hopefully one can tell a cohesive story.  I like to have accuracy in the details, I don't like to gloss over facts (even when sometimes it's necessary, but that's the way of that.  Every effort should be made to make sure that the story is the tightest it can be.)

Beyond that, research also allows for an expansion on impressions.  By reading up on seemingly meaningless trivia, sometimes an important factoid spills out that could help make the story better, or, prove that something else needs to be done to get it back to there.

7 – Tell me about the novels you have written?

No novels yet, just the one book of poetry (Chaptered and Versed, Poetic and Cursed.)  It began in Africa ... errr, no, not really.  However, it began as a desire to compile and collect a bunch of my random poetic splatterings and see if I could book form it - turns out I could, and that it was liked by others.  Thus, there will be more, just when and where is left for tomorrow to figure out.

http://www.amazon.com/Chaptered-Versed-Poetic-Zombie-Zak/dp/1453695672

8 – Do you consider yourself prolific?

In poetry, yes.  I write bits and passages and whole pieces all the time.  The "muse" as it were, overcomes and I spill out my words onto the screen or written page (and yes, occasionally I hand write them.)  Most times, I sit down, putter around and start with a word, or a phrase, and an entire poem will erupt out as it is want to do.

In fiction writing ... less than I'd like, but the drive is to do more.  I have a large framework that I've been building for some time, and if I can push my zombie butt to keep working at it, then the answer will become, prolific.

"Pro-life-ick"  Yes, I consider life to be ick ... But suitable for nomming on, though!

9 – How do you like to tell a story? Character driven, location of importance, or something else entirely?

Yes.

Or rather, yes, I like to tell a story that shows that a character is worth something.  That he/she/it can be more than just the archetype of its origin.  (However, some characters are still good when they remain true to type and never change.)  I feel that location is important to the relevancy of the story.  Having an Egyptian zombie in New England, for example, is rather awkward, unless there is a foundation and a rationale that makes sense.  Logic is a buzz that I'm a big fan of.  I might miss it sometimes, but the effort is to craft a story that puts one ready in mind, if not in mindset, of where, what, how and whom the story is about.  I believe strongly that if you can't craft a good character (whether likable or detestable) then the story fails.  However, if you can craft the character with such win (good or bad person) then the story can transcend the limitations of environment or other elements.  Character is king ... because without it, there's no story.

10– What kind of music do you listen to when writing?

Random, completely, totally whatever the iPod decides to play, that's OK by me.  I don't find the music as an assistance to the writing process.  I do, however, find it to be of assistance in providing an alternate distraction to pull me away from what I'm doing, so that I can re-focus on what I'm trying to accomplish.  Every so often, I'll just pull away from the story I'm writing, and listen to the tune that's playing and allow the brain to float freely; once done, the mind returns sharper and finding better footing to finish.

11 – What is the most difficult thing you find about being a writer?

Thumbtacks - they get into the weirdest places and then there's oww ...  Beyond that, the simple thing about spending time harvesting the words from my mind and splattering them onto the page.  So many things going on in my un-life, that I want to clone myself so that I could get more done ...

12 – Something about you that no one would believe.

I like cookies.  Wait, no, people already believe that ('cause it's true!)

I have never seen the movie, "Titanic" ... and probably never will.

13 – Okay, now promote yourself here, what else have you done that you would like people to know about?

--Old School (published by Bellfire Press), a collection of horror stories about classic horror monsters and a return to what made them really scary.  My contribution to the anthology, is a poem for each story, and a poem that ties them all together.

http://www.amazon.com/Old-School-Belfire-Press/dp/1926912195

--Rogues in Hell (to be published by Perseid Press), is a collection of stories continuing the Heroes in Hell series from the '80's, revolving around the greatest assortment of characters from all of Earth's history ... but in Hell, where they belong!  I have a story that will be in this book when it comes out.

--Who's Afraid of the Boogeyman (to be published by Perseid Press), is a collection of horror stories, that contains my short story entitled, "Bad Mustard" - "I hate mustard, but I love Olive Oil."

--Chaptered and Versed, Poetic and Cursed (published by Twisted Library Press) is my first collection of poetry with a horror bent.  And zombies.  Because, you can never have enough zombies.

--Baconology (published by Twisted Library Press), is a collection of horror stories that revolve around bacon ... because, bacon always makes everything better!  And, I have a story in this collection.

There's a couple of other books that I have stuff coming out in this year, too ... but if I tell you about them now, without knowing when they're coming out ... I might have to eat your brain.

Come visit or follow me on Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube or any other place that I show up on ...

https://www.facebook.com/ZombieZak.ZZ

http://zombiezak.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/TeamZombieZak

Twitter: @ZombieZak

http://www.amazon.com/Baconology-Bill-Tucker/dp/1463699522/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329860053&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Chaptered-Versed-Poetic-Zombie-Zak/dp/1453695672/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329860111&sr=1-1