I was recently invited to
participate in an anthology of female authors who write zombie related
material. A lot of great ladies are involved, thirty two in all, and the end
product is just amazing. It is free from several places and only .99 cents on
Amazon. Again, in case you missed it the first time, here is the skinny on it:
With
over 325,000 words and featuring some of Amazon's Best Selling Female Authors
of Horror, this is certainly not your typical anthology book!
Sit back as your favorite authors of zombie lit take you on a wild, horrifying ride that will leave you breathless. Come and meet the women who love to entertain you with their own unique versions of the zombie apocalypse.
Sit back as your favorite authors of zombie lit take you on a wild, horrifying ride that will leave you breathless. Come and meet the women who love to entertain you with their own unique versions of the zombie apocalypse.
I have been lucky enough to chat with a few of these lovely ladies, and now I bring you our next guest, the amazing Kristen Middleton.
1) What got you interested in writing about zombies?
I had always wanted to write a book and started several times over the
years, but never finished the first chapter of anything. Then, two
years ago, the zombie craze hit my house. I was running a daycare and
all of the kids I watched were running around the yard, playing
zombie-tag, Instead of drawing pictures of rainbows and flowers, they
were drawing zombies. Then, my husband and daughters got me addicted to
the game Plants-vs-Zombies. Finally, I watched the movie Zombieland,
and really loved it. Eventually, I decided to write a YA book about
zombies and thought it would be fun to put my kids as the main
characters (only older to make them teens). It was just going to be for
fun and I wanted to surprise everyone in my family by giving them copies
as gifts. Of course, I wrote the first chapter and kept revising it for
four months because I was being so nit-picky. When I noticed that I
wasn't getting anywhere but still really wanted a book finished by the
following Christmas, I decided to try a different
approach- write the book and then go back and fix it when I was all
done. Two months later, I had the entire first book of Zombie Games.
2) Do you think books by women tend to carry distinctly
feminine covers, regardless of the subject matter, or do you think the industry
treats woman the same as male authors?
Oddly enough, my first book cover for Zombie Games had a young woman
clad in skimpy clothing carrying a big rifle. She looked like Angelina
Jolie from Tomb Raider. It wasn't really feminine, but I wanted it to
show a girl kicking ass and taking numbers. I did change it eventually
to something more feminine after getting several comments from female
readers that my cover looked too hokey and cheap. It worked, however,
and I definitely increased my reader base.
3) Tell us a bit about your story in darlings of decay.
It is a short story about one of my favorite characters named Henry.
He's a crass, comical old cowboy who escaped the nursing home when the
zombies first appeared. He's also in my second Zombie Games book,
Running Wild.
4) If you HAD to choose, which would you rather do: eat the
entire F section of an encyclopedia, or lick a bus station bathroom floor from
corner to corner?
Eat the entire F section. No question.
5) What is your greatest fear?
My laptop getting a virus and going zombie on me.
*****
Kristen lives in Minnesota with her husband, Dave, and two daughters,
Cassie and Allie. She spends her days chasing kids, drinking
iced-coffee, and obsessing over completing her current book or starting
the next one. Besides spending time with her family, she enjoys reading,
movies, traveling, cooking, and watching 'The Walking Dead' and
'Shameless' on Sunday Nights. She also LOVES getting emails from her
readers, so (unless you're craving brains or blood) don't be afraid to
send her a message at: kristenmiddletonauthor@yahoo.