BUYZOMBIE: Can you provide a brief summary of Dead of Night for those who haven’t had the pleasure of reading it yet?
JONATHAN MABERRY: A prison doctor injects a condemned serial killer with a formula designed to keep his consciousness awake while his body rots in the grave. But all drugs have unforeseen side-effects. Before he could be buried, the killer wakes up. Hungry. Infected. Contagious.
Small town cop Dez Fox and her partner JT are caught in a wave of murder as everyone they know and love die…only to rise again as the ravenous living dead. If Dez and JT can’t contain the plague inside the town limits, the infection will spread beyond all control.
This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang…but a bite.
BUYZOMBIE: What is it about the Zombie mythos that you find so fascinating?
JONATHAN MABERRY: I have two main reasons for my fascination with zombies. As a storyteller, I love the fact that there is no end to the number of stories you can tell about a zombie outbreak or apocalypse. It’s the ultimate doomsday scenario. Everything you know is called into question, all of the infrastructure you rely upon collapses, even the people you know and love can turn on you. This allows us to explore the dynamics of people under great pressure –and that’s pretty much the definition of ‘drama’.
The horror-geek fanboy part of me loves the monsters themselves. On one hand we can easily and quickly grasp the nature and abilities of the zombie –reanimated corpse who eats flesh and is highly infectious. Check, got that. Easy one. On the other, they’re a mystery. How can the dead walk? Is any part of their personality left inside the rotting body? Why do they prey on the living? What are they?
BUYZOMBIE: What scares you?
JONATHAN MABERRY: The thing that frightens me the most is the potential disaster of a misuse of technology. Every day we see amazing leaps forward in all aspects of technology, science, medicine, and warfare. But what I don’t see is a leap forward in maturity, restraint, subtlety, compassion, tolerance or basic common sense. I don’t think we, as a species, are mature enough to play with some of the toys we’re creating. A monster could get off the lease way too easily. That’s why I write science-based thrillers.
My latest novel, DEAD OF NIGHT, is all about the dangers of biological weapons being mishandled. Sure, it’s a zombie novel, but the politics and the science I cooked up for the zombie plague is actually plausible. Some of it’s even based on real Cold War bioweapons science.
BUYZOMBIE: Dead of Night has such a delightfully sour ending. What made you decide to end it on such a note? Are there more ideas on where to take this
story?
JONATHAN MABERRY: My books seldom have fuzzy-bunny Disney endings, but DEAD OF NIGHT is particularly downbeat. It’s a cautionary tale, so the ending is in keeping with that. Plus it was the best way to end that story. I had that ending first, long before I wrote the whole book.
Although DEAD OF NIGHT was written as a standalone novel, I’m not quite done with that story. I have several short stories and novellas coming out that are set in the same world. First up will be “Jack and Jillâ€, a novella set during the events of the book, but focusing on different characters. That appears in the anthology, 21st Century Dead, due in June from St. Martin’s Griffin. And there’s a short story called “Chokepointâ€, that will be in an upcoming webzine. That story takes place a couple of days after DEAD OF NIGHT.
Will I write a sequel novel? I’m mulling that over. I know what the story would be, but I haven’t decided if I’m going to write it.
BUYZOMBIE: While you’ve been very successful on writing about the undead you have quite a few other books out there. What is your favorite zombie and non-zombie novel that YOU have written?
JONATHAN MABERRY: I’m a fickle fan when it comes to my own works. I’m usually in love with whichever book I just finished. That said, if I take a step back and look at the body of my work (at this writing, I just finished my 12th novel) I’d have to say that my favorite zombie novel is DEAD OF NIGHT. I think it’ll stand up well over time.
My favorite non-zombie novel is THE KING OF PLAGUES, the 3rd in my Joe Ledger thriller series. Lots of politics in that.
BUYZOMBIE: The eternal question – slow or fast zombies?
JONATHAN MABERRY: I dig ‘em both, and I can make a good case for both. Shortly after dead but before rigor mortis sets in, zombies can be faster and even more coordinated. The brain hasn’t been as badly damaged by oxygen starvation yet. As rigor sets in (or in the presence of trauma to muscles, tendons and nerves) the body slows, gets stiff and becomes awkward. Once rigor passes, the body would be loose but now we’re into active tissue decomposition, so you’ll have your weakest and least threatening zombies.
I tend to prefer slow zombies in fiction and faster ones in film, but that will vary based on the book or movie. There are great examples of each in pop culture.
BUYZOMBIE: As we’d hate to have you pick between authors that you’ve become friends with let’s talk film for a second. What are your top 3(or 5) favorite zombie films?
JONATHAN MABERRY: My all-time favorite zombie film is the unrated director’s cut of Zack Snyder’s re-imagining of DAWN OF THE DEAD. That’s followed pretty close by the original DAWN OF THE DEAD. Then we jump to SHAUN OF THE DEAD, and then THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE.
Oh, and I totally dig the semi-zombie infected sub-genre (28 Days Later, The Crazies).
On TV…THE WALKING DEAD kicks ass, but don’t overlook the BBC’s brilliant DEAD SET.
BUYZOMBIE: Do you have any upcoming books or projects in the works you’d like to share with us?
JONATHAN MABERRY: My 4th Joe Ledger thriller debuts in April, ASSASSIN’S CODE. A holy war fought with genetically-engineered vampire assassins. Fun stuff.
Then in May, V WARS debuts. It’s a shared-world vampire anthology that I cooked up and edited. It features novellas by Nancy Holder, Scott Nicholson, John Everson, Yvonne Navarro, Gregory Frost, Keith DeCandido, and James A. Moore.
The third in my post-apocalyptic zombie series for teens, FLESH & BONE, debuts in September.
Plus I have a slew of short stories coming out this year. One just hit stores, “The Death Song of Dwar Gunthaâ€, a John Carter of Mars story in the anthology UNDER THE MOONS OF MARS (in hardcover from Simon & Schuster.)
Jonathan Maberry is a NY Times bestselling author, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner, and Marvel Comics writer. He’s the author of many novels including Assassin’s Code, Dead of Night, Patient Zero and Rot & Ruin. His nonfiction books on topics ranging from martial arts to zombie pop-culture. Since 1978 he has sold more than 1200 magazine feature articles, 3000 columns, two plays, greeting cards, song lyrics, poetry, and textbooks. Jonathan continues to teach the celebrated Experimental Writing for Teens class, which he created. He founded the Writers Coffeehouse and co-founded The Liars Club; and is a frequent speaker at schools and libraries, as well as a keynote speaker and guest of honor at major writers and genre conferences. Jonathan lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with his wife, Sara and their son, Sam. Visit him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com and on Twitter (@jonathanmaberry) and Facebook.
Praise for DEAD OF NIGHT:
“Jonathan Maberry is the top gun when it comes to zombies, and with DEAD OF NIGHT, he’s at the top of his game. Frankly, I’m shocked by how effortlessly he moves between the lofty intellectual heights of T.S. Eliot’s poetry and the savage carnality of the kill. DEAD OF NIGHT develops with the fevered pace of a manhunt, and yet still manages to hit all the right notes. Strap in, because Maberry’s latest is one hell of a wild ride. I loved it.†– Joe McKinney, author of DEAD CITY and FLESH EATERS
“Jonathan Maberry has created an homage to death itself and an homage to the undead that is as poetic as it is terrifying. It’s a brand new and intriguingly fresh slant on the zombie genre that we all love!†-John A. Russo co-screenwriter of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
“Maberry is a master at writing scenes that surge and hum with tension. The pacing is relentless. He presses the accelerator to the floor and never lets up, taking you on a ride that leaves your heart pounding. It’s almost impossible to put this book down. Dead of Night is an excellent read.†—S.G. Browne, author of BREATHERS
“It would be enough to say that Jonathan Maberry had topped himself yet again with an epic zombie novel that is as much fun as it is terrifying. But that he has also created a story of such tremendous heart and social relevance only further cements his place as a master of the genre. It also doesn’t hurt that in DEAD OF NIGHT he has created one of the most compelling heroines I’ve read in years. Dead of Night blew me away!” –Ryan Brown – Author of PLAY DEAD
“Once again, Jonathan Maberry does what he does best; Take proven science, synthesize it and create something truly terrifying. In DEAD OF NIGHT, Maberry lays the groundwork for a Bioweapon that could very well create zombies in the real world. Combining great characters (I fell in love with Dez Fox from the moment she was introduced) and taut, blindingly fast action, DEAD OF NIGHT, is a runaway bullet train of a ride. This is Jonathan Maberry’s best writing yet.†–Greg Schauer, owner Between Books, Claymont, DE
“Dead of Night stands drooped head and lurching shoulders above most zombie novels. The nightmare increases exponentially – from minor outbreak to major crisis with unstoppable speed, building to a heart-stopping climax you won’t be able to put down.†–David Moody, author of the HATER and AUTUMN books
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