Tonia Brown is the author of a novel we just reviewed Badass Zombie Road Trip and was happy to spare some time to sit down with us and let us into her world!
Buy Zombie: Can you provide a brief summary of your novel, Badass Zombie Roadtrip?
Tonia Brown: Best buds and band mates, Jonah and Dale, head out on a road trip to play a gig in Reno Nevada. Along the way Jonah accidentally loses Dale’s soul to Satan. The Father of Lies agrees to return Dale’s soul if Jonah can find where the Devil has hidden it within seven days, or else he loses both of their souls. Just to prove he’s magnanimous, Satan resurrects Dale into a zombie. A soulless, hungry, jackass of a zombie. Throw in a hitchhiking stripper into the mix and you have the makings of a good old fashioned road trip you’ll never forget. It’s a hell of a ride.
Buy Zombie: What was your motivation(s) to write this particular novel?
Tonia Brown: I am an enormous fan of the old “Road to…” movies with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. As I was in the middle of watching one for the millionth time about a year or so ago, and I thought to myself how much fun a road trip novel would be. Somehow, Satan and a zombie got into the soup and Dorothy Lamar’s character became a redheaded stripper, I ended up with Badass.
I don’t know how that happened. I plead the fifth.
Buy Zombie: How would you compare this work to your previous works, specifically Skin Trade?
Tonia Brown: Actually, Badass predates Skin Trade, they just sort of fell out of the works around the same time. Switching gears from Badass to Skin Trade was a hard thing to do, considering how vastly different the two are. Badass is pure comedy, while Skin Trade is historical horror. Bad things happen to good people in both novels, but where Badass laughs it off, Skin Trade peels at it like a scabbed over, fetid wound. I worked on my weird western webserial Railroad! in between the two, so the transition from one work to the next allowed me to shake off the lighthearted comedy of Badass before I delved into the harsh world of Skin Trade.
Buy Zombie: With most of your experience in anthologies, how difficult was it to write something that was longer than the average short story?
Tonia Brown: Short stories are much harder to pull off then novels, because you have a lot less space to get your point across. Novels allow you to stretch and take your time developing characters, while a short story forces you to expose them like a raw nerve and poke at them while they jump and scream for mercy.
Buy Zombie: When you sit down and write what is your perfect writing environment, i.e., quiet, music, a specific room in the house?
What helps get you in the mood? Watching classic horror films or…?
Tonia Brown: I find noise helps me create. If I am stuck in absolute silence, my muse clams up. But give me some classic rock blaring or a gory horror film running in the background and she talks and talks and talks. I don’t need a specific place to write, just somewhere comfy.
Buy Zombie: I’m sure there are people out there that have no knowledge of your writing, are there places they can go to get a sample and purchase your work?
Tonia Brown: My website http://www.thebackseatwriter.com has a few samples on it. You can also find some free reads at Scribd at http://www.scribd.com/the_backseat_writer. I occasionally give away a book or two over at Amazon, where you can find my author page at https://www.amazon.com/author/toniabrown
Buy Zombie: I ask this of all the authors I interview, in a hypothetical apocalypse, what would be your preference: viral outbreak? Extraterrestrial event? Zombies? Natural disaster? etc, and why?
Tonia Brown: Rapture, that way we pagans will have the world to ourselves.
Buy Zombie: What advice can you impart to authors just starting out who want to break into the horror genre?
Tonia Brown: Read. Read. Read. Repeat. And don’t just read the current hot authors, go back and break out the classics like Shelly and Stoker. Read a little Lovecraft, a little Poe, a little Matheson. Learn at the feet of the masters. Experiment with your monsters; break out of the molds set by Hollywood standards. Lastly, don’t assume putting tentacles on your beastie makes it a Cthulhu story.
Buy Zombie: Who do you feel is directly responsible for your entry into the horror genre and specifically the inclusion of zombies into your work?
Tonia Brown: I blame my parents for my love of all things horror. They always let my sisters and I watch the goriest and most gruesome movies at a very young age. We couldn’t watch the sex scenes though, just the gore. So it was okay to watch a decapitation, but not the fondling of boobs. For a long time I thought kissing lead to death. One minute you were smooching in a bunk bed, the next you ended up with an arrow in the throat. I started writing zombies for my twin sister, who is a huge zombie nut. So, pretty much every zombie story is an ode for her in some way, shape or form.
Buy Zombie: What and who are your favorite authors and books, specifically those that you feel ‘pushed’ you into the horror genre?
Tonia Brown: Poe was my first introduction into dark fiction. I have always been a huge Poe fan, though funny enough I love his poetry more than his prose. I even have a raven with quotes from the poem as part of two separate tattoos. King has been another influence on me as far as written horror goes, but that’s like saying I breathe air or eat food. Almost all writers in the horror game are partially influenced or inspired by King.
Buy Zombie: If you had to do it all over again, the writing, the search for a publisher, etc, what would you do differently?
Tonia Brown: Nothing. Badass came together in just the right way. I am very happy with how it happened, how the book turned out, and am especially with my publisher. Roy from Books of the Dead has been an absolute pleasure to work with. I can’t thank him enough.
Buy Zombie: Can fans find you at zombie/horror conventions?
Tonia Brown: I try to make cons when I can, but the expense prohibits me from a lot of appearances. I am going to try and make it to Horror World this year, if things pan out.
