We recently did a review of Zombie Night in Canada by Jamie Friesen and now have had some time to sit down with him and chat with the creative mind behind the novel!
1) Can you provide a brief summary of your novel, Zombie Night in Canada?
A zombie apocalypse erupts worldwide. The protagonist, Xander Barnes, lives and works in Edmonton, Canada when the first reports come in. Having seen zombie movies like Dawn of the Dead, he fortifies his apartment and prepares to hunker down until the all clear. Meanwhile, Dan Simpson, an Edmonton police officer is dropped on the front lines, dealing with zombies as they appear across the city.
Initially, authorities create quarantine zones to contain the infected, but as their numbers grow, they are forced to use lethal measures in dealing with the pandemic. Eventually, Xander is forced from his apartment by zombies and flees to a nearby Costco, which he and friends and family use as shelter, sealing the exits and fortifying to the best of their ability. The Canadian Forces are prevented from deploying into the cities by municipal governments; fearing people will panic if they see armed troops on the streets. This allows several commanders like Major General Nicholas Raine to use the ‘respite’ to fortify their base with deep trenches, sandbagged bunkers and heavy weapons.
From there, things slowly spiral out of control until the nation, indeed the world, is infested with zombies.
2) Is this your first venture into the zombie/apocalyptic genre?
This is my first foray into the zombie genre. I have written a PA screenplay in which an asteroid hits the earth and wipes out most civilization, and the struggle to rebuild that occurs afterwards.
3) Considering the overall plot, there had to be a reason to choose parts of Canada as a setting? Was this based on a personal preference or because so few authors in this genre have used that area?
The title almost makes it mandatory for it to be located in Canada. Anyone who knows much about Canadian culture knows about Hockey Night in Canada – which is roughly similar in importance as Monday Night Football is to American sports fans.
I chose Edmonton for three reasons – one because I live here and am familiar with the city.
The second reason was because; IMHO there is a dearth of zombie fiction that takes place in Canada. It always seems that most zombie novels take place in London, Texas, New York City or elsewhere, but until I started writing, I’d never read one that took place in Canada.
Finally, weather is a big factor in the course of the story, so it needed to be set in Canada, as opposed to a warmer locale.
4) Would you consider your book, Zombie Night in Canada, to be a project that you created for yourself to enjoy as so few books in the genre place this kind of fictional event in that region of the world?
Yes, definitely. I wrote it for the same reason I write everything – because it’s a story I’d like to read myself.
5) When you sit down and write, what is your perfect writing environment, Quiet, Music, a specific room in the house?
What helps get you in the mood? Watching classic horror films or…?
Typically, I write in a quiet room while my family is sleeping, simply because while everyone is awake there are too many demands on my time to write effectively. I usually have some sort of music playing quietly in the background as I type away. I never know what will come out when I start writing, so I just sit down and write. Some days it’s sci-fi, sometimes it’s horror, and others it’s just garbage! 😉
6) What kind of research did you do to get the ambience of the story setting, the environment, incorporating known landmarks into the plot, attitudes of the characters, developing the characters,etc?
I visited many of the sites in the book and spoke to a wide variety of individuals while working on it. The Costco, for example, is one I shop at occasionally and to add depth, I spoke to a couple employees (both management and employees) about how they operate and so on. I toured the military base several times and spoke with a number of serving and retired CF members. For the police angle, I interviewed a couple officers to make sure that storyline fairly was accurate.
I also jotted down tons of notes, took a couple hundred MBs of photos, and read like crazy on a number of subjects to make sure my book was as accurate as possible.
And now, I’m doing it all over again for ZNIC: 2nd Period. I recently spoke to a constitutional scholar about how the Canadian government might operate if a pandemic wiped out 80-90% of it. Would the military take orders from a junior Member of Parliament? Would an election be necessary immediately? How long would Emergency Powers legislation last after the government was destroyed?
7) Once you were finished or even before you set out to do this project, were there publishers already in mind or did one seek you out?
I had a few publishers in mind, Permuted Press especially, and if they had been accepting submissions near the time I finished, I probably would have submitted it to them just to test the waters. Another publisher was Edge Science Fiction & Horror in Calgary. I thought of them solely because they are a Canadian publisher and thought they might be more likely to publish then other, out-of-country publishers might have.
But, almost from start to finish, I wanted to self-publish it.
8) What advice can you impart to other authors who want to create a zombie/horror/apocalyptic genre novella/novel?
Write. Then write some more. When you get tired of writing, stop, go for a walk, get a coffee and come back and write some more. Then do it again the next day. And the day after that. Rinse, repeat.
I’m a firm believer in Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule. If I had to boil it down, it means roughly that to become an expert in something, you need to do at least 10,000 hours of it. That sounds like a lot but if you write while in university, or at work, or maintain a blog, it’s easy to hit that mark in less than a decade.
9) Do you feel there is anyone in particular that influenced your entry into the horror genre and specifically the inclusion of zombies into your work?
I’d probably say no, as I don’t really see myself as a horror writer per se. Yes, I write about zombies, but I don’t think my work is particularly scary, and I’m not a fan of splatter.
To answer, I don’t think that any author has influenced me in particular, though if there is one I’d like to emulate, it would be Jonathan Maberry. After reading Patient Zero, I was stunned. One of the best non-zombie zombie books I’ve ever read. If I could craft something like that myself, I’d be really proud.
10) Do you have any particular favorites when it comes to other books or films that depict an apocalyptic event not one that necessarily contains zombies?
Some of my favorites include Morningstar Strain by Z.A. Recht, Monster Island by David Wellington, Dying to Live by Kim Paffenroth, &Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne.
My favourite books on the apocalypse are typically those that have an ‘after’ to them. While I enjoyed Brian Keene’s The Rising and City of the Dead, the ending kind of turned me off. I find the part after the apocalypse just as interesting as the apocalypse itself. I enjoy reading what kind of technology survives, what kind of society develops, how do people survive, etc.
11) If you had to do it all over again, the writing, the publishing, the advertising, is there anything different you would do?
The only thing I would change is my marketing. I spent most of my time writing the novel, and did not really focusing on marketing. Sure, I created a blog and Facebook page and Twitter account, but I should have thought much more about the marketing aspect.
For one, I should have planned a better blog tour than I did. My blog tour was pretty successful and generated a fair bit of interest, but if I had planned it better, I would have had more blogs like BuyZombie and fewer blogs that reviews romance novels.
I think releasing a short story or two (with the first few chapters of ZNIC: First Period attached), would have helped generate buzz too. Additionally, I should have done a cover reveal closer to the date of my publication – I did mine several months before I published.
Next time around, I promise the marketing aspect will be done very differently.
12) What are your future plans for this book? As it ended with an opening for a sequel, is that already planned and outlined or waiting in the wings?
I’m planning two sequels – which given the hockey angle (First Period), shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Zombie Night in Canada: Second Period will take place right after First Period ended, and will span a time period of about five-six months, culminating in a series of battles that will determine whether or not Edmonton survives the zombie apocalypse initially. I’m hoping to have Second Period finished by mid-next year.
After that, I’ll see about Third Period. I envision Third Period to feature massive battles between zombie and human armies, something like a Tom Clancy with zombies mash-up (if that makes any sense). That is the book I most want to write – I love the idea of tanks and fighter-bombers taking on zombie ‘armies’ numbering a million or more.
13) Where can fans find out about more of your work?
Zombie Night in Canada: First Period is now available in both e-book and paperback format. The e-book is available (through Smashwords distribution) at most online retailers including Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. The paperback is available at Amazon.com right now and should propagate to other Amazon sites in short order, as well as be available at your bookstore by special order.
I’m also releasing a short story soon called The Saga of Micky Wheeler. This story is an expansion of a minor character’s tale from Zombie Night in Canada: First Period and will be free for the month of October. It’s over 10,000 words and closer to a novella than a short story. After that, it will go up to 99 cents.
