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The Ever-Changing Face of Zombies

By

Rhiannon Frater

 

Years ago, I used to love discussing the zombie genre with other horror loving freaks. There was always a core of us at social gatherings that would get into long-winded discussions about horror related films, books, TV shows, etc. One of our favorite arguments was over zombies (fast or slow, Romero or Fulci, reanimated dead or infected living, etc). At the time, I was pretty adamant that zombies should follow the rules established by George A. Romero. There were some who sided with me, but others who were greatly opposed. When the remake of Dawn of the Dead hit the theaters, it only ratcheted up the fervor of the arguments. I remember my future husband slowly backing away from the ruckus (he’s more of a sci-fi fan) and leaving me to my passionate debates.

Within a year, I’d start writing my own zombie story that would evolve into the As The World Dies trilogy. I was suddenly faced with some very hard decisions. Did I stick with the Romero rules I had so fervently defended, or do my own thing? The fact that I live in the Great State of Texas pretty much settled my inner battle. If I wanted Texas to fall to the zombocalypse, I would need the zombies to be fast. Otherwise, the Texans would be sitting on their front porch barbecuing while picking off zombies wandering in from the interstates. This is a state where gun ownership is very high. My husband and I have been known to go down to the gun range as a date. (He finds my penchant for headshots amusing.) Texas would be a-ok in the zombie apocalypse.

The As The World Dies trilogy (The First Days, Fighting to Survive, Siege) was originally an online serial. A lot of the initial fans used to debate fast or slow zombies in the comments to each new mini-chapter. My zombies did slow down drastically over time, but I saw a rehash of the old arguments I had once participated in happening over and over again.

Later, As The World Dies would be self-published, then picked up and reissued by Tor starting in 2011. Speaking to other writers in the genre, I discovered I wasn’t the only one who had “purist” ideas of how zombies should act, but ended up adding their own spin to the genre. Some writers were comfortable with switching things up while others weren’t. Since most of us had come to love the genre through George A. Romero’s films, we tended to follow his rules until we realized we needed to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of what people consider scary. When talking to readers, it was pretty clear that the newer fans to the genre feared faster zombies and found slow zombies a bit boring.

I was at a convention a year before Tor version of The First Days hit the shelves of bookstores, and when asked on a panel about zombies, Jonathan Maberry said we were seeing the birth of a new monster. That really struck me. I hadn’t really considered that before. Like all monster legends, zombies are changing and evolving as the genre grows. It’s hard to put solid rules to zombies when they really haven’t been around in their recent incarnation for that long.

I’ve written quite a few zombie related books now. I’ll admit that I enjoy writing in the genre a lot more when I allow myself to be creative with the zombie concept. I’ve completely unshackled myself from my old adherence to zombie “rules.” The zombies in my fiction are rarely the same. Blighters, Infected, Scrags, Deaders…they sometimes have different names from the z-word. Some exist in worlds that never heard of Romero. Some populate future dystopian worlds and others wander that resemble our own reality.

In my latest novel, The Mesmerized, humanity falls under the influence of a worldwide catastrophe. Living people are completely subsumed by the supernatural event and become mindless beings that are all compelled to walk toward the epicenter of the occurrence. They die in horrific ways as they plummet from structures, meander through fires, and walk for days without food and water. Nothing can wake them up. Nothing can stop them. Only my heroine, Minji, and a few other survivors are immune.

Are the mesmerized zombies? I do think they fit the category since they resemble the original mindless zombies of voodoo. They have no control of their own bodies and mind, and they can be very dangerous at times when the mysterious power behind the event wants them to be.

Whenever I hear people speak of the zombie craze as becoming passé, I recall those conversations of years past. Back then we didn’t have any clue just how popular zombies would one day be. And we hadn’t even started to imagine how much the zombie genre would grow, expand, and evolve.

Zombies will be around as long as writers find unique and fun ways to expand the lore and keep fans interested and properly infected with love of the genre.

Slow zombies or not.

Synopsis:
Mesmerized_FINALIt is silence, not screams of terror, which proclaims the end of the world…

Minji Nordim is vacationing in Las Vegas with her small family when she witnesses the beginning of a terrifying apocalypse. When humanity is transformed into mindless drones by a terrifying supernatural event only Minji appears to be immune.

Thousands die instantly, but the other affected people are drawn to the Nevada desert. Nothing stands in the way of the mesmerized. Not fire, not heights, not rubble. As the bodies pile in the streets and the relentless wave of the mesmerized plods into the deadly desert, Minji is trapped in a burning city attempting to rescue her family.

When Minji encounters other unaffected survivors, they band together to survive in a city that is crumbling all around them. With no hope of rescue and the event slowly spreading across the world, Minji and the others must decide who to save among the mesmerized and where to go before the city is in ashes.

Even more unsettling is that Minji senses that the force behind the event is observing them…

Can one woman save her family and the world?

Bio:
RhiannonFrater02Rhiannon Frater is the award-winning author of over a dozen books, including the As the World Dies zombie trilogy (Tor), as well as independent works such as The Last Bastion of the Living (declared the #1 Zombie Release of 2012 by Explorations Fantasy Blog and the #1 Zombie Novel of the Decade by B&N Book Blog), and other horror novels. She was born and raised a Texan and presently lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and furry children (a.k.a pets). She loves scary movies, sci-fi and horror shows, playing video games, cooking, dyeing her hair weird colors, and shopping for Betsey Johnson purses and shoes.

You can find her online at:
Website: rhiannonfrater.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rhiannon.frater
Twitter: twitter.com/rhiannonfrater
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Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Rhiannon-Frater/e/B0027DLFL6/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2310121.Rhiannon_Frater
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Email: rhiannonfrater at gmail.com