Sirens Call Publications: Days with the Undead

Days with the Undead: Book One
Author: Julianne Snow

A  journal of survival.

Five people set out to escape the Undead who have risen too close to home. Join the emotional and physical struggle as they began on the third day after the awakening of Brooks VanReit, as they are recorded from the point of view of Julie, a former pathologist and part-time survivalist.

Each entry is geared toward helping those who want to help themselves and maybe give a few that don’t a swift kick in the ass. Join our group of survivors on their journey through these Days with the Undead.

About the Author – Julianne Snow

It was while watching Romero’s Night of the Living Dead at the tender age of 6 that solidified Julianne’s respect of the Undead. Since that day, she has been preparing herself for the (inevitable) Zombie Apocalypse. While classically trained in all of the ways to defend herself, she took up writing in order to process the desire she now covets; to bestow a second and final death upon the Undead. As the only girl growing up in a family with four children in the Canadian countryside, Julianne needed some form of escape. Her choice was the imaginations of others which only fostered the vibrancy of her own.

Days with the Undead: Book One is her first full-length book, the basis of which can be found in her popular web serial of the same name. You can find Julianne’s The Living Dead of Penderghast Manor in the anthology Women of the Living Dead and stories in Sirens Call Publications anthologies Childhood Nightmares: Under the Bed along with Twisted Realities: Of Myth and Monstrosity which is to be released the end of May 2012.

Publisher: Sirens Call Publications (www.SirensCallPublications.com)
Date Released: February 29th, 2012
ISBN: 1468007998
ISBN-13: 978-1468007992

Available in Print and Digital (eBook)
CreateSpace Print: https://www.createspace.com/3736479
Amazon Print: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1468007998
Smashwords Digital (Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Sony): http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/137213
Amazon Digital US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007F14OTA

May Upcoming events

May 3rd-7th / Hauntcon /Monroeville, Pennsylvania / Professional Haunter’s Convention includes haunting seminars, haunted house tours, makeup seminars, costume ball and hearse show. For more information go to: hauntcon.com

May 4th – 6th / Texas Frightmare Weekend / Dallas, Texas/This horror festival includes a film festival, dealers room and appearances by Piper Laurie, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Barbara Crompton, Tom Savini and many more. For more information go to: texasfrightmareweekend.com

Saturday May 12th / Bal Bizarre / Montreal, Canada / This event is brought to you by the Montreal Fetish weekend and celebrates fashion, passion, fantasy and
erotic subliminal desires. Tickets are $15 and includes live music and an
appearance by D.J. Faith. For more information go to: www.facebook.com/events/375091242515431

May 11th-13th / H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Cthulhu Con / Portland, Oregon /
Some of the activities at the con include a reading by Jenna M. Pitman and
showings of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven along with The Whisperer in the Darkness
and The Haunted Palace. The event also includes panel discussions, vendors and
prizes for the best independent horror films. For more information go to: hplfilmfestival.com

Friday May 18th / Billings Zombie Prom and Walk / Billings, Montana / This undead
celebration includes a zombie walk around downtown Billings followed by a prom.
Make up artists will be on hand to turn people into zombies and there will be a
jello heart and brain eating contest along with a horror basket silent auction.
Special guests will include: Timothy Patrick Quill from Army of Darkness, Alex
Vincent from Child’s Play and Robert Jayne from Tremors. For more information go to: zombiesofmontana.com/events.html

A Peter Giglio Doubleheader

I’ve just finished reading two books by Peter Giglio who fans of this blog may remember was featured in episode 69 of Horror Addicts. The first novel I want to talk about is from Hydra publications and is called Anon. Rory hates his job, the town he lives in and the woman he’s married to. He would like nothing better then to fix everything that went wrong, especially his relationship with his ex-fiance Faith, but he feels trapped and doesn’t know how to fix it. Then one day he gets called into a meeting with his boss at Anon Financial services. Anon gives him the opportunity to fix all of his problems but the question is what does Anon want in return?

Faith has moved on to a happier life without Rory. She is married to a minister named Cale and they have twin daughters named Dawn and Michelle. Michelle has a strange gift and knows something evil has arrived when Rory reappears in Faith’s life. In order to stop the terror that is invading her family, she will have to listen to ghosts from Rory’s past, learn to use her powers and put down an evil corporation. Rory also has powers and will stop at nothing to get the life he missed out on, with Faith.

The thing I loved most about Anon was how Rory’s story is presented. The book follows Rory from when he was a child to the present and you start to like the character despite the fact that he isn’t always a good person. I found myself sympathizing with him when he breaks up with Faith and goes to work at Anon. I also found myself wanting to see him change his life and get what he wanted even though it meant the destruction of Faith’s Family.

What made the book so much better then the average horror novel are the characters in the book. Peter Giglio does a great job of making you fall in love with a character weather he is good or bad. I also liked Faith’s family and wanted to see them survive what they we’re going through. Most of all I hoped Rory would overcome Anon’s influence and become the hero.

Though I mainly liked Anon there were a few parts that I didn’t care for. I would have liked to see more from Faith’s point of view and I would have liked  more description on how how Anon’s power worked. A description is given but I found it a little hard to follow. There were also two scenes that I didn’t like in the book one was when Rory and Faith take Michelle away from their grandparents and there was a gunfight in a hotel that I thought was unnecessary. Another thing I would have to tell reader’s of Anon is to stick with the story and don’t stop reading. There was one point where I felt the story was getting confusing and almost stopped, but as the story went on everything did get explained.

Anon is a good psychological horror story that makes a great point about all of us having evil and good within us. We make the decision on what path we want to take but there are others that can influence are decisions and control us.

If you don’t care for psychological horror and you want your horror bloody and over the top, then you might want to check out Peter Giglio’s Balance from Evil Jester Press. The Blast, a worldwide snowstorm that blanketed the whole planet and brought with it a terminal virus. It came without warning in October and left just as suddenly, but before it left, infected humans started to change and eat the flesh of the living.

The story takes place after the blast and follows six main characters in the zombie infected world, as they try to find balance in their lives. The characters include Geoff, a sad man trying to find what he wants in life and is in love with Amanda, a woman who doesn’t really know what she wants either and is about to be in a fight for her life. The next couple is Ginny a young mother who is trying to save her family and her husband Shane who seems to know more about the zombie virus then anyone, but has his own agenda. The last couple is Cassandra who is a romance novelist having an affair with a married man named Joe who loves his car more than his wife or mistress.

Balance follows the stories of these six people and during the course of the book you see them all go through changes, some of them even become zombies and part of the story is told from the zombie’s point of view. This is what I think makes Balance one of the best zombie stories I’ve ever read.

My only complaints about Balance was that there was one time where the story changed from being in the present to the past which confused me and I was curious as to how much Shane knew about what was going on. Besides that Peter Giglio does what he seems to do best, he creates characters that you can’t help to fall in love with wheather they are good or bad. My favorite character in Balance is Cassandra who doesn’t let a little thing like being a zombie stop her from helping two people in love.

I don’t know of any zombie stories that look at the zombie’s point of view which to me made Balance an original take on the zombie genre. I also liked that the fact that the main hero in Balance was a zombie. Balance is a fun bloody zombie tale that I think you will enjoy even if you don’t like zombie stories.

Zombies, Vampires, and Cursed Skulls

I love all genres of literature but my favorite genre to read is horror. I especially like horror mixed with comedy and I’ve read three books recently that fit that category. The first book I want to talk about is The Sinister Mr. Corpse by Jeff Strand. The story is about a man named Stanley Dabernath who was a regular guy until he became the worlds first living zombie.

Stanley’s movie company, Demented Whacko’s Video is not successful. In fact he is $60,000 in debt, was recently evicted from his apartment and lives off a diet of  Ramen Noodles that he stole from the grocery store. His luck changes one day though when he is run over by a milk truck and drowns in the milk.

Death is not the end for Stanley. His body is rescued from the morgue and he gets brought back to life on national TV by Project Second Chance. Now Stanley has everything he could ever want, he has money, fame, product endorsements, action figures and he’s a hit on all the talk shows. Stanley has the life he has always dreamed of, but it comes at a price, he has to take injections to keep from rotting any more then he already has, Project Second Chance owns his body and there is a group of religious fanatics that want to prove that he’s a fake.

After two failed attempts to kill him, being hounded by the media and having a man decide to build a religion based on him; Stanley escapes project Second Chance and heads to New York to become a super hero. Things don’t go well and he gets kidnapped and held for ransom. He then finds out what happens when he doesn’t get his injections and the secret behind how Project Second Chance brought him back to life. I’ll give you a hint, it wasn’t science that resurrected him.

The Sinister Mr. Corpse is an action packed horror comedy filled with twists and turns. What I enjoyed most was the dialog in the book, all of the characters had great personality and if the book had no action and was made up entirely of dialog between the characters, I would have still enjoyed it. Another part that really stuck out with me was a fight between Mr. Corpse and an assassin near the end which unexpectedly moves from drama to comedy. Despite the fact that this book is meant mainly for laughs, it does make a good point about how we should be careful about idolizing celebrities.

If you need any more influence to buy The Sinister Mr. Corpse, check out the reviews on Amazon from Jeff Strand and J.A. Konrath and after your done check out their book of humorous horror stories called Suckers. I have to say up front about Suckers, its definitely not a great work of literature, but I found myself laughing quite a bit. In the books the authors themselves describe the book as “Men have weiners, he he he.” That should tell you what your getting into if you buy it.

Some of the short stories in Suckers include A Bit of Halloween Mayhem, where a couple of people break into a haunted house on Halloween and get more then they bargained for and The Necro File which follows Detective Harry McGlade as he investigates some strange happenings in a cemetery.

The main story in Suckers was written by both authors and includes two characters that have been in some of the novels that they have written in the past. Detective Harry McGlade  is called to Florida to find a kidnapped girl. As he is breaking into the house where he believes the girl is being held, he runs into Andrew Mayhem who was only trying to bring a jar of spaghetti sauce to his wife. Afraid Mayhem will call the cops on him, Harry makes Andrew enter the house with him and discovers a house full of wannabe vampires  who want to make McGlade their lunch. If you have a strong stomach and need a good laugh, pick this book up.

The last book I wanted to mention is one I’m currently reading and since it was in the same vein (pun intended) as the others I wanted to mention it. The book is Draculas by Jeff Strand, Jack Kilborn (pen name of J.A. Konrath), F. Paul Wilson and Blake Crouch. The story is about retired millionaire Mortimer Moorecock who is dying of cancer. In order to survive his disease Mortimer has bought a skull found in Romania that is believed to have belonged to Count Dracula. When Mortimer gets the skull he clamps its jaws on his neck and goes into convulsions. He is rushed to the hospital where he dies and rises again as a vampire.

The description of this book describes it as Dawn of the Dead in a hospital but with vampires in place of zombies. These are not the kind of vampires with feelings, they’re the blood thirsty killing anti-Twilight kind. Each Author in this book took a character in the story and wrote the most intense black comedy horror story they could. If you know of any good books combining horror and comedy please leave a comment.

Horror Gaming Buzz: Dead Island

Dead Island is a game being produced by Techland. It’s a third-person action game where zombies attack a family on vacation on a tropical island. The trailer below gives you just a taste of what is to come. The projected release date is September of 2011.

Dead Island Cinematic Debut Trailer [HD]
Developer: Techland
Genre: FPS
Platform: PS3/X360/PC
Publisher: Deep Silver
Set in an open world tropical island, hordes of different festering zombies await players around every corner while they embark on a variety of thrilling missions through the holiday resort. With firearms and ammunition being scarce the player must rely on utilizing found items as weapons for self-defense and fight off zombie hordes in intense melee combat. A diverse range of items can be collected and will later serve to transform the player’s ordinary makeshift weapons into serious instruments of destruction.

I felt the trailer, although slow, was awesome to watch. It was almost like a movie as it shows you a sequence of events, running forward and back, until they meet in the middle. I know a few zombie game fanatics who are going to love this one!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Deadisland/128246167248899

What do you think?

Married With Zombies

Are you married? Has your marriage lost that spark? Do you need something to spice up your relationship? Well friends, nothing can improve your relationship more then surviving the zombie apocalypse. You don’t need marriage counseling or self help books to fix your love life, all you need is a couple of flesh eating zombies after you to realize how important your significant other is. That’s one of the many life lessons that you will get out of the book Married With Zombies by Jesse Petersen.

Married With Zombies is much more then a good comedy/horror novel, it will also help you fix your marriage if it needs fixing. You’ll also learn other lessons such as: how to use a toilet seat to kill a zombie, how to escape from a religious cult, how to blend in to a horde of zombies and you will learn the proper way to use a self help book. Before reading this I thought you had to read a self help book to get anything out of it, but that’s not true. If a zombie ever breaks into your house you can use that self help book to bash a zombie’s head in.

The main characters of this book are Sarah and David. They’ve been married for about five years and things are not going well. The story begins with the two of them on their way to marriage counseling. They’ve been going to counseling for about six months but it doesn’t seem to be helping any. Their trip to the counselor’s office on this day though is going to change their lives. As they get into the office they noticed that no one was there to greet them. After sitting for awhile they decide to check on the doctor. To their shock and horror they see their counselor eating the couple that was there before them.

From that moment on David and Sarah’s lives and marriage don’t get any easier, they soon find out that there is a virus spreading across the city causing  people to turn into zombies. So now in addition to fixing their dying marriage they also have to learn how to survive in a world gone crazy and not kill each other in the process.

I found out about this book by hearing the author talk about it on a podcast, I thought it sounded good but when I saw the book in a book store I almost didn’t get it. From looking at it I got the impression that it was going to be a lot more of a romance novel then a horror novel. Anyway, I decided to give it a chance  and found it to be a good horror story with a lot of heart.

This book does not skip on the gore, there are some very grisly death scenes along with some laugh out loud comedy and a lot of action. Married with Zombies has a little something for everyone.  The best part of the book is watching Sarah and David’s relationship change throughout the story. They start off as a constantly bickering couple on the verge of killing each other to a loving couple that supports each other towards the end.

There was only one part of this book that kind of disappointed me but only because it was so short. Right about the half way point in this book Sarah and David are taken prisoner by a religious cult called the Blackwell Truth Church Group. At this point I found myself getting excited and thinking: “all right zombies and a religious cult, can this book get any better?” To me religious cults are terrifying and any horror novel with a cult in it holds my attention. While I liked the scene I just wished there was another 50 pages or so with Sarah and David dealing with the cult.

There is a sequel to Married With Zombies that has just been released called Flip This Zombie. In this book Sarah and David start a zombie exterminating business. I’m looking forward to picking up this book and I hope it has more about the Blackwell Truth Church Group in it.

Its not often you can find a book that will gross you out,  make you laugh and make you cry. Well ok I didn’t cry but there is a scene at the end of the book that almost got me. Married With Zombies is a fast easy read that you won’t want to put down. In addition to picking up a copy of Married With Zombies make sure to check out the author’s website for extras such as tips on surviving a zombie apocalypse, a list of the best zombie movies ever made, a relationship quiz to see if your relationship will survive the zombie apocalypse and much much more.

http://jessepetersen.net/

13 Questions with Henry Snider

This episode’s featured author is Henry Snider, who is well known for his work with the Colorado Springs Fiction Writer’s Group as well as his photography. He has a background in the occult and parapsychology, which is the study of psychic abilities and various other paranormal happenings.

Mr. Snider is such a fountain of interesting and useful information, I had a difficult time cutting our interview down to 13 questions.

So lets get down to business…I asked Henry how it felt to be the featured author of Horror Addicts episode 36: Frankenstein. He said , “It feels fantastic…and fitting. I have an artificial knee and the body/not my body concept strikes close to home.”

The title of Snider’s featured story is Thump, the reason which he wouldn’t share. But I was able to get a little information about the story from him. “…[M]idgets in tutus sporting chainsaws, what else is there? Seriously, I’d have to say I hope I’ve envisioned a slightly different view of the mad doctor, though I made sure the monster makes an appearance. I mean, what would Frankenstein be without the monster?”

Though he may relate to the concept of the Frankenstein monster. Good ‘ol Frankie is not Henry’s favorite monster. “While zombies are my favorite movie monster (and for the record I was a fan since the original Dawn of the Dead was in theaters), I’d actually have to say children are my favorite horror monster. I realized this a few years back while on vacation with my family. Hollie and I were road surfing. Now for those of you who don’t know what road surfing is, try picking a direction and just start driving…then let everyone in the vehicle take turns picking which way to go when you get to an intersection.”

“So, we were surfing and ended up a few miles out of Guilford, Indiana (cue banjo music), and came across this amazing abandoned house. We explored a bit and took a few pictures. Once around back I looked into the basement and saw seven pairs of silver eyes looking back at me. Now, this was late August but I could’ve sworn November just set in. I looked closer and seven gray children looked up from the gloom, some blinking. I prepared to do my best impersonation of Disney’s Ichabod Crane, but dared one last glimpse. Seven pairs of eyes all right, only they belonged to a family of raccoons nesting in the piles of who-knows-whats left in the cellar. From that point on, children, especially those that stare, give me an icy chill. I think it’s the purity of their emotions that hits a raw nerve.”

Henry was one of the founding members of the Colorado Springs Fiction Writers Group. In which he has held the position of President, Secretary, Webmaster, and Vice President, the position he continues to hold today. Interested in the CSFWG, I asked Snider to explain what it is they do. He replied, “You mean aside from act the literary equivalent to A.A.? Believe it or not, in many ways that statement’s not a joke. Think about it, red eyes, disheveled hair, unbathed (if we were in the middle of a really good scene), smelling of alcohol (if we were in the middle of a really bad scene). Readers enjoy writing, but often don’t understand writers. We’re quirky, opinionated, cranky (we mustn’t forget cranky), and those are just the good days. Writers need peer interaction, be it snagging a beer and complaining about the latest project to editing each others work in the hopes of helping create the best prose possible.”

Then he continued, “With that in mind, each of the three CSFWG groups meets once per month for three hours. Physical submissions are given and the previous month’s critiqued works are returned to authors, followed by oral critiques given by each member. This is the core of what we do – peer fellowship, literary twelve step program (“To Be” verbs are number six) and holding the occasional class or contest.”

Well known for his tasteful semi-nude photography, I asked Snider what got him started taking the photographs? He told me that “…believe it or not it was the customers. Many want a photo to show the world they’re incredibly desirable, but don’t have the Elle magazine figure. Once they saw that I could enhance their “concern” areas through posing (that’s the real secret) and completely remove others through digital wizardry word of mouth had me shooting 30% boudoir. I personally believe what you don’t show entices the critic more than what you do.”

I wondered if Henry took the photos for purely artistic reasons or if he took them for paying customers or a little of both. He said that it was all of the above, then added, “Often it’s people wanting to still look like themselves, only the “best” version possible. So after a photo shoot’s done I’ll soften wrinkles, digitally remove a few pounds, put curves where they were a couple of years before, etc..”

Curious, I asked what he enjoyed more…writing or photography? His response was interesting and thoughtful… “Oh, what an unfair question. Prose is creating a story through words and photography is telling a story through one single second of life that will never be repeated. I believe them two sides of the same coin. However, since you’ve pressed me on this one I’d have to say writing. I’ve loved the written word my whole life and only discovered photography in recent years.”

Snider’s publications include Penny For Your Thoughts “…one of [Snider's] many salutes to H.P. Lovecraft. The tale revolves around a typical nerdy kid – every school has one – quiet, glasses, often carries forgotten demonic tomes around. Well this particular child comes across a way to resolve his bully issue.”

As well as Crossroads, which, “is actually a spin off from actual events that happened. I was visiting family in the back hills of Missouri (cue banjo music again) and passed the same model car I was riding in. Now at the time the car couldn’t have been over five years old, yet this one was in the weeds at a crossroads and rusted to the point of appearing decades older. One legal pad later Crossroads was born. A side note for authors, don’t watch television while you write. I had Peg and Kelly, ala Married With Children, running a restaurant.

Mr. Snider was in a two wrecks not that long ago. I asked if he would share a bit of the story and if it the experience has affected his writing in any way. “In both [wrecks] my vehicle was stopped and obeying traffic laws. The first cost me a knee, though now I have a shiny new one with a warranty, and the second scrambled my egg a bit. So it’s taking me a bit to get back into the literary swing of things, but I’d have to say it’s definitely affected my writing. Mechanically I’m brushing up on things I taught a couple of years ago and stylistically I’ve learned to relax and just let the story create itself. Now if you meant from a personal perspective I realized that writing a story means nothing if not shared, so beginning in 2010 I’m writing for publication (finally).”

Since Henry is apart of the CSFWG and since he is a published author I figured he would have some great advice for all you writers out there. To keep the interview short (I had already gotten to 24 questions in our interview) I asked, what I thought to be the two most asked questions out there. Do you have any tips for writers trying to get published? And, do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Snider had plenty of useful information to share…“be true to your characters. Don’t be afraid to let your characters be what they are, warts and all. Dudley Doright was annoying as a cartoon hero – you don’t want him as your protagonist. Let readers have revelations alongside the characters. It builds a bond that keeps people coming back for more. In retrospect, let evil characters have a human side, something that makes the reader identify with him/her/it. A sense of unease is what you create because the reader glimpses themselves in the very thing they despise. To me, at least, believable characters are the key to getting work published for others to enjoy.”

And his advice for aspiring authors was this, “Write like you speak. If not, your prose, especially your dialogue, will sound stilted. Take a while, go to the mall where people of all ages are and just listen. You’ll hear “salt and pepper” dialogue (speakers interrupting themselves, or others cutting in for inane reasons), slang, dialects, manipulations, flirtations…and if you plant yourself too near the bathrooms – constipations, all there for you, the writer, to sponge for your prose. Let those around you be your teachers and inspiration. Just listen. Remember – no one ever learned anything through an open mouth.”

As well as having a My Space profile, Mr. Snider has his own website, which, is “currently in the middle of a rebuild.” Henry stated that “[o]nce completed the site will feature a bit of prose, my photography and a little imagery. The writing could be anything from some previously published religious nonfiction (no folks, that’s not a joke – how’s that for scary?), basic rants, publications and, of course, horror. Photography offers an outlet for me that doesn’t involve a computer, a dark room and my horrific muse – the visage of Rush Limbaugh in a hot pink thong. My photographs encompass everything from landscapes to models posing for specific projects. As for the Imagery – find me on Flickr or Second Life and enjoy the vampiric crack whore images. There’s nothing like having friends with equally twisted imaginations who like to model.”

To end our interview I asked the question I always do to wrap everything up. Do you have any projects that you’re currently working on that your fans can look forward to? Snider had this to say, “I have a few irons in the fire. Every short story ends up running at 10,000+ words. Even this story is the third attempt at a Frankenstein story for Horror Addicts. The first two were shelved at 15,000 and 8,600 words respectively. Each is a different vision of Shelly’s characters and will be completed in due time. Future works include a Lovecraftian novel I’ve played with for a few years, monstrous babies, haunted homesteads, Colorado mines and, of course, children.”

If you would like to learn more about Henry Snider you can visit him at these sites:

Henry Snider’s personal website – www.henrysnider.com

My Space profile – www.myspace.com/nightmarescribe

Second Life – http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sukotraz/152/176/68

And the Colorado Springs Fiction Writer’s Group website – www.csfwg.org

13 Questions with James Cheetham

Hello again to all you Horror Addicts out there, welcome back to 13 Questions. This time I had a chance to interview ‘Zombie Master’ and Dark Fiction Author, James Cheetham. He is the featured author for this week’s Horror Addicts episode 34: Zombies.

Cheetham is all about the zombies, “They are simply ‘us’,” he said, “I think of them as our innermost primordial evil. They are the simplest form of society. Greedy, relentless gluttons. The only difference between the living and the walking dead is the fact that zombies don’t make excuses for their actions. They show up, they tear you to shreds and then move on to the next victim. They don’t stop and say…’I couldn’t help it, I quit smoking last week and my kids are driving me crazy….’”

When asked how the former Corrections Officer, at a psychiatric ward, transitioned to a zombie creator; Cheetham replied, “I have always had this inner creative guy trying desperately to claw his way out of me. If it wasn’t music it was writing. When my daughter was born in 1998 I had a lot more down time as baby became priority. I really fell in love with reading but like movies a lot of books I read, at least darker books, kind of let me down or just weren’t written very well, so I decided to try writing one myself. In 2007 Fade To Pale was published while I was working at the jail. I took a year off to pursue the writing and haven’t gone back.”

In 2008 James needed “to find ways to keep [his] readers’ interest, especially after many of them pre-ordered Prairie Frost at a McNally Robinson book signing so [he] started turning their photos into zombies. Two years later, no book, no multi-billion dollar movie deal, but 600 zombies in the collection and counting, and a business ironically called ‘Prairie Frost’.”

I was curious about the process he went through to make a ‘zombifide’ picture; Cheetham didn’t share any of his secrets but had this to say. “…[I]t all depends on the photo. I always say ‘send me a color mug shot over 1 MB’, but I still get a lot of photos I can’t work with. When we take the zombies on the road I bring photographer Doug Ritter with me and he gets the exact photo we require to really make them gruesome. The higher the quality of the photo, and of course the general zombie pose the subject is creating will make for a kick-ass zombie makeover, which we can then transfer over to portraits, posters, t-shirts, calenders…you name it. We require no makeup or special effects prior to sending your photo, keep it simple.”

Fade to Pale, a story which was “born from a reoccurring dream,” was James’ first novel but there was no major spotlight that came with the cult following. “I was just happy to hold that book in my hands. I guess the most appealing part of Fade to Pale was confirming I could pull it off. I received lots of email from people telling me how much they loved it or that it affected them in one way or another. Putting out a book like Fade To Pale is scary in itself, especially when you’re new to the scene. I was terrified that people might think because I forced my characters to live such horrible lives that I was some kind of monster too. I had a woman approach me once and insist I had written about her life, right down to the names of the characters. She was truly bothered by the coincidence and I thought, wow…my words messed her up…that’s some eerie validation. I’m a pretty normal guy to be honest, pretty boring for the most part. I think a spotlight is scary….”

Mr. Cheetham’s short story, For the Love of Josephine, will be featured on Horror Addicts episode 34. For the Love of Josephine is about the “wife of the farmer Glenn Laliberté, who is one of three main characters in Prairie Frost. Josephine spends a lot of time watching CNN and has become rather depressed as the world comes apart at the seams but Glenn is too busy with the farm to notice, and believes Josephine is overreacting. From the perspective of a farmer out of reach of major cities, nothing has changed in their lives. Josephine thinks otherwise, and soon makes this apparent.”

James novel Prairie Frost is volume one in his series Seasons of the Brittle Harvest. “Volume two is called Prairie Flood and it is half finished. Prairie Fire and Prairie Funeral are dwelling in [his] mind waiting patiently.” James decided to give us a sneak-peek into his ideas and plans for the series. “Basically the story is about one American woman, a Canadian Corrections Officer (ironically), and a Canadian farmer, who fall into each other’s company as the world struggles with a plague of the walking dead. To make matters worse they are stranded in one of the worst snowstorms any of them have ever seen while they attempt to get back to the prison, which is ironically the safest place in the city now. What was once a building used to imprison the bad has been turned inside out, and is now a safe haven. The series of course is far wider than that. The farmer character is in fact the same man from the story ‘For The Love of Josephine’. The short story is written from his journal, which was originally going to be at the end of Prairie Frost.”

SNM Horror Anthology’s Bonded by Blood, features Cheetham’s The Wilting May Flowers. I asked James to tell me a little about the anthology, “…Bounded by Blood takes place in St. Norbert, Manitoba, a rural neighborhood of Winnipeg where I grew up. We used to have bush parties in the summer where we’d gather in the woods as teenagers and do all those things we weren’t supposed to do. The story itself is basically about a teenage boy who for the most part is a good kid that gets caught up in a very bad predicament when he finally receives the attention of his high school crush. It is sadly, a blessing in disguise.”

Mr. Cheetham was voted SNM Author of the Year. When I asked how it felt to have the title; he had this to say, “It’s great. It’s nice to know I have that kind of support from readers. Trying to make it as a writer is the hardest thing I have ever done. Every tip of the hat counts and I really appreciate Steven Marshall’s support, as well as his fantastic magazine.”

As well as his series Seasons of the Brittle Harvest, James has been working on another project called Ballad of a Bought Farm. Mr. Cheetham mentioned, “[He was] ninety percent finished [with] Ballad of a Bought Farm which is the story about a heroin addict who stumbles upon a strange farm family and soon discovers they play an imperative part in his destiny.” He wouldn’t say anything else other than “[i]t’s been a tough write…”

For more information about James Cheetham’s zombie photos or novels, be sure to visit his website at www.jamescheetham.ca