31 Days of Halloween { guest author } Dead Mann Talking: A History of Zombies by Stefan Petrucha
Today we are joined by author Stefan Petrucha! Let’s give him a hearty zombified welcome!
An Explanation From the Author: In my first draft of Dead Mann Walking, a group of peacefully protesting chakz, pushed too far by the living, go feral, fulfilling the zombie stereotype. As chak-detective Hessius Mann helplessly watches the mess, he broods on the fictional history of the walking dead.
Upon reading this, Ace editor, Jessica Wade, felt it pulled the reader out of the story-world. I agreed, lopping it out quicker than Ash with a chainsaw-hand.
However, to celebrate Dead Mann’s Oct 4 release, what could be more appropriate than restoring it to half-life? So here ‘tis, a quick, quirky look at Z’s from the POV of a PI who should know.
Dead Mann Talking: A History of Zombies
Crowded, surrounded, attacked, the chakz gave the people what they wanted, proof that they were dangerous. It was as though that group-mind the LBs worried about had actually kicked in. Maybe the ferals just never had the numbers before, or maybe you had to be far enough back to see the patterns. I saw them now.
Flashes of chak-bodies moved in elegant waves, like flocks of migrating birds. The livebloods, for all their higher functions, fled without grace. The big picture pulsed and throbbed. But the personal tragedies played out in tiny spaces, as if the two had nothing to do with one another. In the center of the swirls stood the fair-haired cop I’d seen from the window, bullets spitting from his AK-47. They tore some dead flesh. Mostly, he was hitting livebloods before the ferals took him down. Read more
Synopsis: Will Ritter is just an average twelve-year-old. He’s annoyed by his little sister and mom, though not very worried about his math test, since he actually studied. Then he walks outside and has to deal with his grumpy neighbor Old Man Pratt. Except Old Man Pratt is dead. Or looks dead anyway–he’s still walking and talking, just like a zombie. And things only get worse when Will finally gets to school–and the worse has nothing to do with the math test.
Review: A mashup of Alice and zombies! Oh, she thought, life can’t get better than this! Especially since the Tenniel illustrations have been so lovingly adapted to zombification.
Synopsis: Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free.
