Sabrina's Word Wednesday: Headshot

Sabrina's Word Wednesday: Headshot

Warning: This particular blog post includes content about a specific type of violence.

Zombies can be created by a couple of things; voodoo, demon/evil possession of corpses, viruses, and sometimes even strange bacteria or parasites. The resultant zombies of any of these can have a bunch of different symptoms (on top of, you know, wanting to eat brains) like being slow and lumbering, or being superhumanly fast and cunning. 

Luckily, there is a sure-fire way to kill a zombie, no matter whether it is the product of some voodoo queen's curse or an experimental virus accidentally released to the public: headshot.

A headshot is a slang term that means exactly what it sounds like: shooting in the head. Any gamer, hunter, or assassin can tell you that a headshot is the most efficient way to kill something as quickly as possible. But for zombies, it is just about the only way to do it.

You may have noticed that zombies, although they are technically dead, can still sort of function, even if it's in a primitive, shuffling fashion with not much else going on. But in order to even do that, a part of the brain MUST still be active, even if it is a virus or magic that is activating it. 

Biology tells us that the brain is the cockpit of the body; nerves and all kinds of other fascinating and hard to pronounce bodily components take messages from the brain and send them to other parts. So something is telling that zombie's legs to jerk forward and walk towards the smell of fresh brains. How do you stop the message from getting to the legs? Take out the connection between the brain and the rest of the body. 

You could technically accomplish this by surgically removing the head from the body, but who has time for surgery when the zombie apocalypse is happening? Your best bet is to fire a leaden projectile at a high velocity into the brain, which will scramble up everything inside it. Headshot. 

In almost every zombie story I have ever come across, the survivors already know the deal. Have a gun of some kind, and aim for the head. It's effective and quick, but it doesn't leave much room for creativity.

So that being said, aside from headshots, what is the most creative way you've seen someone kill a zombie? If you need inspiration, check out this collection of crazy zombie kills by Todd Gilchrist on Blastr.com. 

Happy 200th to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (and yes, zombies)

 As Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice just marked its 200th anniversary, what better way to celebrate than mention that "other" classic, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?

When this whole "mash-up" thing with classic literature began, I admit thinking it was funny, but I wasn't too interested at first. Okay, I'm slow. I now have a copy of the aforementioned book in hand and seeing the great illustrations and funny lines, I wonder why I waited so long?

So, England is overrun with zombies and the genteel ladies are fighting off zombie hordes? haaa! The cover, of course, has long been a favorite.

Adding in a mention for Two Sentence Tuesday, how can you resist these lines from PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith:

Line under one illustration:
"Elizabeth lifted her skirt, disregarding modesty, and delivered a swift kick to the creature's head."

Another great illustration and line:
"The wedding took place, and no one but Elizabeth seemed to suspect the bride's condition."


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Has this Zombie Thing Gone Too Far?

I've been sick so a quick post today. Something I spotted and had to share....

(Today is also the Let me Reintroduce Myself Blogfest - see my info below the pic.)

There is a lot of odd stuff out there, but just in case you missed this... For the person who has everything, right?  Yes, it is a zombie panty liner.

See more pix from Zombleeds on Etsy.

But.... really?

* I almost forgot today is the Let Me Reintroduce Myself Blogfest. As you can see, well, writing a zombie blog post qualifies me for having an odd sense of humor. ha! So some odd humor, a little romance and more is what you can expect in my upcoming book, GIRL Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie.... coming this summer! Yay! Stay tuned for the cover soon!

What else? Oh, there is more? Well, I like to create and collect dollhouse miniatures - hey you can't write all the time. ha! - love dogs... and? You can see some pix and other book stuff at my website.

Free Zombie book today for Kindle, The Loki Variation

Co-blogger Sabrina James Riley's book THE LOKI VARIATION is free today Saturday (1/26/13) at Amazon.

Download it here for your Kindle or Kindle on PC, etc. Don't forget to add a review when you're done reading. Thank you!

Who would you choose for a zombie apocalypse partner?

Last Thursday, I had the honor and pleasure of speaking to the youth group at my local library.  While we were waiting for the others to show up, one of the teens was telling us about his public speaking class.  He explained that instead of introducing themselves to the class, they had to introduce someone else.  They were given one question, then told to make up two more.  One of the questions he made up was amazing, so I'm borrowing it.  I don't remember exactly how he phrased it, but here is my version:

The zombie apocalypse has just occurred, what celebrity do you recruit for your team?

My response:  Ted Nugent.

You know he's got a cache of weapons, both guns and "silent killers" like bows and arrows and crossbows, probably some knives and other sharp weapons, and he's got survival skills.  Mr. Nugent would be able to feed us and keep us safe.  Plus, at night while we're hunkered down, I'm sure he's got some great stories to tell.

What celebrity would you pick?

Stange New World, That Has Such Zombies in It

In the Beginning, there were…

ZOMBIES!

Well, no, that's not quite how it worked.  True, I knew I had to make a world with zombies for Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator, but  before I could bring in zombies, I needed a world to bring them into.  When I worldbuild, I try to look at all angles, from the geography to the vegetation, the habits and cultures of its inhabitants, and how it all fits into the story.

Fortunately, Neeta Lyffe was unique to me in that it takes place in our world--Los Angeles--just a couple of decades in the future.  So Hollywood (or Hollyweird, as some of my friends called it) happenings, American culture and politics, and international events and history became my template.

Now, enter the zombies.

That, of course, was where the fun began:  how would the emergence of zombies affect the world?  Being optimistic about the future in general, I didn't want an apocalypse.  I think we're too smart a race for that kind of runaway contagion.  We'd get smart on zombie combat and prevention, fast. 

 However, being somewhat cynical about human nature when taken en masse, there was a lot of fun to be had in twisting our practices and beliefs in reaction to the rising undead.  So I plucked some things from my own experience, and applied them to zombies.

Voter fraud:  Now they really can have the dead vote!

Government regulation:  The federal government does a great thing by mandating that all dead must have their spine severed before burial, which has cut down the emerging zombie population greatly.  However, LA refuses to put money into tearing down a known zombie hot-spot because it's too much trouble and the zombies aren't doing anything at the moment, anyway.

Conspiracy theorists:  One expert blames the H1N1 vaccine for causing the pandemic, and the government and pharmaceutical companies are covering it up.  (You can read about it in his book.)

Radical Environmentalism:  Global warming causes zombie-ism!

Blatant commercialism:  "Ms. Lyffe, we want you to be the spokeswoman for our newest line of health drinks--Longevitize."  (The photo the lawyer shows her is of her standing knee-deep in zombies and holding a can in her hand. Caption: After the re-kill, Longevitize.)

International wars:  Iran invades Afghanistan, and the dead afghan freedom fighters come back to attack them.

And of course, the main idea of the story, Reality TV:  Neeta Lyffe trains up apprentice exterminators in Zombie Death Extreme.  The contestants have a shot at winning a million dollars--if they survive.

The process itself is pretty intuitive to me.  It's just a matter of asking "What if?" and coming to what I think might be a logical (or sometimes, just comical) conclusion.  When intuition fails, you can look at similar examples in our history, or draw parallels from mythology or even other stories (but don't just copy--make it your world's.)  These ideas work the same whether dealing with a nearly real world, like in Neeta Lyffe, or a completely imaginary one.

Worldbuilding is a lot of fun, and sometimes, it doesn't take a lot to create a new and believable world.  Sometimes, all you need to do is toss in a zombie.

Purchase links:

Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator :  http://amzn.to/hTqMGa

I Left My Brains in San Francisco: http://amzn.to/Nzm01L

Learn more about the Zombie Exterminator novels at http://zombiedeathextreme.com

Find out about all of Karina Fabian’s books at http://fabianspace.com

Sabrina's Word Wednesday - Preppers

Sabrina's Word Wednesday

Zombie Preppers

In last week's Word post, I mentioned that there are people who really are preparing for the zombie apocalypse. Like, seriously. And they are awesome. They are called Zombie Preppers (preppers being short for preparers.)

Zombie Preppers are people who train themselves to be ready for when the zombie apocalypse happens, and equip themselves with weapons, food, water, safe shelter, etc., for when it happens. (By the way, when "it" happens is known as when SHTF, which is an acronym, and will be explained in a later Word post.)

A lot of people like to make fun of Zombie Preppers, and call them crazy, but what I have found is that most people who call themselves Zombie Preppers are actually kind of making fun of themselves. The same skills and equipment and knowledge that a "Zombie Prepper" needs to survive in case of a zombie apocalypse are the exact same ones that anyone would need to survive if some horrible catastrophe occurred and ended our world as we know it. To tell you the truth, there's no one else I'd rather be friends with when the SHTF than a prepper. There's a lot of them, and they are not stupid people. The idea is even a highly rated television series!

So you already have all the 'prepping' you need!

In case you haven't noticed, most zombie stories seem to begin either right at the outbreak, or some times after. But for some people, the real-life zombie story starts now, before it happens, and they are preparing. 

This is a short video a friend of mine did that will explain some of the things to keep in mind if you want to prepare yourself for survival in the event of a zombie apocalypse, without being an actual Zombie Prepper.

If the whole zombie outbreak seems a little unrealistic to you, let me remind you that reanimation and mind-control are not wholly unheard of in nature. There are plenty of ways that something of the sort could realistically happen. Even my fiction story, The Loki Variation uses scientific methods and facts that are used today to support what could possibly happen. 

At the very least, if you don't want to stock your underground bunker with shotguns, semi-automatic weapons, and sledgehammer/fireman's axe combos, you can at least download the app. :)

For this week's comments, tell me what your first plan of action would be if a zombie outbreak happened TODAY.

Two sentence stories, add a zombie of course

Why two sentences, you ask?

Two can give you a good taste of something or lead you on.  And two isn't as lonely as one... (why did the line from the song "One" by Three Dog Night come to mind?)


Women of Mystery calls it Tuesday Twosome, and shared two sentences from one of their books.

But, two sentences can also be a story unto itself, right? At least that's the premise at this site I found in my scouting around - Two Sentence Stories. Perfect!

So, if you had two, and only two sentences, what would you write about?

Well, given we're a special niche blog here, I thought I'd play around for fun and came up with one. Yeah, I should try for two, right? I'll add another one if the brain kicks in...

Feel free to groan, but I can't resist a pun or bad joke. Sorry, no offense intended.

Be warned: Becca's boyfriend Gabe in GIRL Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie has a pretty good (or bad) one in the book, too... haa! (I couldn't resist!).

(They're so short, so I'll say they are two sentences if I put them together.)

The Blonde and the Zombie
by C.A. Verstraete

Boy meets zombie and then meets a pretty blonde.
Boy: "brainssss."
Girl: Huh?


* Ok, want to give it a try? Feel free to offer your good, or bad, two sentence stories or jokes.

Best - and Worst - Zombie Movies?

Loved this idea for "List of the Day" I found at Paste Magazine. Their list? The 15 Best Zombie Movies. Their list I'll admit had quite a few films I'd never heard of, and haven't seen yet. (And can you believe that 500 movies were made with zombies? Only?)

Their list:

# 15 -  Pontypool (2009) A take on War of the Worlds with a verbal virus twist...

My take: I think the all time worst zombie movie I saw in recent years was one where it was part game show and wrestling and zombies... I don't remember the name as it was so bad I turned it off after 10 minutes.

Of note: One I'm sure I've seen being a Bela Lugosi and old movie fan:

  # 3 - White Zombie (1932) - with Bela Lugosi

# 4 - Dawn of the Dead (1978) - zombies in the mall.

My take: This was the first zombie movie I saw in color which made the gore more horrific. This and "The Pit and the Pendulum" are two movies I've never forgotten.

#7 - Zombieland (2009) - a favorite. Thought it was goofy and fun.

#1 - Night of the Living Dead (1968)

My take: This classic is considered to have started it all, and remains a favorite. There is something about the starkness of black-and-white that makes it more horrifying, yet touching, without grossing you out.

*  List of Zombie Movies at Wikipedia

** What are your favorite zombie movies? Which ones did you think should've stayed buried?

Something to munch on for the weekend... Eat like a zombie....

Well, since we had a little post mix-up yesterday, I'll add something fitting for the weekend.

Figured I'd share something the readers can "munch on" for the weekend. haaa! Mmmm, braaaaainssss. Hey, what do you expect from a zombie blog?

Image from: AboutZombies.net 

The real question - would you eat these? Could you? 

Life After Zombie Skills

When people talk about the zombie apocalypse, they usually focus on what kinds of weapons they will have and what kinds of fighting skills they will need.  While those are important factors to consider, it’s also equally important to obtain other survival skills, including First Aid and outdoor survival skills.

You can be the best shot ever, but if you’re trapped in the woods and hungry, you’d better figure out real fast what is poisonous and what isn’t.  You don’t want to come back as a zombie because you ate the wrong mushroom or drank tainted water.  Plus, you’ll need to know how to care for injuries, even minor ones.  A tiny scratch could open the door for tons of bacteria, and I’m sure you don’t want to come back as a zombie because you died from a staph infection.

Even if you don’t leave the city to take your chances in nature, it will still be important to know survival skills.  Again, injuries can happen in the city.  There are numerous things to cut yourself on or things to fall down.  And don’t think that just because you have access to food it will be safe.  We kill a lot of bacteria by cooking our food thoroughly.  Don’t forget about sanitary conditions, either.  Once the city falls to the undead horde, running water might not be a luxury anymore.  Neither will garbage trucks.  Once a zombie is put down for good, who’s going to take care of the corpse?  Germs thrive in unsanitary conditions such as these.

If your plan after the zombie uprising is to head to the hills (or forest or mountains or desert or anywhere else away from civilization), make sure you are an expert on how to survive there.  Know which plants will keep you alive, which ones will kill you, and which have medicinal purposes.  Know how to distill water so it is safe to drink.  Learn how to make medical supplies with the items available to you.  Eventually, you’ll have to live off the land, so know what thrives in each area so you will have successful crops for years to come.

If you decide to take your chances in the city, you’ll still have to know the same skills.  You’ll have to know how to make water safe and how to heal wounds.  You’ll have more supplies at your disposal, but be cautious of how they are used, they won’t last forever—and realize that they’ll probably be guarded by walking dead. 

After the zombies take over the world, the first thing you’ll need to do is rely on your weapons and fighting skills to get you to a safe place.  After that, you’ll need your wits and knowledge of the surrounding landscape.  Survival isn’t about being the strongest or smartest, it’s about finding the balance between those two.  Do yourself and favor and arm yourself with knowledge and weapons before facing the undead.  Your life will depend on it.

Sabrina's Word Wednesday: Zombie Apocalypse

Sabrina's Word Wednesday: Zombie Apocalypse

So it pretty much speaks for itself. Zombie apocalypse. Also known as zompocalypse or necropocalypse, the zombie apocalypse is essentially the end of the world as we know it due to an outbreak of zombies.

Sick zombie art by GarthFT Source

We've seen it many times, in games, movies, books, and even TV shows. (Including my favorite, The Loki Variation) The general premise is that a zombie-causing virus or other means of transmission is released into the general public, creating a situation in which more people are infected than not, and exponentially the rate of transmission gets higher and higher. In a short time, there are few survivors, fighting or hiding to protect themselves from the zombies, and their world as they knew it is gone.

One of the most anticipated movies of 2013, World War Z, is a zombie apocalypse movie (very, very) loosely based on the book of the same name by Maxwell Brooks.  

Brad Pitt and the zombie apocalypse? I'll be seeing that one the day it comes out...

Anyway, that just goes to show you how obsessed we are with the zombie apocalypse.

Of course, we all know, that every zombie apocalypse story is complete fiction. Because the zombie apocalypse hasn't happened. Yet. But some people have begun preparing for the zombie apocalypse, you know, just in case. They're called zombie preppers, and I am dedicating a whole other blog post just to those fine people. 

What is your favorite zombie apocalypse scenario? It can be from a book, movie, game, whatever. Leave it in the comments!

Two Sentence Tuesday: Zombie Style and The Walking Dead... no thanks to Psy

If you haven't heard the name Gangnam Style by now, you've been living in a cave.

And if you've heard the song and seen the "horsey" dance 50 million times by now, I'd say it's time to change it to something more useful. Hey, how about Zombie Style?

My two sentences today:  Live, fight or die. Live life Zombie Style.

Simply put: it's survival.

Isn't that what most zombie books are really about?

You may say you hate or have no interest in reading zombie fiction, but... ask the thousands  (millions?) watching The Walking Dead on TV and despite the horror, gore, and grotesquely fascinating zombies they have created, it's the fight for survival, that human element that keeps everyone hooked and coming back for more.

The people, the characters, that's what keeps us so fascinated, and isn't that what makes us delve into a book or movie? It's their fight for survival, their struggles, their triumphs....

That struggle, too, is what made writing GIRL Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie so much fun. I mean, it's not everyday you turn into a zombie, right? And live (un-live?) to tell about it? (Coming this summer!)

** Your take?

* Who's your favorite zombie character? Got a favorite zombie book or movie?

From film to page, and page to film, zombies and vampires...

  I'm not one to follow trends, usually. In fact, I'm usually late to the party.

Given my interest in most things paranormal and a longtime vampire fan before I was bit by the zombie bug, you'd have thought a book with the title, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter would've caught my attention.

Funny, I didn't pay much attention for some reason. Then I saw the movie trailer not long ago and thought, wow, is that intriguing!

Well, having just watched it, this may be a first where a film got me interested in a book. I loved it! The premise - that Lincoln's battles and the Civil War had a far more serious and nefarious danger behind the scenes - was entirely plausible. For me, it worked.

Lincoln as the emancipator took on a whole new role. As an author, this is the kind of thing you should look at - the layers of what could be, what might be.... and the consequences. Turning history on its ear and giving it a paranormal twist is not only fun, but can be taken in so many directions.

It gives me food for thought for a novel-novella idea I've been toying with... yes, with zombies, of course!

So this was a switch for me, where for once, I actually saw a film before I read the book. Now hoping the book is better and not too different, but looking forward to reading it.

* Anyone read this one or see the film? Reactions?

* Your thoughts on books to film.... does it ruin the read for you? Disappointed usually or like them?

Wesley - From prose to comic

Sabrina James Riley here!

My short zombie story, Wesley, is making the change from just a prose story to an AWESOME comic/graphic story.

Rachel Pandich, kick-butt comic author and coordinator, is is putting together a horror comic anthology, Skin Crawling Comics and Wesley is in!

I've read and enjoyed comics and graphic novels for a long time, but never knew how much work went into them. First of all, the story had to be converted into a 'script,' which is exactly what it sounds like. Since the author has to explain to the artist what the readers should be seeing, it ends up being just like a script. That was a learning experience for me.

My artist, Aaron Hazouri, is freaking AMAZING, and the next step in the process after rewriting my story as a script was for Aaron to create 'pencils,' the first rough-draft drawings for the comic. Here's a sample of his fantastic work, the first drawing of the main character, Wesley:

There's still a lot of work to do, but I'm so excited to be a part of this project. There are some insanely cool people involved, and I believe another zombie story or two, along with some other really scary and skin-crawling stories. I'll keep everyone updated with new picture and release dates!

Zombies and God

It’s not really hard to see how these two go hand in hand.  Once the dead start rising from the grave, some people will turn to God to save them, some will blame God for what has happened, and others will use it as proof that God doesn’t exist.  But what if God were the reason for zombies in the first place?

I’m not trying to be blasphemous or question any one’s beliefs.  This is not an attack on any religion.  It’s a simple question.  There’s a passage in the Bible, Isaiah 26, verses 19-21: “But your dead will live; their bodies will rise.  You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy.  Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.  Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by.  See, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins.  The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her; she will conceal her slain no longer.”  To me, that sounds like zombies. 

So what if God uses the undead to punish the sinners of Earth?  How do you combat that threat?  Is there anything you can do?  I found the concept so fascinating, I wrote a novella about it.  Finding Eden deals with the idea that God sends a plague of living dead to punish the people of the world.

I don’t even remember how I came across the Bible passage.  It doesn’t exactly stand out from all the other passages in the Bible, unless you’re a zombie freak like myself.  Zombies are a plague on humanity that wipes out the vast majority of the population.  Stories abound about how the survivors live in the “new” world and overcome the seemingly impossible hurdle that is zombies.  They are stories about survival and overcoming hardship.  They are stories about finding humanity.

In reality, it doesn’t matter where the zombies come from; they are just the catalyst that forces the humans in the story to react.  There is an us versus them concept to the zombie story, and it forces the humans to ask themselves what makes them human.  How are they any different than the mindless corpses walking on the planet?  If you think about it this way, it makes a lot of sense to have God send the plague onto the Earth.  After all, He granted us free will and the ability to make our own decisions in life, but do we always make the right ones?

To find out how the characters in my story reacted to the undead threat, check out Finding Eden, available here.

Fun zombie story and a chance to help wounded vets

Cover art by Frr Mallory

Zombies on skis?  That’s worth a read—and a chance to help a wounded soldier’s family.  I'm  publishing her humorous zombie novella, “Shambling in a Winter Wonderland” at http://skizombies.karinafabian.com  Neeta and Ted are zombie exterminators trying to take a vacation on the slopes of Utah, but when a ski/snowboard team comes back from the dead, they get hired to  put them back under.  There’s excitement, humor, romance, and shredding with the undead!

This is more than a fun story, however;  I am using it to raise funds for Operation Homefront, which provides emergency financial aid to wounded members of the armed forces and to their families.   The story is free, but I have a donate button on the website.  Enjoy the story and if you would like to help out, donate as little as a dollar.  For every $10 in donations she gets, I’ll post the next episode (or if she gets $500 total, she’ll post it all.)  I'm also offering books for bigger donations.  However, EVERY CENT GOES TO OPERATION HOMEFRONT.    

Tweet:  If you enjoy zombies, skiing, funny horror, or helping others, visit http://skizombies.karinafabian.com , check out the story  & donate.

Purchase links:

Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator :  http://amzn.to/hTqMGa

I Left My Brains in San Francisco: http://amzn.to/Nzm01L

Learn more about the Zombie Exterminator novels at http://zombiedeathextreme.com

Find out about all of Karina Fabian’s books at http://fabianspace.com

Sabrina's Word Wednesday #1 Zombie, what else?

Sabrina's Word Wednesday!

Every Wednesday I'll post a word or phrase that zombie fans either already know, or definitely should. There's almost an entire language of zombie-related idioms, and it keeps growing with each new game, movie, book, and comic book.

So let's start with the basics. The most important word in the entire zombie-related lexicon is.....

Ready?

Here it comes.....

ZOMBIE.

Zombie?? Where???

Told you we were starting with the basics. Anyway, what we think of zombies now are "undead" people, corpses who have been reanimated, either because of some awful virus (28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, etc) or some supernatural or magical means (Dead Before Dawn), and can sit anywhere on the spectrum of uncoordinated, lumbering, body-part dropping, green-skinned zombies to extraordinarily fast, insanely angry, and inhumanly strong zombies. 

But the word zombie actually is an evolved version of the older Haitian word zonbi and the African word nzumbe. In both languages, it was used to describe someone who was either dead and reanimated by witchcraft, or someone who was nearly comatose, answering to no one except for one master, again by witchcraft. 

In some cultures, zombies are still feared and believed to be real; witches or shaman supposedly punish the wicked by turning into zombies and making them slaves. There is even some possible evidence that certain herbs and ingredients can create a zombie-like effect on its victims.

Folklore (with possible truth to it) usually finds its way into contemporary fiction, and George Romero took the obscure idea of zombies and turned them into a household word with his 1968 movie Night of the Living Dead. Zombies were put on the silver screen and made famous in all their shuffling, moaning, brains-eating glory. Since then, zombies have become a pop-culture phenomenon, lately rivaling even vampires. Even the sparkling ones.

So, regardless of whether they are fast, slow, smart, dumb, downright vicious, or mildly pesky, the word zombie has come to encompass much more than just a voodoo'd slave. 

Luckily, no matter what the word technically means, so far it has all been fiction... So far.

Leave a comment with a book, show, movie, comic book, or game about zombies that actually has the word "zombie" in its title. There's not as many as you'd think!

Two Sentence Tuesday Zombie Style! Girl Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie 1

One of the blogs I read has a fun feature, "Two Sentence Tuesday," and since I want to begin sharing lines from my upcoming book, GIRL Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie, this seemed a perfect way to do that.

Up until the book's release sometime this summer, I plan to start sharing quotes to let you see what is coming.

So for a start, here are the first - very first - lines from the prologue in GIRL Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie by C.A. Verstraete....

A virus. A freaking virus.

I'd been sick before, you know, measles, mumps—kid stuff—but not really sick.

Never like this.

*  Love to hear your feedback - and share your favorite two lines from a favorite book or your own work.

Zombie Reading Challenge 2013 at BookChickCity

For this first Monday post, I'm sure my fellow Z girls will want to join me in the 2013 Zombie Reading Challenge over at BookChickCity.

I joined last year, and was amazed at the number of zombie books out there! It's like a Z horde that keeps coming and coming and coming...

As I was writing my own zombie book, GIRL Z: MY Life as a Teenage Zombie, I didn't start reading any Z books until I was finished and began shopping the book early last year. I didn't want to get "tainted" by anyone else's ideas. But once I began reading--wow! I now have 55  books listed on my  Zombie shelf at Goodreads - and I've barely scratched the surface, nor read most of them. And I keep adding more...

Two (of the many) I enjoyed so far were:

The book that blew me away? I loved the textures in DEAD OF NIGHT by Jonathan Maberry.

Also enjoyable, with a unique Western twist and different take on zombie infection, was WANTED: DEAD OR UNDEAD by Angela Scott.

** Got any of your own favorite zombie reads? Please share!

Meet the Girl Zombie Authors!

Meet the Girl Zombie Authors:

Thought we'd kick out the new blog with a little intro about us. Be sure to check out our pages and come back for all kinds of zombie and horror fun! Yes, fun... heh-heh-heh! We'll be talking books, movies, and whatever strikes our collective fancies, so stay tuned...

I'm Chris Verstraete, author of the upcoming YA novel, GIRL Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie (coming in 2013 from Intrigue Publishing), and a recent zombie convert.

     

Well, maybe not that recent.... I've been a big horror fan all my life. I mean, what can be better than a good scare, right? I came onto the zombie fiction writing scene a few years ago, though I'd seen some movies before that (good and mostly bad.) But like everyone else, I saw The Walking Dead and was hooked, even if some of the creatures are well, okay. admit it--kind of gross. But it's the story that hooks you.

  I've done some short horror and played with a touch of humor in a previous zombie-related short story, THE KILLER VALENTINE BALL. But thinking about a new twist on zombies led me to  ponder, what if a  young girl is scratched, but only partly transforms? What would happen? And given my penchant for odd humor, I had to make it funny (humor being subjective, of course.) Hence, GIRL Z was born... can't wait to see what you think!
         ** See website for synopsis, ebooks and short book trailer.



Meet co-blogger Karina Fabian: 

I'm Karina Fabian, and I write mostly fantasy and science fiction, though I have delved into horror and written a devotional.  I've got eclectic interests, and invite you to check out my website, http://fabianspace.com, pick a genre and explore.  Many of my stories are humorous and satirical, so when Kim Richards of Damnation Books asked for some zombie stories, that's the angle I took.


The Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator stories are as much an irreverent look at our near future as they are about zombies.  In them, we've managed the zombie contagion, making them less an apocalypse and more a pest control issue.  Neeta Lyffe is an exterminator in California with an unusual specialization--zombies.  With chainsaws, laser swords, napalm grenades and cleaning chemicals, she'll handle your undead issues.  Now, if only she was as good handling her living issues!  You can learn more at http://zombiedeathextreme.com.



Meet co-blogger Pembroke Sinclair:

 I'm Pembroke Sinclair and when I first started writing, my goal was to be classified as a sci fi/fantasy writer.  But as I honed my skills and found my writing style, I found that I enjoyed writing in several different genres.  Now, I write an eclectic mix of fiction ranging from Westerns to horror to sci fi to fantasy.

The first story I had published was based on one of my spouse's guiding adventures.  After that, things just fell into place.  I've had several short stories published in several different places, and I have two novels, with a third on they way, and I recently signed a contract for my fourth.  One of my short stories, Sohei, was even voted as a "Best of 2008" story by the Cynic Online. 

I've written several books including, LIFE AFTER THE UNDEAD and DEATH TO THE UNDEAD. 

* See details at my blog. * Check out the LIFE AFTER THE UNDEAD book trailer.


Meet co-blogger Sabrina James Riley:

I am Sabrina James Riley; Mother, horrible cook, worse athlete, English freak, lover of sushi, and author. My first novel was The Loki Variation, a story about a different kind of zombie outbreak, and how people who start off as strangers become as close as a family in order to make it.

My short zombie story, Wesley, is a pretty rare perspective on the change from human to zombie, and the cycle that starts an epidemic, with maybe a hint of humor. It's being featured in the highly-anticipated horror comic anthology, Skin Crawling Comics, coordinated by Rachel Pandich.

I have a fascination with zombies, and while I like the classic, slow-moving Romero zombies, I love the fast, rage-filled, superhuman 28 Days Later zombies. I live in Florida with my zombie-loving husband, my two daughters, and a few too many pets.