It all started on a trip to World Fantasy Con in San
Francisco, where I got the splendid idea to set my next Zombie Exterminator
novel there. I had a bunch of great
ideas of zombie vignettes at different tourist sites, but no overarching evil
zombie plot to make a novel out of.
Later that week, my brother-in-law, who worked for Chevron in Richmond,
suggested the refinery would make a great location for a zombie attack.
I started the book, I Left My Brains in San Francisco. It had it all—romance, intrigue,
environmentalism…Zombies! All I needed
was to plot the attack on the refinery.
However, suddenly, my brother-in-law took a trip to Kansas (or so they said). Months of not returning my phone calls—had
someone silenced him?
My book in peril, I nonetheless made the journey to
WorldCon-Renovations, where I met the mysterious Figment. Figment had knowledge of chemical plants and emergency procedures, and was only
too glad to share it just for the fun of planning a zombie attack. Like Deep Throat, Figment shall remain
anonymous, possibly until after my or his/her/its death.
Thus armed, I returned home to write—but visualizing the
locale stalled me. My brother-in-law,
meanwhile had been promoted (or had he?) and moved to Los Angeles, so I
sought a local source for some information about refinery set-up and
logistics. Greg Hardy, manager of State
Government Affairs, Rocky Mountain Region, of Chevron, spent a wonderful and
informative hour or so with me on the phone giving me ideas on layout and
operations…which I totally reworked to fit my refinery. Naturally, I also tossed in some clichés of
every cop show that ever had a fight in a refinery—it’s that kind of book.
The final attack on the refinery is awesome
fun—but I just know, if zombies ever do rise up and attack Richmond, Homeland
Security will come knocking on my door.
Purchase links:
Neeta Lyffe,
Zombie Exterminator : http://amzn.to/hTqMGa
Find out about all of Karina Fabian’s books at http://fabianspace.com
I'm happy you're making progress on your book, Karina, but should I be concerned that when someone asks oil company officials for ideas about how to an attack a refinery, the officials oblige?
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