Welcome to part of the
Summer of Zombies Blog Tour on Facebook featuring nine zombie authors. (No they're not zombies, but they write about zombies.)
Today we welcome
Julianne Snow, author of
Days with the Undead: Book One who is letting
her character Julie do the talking today.
About
DAYS WITH THE UNDEAD: Book One:
It’s a journal of survival.
Five people set out to escape the Undead
who have risen too close to home. Join their emotional and physical struggle 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.
* Get the book at Smashwords -
Amazon: Canada, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Brazil
** Be sure to comment here on the blog to win 1 of several copies of Days of the Undead: Book One. **
Here's Julie from Days with the Undead:
What
do you want from life?
I just want to survive. It’s simple really. Right
now we’re on the move, trying to stay ahead of the Undead. It would be nice for
things to return to some sort of normalcy, but we all know that what we’re
dreaming is a pipe dream. Instead we’re faced with days upon days of struggle
and that’s only if we don’t succumb to the hordes that surround us daily.
If
you were granted three wishes, what would you ask for?
A world without the Undead, a hot shower, and a
soft, warm bed.
What
three things would you take to a Desert Island?
Unfortunately, not even the islands are safe… I’d
want my handgun, an endless supply of ammo and a crowbar for when close
quarters negate the use of a gun.
How
do you fall in love? At first sight? Over a long period?
I feel in love with my husband at first sight.
He’s dead now, however. At some point I may think about love again, but for the
moment, my energy is directed at helping my group to survive.
How
do you decide if you can trust someone? Experience with others? With this
person? First impressions? Intuition? Do you test the person somehow? Or are
you just generally disposed to trust or not to trust?
By their actions. If they act in good faith in
the situation where you first meet them, you can pretty much rest assured that
they are someone to that can be trusted. It does take only a single moment of
stupidity or shiftiness to initiate a sliver of doubt in my mind. We don’t live
in a world where you can make mistakes or carry dead-weight.
When
you walk into a room, what do you notice first? Second?
The first thing I look for is the presence of any
of the Undead. Once I’ve ascertained there are none of them inside, I look for
all points of egress and ingress. It’s best to know where they may come at you
from and where there’s an exit should you need to escape.
When
you walk into a room, what do you expect people to notice about you?
That I’m a no bullshit kind of woman with a plan
and the means to get it done. It’s fairly simple; I have a scientific
background and I’ll use that when I can to get me from one day to the next.
Describe
yourself to me.
Even though I’m a strong woman, I still see
myself as an unlikely role model for others. I have been thrust into a position
of authority through necessity and at times, it can certainly seem like it gets
to me. I’m human just like everyone else and I have my weak moments. My
scientific background helps me to survive, but even that can only get my so
far. I need to rely on all of my strengths and work on counteracting my
weaknesses – it’s the only way.
What's
the worst thing you've ever done? Why?
I killed what was left of my husband’s body.
Enough said.
What are you most afraid of?
Becoming one of
them…
How do you feel about your life right
now? What, if anything, would you like to change?
Right now, life
sucks and it’s glorious. I’m still alive and that cannot be taken for granted,
but I exist in a world that is hard to live in. If I could change anything, it
would be to go back to the moment when it all started and end it shortly after
it began. It would have been simple to end it all back then…
What makes you laugh out loud?
At the moment, it’s
the pure joy that Lily and Liam exude. Even in a world full of the Undead,
these two still find ways to be children and they never let a moment pass where
being a kid again is a possibility. It’s as beautiful as it is heartbreaking.
What do you consider your greatest
achievement?
Honestly, at this
point it’s the fact that I’m still alive…
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Perfect happiness
doesn’t exist. As a realist, I would only hope that the world can stop existing
and start living again. That and a world without the Undead.
What is your current state of mind?
I won’t lie to you
– I’m frazzled, confused, diligent, resolved, and tired.
What is your greatest fear?
My greatest fear is
that we’ll never rid the world of the dangers of the Undead. We have no idea
what has caused the situation, so we really cannot even fight our foe
intelligently. All we can do is continue to fight the symptom and hope that we
can eradicate the cause in the long-run.
What do you most value in your friends?
The ability to use
a firearm. The ability to assess situations and act accordingly. The fact that
they always have my back. Their mere presence is something that I value as I
have no desire to navigate this world on my own.
Which words or phrases do you most
overuse?
Probably the word
Undead, but I just cannot bring myself to call them the ‘Z’ word…
If you could change one thing about
yourself, what would it be?
My physical
strength. While I am strong, I would love to be stronger. As it stands, each
and every time I have to take down one of the Undead with pure brute strength,
I find myself tired after each blow. That tiredness scares me. It worries me
that at some point, in a situation not stacked in my favour that I will lose
the strength in my arms and be unable to continue. That’s a scary, sobering
thought.
Which living person do you most despise?
I don’t think I
despise anyone living. There have been a few people we’ve come across that I
wouldn’t hesitate in killing should the opportunity arise, but that is born out
of a need for retribution. If you hurt one of the people I love, I won’t
hesitate in hurting you back. It may seem callous and cold-hearted but this
world has a way of changing you. I’d gladly give the shirt off my back to a
person who needed it and who was willing to help themselves survive, but when
you think that taking what isn’t yours is the correct path, my generosity
begins to run thin.
What is your biggest regret?
With the world the
way that it is, that’s a very hard question to answer. I have felt regret for a
few stupid things in the past – the perm I let my mother give me in ninth grade
the day before picture day, kissing Charlie Stoles on a dare, and not taking
enough study breaks in university in order to have fun. But those things pale
as time goes on, especially now.
I would like to add
that I wish I had been able to go to my parents and make them leave when all of
this occurred. Just to know they’re safe would mean the world to me at this
point.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of
misery?
The lowest depth?
You can easily see it on the faces of those locked in batter with the Undead.
Sometimes the bodies you’re so intent on killing wear the faces of those you
once loved, still love. To know that you cannot save them makes a part of you
die each time you have to deliver the second death to them.
What is the trait you most deplore in
yourself?
My own insular
thoughts. Being able to deal with a lot on your own can certainly he helpful in
certain stressful situations, but there are times when you need to get what
you’ve seen out of your head in order to be able to move on. I have a hard time
letting go of the things I have seen.
How would you like to die?
In my sleep. Just
to fade away into the darkness of nothing. To not know my death was coming and
that it wouldn’t be painful. To have my last thought be a dream (hopefully not
a nightmare) and not the panicked thought of becoming one of them.
If you were to die and come back as a
person or thing, what do you think it would be?
It certainly
wouldn’t be one of the Undead. Altruistically, I’d like to say that I would
love to come back as the cure for what has allowed the dead to rise again, but
it’s not likely that will ever happen. If time were not a factor, I would love
to come back in a time before the Undead, to have lived my life fully and free
from their threat.
About author Julianne Snow:
Watching Romero's Night of the
Living Dead at the tender age of six solidified Julianne’s respect for
the Undead. She's since 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. Along with many zombie shorts published on her
blog, she has a story in Women of the
Living Dead as well as two zombie pieces; a standalone short and a
collection releasing the summer of 2013. Julianne’s second novel in her Days with the Undead series will also be
released in 2013. Stay tuned!
What is their story, you wonder?
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