Containing the Zombie Outbreak

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Most zombie movies and books nowadays assume the zombie outbreak will happen so fast, we won't really have time to adapt and will thus be relegated to a defensive role of the double-tap and decap. (As if Joe Public could decapitate someone with one fell swoop of the sword.)  However, never in the history of Man have we had a contagion that moved that moved so suddenly. Even the Black Death, which was spread by fleas, didn't spread as quickly or thoroughly as did Zombieism in World War Z  (World War Flea, anyone?)  In fact, Cracked Magazine recently posted an article on the scientific reasons why a zombie apocalypse would fail--and quickly, too.  (I've loved Cracked since I was a kid, and now find they are both funny and the bastion of common sense.)

So what would happen if zombieism did follow a more realistic disease vector, even taking into account the propensity of the sick to die, rise quickly, and go out for a bite or twelve?  I approached Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator with this assumption.  Health organizations and governments across the world galvanized into action, not just with police and military skilled at shooting for hte head, but also procedures for identifying and avoiding zombies, reporting them, protecting yourself against them, etc.  I think, though, the singlemost effective procedure put in place was mandatory spinal severing upon death of anyone.  Essentially, decapitation, but subtle enough that Aunt Eadie doesn't faint at the sight of Uncle Gordon's head sitting half an inch off his body.

If you were in charge during the zombie outbreak and could take preventative measures, what would you do?

Top Ten Reasons to Write About Zombies

(In no particular order, from the home office of Karina Fabian, author of Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator)

10.  They're the next big trend!  Forget your sparkly vampires--maggoty zombies are the hot literary trope in the fantasy horror world!

…okay, this is really a lame reason to write about them.  Write what you enjoy and what's in your heart--make the trend; don't follow it.  However, this is the first time I actually was part of the current, and it's a new experience for me.  

9.  Need to incorporate all five senses?  Zombie stench makes that easy!

8. There's so much uncharted territory.  Let's face it--if you have to add glitter to your vampires to make them new, the genre's been done.  Zombies are still wide open.  Really--see the guts?

7. No more pressure to put in that sex scene to bump ratings 

6.  You can abuse them freely.  They're dead.  You can whack off their heads without remorse.  Or, if you choose to go for the legs and leave them crawling and groaning "flesh wound!" it's funny. Bonus--the ASPCA doesn't care about them!

5.  Body humor!  No one can lend you a hand with that better than a zombie!  (From Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator:  "He moved in to cover her while she checked out some zombie spoor: dried skin, a rotting finger, what looked like part of a nose.  Must have been some sneeze. ")

4.  Easy to write dialogue for. 

3.  What a literary device.  In Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator, I use zombies as a foil to attack some of the finer aspects of society--conspiracy theorist, radical ecologists, activists, etc.  It was a lot of fun to point at these groups with a rotting finger.

2.  When you've explored all aspects of life, what's left?  Oh, wait!

1.  To prove you have the braaaiiiins for it!

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

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