Hi this is George Cook and I would like to introduce my latest short story, Alone with the Dead.
This story ask a very simple question. Could you keep a promise to a loved one even if it involved killing them. Could you keep that promise whether they were alive or dead?
Here's an excerpt from the very beginning of Alone with the Dead:
John’s hands shook violently as he sat alone in the corner of the dark room. He tried to stop them. He tried to wipe of the blood on them with his shirt. It just wouldn’t seem to go away no matter how hard he wiped.
He mumbled constantly to himself as tears poured from his eyes. He had told his family that it would be alright. He had told them that they could make it across the street to the car if they all stayed together and moved quickly.
He was wrong.
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When it comes to many horror and science fiction movies and or stories there's always that moment when someone no matter how intelligent does something incredibly stupid. They do something that normally unleashes death and mayhem when if they had only listened to someone's warning everyone would have went home safely that night. But of course then there would be no story or movie. What do you think is the most ignored horror / sci fi movie / story warning?
Marc Siwak is betting big on zombies – and he thinks he knows how to monetize the undead, too.
Mr. Siwak is an entrepreneur in Detroit with, well, a crazy-sounding idea. His company, Z World Detroit LLC. – a “broad-based effort composed of like-minded, creative professionals” – is raising funds to transform one of Detroit’s many abandoned neighbourhoods into a zombie theme park, emulating the doomsday scenarios depicted in various video games and movies on a massive, real-life scale.
To say the plan is ambitious is something of an understatement, and there’s bound to be no shortage of political red tape – but you can read Mr. Siwak’s plan in full, and even donate to the group’s $145,000 goal on Z World Detroit’s Indiegogo page here.
TDWS: Tell us a little about you. Hobbies, schooling, favorite teams , etc.
Ian Woodhead: I’m not sure I have a hobby anymore. For the past two years, all I’ve been thinking about is writing. Not much else gets a look in. Well, okay, some stuff does get kinda lodged in the old noggin. Take the new Prometheus, for example, I’m so looking forward to seeing that one. Oh yeah, I am a major sci-fi geek – and proud.
TDWS: What inspired you to become a writer?
Ian Woodhead: Inspired? I’m not too sure you could call it that. Twenty-four years ago, I got the absolute shit kicked and punched out of me on my way home. I woke up in hospital two weeks later and suddenly I found myself listening to metal and reading horror books. For two years, I read every horror book I could find! It only seemed to be a natural progression to ‘have a go’ Well, I had a go, found that I couldn’t write for toffee and promptly forgot about the whole Endeavour. Twenty years later, I tried again and something inside just clicked. Now, I can’t stop.
TDWS: Why write a zombie book?
Ian Woodhead: Oh, that’s an easy one to answer! Dawn of the Dead was the ONLY horror movie that terrified me. Okay, I did see this on the big screen bit in 1980 when I was only 11 but that’s beside the point. Or maybe it is? Do you remember what the horror movies were like, back in the days of old? You know, before we were all anaesthetized with seamless CGI?
I mean, the effects in the original movie were, at the time, just incredible. There were two scenes that will always stick in the mind there’s…. Oh wait! Let me just paint you the picture first.
Okay, here we go. Now over here, in England, we have these semi-private clubs called Working Men’s Clubs. There’s not that many of them around anymore but back when I was a kid, It’s where you went after weddings, funerals, you had birthday parties there, went to play bingo, go see stand up, local bands, hell, you name it.
They also played movies.
Looking back, I’m not entirely sure they were licensed or anything.
So, anyway. The week before my mum and dad took us in and we sat down and all enjoyed Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Or course, I wanted to go the next week, I was 11, we had no million TV channels or Facebook back then. Well, my parents couldn’t take me but the neighbours did.
So, there I was drinking my coke and the movie started. It all seemed a bit confusing until I watched this zombie rip out a piece of human neck! I was like OMG! Is this for real? (I didn’t say OMG, think of an 80’s equivalent without swear words.)
Well, I not sure how I was able to stay and watch the movie, I’m guessing the neighbours were too engrossed to move.
So, yeah, the first and only horror movie to scare the shit out of me. It obviously left a lasting impression.
TDWS: What is the title of your most current book and what is it about?
Ian Woodhead: You mean, what am I working on? Er, let’s see. There’s Duplicity and Rags and Bones and Chemical Flowers and Human Filth.
As this is a zombie interview, I’ll skip straight to Human Filth. This is part four of my ZA series. Unlike the other three that all were set at the same time, involving different characters for each book, this one is set exactly one year later. We’ll meat up with the survivors from the first three stories and found out what has happened to them after twelve months.
TDWS: Would you put your book more in the action, comedy, or horror category? Is there another category you would add?
Ian Woodhead: Horror.
TDWS: What sets your book apart from the thousands of zombie books out there?
Ian Woodhead: The protagonist in the Unwashed Dead is a burglar, living on a working class estate in the north of England. He’s no hero, never fired a shotgun and certainly has no idea how to cope when the outbreak sweeps through his neighbourhood. He’s deeply flawed, indecisive, makes mistakes, he’s not exactly your typical hero. I think that typifies most of the folk that appear in my stories.
TDWS: What if anything do you want the reader to take from your book?
Ian Woodhead: I would like the readers to enjoy my stories and hope that they enjoy them enough to continue reading them.
The Hong Kong rioters rose to feed on the soldiers that shot them, and from there it spread. The dead marched across Asia, Europe, and Africa while the populations of the uninfected continents watched on TV and prayed the hungry horde couldn't walk across the bottom of the ocean.
Like everyone else, Omar thought about what he would do if the dead came ashore.
When the undying hell that felled three continents finally reaches the California coast, Omar finds that if he wants to be a survivor like he planned, first he has to embrace the horror that remains standing after what's human dies.
