by Jay Wilburn
*Jay scrambled up onto the pirate ship with the help of the crew. He looked back down into the water at the faces of the dead staring back at him from below the surface. He turned to the crew and wasn’t sure he was in a better place with all of them.*
Jay Wilburn: I’m looking for … Javan … Javan Bonds?
*Javan stepped out of the captain’s cabin and put on his sunglasses.*
Javan Bonds: Hope you didn’t have trouble finding us. We try not to stay in one place for too long.
Wilburn: It was fine, I guess. Tell me your latest book.
Bonds: Still Alive Book 5: Zombie River Run
Wilburn: Describe it to me.
Bonds: Mo Collins, Smokes, and the rest of the main protagonists set sail on the replica pirate ship called the Viva Ancora on rumors of a supposed cure for the zombie pandemic. Meanwhile back at the safe haven of Guntersville Island, things are turning out to be not so safe. Children are mysteriously disappearing.
Wilburn: Tell me more about Mo.
Bonds: Elmo “Mo” Collins has been cast as The Hero in what is turning out to be a real life twisted screenplay. A self-proclaimed jack of no trades, he has spent his entire life wandering from one from unsuccessful relationship to dead-end job to shitty car to the next. Finding employment on a replica pirate ship, the Caravel is docked in a man-made, inland lake just a few miles from his hometown when a zombie/infectious outbreak began. He soon comes across another survivor, Smokes, who has some type of supernatural connection to an unseen entity called “The Screenwriter” which tells him his role and of all the other characters he will undoubtedly meet. The Expert, The Old Friend, The Tech, and The Love Interest are just a few of the other main protagonists he must run into throughout his journeys.
Wilburn: How did you come by the crazies that serve as the zombies in your stories?
Bonds: When I first decided to write about zombies, I knew I had to do something original. Classical reanimated corpses just weren’t an option for me. My peevies are living infected. Blue skinned yellow-eyed, naked crazies that shit constantly. One bite equals instantaneous infection, meaning the zombies no longer find the flesh of a bitten person appetizing. Think WWZ x Shaun of the Dead divided by the square root of Zombieland = Still Alive.
Though it is not written out as a screenplay, the main character realizes things are unfolding as if life is a movie. Events occur because that is the way they are scripted. Whoever is writing or directing this feature film is pretty sick and twisted. Both humans and peevies are killed in the most creative and sadistic ways.
Wilburn: Who were your influences among zombie fiction writers?
Bonds: The main inspiration for my entire series is Mark Tufo. When I read Zombie Fallout, I knew I had to write my own zombie story just as comical, violent, profane, and easy to read.
As for my peevies, the fact that I used living infected rather than true undead, has to be credited to authors like Bobby Adair and John O’Brien.
You can see in reading my books, my action is influenced by people like Shawn Chesser. Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse completely changed the way I write.
Wilburn: How does Zombie River Run impact the series?
Bonds: Zombie River Run follows the crew of the Viva Ancora as they snake down the American river ways to eventually reach the ocean where they intend to find a cure. They come across several locks and dams on the river, plus the occasional antagonist. Simultaneously, the story of the remaining protagonists on the island unfolds.
As in any story it develops the characters personalities and relationships with each other and the new zombified world they now live in. No one really like to think their lives are prewritten screen plays that they have no choice in who lives or who dies, but isn’t that really how life works anyway?
Wilburn: What are your thoughts on the state of the zombie genre past, present, and future?
Bonds: I like that many authors are now are writing in modern English. I hate reading a book that I can barely understand. I also like how especially zombie authors are able to see and accentuate the comedy and irony of situations.
I am not a zombie purist and enjoy zombies that are not the classical Romero shamblers. Of course, I enjoy traditional zombie stories. I just don’t like being told my stuff should not be considered zompoc because my infected are not truly undead.
Romero is king, but post 28 Days zombies added a great new feel and fear to the fast moving infected/dead.
Shows like The Walking Dead are popular and the traditional zombies of the 1980s aren’t going out of style. Classical reanimated corpses will always have a place in zombie canon, but a new wave is definitely coming. I would like to think I’m part of the new wave.
Wilburn: What do you hope readers get from your work?
Bonds: Enjoyment. I want people to laugh and cringe as much as I do when I read my own stuff over again. If it doesn’t make you laugh out loud then I feel like a failure.
Wilburn: Sounds great. Everyone, check out Zombie River Run or begin Still Alive with book 1 now.
Bonds: Who are you talking to?
Wilburn: The rest of your crew?
Bonds: They already know about my books.
Wilburn: Right. Sure. Okay.
*Jay jumped off the ship and swam for shore.*
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