by Armand Rosamilia
I was struggling for an idea for this post because it feels, to me, like I’ve had to write about a million guests posts over the last five or six years about zombies. Sure, the Winter of Zombie and Summer of Zombie blog tours need updated posts each year. Then add in my own blog and anytime I have a new release I want to add something new, fresh and exciting to the mix.
Except… I don’t want to write something new. I want to copy and paste what I’ve said a million times. I want to cheat and hand in my homework assignment and bad grade be damned!
Then it hit me… the fact I’m even thinking about all of this, about zombies and blog tours, is amazing. Truly incredible.
Remember when they told us zombies were a passing fad and as writers we’d better find the next monster to write about? Didn’t we either all miss the boat on vampires or write them to death (pun kinda intended) or start that epic werewolf book to get ahead of the next trend?
Yet, here we still are. Not to brag but I don’t see a yearly werewolf blog tour unless I missed it. We’ve been doing this zombie stuff for five years now. Five. That’s a really long time in publishing. And each year it grows and grows.
And we’re still writing and selling zombie stories.
And readers are still buying and even reading zombie stories.
We could talk about how screwed up our society and political landscape is right now. Maybe it’s a valid reason for why people, living in fear of a bleak future, lose themselves in fiction where the end of the world comes not because of our next President or a World War III scenario but because of zombies.
Maybe it’s because zombies aren’t a real threat or one that has ever occurred. It’s safe to dream of a zombie apocalypse, knowing it will never happen. Well, 99.99% chance it won’t happen in our lifetime. I feel bad for my grandkids, though.
It might be because zombies are whatever we want them to be. If I want them to signify an ex-girlfriend or a horrible co-worker, I can. Zombies become whatever I fear and/or hate in the world. They become the focus on what is wrong with my life.
Or maybe they’re just really cool to read and watch in movies. It’s really up to the reader, which is why they still have (rotting) legs to stand on and why their demise is still on the horizon but likely not getting close anytime soon.
Zombies offer the distraction we all need right now.
They’re also not going anywhere soon. I know the naysayers will whine and complain they’re sick of zombie fiction. Sick of the same old arguments about fast vs. slow zombies. Sick of anything zombies related. How it’s cool to say you stopped watching The Walking Dead. How it’s finally going to be over… blah blah blah.
It ain’t over til it’s over. Or when the fat zombie sings.
You could argue the vampire craze ended awhile ago, right? Sparkly vamps wanting to go to high school instead of drinking virginal blood was all the rage. Now… not so much.
And yet we still have plenty of vampire fiction to choose from, even if most writers are going out of their way to make sure their vampires won’t sparkle even if they’re handing dollar bills to a stripper.
Will it ever stop? Yo. I don’t know.
I hope not because I still have plenty of zombie goodness to write about and read about. I’m not done yet and based on these tours, which get bigger each year, I think the fly by night zombie fan has started to leave the building while the real, rabid fans are still looking forward to the next great zombie series.
Hopefully you’ll find it on this tour.
Dying Days 7 is the latest release in the extreme zombie series by Armand Rosamilia.
or begin the series now with the first Dying Days.
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