by Jay Wilburn
Alathia Morgan is not new to writing, but she has only recently tried her hand at the zombie genre. The Summer and Winter of Zombie tours work hard to balance our veteran writers and classic zombie interpretations with new voices to the genre and unusual takes on the trope. Morgan falls more to that new and different side of the spectrum.
Before she released Infected Waters, she had not tackled anything in the paranormal category before. Morgan had released some mystery stories that fell more into the cozy category. This might make her an unusual candidate for a zombie tour, but it also gives her a different perspective and a different approach to zombies for readers. There are a lot of interesting layers to her alternate history Titanic story with zombies. It was enough that I decided to bring her and the book on to feature on this year’s tour.
In many cases, she drew inspiration from cinema or it was the movie versions that started the ball rolling on ideas and additional research. She had done research on the Titanic and loved the movie before the idea of doing the “with zombies” version started to formulate for her. She strove to keep the story within certain parameters so it would work for a wider and a younger audience. It still has depth and social commentary to it that is consistent and appropriate for the historic setting. The zombie action is enough to keep hardcore zombie fans satisfied as well, I think.
She is not normally a big fan of gore on TV, but The Walking Dead television series drew her toward thinking about zombies as an author. She eventually started to connect with authors of zombie fiction online and became a part of many of the popular fan groups that include authors and readers. Jessica Gomez and her work caught Morgan’s attention as well. As it so happens, Morgan is considering an idea for a mother and baby story in the zombie apocalypse which may have echoes of some of the themes fans of Gomez’s work recognize and enjoy. Morgan’s personal reading of other zombie fiction from the genre began with Gomez’s series and then about six months ago expanded with works she picked up including some from the Summer of Zombie tour.
Her love of paranormal stories in general is growing. She is currently working on another mystery. The zombie story mentioned above will be coming soon after.
I hope I have made the case for Alathia Morgan. Pick up her story Infected Waters: A Titanic Disaster and also check out her mysteries for more from this author. Look for more apocalyptic work coming from her soon.
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