by Jay Wilburn
MV Clark is new to zombie fiction as an author, but her first published novel, The Splits: Personal Histories of Scott-Lapidot Disease from the Splits Archive, does not read like someone new to the craft. Her diverse background which included journalism made her uniquely qualified to knock out this novel in a huge way. Not only is The Splits well written and interesting, it covers an expansive narration which includes 40 years of time and six different narrators. It unfolds an intertwined and complex plague which utilizes both zombies and ghosts in great ways. A lot of authors could find many ways to go off track with something this epic, but Clark captured me and held my undead attention for the full 40 year journey with both sides of her undead split apocalypse. She does an excellent job of creating an “outbreak” which is beautifully hazy and non-linear. The causes and effects aren’t always spelled out plainly, but she carries this style of storytelling so well.
She is in the process of putting together the second book in this series which will deliver a tighter story in timeframe, setting, and scope. I asked her about this shift between book 1 and the forthcoming book 2. The story that came to her for the second book was just so different from the first story, which was all about people growing up and discovering themselves amidst this creepy plague. The second book is about one life-changing event for two people – a prostitute and her client, who have to fight off a zombie horde – and it’s all going to take place in 24 hours.
Her series will be much like “paraquels” where she explores sideways in the massive world she laid out so well in The Splits. Clark admits she may have left herself with no other option, given that the first book covered such a long period of time. Also, there were so many stories spinning off in her mind during the writing of the first book that she just couldn’t put in the first book, so she thought then she might turn them into “paraquels.” Having said that, the latest book is going to be set in 2016 in The Splits universe timeline, so it will actually follow on chronologically. It won’t have the same characters, however, a few will make an appearance, but on the whole it’s new characters and completely new material. I can’t wait to revisit this universe.
I’m always interested when I come across a newly published author who uses the craft well. I want to know what motivated her or him to finally take the plunge into publishing. Clark told me she wrote a lot as a child and a teenager, loved ghost stories and horror, but, in her words, stupidly never thought of writing it. She gave up creative writing for a long time to work in journalism during which time she got even more into horror as a fan. Then, she decided she’d had enough of journalism and wanted to do something else. Her husband suggested she write a novel. Then, one day, and this is where the story gets interesting to me as a creative type, her 6 year old son was muttering to himself about zombies and said, “What if every zombie had a ghost?” She wasn’t even listening at the time, but her husband was and he said, “What a great idea for a book …” And then he turned to her. It was a wonderful turning point in her life. She decided to write creatively again, for the first time in 20 years, and she decided to write horror. It felt fucking great to be writing horror, she said. She was finally being her true self.
Clark admits, zombies were never officially her favorite horror trope, although she was into them. But then her son sparked this idea. Since then, she’s come to love zombies enormously. They’re so flexible, in her opinion, you can do so much with them. The Splits zombie plague that she’s invented is still mysterious to the characters in the book – no one quite understands it. It’s still a bit mysterious to her as the writer, in fact, she told me. It’s a physical illness, but also a metaphysical malaise. She sees the process of working out what the disease is as the writer, and telling more stories, as complementary processes. This is not to say that she wouldn’t write something totally different. I asked her what else might be stirring in her mind apart from The Splits and she said, she has a few ideas. She’d really like to get some short stories out there at some point too. I asked her for some previews, but all she’d tell me was they would be horror. That’ll have to do for now and I’ll wait with anticipation for everything MV Clark produces over what is sure to be an interesting career.
I hope I have made the case for MV Clark. Check out The Splits right now.
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