by Armand Rosamilia
If you’ve ever read one of my Dying Days books, first off… thank you! I appreciate the support. You are awesome. Someday when we meet you deserve a hug. Maybe not from me but from someone else in the room.
I’ve often been either called out for or loved because of the extreme zombies in my Dying Days world. They’re not for everyone. I’ll be the first to say it. Quite a few readers were turned off, especially in the beginning, because they hadn’t experienced just how extreme they were. My tagline from the beginning was: these zombies don’t just want to bite you, they want to sexually violate you.
My mother was not happy when I told her about Dying Days. She still isn’t and has no desire to read any of the books. Again… I don’t blame her.
I guess I’m lucky in the fact that some readers could accept the terror of zombies wanting to do these things to people and the fact there are some readers who really get into weird stuff like this. Not judging. But I don’t want to be trapped in an elevator with you, either.
Most readers got past the extreme parts, especially since I was very careful not to be graphic if possible.
Yeah, there was the whale carcass thing…
Anyhoo, switching gears to write a YA story set in this world was a challenge. To be brutally honest, I didn’t want to do it, either.
I liked the thought of readers never knowing when/if I’d go over the top and present a really horrific scene for them to get grossed out by.
I have some awesome readers, though. They’ve been with me since the very beginning of the series when Highway To Hell was released.
They wanted more set in this world.
Especially Kevin Baker.
He’s a reader I’ve been lucky enough to meet in person. When Change Jar Books was still part of Flagler Beach, he’d go in and buy some books and was a big fan of mine. He’s a school teacher and would buy copies of my books and give them as rewards to students who pulled their grades up. How cool is that?
Kevin even hooked me up with going to the high school he was teaching at then and talking to a room filled with writers who wanted to hear some stories from me.
One thing Kevin kept hounding me about: writing a zombie story his daughter could read. Something for the kids, by golly!
The stars aligned and I was asked to write a short story for the Bite-Sized Offerings zombie anthology to benefit Emalee and Mason, two very cool kids with Down Syndrome.
I wrote them into the Dying Days world.
Which then led to a lot of readers giving me positive feedback on the short story and wanting to read what happens next, the biggest compliment you can give a writer. Besides handing them money and/or M&M’s.
I really hope this is the book Kevin was waiting for me to write. I know it surprised me and I’m so glad I wrote it because the challenge was looking at Dying Days and my main world I’ve written in for ten years in a new light. A new angle to the story.
Armand Rosamilia
Dying Days: Family Ties – A Zombie YA Novella (on pre-order until June 12th)
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