by Jay Wilburn
*Jay ran over the top of the car and back onto the street. He took a sip from his hydration pack which was getting light. Still, his legs were getting heavy and tired. He crossed another intersection, but paused at the sound on gunshots. Bullets rang off the street at his feet instead of into the heads of the zombies behind him. The gangs drove out in their armored vehicles and resumed firing. Jay dodged up another street and continued running. Someone grabbed him and pulled him into a concrete drainage ditch below a low bridge.*
RJ Spears: Stay still and quiet.
*The gangs roared over the bridge and on past them. Jay took a deep breath, but then the dead poured over the side of the bridge next to them. Both men ran along the ditch away from dead behind them.*
Spears: Do you need me to hide you until I can lead them away?
Jay Wilburn: No, I run. I can keep going.
Spears: You don’t run very fast.
Wilburn: Hey, watch it. I just need to run faster than they walk.
Spears: Okay. Do you still want to do the interview? Can you keep your breath and run too.
Wilburn: I’m fine. Just fine! Tell what your latest release is.
Spears: The Living and the Dead: Books of the Dead 5
Wilburn: Tell me about it. *gasp*
Spears: Zombies. Ruthless gang leaders. Desperate decisions. These are just a few of things that Joel Hendricks and his fellow refugees from the zombie outbreak must face down if they have any chance to survive and complete their holy mission. This is a mission that could possibly save humanity, but it seems like nearly everyone and everything stands in their way.
The main character in my series is Joel Hendricks. Before the world became overrun with zombies, he was a twenty-something slacker barely able to take care of himself. Through the series, he progresses and grows up to be the man he needs to be and eventually becomes the leader of their band of refugees.
While epic struggles between Good and Evil are not new, I’d like to think I bring a different, spiritual component to that the theme.
Wilburn: *cough* What were your inspirations for your writing? *gasp*
Spears: My greatest writing inspiration is Stephen King. I read Carrie when it was released and I was hooked from the start. As far as zombies are concerned, my greatest influence was George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. When I saw that movie as a teenager, I was blown away. I guess it planted the seed for all my zombie fiction.
Wilburn: *choke* *snort* How does this installment in the series fit in and advance the series? *cough*
Spears: Into the Deadlands is the fourth book in the Books of the Dead series. Joel, a former slacker and now leader, and his friends are reeling after having their refuge attacked by a horde of zombies led by a man genius. Compounding this attack, a military contingent has swept in and occupied their once safe haven. Joel and a small group of his friends head north on a holy mission to find a vaccine that can cure the zombie virus. Overarching all of this is a cosmic chess game where good is facing down evil with the fate of humanity left in the balance.
Into the Deadlands starts Joel and his team on a dangerous odyssey across the vast wastelands of the apocalypse with all its perils. It also starts to clearly detail that their is a battle of Good vs Evil working in the background my character’s actions. This leads us into book 5.
Wilburn: *gag* What do you believe works best with the zombie genre and what might be its biggest threat? *gasp*
Spears: Zombie fiction is a great background for posing metaphorical issues, whatever they might be. I think the greatest threat to the genre is keeping it fresh and vital without becoming preposterous.
Wilburn: *eye roll* What do you hope readers get from your stories? *clenched teeth*
Spears: What I hope most is that they are entertained. That they are sucked into a world and get to care about the characters in books. I tend to thread in a layer of sarcasm, so I do hope they find a laugh or two.
*Jay stopped and grabbed his knees as he heaved for breath.*
Wilburn: Okay. Hold on. Everyone. Check out R.J. Spears and his work:
Books of the Dead
Sanctuary from the Dead
Lord of the Dead
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07846HKB9/ref=series_rw_dp_sw
Dead Man’s Land
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0787JB9XP/ref=series_rw_dp_sw
Into the Deadlands
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079XMR9DH/ref=series_rw_dp_sw
The Living and the Dead
https://www.amazon.com/Living-Dead-Zombie-Apocalypse-Novel-ebook/dp/B07CQ8BTPC/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Forget the Zombies
Forget the Alamo
Forget Texas
Forget America
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PTWUZBS/ref=series_rw_dp_sw
Forget the Zombies Box Set (Books 1-3)
Spears: Who are you talking to? Are you seeing things?
Wilburn: I said, I’m fine.
Spears: Let’s split up and see if we can lose them.
*RJ ran up the steep slope of the drainage ditch and left. Jay looked back and saw the dead were closer than he thought.*
Wilburn: You left me to get eaten because I’m slower. That’s dirty.
*Jay ran ahead at an uneven pace ahead of the reaching hands as he searched for a low point to escape the ditch.*
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