A visit with A.P. Fuchs, author and the man behind Cosom Entertainment

Thanks as always to Eric S. Brown for bringing us A.P. Fuchs, author of the Undead World Trilogy and the man behind Coscom Entertainment.
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You're both a writer AND a publisher. How does that work?

Lately I’ve been finding that I get the most done--deadline crunches excluded--by doing Coscom Entertainment-related stuff during the day, then write for myself at night.

Running a publishing company and writing a book require two different mindsets so dividing the day like I do really helps with that.

What got you into doing this?

The love of creating, really. It started with drawing comics then got into writing. After subsidy-publishing my first two books and despite the headaches from that (namely the first book), in some weird twist I fell in love with the book production side of things so decided to be a true self-publisher. Then that led to being asked to put out a benefit horror anthology for the late Charles Grant called Small Bites, and everything has since rolled on from there.

Tell us some about your new Z novel and the series it's a part of?

Sure. My latest zombie novel is called Possession of the Dead and it’s the second book in the Undead World Trilogy. The first book is called Blood of the Dead, and Possession of the Dead picks up one nano-second after the first one ends. In this latest installment, Joe and his crew must face off against not just human-sized zombies, but also against giant undead some fifteen stories tall. Add in to the mix some supernatural elements--angels and demons--and you got a story loaded with action, thrills and just plain fun. (i.e. There’s a cool El Camino roadtrip that involves running over zombies.)

You also write the superhero Axiom-man. Which do you enjoy more: superheroes or zombies from a writing standpoint?

To be honest, I write my books more or less from the same stand point: good vs. evil. It doesn’t matter if the good guy or bad guy has powers or not, it’s just that you have the good guys and bad guys.

For superheroes, I get a kick out of it because of all the fantastic elements associated with them. For example, writing Axiom-man’s flight scenes are always a thrill for me because flying is my favorite superpower.

The Axiom-man series is my own love letter to the superhero genre, and it’s my way of imagining how a superhero would begin his career in our world in as realistic a way as possible.

For zombies--I’ll admit I haven’t read every zombie book or seen every zombie movie--but I’d like to think that I’m creating some new ground in my Undead World Trilogy, which is not just about survival, guns and the undead, but also about our place in the universe, the supernatural realm, and trying to depict an all-out war between Good and Evil. I’m treating this series more like a low-key superhero series, in that I have my good guys, I have my bad guys (the undead) and it’s very much a case study on humanity’s inner strength to survive against not just the monsters that haunt the streets, but also for those involved to survive against themselves, especially since most of them have gone through so much heartache and pain it’d almost be better to just put a gun to their heads and pull the trigger.

Even with Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead, aside from blatantly writing a book where fighting was the main focus, I tried to do something different by taking my main character, Mick, and using him to explore what would happen if you go too deep into your selfish desires and how that affects the people around you. In his case, it was gambling.

Also in that book I tried to not make the fights one-dimensional and just have people fight zombies and that’s it. Each fight scene is told from the point-of-view of the fighter and each fighter--whether samurai, ninja, superhero, pirate, Viking, etc--has a story and a purpose for being in that ring. I wanted the readers to care about the characters first . . . then watch them get it on with a Shambler or Sprinter (even both) and hope for a victorious outcome.

Who's your inspiration?

I try to soak up inspiration from a plethora of places and people, everyone from comic creators to fellow writers. In the old days, it was Stephen King, Alan Moore and Terry Goodkind that inspired me the most. Nowadays, my pool of inspiration is a complicated mosaic of “a little bit of this guy, a little bit of that guy” and so on.

Marvel or DC?

DC, hands down.

Why?

In the end, it’s tenure for me, tenure in my own life. It was Superman who I first fell in love with way back when I was, like, two or three, and so most of the action figures I had were characters that revolved around him. Likewise with the movies. I mean, Marvel didn’t have much going on movie-wise in the ’80s. So it just kind of stuck.

Marvel right now is dominating in the movie arena, and DC has paid attention because they got all sorts of movies planned: a new Superman, the third Batman, Green Lantern 1 and 2, Wonder Woman . . .

And it’s DC I follow month-to-month in comics. Mostly the bat titles, though I’ve been buying Superman since issue 700.

What are you currently working as both a publisher and a writer?

As a publisher, at this moment I’m doing my quarterly tallies. In the background, I’m dealing with New York for our mass market reprints with them (The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim; Alice in Zombieland), and with the firm who manages us in LA in regards to some film interest we’ve had for our titles. And, of course, trying to get the word out about me and my authors’ books as much as I can. We just did the Central Comic Con, for example, and Coscom Entertainment did well there selling its books.

Personally, I’m working on a vampire novella trilogy, my free weekly web serial novel, Zomtropolis, and am making notes on a top secret comic project I’ll be doing with Axiom-man cover artist Justin Shauf.

Coscom has been very blessed this year getting mass market deals and representation for its properties as film. How has this affected you and company?
It hasn’t affected me on a personal level. I’m still the same old foodie comic nerd. On a professional level, it’s elevated the company to a new arena in terms of respect in the industry, credibility, and an overall image of producing quality material across the board.

What's up next for you in terms of zombie fiction as a writer?

Aside from my regular work on Zomtropolis, which I hope to put out in paperback and eBook next year (complete with some special surprises), I’ll be tackling the third and final book in my Undead World Trilogy for publication hopefully sometime before June of 2011.

After that, it’s finishing my ultra long overdue Axiom-man novel called City of Ruin. I have fans waiting for it and I need to deliver.

And any advice to writers in general or folks hoping to submit to Coscom someday?

Yes.

If you want to submit to Coscom Entertainment, be sure we publish the type of book you wrote. You’d be surprised how many queries I get for genres that have nothing to do with our catalog.

I also expect a query without any sample chapters. If I want more, I’ll ask for it.

Be professional. Doing so tells a publisher you’re the real deal instead of some “Hey, buddy” chummy author. Being professional provides the sense you’re dependable, which is critical when producing a book.

Also be patient. Publishers get lots of queries and have lots to read never mind the other stuff we have on our plate. Sometimes things take time.

Last, to have a successful book at Coscom Entertainment, an author should be willing to really get out there and market their stuff. This is a business where sales don’t just happen. You need to let people know you and your book exists. Coscom helps with that, of course, but the books that have done best for the company are from those who also put on the hat of marketer and went out there and made a fuss about their title. Those are the folks who’ve had the greatest success.

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Thanks again to A.P. and Eric for guest-blogging with us. Be sure to visit Coscom Entertainment for a huge variety of terrific books and ebooks!

An Interview with "Dr. Pus"

Glorious Monday to everyone!

Once again, thanks to Eric S. Brown for this chat with Dr. Pus of the Library of the Living Dead Press and The Library of Horror, publisher of some my personal favorite authors like Rhiannon Frater, David Dunwoody, Scott A. Johnson and of course, Eric.

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Though most folks know him as Dr. Pus, Dr. Michael Carl West is a Dentist practicing in the small town of New Cumberland, WV. He has been married to his lovely wife Tam for almost 25 years. He has two wonderful and gorgeous daughters who are in College. The Doc lives on forty acres of wooded mountain top (referred to as Pus Mountain) with his wife, daughters, two dogs, seventeed cats and 2 pygmie goats. He loves his life and is ready for the zombie apocalypse. He runs Library of the Living Dead Press and all its various imprints.

ESB: Where did your love of zombies come from?

Dr. Pus: My love of zombies came about by watching a vampire movie. I know, I know, vampires aren't zombies. But after watching Vincent Price in Last Man On Earth (when I was in the sixth grade) it scared me so bad that when nightfall came I would run home just waiting for one of those shamblin' vampires to come out from between the houses and grab me. Then I was introduced to George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (Romero got his idea for shamblin' zombies from Last Man On Earth) and it petrified me. THAT is the feeling I get when watching zombie movies and reading zombie literature. And as they say .... the rest is history.

ESB: How did you get into publishing?

Dr. Pus: Publishing came about as a direct result of the Library of the Living Dead Podcast. I was, for the first and only time, reading a non-zombie book on the podcast entitled Beneath The Mask by Stephen A. North. We became fast friends and Steve mentioned he didn't want to self-publish his new zombie book Dead Tide. I jumped at the chance to help him publish it. Started a publishing company called "Library of the Living Dead Press," learned a lot of hard lessons and was finally able to present the book in Pittsburgh at the second ZombieFest. Once I announced this on my forum and podcast the authors came a knockin'. Currently we have over 50 books in print.

ESB: What are some of the favorite books you have published so far?

Dr. Pus: I can't pick just a few of the books I've done. They're all like my babies. I do have a special place in my heart for Dead Tide as it was the first book published and it also remains our best seller.

ESB: Where can we find out more about your company on the web?

Dr. Pus: Folks can find out everything about The Library on our forum www.libraryofthelivingdead.lefora.com, on our website www.thelibraryofthelivingdead.com and on the podcast www.dr-pus.podomatic.com. The forum is very, very active with over 850 members. The members are affectionately called Good Librarians.

ESB: How do you decide which books to publish?

Dr. Pus: The book has to speak to me. Since we've expanded into the entire horror genre I've been exposed to tons and tons of excellent stories. Those are the ones that will see print. I've also been exposed to some of the most incredibly bad writing in the Universe. Those see the circular file ASAP. I'm not mean when I reject a book or story. I always try to give the budding author some type of positive comment, but in some cases it's almost impossible. I accept submissions through my Executive Librarians, who are named in the forum, for all books and short stories except for zombie novels and stories. Those are mine to peruse and then accept or reject. Zombie submissions are sent to my e-mail lotld@yahoo.com.

ESB: You recently shot a TV spot for your company. What can you tell us about that?

Dr. Pus: The link to the commercial is: http://libraryofthelivingdead.lefora.com/2010/10/21/and-so-it-begins/page5/#post94. This was all David Dunwoody's idea and we had a wonderful time doing it. Everyone was in make-up and in character. I even got my hand bitten during the rampage scene. It didn't draw blood, but it did leave teeth imprints on my hand. The commercial was probably the coolest thing we did at Horror Realm. Zombie Zak recorded and edited it, Dan Galli provided the lighting and Dave Dunwoody was the screenplay writer/director. It was a blast!!

ESB: What are your favorite zombie films?

Dr. Pus: I have a really hard time putting in order my five favorite zombie movies. #1 is the only one that is in order.

1. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

2. Cemetary Man

3. Shatter Dead

4. Video Dead

5. Dead Meat

6. Braindead (Dead/Alive)

7. Shawn of the Dead

8. Dawn of the Dead (Original)

9. Day of the Dead

10. Night of the Creeps

It's a pretty esoteric list. I love independent zombie flicks.

ESB: What lays ahead for Library of the Living Dead Press and what are you working on now?

Dr. Pus: Everything I'm working on now is exciting. The publishing company has taken off and become huge. I'm working with Borders/Waldenbooks to get our books in their stores. Barnes and Nobles will be next.

ESB: Where do you see your company in the years to come?

Dr. Pus: The future of Library of the Living Dead Press, within 3 years, will be my full time job. I plan on retiring from Dentistry in 3 years and go full bore into the publishing realm. That's always been my dream and it looks like my dream will come true.

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Thanks again to Eric, and to Dr. Pus, who is an incredibly interesting guy! And be sure to check out The Library of Horror and Library of the Living Dead for some excellent reading!

Interview with Joe McKinney by Eric S. Brown

TGIF, everyone, and enjoy this great interview brought to us by Eric S. Brown.

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This morning we're talking with Joe McKinney, author of the amazing novel Dead City and the brand new book, Apocalypse of the Dead.

Eric S. Brown: Having read your modern, zombie classic, Dead City, I was wondering how did your own experience in law enforcement play into the book?

Joe McKinney: Well, the main character, Eddie Hudson, is a street cop for the San Antonio Police Department. I’ve done Eddie’s job before, so nearly everything in the book that deals with police procedure comes from my firsthand knowledge. I did change a few things around, such as the location of the 911 dispatch center and the layout of police headquarters, because I couldn’t in good conscience compromise the Department’s internal security protocols, but nearly everything else is lockstep with real police work.

I also worked as a member of the SAPD’s Critical Incident Management Team, where we designed the city’s official response to a variety of natural and manmade disasters. That experience was instrumental in designing the cause of the zombie outbreak.

ESB: Tell me more about that. How did you come up with the idea for the novel?

JM: San Antonio is about one hundred and fifty miles from the Texas part of the Gulf Coast. That means we are far enough inland to avoid the destructive power of a hurricane, but close enough to serve as the main evacuation destination for all the cities along the Gulf. My job with the SAPD was to help design ways to deal with a sudden influx of a large number of evacuees. For smaller cities, such as Corpus Christi or Brownsville, where we’re only talking a hundred thousand people or so, the problem is big, but not unworkable. It’s when you’re dealing with huge cities, like Houston and its surrounding areas, and the population numbers get up into the millions, that the problem becomes dangerously unmanageable.

So, when I was looking for a cause for the outbreak, I decided to hit Houston with five major hurricanes in the span of three weeks. That would require a million or more refugees to hit San Antonio all at once. I grew up Clear Lake City, a little suburb south of Houston, and I lived through several huge hurricanes. I know firsthand how badly Houston can flood after even a minor storm, and now that I’ve had some real world training on just how fragile the infrastructure behind Houston’s oil and gas and chemical industries really is, it seemed logical to combine the two. The bodies of the dead would be floating in the soupy mix of chemicals and sea water and rotting in the hot Texas sun. The virus that causes the zombie apocalypse would rise from that. And as the infected were evacuated to nearby cities, such as San Antonio, the situation would turn into a pandemic.

ESB: What zombie authors out there do you read yourself?

JM: My single favorite zombie story is “Zora and the Zombie” by Andy Duncan, but to my knowledge, he has never written another zombie story. I also loved Dan Simmons’ “This Year’s Class Picture” and Adam Troy-Castro’s “Dead Like Me,” but again, those guys haven’t exactly flooded the market with a lot of zombie stuff. I think if I had to name a short list of writers who have done multiple zombie projects I’d list Robert Kirkman and his The Walking Dead series and Max Brooks’ World War Z stuff. Those last two do the Romero-style zombie just about perfectly.

ESB: What can you tell us about Apocalypse of the Dead? I know I for one and am really looking forward to it.

JM: Well, the main thing I guess you have to know is that it is a sequel (of sorts) to Dead City. A word about that, though. See, I really don’t enjoy the traditional series, the kind where you follow the same group of characters through multiple novels. The Lord of the Rings was cool, and I also like James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux novels, but that’s about it. For the most part, I get bored with the characters in a series midway through the second book. So when Kensington came to me and asked about the possibility of turning Dead City into a series, I said I’d do it...as long as I got to do it my way.

What I did was to look at the world I had created for Dead City. At the end of Dead City, the zombie situation has been contained in San Antonio, but only at the expense of quarantining most of the Gulf Coast. Houston is still under water. More than a million zombies were still wandering the flooded ruins. So too were hundreds of thousands of uninfected survivors. I imagined a small group of survivors, one of whom is infected and hiding it from his fellow refugees, escapes the quarantine around Houston. When they make landfall, they spread the zombie virus like a torch dragged across a field of dry grass. The next thing you know, the zombie apocalypse has gone global.

From there I follow six different groups of characters as they converge on the North Dakota Grasslands, where they have all heard stories of a preacher who is building a sanctuary to hold the zombies at bay. I won’t tell you what happens when the survivors get to the Grasslands, but I will tell you that I researched everything I could find on Jonestown to write this book.

ESB: What's your favorite zombie film?

JM: The original black and white version of Night of the Living Dead, hands down. All hail George Romero! His is the movie that got me started on zombies, and the one I keep coming back to for inspiration. After Night of the Living Dead, I’d say Shaun of the Dead. From there, listing my favorites would be difficult. The list changes with my mood.

ESB: Do you have a favorite short story that you've written?

JM: I am known for zombies, but they are actually only a small part of what I write. Of my own short stories, my favorite is a ghost story called “Blemish.” Think When Harry Met Sally, but with a ghost inspired by the folklore of Vietnam. The tale is quite popular, I’m told, with romance readers, which I guess makes it one of those stories that the writer intends to come across one way and yet everyone else seems to take another. Go figure.

ESB: What's next for you and what are you working on now?

JM: I just finished the third book in the Dead City series. That makes a total of four novels written this year, so I may take a break on novels until January. In the meantime, I’m working on a reader’s guide to the Dead City universe, which has grown to include four novellas, two stories, four novels and a screenplay. The essay I’m doing now will put all of those various stories into context, so any one interested in getting a behind the scenes peek at the series should check that out at my website, Old Major’s Dream.

ESB: And what words of wisdom would you share with upcoming writers?

JM: This is probably going to burst a few bubbles, but...you need to treat writing as a job. Yes, I know. Writing is about passion, doing what you really love. I get that. That’s why I started. In fact, I was doing this gig for free for a really long time before I ever started thinking of it as something that could pay my family’s bills. But for those of you who want to write professionally, the only way you are going to succeed is to treat writing like a job.

When you have a job, you show up to work everyday. You consistently turn out a work product that makes your bosses happy. If you agree to a deadline, you make that deadline. You represent yourself in a professional, competent manner. In other words, you get the job done. Think about writing in those terms, and you will find that others will regard you in like terms.

But there is one little secret that seems to have been forgotten in our modern age...never, ever, ever forget the power of a handwritten thank you note.

ESB: Oh and I must ask, do you read comics and if so, Marvel or DC?

JM: That’s an easy one. Marvel all the way. I’m really excited to find out what David Liss is going to do with Black Panther. I’m also hoping for something else along the Marvel Zombies line.

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Thanks again to Eric, and to Joe for the awesome interview. Whether you are a fan of zombies, Bigfoot, or just love good, fast-paced horror, be sure to check out their work!

An Interview with author Gina Ranalli

Again, thanks to Eric S. Brown for bringing us another terrific interview. This time, we are honored to have Gina Ranalli join us at NSP Books.

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Gina Ranalli is the author of several novels, including Praise the Dead, House of Fallen Trees, Suicide Girls in the Afterlife, Chemical Gardens, Wall of Kiss, Mother Puncher, Sky Tongues, and Swarm of Flying Eyeballs. Her collection, 13 Thorns (with Gus Fink) won the Wonderland Book Award for Best Story Collection of 2007. Her short stories have appeared in numerous publications including Bits of the Dead, The Beast Within, Horror Library Volume 3, and Dead Science, among others.

Gina lives in Washington state where she is working on her next novel. Visit her online at www.ginaranalli.com

ESB: Wow, you have a lot of books out there. When did you start writing?
GR: I started writing as a kid. I still have the first "story" I ever wrote. It's called "Horses" and it's truly terrible. I was seven years old.

ESB: What got you into writing?
GR: Well, at first it was just a way to entertain myself. I had a lot of crazy ideas in my head and in order to get them out, I put them on paper. It was a great cure for boredom and very therapeutic. Still is.

ESB: Is there one book that's your favorite above the others?

GR: One of my own? House of Fallen Trees is definitely my favorite. I think I pulled off some genuinely creepy things with that book. I got the mood and the atmosphere right. I'm pretty proud of it.

ESB: Do you see writing as a career or a hobby for yourself?

GR: I see it as both. I like to be paid, obviously, but even if I didn't I'd be doing it anyway. Maybe not for publication, but I'd definitely still be writing, no matter what. I tend to get a little insane if I'm not working on something.

ESB: What advice would you give other writers on any level?

GR: It's a cliche, of course, but reading everything you can get your hands on is still the best advice for anyone wanting to write. Beyond that, it's pretty simple: just write. Write as much as you can as often as you can. Work harder at it than anyone else you know. Always push yourself.

ESB: Praise the Dead sounds like a truly cool concept for a Z novel. How did you come up with the idea?

GR: Thanks! So many things came together for that book. I've always wanted to do a classic good vs evil book and I also really wanted to write a book with a kids as the protagonist and antagonist. And, I'm inspired by the story of Joan-of-Arc and wanted to incorporate a little bit of that in as well. So, those things combined were the genesis of the book.

ESB: If you could hang out with any zombie writer (and yes, only a zombie writer) for an evening, who would it be?

GR: Hmm. Wow. Just one? I don't know if I can answer that. I'd like to hang out with most zombies writers, probably.

ESB: Do you think the zombie genre is still growing?

GR: It doesn't seem like it's letting up at all. I hope it continues to grow, especially if writers and film makers figure out ways to play with the genre and change it up a bit. As long as creators continue to do new things and explore the boundaries of where they can take it, I think zombies will be around for a while more. Like ghosts or any other sub-genre, as long as it's kept fresh (no pun intended) it'll do fine.

ESB: Who are your heroes in the writing world that you look at as peers and just go, if they can do this, so can I?

GR: There are way too many to mention by name. In a way, anyone who writes a good book is a hero of mine, because it's not an easy thing to do. There are thousands of terrible books, but if a writer can make me care and entertain me, I'm a happy camper. If I close a book and think the writer told a really great story, that person becomes my hero, at least for a while.

ESB: And lastly, what are you working on now?

GR: Right now I'm working on a new horror novel. I don't want to give too much of it away, but it's called Dark Surge and it should be out sometime next year from Dark Regions Press. It's simultaneously been both the hardest book I've ever worked on and the most fun. It's full of creepy-crawlies and I think people will really enjoy it.

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Make sure you pop by www.amazon.com and check out Praise the Dead along with Gina Ranalli's others works. You won't be disappointed.