*peeks out from her blanket fortress of winter cozy* Is it 2016 yet? Yes? Excellent!
For many people I know, 2015 was a bumpy ride, self included. It was one of those awkward years, filled with metaphorical growing pains, highs and lows in rapid succession, and Muses that didn’t necessarily want to cooperate on busy schedules.
It was also the year I released Waiting For A Star To Fall, a book I’m very proud to have in my catalogue, and the year I toyed with Kindle Select and other promotional tools as an indie author. That’s the thing about choosing indie: you don’t simply write, or even promote. You must coordinate every detail, from cover art to typesetting. And while I’m quite happy to do so, it’s always nice to put an end to that cycle and create again
Nanowrimo 2015 kicked off the new creation cycle, yielding the first draft of a project I’ve spoken very little about–until now.
Codename: WTZ
I’ve never enforced any rules on my writing. I don’t have a set genre, nor a proverbial playbook that guides my stories. To date, I’ve written paranormal mystery and a legal suspense-thriller. I simply walk in with characters, wind them up and watch them go. Their interactions and growth (or lack thereof) are all that matter.
It shouldn’t be surprising , then, that I see nothing unusual about my next project being a zombie tale, laced with dark comedy.
We’ve seen the zombie genre from the perspective of many: military, everyday families, teenagers, cops… It is a genre we devour eagerly. We’ve seen it played for scares, for gore and for laughs, and we’ve lapped up all three. There’s a reason AMC keeps churning out new shows about the undead.
For me, the best zombie stories are the ones that really explore how zombies echo our lives, and the ways we live them–or fail to live up to their potential. I also love the ones that can make me laugh at the doom. My next book, which we’ll affectionately call WTZ for now, marries the disgruntled apathy of the working class with the first seventy-two hours of a zombie apocalypse.
Joshua Rivers, a struggling student trying to pay his tuition for his final year of university, reluctantly takes a security job at a prestigious office tower. Assigned to the swing shift–deemed the worst schedule possible in the industry by his peers–he is thrown into a world where drunks and self-important businessmen assault, demean and dehumanize anyone in uniform, and employees take it with a smile. It is a world where catching wrongdoers becomes a game, and where energy drinks are arranged in a hierarchy of potency, as they shamble through the long hours on little sleep.
It’s also a world where the zombie apocalypse arrives, with the expectation they will defend their blast-proof glass palace for barely more than minimum wage.
WTZ is a look inside the lives of the faceless people most of us pass daily without a second thought: security, maintenance, store clerks. It’s also an exercise in creative zombie slaying via office supplies. As Josh and his coworkers fight for their survival, their mantra is one many of us have echoed in our lives:
“I am not getting paid enough for this.”
In the coming months, as I begin the process of editing the book, I’ll be sharing more about the six people at the heart of the story. Like my very sweary Brit, who made research particularly fun for this one. For now, you can read the first-draft take on the Prologue over on my Nanowrimo profile.
Happy New Year!
A.C. Dillon 