Dana Fredsti is the author of Plague Town and Plague Nation She is also clearly a blast to interview (as long as you aren’t asking her about her favorite things! She hates that..)
Can you provide a brief summary of your novels, Plague Town and the soon to be released Plague Nation?
Buffy Meets Walking Dead and zombie hijinks ensue. You said “brief.” Okay, lemme try again, this time with the help of the professional cover copy folks from Titan
Ahem. Plague Town: Ashley was just trying to get through a tough day when the world turned upside down.
A terrifying virus appears, quickly becoming a pandemic that leaves its victims, not dead, but far worse. Attacked by zombies, Ashley discovers that she is a ‘Wild-Card’ — immune to the virus — and she is recruited to fight back and try to control the outbreak.
It’s Buffy meets the Walking Dead in a rapid-fire zombie adventure!
The cover says so, that’s my story and by thunder, I’m sticking to it!)
And… Plague Nation: The undead have been defeated in Redwood Grove, CA, but reports of similar outbreaks are coming in. What seemed to be an isolated event is turning into a pandemic. The last thing Ashley Parker wanted when she went to college was to join the military, but she is one of a select few who are immune to the virus. Gifted with enhanced speed, strength, and senses, she’s recruited by a shadowy international organization that’s existed for centuries, its sole purpose to combat the zombie threat.
Dark secrets begin to emerge, and when an unknown enemy strikes, Ashley and the other zombie hunters—known as “wild cardsâ€â€”embark on a desperate mission to reach San Francisco. If they fail, the plague will sweep the nation unchecked. And the person she cares for most may die. Or worse.
Don’t you wanna include an ominous musical sting there? I do.
What was your motivation(s) to write this particular series?
Aside from a long love affair with the zombie genre (I liked them AND wrote about them years before the current spate of zombie as Prom Queen popularity). I was asked to develop a series based on a heroine named Ashley and this log line: Buffy. But with zombies. And different.
What did you find difficult to accomplish within your book? The research, character development, story arcs, regional locations, etc. and why?
Oh jeez… pretty much everything for about three quarters of the writing process for Plague Nation. I had a nasty-ass case of Second Book Syndrome and found my usual ability to sit down and whip out a thousand or so words in an hour or two completely missing. I second-guessed myself on just about everything on your list above (except for regional locations) and used research as much as an excuse to put off writing as a legitimate and necessary tool to build my world and everything within it. Researching can be a black hole; you follow one thread, which leads to another, and so on and so forth. You can totally lose track of the topic you were originally researching… but then you can also find something new and wonderful.
Character development and story arc were both interesting challenges this time around. I knew certain arcs that had to happen both within individual characters, various relationships with other characters, and to do so in conjunction within the story arc(s) in a way that was both logical and natural. Generally when I’m writing, I can tell I’m on the wrong track if something feels forced or contrived. While writing Plague Nation, EVERYthing felt forced during some writing sessions. I finally had to close my eyes and Use The Force so I could blow up the Death Star and finish the damn book.
The regional locations, on the other hand…well, the interludes were a ton of fun to write. I had two that were flashbacks in Kyrgyzstan and I actually bought a book on this tiny little country just for these two interlude sequences. The rest of the interludes were set around the country to show the spread of the zombie plague and with one exception I used places that I’ve visited over the years. The interludes really are fun to write and I admit to a certain gleefulness when zombifying places like Grand Ledge, Michigan and Calico Kitchen in Amarillo, Texas. For the scenes in San Francisco, where a lot of the wild card action with Ashley and co. takes place, I used a combination of Google Street Maps and forays with my camera to figure out exactly where I wanted certain scenes to take place. And yes, I do take a certain amount of artistic license, especially in areas of the city currently undergoing construction.
How was the experience of seeing your work move from an idea to a rough draft to the finished product?
Amazing, terrifying, frustrating, and back to amazing again. Holding a copy of the finished book for the first time… well, my neighbors have seen and perhaps videotaped my happy dance in our front yard. I have never actually given birth (although I’ve bottle fed and raised many newborn kittens) so I hesitate to use that as a comparison, but I can testify that there is a really good glow when a project is first … er… conceived, and then a period of “Argh, I’m gonna barf, this SUCKS!” and “why are my ankles swollen?” (Okay, maybe not that part) and lots of pain and screaming “GIVE ME WINE!” and then the joy of holding a newborn book in ones arms.
When you sit down and write what is your perfect writing environment, i.e., quiet, music, a specific room in the house?
My favorite writing environment ever was at my old house in Glendale, which had a fireplace. I loved wintertime, with the curtains drawn, sitting on the couch in the living room or in my rocking chair, candles lit, a fire in the fireplace, and music playing. Just drawing those curtains clicked my mind into writing mode. Nowadays I have no fireplace and more cats (and a dog) than I did in Glendale, so it’s not quite as easy. I do still like to light at least a few candles and I still write in the living room, either on the couch or in my rocking chair, depending on where there’s a space not occupied by a feline. I can’t write without music or some sort of background “white” noise (a movie I’ve seen many times that I can ignore for the most part) because I’m too aware of ambient noise in the neighborhood or the dog washing herself or whatever. I prefer music without lyrics when I write because I find the voices intrusive. Which is kind of weird considering I can write with movies on in the background. Go figure.
What helps get you in the mood? Watching classic horror films or…?
Sometimes putting on certain music associated with a specific project will help, but honestly, if I waited until I was in the mood to write, I wouldn’t write a great deal of the time. Sitting down and putting in the time is really the best way to get me in the mood… unless I’m in a car without access to my computer and then my brain starts racing with ideas and I can’t wait to write ’em down… until I get home and get distracted by something else.
It’s been said that each character within a book is somehow loosely based on the author. With that thought in mind, do you consider any of the characters in Plague Town or Plague Nation to be loosely based on yourself or anyone else and why? Please be as specific as possible.
None of them are based on me. Any similarity is accidental. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. As far as other characters, Lil and Tony are both based on real people because they inspired me to base characters on them. Allie (Lil’s real life counterpart) is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, and she loved the idea of a character based on her who is also unstable. Tony is based on Ernie, my kind of sort of not really godson, and also has a little bit of my ex-husband, who really would wear his iPod into battle with theme music playing. Plague Nation has about four characters based on real people, but I’d rather not give specifics at this point. And sure, Ashley shares some characteristics with me, but I don’t identify with her the same way I did, say, the character of Connie in Murder for Hire. That’s my first book, a murder mystery, and the two main characters are definitely fictional versions of myself and my best friend.
Who are 5 people, besides immediate family and nearby friends that you would want to be stuck with or in a group with during an apocalyptic event not exactly a zombie outbreak but something that would affect life as you know it on a global scale? Why?
This is just not a question I can answer. It gives me a headache to even think about it, partly because I really hate choosing my favorites of anything (see my posts about top five B movies or favorite book series) and the thought of actively choosing five people to be stuck with… ugh. I think part of my conundrum is that my reasons would be emotionally based, NOT practical, and the group would include both my boyfriend and my ex, and that would just be a pain in the butt. Nope, don’t wanna answer this one. Except I’d want at least one wine maker in the group.
In a hypothetical apocalypse, what would be your preference;viral outbreak, extraterrestrial event, zombies, natural disaster, etc., and why?
I’ve always wanted a viral outbreak that would selectively leave people I like immune to whatever it was. Something that leaves shopping malls and wineries and pet food stores unaffected and accessible to survivors (and of course I would be a survivor, along with my friends and family). Sure, we’d have to take care of bodies so the rotting corpses wouldn’t start another epidemic, but the infrastructure would still be in place. And as much as I love zombies in film and fiction, I really do not want to be having to shoot my loved ones in the head.
Based on the previous question and answer, how did that affect your decision to include a zombie outbreak in your work?
Didn’t affect it at all. I was basically commissioned to write the first Ashley Parker book, and given my love of zombies it was a no-brainer. And also, writing about zombies and surviving an actual apocalypse are two different things. Zombies – fun to write about. Not so much to deal with in real life, especially if they’ve overrun all the wineries.
What advice can you impart to authors just starting out who want to break into the horror/apocalyptic genre or into writing in general?
Don’t be in a rush to get your work out there before it’s ready. Learn your craft. Read. Read a lot, and figure out what it is you like about the genre you want to write, and then figure out what you can offer the genre that’s fresh. Listen to constructive critique (and learn to distinguish it from toxic feedback), don’t be afraid of revisions, but don’t get stuck in perpetual rewrite purgatory. Word.
Who do you feel is directly responsible for your entry into thefield of writing and specifically the genre(s) that your work fits into?
My sister Lisa instilled a love of reading in me at a very early age, which inspired me to create my own worlds and start writing. So I’ll blame Lisa for the first part. As far as the genres, I’ll point a finger at George Romero for the zombie genre
What and who are your favorite authors and books not in the genre of your work? Tell us a little bit about them and how they have affected your work.
I seriously hate these questions. Did I mention I hate listing favorites? I can never remember really obvious names at the time, and my favorites list shift with my mood. I’m always afraid that somehow I’ll hurt feelings (and yes, I anthropomorphize everything). And just because I enjoy authors in other genres doesn’t mean they’ve affected my work at all. That little pissy rant over, I just took a look at my book shelves and am going to give a VERY short list of authors whose works I collect and will re-read periodically: Barbara Hambly and Charles de Lint. Both write fantasy and urban fantasy, and both inspire me to write simply because I love how their work transports me out of the real world into their worlds, and that makes me want to create my own fictional worlds.
If you had to do it all over again, the research, the writing, the search for a publisher, etc., what would you do differently?
Absolutely nothing. I learn from every step of the process, including my mistakes, and have been so happy with my experience working with Titan and my editor, Steve Saffel, as well as all the people I’ve met via the research process… I have no regrets. Even the mistakes I’ve made have brought me into contact with some really wonderful folks who’ve gently corrected me and offered their expertise in various areas.
Do you have any plans to continue writing when you finish your current project? This might be other projects in a different genre or in the same genre
I always have plans to continue writing, whether or not I have contractual obligations. I’d like to write more in the Ashley Parker universe, and I have a sequel in the works for my first novel, which was a cozy noir mystery. Yes, I made that genre up. I also have another urban fantasy series in the works, as well as a straight up horror novel called The Grim.
Where can readers and fans alike find out more information about your books and upcoming projects that you’re involved in?
The best place these days really is my Facebook page, which is https://www.facebook.com/dana.fredsti.inara.lavey. My website is www.danafredsti.com and I also have my Twitter account https://twitter.com/zhadi1, but I’m a bit lame on the Twitter front. And people can also email me at [email protected]. I love getting email that isn’t from Nigerian scam artists. Just don’t start it with “My dearest, I write to you in the hopes that you will take pity on my plight…”
