Guest post: Julianne Snow, author of Days With the Undead
Today, hot on the heels of my interview with Julianne Snow on her new zombie novel, Days with the Undead, Julianne has kindly agreed to write a guest post for As You Were. She touches on a subject near and dear to my heart, the influence of music on an author’s writing. Without further ado, take it away Julianne…
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The zombiepocalypse comes to Canada
Today I’m pleased to present an interview with a Canadian zombie writer, a none-too-subtle reference to Julianne Snow, which should come as no surprise to those of you who follow her (@CdnZmbiRytr) on Twitter.
Julianne is in the midst of a marathon blog tour for her new novel, Days With the Undead, which brings her her to As you Were today.
Julianne was born in Toronto, Ont., where she still lives, and was the only girl in a family with four children.
She got her taste for horror early, watching Alien at age four with the rest of her family (her older siblings chickened out, but Julianne hung in till the end).
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Zombies, werewolves and writing, oh my!
Things have been quiet here at As You Were this week, but that’s because I’ve been working on two interviews to bring you, both with writers of new monster tales.
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Canadians don’t spook the same way Americans do
It’s always interesting to talk to writers about their craft, but it’s just as interesting to talk to editors — who are far less often interviewed about what goes into making a good book. So it was with great pleasure a few years ago that I talked to Nancy Kilpatrick and David Morrell, who put together the first horror anthology in the venerable Tesseracts series.
To read more, click here.
Rewriting, revising, it’s-all-going-to-be-crap; or, to be one of the happy few
“What? ANOTHER revision?”
Revising, like war, is hell.
For those of you stuck in your own Work-In-Progress, or for anyone who wonders why it takes so long to write a novel, I offer up my own (unfinished) experience.
To read more, click here.
Under construction
Hey all:
I know it’s been a long stretch since the last post, but real life intrudes, with my work-in-progress, some freelance work, and oh yeah — full-time work and parenting! I could put up a few more previously published pieces, but I have been trying to avoid doing too many of those in a row.
To read more, click here.
More than the sum of their parts
Kiss / Sonic Boom (KISS Records/Universal)
Ace Frehley / Anomaly (Bronx Man)
OLD dogs may not learn new tricks, but they can master the ones they know.
Take Kiss. After repackaging and recycling their prime 1970s material on gratuitous “best of” collections and multiple tours for the last 13 years, founding members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley — joined by drummer Eric Singer and guitarist Tommy Thayer — finally return with the band’s first full-length studio album since 1998.
The results are mixed.
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Wendigo as babysitter: keeping your kids safe
There’s always more that comes out during an interview than you can ever get into an article. You try, but sometimes those tangents don’t belong in the story you’re writing, or you have to take a third of a direct quote when you’d just like to let the person speak in his or her own voice for a paragraph or two.
When I had the opportunity to interview storyteller Jeanne Pelletier about her part in this anthology of traditional Métis stories published as a graphic novel anthology to help bring the stories to a new generation, one of the tangents was why stories of monsters are good for children.
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Duff knows his stuff
Duff McKagan’s Loaded / The Taking (Armoury/Eagle Rock)
It’s not easy to live down multi-platinum success, but every former member of Guns N’ Roses has to do it.
Seattle native and founding GNR bassist Duff McKagan has given it his best shot over the years, forming Loaded in 1999 and joining fellow ex-Gunners Matt Sorum and Slash in Velvet Revolver in 2004. Fans that have followed him from project to project will be pleased to know The Taking is very good.
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Bach for more
Sebastian Bach: Kicking and Screaming (Frontiers/EMI)
After being the charismatic frontman for Skid Row in the later wave of hair metal circa 1989-91, Sebastian Bach has kept busy touring, but largely off the radar of current rock music. It’s a welcome surprise, then, that his latest solo effort has plenty of punch. The title track is hook-heavy and throws a deep thrash groove against Bach’s distinct howl-and-growl. Fans of Slave to the Grind-era Skid Row will not be disappointed.
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Monster mashup: Teen Wolf vs. The Lost Boys
“What the? You mean they’re going to release this movie, even though I’m already in one that’s actually good this summer? Gah!”
There were plenty of cheesy movies made in the ’80s, but some of them still hold their charm. It seems strange today, when the likes of Twilight rule at the bookstores and in movie theatres, but back then the whole teen-monster meme was a long way off.
But two movies stand out, even if they don’t necessarily stand up today: Teen Wolf and The Lost Boys.
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Perfect for grade eight shops class
Ratt: Infestation (Roadrunner/Loud & Proud)
Ratt has never been “cool,” but if you were in junior high in the mid-1980s, you can probably remember when they were “awesome.” After a couple of decades in the musical wilderness, the band — original members Stephen Pearcy, Warren DeMartini and Bobby Blotzer, at least — returns with a new slab of glam metal that could have come right out of 1986.
To read more, click here.
Nikki, I think we’ve heard this one before
Nikki Sixx is far from the only rock star to chronicle his former excesses, but he’s one of few to have had a viable career after being medically dead.
I read Mötley Crüe’s The Dirt about a year or two after it came out and it is a flat-out great read, even for someone who, like me, followed the shenanigans of Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil, Tommy Lee and Mick Mars when they were high atop the metal heap in the 1980s. Back then I read Hit Parader, Circus, even Groove (I only bought a copy in the summer of ’87 because it had the Crüe on the cover and I wanted to read about Girls, Girls, Girls, which I hadn’t bought yet… the magazine was pretty terrible) and repeatedly watched an interview Nikki did with Paul McGrath of CBC’s The Journal, which I taped on Betamax. I even bought the VH1 Behind the Music feature on them in 199something. I thought I was well versed in what they were up to.
Boy, was I wrong.
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For the well-dressed monster geek
Sometimes you need the right apparel for when you’re on an express elevator to hell, going down… or if you just don’t like the cornbread, either.
It could be said I have an overabundance of t-shirts. This despite the fact I routinely purge them every five to ten years. All those heavy-metal concert shirts from the ’80s? Gone. All my theatre shirts from the ’90s? Gone. Well, hm, wait, a stash of them has been discovered in an old dresser at the lake. Do I toss them out? What a sartorial dilemma. I only have one torso…
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