Today FW are pleased to have author Rebecca Besser with us to talk about her newly re-released book: Undead Drive-Thru.
RB: I’m the mother of a (soon to be) ten-year-old boy, and a wife of a
little over thirteen years of marriage. I’m also a graduate of the Institute of
Children’s Literature and a published author in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry
for various age groups and genres. I’m best known for my work in adult horror.
And I think I’m turning into a “zombie chick,” since my I’ve turned back to the
zombie genre with my Undead Series.
FW: So, Undead Drive-Thru,
tell us about it, what’s it all about?
RB: Undead Drive-Thru is about a woman whose husband comes home from work
bearing signs of being tied up and drugged. He dies in her arms and wakes up a
zombie. She vows to protect him no matter what, because she still loves him.
Flash forward a bit… The woman with the zombie moves to another state
and decides to renovate and re-open a rundown diner she’s received as an
inheritance. She hires employees, and with the help of her nephew, tries to
keep the zombie a secret.
It doesn’t go well… And the nephew has to decide whether to stay loyal
to his aunt (who has gone off the deep end) or be a decent human being and try
to protect innocent people from harm.
FW: And the over-arching series?
RB: The sequel, Undead Regeneration, will follow the lives of the survivors
of Undead Drive-Thru as they try to find out the origin of what turn the man
into a zombie in the first place. They do this while trying to maintain their
relationship and their safety – not an easy task.
They get to the bottom of things, but tragedy strikes. They don’t know
if they’ll have a future left after everything they’ve been through.
The prequel, Undead Origins, will go back and tell the man’s story
before he arrived home to his wife and became a zombie.
FW: Tell us about the Undead
Drive-Thru journey. It has already been published, was to be re-published,
and now it’s being self-published. What happened?
RB: Indie presses and their drama is what happened. The press I originally
had the book published with had issues because of some of the shady dealings of
the owner. A lot of people boycotted their books, and sadly, my book was stuck
there until the contract was over. I managed to absolve my contract early.
I then had the entire series planned out when another indie press showed interest. This time, the owner of the press had a public fit about finances, insulting the authors they’d signed because they wouldn’t’ renegotiate their contracts to help pay for the cost of publishing their own books. I hear now that the press is going to revamp their business this coming year – hopefully they’ll figure out how to keep it afloat. And hopefully, there won’t be any more toxic outbursts from the owner. If those continue, even with the business end under control, no decent writer will want to be published there.
I then had the entire series planned out when another indie press showed interest. This time, the owner of the press had a public fit about finances, insulting the authors they’d signed because they wouldn’t’ renegotiate their contracts to help pay for the cost of publishing their own books. I hear now that the press is going to revamp their business this coming year – hopefully they’ll figure out how to keep it afloat. And hopefully, there won’t be any more toxic outbursts from the owner. If those continue, even with the business end under control, no decent writer will want to be published there.
The decision to self-publish is established on the basis that I know
how to edit, format, and produce books already from work I’ve done for indie
presses in the past. I’m not going into this blind or stupid. I’m just hoping
to do the best I can for my titles, knowing that there isn’t going to be this variable
in another person who is going to do something stupid and cause people not to
buy my books. I won’t have to worry about someone else’s actions affecting my
sales.
The first release has a decent amount of great reviews on Amazon and
Goodreads, so I’m hoping the book will sell itself once people read it and
share their enjoyment of the title with their friends. And, obviously, I’ll do
my best to reach as many new readers as possible.
FW: And what else is in the works?
RB: Nurse Blood, my first full-length novel, is being reviewed by agents
currently. As I would like to have an agent so I can focus more on writing. I’m
currently writing Undead Regeneration, so it can be released in 2015. After
that will be Undead Origins or the sequel to Nurse Blood (Blood Trail).
FW: Do you have any particular writerly habits? Listen to music? Shut
yourself away?
RB: No, I don’t have any particular habits, unless you want to count me
telling my inner editor to “Shut the hell up and let me write!” as one. I do
tend to like peace and quiet when I write and edit. I can do either with
distractions if I really try or have to though.
FW: With your horror writing, do you write what scares you?
RB: I’m actually extremely hard to scare, so that would be difficult. If I
ever write about sharks, you know I’m writing about something that actually
scares me. ;)
I tend to try to feed off of the fears that come naturally to humanity in general, like helplessness and hopelessness. There isn’t always going to be a happy ending and not everyone is going to live through the bad things that happen.
I tend to try to feed off of the fears that come naturally to humanity in general, like helplessness and hopelessness. There isn’t always going to be a happy ending and not everyone is going to live through the bad things that happen.
FW: Anything else you would like to mention?
RB: Yes, there is! I’m giving away two signed copies of Undead Drive-Thru (one first and one
second edition) to one lucky winner of my re-release giveaway! Three runners up
will win signed copies of just the second edition!
Look for official rules and how to enter on my blog:
FW: Thanks for coming in Rebecca. Good luck with the release!
You can find out more about Rebecca at her blog, here, or follow her on Twitter, here. We've had the pleasure of reading some of Rebecca's work previously, and you can read our reviews of Hall of Twelve and Cursed Bounty here and here.
But enough of that! You want to buy the book, right?
It's available in ebook from Amazon US and UK. Here are the links:
Undead Drive-Thru (US)
Undead Drive-Thru (UK)
Undead Drive-Thru (US)
Undead Drive-Thru (UK)