[Phoebe Matthews]

I've been discussing vampires here and elsewhere, and then a friend sent me her new novel which looks like a typical romance but go inside This Side of Death by Kelly Fitzpatrick! Her honey gets zombieized and this is one wacky, hilarious romp and one tough heroine because the zombie smells like the city dumb and can only mumble a few words but she clings faithfully. Vampires can often be portrayed as glamorous, but a zombie is a zombie. I did a short short story about one that was published in a Pill Hill Anthology and then went into Nine Horoscope-in-Catsup Stories, an anthology of stories set in Mudflat. Trust me, I did not try to make the zombie lovable because it never occurred to me she could be. Anybody else had any luck creating a lovable zombie? Or not? - Phoebe

 

[jimbronyaur]

Lovable zombie?  Interesting... closest I came to that was a book from my friend Rebecca (Undead DriveThru) where a husband becomes a zombie and his wife keeps him like a pet sort of because she's still in love with him.  Not so much on the love side but you know, it's zombies, there has to be blood. 

-jb

 

[Will Write for Gruel]

Interesting.

So in romance novels the main characters are typically good-looking. I assume that's because the readers like to read about characters who look great. The hero looks like Fabio, not Flabio.

So if the main romantic interest is a zombie, will that work? I wrote an erotica story with a hot woman and a boring-looking guy. My girlfriend read it and said women don't want to read about boring-looking guys. They want them to be handsome, strong, etc.

I've been wondering about the viability of zombie novels where a lead character is a zombie and is involved in a romantic relationship.

 

[tensen]

So is that book a Zombie chicklit? Or promoted as something completely different?

Back at Philcon one of the authors I know was reading a story she wrote for the anthology, Rigor Amortis.
They unfortunately don't seem to have a kindle version.

 

[Phoebe Matthews]

I love the term "zombie chick-lit." Fitzpatrick's book might fall into that category but Ellora's Cave usually doesn't so this was a kind of surprise entry. Or perhaps they are widening their genre to reach more readers. I don't really know.

Okay, to answer a couple of comments, and all the comments are interesting, I haven't read Undead DriveThru but what a great title. I will look for it. Another writer wondered if romance heroes needed to be handsome and my guess is that they have to have strong appeal, so a plain guy with a wicked grin would qualify. I can't think of anything that would make a zombie handsome, except maybe to another zombie?
- Phoebe

 

[Mainak Dhar]

What may be interesting is that if the zombies evolve from just being bloodthirsty creatures, and start developing bonds, emotions- remember I Am Legend- where the vampires gradually form a new society. In that context, one could think of a zombie (think `noble savage' from an age long gone by- like a modern day Uncas) who sacrifices himself or herself to save humans. That's one way I could imagine a likeable (loveable?) zombie.

 

[Aidan]

The Book "Monster Island" depicts the thoughts of a Zombie,the book is divided between the main protagonist hero who has to infiltrate New York for medication for his daughter and the Zombie who hasn't fully turned yet.

The Zombie genre never gets old and its popularity as a videogame genre only adds more fuel to that fire.