Category: Zombies

It’s baaaaaa-aaa-ck! Walking Dead!

PEOPLE!

WALKING DEAD resumes Sunday February 9th. Check your local listings so you, too, can get swept up in the madness.

As many of you know, I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about the ZA (Zombie Apocalypse, for those of you not briefed). You can see that here. And here. And here, here, and here. Oh, geez. Here, here, and here, too. Oh, and this one is about SEX.

Damn. I’ve blogged a lot about the ZA. That’s not even all the blogs. Maybe I should get out more.

Anyway. Here’s a sneak peek from the upcoming f*ck-up-ed-ness that is sure to be the second half of season 4.

And here. Find out how long you’d live in a ZA. Take this quiz here. And you can download the “Dead Yourself” app to see how’d you look as a zombie.

All right, peeps. PREPARE!

Happy Friday!

by Categories: Apocalypse, TV shows, ZombiesTags: , 8 Comments

What I learned about writing from zombie plots

Hi, kids–

So I’ve been following the series Walking Dead, as some of you know. It’s a zombie apocalypse series, and what I find interesting about it is how interpersonal human drama plays out against a backdrop like this.

In that regard, Walking Dead is what I’d call a mixture of Lord of the Flies, The Road Warrior, and Night of the Living Dead. Because ultimately, what apocalyptic and dystopic scenarios come down to is the people dealing with them, and the power struggles within the groups of survivors.

There’s no story in a zombie apocalypse if there aren’t non-zombies therein having to cope with it. And there’s no story in a dystopic society in which a tyrant rules all unless there’s a segment of the population battling that or thinking about battling it. Stories are all about conflict, whether internal or external.

So let’s go have a think about that, shall we? 😀

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by Categories: Writing, Writing tips, ZombiesTags: , , 5 Comments

For sale: anti-zombie strongholds

Hey, kids!

Haven’t done a zombie apocalypse prep post in a while. So here we go. Yahoo had an article the other day on purchasing anti-zombie strongholds. These are actual living spaces that might serve you well in a zombie outbreak. Some better than others. Not sure it’s actually a good idea to have an underground place unless you’ve got an escape tunnel elsewhere. After all, if you’re underground and zombies figure it out, they’ll just congregate over your bunker. So if you go that route, have an escape tunnel or two that are reinforced and camouflaged.

Anyway, here’s the link to the Yahoo article.

Now let’s go have a look at a couple of ’em.

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by Categories: Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tips, ZombiesTags: , 1 Comment

Quit yer bitchin’ (cuz the undead don’t care)

Hello, darlings!

Saturday and I felt like doing some more zombie apocalypse survival tips. In kind of a roundabout way.

I have this list. On it are the names of people I definitely do not ever want to be around in event of a zombie apocalypse (or any other kind of major freak-out). It doesn’t include, say, political people or celebrities because chances are, in an event like that, I won’t be anywhere near Tom Cruise or Kate Beckinsale or the president. Chances are, I’ll be having to pick my allies (or not) from the nearest neighbors, especially if I’m not near any close friends or family members.

So this list has the names of people I actually know who I do not want anywhere near me should serious s*** go down.

There are certain things I look for in allies:

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by Categories: Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tips, ZombiesTags: , 2 Comments

Zombies, baby. Be prepared!

Hi, folks. OMG it is that time of year again. I blogged about it yesterday. Catch it here.

I am so going to a costume party tonight. I hope all of you are, as well and I hope you all dress up and have a freakin’ BLAST.

In the meantime, someone passed this link along to me, and I was woefully unaware of this site. ZOMBIESQUAD! WOOOOO! You can catch them at this link. The team bills themselves thus:

Zombie Squad is an elite zombie suppression task force ready to defend your neighborhood from the shambling hordes of the walking dead. We provide trained, motivated, skilled zombie extermination professionals and zombie survival consultants. Our people and our training are the best in the industry.

But they point out that when there aren’t hordes of the living dead filling city streets, they do this:

When the zombie removal business is slow we focus our efforts towards educating ourselves and our community about the importance of disaster preparation. If you are prepared for zombies, you’re prepared for anything.

To satisfy this goal we host disaster relief charity fundraisers, disaster preparation seminars and volunteer our time towards emergency response agencies.

You, too, can get involved. Go to the website (and the groovy link I provided above) and click on “chapters.” You’ll see it on the left-hand side of the page. It’s a philanthropic, educational organization with a great sense of the macabre. And who DOESN’T want to be prepared for a zombie outbreak? I ask you! Who doesn’t? They’re taking applications for membership now, so if you’re interested, check it out. Learn how to survive an outbreak, and also how to be just prepared in general for disasters, whether natural or unnatural. and learn how to do community work around those issues.

Awesome.

All rightie! Happy Saturday, and happy hallow-days!

by Categories: Disaster preparedness, Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tips, ZombiesTags: , ,

ZOMBIES walk in AMC

Hi, all!

Good gracious this week sucked giant butt in terms of the ol’ busy-ness. Sorry about that, friends.

So what’d you think about the season 2 premiere of Walking Dead? The show has different writers than last year, but I was glad to see some character consistencies. However, I do have to say that the commercials on AMC really interrupted the flow of the program and decreased its length from “90 minutes” to probably about 60. WTF? Season 1’s premiere, if I recall correctly, ran 2 hours, with minimal commercial invasion. Sigh.

Read on for deeper analysis!

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by Categories: Apocalypse, ZombiesTags: ,

Zombie apocalypse survival tip: recognizing an outbreak

Hey, kids! Getting ready for tomorrow’s premiere of Walking Dead on AMC! I assume this means YOU are, too! But getting ready for a TV show is a heck of a lot easier than getting ready for an actual zombie apocalypse (duh) because, in most instances, people DON’T prepare for any kind of apocalypse, let alone zombies.

I mean, there are those among us who do prepare for some kind of apocalypse. What the means is they usually stock food, medical supplies, and guns and ammo. This is not a bad idea, but it also precludes mobility, and that may be one of the options that you have to exercise.

At this point, I defer to Max Brooks, who is surely the zombie mas-tah with regard to today’s tip. What I’ll talk about today is how to recognize that there might be a zombie outbreak in your area and to assess what, if anything, anybody’s doing about it. You can find this in his excellent Zombie Survival Guide.


source: Powells

Curious? By all means, read on!

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by Categories: Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tips, ZombiesTags: , , , , 2 Comments

Walking Dead and other stuff

Hi, kids!

This week was crazy busy. First things first. I’m trying to get all validated for the site Goodreads. I’m sure many of you are familiar with it. Once the elves over there ascertain that I am, actually, Andi Marquette and the books they have with that name were actually written by your truly, then I’ll let you all know. I’ll be doing some giveaways and groovy stuff like that over there. WOOOO!

And the other thing is that I decided to try that Kindlegraph stuff. So yes, my books are available through Kindlegraph for online signing. If that’s your thing, go on over and I’ll be glad to sign away.

And finally, I hope you’re getting ready for Walking Dead! Season 2 premiere is this Sunday the 16th. I posted about it HERE. Check that link out to see what it’s all about if you’re not familiar with it.

All rightie, that should hold you for a little bit. Hope you’re all well and happy Friday!

by Categories: Announcements, TV shows, ZombiesTags:

Sunday readin’ tip

Hey, folks–

Since it’s coming up on Halloween and some of you (myself included) like the dark, macabre edge of a good zombie movie or tale, I thought I’d direct you to this big-ass anthology of zombie short stories by some of the best writers in the horror/zombie biz, including Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Max Brooks, and Poppy Z. Brite. It’s called Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead, edited by John Skipp, and it’s got you covered, regardless of whether you want funny/twisted, scary, creepy, weird…whatever. The link above is to Amazon, and you can check out the table of contents there.

source: Elliot Bay Book Company

TIP: I particularly enjoyed Robert Bloch’s “A Case of the Stubborns,” about a grandpa who dies but refuses to admit that he did.

32 stories here, and also some cool appendix materials about the origins of zombies and how they’ve infected pop culture. So for reals. Check this one out if you’re into zombies and short stories.

Happy reading!

by Categories: Books, Cool stuff to read, ZombiesTags: ,