I'd like to welcome Pembroke Sinclair to the blog today to talk about her new novel, Life After the Undead.
Behind the Story: Life After the Undead
By Pembroke Sinclair
I am fascinated with zombies—obsessed, if you will—and I
have been since the first time I watched Night
of the Living Dead many, many years ago. When I get really stressed out, I
often dream of the undead and have to find ways to fight against them. That is
where the inspiration for Life After the
Undead came from.
The dream occurred several years ago, and while I don’t
remember the exact details, I recall that my spouse and I were hiding in a small
town while all of the zombies were migrating through. They were heading West so
the humidity didn’t cause them to deteriorate faster. I woke up and thought,
“Hey, that’s a great idea!” So I fleshed
out the story.
It started out as a short story focusing on one small
snippet in time. That story was published somewhere (I can’t remember and it’s
no longer linked on my blog), and then I decided to expand it into a novel.
The first attempt was an adult novel. I’m fairly certain
there were some cuss words in it and a bit more carnage. I decided to send out
queries for the story to agents. For the first round, I sent it to 31 agents,
all of which rejected it, except one who suggested I turn it into a young adult
novel and then resubmit.
So I did. This required me to clean up the language a bit,
take out some of the gore (although it still has its fair share), and make my
main character a bit more naïve. I believe I also changed it from third person
to first person. I sent it back in, feeling pretty good, and then she rejected
it. But that didn’t discourage me. I sent it out again as a young adult novel.
For the second round, I queried 28 agents, all of whom
rejected it. After that, I sent it to a few indie publishers, and one of them
picked it up. I met a book cover designer online who painted (honest to
goodness painted!) covers, so I
commissioned him to create the cover.
The way the deal worked was that he would send the cover
idea, then it was up to the publishing company to put on the title and my byline,
which they did. The artist was then free to sell the original painting, which
he did. However, I decided that I liked it so much I wanted one for my
collection, so I asked him to create me another with my title and byline on it.
It wasn’t something he normally did, but he did it for me. The painting proudly
hangs in my house.
Life After the Undead
is one of my favorite stories. One of the things I like so much about zombies
is that they allow me to explore the question of what it means to be human. That’s
a theme that runs through a lot of my books. Plus, I just really like zombies.
As the years went by, I wanted to breathe some life back
into the story (pun intended), so I decided to republish with another
publishing house. This allowed me to go back and make edits, expand the story
and take out some things that bothered me, and I got a new cover.
It was a lot of fun to go back and reread the story and make
changes. I’m feeling pretty good about the story, and I think it’s closer to my
vision of how I originally imagined it. Every time I reread it, I find a new
aspect that makes me enjoy the story all over again. I would have imagined that
after all this time and changes the story would get old, but it hasn’t. It’s
still one of my favorites.
Life After the Undead
Pembroke Sinclair
YA Post-Apocalyptic Zombies
Booktrope Publishing
October 27, 2015
Amazon | Goodreads
Seventeen-year-old Krista must quickly figure out how she’s going to survive in the zombie-destroyed world. The one advantage humans have is that the zombies hate humid environments, so they’re migrating west to escape its deteriorating effects. The survivors plan to construct a wall at North Platte to keep the undead out, and Krista has come to Nebraska to start a new life.
Zombies aren’t the only creatures she has to be cautious of—the other survivors have a dark side. Krista must fight not only to live but also to defend everything she holds dear—her country, her freedom, and ultimately, those she loves.
Join Krista in her quest to survive in this thrilling apocalyptic novel by Pembroke Sinclair.
About the Author
Jessica Robinson is an editor by day and a zombie-killer by night (at least in her books). Since the first time she watched Night of the Living Dead, she has been obsessed with zombies and often thinks of ways to survive the uprising. In addition to her nonfiction book, under the pen name Pembroke Sinclair, she has written YA novels about zombies and the tough teens who survive the apocalyptic world. She has also written nonfiction stories for Serial Killer Magazine and published a book about slasher films called Life Lessons from Slasher Films.
You can learn more about Pembroke Sinclair by visiting her at:
http://pembrokesinclair.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/jessicarobinsonauthor
https://twitter.com/PembrokeSinclai
https://plus.google.com/102808614523341154478/posts
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3522214.Pembroke_Sinclair
Blitz-Wide Giveaway
There are certainly a lot of details like that to take into consideration. That is a great point to bring up. I offer the thoughts above as general inspiration but clearly there are questions like the one you bring up where the most important thing will be working in honest good faith. I don?t know if best practices have emerged around things like that, but I am sure that your job is clearly identified as a fair game. Both boys and girls feel the impact of just a moment’s pleasure, for the rest of their lives.
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