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| Thirdy |
Aurelio Rico Lopez III, or
"Thirdy" as his friends call him, is a
Blog Mansion veteran and writing machine with a zombie fetish. He drops by today with two new books with three new stories.
Johnny: Once again, I’ve had to bump your interview. Luckily, your cast of zombies seem pretty patient.
Thirdy: Zombies are not as patient as you’d think.
J: No?
T: Busy, busy, busy.
J: Only because I have them wearing shock collars.
T: Who?
J: The servers. They’re zombies
T: Why do you have server zombies?
J: They unionized.
T: Oh… Wait. What?
J: Are your zombies the traditional slow shamblers, or the new hotness running maniacal menaces?
T: I like to mix them up. I have a great fondness for the traditional slow-moving zombie. However, faster zombies give better cardio.
J: You have two stories in our Night Horse Publishing House book
ZOMBIES DON’T KNOCK. Two for the price of one.
DEAD SILENCE, the first one, looks like a kind of buddy story. Tell me about it.
T: I think
DEAD SILENCE is more about two men working together to survive the zombie apocalypse. In this tale, my characters Cole and Marshall find themselves pitted against an entire city of the undead. They devise a plan to tilt the scale in their favour, but we all know sh*t happens.
J:
BURGER JOINT OF THE DEAD involves greasy food and kids. Sounds like a recipe for mayhem.
T: Oh, definitely. Milkshakes and zombies.
Before I started writing
BURGER JOINT OF THE DEAD, I asked myself where I’d be if zombies took over the world. I thought a diner would be an interesting setting for such an event.
J: Are your zombies stories connected? Same outbreak? Same places?
T: My stories aren’t connected. At least, I don’t think they are. I have thought about writing a series though, but we’ll see where that goes.
J: Do you delve into the cause of the outbreaks?
T: Not really. Half of the time, my characters don’t know what caused the outbreak.
J: Try the finger food.
T: Do I have to?
J: Yes. You have more publishers (and books) than I have. Well done. How’d you get hooked up with
Night Horse Publishing House?
T: I heard about them over the Internet. It’s always good to do a little research, so I checked their site out and really liked what I saw. I proceeded to write Nathan and asked him if
Night Horse Publishing House would be interested in a zombie book (
Zombies Don't Knock). I have to say it’s been a blast working with them.
J: Buddy story quest, kids buffet, and then you also have
VALHALLA FALLING, a barricade drama, novel length and “posh”. Great word - posh. Tell me about
VALHALLA FALLING.
T:
VALHALLA FALLING is set in a city overrun by zombies. Society has collapsed, but the military has managed to set up operations in what used to be a “posh” (there’s that word again) hotel. The building and the immediate area surrounding it are well-guarded, but the characters soon find out that no place is truly safe.
J: Is Valhalla based on any place you know?
T: Funny you should mention that. Valhalla was actually inspired by a hotel in my home city of Iloilo. The real hotel has a different name, of course.
J: The popularity of zombies is still going strong. What do you see as the reason for this?
T: Zombies have been around since forever. I guess there’s something about monsters that want you for both your brains and body.
J: Tell me about
Great Old Ones Publishing.
T: I came across
Great Old Ones Publishing years ago when a friend of mine had a book published by them.
VALHALLA FALLING is my third book with
GOOP, and if things go as scheduled, they will also publish my fourth very soon.
J: What’s your writing process?
T: You mean besides drinking large amounts of coffee and sitting in front of my laptop for hours?
I start with an idea. My what-if. Then, I write a little every day. Some days are better. Some days suck. But if I keep at it long enough, I’ll get it done.
J: Do you prefer to write short or long fiction? What do you like about each?
T: Lately, I’ve been writing long fiction. I find that the personal reward for me as a writer is bigger than, say, writing a short story.
J: Writing good books is not enough. What marketing techniques have worked for you?
T: Marketing has always been my Achilles heel. To be honest, I don’t think any technique I’ve tried so far has worked. (laughs)
J: If you didn’t write horror what other genre interests you?
T: I’d probably try my hand at fantasy or science fiction.
J: Where on the internet can people find out more about you and your books?
T:
My Amazon page
Great Old Ones Publishing's Facebook page
Night Horse Publishing House's Facebook page
To purchase Zombies Don't Knock
J: You better eat those brains. The cook made them special for you.
T: I’d rather not. Writing about zombies and living like one are totally different.
J: You better. Those brains are from the last guest who said that.
There’s a dark night of soul in the winter, a ramping up in the spring, and the dog days of summer. They come quick, right on each others heels. Each a reminder of wasted time, a call to action and a roadblock. The fall is the reflection season for me, another temporal trigger where I look and admire, cringe and fear. Each season has these, each reminds me of my death and the work I’ve still undone, the slow-run race, the delay and diversions. Tick tock against the time. Struggle and mire. Feet frozen or melted, muddy or tangled. Tick tock. Run run. Time. Time enough? Time slipping. Sliding. Going to the ground.
