Interview with Steve Wands

Steve Wands is the author of Stay Dead, a collection of short stories that deal with the undead. He is a really cool guy with goals of making his short story collection be known. Steve is also one of the creators of, Dark: A Horror Anthology. He is still fairly new to the writing world, but he has already made his mark. Enjoy the interview.

Lyle
Why have you decided to write about zombies?

Steve
Well, I’ve always loved zombies. I guess it all started when my grandmother let me rent Night of the Living Dead…it changed my world. It terrified me and hooked me at the same time. Then I started renting any movie that looked like it was similar; Evil Dead 2, Return of the Living Dead and so on. I still do it today. So, of course I had to write about them.

Lyle
Have you watched all of the Romero Dead films? What did you think of his latest installment, Survival of the Dead?

Steve
I have. I love the original trilogy and watch them often, even if they are just background noise while I work. His new three movies I enjoy as well, all for different reasons, though it’s sad to say that they drop off in quality with each new installment. Survival was okay--I did enjoy some of the characters and some of the zombie scenes. I really liked the zombie mail-man, but let’s face it, George needs Nicotero or Savini at his side.

Lyle
What exactly is the idea behind Stay Dead?

Steve
Stay Dead began as an idea for a comic book many moons ago. At that time there was no The Walking Dead and I thought I had something fresh. Unfortunately the market is flooded with zombie comics now so I decided to turn the stories into prose. I began writing a novel, which is now being read by a few first readers, and tons of short stories. The idea was to put out small collections of short stories, formatted like a comic, and build it up to the novel. I want Stay Dead to be everything and everywhere. I don’t want to limit it or label it. If zombies can overtake a world, then why should they be bound by any one form of media?--I don’t think they should. I want to do Stay Dead till the day I die in as many forms as I can.

Lyle
How long have you been writing?

Steve
I’ve been writing and drawing since I was young. I used to make these terrible comics when I was little. I remember making one about a toxic waste eating killer clown. I of course thought they were the shit and continued to make more. Writing took a back seat once I started art school, but since I started working professionally for DC Comics I started it back up and started taking it seriously. I’ve had a few shorts picked up and I’ve had some nice words about my work, and my share of negative words as well.

Lyle
Out of all the reasons the dead rise, which is your favorite?

Steve
I like the idea of an unknown reason, which would be my favorite, but being a big comic fan I like the idea of them coming back from Trioxin gas or radiation, or something goofy like that. The reasons don’t really matter too much with me.

Lyle
Do you read other zombie fiction? What are some of your favorite books?

Steve
I do, I read as much of it as I can get my hands on. Among my favorites would be Brian Keene’s Dead Sea, and his other ‘dead books’, I read a lot of zombie antho’s too. The last one I read was Zombology by The Library of the Living Dead--it was pretty good. I love The Walking Dead. Many of my favorite books are non-zombie; I love anything by Clive Barker. Cabal is one of my favorite books of all time. I like a lot of Dean Koontz books and can’t get enough of Richard Laymon--The Traveling Vampire Show and The Woods are Dark are fantastic reads.

Lyle
Do you have any new work you’d like to share?

Steve
I’m working on two longer works, possibly novellas, with two very different styles. One I’m trying to write with very simple descriptions and a lot of character dialogue. The working title for that is Impulse, picture The Crazies meets In the Mouth of Madness. The other is the dirtiest, sexiest thing I can handle putting to paper without feeling like a criminal. I have no title for it, but picture Skipp’s The Long Last Call and From Dusk Till Dawn and you’ll get the idea.

Lyle
You are also involved with Dark: A Horror Anthology, what can you tell us about that?

Steve
I am. Bryan Wolford of Drunken Zombie fame and myself got to talking one day about the state of horror, and we decided that instead of bitching about it let’s make something new. Hence, Dark was born. We gathered the best new fiction we could find and put it together. We also contributed shorts to it and edited each other. It was a great experience and has been getting some attention. We’re currently putting Darker together and if that does well we’ve talked about Darkest. I strongly urge everyone to pick up a copy. Dark: A Horror Anthology

Lyle
Where did the idea for Tunnel Rats come from?

Steve
Tunnel Rats came from a combination of working in the city and watching a documentary called Dark Days, about a bunch of homeless people who live in shacks underground. It blew my mind.

Lyle
Out of all the short stories you’ve written, which one is your pride and joy?

Steve
My pride and joy is sitting in a folder on my hard drive and I won’t let it out till I have something to replace it with. But I’m proud of every work I’ve put ‘out there’ if I wasn’t I would just trash it.

Lyle
What is your survival plan when the dead rise?

Steve
To protect my wife and son, if they die, I die. If I’m lucky enough to be home when it happens, then that’s where I will stay.

Lyle
Good answer! Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us today. I look forward to reviewing more of your work.

Steve
No, Thank you! It’s hard to get attention out there and even harder to get someone to read a new writer’s work, so for that the thanks goes to you. I’m honored that you took the time to read and review Stay Dead: The Stranger and Tunnel Rats and still found the time to interview me.

To any readers out there who are interested in reading my work you can find plenty of free fiction at stevewands.blogspot.com and pleasestaydead.blogspot.com

Stay Dead: The Stranger and Tunnel Rats by Steve Wands

Not too long ago I heard that Brother D, co-host of the Mail Order Zombie podcast wrote a story that was published in Dark: A Horror Anthology. A few days after I heard the news, Steve Wands emails me and asks if I’d like a review copy of his books, Stay Dead and Dark, I laughed at how small the world is and accepted. I haven’t had time to read Dark, so that review will come at a later time. For now I’ll review the two short stories in Stay Dead: The Stranger and Tunnel Rats. Since I will be reviewing short stories please make sure you read my anthology rating format before continuing. You can find that to the left of the page under the Undead Heads rating system.

The Stranger
The dead walk. Danielle finds herself running. Her mind is not in the right place. She has recently lost her friends at the hands of the undead. As she jumps from rooftop to rooftop, a man steps in her path. They struggle as this man tries to assist her while she thinks this man is one of the undead. Danielle calms down and follows her savior to his apartment, where he and his wife are holding up. This older couple isn’t what they claim to be. They hold a deep dark secret inside their home as they show Danielle some hospitality. For the young girl’s sake, we can only hope they keep their secret to themselves.

Tunnel Rats
There is a small community of homeless people living in underground tunnels. Bark, is one of these individuals. He is a homeless man that spends his day begging for change, eating breakfast and hanging at Jay’s, a small pizza place. The owner has always been kind to Bark. He gives the homeless man scraps and makes him feel welcomed. Something is going on outside the doors of Jay’s. People are panicking and the streets are filled with chaos. Bark is completely unaware of the mayhem, and calmly makes his way back home. In the underground sewer Bark is alone until a fellow dweller alarms him. Spotz, informs him of the dead but Bark doesn’t believe him. They part ways, but when Bark comes face to face with the undead, he regrets not leaving with Spotz. Bark runs after him and when he finds Spotz, they pair up and try to find a way out of the tunnels.

First, let me thank Steve Wands for supplying me with a copy of Stay Dead. The Stranger in my honest opinion is a very unexciting story. Nothing really happens. It’s one of those stories where the author totally ignores the fact that they are flesh eating zombies outside the door. I really hate that about some stories. I want interaction between humans and zombies, that’s what makes a story interesting. Yes, The Stranger did have a few very brief moments of interaction but not enough. The main characters basically stay indoors and Danielle starts doing nutty things. However, I can’t say that I entirely hated this story. The beginning was a perfect set up and really caught my attention. It was short lived though. I will give The Stranger, 2 Slashes.

Moving on to Tunnel Rats. Unlike The Stranger, Tunnel Rats is in fact an interesting story. It has a fantastic plot and plays out wonderfully throughout the entire story. There are some very good, gore filled scenes that will make anyone cringe. I really enjoyed the interaction between the pizza joint owner and Bark. That was probably my favorite section in the story. I kind of wanted more of those two characters interacting. Maybe the story would have been better if the author kept them together. Either way the story does go on great. There are some nice suspense filled scenes that kept me reading. This story is a wonderful addition to the book. I will give Tunnel Rats, 4 Slashes

 Now to look at the book as a whole. Stay Dead is extremely short and very tiny. It fits in my back pocket perfectly. I love and hate that at the same time. I love it because it’s very portable and hate it because I can lose it very easily. The format of the book threw me off. I have never seen a book have a header on blank pages. I’m not sure if that was intentional or the person doing the formatting didn’t know how to remove the headers on Microsoft Word. Another thing that kind of turned me off was the double spacing after a period. Also, there were a few, very noticeable, spelling and grammar mistakes. There were also times when the author repeats himself. Here’s one example, (page 23) “Clem, a few days after the town went to shitsville, had filled up whatever jugs and mason jars he could find and filled them up with water.“ Notice the bold? There are a few more moments like this.

Other than that I found Stay Dead to be a fairly good read. I am not a fan of The Stranger but Tunnel Rats makes this book worth reading. For the final Undead Heads rating –

The Stranger – 2 Slashes
Tunnel Rats – 4 Slashes

6 Slashes totaled by 2 stories = 3 Undead Heads out of 5

Stay Dead: The Stranger and Tunnel Rats is available through Amazon.com. If you’d like to support the site and the author please use the link to the left and buy a copy.

Cell by Stephen King

Within the zombie community I heard that Stephen King, the famous horror writer, wrote a zombie novel. I searched through his massive library, and found Cell. I was at Borders and I read the intro paragraph. I was sold, and was eager to get home to continue the book.

Clayton Riddell just sold his beloved comic book for a large sum of money. Excited for selling his life long work, Clay wishes he could contact his ex-wife and son to share his good news. Since he does not have a cell phone, Clay has to walk through town to get to his hotel room. He stops near an ice cream truck and stares at the customers buying their ice cream. Some are on their cell phones. Almost in an instant, the individuals on cell phones stop moving. Then within a blink of an eye, the cell phone people suddenly begin attacking everyone who has not been using a cell phone. As the town turns to chaos, more people begin using their cell phones to call for help. In doing so, they become one of these ‘phone crazies.’

 The phone crazies quickly overrun the town as Clay heads for his hotel room. On his way he runs into a normal man named, Tom McCourt. Clay and Tom pair up to find safety. When they reach Clay’s hotel, they come across a young girl named, Alice. Clay and Tom look after this girl, who is grieving over the loss of her family. Now that the trio is in the safety of the hotel, Clay decides that he must find his son. The three venture out into the town overrun by phone crazies, in search of Clay’s son.

The more they learn about the phone crazies, the more horrifying life gets for them. They are no longer the psychotic maniacs who kill normal people, but they are starting to show signs of unity. There’s more to these phone crazies that meets the eye. Staying off cell phones is not the only way to ensure survival.

Cell was supposed to be Stephen King’s ‘zombie novel,’ but in my honest opinion it’s far from zombies. The first half has strong undead traits, but the second half goes way off course. I can’t even consider this a zombie novel because of the ending. I felt like I was reading the ending of a different book. Like I said before, the introduction really grabbed my attention. It was perfect, if the whole book stayed with the original idea I would consider Cell a zombie novel.

The second half of the book was very confusing. I won’t say too much for the people who haven’t read it, but it is very weak. I’ll give a little spoiler. I seriously wanted to stop the second the phone crazies became, telepaths, I guess you can say. I hated the idea of them being able to go into someone’s dreams, and I really hated that they were able to fly. Well not really fly but hover. The plot went from good, to goofy. I’m surprised I finished the novel, I think I finished because I wanted to see if Clay finds his son. That might have been the only reason.

I’ve never read a Stephen King novel before Cell. People always praise King for being a wonderful writer. I must have read the wrong King book. He kept using the same words, over and over and over again. I got tired of them very fast. He also kept using the same analogy. It got to the point where I stopped listening to the story and started counting how many times he’s going to mention something.

So for my first Stephen King novel, I have to say that I was not impressed. Don’t be fooled like I was by the opening paragraph. The book starts perfect, but quickly looses steam. I recommend reading the first half of the book then stop reading when the telepathy stuff starts. Trust me on this. I will have to give Cell, 2 Undead Heads out of 5.

Cell is available in every book store you can think of. There is also an audiobook floating around on Audible.com. The best price for the book is on Amazon. If you’d like to support the site I’d recommend buying Cell on Amazon using the link to the left.

Rotting in Dirtville by James Callahan

I went to Barnes and Noble with my wife and daughter. We all love going to the book store, especially my two-year-old daughter. My wife and I take turns watching our daughter while the other one goes to look at books. I was roaming around looking at the bargain books when I came across this comic book. When I looked at the cover I thought it was about mummies. I took a closer look and saw that it was about zombies. I quickly snatched the last copy, it was only five bucks. I’m glad I came across this book because I haven’t reviewed a zombie comic in a few months.

Milton’s parents have just died. Their house collapsed on itself due to a sink hole, or an old well under the house. That’s what the official reports said at least. The house is un-salvageable but Milton has nowhere else to go. His parents have left him with bills that he must pay. He spends his days chopping and selling wood to finish paying off his parent’s funeral costs.

While Milton is working hard, giant alien robots land on earth. They did not come in peace. News reports say that the aliens are quickly taking over the world.

Betsy, Milton’s next door neighbor notices that he is constantly chopping wood. She walks over and invites him to come to town with her. He agrees, and they begin walking toward town. Betsy’s nasty older brother is in town with his friends and finds her hanging around Milton. They begin to fight. Betsy get’s involved and is struck by her brother. The fight is broken up and everyone goes their own way. That is when the zombie alien robots invade the town. At first Milton thinks everything is fine, but most of the townspeople are already zombies. Milton and Betsy stick together in order to find a way out of the zombie infested town.

I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into with this book. I mean, the cover didn’t really look like a zombie story. It most definitely was a zombie story, but it did take a long time for anything zombie related to happen. I did like the beginning set up with Milton and his parents. His character was very strange and distant. It kind of made me uncomfortable when a different character talked to him. That’s how odd Milton was.

The illustrations were very good. I really liked the way the zombie robots looked. There were some gruesome moments like, (SPOILER ALERT) when one of the characters get’s sliced by a saw or when Milton get’s most of his face bitten off.(SPOILER END) Another cool thing I liked was that all the art is in black and white.

Some parts in the book make no sense, and I really hated that about Rotting in Dirtville. There is so much potential here, but it just lacks something. The ending was an absolute let down. I didn’t understand it at all. If you decide to pick up a copy you’ll know what I mean. It just ends. Almost as if the author was tired of the book and wanted it to end. Or maybe the author is planning to do a sequel, but it’s been four years since this book was published. I don’t think a sequel will be coming.

Rotting in Dirtville is one of those books at makes me wish I did half ratings. I did enjoy the first half of the book, but toward the end it lost steam. I seriously could have stopped reading half way through the book and it would have made better sense then the ending. I will have to give Rotting in Dirtville, 2 Undead Heads out of 5.

Rotting in Dirtville is available at Barnes and Noble. It would probably be in the bargain section. It is also available on Amazon.com. This comic book is relatively cheap. I recommend you buy a copy from Amazon. If you’d like to support the site and the author please use the link to the left and buy yourself a copy.