From Deadites To Zombies: Our Interview With Dana Fredsti

I recently had a chance to read Dana Fredsti's Plague Town, which I really enjoyed. Dana's resume is pretty great: as an actress with a background in stage combat, she was an assistant armorer on Sam Raimi's Army Of Darkness, and as a writer, she's written some sexy books like What Women Really Want In Bed and Secret Seductions. She's got a vast knowledge of pop culture and zombies, and all this really informs her latest work, Plague Town. Dana was kind enough to answer a few questions for us here at Culture Brats.

Hi Dana, I read the book and really enjoyed it. Thanks so much for agreeing to do this interview!
Hi there, and thanks for having me as your guest. I'm delighted you enjoyed my book! You know just what to say right off the bat. :-)

I did some digging on your Goodreads author page and noticed that you have a previous title, Ashley Drake, Zombie Hunter (A Plague On All Houses) that looks really similar to Plague Town, but is listed as a "zombie romance." What led you to essentially rewrite the story as a more straight-up horror story?
Well, the Ravenous Romance eBook originally had more horror/gore in it, but it was deemed too icky for romance audiences so it was taken out in the final edit before being released. All the "interludes" from either the zombies' or victims' point of view were removed. When the series sold to Titan, I took out some of the more overt romance novel tropes and added more horrific elements back in. We wanted Plague Town to appeal to fans of both paranormal romance and hardcore zombie/horror readers so... hopefully it worked!

It's easy to understand why vampires are so very popular: there's a built-in danger and sex appeal in the very foundation of the myth. Why do you think zombie stories hold so much appeal?
Well, I've liked zombies since I first saw Dawn Of The Dead (the original) on the big screen the day it was released back in the... well, let's just say back in the mists of time. :-) I think part of their appeal has to do with the whole "wouldn't it be fun to be able to raid a shopping mall?" scenario that comes with any post-apocalyptic disaster, having the world at your fingertips. Then you have the zombies, which are a great universal monstrous stand-in for just about any fear or issue a person has. I've heard them compared to Communism, consumerism, loss of identity, et cetera. For me, there's no ickier or scarier way to die than getting eaten alive, be it by mammal, shark, reptile, or flesh-eating ghoul. And zombies have no personality or humanity. They're basically a force of nature and their only goal is to eat you. You can run, but they'll keep chasing you. I personally find that very scary. And I like being scared so there you have it, at least from my point of view!

Book Review: Plague Town

When I was offered a chance to review a zombie book, I was excited. When I learned that the author was in one of my all-time favorite films, Army of Darkness, I was REALLY excited, but nervous as the potential to suck was high. I'm glad to report that my nerves were wrong. Plague Town, by Dana Fredsti, is an incredibly fun, not to mention funny, zombie apocalypse story.

The story goes something like this: Ashley Parker is a college student in a small college town in a fictional Northern California town where they're having a problem with a pretty awful strain of flu. One afternoon Ashley goes on a picnic with her boyfriend and they run into, well, zombies. Ashley's bitten and collapses upon rescue. It turns out that Ashley is a one in a million kind of girl who is immune to the zombie virus, what the government calls a "wild card." She's now got enhanced abilities and is recruited by the government to help eradicate the zombies infecting her small town. She and several other people from the town, who also are identified as wild cards, go through zombie bootcamp (montage!) and earn mad zombie slaying skills. There are government conspiracies, zombies, ancient history (this is far from the first ever outbreak), and a bit of a twist. The overall story is seeping with snarky humor and pop culture references out the wazoo. In short, Dana Fredsti is my kind of woman. I mean, any story that has a quote from Big Trouble In Little China at the top of the prologue totally gets my vote. It's funny, scary, gory, sexy and goes a mile a minute.

If you're looking for a fun read, grab a copy of Plague Town. It's the first of a planned series and I for one cannot wait to get my non-rotting hands on book two.

[image]