Apex Book Company

Not too long ago I signed on to the discussion board attached to Permuted Press. During my introduction, I mentioned I enjoy putting authors under interrogation, for both Apex Digest Online and Marked in Red.

It could have been my imagination, but I’m fairly certain I heard a lot of back-stepping. A couple of brave souls stepped up to the challenge, including D.L. Snell, author of Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines and regular Permuted Press anthologies editor. Enjoy!

Jodi Lee: What does D.L. Snell do, when he’s not working a room of zombies?

D.L. Snell: Well, I like to stake out the local vampire havens. And I love reading, of course. I like to hike. Riding bikes is fun, and I just recently got into disc golf, now that it’s not as popular. Occasionally I’ll play videogames–my friends own Rock Band, and we have a lot of fun with that–and I also enjoy web design; you know, making banners and websites and stuff. Aside from that, I recently bought a house, so I have a lot of home improvement projects–like washing the dishes.

JL: Why zombies and vampires in the same novel?

DLS: Because they are perfect competitors in a Darwinian struggle for food. The novel in question, Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines, started as a short story, “Limbless Bodies Swaying,” published in Hellbound Books’ anthology Cold Flesh. In “Limbless,” the last vampire competes against zombies for the last man alive, an idea I got from Richard Matheson’s classic novel I Am Legend.

Matheson’s vampire apocalypse often reminds readers of a zombie outbreak, but it should be the other way around: I Am Legend allegedly inspired the zombies in George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. I didn’t know that fact when I read Legend. And I thought it was cool to see zombie-like vampires. Then I thought – “How cool would it be to pit vampires against zombies?”.

After I wrote the ending to “Limbless,” I realized I had a great premise for a novel. I just had to add more vampires and humans to the cast–and I had to create a unique zombie. I go into more detail about this in the reading companion, No Amount of Lead, which readers can download as a free PDF at www.rosesofblood.com.

JL: Who is your greatest influence, the writer you respect the highest out of all, and why?

DLS: I can’t name just one. My influences are, as far as Roses goes, Dean Koontz because of his poetic prose, Richard Laymon and Edward Lee because of their sexual content and ability to disturb, Stephen King because of his unique voice and great characterizations, and Brian Keene because of his innovation with zombies. They’re all general influences as well, and to that list I would add Jack Ketchum, Robert R. McCammon, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, and Edward Lee. They’re all badass.

JL: What of Pavlov’s Dogs? Anything you can tell us about that? Anything else in the pipeline?

DLS: Pavlov’s Dogs was a concept that was promoted too soon. I may still develop the idea into a story, but for now it’s on the wayside, the back burner, the [insert cliché here].

JL: You’re working on an anthology of apocalyptica that is all reprint material. How has this been different from your experiences with the Undead collections?

DLS: The main difference is that we’re attracting a lot of science fiction writers–and the stories have been extensively edited beforehand. Also, the flood of submissions came first thing, and it’s now petering out. Usually it’s the other way around: we get a burst of submissions at the last minute because writers are either procrastinating or taking their time to polish their newly made stories. Since we’re asking for reprint material, all the writers have to do is attach the file and send it our way.

JL: I’ve asked the Doc (Dr. Kim Paffenroth in Asking5, Marked in Red), so now I’ll ask you - do you ever fear the zombie/post-apocalyptic sub-genre is going to die out? Why, or why not?

DLS: No, the genre itself is undead. And there will always be a niche group to keep it that way. Most likely it will lose popularity and die DOWN, but I doubt it will ever die out.

One of the reasons it’ll stick around is because the genre still offers a lot of unexplored territory. With Permuted Press’ Undead series, my co-editors and I asked for unique zombies; we received everything from undead flatfish to zombies created by a Lovecraftian fungus. In my novel Roses of Blood, the walking dead are infected with a Lovecraftian parasite that endows them with tentacles, regenerative abilities, and extra body parts, like second heads and multiple arms. (These same monsters show up in my superhero vs. zombie novella “Mortal Gods” in Permuted’s The Undead: Headshot Quartet–only they have a different origin.) Even with all this covered ground, there are still paths less traveled by; there are still trails yet to be blazed. That’s not to say traditional zombies don’t help keep the genre up and shambling; they’re a definite horror staple that everyone needs in their diet.

If for some reason the subgenre does die out, I’m not worried because writers have a world of subjects at their disposal. Zombies aren’t the end-all, be-all. For example, I have a story in Pocket Books’ Blood Lite, a humorous horror anthology due in October 2008, and it has nothing to do with zombies.

JL: You’re given twenty-hours to come up with an acceptable premise for a feature film based on the characters from your novel, Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines. You can’t use the same storyline, setting or premise. Can you do it? Would you?

DLS: Sure. It could be a prequel–or something entirely different. In my fictional universe, quantum mechanics allows for alternate worlds. I believe writers are demigods with the ability to create. We process sensory information and store data, and then our imaginations stir up big pillars of creation where all that data bonds together into stars, planets, galaxies, life–our own little universes. Some gods doom their creations to predetermination, producing plot-driven stories. These can be entertaining, but the stories where characters have free will prove to be the most interesting. Such character-driven stories are the ones I try to write. So as demigod, I can create a parallel universe for Roses of Blood, populated with the same characters, only in different circumstances. The characters will still make their own choices and develop their own characters, so I’m fine with the idea of an entirely different premise.

JL: Why write in this area of fiction, what drew you to it?

DLS: Well, I like to write in other genres too, including poetry, but horror tends to be my main focus because I’m engrossed with death, violence, and the unknown, and by overcoming these things. For the longest time, I wanted to be a doctor. Not because I wanted to save people, but because I was interested in anatomy. I had the Visible Woman, with her clear body and her removable organs; I had the anatomy book full of transparencies, so one at a time you could peel away the different layers of the body, from skin to bone. Horror writing allows me to wallow in the things that most interest me. Guess I’m a bit sick.

JL: Are any of your characters based on actual people in your life?

DLS: Yeah, my characters are mutts of different people I’ve known or have read about or have seen on TV. It’s all part of the imagination’s data processing. Everything I see, hear, smell, taste, and touch gets swept up in the pillars of creation, and that includes character traits, mannerisms, physical characteristics, and personalities.

JL: Tell us two things about you that we don’t know…

DLS: On my belt, I wear a pen holster. Yeah, that’s right–I’m a penslinger, the fastest draw in the west. Stephen King dubs himself a wordslinger, a term meant to be analogous with “gunslinger,” but words are the bullets, not the gun, so he’s off. The pen is the gun. Or the word processor is. But more so the pen in my case. In my holster, I carry three different Bics: one red, one green, one blue. (If you’re a geek, you’ll recognize those colors as RGB.)

The second thing about me that you wouldn’t know… well, I used to eat a lot of magical mushrooms. That might explain a lot.

JL: Well, actually – yes, yes it does. Thank you for offering up body and soul. You can take the body, but we’re going to keep your soul. ;) It’s been great fun, D.L., and I look forward to reading more from you, soon!

DLS: Thanks for the interview!

You can buy DL Snell’s novel Roses of Blood on Barbwired Vines from the Apex aStore.