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Sometimes the Story Picks You
by Jay Wilburn
My greatest breakout success to
date has been a weird little zombie story titled “Dead Song.” I never intended
it to be great even as I was writing it. Maybe it is really not. There have
been some less than stellar reviews. Maybe it is just some strange, mass
delusional halo effect that has some people thinking it is good. I’ve tried
more than once to leave it behind along with zombie stories, but time and again
opportunity pulls me back into the genre and this story keeps shambling onward.
I working on a novelized version of “Dead Song” now.
I used to only write zombie
stories. My first story ever published was a zombie story. I got a check with the
note line reading “Payment for Zombies.” I slowly ventured out into other
stories. I would eventually be writing full-time on the back of several genre
and ghostwriting.
I write zombies whenever the
opportunity arises. The genre, fellow writers, and publishers have pulled me
back again and again even as I worked to expand in other areas. I have theory
that my zombie stories actually got better and sold better because I was
writing other things which expanded my tool box and improved me as a writer.
“Dead Song” was a strange idea. It
hatched from a thought of creating a screenplay as a short story. It would
evolve into a narrative format, but just barely. The concept is that a
documentary is being made about the evolution of music during the zombie
apocalypse. In reality, the story is a guy in a sound booth doing a voice over.
If I have ever been accused of telling and not showing, this is my masterpiece
of that.
This story was going to be
published nowhere and I knew it.
Elektrik Milk Bath Press put out a
call for strange zombie stories for a charity anthology. This one was strange,
so I submitted “Dead Song” and forgot about it. The anthology came out and was
full of zombie weirdness as advertised.
After the book came out, a few
reviewers mentioned my story positively. I actually went back a read the story
to try to see what was in it that I had missed. It was better than I
remembered. The horror sort of snuck up on you in it.
Some time after that, Prime Books
approached me and asked to pay me forty dollars to reprint it again in their Zombies: More Recent Dead featuring the
best zombie stories of the last few years. The book features work by Neil Gaiman, Joe McKinney, Jonathan Mayberry,
Joe Lansdale, and more. I read the story again.
I began outlining a novelized
version of the events and characters described in the story. As I went into the
actual world detailed in “Dead Song,” I realized how dark, campy, twisted, and
gritty that world was going to be. This place is full of zombies, drag queens,
epic landscapes, Southern gothic, mystery, and magic. As I have churned out
short stories while neglecting novels, I realized this story was choosing me
again.
I have already been surprised
myself by what has been revealed in the first few thousands words. I’m just
more convinced that this story has more to offer still. I hope you get a chance
to check out “Dead Song,” the weird little zombie short story that won’t quit
and eventually the novel, Dead Song: The
Legend of Tiny “Mud Music” Jones.
* * *
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The stench of frozen rotted meat is in the air! Welcome to
the Winter of Zombie Blog Tour 2014, with 10 of the best zombie authors
spreading the disease in the month of November.
Stop by the event page on Facebook so you don't miss an
interview, guest post or teaser… and pick up some great swag as well! Giveaways
galore from most of the authors as well as interaction with them!
#WinterZombie2014
AND so you don't miss any of the posts in November, here's
the complete list, updated daily:
