Yesterday I talked about a new book coming out in the “Choose Your Doom!” line from Doom Press/League Entertainment, Zombie Apocalypse!
Today, I have an EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with one of the authors, DeAnna Knippling. Being such close friends, we got together over coffee e-mail and I asked her a few questions about love, life, and her new book with Dante Savelli.
DAVE: Zombies are close to, but not quite, overdone. They’re not at vampiric levels of super-saturation, but trending that way. What do you think your you’re bringing to zombie lit that’s been missing?
DE: I don’t think it’s about what I’m bringing to zombie lit as much as it is what I’m bringing to pick-your-path books, but I’ll talk about that in a minute. As far as zombies go, I spent a lot of brainpower coming up with the specific reason for the apocalypse being something that I’d never heard of (and couldn’t find on the net).
DAVE: What led you to doing a “pick your own path” kind of book, rather than a traditional narrative?
DE: Just lucky. I was looking for a fun project to work on, and asked the guys at League Entertainment if they had anything for me. They asked me what I thought about the old books, and I said that I liked them, but the happy endings were always more boring than the grisly deaths. I think they took it as a sign.
Another thing I ended up doing was scripting a maze where the paths split and rejoin in three major branches. You can’t go in circles, but you can make some decisions that will take you down completely different branches–some of the same major events happen in all the branches, but the character reacts differently to them, depending on the branch.
DAVE: I confess I didn’t meticulously track down every path. Is there a chance for a happy (or at least live) ending?
DE: There are no live endings in the book; a couple of the endings are more noble than the others, but I don’t know that they’re actually happy. Perhaps there’s a happy ending elsewhere (hint hint hint).
DAVE: Playing something like this, I really want to do it with some sort of auto-jump-to-the-branch-page app. Is the “pick your own path” genre strong enough we might see something like that?
DE: The guys at League Entertainment are working on it for ebooks. Probably not until the next book release, except for iPads and iPhones.
DAVE: Are there further tales of this sort in your hopper?
DE: Yep. Next up is Choose Your Doom: 2012.
DAVE: So, who is this Dante fellow? Sounds like a fascinating character! Did you meet him whilst tobogganing down the Pikes Peak road last winter?
DE: Dante’s my co-author on this project; he’s a motivational speaker from Wyoming. I was born in Wyoming, so it seemed like a natural fit. He doesn’t live far, just up in Cheyenne, so I’ve been to his place. It’s weird. I can understand the gun collection, but all the brass colanders? It’s good to work with someone that original, though.
And there you have it. Thanks, De!
Choose Your Doom: Zombie Apocalypse! is available on Amazon for pre-order, coming out in the next week or so. Don’t wait!
If I’m groaning, it’s not because I’m infected. It’s the title…
Gee, I used it yesterday, too (or noted it at the end of the post). 🙂
But, glad to have invoked groans. My job is done here, Kato …
I haven’t picked up one of these choose-your-own-adventure books since I was in my early teens. Is this one more suitable for adults? How is the “replayability”? Will I want to try it more than a few times? And are autographed copies available for friends of the author’s friends? 😉
On a side note, zombie lovers should click this link!
As I noted yesterday, this book is quite a bit more adult-friendly (just in terms of writing sophistication) than the old school stuff when we were young’uns (Doyce concurs). I think how often you’ll want to retry it depends on how long you play with it initially; I suspect it has less total entertainment hours than a book of the same length (just because you won’t always go to all the bits), but I can see it being a good value.
I’ll let De address the autographability logistics — but at the very least I’m sure she’d be willing to send an autograph card you could tip into the book.