The Coffin Hop Horror Blog Tour
http://www.coffinhop.blogspot.com/
The winner(s) are:
1. Craig Smith
Craig has won Twit Publishing's PULP Anthology Summer/Fall 2011, a Coffin Hop mug and magnet, and Zombie finger puppets!
Two runners up have won Coffin Hop magnets:
Anne Michaud and April Denton!
Thank you to everyone who entered my Coffin Hop contest! I hope you had a spookily wonderful Halloween!
Zombie love. Eew. Gross. Yuck. Gag me with a lobo.
However creepy it may sound, I’m writing about it. At least I’m starting to write about it. I intend to submit a zombie love story to an upcoming anthology. I headed to ZomBcon in Seattle, Washington to gain inspiration for my story this past weekend.
Here I’m having a makeup artist from Bandersnatch Studios in Seattle design a zombie scratch on my cheek. www.bandersnatchfx.com
October 21-23, 2011 was the second annual ZomBcon. It was a weekend full of zombies, as well as many non-zombie attendees including authors, actors, special effects artists, photographers, comic book artists, directors, and publishers.
Jason, Scott, Norman Reedus of The Walking Dead, and Drake at ZomBcon.
There were panels, a costume contest, movies, and video games.
Renee Pinzon and Julie, bloodied but still human.
Only a few steps behind the zombies were the zombie hunters, zombie researchers, zombie survival weapon specialists and suppliers, and so much more.
There were even zombie gnomes!
I started the ZomBcon experience at a lecture by Bradley Voytek, PhD, a neuroscientist sponsored by the Zombie Research Society. I wasn’t sure if the subject of zombie love would come up but was pleasantly surprised when it did. When a certain part of the brain is stimulated, it causes a rage reaction. When tested on cats, it triggers a primal response mixed with rage I wouldn’t call love, but in fiction we can stretch that idea a bit. I won’t stretch it here.
Brad Voytek, PhD, neuroscientist, http://blog.ketyov.com/
Next we moved to Artist Alley, which was more like author and vendor alley. I picked up my frame-able Every Zombie Eats Somebody Sometime lyrics from A Book of Zombie Love Songs by Michael P. Spradlin and we hummed along to the pun on Dean Martin’s original tune while talking with authors Jonathan Maberry (http://jonathanmaberry.com/), Jason Kristopher (http://www.greygeckopress.com/2011/author-1-example/), and Abi Post (http://starkfairweather.com/).
A zombie combat seminar included two brilliant authors, an amazing Fangoria moderator, and an obnoxious actor who’s never appeared in any zombie film or show I’m aware of. I learned to wrap carpet around myself to protect from zombie bites (tip from Jonathan Maberry) and to fight, if possible with something like a piece of metal pipe, a bat, or a sword. You want to have something light enough to carry around. Guns are heavy. Plus for guns you need bullets. Those are bound to run out.
Why sit in on a panel about combat when researching a story about zombie love? I’m thinking that zombie love won’t be entirely gentle. And it won’t necessarily involve two zombies. If there’s a non-infected human in the mix, there’s bound to be some fighting. The obnoxious actor on the panel took the idea of zombie love a step further. He seemed not to mind the idea of hooking up with a supermodel zombie. Yuck.
While not researching zombie love, I stumbled upon a great place for zombie toys, like these little finger puppets sold by Todd at Zombies & Toys (www.zombiesandtoys.com).
And these zombie cupcakes!
Did I find inspiration for my zombie love story at ZomBcon?
Yes.
This zombie’s mother loves her.
We’ll see what happens come submission time!
As a Coffin Hop Horror Blog Tour participant, I'm offering a prize to one lucky winner. The winner will be announced November 1, 2011.
To win zombie finger puppets (pictured above), a Coffin Hop mug, a Coffin Hop magnet, and a hard copy of Twit Publishing’s PULP! Anthology that includes my story Radon’s Daughter, all you need to do is leave a comment that includes your email address and follow my blog by no later than end of the day October 31, 2011.
Good luck!
To return to the Coffin Hop site, click here.
Thank you for stopping by and have a Happy Halloween!!!
This post first appeared on Julie Jansen: Science Fiction & Horror Writer, please read the originial post: here
