Why a zombie virus?

 

  So we’ve talked about why I write, what got me passionate about writing, how I name and create a character, and what I hope readers get out of my writing. So why a Zombie Apocalypse?

  Was it because at the time Zombies were so in? Or maybe because I just love them so much? What about AMC’s The Walking Dead? Those may have played a part into why I considered it. In reality it was my nightmares. 

  That’s right my nightmares. Wake up, can’t go back to sleep, turn the tv on to something funny, NIGHTMARES! 

   By now you can probably tell my mind is a crazy place. We all deal with our own battles, some fight demons some fight habits. My nightmares... the ones that terrify me often revolve around a zombie outbreak. 

  

  I can feel an intense heat on my back and I know it’s coming and I can’t stop it. My sleep has a hold of me and this dream is about to pull me so deep I’m not sure if it is real or not. I have really bad dreams and often don’t sleep more than 3-5 hours a night on a regular basis. Yeah my mostly high energy self only sleeps 4 hours. Back to the dreams, back when HWR was just an idea I was having at least 3 nightmares a week always the same. My friends and/or family and I were running for our lives for the zombies. 

  In these dreams just like a zombie apocalypse I’d lose people and in super graphic ways sometimes even the smell at times. I’d lose everyone till it was just me and hundreds of zombies around me. I know what your thinking “here is my badass moment” nope I’d fight and lose every time. I could feel them grabbing me and then...

BLACKNESS....

I’d wake up. My back on fire my mind jacked. That world was so real. I’d feel bad because I thought I’d have woken up my sleeping wife. These dreams were so intense I could remember them in vivid detail the next day.

  So how does that turn into a book that doesn’t reflect my reality? What I learned after trying to figure out what my dreams meant, I have a savior complex. Rooted so deep that I didn’t even realize it, I learned that the zombies represented the problems I try and save everyone from. I had to face that I couldn’t save them, and trying to would result in getting killed myself. So I decided to do something for me to help keep me engaged in something other than my thoughts. What better way to fight dream zombies than with a group of people I create to battle them? 

  It sounds so silly but writing kind of saved my life in a time when even my dreams were out to kill me. Now here we are. So I’d say don’t keep those nightmares in, let them out and see what they really mean so you can find a way to battle them when you’re awake and rest a bit easier. -MH

Note: the picture at the top of this blog is work from the artist working on Book 2. Hope you are just as excited to see Miss Jess Reese bring the next book to life!