Bookshelf Battle

This chapter is basically because it is unlikely Slade would have kept this info to himself.

Another chapter that’s basically me throwing you a bone.

“Please bear with me and I promise there will be many zombies…here’s a little bit to wet your whistle.”

So obviously, the soldiers coming from the west have met zombies. And you, the reader, know about zombies. Slade doesn’t so it is confusing to him.

The guy dies, but then the officer shoots him anyway…obviously because they’ve learned through experience this is the safest thing to do in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.

In the rewrite I’m going to add a line that there was a bottle of Doc’s cure all in the wagon, maybe a passing statement that they bought it from some big mouth traveling doctor.

In this world, you only become a zombie if you drink vampire blood then die. I’m trying to generate the impression that Doc has been unwillingly peddling the zombie apocalypse across the west, obliviously leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.

I hope that’s coming across. Let me know if it isn’t.

The romance blooms.

Slade is too “macho manly” to leave a woman on her own to tend an unkempt farm.

We learn Sarah’s ex-husband was 74. And her father basically set up an arranged marriage between her and an old coot so he could get a loan.

Shit like that probably happened all the time back then. I assume anyway.

She’s also worried no one will like “old maid of 26.” Unlike today where everyone just dates until the end of time.

A little fun made of romance novels at the end, where Slade is shirtless working on the farm. Women always want their men shirtless in romance novels.

Hey 3.5 readers.

I enjoyed this interview with J.M. Wilde, Australia’s preeminent zombie book writer.

She’s an unabashed nerd (we like loud and proud nerds here at BQB HQ) and was a good sport, putting up with my dumb jokes about Australia and everything. (I still want to know which way the water spins in the toilets down there!)

Speaking of Australia, her books follow a group of survivors as they make their way through a zombified land down under! Neat idea, isn’t it? Australia is one big island, right? Sounds like a place where zombies could wreak a lot of havoc.

She’s got a lot of great advice in this video about how to get readers on Wattpad. Why aren’t you using Wattpad yet?

My main observation is you never how opportunity will present itself to you as an author until you set pen to paper.

I needed Joe and Miles to meet Gunther and Slade and thought about how that could happen. Then I had a joke earlier – when the chips were down, no one in the saloon offered to help fight the Buchanans, but when money was offered to watch them now that they’re subdued, Gunther got endless offers.

He gives Joe a little test. I feared it was a little hokey but I thought it displayed Joe’s character a bit.

Ahh…the Widow Farquhar!

(PRONOUNCED – FAR-KWAR)

This is one of those jokes that only I get but I hope in later chapters I explain enough you’ll get it too. Or just laugh to placate me.

I’ve seen a lot of old time/old west movies where a widow is actually referred to as “The Widow Whatever Her Last Name Is.”

My modern day assumption is back in the old days, a woman’s only chance at survival was finding a man (because it’s not like there were a lot of job opportunities for women outside of school marm or prostitute).

So if you’re a woman and you’ve been married before but your husband died, you wanted to make sure everyone knew that, so they didn’t think you were still a married woman or GASP – divorced! I honestly don’t know much about the history of divorce back then.

I assume it must have occasionally happened. Back then a woman would probably have to prove the man was chasing her around with a meat cleaver on a regular basis or something) not like it is today when there’s a 99% chance your wife will divorce you because you left the seat up, forget to wash your dish, or accidentally farted and she assumed she was getting a non-farting husband.

I was a fan of Deadwood – fairly recent and super vulgar western show on HBO – there was a character Alma Garrett who was a widow (same actress who plays Jackie Sharpe on House of Cards now, can’t think of her name.)

Anyway, they always called her “The Widow Garrett” and I thought it was funny.

So, in a lot of love triangle stories, the author usually “cops out” and makes one woman become super awful and terrible so the hero only has a clear choice.

I challenged myself to not do that here. Sarah is a bible thumper, pure as the driven snow, a bit helpless…but as we find out soon, she really loves Slade! So it’s not going to be an easy choice for him.

Even before the concept of “wingman” existed, Gunther is being Slade’s wingman here, talking him up to the Widow Farquhar.

Oh and we meet Chance, Slade’s horse.  I wish he had more “screen time.”

Here we have the first clue about impending zombies. A Marshal in Colorado sends a warning that “monsters” are coming and everyone should leave.

Hate to admit it, but initially, I tossed it in there just because everyone was like, “Where are the zombies? When are the zombies coming?”

A valid criticism. I probably could have started the story with cowboys faced in the middle of a zombie outbreak. I think it would have been quite different though.

Better? Worse? I don’t know. I feel this buildup allowed you to meet all the characters and maybe begin to care whether they live or die.

Then Gunther drifts towards being Slade’s father figure. He provides his romantic advice. He tells Slade to get back there and actually propose marriage to Miss Bonnie. Don’t equivocate. Just pop the question, get a yes or no. If it is a no, move on.

But he doesn’t do it.

And then a new love interest enters the picture.

I debated this a lot because this chapter takes the story in a different direction.

It means it is not going to be “hey a zombie outbreak happened and who cares how it happened, how will everyone survive?” deal.

We get our first inkling that supernatural forces are at play with the introduction of Joe and Miles, father and son werewolves.

What sold me on it was Miles complaining no one would accept them in the new town.

Automatically, you think yeah, because you guys are werewolves but no…Miles isn’t talking about that.. he’s talking about them being black.

I don’t know. I found it witty.

Some werewolf rules established. They can speak to each other telepathically while in werewolf form.

I thought about making it so they could talk to each other in their minds in human form too but I saw some difficulties with that whereas in later chapters, them being able to talk as wolves helped me make them communicate when they aren’t near each other.

It made me worry to add a new hero figure. I worried maybe he’d steal Slade’s thunder.

But the thing is, this is 1880. Bram Stoker didn’t publish Dracula until 1897. So I don’t know how much they knew about vampires and werewolves (or zombies, since they are a relatively new addition to the monster world when compared to other monsters)…and Slade and friends would need someone on their side to explain it to them.

There’s some talk alluding to civil rights progress. Miles says why can’t we live in the woods. Joe says why would you deny yourself opportunities. He argues if they keep at it, maybe one day someone in their family will get the chance to do something great.

Hate to say it, but that motivated me to bump Joe off later so that Miles could have a chance to achieve that greatness.

Some character development for Gunther…setting out the scene with 30 captive Buchanan Boys. Part of me thought I should just have the zombie apocalypse start here but I wasn’t ready yet.

Knox and his sons, I hate to say, are throwaway characters. There hasn’t been time to expand on them. Gunther needed more manpower to watch 30 people and as we’ll see soon Slade will become preoccupied with the ladies.

It just wasn’t plausible that Gunther could watch them alone and not get rushed.

I was a little worried because Knox is old so with Gunther it’s like two old guys. So I did my best to differentiate him.

The Knoxes will most likely return and unless something else pops into mind, probably become zombie food.