Warren is a journalist and author of the brand spanking new novel GREAT BITTEN: OUTBREAK and he has consented to an interview with us today. So, let's jump right in!
Interview
Stephen Kozeniewski: Hello, Warren, and welcome to the blog! Thanks for joining us today.
Warren Fielding: Hi Stephen, thanks for having me! In the most platonic sense.
SK: First question: if you ever met The Governor from The Walking Dead, what would you say to him?
WF: That guy should have lightened up a little. I'm not sure I could be polite to him. But I'd definitely give him a pat on the shoulder for giving it a try shooting that gun. He had the accuracy of stormtrooper, but with one eye your depth perception really does go up the swanny. He was always going to do a little better in hand-to-hand and with melee weapons.
SK: No, I'm sorry, the correct answer was, "Hello, Governor." Get it?
WF: Ah. I see what you did there! You get it?
SK: I do! Well played. Moving on. I understand you're a journalist. What sort of training do you have, both formal and informal?
WF: Well aside from my degree, which I mainly obtained through an unco-ordinated attack of creative drunkenness and sporadic adrenalin-induced focus, my experience is primarily on the job. Academia can never prepare you for what the real world will be like. It's not like the shows; it's not as sexy, not as angry, and definitely not as glamorous as you think. I spent a lot of my time holding my arm out in the bloody rain with a dictation machine hoping to get a drab snippet of bollocks from some politician or another, to discover when I got home all I'd won for my efforts was some faint sneezing, and aggressive pins and needles.
SK: Ah...ha. Next question: if you could be any ice cream flavor, what would you be?
WF: Black coffee flavour. Well, dark. You know, chocolate coloured. So people would point and ask for me, thinking I'm one thing; they'd find out then I was something entirely different, and probably unwanted. Despite this fact, due to the strong desire for an ice cream no matter what the flavour, they'd eat me anyway. This statement for me epitomises both the British 'stiff upper lip' with our refusal to complain no matter what the situation, and neatly sums up the reaction of most women I've ever been on a date with.
SK: Intriguing. Tell us a little bit about what you're up to these days. Any interesting bylines coming down the pike?
WF: I'm trying to get the brain out of zombie-dodging at the moment. After everything I've described doing with a hammer in the last couple of books, I don't think I'll be doing home improvements any time soon. I'd say something soothing and quiet, but I've been having some fantastic nightmares recently, and as a result you can expect some short stories (or even novellas) about shadow people, soul-stealing, and some other downright nasty things hopefully by the end of the year.
SK: I'll be on pins and needles! Do you think it's really possible to play all of the pinball machines from Soho down to Brighton?
WF: That's a crazy question, and I'm not sure The Who ever gave me a satisfactory answer. If I gave Cthulu some speed and had him along for the party then I might just manage it, though there may be some casualties along the way (and I don't mean the occasional flipper).
SK: I see. One last question. I understand you know famous horror author Dawn Peers personally. Can you dish us any dirt?
WF: Ah Dawn. She makes a mean cocktail, and has an odd obsession with zombies, though I'm yet to witness her watching a zombie film in its entirety. Bit sarcastic though. And that's by my standards.
SK: Well, thanks for being with us today, Warren! And remember to watch out for your cornhole, bud.
WF: Corns have holes?
About Warren Fielding
 |
| Artist's conception. Seriously. This is the picture he sent me. |
I'm not a bad guy, but the GREAT BITTEN world explores the side of an anti-hero that you can't help but end up rooting for. Warren doesn't want people to die, but he accepts that they will and that to survive, you have to evolve past this base human fear and carry on.
It's a journey I've wanted to take since I was first introduced to apocalyptic fiction all those years ago. The genre is full of winners and good guys coming to the fore and winning the day, but life just isn't like that.
The people that would run back in to burning buildings for beloved keepsakes or will climb trees for kittens are invariably the first ones that will bite the dust in a world-ending event. Still, people need a hero they can relate to with the goodness in themselves. I'm not yet sure why.
GREAT BITTEN is the antithesis of those stories, and I hope you will enjoy reading this as much as I do writing it.
You can follow Warren on Facebook, Twitter, Book Twitter, or his website.
About GREAT BITTEN: OUTBREAK
You survive the initial throes of civil unrest and the collapse of law and order. The world has become your playground. What kind of person do you become?
You have never lived for anyone else except yourself. You are selfish. You like being alive. But you do have a conscience, and a soul. Who do you save first?
Warren is not a likeable man. Warren doesn’t even like himself. But he does like existing, and he wants to continue doing it, no matter what hell is emerging around him. Being pragmatic and a bit of a git to boot, he doesn’t find making the hard decisions difficult. What he does find out, is that the hard decisions are not necessarily the right ones. And being a bastard in life does not prepare you for the clashes that will ensue once the edges of society begin to blur and fade out.
It isn’t just the infected and the resurrected that Warren needs to be wary of, as he negotiates his way around the post-infection south coast in a haphazard attempt to keep himself and his family survive.
No comments:
Post a Comment