Weekly Zombies for Dec 23, 2009

Zombie Love at Christmas

from E. Van Lowe

go to his site for a giftee

and

Be on the lookout for E's

New Years Free Book Giveaway!

Holiday Recipe: Zombie Fruitcake

get it at Zombie Carols

guess what the main ingredient is ???

and

go to last week's posts for links to Zombie Carols

courtesy of The Vault of Horror and most especially author, Michael P. Spradlin

Zombie Nuts

by dave and thomas

Watch out when you're reaching for those nuts at the holiday parties.

They may not be what you think.

My Zombie giveaway(s):

vvb32reads - Rot by Michele Lee

-offer ends December 31, 2009

vvb32 reads - I Kissed A Zombie And I Liked It by Adam Selzer
-offer ends December 31, 2009

vvb32 reads - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:
Dawn of the Dreadfuls
by Jane Austen and Steve Hockensmith
-offer ends March 24, 2010

Blogosphere Zombie giveaways:

Deadtown

by Nancy Holzner

from Book Obsessed

-offer is One day Only - December 31, 2009

Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection

Field Notes by Dr. Robert Twombly

from Graeme's Fantasy Book Review

-3 copies only for U.K. residents

-offer ends December 20, 2009

Dark Faerie Tales - first Happy Holidays Book Blowout

-offer ends January 5, 2010

-book prizes include: zombies and paranormal genre

*A weekly post to share my latest zombie reviews and blogosphere finds.

*Join me weekly or whenever you have a zombie post by sending me your links in the comments of any of my zombie posts.

E. Van Lowe - Past, Present and Future

The Past

When I was growing up I was good at sports. A jock. I also read a lot. An intellectual. I had the incredible good fortune of being able to run in several circles, although I could never seem to bring my various circles of friends together. In fact, my two best friends--one a jock, the other an intellectual--at times told me they hated the other. I attempt to explore the idea of bringing various cliques together in Never Slow Dance With A Zombie. Flash forward: Those two hating friends are now the BEST OF FRIENDS. I LOVE that! I also love teasing them about how much they used to hate each other.

The Present

I am very happy with my life right now. I write full time at home. I never thought I'd enjoy not going to the office but I love it. I work out in the morning, and then I write. My big daily challenge is figuring out what to do for dinner before my wife gets home. No, I don't cook. But I have become quite adept at calling restaurants for take out.

The Future

I'd love to be more conversant in French and Italian... Okay, conversant in French and Italian. My foreign language skills are the equivalent of hunt and peck. I need to find the time to master a language besides Klingon... Oh, wait! I haven't mastered that either.

*E. Van Lowe - author of Never Slow Dance With A Zombie

E. Van Lowe's Fun Facts

5 Fun Facts

by E. Van Lowe

(author of Never Slow Dance With A Zombie)

1) When I wrote NSDWAZ I was in the early stages of writing something else—a story about a girl whose family was on the witness protection program. But this silly zombie story kept popping into my head. I never went back to that other book.

2) Margot’s manifesto is the result of something that happened to me. When I graduated from junior high school, I was very unhappy with my social standing. I promised myself that in high school I was going to be a totally different person. This is exactly how Margot felt. Unlike Margot, I was too chicken to write a manifesto.

3) Principal Taft’s daily sayings “Marvelous Monday” “Terrific Tuesday” are based on a guy I worked with several years ago. He was a bit older, and every morning he came into the office full of energy, and saying things like “What a wonderful Wednesday it is.” I thought the sayings were corny, but somehow cool. When I was looking for something to make Principal Taft sound unique, I thought of my old friend.

4) I am afraid of bridges. I know this has nothing to do with NSDWAZ, but this is something I never talk about, and so now you know something very personal about me. Every time I cross a bridge I get the feeling it’s going to fall down. It’s worse when I am driving. When I am in a car with others I pretend everything is okay, but on the inside I am screaming “The bridge is falling down! The bridge is falling down!”

5) Originally I called the book Getting By At Zombie High. I knew there was a better title. I worked on the title for quite a while, and after many, many months I came up with NSDWAZ. I’m glad I put the work in. I love the title—don’t you?

E. Van Lowe's Zombie Movie Pick

Welcome to day two of Zombie Week.   

Today I am going to review a movie.  Yes, Nancy, it’s a zombie flick.  Let me begin by saying I love zombie flicks.  Love, love, love them!  The remake of Night of The Living Dead and Twenty-Eight Days Later are among my all time favorites. 

 

Being a comedy writer, I also enjoy funny movies, so for me, a funny zombie movie is nirvana.  Movies like Fido and Shaun of The Dead—one of the funniest zombie movies ever made—are also on my list of favorites. 

Today I am going talk about a camp zombie flick.  Wikipedia defines camp as an aesthetic sensibility wherein something is appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value.   Bad taste and irony.  Yay!  To me there is nothing funnier than a campy movie, which brings me to Flight of The Living Dead: Outbreak On A Plane.  The name says it all, doesn't it?  This D-horror flick could have easily been called Zombies On A Plane, because that’s what it is.

 

Okay, here we go.  Mad scientist Leo Bennett, has discovered a way to alter humans so that when they die they come back to life--and he thought this was a good idea.  One of the other scientists’ wives is accidentally exposed to mad scientist Leo’s virus, so they put her in suspended animation until they can find a cure.  And then what do they do?  Why they take her on a 747 full of innocent people, of course.  Fortunately the people on the plane are not very likable, so we can't wait for them to die.  And die they do. 

 

Characters include: the aging flight captain who is on his last flight (And the minute he tells us this we know he’s dead);  two young couples we can't stand (We also can’t wait for them to become members of the living dead).  There’s even a plain clothes police officer with his sarcastic prisoner handcuffed to his wrist, and a few scantily clad flight attendants.  These characters may be cliched, but who cares.  They’re all going to die. 

 

Some of the dialogue in this movie is so bad it’s hysterically funny.  But the zombies are really SCARY, and there’s lots of action.  If you can put up with the dialogue and plot line, you are in for one heck of a thrill ride.  Once the action gets going it is pretty much non stop.  I'm not going to spill too much of the storyline because I don’t want to spoil the fun. 

 

My only warning is for those of you who like their movies to have something meaningful going on.   This movie is not very deep.  It isn’t going to win any awards, but I enjoyed it anyway.  It's perfect for those days when you want to watch something that doesn't require a lot of thought.  So, if you’re into campy movies, and love zombies and action, this movie is for you.  I rate it four brains.

 

E

Day 1 - September Zombies Week 2009

Book of the day:

Never Slow Dance with a Zombie
by E. Van Lowe

Our reviews:
Carrie
Cecilia
Drea
Jess
Velvet

More reviews:
B.A.M. Reviews
Celia

Diana

Eleni
I Heart Monster

{insert book title here}

Karin's Book Nook
Terra

titania86

Zombie Girrrl

Author interview(s):
PopinFresh

Movie of the day:


Dance of the Dead (2008)

Our review(s):

Velvet
titania86



Zombie author:

Amanda Ashby - September Zombie week announcement

Zombie history:

Heather - Zombie Origins

Heather - Zombie Origins II

Zombie Fun:

Nicole - Zombie Quiz

Zombie comics, manga, graphic novels:

Dannie - Marvel Zombies...Hell Yes
Harry - High School of the Dead manga review

Zombie books:

Cecilia - Jailbait Zombie (teaser)

Zombie movies:

titania86 - Pontypool Changes Everything

titiania86 - Pontypool movie review

Zombie interviews:

Yan - An interview with the author pretending that she's a zombie

Yan - Q&A with a blogger about her being a zombie stripper

Zombie thoughts:

Zombie Girrrl - Zombies many uses
Wordvore - Zombie attack

Zombie random:

Velvet - Zombie Hip Hop

Today's Giveaways:

Cecilia
- Shaun Of The Dead (giveaway)
- Any Zombie Book Reviewed (giveaway)

More contests and giveaways here.

The full schedule of events is here.

September Zombies Week Welcome from E. Van Lowe

Hi Zombie Lovers. I'm E. Van Lowe and I'd like to welcome you to Zombie Week.  

One solid week devoted to zombiness... Yes, that's a word.  There will be book reviews, giveaways, contests and lot's of cool zombie related activity.  Oh, yes, and my first YA novel, Never Slow Dance With A Zombie, has just come out.  I will be talking about it later in the week.  I'm so excited I could suck somebody's brains right now--I know, gross.  But you get my point.   I am extremely excited about my new book and about Zombie Week.  So let the fun and games begin.  You'll be hearing from me again tomorrow.  Buahahahaaa!  That's my sinister laugh.  I know, zombies don't laugh.  At least not any that I have encountered.  Well guess what?  This week, zombies can laugh.  How cool is that?

 

Please check back tomorrow where I will be discussing my favorite recent zombie movie discovery -- Flight of The Living Dead.  You won't want to miss it.

 

All for now,

 

E