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Sunday, May 10, 2009
I am. I have been for quite some time. They won't stay dead, in other words. I hate it when a once-cool subgenre becomes a glut. Remember vampires? Evil children? Indian burial grounds? Serial killers?
All of those were a lot of fun until a huge success or two got imitators running to follow up. And now it seems as if vampires are biting their way back into the forefront, no thanks whatsoever to Stephanie Meyer and her legion of teenage devotees.
I was in Borders today, looking over the Horror Section. I saw, along with the big names, a lot of vampire stuff, a ton of mostly small press zombie books. One had the striking title, Jailbait Zombie. I even saw a zombie pop-up book.
Brian Keene and the phenomenal success of The Rising is partially to blame, but you know what? He could write zombie novel after zombie novel and I have no doubt that the books would sell. Probably better than his other books do. But he at least continues to try to grow and challenge himself by trying new things.
The genre expands and then, not unlike the hoards of cannibalistic walking dead, eats itself. We all know that a drought follows a glut.
Please writers, give the zombies a break. For your readers' sake and also for the sake of your own careers. In the long run, I don't think you really want to be pigeonholed as a "Zombie Author".
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