The New Flesh

A couple weeks ago, THE NEW FLESH sat down with Zombie-Man Eric S. Brown to discuss death, talking animals, and his new works. This is what we found out...

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TNF: Would you rather be burned to death, buried alive or slowly bleed to death by millions of paper cuts?

Eric: Uh, wow, what fun ways to die. Of the three, I think I am going to have to go with buried alive. I can't imagine the level of pain from hunger and such but maybe you could find a way to kill yourself in the coffin before it got too.

TNF: If you were a zombie and your victim’s brain was already eaten, which body part would you eat first?

Eric: Likely an arm or a leg. They would be easy to get to if you were fighting for the corpse with a bunch of other zombies and they have a good amount of meat on them.

TNF: What does your muse look like? And what does he/she/it use to beat you with?

Eric: My muse would be my wife, the most beautiful and stunning lady in the whole world. She's small but when she's mad her fury knows no bounds. She's also an excellent bouncing board for ideas and really helps me think through things if I need to talk about a project. She's also normal and doesn't really know about a lot about horror or SF so sometimes her ignorance of those fields gives her insights a diehard fan and veteran like me would never see. As to beating me, well, thank God, that hasn't happened yet, at least not with a weapon.

TNF: If you could talk to animals what’s the first thing you would ask them and which animal would you talk to first?

Eric: I would certainly talk to a cat first. I have loved cats all my life. I seem to have some kind of creepy connection with them. My first question would likely be to ask if I could join their club of regal coolness? Cats are like royalty, ya know?

TNF: If you were stranded on a deserted island and had one book with you, what book would it be?

Eric: The Bible. I am a Christian but I don't read it enough. Being cut off from work, my wife and family, and the local comic shop, would certainly force me to plow into it like I should be doing everyday anyway.

TNF: Is there a lot of carnage, torture and sex in your upcoming books Bigfoot War and The Human Experiment. Where can we get a copy?

Eric: Do you have to ask? I wrote them right? Yes, Bigfoot War is the bloodiest, most violent, highest body count (on a personal, up close level) I have ever written. It was loads of fun to write and you can see how writing zombies all these years helped to prepare me for it. Bigfoot was a childhood fear of mine living in a rural area and I think that fear really comes out in the books pages. The Human Experiment doesn't have as much carnage. It's a superhero/action book and an adventure you likely won't forget. It's main character, Agent Death, will be appearing again at the end of 2010 in another book called Anti-Heroes with a brand new novella about him and his team that picks up where The Human Experiment ends. Right now, I am working a new project entitled The Weaponer, which I just signed a contract on. It's my long awaited return to the zombie genre and a book so strange I can't really say anything about its plot without giving away more than I want to. Trust me though, if you enjoyed Season of Rot, The Weaponer will make your head spin with zombie goodness. In the meantime, while you're waiting on these new books to be released this year, I suggest that you could check out some of my works from 2009 such as Season of Rot which was nominated for a Dead Letter Award for zombie collection of the year or War of the Worlds Plus Blood Guts and Zombies which was a top ten finalist for best horror novel 2009 in the Preditor and Editor Awards. Both are fun reads and will prepare you for the five books coming this year.

TNF: Could you list your upcoming works for 2010?

Eric: Yes, as of now, first up is Tandems of Terror a brand new, 100,000+ word collection I did with John Grover from Library of Horror Press. It certainly has a good share of zombie tales in it but also includes SF horror tales, werewolves, and more. Bigfoot War will be released very shortly from Cocsom Entertainment and The Human Experiment will be out this summer from Altered Dimensions Press. In the Fall, Anti-Heroes, the continuation of The Human Experiment and featuring a brand new alien hero from David Dunwoody will be released from The Library of Science Fiction Press. And the year will conclude with THE WEAPONER, my return to full on, rotting, hungry hordes of undead, from Coscom Entertainment. I am also slated to be in numerous anthologies this year and even had the pleasure of writing a few introductions such as one of the upcoming Letters from the Dead anthology. In addition, I will be continuing my column on comics in Abandoned Towers Magazine and starting a new one in April/May for Morpheus Tales Magazine about my own life and experiences as a writer.

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