Messages Both Intended and Subconscious.

I was thinking of my writing output recently and what it's about. I recall a couple of writers I spoke to over the years mentioning that even if you don't actively want to engage in delivering a message, you still often do. That is, even if what you intend is to deliver pure pulp fiction, or just an entertaining yarn with no undercurrent of philosophical or political content, your subconscious dictates that you will do exactly the opposite.

What struck me in thinking specifically of my novels and stories was of how many of them deal with racism. Sometimes with intent, but often just a product of ideas percolating out of the subconscious and ending up on the pages.

The only time I actively wrote a book with an intentional undercurrent of commentary on racism in the USA is my book THE EMISSARY. I wanted to write about the subject in a way that I could treat with it over the course of a story in a horror novel. What I wanted to do was actively write a book with an overt delivery of the problem of racism in the US.

But many of my other books have dealt with some aspect of racism, which I think is far and away the most awful part of our national history. It's always there, and won't go away, existing persistently decade after decade since the times before our nation even existed.

Years ago I was writing zombie novels. And while on the Internet to promote one of those novels I went from bulletin board to bulletin board to make connections and see how I should go about promoting my books there. What I thought I would find I did not, and what I did discover horrified me. Pretty much every public bulletin board devoted to zombie fiction onto which I logged was weighted heavily with racists, many of them neo-Nazis. These guys would post links and you'd find yourself looking at boards promoting hatred and white-race "superiority". I saw vile imagery and threats of violence and extermination spelled out in plain terms.

Frankly, after that, I didn't want to write anymore zombie novels and decided not to engage in promotions of my work on any of those boards. When one of my publishers asked me to write them another one I at first refused. But then I recalled a short story that I'd written that had later been produced as a comic story. The idea of turning it into a novel had occurred to me for years but I had never followed through. I agreed to an advance and set about writing it.

Thus was born the expansion into novel of my short story THE NEW ECOLOGY DEATH. I thought about what I wanted to do with it. I never once mentioned racism or anything directly related to it. I set about burying any mention of anything attached to the subject in an atmosphere both cold and hopeful, and also cautionary.

But two things that I actively did was make all of the principle characters Jews. And I took guns and gun-play totally out of the picture so that I would rob the reader of what I have come to think of as gun-porn. There is the reference to distant gunfire once in the book, and an actual scene with a firearm is played out near the very end with unintended consequences. I specifically set out to create a zombie novel with almost none of the plot elements that most racists lust for in their zombie novels. I made it so that the tables are turned and the setting is one in which zombies are all but defeated and are only a marginal and fading threat. The main characters are a Jewish family. There are almost no guns, and none of the jargon that gives gun-loving racists a specific thrill (which I am convinced is sexual).

It was the worst-selling book I ever wrote. I don't know how many copies it sold, but not many. It never came anywhere near to earning back its advance. The only feedback I ever got on it was from a couple of racists raging about how there were no guns in the book.

Someday I'd like to get it back into print. Of all of the books I've written, I can think of nothing in it that I'd want to rewrite. It was pretty much everything I wanted it to be and which I set out to do. So getting it back into print would be easy on a technical basis (no rewrites). I'd just need to figure out how to get it into the hands of the right audience.

We'll see.

THE EMISSARY. A horror novel wherein racial and sexual hatred manifests itself as lycanthropy.

DEADLOCKED, a novel with major elements of race, philosophy, struggle, and hope.

My out-of-print THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH. Returning to print one of these days. Maybe this year. (But maybe not.)

Re-Casting the Mold.

I make no secret of the fact that I think most zombie novels are a manifestation of xenophobia, and are a reactionary political impulse. Further, I find that they are largely a kind of racist gun-porn. This realization came upon me slowly but I finally was able to recognize the current phenomena of the zombie novel as those philosophical sicknesses made whole. As I was a fan of the stuff and a writer of such novels I was doubly surprised by my conclusions.

As you can imagine, this is not a popular opinion and I did not create any fans by speaking up about it. In fact, I made a lot of enemies that way and created at least one stalker who is a professional writer who dogs my heels over this matter, making a fool of himself with his sick obsession.

However, at the urging of my publisher (Severed Press) I was convinced to write one more zombie novel. Initially I didn't want to do it, but I decided to take out the notes I'd made for a novel based on my comic book script (and short story) "The New Ecology of Death".

I wanted to do something different. What I wished to do was paint a tale that was not filled with gunfire and with warring factions and thinly-veiled racism and Fascist ideology. I was tired of the same old ultra-violent zombie novel.

So, this is what I did:

Why not tell a novel of a world in which the zombie conflict is over? The humans won. The last zombies are largely harmless and hunted. All is largely well and the Dystopian society that has assembled in the wake of the troubles is mainly safe, if not quite what it was.

But one day, one of the zombies wakes up--he comes out of his zombie fugue and is gripped by the desire to see his child. What then? He has to run a gauntlet of suspicious, destructive humans who want only the end of his existence. Can he fulfill his quest? Can he make his way to his child? And if he does...what then?

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH: The strangest zombie novel you will ever read.

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH by James Robert Smith. From Severed Press.

Book Promotions: THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH.

Back when I was a young man, I wrote a short horror story entitled "The New Ecology of Death". The strangest thing about the story was probably that it was about a zombie. Now, that's not strange today, but in the 1980s it was pretty freaking weird. There were--as I discovered--no markets for zombie fiction. That's right. No one published such things, and no one wanted to publish zombie fiction. I was ahead of the curve by a grand stretch--so far ahead that no one would consider it.

After I had retired the yarn to the trunk where it would gather dust, I heard that Stephen Bissette was putting together a comic book horror anthology called TABOO. First I sold him a short story, "Wet". What the Hell, I figured. I'd just adapt "The New Ecology of Death" into comic script format, send the story and script along, and see what would happen. What happened is that he accepted it for publication.

Unfortunately, the story languished in publication limbo as troubles plagued Bissette's brilliant anthology, and it was a long time before the tale finally saw print in the very last issue of TABOO, published at that point by Kitchen Sink.

Many more years passed. I'd  written a zombie novel called THE LIVING END for Severed Press. It did okay and by then zombie novels were selling well. The publisher asked me to write another zombie novel, but I had pretty much said all I wanted to with THE LIVING END as far as apocalyptic zombie fiction was concerned. He kept asking, so I looked at some of my notes that I'd stored away with the original text for "The New Ecology of Death". I'd all but forgotten that I'd written basic notes for transitioning the short story into a novel.

I agreed to do it.

"The New Ecology of Death" pretty much turns the zombie mythos on its head. The zombie in question (Wenzler) recalls his former existence as a living man in detail and is obsessed with seeing his young son before his body disintegrates. Thus, he must face the living as a barrier to his existence if he wants to achieve this end. I fleshed out the notes and started work on the novel, delivering it some months later.

If you want a stranger-than-normal zombie novel, THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH is for you. Follow the travails of Wenzler as he runs the gauntlet of the living to find his son. Why? Even Wenzler does not know exactly why. He only knows that he has to do it.

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH, a zombie novel By James Robert Smith. From Severed Press.

Self Promotion!

Keeping up the promotion for THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH.

The re-launch of THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH. An expansion of my comic story from Stephen Bissette's TABOO comics anthology, it's a completely different take on the zombie mythos.

We've all read stories and novels about people having to run a gauntlet of undead zombies. But what's it like for a lone member of the undead trying to make his way past thousands of paranoid, violent crowds of the living?

Find out how and why in THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH, by James Robert Smith.

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH.

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH.

The Severed Press re-launch of my novel, THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH. What I like to call "the anti-zombie zombie novel".

During the zombie apocalypse civilization was on the brink of collapse. But it pulled through. Alex Wenzler, however, did not. He was a victim and became one of the walking dead. Now, things have changed. Two years on, society is getting back to normal. The zombies are on the run. Life is close to being the way it was. But Alex Wenzler suddenly wakes up, roused from the waking coma of the zombie un-life. He is aware of what he was and what he is and what he is…becoming. Now all he wants is to find his son, Mark. He will have to run a gauntlet of violence and almost sure destruction to see his boy. Can he do it? And if he can, what will he do once his child is within reach? There are two sides to every story. Even the undead have something to say.

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH.

New Cover Art!

Severed Press has commissioned new cover art for my anti-zombie zombie novel (you'll have to read it to understand what I mean), THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH. Based on a comic book story that I sold to Stephen R. Bissette's TABOO horror comics anthology. I greatly expanded the concept and transformed it into a novel.

So, there will be a re-launch of the novel coming up. Here's a cover version I was emailed for critique. I think the artist did a great job of capturing the feel of the book.

Sale!

One of my publishers, Severed Press, is offering a sales special on a couple of my novels. Here's yer chance to nab 'em now!

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH!

WITHERING.

Promotion Time!

Editor S.T. Joshi sent me the galley proofs for my first short story collection, A CONFEDERACY OF HORRORS which will be appearing in 2014 from Hippocampus Press. Hippocampus has the best galley proofs I've ever seen, and this includes the ones I've gotten from the big publishers.

So, what the heck? I'll use today's blog to promote a couple of books:
 
Here are a couple of my latest novels you can buy.

Wenzler was one of the unlucky ones who succumbed during the outbreak that almost became the Zombie Apocalypse. Two years have passed. He wakes up and remembers who he is and what he became. No longer quite human, he is consumed with the will to find his son in a largely recovered world. But to do that he'll have to run a gauntlet of the living who are out to finish putting the undead away for good. But is he undead? Or is he something else? Something more? THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH.

Often the monster is just a misunderstood anti-hero. But sometimes it's a murdering, blood-thirsty asshole. WITHERING.

The Last Zombie

The first time I ever saw NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD I was bitten as surely by Romero's vision as the characters had been by the zombies stalking them. The concept of the recently dead rising from oblivion to a kind of un-life with an unquenchable desire to kill and eat the living...it was brilliant. Yes, there had been movie and fiction zombies before Romero's seminal film, but never like those! Romero's zombies were a stroke of horror genius. There is a great reason they have had this long life in popular film and fiction.

I had wanted to write zombie novels for years. I had plotted them out in my mind and never proceeded beyond jotting some notes because I figured...who the hell was going to buy a zombie novel? It just wasn't done!

Yes, there had been some zombie novels when I was thinking of the idea, but they were adaptations of the Romero films, or sequels to those films (such as John Russo's excellent RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD which preceded the film of the same name but which was a direct sequel to the events in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD). Finally, a few zombie novels popped up, but they were rare and the only one that did exceptionally well was Phil Nutman's WET WORK.

But I kept fiddling with the concept and eventually decided to write a short story dealing with zombies--"The New Ecology of Death", which I then adapted to comic script format and sold to Stephen R. Bissette's TABOO.

Then, with the appearance of print-on-demand and self-publishing, there was an explosion of zombie novels. Thousands of them. I am not exaggerating--THOUSANDS! So I decided to give it a shot, intentionally avoiding the pitfalls that I had noticed in longer zombie fiction: thinly veiled racism.

To me, zombie fiction was effective because it was classic paranoid fantasy. Along the lines of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS or THE PUPPET MASTERS or I AM LEGEND (from which the idea for NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD bled out). But I'd never looked upon it as a cover for racist ideas and dogma. So, naively, I followed the zombie phenomena and pursued my own zombie novel (THE LIVING END), while trying to make contact with zombie writers and fans while I worked on that book.

And it was with some great shock that I realized that a huge number of zombie fans are right wing gun nuts and racists. And a large portion of the folk writing zombie fiction were right wing gun nuts and racists. It should have occurred to me before reading the comments on zombie fiction chat boards and following links from people posting--so many of which led back to gun-crazies and white supremacist websites. Then, out of curiosity, I decided to look up THE TURNER DIARIES an overtly racist novel. And it was obvious to me that there's not the thickness of a lizard's whisker's difference in that hate speech and most zombie novels.

Reading that racist piece of shit I recognized in it the plots of most of the zombie novels I'd ever seen or read. Instead of killing zombies, the "heroes" of that ignorant, hateful poison kill Jews and black folk and race-traitors. So it was easy to suddenly see why so many right wing extremists were attracted to zombie fiction.

Gun-crazed racists.

 
I did my best to create zombie stories that--while deeply rooted in the tradition of paranoid fantasy--were not infected with the kind of racism that makes so many zombie novels uncomfortably popular.

The zombie fad seems, at last, to be fading. I hope it has run its course like the zombie disease that features so prominently in most of the books about that particular monster. But I worry about the real monsters who wander among us...the gun-crazed racists who so adore the thousands of poorly-conceived, poorly written, poorly camouflaged racist books.

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH.

COALITION excerpt.

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH is the last zombie concept I'll write. However, I'm still tweaking the final part of THE COALITION series that I started for Severed Press. The third chapter is overdue and I'm working to finish it. To that end, here is a brief excerpt from the third and final section of the three-part series:

THE COALTION

THE 2% SOLUTION (Part III)

by Robert Mathis Kurtz

On a Friday the biggest aircraft that Riggs had ever seen came roaring in over the city. Oliver, Jean and Ron all came spilling out of their rooftop aerie to see what was making the noise.

The sound had begun as a minor whine, so subtle that at first they didn’t pay it much mind. The family was making supper and the home was filled with the smells and sounds of the meal that was simmering in pots on the stovetop. Poke salad boiled, seasoned with venison. And a stew of that same meat swimming in broth with potatoes and carrots harvested from the sprawling gardens near the hospital added to the wonderful bouquet of food smells.

Thus, the three were moving about, talking about the supper and the day’s accomplishments instead of paying note to a faraway mumble that was growing into a gigantic, dish-rattling growl.

The first to race onto the rooftop was Ron and he was suddenly a sculpture frozen in place, his eyes to the heavens. Jean followed, only belatedly realizing that she’d emerged through the door gripping a pan she’d been about to store away. And Oliver popped free of the nest last, pointing and hopping about. His thin finger aimed toward the looming sight of the gigantic airframe that was tilted slightly to the left as the great thing banked, turning toward the airport.

“Look!” Oliver’s cracked, boy’s voice rose above the vibrations of the enormous engines that were shaking everything from hundreds of feet in the sky. “What is it? What is it, Ron?”

Feeling the boy beside him, Ron put his arm around the kid’s shoulders and pulled him close. “Biggest goddamned plane I’ve ever seen, son. It’s called a Galaxy C5A. When I was a kid, it was practically the biggest transport vehicle in the US Air Force.” He turned to track the thing across the blue sky. It seemed to lumber in the unpolluted Carolina cobalt blue. In truth, it was travelling very fast indeed, but because of the sheer mass of the thing, it only seemed to be creeping through the atmosphere.

“What’s it doing?” Jean asked. “I had no idea…” he voice trailed off.

“Well, the work crews have been working overtime to clear the airstrips at the old airport,” he reminded her. “They didn’t reopen the route from downtown to the old terminal for nothing. I figured something was going to happen, but I had no idea…” His own voice went to nothing as he thought about the implications.

“Who are they?” Oliver piped. “What’s going on? Won’t all that noise bring in the deaders from around the city? We’re going to be swamped with them,” he pointed out.

“Oliver’s right,” Jean agreed. She transferred the stainless steel pan to her left hand and put her fingers in the loops of Ron’s pants and tugged him toward her. “All of that noise and movement is going to draw the walking dead right out of the woods and into town. It’ll be like it was before. Maybe worse,” she added. “Goddamn it.”

By then, the ponderous thing was making its approach toward the airport. And it was only at that point that Ron noticed the lights glittering from formerly ruined and decrepit Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. And then it was his turn to point.

“Fuck if they don’t have the place powered up!” His voice rose as that of the growling jet retreated. “I didn’t notice it. But they’ve got the place lit.” Ron’s hand indicated the area to the east of the strip. “Damned if they don’t even have the radar working!”

As they watched, the C5A came in on its final approach and seemed to glide in almost gracefully to the tarmac. It appeared an impossible dance for such a gigantic and gravity-laden mass.

“If they don’t turn off those lights, the zombies are going to swarm that place like flies on shit,” Jean said. “As soon as it gets dark.” She tugged on Ron’s arm until she was able to peel his attention free of the transport as it taxied to a stop.

“Ron. What are we going to do? They’ll be back in the city again. It’ll be like before. Maybe worse! I don’t know if we have enough food socked away for a long siege.”

He peered into her eyes and could plainly see the worry that had been at rest come clawing back to the surface. Her heart-stopping perfect features were etched with the fear that had been held in check for so long. His arms went around her and he hugged her tightly.

“I’m not sure what they’re up to,” he admitted.  “But we all knew they weren’t clearing out the airport for nothing.  Dale told me that there were plans. But I figured a few small planes.” Riggs nodded toward the airport that was growing shadowed as the sun began to dip toward the horizon. “I didn’t reckon on a C5A to come in.”

“What kind of jet is it?” Oliver asked.

Ron released his grip on his wife and smiled at the boy. At least Oliver’s face wasn’t painted with fear. He was just curious.

“It was the biggest transport in the Air Force. At least it was when I was a kid. Now, I’m pretty sure it has to be the biggest aircraft on the planet. The thing can carry something like 270,000 pounds of cargo. Tanks. Helicopters. Even bridge sections.”

Together, they watched for a while until darkness began to overtake the scenery. Lights glittered at the airport. Control towers were revealed. They could see tiny forms—men scurrying around the monstrous aircraft and moving to and from a cleaned and refitted hangar. But soon the trio headed back to their shelter, remembering the meal that was waiting for them.

“What did they bring on that jet?” Oliver asked as they pulled the door closed behind them.

“Hell, son. I don’t know. But I’m sure we’ll find out. If I have to, I’ll go ask the Colonel what’s going on.” And, then, together, a sense of unease creeping into their home as they closed and locked the door, they went back to their meal.

Whatever was going on, Ron knew that soon he would know what it was. He could only hope that he would like the answers he’d find.

Latest Novels

My two newest novels:

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH.

A nice review of the book here.


And WITHERING.

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH

The book is now available in ebook format. The paperback will follow soon for those of you who still like real books made of paper (as I do).

This is (not counting my undelivered third part of COALITION) my last zombie novel. I wanted to do something very different with the form. I (loosely) based it on a comic book story I wrote for Stephen Bissette's legendary TABOO anthology series. The story of the same name appeared in the last issue (#9) of TABOO. And now the novel.

Pick up your ebook version of THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH.

During the zombie apocalypse civilization was on the brink of collapse. But it pulled through. Alex 

Wenzler, however, did not. He was a victim and became one of the walking dead.

Now, things have changed. Two years on, society is getting back to normal. The zombies are on the run. Life is close to being the way it was.

But Alex Wenzler suddenly wakes up, roused from the waking coma of the zombie un-life.

He is aware of what he was and what he is and what he is…becoming.

Now all he wants is to find his son, Mark.

He will have to run a gauntlet of violence and almost sure destruction to see his boy. Can he do it? And if he can, what will he do once his child is within reach?

There are two sides to every story. Even the undead have something to say.

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH

By James Robert Smith

Author of THE FLOCK, THE CLAN, and THE LIVING END.

From Severed Press.

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH.

Edging Toward Publication

My agent tells me that it's possible THE CLAN (my sequel to THE FLOCK) is inching closer to publication. We'll see. I've been waiting since 2011 when it was first slated to appear.

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH should also be very close to publication. I'll post an announcement when it's about to hit.

In the meantime, you can read some scary pulp with my novel (written under one of my pen names), WITHERING (by Robert Mathis Kurtz). My faithful agent is shopping the film option around. It would make a nifty monster movie!

Coming Soon! THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH.

During the zombie apocalypse civilization was on the brink of collapse. But it pulled through. Alex Wenzler, however, did not. He was a victim and became one of the walking dead.

Now, things have changed. Two years on, society is getting back to normal. The zombies are on the run. Life is close to being the way it was.

But Alex Wenzler suddenly wakes up, roused from the waking coma of the zombie un-life.

He is aware of what he was and what he is and what he is…becoming.

Now all he wants is to find his son, Mark.

He will have to run a gauntlet of violence and almost sure destruction to see his boy. Can he do it? And if he can, what will he do once his child is within reach?

There are two sides to every story. Even the undead have something to say.

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH

By James Robert Smith

Author of THE FLOCK, THE CLAN, and THE LIVING END.

Coming soon from Severed Press.