I’m so lucky to get to do a post for a lovely writer I hope you all come to know and love like I do. Kai Kiriyama has now published her second book, Pathogen: Patient Zero through Lemorn Literary Works.   

Kai was great enough to talk a little about her book and zombies for me so without further ado, a little zombie talk with Kai.

First off, I would like to say hello to everyone and a HUGE thank you to Red for hosting me on this, the very last stop of the Pathogen: Patient Zero blog tour. It’s been a pretty crazy 10 days and I’ve met and chatted with so many awesome people about my new book and about writing and life in general. I wouldn’t be here without the support of my peers and my friends and there are not enough words to thank you all for the support you’ve given me.

 

All right, enough of the sappy thank you crap. Let’s talk Zombies.

 

So, it’s pretty obvious that I’m a bit of a zombie nut. I mean, Pathogen is slated to be a trilogy. I have been working for Zombie Training Magazine (www.zombietraining.com) for over a year now and a serial novel of mine is being published there as well. My room is full of zombie stuff. I have a bunch of Walking Dead merchandise. I have met several key cast members. I have a little inflatable zombie punching bag on my desk that I named Joe and I use for stress relief when I’m busy writing. Hell, I have weapons in my room so that they’re close at hand in case of zombies. It’s pretty safe to say that I’m a little bit obsessed.

Now, I’m not saying that “holy hell, YES, zombies are gonna happen like tomorrow! Prepare! PREEEPAAARE!”

 

Mostly ’cause that’s crazy.

 

On the other hand, being prepared for a “zombie apocalypse” means that you’re very likely prepared to deal with a natural disaster or other major catastrophe. I’m rebuilding my emergency kits in my home, and I’m planning one for my mom’s car. Simple things like a 72 hour emergency kit – something that even the CDC tells you that you should have – are great steps forward in preparing yourself for zombies. Or floods, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, winter storms that knock out the power, or even major threats to a city like bomb threats.

 

To be honest, I also wanna get out of the city. I want a farm. If you’re familiar with Walking Dead, then you’ll know Hershel and his farm. I want something like that. But with a prison wall around the property. I’m not paranoid. I promise.

 

In one of the first stops on this tour, you’ll remember that I said that zombies are the one monster in pop culture that hasn’t “lost their bite” and I still stand by that. Zombies are scary as hell. They’re the one thing that you really can’t make sexy. (Unless you’re into necrophilia, and in that case I’d suggest that you walk away and please don’t talk to me.) Zombies are dead, rotting corpses. They are killing machines. They don’t feel pain, and they’re only after their next meal. Like undead sharks. (And I think I just wrote a B-movie. I’ll keep y’all posted on Necro-Shark.)

 

Zombies are the one monster that could theoretically happen at any given time. A lab accident that mutates salmonella, or a virus unearthed from deep inside the Congo. Or, and this is my personal theory, the makeup companies learn how to revive dead cells to make women appear younger and then that gets out of control and BOOM, we have zombies. Scary when you think about it, right? Especially in that context!

Anyway, I’m a fan of zombies, and I write zombie stories because it’s something that I love and want to share with everyone else. I really think that my stories are a little bit more unique than the standard run-and-kill stories and I hope that they’re something that you all will read and enjoy.

 

Thank you again for coming with me on this crazy journey full of undead mayhem and stuff. It’s been rad. I hope to hear from y’all soon, and I really hope that you’ll all read Pathogen: Patient Zero and lemme know what you think.

 

A question for you before I go, answer me in the comments: What’s your zombie apocalypse theory? How do you think the zombies are gonna start and what are you doing to prepare?

 

Thanks again!

Slainte,

-Kai Kiriyama

xoxo