H.C. Please welcome another really talented group of authors from the Lesbian Vs Zombies series.
Today, multi-published authors JS Wayne and Jadette Paige along with new authors Ellie Heller and D. Dye talk about their contributions to the Lesbian vs Zombie series from Noble Romance.
H.C. Tell my readers a little about this exciting series.
This series is hot and the stories are consistently on Noble Romance’s bestsellers list (where we’ve been wrestling with HC Brown’s stories for top spot recently!). D. Dye’s story, Zapocalypse: The Midnight Special! came out on February 6.
Right around the corner on February 20th, Jadette Paige’s Nether Regions is due out followed by Ellie Heller’s story, Ginny’s Capture on February 27.
All of them feature lesbians, zombies and music, oh my!
H.C. I've cleaned out the dungeon and put my floggers away so, take a seat and say hello to my readers.
Ellie: Hi!
D. Dye: Hello :)
JS: Howdy!
Jadette: :D Waves with a sexy grin.
Ellie: Jadette, you been hanging out with KevaD? You put that sexy grin away and put on your studious author one! This here is serious. Okay, you can stop laughing now. :D
Jadette: Sigh...I’ll try. Switches to a sexy pout.
D. Dye: *straightens halo* Um, you guys behave...would ya. You’re going to make us all seem naughty or something.
Jadette: Lifts a brow at D. ...Halo?
D. Dye: *shoots Jadette with rubber band* Yes, halo. Admittedly a bit tarnished, but a halo nonetheless. *glares at Jadette*
Ellie: She’s renting it for the day and needs to keep it in good shape or she’ll loose the deposit, so play nice!
Jadette: Ouuch! See I told ya!
J.S. *Sits back and examines fingernails* But...we ARE naughty. That’s kinda what got us through the door, remember?
Jadette: (Scoots closer to J.S.) Yes, siree!
H.C. So, my fellow authors, what’s your take on Zombies: good, evil, sexy or not?
JS: I never considered zombies to be sexy. That shedding limbs, rotting flesh thing...urgh. As far as “evil,” humans tend not to like things that try to snack on them, which is why we put down dogs and other animals that attack humans. But there’s no point getting mad at a shark for munching on a surfer; they’re just sharks, doing what sharks do. Same applies with zombies. I regard zombies as a tool of a thoroughly malevolent mind. That controller, that mind, is the enemy. The zombies are just being used.
Jadette: I think Zombies are okay until they drink Red Bull. That kicks starts them. Yeah, not sexy, not good, and only evil when the dog pisses on their ankles. Shoot that would piss me off.
Ellie: Definitely NOT sexy! Good or evil... yet to be determined.
D. Dye: Depends upon the story teller. LOL For the most, I think Zombies just are. For me evil would be a choice, and zombies usually seem to have very little choice. (unless they’re near Jadette who’s feeding them Red Bulls.)
J.S. *snickers* Zombies and Red Bull... I’d hate to see them on Jaeger bombs!
Jadette: They’re a blast on them. Blows ‘em apart. Get it? Blows...Apart.
Ellie: Well, there’s a gamut of answers for you. Four different writers, four different ‘takes’. :D
H.C. Okay settle down and name the one Zombie feature (other than being dead) that creeps you out the most?
Ellie: Limp, flaccid and peeling...skin. Where did you think I was going?
D. Dye: Other than they’re dead and up and walking? I think the smell factor. They MUST be rather smelly. Like can’t run because you’re gagging to bad.
Ellie: D. --, OMG, you’re right the smell. I can only imagine.
Jadette: Yeah, that too. I knew a guy once... oh, nevermind.
H.C. Eeeeeew
J.S: I have this thing about the idea of rotting. Rotting, plus walking, equals scary.
H.C. The pus, stench and maggots would put me off too.
Jadette: Honestly, just thinking about what’s going on below the belt. You know, unzip and there is Nuthin’ there. Whoaaa, not fun.
J.S. *Looks at Jadette* *blinks* I can honestly say I’d never thought about a zombie’s schlong until you brought it up. Thanks for the visual...I think...
H.C. I don't think I get to the unzipping part I'd be running too fast.
Okay down to the technical stuff .What was the hardest part of writing your piece for LvZ?
Jadette: Trying to have a story that was different from the normal zombie story. I think all the authors of the LvZ have succeeded.
J.S. Mine was trying to determine what kind of zombies best served my story. There are really only so many ways to write a zombie. Looking back, I kinda wish I’d gone with something with a little more Caribbean flavor, but I think the zombies I ultimately went with worked for the story I created.
Ellie: Pronouns during the sex scene. Seriously, I now get why a lot of people writing same gender stories choose the first person.
D. Dye: Finding some dark. Gina and Ginger and so vibrant and alive. These two don’t stress, they deal head on and get on with their day. So getting a dark edge while they’re chatting away in my head was difficult.
H.C . Can you give my readers a favorite line of dialog from your story?
D. Dye: Well as of now I’m not sure if it stayed. It was The Birds meets Sometimes They come Back. Alfred Hitchcock meet Stephen King.
J.S.: “I could snap your spine with a paperback book and carve you up with a credit card.” Her tone was as flat as a well-constructed floor.
Jadette: Oh, God, don’t... don’t...stop...Ahhhhhhh Ohhhh, wait, a line from the book? Ummmm, here you go. Threso stared into Kreousa’s clear eyes. The scent of grass and water filled the air about them. Soft, wind swayed the trees around them, dancing in the leaves. “Have you ever visited a woman’s nether regions?”
Ellie: Easy! It’s got to be...oh, wait, I can’t use that one, it gives away a major part of the story. Hmm, I’ll have to go with this one instead: “Some leggy blonde who looks like the suburban idea of a rock whore.” This is hard, whose idea was this question? (glares around the room).
Jadette: Hey, don’t look at me. This wasn’t my idea. I wanted a show and tell, but noooo, J.S. decided question and answer. Gives another sexy pout.
J.S. Oh, sure, blame the token ginger! Gimme one of those rubber bands...
D. Dye: Had a feeling. Brought the booze and case of rubber bands. Anything else may have gotten us arrested. *points at Jadette*
H.C. Now next question.
Would your characters ‘hang’ with you if they were real (and not zombies)?
D. Dye: Probably not, but I’d want to. They’d be a riot to hang out with.
Jadette: You never know, D. I bet they’d let you.
Ellie: Nah, I’m too old for those young’uns.
Jadette: Looks over at Ellie, OLD? You? Right. In case anyone is listening, she’s one hot Momma.
Ellie: Yeah, early onset menopause does that. :-)
Jadette: Snorts Mt. Dew all over screen. Glares at Ellie before wiping screen and answers question. We’d be best buds. Honestly, they’d whip me in shape in no time.
Ellie: Jadette, I can just see you, scrambling over rocky hillsides half dressed. Um, maybe not. :-)
J.S.: Hang out with me? LOL Highly doubtful. I’m MUCH too uptight for them to want to hang around with, and the fifteen years between them and me almost ensures we have absolutely nothing in common.
Jadette: Uptight? J.S.? You only get better as you age, baby! They’d love you!
Ellie: D, you got another beer there you can hand over to JS?
H.C. Most memorable Zombie Ever?
J.S.: K.B. Cutter wrote a very dark zombie story about a sixty-something Florida retiree who was hell-bent on surviving a zombie outbreak. In doing so, he probably created the most “real” (and thus most frightening) zombies I’d ever read or seen. This story, Dead Fall, helped inspire my own zombies in Dead Means Dead.
Ellie: When I was in high school my boyfriend wanted to go see Dawn of The Dead, midnight showing. Several of his friends were bringing dates and, while he did point out he thought I would not like it, I went anyway. FLIPPIN’ FREAKED ME OUT. Left not very far into the movie and waited in the lobby. Can honestly say I’ve avoided zombies from then until now (and no, I’m not going to tell you how long ago that was!).
Jadette: Oh, man, Ellie, I would have done the same thing. Nope, nerves can’t take that kind of stuff. My most memorable is Shaun of the Dead’s best friend at the end pf the movie. Yeah, that’s it.
D. Dye: Does Pet Cemetery count? If so, when their little boy comes back. That whole scene messed me up.
Jadette: Oh, now that freaked me out too.
H.C. Darkest/Creepiest moment in your story?
Ellie: Oh, I’d have to say the scene where the zombies are in the next room having sex, and my heroines are forced to inadvertently listen, rates high on the creepy scale.
Jadette: The Amazon party arrives in Hades. That scene will definitely freak some people out. It freaked me out.
J.S: I think the darkest part is when the kids on the college campus realize they’re cut off from the outside world because of the containment effort. The idea of being trapped somewhere I can’t escape from bothers me, and I tried to use that trapped feeling to really drive home just how deep a pile of fecal matter these people are wading in.
D. Dye: I think when it really hits, what everyone has to do. Can’t say more without giving something away. It’s a pivotal moment in the story.
H.C. Is Zombie loving even possible?
Ellie: Between zombies? I can see it, at least until full zombification kicks in. After parts start decaying and falling off... not happening with out major problems. Between a non-zombie and a zombie, ye-uck, although I do have a character... well, you’ll have to read to find out more.
Jadette: Uh, not this woman. No way. Not gonna happen. Now KevaD, he had Zombie loving down. Be sure and check to find out how. Hey, Ellie had an off-camera love scene, too.
D. Dye: Refer back to my comment about the smell. :)
J.S: I think KevaD answered that question brilliantly between zombies. But I agree with Ellie and D. A non-zombie and a zombie together is just one step too close to the necrophilia line for my comfort.
H.C. Shudders, hell yeah.
H.C. Fun fact or story about the piece you'd like to share:
Jadette: Couldn’t help thinking about ‘Troy’ and ‘300’. What if the hot Amazon Warriors had to fight the Spartans? Who’d win? Then add some fighting in Hades but not with living creatures but Amazons fighting the ‘Undead’. Oh, man, they would kick some ass. Add some hot sex and Voila’, Xena meets undead 300. Life can’t get much better!
Ellie: I’d written the central part of the story a couple of years ago. The story sat, wallowing in a drawer until Ruby Green, the editor said, ‘you should take a look at this call.’ Zombies. Music. Lesbians. Lightbulb went off. *That* was why the main character wasn’t getting into the hero - she didn’t swing that way! The story’s been greatly changed but the central image of the truck and the casket warehouse remained the same and the main character, Ginny, is much happier.
J.S.: I was trying very hard at the outset of this piece to make it a truly musical number. Unfortunately, copyright considerations and my inability to create song lyrics on a moment’s notice got in the way, but the play Louise is rehearsing for at the beginning of the story is The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
D. Dye: There was a scene I was writing when I had this flashback of some hysterical grade B horror movie I saw once. I stopped long enough to research it. Sure enough, I found it. Night of the Chicken Dead-The Musical.
Jadette: Musical? They actually made a Zombie Chicken Musical? Wow!
J.S. *Experiences a flashback to the Buffy musical* In my own defense, I had no idea there was such a thing until my wife showed it to me. Needless to say, our tastes aren’t always sympatico. *Grimaces*
H.C What’s the best part of writing zombies for you? The worst?
D. Dye: They can be nasty, mean, vicious and bad egg smelly, but it’s alright. They’re zombies and for them, it’s okay. What I actually mean is they can kill, will kill and there doesn’t need to be a reason. The worst? Actually not having a reason can be harder to write depending upon the scene. A good story can sometimes be the back story. The lost love that was murdered and being avenged., etc. Zombies can be a double edged sword.
Ellie: The best part about writing zombies isn’t actually seen but back history I have in my head on how the zombie virus was created, particularly why and by whom. The worst part is all that mental canoodling boiled down to one line. The ‘draft’ version: Last time she was on a university campus the story behind the zombie virus had just broke and anti-military sentiment was high.
J.S.: To me, the best part of writing zombies is the fact that you can really go all out with the gore and the ick factor, and no one will bat an eyelash. Zombies are supposed to be gross and creepy, and the moreso, the better!
By the same token, though, some of the research I did for this story suggested that zombies are not as far-fetched, and therefore not as “safe” a scare, as we’d like to believe. Now there’s a thought that will keep you up at night!
Jadette: I can kill something off. Zombies are good for that. Seriously... The worst, well, I didn’t have a worse cause I got to kill zombies off.
H.C .What kind of research did you do for the story?
Jadette: I am a history buff. Big time. Love ancient history so Nether Regions was right up my ally. I scoured a ton of sights to find out what I needed to know about Amazons, Spartans, the Greek Gods and so much more to make this story seem epic.
Ellie: I researched UPS trucks, wireless video monitoring, casket making, guns, shrubbery, um, there’s more I’m sure. I tend to do a lot of research, even though it may affect one line’s accuracy.
D. Dye: Gun research. I know diddly squat about and there was scene that describes one. I knew what my character would have, just didn’t know what the heck it was called. Also had to research an antique truck part. (Know squat about those too! LOL )
J.S. I didn’t have to do a great deal of research for “Dead Means Dead,” just because I was already familiar with the setting. (The college I used was based on the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City. I was trying to work in a reason for them to go into the museum and see the giant pleisiosaur skeleton, but that didn’t pan out.) I did, however, spend a lot of time looking up zombies on the Internet to make sure I had the descriptions down and used the right kind of zombie for the story.
H.C. What entity do you feel supported you in your writing outside of family and friends?
Jadette: Oh, that’s an easy one. While so many authors have large groups to fall back on for support, I have something even better. I have a group of authors who are members of Erotic Romance Authors critique forum. It’s a limited membership of a group of fantastic people. They’ve laughed and cried with me for last few years and I truly appreciate them.
Ellie: Ditto. No seriously, ERA rocks. I have I think like SIX blog posts on how much I love them!
J.S. ERA was a huge boost for me in writing this story. Prior to “Dead Means Dead,” I wasn’t sure about how to write zombies into a sexy story. Ruby Green gave me some great advice and information early on. I’m very lucky to be with ERA and to be hanging out with all these lovely ladies today!
D. Dye: I’m very, very blessed with wonderful author friends, beta’s and groups. Before Zapocalypse, the gals of the FPHRW (Florida Panhandle Romance Writers) and after Zap, both FPHRW and the great folks at ERA.
H.C. What color panties do you prefer to wear?
(BTW this in NOT my question *cover's ears* Trust me, I really don't want to know LOL )
Jadette: Purple with black lace...crotchless. Looks over at JS, Ellie, and D., waiting patiently to hear their answer.
J.S.: *blushes* Erm, I don’t WEAR panties. I have, however, been known to wear satiny briefs with iridescent dollar signs on them. Usually, though, basic black boxer briefs get the job done.
Ellie: Panties? What Panties? Oh, all right, I don’t care about the color, but it’s boy cut hipsters or nothing. :-)
D. Dye: All right...who put this question here and Ellie, what if you were in a wreck? You wouldn’t want EMS getting a full moon would you? But I’ll answer, usually nude colored hipsters.
Jadette: That’s why I’m wearing Purple with black lace crotchless panties. We have some HAWT EMS guys. ;D
Ellie: Hopefully the EMS guys would view it as a happy surprise. :-)
Jadette: And why wouldn’t they? Running a hand down a shapely side and hip. ;D
Ellie: You, you, you! Why does this always have to be about you? Although, that is a very sexy hip…
H.C. Settle down Ellie my readers will think you're jealous. And on *that* note, we’ll wrap this up. Be sure to check out Lesbians Vs. Zombies from Noble Romance.
Want to know more about these authors? Visit their blogs:
H.C. Don't forget to drop by for my A Tryst of Fate release party and contest on 26 February :-)
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