JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Christopher Newman, author of Uprising
(Dark Roast Press)
Imagine a world where the undead have been conquered and are now just another resource to be utilized. You go into your local DMV to renew your drivers’ license. The clerk asks, “What do you want marked for your Undead Clause?” A No answer means upon your reanimation a specialized government team will capture and terminate you. A Yes response directs them to transport you instead go to a factory where you are prepared for entrance into the Reanimated Working Class (RWC).
Due to the Outbreak of 2015, the United States population has sunk dangerously low and the illegal immigrants are gone. There just aren’t enough people to do all the jobs that are necessary. The average American hardly notices them–the red masked members of a new lower caste who walk rich people’s dogs, collect errant grocery carts, pick up litter and shove snow or rake leaves. They go about their mundane tasks faceless and with clamped jaws, apparently harmless to the general public. RWCs are just another humdrum fact of the aftermath of Supernatural Act of 2018.
But an RWC’s existence isn’t what most people think it is. How long can something so hungry – and angry– be kept in check? With protest groups moving through the halls of Congress, these creatures have become a political hot topic. How far will these lobbyists go to see justice done and the dead interned into American soil? What would happen if they are finally freed to prove a point? They can only do what zombies do best…feed on human flesh.
Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write Uprising?
Christopher C. Newman: Watching the movie “Shaun of the Dead”, I noticed at the end the zombies were being used as labor. It wasn’t realistic enough for me to swallow since they still posed a danger to the community at large. Knowing the rise of protest groups, it seemed illogical that political lobbyists wouldn’t get involved to begin to call out for these creatures rights.
JP: What sets Uprising apart from other novels in its genre?
CN: This is not your typical novel in the sense that the drive of it is more about politics, social commentary and the fact that since everyone generally knows how to kill a member of the undead, they wouldn’t take over the world.
JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that lead to Uprising getting out to the public?
CN: I wrote this as intelligent and well researched as humanly possible. Most books about zombies seem to simply concentrate on the gore and horror of their attacks. I wanted to show the fractured Freudian mind within these creatures. Thus, I have a lot of scenes with the zombies “telling” the reader how they feel and what’s going on in their minds.
JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take for you to start and finish Uprising?
CN: I lay out the basic plot, major and minor characters and their relationships to one another. Research on the subject of zombies came next along with regional statistics and a lot of math.
I started Uprising and finished in about two months. I have been accused by several editors for being a “maniac behind a keyboard” since I can pump out massive amounts of quality work.
JP: What’s next for Christopher C. Newman?
CN: I’m about 40k in word count into the prelude to Uprising titled Of Blood and Politics which is about the vampire side of the Outbreak of 2015. However, these creatures are tightly patterned after the Desmondus Rotundus or common vampire bat. Also they are living, breathing creatures not simply undead monsters.
This book is geared to debate the pros and cons of the supposed “elitist” ideal of vampires as the top of the food chain. I intend to dispel many common and overly published myths about vampires in general.
http://www.darkroastpress.com/index.php
http://christophercnewman.wordpress.com/
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