Hey ya’ll. How’s it going? I hope you’re all good on this midweek, viagra Wednesday afternoon :) Its raining here in California (I know!) so I’m enjoying a day inside.

I wanted to share a little something with you today. My dear friend, Hayley, who runs her own blog, Geek and Book Nerd, had to do these assignments for her creative writing class, and one of the ways she said we could get to know our characters better was to interview them.

Now I had heard that before, but I had never really taken it seriously. But as I scoured the internet for examples, and for ideas, I saw that it was a practice that a lot of people used, and I really was intrigued by it. Even better, Hayley asked if I could interview one of my characters for her site, and I gladly agreed.

I’m working on two books right now. Both of them are fairly short, maybe a couple chapters each. I’m waiting for one to say “PICK ME!” and grab me, so I can focus a lot of my energy on it, and then we’ll see what goes from there. But one of those novels is my untitled zombie novel.

I know what you’re thinking: seriously, another zombie novel?

And I’m not going to sit here and tell you, oh but mine is different because…well, it IS different. Its going to have the same feel as any other zombie novel but there’s much more to the zombies that we think. My novel follows Katy Valentine, an eighteen year old senior in high school living in Brooklyn with her dad, who is the police chief. One day, an outbreak happens, and suddenly everyone is getting sick, violently sick, and the death count is getting too high to even begin to deal with the bodies. Then the bodies start to animate, they start to move, and they’re fast, and they have a hunger for human flesh. It doesn’t take long for Katy, her dad and her insufferable next door neighbor, Nate, to escape the city, to her mother’s house in the middle of nowhere Nebraska. But its not as easy as it seems. They think they’re prepared because they’ve seen zombie movies, they should know how to deal with this, but these zombies are different: they’re faster, they’re intelligent and can communicate and they work together for their one goal: human flesh.

That’s basically what I’ve got right now. I’m still narrowing down the details of the build up, the escape, all of that sort of thing, but it takes a lot of work to do that. But this exercise that Hayley had me participating in was SO helpful, and I’m glad I did it. I also found a few other tools for help in characterization, so if you’re interested, let me know!

Here’s a sneak peek at the interview between me and my main character, Katy:

Sara: Tell us a little bit about yourself

Katy: Well, my name is Katy Valentine. I’m eighteen years old, and I’m from Brooklyn, New York. I would be a senior in high school, until they blew up my high school.

Sara: Why did they blow up your high school?

Katy: Uh, have you looked out a window lately? There’s kind of been a lot of zombies wandering around.

Sara: How do you feel about the zombies?

Katy: Well, at least all those gun lessons my dad made me take to ward off, I don’t know, potential rapists and murderers  is finally paying off. I mean, I still can’t quite shoot them in the head, but I guess I’m getting closer.

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To read the rest of the interview, head on over to Hayley’s blog to check it out. You can also check out her own interviews with her characters, and also Megan from Luxen Army’s interviews as well.

Happy Writing Everyone!

Don’t forget to head to the forums to join in on the October Writing Challenge, and to discuss your own writing. I’d love to see some interviews between you and YOUR characters!