The last few weeks I have been waiting for word that could signal a major change in my writing trajectory. This has produced days of endless nervous tension and lots and lots of email checking.
While I have been waiting, and a little too nervous to write properly, I have had actually not too bad of a time. I have read two books. (The Martian by Andrew Weir a damn fine novel and Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers a favorite author of mine.)
Last weekend was Condor 2015 a local SF convention. It’s on the small size but I had a terribly good time. So busy that I never too the time for a lunch on any day of the con. I was busy from the time I arrived to the time I left for home. (Because it is very local, just a few miles away we did not stay at the hotel.) I participated in three panels (Vampires and Zombies: Why do we keep writing about them, Emerging Epidemics, and What to do when you feel like quitting. All with great fellow panelists and lots of good interactions)
Tuesday a friend came into town for her book launch. My sweetie-wife and I took a half day off from our jobs and spent the afternoon having a lovely lunch, long discussion, and tasty coffee and tea.
I’m still a ball of nerves waiting for word from professionals back east, but I have to say I have also been quite happy the last few days.
In one respect they both give the reader identification the same jolt of specialness over the mass/crowd/mundane. With Vampires today readers often identify with the vampires, who are elevated above the common masses into sort of a hyper-individual. With Zombie the masses are lowered into the mindless mob, constantly out to assimilate the reader identification characters who exist in a sort of hyper-libertarian individuality surviving the zombie hordes.
So why is there so much writing about zombies? Vampires I can see, but zombies???