S.G Browne

Breathers: A Zombie's Lament

Meet Andy Warner, a recently deceased everyman and newly minted zombie. Resented by his parents, abandoned by his friends, and reviled by a society that no longer considers him human, Andy is having a bit of trouble adjusting to his new existence. But all that changes when he goes to an Undead Anonymous meeting and finds kindred souls in Rita, an impossibly sexy recent suicide with a taste for the formaldehyde in cosmetic products, and Jerry, a twenty-one-year-old car-crash victim with an exposed brain and a penchant for Renaissance pornography. When the group meets a rogue zombie who teaches them the joys of human flesh, things start to get messy, and Andy embarks on a journey of self-discovery that will take him from his casket to the SPCA to a media-driven class-action lawsuit on behalf of the rights of zombies everywhere.

What has been your favourite zombie novel to write so far and why?

Technically I’ve only written one zombie novel and one zombie novella, so I suppose my answer would have to be Breathers, my first and only zombie novel. (The novella, I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus is an unplanned sequel.) But even had I written other zombie novels, Breathers would likely remain at the top of the list for several reasons: the characters (especially Andy, Rita, and Jerry); the thematic drive (finding your purpose in society in which you have no purpose); and the social commentary. Plus it was just a great deal of fun to write.

Zombie shows are really popular on TV at the moment. What are your favourite zombie shows/films to watch?

To be honest, I don’t tend to watch a lot of zombie television shows. I have watched the first three seasons of The Walking Dead, but I tend to get tired of the typical post-apocalyptic zombie story. I’m not that interested in how humans deal with their drama in the face of zombies. I’d rather see the story told from the POV of the living dead. But then, that’s what my zombie stories are about. Flipping things around and making the monsters the heroes of the story and the humans the villains. I find that approach much more compelling.

If you could write a novel about any other supernatural creature what would you choose to write it about?

Werewolves. Maybe Bigfoot, though he’s more of an urban legend than supernatural. So I’ll stick with werewolves.

If you could write a novel with another author who would you choose to write a novel with?

Christopher Moore. The man can flat out write. And he has a twisted, whimsical sense of humor. I would probably just sit and watch him write and applaud.

If a movie was made of 'I saw Zombies Eating Santa Clause' who would you like to play the main characters?

I always thought Jason Segel would make a great Andy, though Joseph Gordon-Levitt could fit the bill, too. As for the other characters, I don’t have any preferences that immediately come to mind, but if the casting director could find a way to sneak either Steve Buscemi or Christopher Walken in there, I wouldn’t complain.

Whenever you write a novel where do you like to go to do this (e.g. a favourite cafe, your lounge, a park, etc)?

I often walk a couple of blocks to my local café, order my medium mocha, then sit down at a table and write for three hours or so while listening to my mix of instrumental funk, R&B, jazz, rock, and surf tunes. Then I’ll write for another three hours or so back in my apartment either on the couch or at my desk, often with my cat pestering me for attention.

 If you could do a book signing in another country which country would you choose and why?

I’m a big fan of Paris. I love the art and the food and it’s a great walking city. Plus I have several novels published in the French language, so it would be hard to turn down an opportunity to do a signing in France. But I also love London and York and enjoy good English ales, so that would be a tough call. Can I do both and just take the Chunnel?

 If you could write yourself as a character in one of your novels, how would you describe your character?

A liberal-minded animal lover who lives at the beach, is most comfortable in shorts and a T-shirt and bare feet, indulges in books and movies whenever possible, and prefers an intimate evening with good friends to a wild night out partying with a bunch of strangers. But the occasional wild night out partying with friends is acceptable, too.

 How long does it take you to write each novel and what is your writing process?

The length of time varies from novel to novel. I took more than two years to write Breathers, fourteen months for Fated, ten months for Lucky Bastard, eighteen months each for Big Egos and Less Than Hero, and two months for I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus. That’s first sentence to final draft before submitting to my agent/publisher, so each novel went through a good four to six drafts before I considered it finished.

As for my process, under ideal circumstances I write for several hours in the morning and several hours in the afternoon, six days a week. And I tend to try to get the story down before going back to edit, otherwise I’d spend weeks perfecting one chapter. I know I can always fix the problems later. But I often find myself tweaking things here and there as I go along. For me, the first draft is getting down the story and characters, while the rewrites are where the writing of the novel truly occurs.

What plans do you have in the future in terms of novels?

My fifth novel, Less Than Hero, comes out in March 2015. It’s a superhero story about a group of professional human guinea pigs who test Phase I clinical trial pharmaceutical drugs for a living and who discover that all of the drugs they’ve been testing have caused them to develop unusual side effects. It’s an obvious commentary on the proliferation of prescription drugs in today’s society, specifically in the United States.