Thanks to our guest, author Mark Henry, for hanging out, virtually speaking. Mark is the creator of one of THE funniest, sexiest and best dressed zombies on the written page, Amanda Feral. Yes, I did say, “sexiest”, in the same sentence with “zombie.” I challenge you to read Happy Hour of the Damned, and not walk away thinking Amanda is a fine piece of zombie ass. (One of? The ONLY! Muhahaha!) Right on schedule, Mark! Cue laugh track…and go!

So, with no further ado…or a don’t… Mark, let’s just get the obvious question out of the way…

JG: American Idol or Dancing with the Stars?

MH: American Idol, of course. If I want to watch a dancing show, I go for So You Think You Can Dance, every damn time. Dancing gets on my nerves. If I want to go watch a bunch of talentless klutzes weeblo around a dancefloor I’ll pop into a local club and snark the shit out of those bitches (I’m using that term to encapsulate both sexes, to be clear). Plus, American Idol has that whole opening few weeks of insanos! How can you not love it?

JG: No, sorry, I’m kidding….Why zombies?

MH: I’ve always loved zombies, since I was a kid. I’ve watched just about every zombie movie and if you’ve got one that I haven’t, gimme the title and I’ll remedy that poste haste. There also seemed to be a glut of vamps and werewolves in literature. Back when I thought up the idea, I had no clue there was an actual urban fantasy genre, so I was just writing shit that made me laugh, cringe and/or smirk evilly.

JG: Is there research you do when you decide to tackle one of the classic monsters, and put your own spin on it?

MH: Not per se, I know a lot about zombies and knew that I wanted to imbue mine with something a little extra special. So I made them sentient rather than shambling and gave Amanda the additional talent of being able to vaporize the zombie virus and cause it to be airborne, a rather dangerous talent.

JG: Was it hard selling people on the idea of a modern day zombie story, complete with snark track?

MH: I had a surprisingly easy time selling New York and my agent on the idea, but as it turns out, the readers didn’t quite catch on like we’d hoped. Some of that had to do with a lack of information. The cover does read as though Amanda might be a romance heroine and possibly a vampire rather than a flesh-eating ghoul, so there was confusion going in.

JG: I know what you mean; the cover of Happy Hour of the Damned didn’t give me a good idea of what was in between the covers. Reading an early guest blog you did on the Witchy Chicks blog a couple years ago actually led me to buying the book.  So I guess I owe thanks to those wonderful writers for introducing me to your world.

JG: One of my favorite parts of your books has to be the annotations. Outside of college texts, you don’t run across this very often. What inspired it? And do you write the annotations as you write the body of the story? Or do you go back, afterwards, and annotate your own manuscript?

MH: I write some of those as I go and some are added later. Probably inspired a great deal by Christopher Moore and Jen Lancaster’s stuff.

JG: Some authors talk about hearing their characters’ voices in their head. Do you hear Amanda and her sidekicks, Wendy and Gil? Speaking of, her sidekicks almost steal the show, sometimes. I sort of imagine the mediating between that trio in your head could be challenging.

MH: Yeah. I hear them every Friday night. They sound exactly like me and my friends. So all those people that are repulsed by Amanda’s language and the content of her speech can stay far away from my social group. Please. Do yourself a favor.

JG: If you were going to describe Amanda, Wendy and Gil as cocktails, what would each of them be?

MH: Amanda’s definitely a straight up Vodka Martini, very dry, with just the faintest mist of sweet vermouth, and I’ll leave that up to your interpretation (though I’d love to see some in the comments). Wendy’s more of a Spicy Bloody Mary, cuz she’s really messy with her feeding. Gil’s a Long Island Ice Tea, there’s a little bit of everything in him…on occasion. Oh hell, the poor guy bounces between men so often he’s got permanent chaffing.

JG: You do some very educated name drops in your books, slinging about references to Jimmy Choos and Balenciaga bags like any metrosexual worth his Betsey Johnson frequent buyer points. Do you do hands on research, or a lot of online surfing? Or pick the brains (hmmm, brainzzzz…..sorry, distracted….) of your female friends?

MH: Both and more. I go into stores (Barney’s, Nordstom Collections) to get the general idea of how I want people to look and then I research online to get fabric descriptions…that kind of thing.

JG: Speaking of name drops and product placement, let’s do some product placement for you… Your next book, BATTLE OF THE NETWORK ZOMBIES, hits stores February 23, 2010. Of course, my recommendation to readers would be run out, buy Happy Hour of the Damned and Road Trip of the Living Dead RIGHT NOW, gobble them up like brain-starved zombies, and be ready to tune into NETWORK when it comes out. In case someone doesn’t get that done in time, would they be able to jump into NETWORK and stay afloat? Is there anything you can tell folks that might help them jump in, without spoiler-zoning the hell out of the first two books?

MH: Oh no. Battle definitely needs the lead in of at the very least Road Trip of the Living Dead. Happy Hour of the Damned just came out on February 2^nd in mass-market paperback, so for $6.99 you can jump into my freaky, nasty, irreverent world and be able to shove it in your back pocket when you’re not reading it (or front, you dirty pervs).

JG: I know I’ve seen references online, on Twitter, to a young adult story. Is there anything you can tell us about that venture, yet?

MH: I’ve finished the first draft of my YA, which hasn’t been contracted, so I won’t mention much about it. I recently submitted a story for an anthology that’s coming out in July. Though I’m hesitant to discuss any more because I haven’t revealed my pseudonym. Ooh. Mysterious.

JG: We like a little mystery here on GSB…guess we’ll just have to bring you back, again. ~grin~

JG: You have some other interesting online pursuits…The League of Reluctant Adults being a prime example. I even recall when it first popped up on Facebook; I was one of the first to follow the group on Facebook. (Is that a “get a life,” realization, or “double geek points”? But I digress…) What does the League do, nowadays?

MH: It’s really more of a cabal than a group. We blog occasionally, plot secretly and roam conventions with switchblades. It’s all very covert and hilarious. We’ll be doing a really awesome promo STUNT at this year’s Romantic Times Convention. I’m sure you’ll all be talking about it soon enough. Muhahaha!

JG: What else do you do, besides write wonderfully wicked zombies and sometimes smutty commentary on Twitter? (For my readers…you must check out Mark on Twitter; you will squee yourself laughing at least once a day. To get the full effect, you need to check out Dakota Cassidy, Kat Richardson, Nicole Peeler and few other members of the LoRA on Twitter.)

MH: This is it. I write for a living. I’m blessed to have a wife that puts up with my whims, what can I say? Oh, and my twitter “handle” is mark_henry, you should totally follow me.

JG: Speaking of…Snark. You may be the online King of Snark. Is it a talent given to you by God, or did you have to do something to develop your keen sense of snark?

MH: Is it a gift? Or a curse? Not everyone appreciates it, and where it comes from is sort of nebulous. I attribute it to my mother’s dark humor and years of doing psychotherapy in a very broken system.

JG: You make some great food references online. Are you the chef in your household? Or your wife? Do you have a favorite recipe you’d like to share?

MH: I’m definitely the chef in my house. Though Caroline is the baker, I have a tendency not to measure so baking really isn’t my forté. A favorite recipe? Hmm. Everything I make seems to require 20 steps and 400 ingredients so I’ll leave you with something small. My wife loves my cinnamon toast, but wait, before you sigh, this one’s different. Set the oven to 380 and in a small bowl mix 2 cups of brown sugar, 2 tbsp of cinnamon and a few tablespoons of milk. You’re looking for the consistency of toothpaste so if it seems too thin add more brown sugar. Butter the bread and put it butter side down on a cookie sheet. Spread each with a thick coat of the sugar, bake until it’s bubbly as shit.

JG: Interviewer’s note – For quality testing purposes, I made the toast. Then, to make sure the results were valid, I made it again. I had to make it a third time, when my 3 year old nephew came up and asked me for more “Sin Toast.” Thus, it has been dubbed the Sin Toast in my household, and Mark has graciously agreed that’s an apt name for his scrumptious creation. Okay, back to the regularly scheduled interview.

JG: Okay, I’ve strayed too far from the topic of the day: zombies. What do you think of the recent rise of interest in zombies? It’s almost like zombies are the new vampires in popular media.

MH: It’s true. That’s because they’re awesome!!! I think we go through these periods of fear. This recent wave probably has to do with the recent Bird flu/Swine Flu scares. Maybe. Or maybe it’s just because zombies are so freakin’ awesome!!!

JG: Do you have a favorite zombie flick? I’m a fan of the classics; give me some sugar, Ash and Army of Darkness any day of the week.

MH: My favorite changes depending on the day. Today it’s Zombi 2 directed by Lucio Fulci and home to the famous zombie vs. shark scene and the slowest eye skewering anyone has ever seen. It’s a flick from the 70s but I still love it.

JG: I’m a big fan of encouraging people to branch out into new areas of fiction, and your books are always among the ones I recommend, because you took one of the creepier, least sexy classes of monsters and made it, well, fun and sexy. So here’s where I ask you to tell the GSB readers what you’d say (if we haven’t already enticed them to click on one of the conveniently placed links to Amazon to plunk down their pennies for Amanda) to put BATTLE OF THE NETWORK ZOMBIES at the top of their TBR list.

MH: I’d say that if you’re a fan of urban fantasy, or even paranormal romance with a “happy for now” flavor, but are finding that the plots are startlingly similar and the themes are being rehashed, then I can guarantee you in Battle of the Network Zombies you’re going to find a completely original take on the genre. In fact, that could be said of the entire series. I’m proud of the fact that there are no easy comparisons to any other books or series. How’s that?

I think that’s perfect!  Thanks to Mark for spending some time with us (virtually speaking) on GSB, today. Now, to add my own encouragements….Get thee to a bookstore, get a copy of Happy Hour of the Damned in the new, low cost – but not cheap! Amanda Feral is NOT cheap! – format and get ready for Battle of the Network Zombies!