Today I have the great pleasure of welcoming author Kim Paffenroth to the blog as part of our Spook-tastic Halloween event! Kim is here to talk about his upcoming zombie novel , Pale Gods, and share with us his favorite Halloween-y reads and spooky stories!
I haven't read Pale Gods yet, but am certainly looking forward to it! It sounds like a great story with a very interesting and well-thought-out premise!
I also have the pleasure of hosting a giveaway of Kim's fantastic book, so be sure to scroll all the way down and enter! :) And great news - it's INTERNATIONAL!
Welcome to Bookish, Kim! Thank you for taking part in our Spook-tastic Bookish Halloween! :) How would you describe Pale Gods to those who haven't heard of it yet?
I used to describe it as "A zombie Moby-Dick" but
then I realized that was setting up everyone's expectation for zombie whales,
of which there are none in the book. But those who love Melville's classic (or
dread it, because of being forced to read it), I think will find here the plot
and the symbols, but in a contemporary, more accessible, zombie form: a story
of one man's obsession with the unfairness and violence of life, and his mad
quest to lodge his own, violent complaint against all the senseless brutality
of his world.
What were the challenges in bringing this story to life?
Did you have to do any research for your book?
This is the second time I've set a significant amount of a
novel's action on board a sailboat. (The first was Dying to Live: Last Rites.)
And I know nothing of sailing. So that took a lot of research. And as is usual
with contemporary zombie stories, there are a lot of guns, some of which I
wouldn't know about, even if I did a lot of recreational shooting myself (which
I don't), so I needed to get a passing acquaintance with military weapons like
the 25mm chain gun.
Can you share with us a few of your favorite quotes from
Pale Gods?
I'll give you my favorite, as it was one of those moments
when I had completely captured what I wanted of the original Ahab in my new
character, Jacob:
Jacob continued to stare at Ridley, still clutching his
chin. “When I take my hand away, if you say one word of kindness, one single
syllable that sounds like mercy or compassion or remorse, I’ll dislocate your
fucking jaw.”
What are some of your literary inspirations? Favorite books/authors?
Well, we already have Melville out there! Dark, classic
literature, esp. Dante, Dostoevsky, and Flannery O'Connor. I think a lot of her
short stories are borderline "horror" as they are, but with such a
deep (and weirdly orthodox) religious sensibility.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to
grasp?
Well, like the original, it's all about the journey. I'm
there to take readers through a particularly horrible world that is
recognizably similar to ours. I'm not sure I'm even there to privilege Ridley's
point of view over Jacob's (just as Melville makes it very ambiguous how/why we
should prefer Ishmael over Ahab). Maybe I'll go back to the original for the
"message": "It's a mutual, joint-stock world, in all meridians.
We cannibals must help these Christians."
What is your favorite paranormal creature and why?
I think the Medieval, Jewish story of the golem is a really
uplifting one, since in most stories, the thing is created to protect a
persecuted community, and there's no sense that the use of the supernatural is
displeasing or disrespectful to God. But, like the Frankenstein monster, it can
get out of hand. I like that as a metaphor for either technology or magic, or
any human yearning for something better and more powerful.
Halloween is almost upon us. To me that means horror
movie nights with popcorn, tricks and (hopefully) stacks of yummy treats, and,
perhaps most of all, the chance to scare someone and experience the thrill of
being scared myself. What does Halloween mean to you?
I think it's the holiday that has the best balance between
stuff for kids and stuff for adults, more lighthearted stuff and more
threatening, scary stuff. Therefore my thoughts of it are similarly split
between remembering taking my kids trick-or-treating, when they were smaller,
but then later, going to the most gore splattered haunted attractions I could
find, when my son was a tween. So the holiday itself contains all the different
elements we use to cope with evil - we make fun of it, deny it, dance around it
and pretend it doesn't exist, or throw ourselves into it (safely) and get
really scared.
Do you have any real-life spooky stories to share with
us? Any supernatural experiences or blood-chilling encounters?
No. I think my experiences are epitomized by the one time I
went to a house that was supposedly "really" haunted, and the owner
showed us around, recounting the various drafts or cold spots or premonitions
he'd experienced. Someone in the group asked, "Why do you think only you
could sense these things, and not the other members of your family?" He
replied, "I've wondered if I'm just more attuned to the spirits. Or, maybe
it's because I'm the only one in the family who smokes a lot of pot."
Maybe.
What are some of your favorite scary stories? Any
favorite horror or thriller books/authors?
As I said, in literary circles, I'll put Flannery O'Connor
down for weirdness or creepiness against anyone who's labelled
"horror" as to their genre. Among current writers, I'm most familiar
with those in the zombie genre, and I like the work of Brian Keene, Joe
McKinney, and Dave Wellington.
What's the scariest / most memorable horror movie you
ever saw?
Doesn't everyone have to say The Exorcist? I mean, even
edited for television, that thing is crazy. I find myself remembering and
cringeing at An Apt Pupil. And for guilty pleasures, I'd say The Funhouse -
that's a fun monster/slasher mashup that I've always appreciated.
Fill in the blanks:
1) If I was magically transported back in time to the
Dark Ages, I'd... promptly die of something.
2) I'm a pro at... teaching. The only thing I've ever
patted myself on the back about.
3) I'm addicted to...World of Warcraft.
4) I'm scared of...failure.
5) The last book I faked reading was... I can't ever
remember doing that.
Last question: I'm super curious and I'm sure your fans
are all wondering about it too: are you working on a new book now? If so, when
can we expect it? Can you share some juicy details to keep our appetites going?
Pale Gods by Kim Paffenroth
"Kim Paffenroth has emerged as one of the towering voices in zombie fiction. He is always clear, always insightful, always full of questions that probe the human condition; but with Pale Gods, he's set the bar impossibly high for the rest of us. His trademark erudition is on full display here, and his tremendous capacity for empathy too, but the real joy for me was in the tale's unfolding. Paffenroth has a real gift for keeping you guessing, and Pale Gods is Paffenroth at his very best. I loved it."-Joe McKinney, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Inheritance andThe Savage Dead.
WHAT YOU CAN WIN:
2 copies of PALE GODS (thank you, Permuted Press!)
RUNS TILL: October 31st
OPEN TO: Everyone - it's an International giveaway!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
2 copies of PALE GODS (thank you, Permuted Press!)
RUNS TILL: October 31st
OPEN TO: Everyone - it's an International giveaway!
Click on the banner for full schedule!
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