After her success on Kindle, which sparked the interest of a publisher, Knapp is now writing a sequel to her first novel, The Undead Situation. She currently resides in Washington state where her novel is based, working on a degree in graphic design.

Knapp designed and took the photo for TUS’s cover. Her other published graphics include the first Metagame cover (by Sam Landstrom, below) and the photo for Jumping off Swings by Jo Knowles. Landstrom is the cover model for TUS, depicting the main character Cyrus V. Sinclair.

Eloise J. Knapp - I remember quite clearly, when I was twelve, the day I got Night of the Living Dead from the library I volunteered at. I’d never seen a zombie movie before and after I watched that classic I was overwhelmed. It was like I suddenly realized one of my biggest passions in life was zombies. After that I got as many books and movies as I could and started a serial novel with Cyrus. I was filled with so much zombie-mania I needed an outlet for my own ideas. I wrote short bits I posted onto deviantART but after a while I got serious and turned it into a novel. Cyrus is a vain kind of guy and demanded his own book… a short serial collection wouldn’t do it.

I love all types of characters in zombie movies and books, but I often found myself angry with how they handled the apocalypse. They’re moody, afraid to take risks and leave people behind, fearful, and unprepared. Cyrus is the opposite of those kinds of heroes. I found the name Cyrus and from there the pieces of his character sort of fell together.

Part of how I found Cyrus can be answered with this question, too. Cyrus embodies how I think I’d be in the apocalypse. I’m generally a loner and don’t care about people so I wouldn’t have that “save the world” mentality some people do. I’m more of an everyman for himself sort of person. Almost everything Cyrus does is how I’d react in the situations presented.

Part of that reference is that a lot of people don’t really understand zombies. I remember talking to my grandma about it and she had no idea you had to shoot them in the head or that they were the walking dead. Cyrus and I feel that if more people had zombie awareness the apocalypse wouldn’t have been so bad. Knowing is half the battle, after all. As for helpful survival guides, I think that Dawn of the Dead holds a lot of good principals. Find a safe, easily securable location (I find they did a good job fortifying the mall—it was just those raider guys that screwed things up), possibly one or two resourceful companions, and ride things out. I would never say any zombie film or book is 100% right with their survival tactics, but I like what they did with that one.

I wanted Cyrus to have a pet and thought about having a cat at first. However, a cat wasn’t unique enough for a character like him. I chose a ferret because they are indifferent, unique, and sly…just like I think he is.

I first self published on Kindle December 2009. The plan was to build a fan base to show the book had potential then seek out Permuted Press to republish it. My plan worked but Permuted Press ended up contacting me first. The book was to be released December 2010 but an awesome deal came up with Audible which is extending the paperback/Kindle version until around October of 2011. The audio version will be released sometime in the summer.

There were no difficulties writing the book. It was editing that was truly difficult. I went willy-nilly and added a ton of extra content to make my set goal of 70k words that ended up getting cut out once I worked with a professional editor. As a writer I can get sidetracked with too many extra sub-plots, scenes, or characters that aren’t needed. Being able to recognize what needs to go and stay is hard for me.

Right now I’m writing the sequel to The Undead Situation. It’s over half way done, but we’ll see if a writer’s block comes along and ruins the progress. Coming up sooner is my collection of short stories (a collaboration with my aunt) Nightmares of the Strange. It will be released for Kindle and possibly paperback. That’ll be out by February 15th at the latest.

I’m not sure how long. It depends on the original of the zombie, but I’d say a couple hours if it were caused by a virus. Perhaps a day otherwise.

My favorite parts are the violent/fight/gory scenes, particularly the scenes in Startup. Writing about guns and guts is awesome.

If I had to pick one I would say slow. They are traditional and frightening. Creepy.

I would use a semi auto assault rifle, probably an M1 actually. Automatic guns waste ammunition so they aren’t efficient. In very close quarters the rifle wouldn’t do me any good, but I’d like to think I’d be in a situation where that wouldn’t be an issue.

The remake of Dawn of the Dead (2004).

I don’t have a worst zombie film. They all bring something to the table. I’ll watch even the campiest of movies and applaud the creators for their effort.

Right now my favorite zombie book would have to be Tim Long’s Among the Living. Left 4 Dead is my favorite game.