Saturday, December 24, 2011

The Wreath of Khan part deux


Just a few quick items before the end of the year. My story "Green Eyes and Chili Dogs" has just been published in the Dark Moon Anthology, Vampires. I can't speak for the other stories in the collection, but I can guarantee that there is no sparkling in my vampire tale. Its an older story but hasn't been in print since 2005. Dark Moon also published my flash story "A Thoughtful Gift," in their flash anthology, Frightmares: A Fistful of Flash Fiction. Its a Christmas story. Sort of. Imagine It's a Wonderful Life meets Seven. Merry Christmas.

On a liter and goofier note, a while back I created a Wreath of Khan graphic to post on the Night of the Living Trekkies Face Book Page. I love to photoshop a good, or bad, pun between writing sessions, and well, someone saw the graphic, felt inspired and brought it to life, actually making a Wreath of Khan. This is Joe Regan's real life version of my graphic.

And if that isn't enough holiday nerdyness, the Geeks of Doom website posted about the Night of the Living Trekkies' holiday Wreaths. Love their site, and its always fun to be on it. Here is a link to see the whole collection on FaceBook I don't think geeky graphics help sell books, they might, but honestly, I just thought they were good clean nerdy fun.

Have a wonderful holiday and a peaceful New Year. Qapla!




Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Wreath of Khan

I've been in a photoshopin' mood and its the holidays so theses happened.


I have a few more in me but you can only take a pun so far.


Dark Moon Books has released FrightMares: A Fistful of Flash Fiction, which has my flash fiction piece "A Thoughtful Gift." It's a Christmas story. Well it takes place at Christmas. Dark Moon Books will also release Vampires, a collection of short stories about bloodsuckers. This anthology will feature my story "Green Eyes and Chili Dogs," one of my personal favorites.
That's all for now. Check out FrightMares on Amazon and have a happy holiday and a peaceful New Year.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Terrifying


You think Paranormal 3 is scary. Try driving in the age of extreme distraction. Terrifying.

Speeding through an intersection!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

The Good, The Bad, and The Blogs



Blogs. Are standard blogs going the way of Betamax, MySpace, and Charlie Sheen's career? I don't know, but if I had a nickle for every time I've blogged this year, I'd have enough to buy a cup of coffee...in the 1940s. Originally I started this blog to replace the news section on my web site to update my fans, all six of them, (Hi Dad!) Now it seems its just a source of neglect and quilt. I post news on Facebook and tell myself that I'll get around to blogging the news later. But later rarely comes, and I feel guilty for ignoring my blog which collects internet dust, like my hotmail email account. I wonder if that is still active.
Oh well, on to the news. AUDIO DRAMA: The folks at HG World, the Parsec Award winning audio drama series, produced an audio dramatization of Night of the Living Trekkies Chapter 4 The Cage. Its a lot of fun to listen too, and when I close my eyes I can see how incredible a movie version would be. A big thank you to Jay Smith for heading that up. He's a big fan of the book and good writer to boot. You can give it a listen here. NotLT Ch 4 "The Cage" MOVIE: In regards to a movie version of Night of the Living Trekkies, last I heard the most promising talks so far have recently broken off. What's that mean? What I think it means is that there has been lots of talk between studios, agents and publisher, but no deal thus far. Honestly, I thought a deal would be in the can and shooting to have begun by now. A few months back there was even a commitment from a well known (wish I could mention his name) Star Trek actor!!! I kept thinking, oh please let this work out so I could sneak onto the set and meet him.
ZOMBIE TREKKIES: I love NotLT fans. This October two fans went above and beyond. Jenna Carodiskey-Wiebe attended Geek Girl Con in Seattle wearing a stellar Zombie Trekkie outfit. Way to represent! Stephanie Naboshek has created a step by step guide on how to make your own Zombie Red Shirt Costume. Very Detailed, very geeky. Makes me wish I could sew. You can check it out here: DIY Zombie Red Shirt! It's as easy as 1,2,3...






SPANISH EDITION: On October 5th the Spanish publisher Timus Mas released the Spanish Edition of Night of the Living Trekkies, and once again we have another great cover design. What I like about this one is it seems to be a mash up of the English cover and the award winning cover of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I don't know how well its doing, but I'm sure the cover will get folks attention.

KIZUNA: Fiction for Japan - Earlier this year I was invited to participate in a charity anthology to benefit those effected by the massive 9.0 earthquake in Japan. I'm one of 75 authors from 11 countries to donate a piece to this collection which was released this August. It's the first time I've been involved in a project like this and I look forward to doing more like it. The anthology is available on Amazon. Kizuna: Fiction for Japan
















SHORT STORIES: I have a few short stories coming out in two new anthologies possibly this year. I would say check this blog in the future for more info, but I have no idea when or what has to happen to motivate me to keep blogging. If this is my last and final blog entry then I bid the blogosphere adieu. If it isn't, then I'll be posting again in a month. Or two. Or three.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Infecting Germany

The German edition of Night of the Living Trekkies, "Die Nacht der lebenden Trekkies" was released this month from Heyne Publishing. It's in paperback form with a redesigned cover and I have to say, its simple but to the point. If the ranking on Amazon is any indication, and every professional writer I have ever met says "No it is NOT an indication," then it seems to be off to a great start. There should be a Spanish version coming soon.

The literary web site Speaking Volumes posted an interview with me, and like most online interviews its worth the paper its printed on - The story so far with . . . Kevin David Anderson

Friday, June 24, 2011

BuyZombie.com Interview

I've been busy. Too busy to write a proper blog entry, but who am I kidding. I blog about as much as a Wookie shaves. But I have been busy. And as proof I offer this interview I did for ButZombie.com, a fantastic Zombie resource for all your undead apocalypse needs.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

You Win Some, You Loose Some...

Public Libraries - They let everybody in

In the past few months Night of the Living Trekkies has been nominated for a few awards. Back in February the site Mail Order Zombie nominated it for a Dead Letter Award for best zombie novel 2010. It fell short and the award went to Jonathan Maberry’s YA horror novel, Rot. Then in that same month the trailer for NotLT was awarded Best Viral Star Trek Video 2010 by TrekMovie.com. And in June the trailer was nominated for a Moby, but the Best Small House Trailer Moby went to Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer. Then a day later the fans at Fourth Day Universe awarded Night of the Living Trekkies the Uni for Best Zombie Novel 2010. Sooooo… you win some, you loose some. It’s just fantastic to know that the novel is getting read, and received well. And in just a few weeks the German edition will hit bookshelves in Berlin and begin the infection in Europe.

Speaking of Europe, Night of the Living Trekkies Super fan, Spritt Schapiro paid tribute to the novel by dressing up as a Zombie Trekkies at the Copenhagen Zombie Crawl, 2011.

Live Long and Prosper

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

New Genre Review Program on PBS

Levar Burton, Next Generation’s Geordi Laforge and host of the long running PBS show Reading Rainbow, will once again host a show on the Public Broadcasting Network. Rainbow of the Living Dead will premiere this fall rolling out interviews with Max Brooks, George A. Romero …. Yeah, no, not really. But file it under, wouldn't it be cool.

Brent Mills, editor of Kizuna: fiction for Japan, has let me know that two of my flash fiction pieces will appear in the charity anthology, Homecare and The X-Ray. All proceeds will go to Japan relief efforts via the Red Cross. Its nice to know that even my most dark and twisted thoughts set down into a fast narrative, can do some good.

I just got a few copies of Murky Depths' 16th issue and it looks great. Its a mix of graphic art and fiction, put together very well. I'm proud that this UK magazine has included my story Momentum, in this issue. Even though I penned this one five years ago, its the first time it's been in print, and its about bloody time.









Need to get back to it. Fly low and avoid the radar.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Canadian Women!

What would you read on Risa?

I am perplexed as to how Amazon categorizes their books, but as I write this, Night of the Living Trekkies is ranked #15 with “Single Women” on Amazon Canada. I love Canada! Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,517 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #15 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Single Women #47 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction


Recently Suvudu, a genre site created by Random House, Inc., to provide additional content, such as author interviews, chats, chapter previews, reviews, previews, and news around science fiction, fantasy, books published by Random House, asked me to take part in their ongoing author blog series, "Take Five." You can read it here: Take Five with Kevin David Anderson, author, "Night of the Living Trekkies."


Here is the majority of the article:



Kevin David Anderson is the contributor for this week’s Take Five, a regular series where we ask authors to share five facts about their latest books. His latest novel, Night of the Living Trekkies ...


1. The idea for Night of the Living Trekkies came to me while watching the brilliant documentary, Trekkies. Directed by Roger Nygard and staring Denise Crosby, it’s an in-depth and entertaining exploration of the devoted fans of Star Trek and their world, from home life to conventions. I was not even halfway through the film when it hit me. I kept imagining, in the right situation, under the right dire circumstances, these guys can become the heroes. And of course the right situation was the zombie apocalypse.


2. I almost shelved the idea several times, doubting that any publisher would even consider the idea. The potential legal wrangling that the parody manuscript might get caught up in was daunting. In the late eighties at least one Star Trek parody book project that I know of, was killed, and the difficulties that plagued the filmmakers of the movie Free Enterprise, when attempting to insert Star Trek visuals into the film, were always paramount in my mind. But one day, think it was late in 2008, I was listening to one of my favorite NPR radio show, Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, when a trivia question came up involving some crazy book in which they were putting zombies in a Jane Austen novel. I remember the audience and the show’s host, Peter Sagal, having a good laugh at the not yet released New York Times Best Seller. But I didn’t laugh. Well, okay I did, a little, but only because I realized how brilliant the concept was. I knew then that there was at least one publisher, Quirk Books, that could think way outside the literary box. The novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies inspired me to continue work on Night of the Living Trekkies, and coincidentally the manuscript landed on the desk of the very same editor responsible for our current trend of literary mash-ups, PP&Z’s creator and editor, Jason Rekulak.


3. Before pitching the idea to Quirk Books, I lived in a constant state of paranoia, that some other author would beat me to the punch. I thought the idea of combining zombies with Trekkies at a sci-fi convention was like death and taxes. It was inevitable. And if I didn’t do it someone else certainly would. I told almost no-one what I was working on until it was in the hands of a publisher. For almost a year, the first rule of Night of the Living Trekkies was, don’t talk about Night of the Living Trekkies. Now I just think I was paranoid. Or nuts. Or both.


4. There were many excellent revisions to the characters from my first draft. George Takei, (the actor who played Mr. Sulu in the original series and the movies) or at least my interpretation of him, was actually written into several scenes. There were some good moments with him, his foil, battling zombies, but in the end, Takei’s scenes were cut. With the real possibility that the owners of the Star Trek property might have issues with our little parody novel, why push it. One of the best changes made was the redrafting of Leia from the original idea, a high priced Sci-Fi prostitute, to that of a Sci-Fi convention model. Why was this done? Well, when you’re asking your audience to suspend some belief in order for them to accept things like, the living dead, it’s best to make the situations and characters as real as possible. It’s amusing to think that there might be Sci-Fi ladies of the evening, mixing cosplay and prostitution. But it does sound a little far fetched, whereas if you’ve ever been to ComicCon or anything like it, you know that there are plenty of real world Sci-Fi convention models brightening up the booths, our nerdy fantasies, and exciting our geeky hearts.


5. Many of the character names were nods to Star Trek characters. Some were obvious, like Jim Pike, but others required some deep Trek knowledge. And one character name, Eli Sandoval, actually hinted at the ending.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Total Sci-Fi Online Interview


Just a couple of quick things: My story Momentum, which debuted on the Drabblecast back in 2007, finally gets its day in print. Issue #16 of Murky Depths will feature the short post-apocalyptic story, and is available for pre-order.

The fine folks at the outstanding genre news source Total Sc-Fi Online spent some time with me talking Zombies, Star Trek, and Sci-Fi. You can read that interview here: Total Sci-Fi Online - Anderson Interview.


Now, back to work.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Best Overall Star Trek Viral Video!


“I find the lack of Star Wars Characters in this book...disturbing.”
Caption by Dale Hoppert
Image by me, while I should’ve been writing.

So what’s going on you ask. Well, Night of the Living Trekkies is up for a Dead Letter Award over at the Mail Order Zombie website. Voting is open to the public and here is a link to the ballot: Dead Letter Award Ballot. This is the final week of voting so get your vote in by 3/6/11. Remember Zombies can’t vote, but you can.

TrekMovie.com awarded the book trailer for Night of the Living Trekkies the Best Overall Star Trek Viral Video – 2010. There are some great videos posted on the their site, including one of my favorites from last year which won Best Original Star Trek Song, "Star Trek Girl" by Meekakitty. Check out all the winners here - TrekMovie Viral Video Awards.

The macabre and hilarious Jeff Strand (Dweller, Benjamin's Parasite, Single White Psychopath Seeks Same) is conducting Zombie Wars on his web site, in which he compares excellent zombie novels with his brilliant novel The Sinister Mr. Corpse. In round two we have Mr. Corpse vs. Night of the Living Trekkies. It’s a fun read and if you like dark horror comedy, and don’t know Jeff Strand, let me just say, get to know him!

For the past few weeks we have been running caption contests over at the Night of the Living Trekkies Facebook page, and I must admit the creativity and geek knowledge of those that have played is "Most Impressive!" We’ll keep them going until I run out of prizes and or people get bored of it. With that in mind I’d like to incorporate a rule or two:
1) The caption with the most “Likes” at the end of 24 hours is the winner.
2) In order for your caption to be eligible the author must vote for one other caption – not their own.
3) In the event of a tie I'll toss out votes in which the author voted for their own. If after that a tie still exists, then the two authors will be asked to settle it amongst themselves on the field of honor with bat'leths. Or I’ll just give them both prizes.

In other news, looks like my short story Momentum will be out this Fall in the August issue of Murky Depths and not the Spring issue. Still excited to see it. I have not seen a short story of mine in a magazine for a while, and its time I work on that.

"Act, and you shall have dinner; wait, and you shall be dinner."
-Gowron, Klingon proverb, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Got Game


Had a fantastic time playing and recording a trivia game for Fan Central Fancast, which will air next week on BlogTalk Radio sometime - Feb 9th, I think. Brian K and Trekkie Kim are the hosts and they're more fun then fiberglass underwear. I don't think I embarrassed myself too badly, but there were a few Trek questions I should have known, and I had to hang my head in shame.

Friday, January 14, 2011

The Trekkie Gang

“…and the Romulans would have gotten away with it too,
if it hadn’t been for those meddling Starfleet kids…”

I like to photoshop in between rounds of writing, drinking coffee, and hunting mimes. It gets the creative juices going and in the case of the above: "Starfleet Scooby," lets me workout mashup ideas that are not quite big enough to fill a novel. I did this back in December and recently its been popping up on blogs, Facebook, tweets and wherever people are interwebbin'. <--- It could be a word.

To answer a few question I've been getting via email almost weekly, 1) No time frame yet on a Night of the Living Trekkies sequel and 2) Film rights have been nibbled at but are still available. I hope to know more on both of those in the next six months. How frakin' epic would a Night of the Living Trekkies movie be? The Trekkies Book Trailer kind of answers that question.

In movie news, looks like the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies movie is a go again. Seems like its been up and down, but now appears to be full speed ahead. We should see Zombieland 2 this year which I'm really looking forward too. Max Brooks WWZ might actually go into production this year. That's a big "might." I recently reread the novel and was reminded at what a challenging book it is to adapt. And if your looking for a good new ZombComedy to sink your teeth into, take a look at Doghouse. The editor of Fangoria, during one of his ZomBcon panels, couldn't say enough nice things about Doghouse and after watching it on DVD, twice, I have to agree.

More writing stuff ----> I'm excited about the Spring issue of Murky Depths which will have my short story "Momentum," amongst its dark pages. The story has never been in print and was the first piece of mine produced in audio for the amazing podcast, the Drabblecast. Also excited about the German version release of Trekkies, later this summer. We might also see the Spanish version available in the fall.

Thinking about jumping into the e-publishing game with a small collection of short stories. Just thinking about it. From what I hear its a lot of work, with not much to gain. I have a handful of short stories that were produced in audio but never appeared in print, and or e-print. They all need editing, rewriting, then more editing. It might make an interesting in between novels project. And , no this would not be the cover. Just more photoshopin'.

Live long and prosper.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
-Carl Sagan

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Die Nacht Der Lebenden Trekkies


The German version of Night of the Living Trekkies or "Die Nacht Der Lebenden Trekkies," will be available July 2011.
Much Joy!