10 QUESTIONS & ANSWERS WITH CALVIN A. MILLER "COLD BLOOD:THE END"

Cold Blood: The End- Tonight Dr. Cheryl Barrett will not only be tested as a doctor, but she will be tested as a person. The world will change in an instant, and so will she. You see, for the next few hours no one will die and no one will be born. Many people that by all accounts should be dead will not be. They will walk, talk, and move just like they always have. For the most part. This story appears in The Undead Nation Anthology.

1. Tell the everyone a little bit about yourself

I am a 9 to 5er and a lifelong Horror/Zombie/SciFi nut! I love to write and I also have a web comic at www.TedDead.com to keep me busy.

2. What got you started writing?

One day it was time to write a book even though I am much more a movie watcher than a book reader. I had no real plan, but I knew I didn't want to simply write a different take on something that had been done alot already. I also felt that a story from the zombie's point of view needed to be told. Most people's knowledge of the genre seems to be a bit limited. You say "zombies" and they answer "brainzzzzz".

There just never seemed to be a zombie identity. Vampires have Dracula, Anne Rice's characters, and a whole lot of other faces and names. Werewolves have The Wolfman, An American Werewolf in London, and other individuals that were werewolves. Ghosts even have faces like Patrick Swayze in Ghost. But Zombies were always a marauding horde and not much more.

 I tried to get inside the head of a zombie when I wrote my book. To put a name on a Zombie, to show what he was thinking, what it's like to die and come back and find yourself craving the flesh of human beings so much so that you can't control the urge to kill and feed even though it disgusts you and makes you hate yourself, and everything else. All the while you see the infected around you rot away just like you are rotting away. That realization, that ability to relate to a zombie and even be one, I always thought that was the missing ingredient to get a larger following for the genre. Someone people could relate to. Vampires always made their plight a bit more glamorous than painful, which just doesn't translate to zombies. LOL. Zombies have remained too mysterious for too long. LOL.

3. What used to creep you out as a child? What creeps you out today?

My Mom loved Horror and I was watching Night Gallery, The Omen, The Excorcist, lots of 70's horror early on. I think the idea of horror and the past has always scared me alot. Like it is just out there and dead, but it always haunts us. One of the scariest things I have ever seen is the Don Henley video for "Boys of Summer". Just so dark and reminiscent of lost youth and lost love. Loss and love trapped in the past scares the hell out of me...

4. What’s your favorite horror movie?

I LOVE Dawn of the Dead and most anything zombie. Also The Exorcist and The Exorcist III. There is a part in that movie where an old lady is crawling on the ceiling and looking down on everyone. Really good stuff...

5. What fun things do you like to do in your spare time?

I do a humor/horror web comic called Ted Dead, Just Your Everyday Zombie for ZombieFiend.com at http://www.zombiefiend.com/forum/categories/ted-dead-just-your-everyday/listForCategory about a zombie who works in some kind of workplace and eats the customers. There is also a lot of making fun of celebrities in there. It’s a weekly comic. I also like to ride my motorcycle.

6. The Zompocalypse has arrived. What do you do? How do you defend yourself?

Don’t avoid the inevitable? Get The Zombie's Survival Guide: Thrive In The Zombie Apocalypse After You Turn... Learn, Turn, and BURRRRNNN!!! LOL!!!

7. Where can the readers find you on the internet?

My website, www.CalvinALMillerII.com.

8. What advice can you offer to the new authors?

Self Publishing is easy and free. Get your story out there! Smashwords, CreateSpace, Lulu... The possibilites are endless!

9. Can you recall one really embarrassing moment you're willing to share?

When I was in Kindergarten this kid Jeff wet his pants in the chair next to me. He started to cry and his chair and the floor underneath were soaked. I felt so bad I told him to switch seats with me and I would take the heat. I remember sitting down and hearing someone say "Hey look, Calvin peed his pants!" It was Jeff himself. I learned a lot that day...

10. Any last words?

Yeah, my late grandmother Minnie Mae Miller used to say “Monsters are everywhere, always remember that...” Never a truer word has been spoken....

OTHER TITLES BY CAL:

Het Madden, A Zombie Perspective

The Zombie's Survival Guide: Thrive In The Zombie Apocalypse After You Turn...