“We all have the crazy in us, is my theory, and when I write, I keep that in mind. That’s why my characters are so damaged,” said Mark Henry, author of the dark comedy zombie book, Battle of the Network Zombies.
Before turning to zombie book writing, Henry was a psychotherapist for 12 years—an experience that he says significantly affected his writing.
“I’ve treated too many clients to count and those years were all sorts of crazy,” Henry said. “[But] that’s not to say that I think my clients were any worse off than anyone else, in fact, in many ways they were doing better. They were getting help.”
Henry grew tired of his career path in 2006, due mostly to stress. He then decided to take a leap of faith and confidence and quit his job to write—zombie novels?
Henry had always been a fan of dark comedies, a fascination that began when his mother introduced him to the zombie classic Night of the Living Dead when he was in fifth grade.
So, with Henry’s attraction to obscurity and dark comedy, it’s no wonder Battle of the Network Zombies, the third installment of the zombie series starring a bitchy zombie named Amanda Feral, features the main character participating in a reality show for the undead.
“For what I write, which is irreverent and darkly comic, reality shows like Jersey Shore and RuPaul’s Drag Race provide some really crazy dynamics from which to draw inspiration” Henry said.
Henry, a self-professed reality TV junkie, started thinking about a way to incorporate the chaos and hysteria of reality TV into his own book series. Judging from what we know about Amanda Feral from Henry’s previous books, no other character would be more fitting.
“Amanda is self-centered, materialistic and generally unpleasant,” Henry said. “But she grows on you like necrotizing fasciitis [a flesh-eating disease]. She’s an anti-heroine and Battle of the Network Zombies is a dark comedy.”
Feral is one of those horrific characters you can’t help rooting for, no matter how evil and disturbing she may be. Take, for example, one scene where she roams tent cities for victims.
“If I weren’t playing the scene for laughs it would just be, well, weird. The key is in her voice and vision,” Henry said. “She’s snarky and sarcastic and when I’m writing her, no matter how devious she gets, I never take her seriously.”
Henry says the characters in his books aren’t necessarily based on any one person he knows, but rather a compilation of bits and pieces from people he knows—whether that be from watching people at the mall or from his own group of friends.
“I’m like a collector in that sense, only I don’t collect stuff, I collect snippets” Henry said. “Dialogues, facial expressions, emotion…it’s all fair game. You never know when you’ll find yourself in my stories.”