Belinda Frisch is a writer you should know about, so I’m hosting her in 11 Questions of Badassary because that’s what this column is for. It’s also for me to talk about drinking, and Yetis, and Alien Invasions, but today we’re mostly gonna talk about Belinda Frisch. Isn’t it fun to do that? Say it with me: Belinda Frissssssssssccccccchhhhhhhhhhh!
I just had a Sesame Street moment, not an Electric Company one – because Electric Company was kind of a Sesame Street knock-off, but it did have weird-too-animated Spider-Man so I can’t completely write it off.
Don’t get me started on Fraggle Rock though.
When these things rise up they are gonna go straight Sleestak on our asses!
Focus…
Zen…
Random Cat Meme…
As I was saying, Belinda Frisch is awesome and she writes scary books and I dig scary books like a fat kid tumbling around in an ice cream truck during an earthquake.
Author Belinda Frisch. It’s always the quiet ones you have to worry about when it comes to the scary-books.
Belinda Frisch’s fiction has appeared in Shroud Magazine, Dabblestone Horror, and Tales of Zombie War. She is an honorable mention winner in the Writer’s Digest 76th Annual Writing Competition and the author of DEAD SPELL, CRISIS HOSPITAL, TALES FROM THE WORLD, THE WARD, AND THE BEDSIDE and CURE, the first in the Strandville Zombie Series.
With all the stuff she’s writing it makes you wonder how she has any time left to write?
Her new book is called CURE (A Strandville Zombie Novel) and I was a little dissapointed to find out it had nothing to do with Robert Smith or black lipstick, but then I started reading it and I forgot all about All These Picture of Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
I just had a Cure moment…
Now, check this mad genius’ness’dom out:
The virus is spreading and must be contained. The center is going into lock-down. The group’s escape is threatened by a homicidal security guard and a raging storm. The town of Strandville is ground zero for the zombie apocalypse and Miranda must escape because the fate of humanity lies with her unborn child.
WTF, yes! I had just died and gone to scary zombie-incubator-Heaven!
Focus on this book! Not the cats or the other Cure. Let it hypnotize, tantalize, let it seduce you!
So, if you dare and stuff, join me as we embark on another episode of 11 Questions of Badassary!
1.
You’ve written a lot of stuff, some of it is fancy like real world sounding stuff and there were quite a few short stories and working your way towards ‘the novel’ stuff. Would you say that Dead Spell kinda started it all in regards to the author-road you’re on now? What inspired you to come up with the story for Dead Spell and tell us a little bit about it?
Nothing says “Fun for the whole family!” like razor blades and blood drops.
Dead Spell was my “debut” novel. It was a painful first, in some respects, because the main character, Harmony, is homage to a troubled teen past that I didn’t put behind me until Dead Spell was out. The story is about two best friends who, after playing with a Ouija board, are haunted by a malevolent spirit. Harmony has a terrible home life and both she and her mother are plagued by mental illness. There’s a lot going on in her world and it’s hard for her to separate what’s real, supernatural, or imagined. Of course the story is really a putting together of pieces to find out the ghost’s identity. It’s geared toward older YA and like I said, it’s a first. That being said, people who identify with Harmony’s character have really loved it. It’s niche horror, for sure.
2.
I know more female authors that write horror than I do any other genre, which to me is completely badass, what do you think is the appeal to the scary for you? I mean, is it a way of speaking about relevant issues in the world in an entertaining and exciting way, or are we all just a little screwed up in the head?
I’ll cop to being screwed up. There was a period in my life that was so unbelievably dark I can’t imagine a lot of people being where I was. Horror has always “thrilled” me. I watched scary movies as a kid, read scary books as a teen, and it’s still my favorite genre. I love how a good horror movie can have you running to your bed in the middle of the night afraid of what’s under it. The lingering effect is exhilarating.
Okay. Hmmmmm… I wonder what AJ Aalto’s excuse is then? Canada?
3.
Your new book is called Cure and the book description includes this little bit of happiness: “Nixon impregnates Miranda with a zombie fetus, but her imprisonment at the center is short-lived. A rescue team led by Scott, her estranged ex-husband, releases her and the infected on the unsuspecting hospital population.” Can you give the world any insight into what special care is involved in raising a zombie fetus into being a well-adjusted and productive member of society?
Without too much of a spoiler, the fetuses in Cure don’t make it. I’ve given a lot of thought to the latter because the sequel in progress, Afterbirth, does feature some that do and there will definitely be some tricky feeding instructions with those little suckers. Thank goodness for pointy teeth!
Is there a “Don’t Kill Mommy” Baby Einstein Video?
4.
While we’re on the subject, crack an egg of knowledge on our asses about Cure and tell us how you came up with the idea and what it’s all about?
Here’s the official blurb:
Welcome to the Nixon Healing and Research Center, refuge for the indigent sick and playground for the maniacal Dr. Howard Nixon whose cancer research has him dabbling in the undead. His human-zombie breeding program is falling apart and only Miranda Penton can save it.
Miranda gave up her budding military career to marry a fellow soldier but when their first child is stillborn, it’s more tragedy than their new marriage can handle. One year later, following her painful divorce, Miranda accepts an unexpected job offer to join Nixon’s security team. Her recruitment is part of Nixon’s dark plan and she quickly becomes one of his captives.
Nixon impregnates Miranda with a zombie fetus, but her imprisonment at the center is short-lived. A rescue team led by Scott, her estranged ex-husband, releases her and the infected on the unsuspecting hospital population.
The virus is spreading and must be contained. The center is going into lock-down. The group’s escape is threatened by a homicidal security guard and a raging storm. The town of Strandville is ground zero for the zombie apocalypse and Miranda must escape because the fate of humanity lies with her unborn child.
The idea sprang from fifteen years in the medical field and a morbid curiosity about reproductive medicine. I wouldn’t have considered myself a sci-fi writer, but some are calling Cure a sci-fi/horror crossover which brings to mind the movie Splice.
Really? Cause it brings to mind this!
5.
Are zombies more fun to write than other monsters? Do you get a lot of emails from the wolfman and draculas where they bitch, like “Why you gotta write about zombies all the time? Why not work a wolfman into something? Are you more of a cat person?”
I did get an email from Edward Cullen the other day. He was babbling on about me neglecting the vampire community, but he sparkles and so I hung up. If Lestat calls, I’ll consider it. Wolfman, last I’d heard, had his phone shut off for non-payment.
“Okay Belinda, but I still like watching you sleep.”
6.
What’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened to you in real life that freaked you out more than your books freak us out?
“Scary” is individual and honestly, I have no “And then my life flashed before my eyes” stories. The scariest thing that ever happened to me was when my son and I were in a car accident and the air bag temporarily blinded him. His face was burned and swollen and there’s nothing scarier to a mother than something bed happening to her child. He healed perfectly and we’ve moved on, but I was terrified.
7.
If you had a magic book that would explain anything to you that you don’t understand, what would you have it explain? You can’t say The Kardashians.
Explain anything? I don’t think there’s a force in the universe that could answer for the Kardashians. Or Jersey Shore. As a writer, I’d love for this magic book to explain why some books succeed when so many great ones fail.
I Google’d ‘Kim Kardashian reading a book’, but sometimes you gotta go with better treasures.
8.
With the current nature of audiences being so advanced and having seen the same tropes presented over and over again, do you feel that it’s harder to scare people nowadays? Who does it right and who’s still doing it wrong?
I’m not one for pointing fingers because “right” and “wrong” are as subjective as what is and isn’t “scary”. We all have different thoughts and fears, but Joe Schreiber is one of my favorite horror writers. Eat the Dark also takes place in a hospital and Joe hails from a background in medicine as well. It’s no surprise that I enjoy his work.
9.
What movies scare you? I had to turn off John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness as a kid because I was watching it in the middle of the night and I was like ‘Oh fuck this Alice Cooper shit’
The original Exorcist is one of the few movies that actually scares me. I think modern horror movies have gone too slasher-gory to be scary. The gross-out and shock factors mixed with heaping helpings of sex ruin the scare. The Hostel series and Saw movies are the biggest offenders. I might be desensitized.
10.
Is Cure gonna be a series and is that what the whole Afterbirth project is about? How are you gonna take the ‘Awe Hellz Nah’ to the next level?
Cure is the first in the Strandville Zombie Series. It stands-alone as an escape horror novel, but I think leads nicely into Afterbirth, its sequel. Cure is pre-apocalyptic and while I might have gone too far with it, Afterbirth will go even farther. For some reason, Cure’s unsettled some people (in a good way) with the infant experimentation. Afterbirth takes place in post-apocalyptic Strandville where the hybrids are more important than ever to humanity’s survival. The remaining characters from Cure will be facing old enemies and new grudges and will be more desperate and cut-throat than ever with the town gone savage.
Hopefully this off-sets all the fetus-experimenting and zombie Fisher-Price we just talked about above. Weebles Wobble everybody, we’re gonna make it through the zombie apocalypse.
11.
You find yourself in a park just outside the city where you are spending the afternoon communing with nature and contemplating the green of the grass and the blue of the sky. You consider that perhaps you have fallen into some strange mirror universe where the squirrels are plotting against mankind and you are the only person who might be able to talk some sense into them before their evil plan unfurls. Would you use diplomacy and talk reason or is it open season on the squirrel cabal?
I’m afraid the z-poc side of me says that logic and reason doesn’t work with extremist squirrels or zombies. Hand me the shotgun and get out of the way. It’s open season.
11 Questions of Badassary would like to thank Belinda Frisch for graciously answering our questions!
Now buy it! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat….?
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This one will scare the crows right out’ta grandma’s weed patch too!
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Make it rain!
Billy Purgatory is Jesse James Freeman’s first novel. He’s also studied psychology and film and scripted comics. When he’s not writing books, Jesse James trains falcons to kill Leprechaun Robots, and will continue to do so until the world is relatively safe.
Jesse James recently contributed 4 essays to the book Write for the Fight: A Collection of Seasonal Essays, co-authored by Tess Hardwick (Riversong) and Tracey Hansen. All author proceeds will be donated to charities engaged in the fight against breast cancer.
Jesse James is currently working on Billy Purgatory and the Curse of the Satanic Five, MythCop, Vehemently Jones, Blood-Love, R. Cane, and Witches vs Robots.
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