On the 5th day of Christmas...

Hey Lovelies!
Today is the 5th day of BCPublishing's 12 days of Christmas BOGO!  Today's $10 deal is Sean Sweeney's Zombie Showdown!  Want to know the man behind the Zombies?  Well look no more because Sean has filled out an interview!  Hope you enjoy!

Zombie Showdown

For a group of sophomores at Gardner High School, it turned out to be a class trip gone awry. For 15-year-old twins Christian and Rachel Sanderski, it was the opportunity to tell the truth. A zombie attack while the kids are on a ghost tour forces Christian to save a group of his friends. The events of the next day, though, lead to Chris and Rachel’s admission – they are the long lost descendants of a legendary gunman who once called Tombstone home. Their mother had forbidden them from saying a word about their genealogy in order to protect them. With the admission, a weight has lifted from their shoulders and, with the help of their friends, Christian and Rachel battle the zombies in a late night brawl. But when the kids are told of the coming of The Three dead cowboys their ancestor had sent to Boot Hill Cemetery, they steel themselves for the fact that they may never return home. Action and adventure, friends lost and friends found. And love, too…


Interview:
1. How long have you been writing?
I've written professionally since the age of 16, starting as a cub reporter for my local newspaper, the Sentinel & Enterprise. I've worked in newspaper and radio, and I moved on to fiction writing at 25. I still cover sports at my local paper, which "pays the grocery store bill."

2. Where did you get the idea for this book?
Truthfully, I wrote Zombie Showdown on a dare. A friend said, "Write a zombie western." The dare snowballed and became this story of twins who go on a class trip to Tombstone. Of course, with it being the Old West, there would be a chance of gun use. It would be a different weapon than I was used to writing about at the time, since I was more or less a swords and sorcery/sci-fi writer in the summer of 2009. As my thought process evolved, I wanted to write a book my then-13-year-old cousin would read, since he wasn't much of a reader -- and still isn't. At the time, I had just finished up the third Obloeron prequel novel (slated for a 2013 release), and he took peeks of what I had written while I typed away. I decided to make he and his little sister the protagonist twins in the story, and I added a historical twist.

3. What is your favorite thing about writing?
The world building. I love taking an idea and building around it. There are days where I'm bouncing in my seat as I'm plotting and brainstorming my novels. The whole process, from conception to release, is exciting, truth be told, but the world building is what really gets me going.

4. What is your favorite TV show?
I don't watch TV, except for baseball in the spring, summer and fall, and soccer on the weekends. My time is best suited writing, which is why I can crank out four or five novels a year when I'm at my most productive.

5. What did you do when you got your acceptance letter from BCP?
The first thing I did was make sure that the company reclaimed its investment in me and my work. I wanted to make sure that Bruce would give me another shot, if it came down to it. Being a good writer isn’t enough. Being friends with the publisher isn’t enough, either: it helps to have a good relationship with your publisher, yes, but I wanted to make sure that on a business level, I made Bruce enough money so that when I had a project that I believe would be perfect for Bucks County Publishing, he would be able to see the dollar signs.

6. Growing up, what was your favorite book?
Truth be told, I wasn’t a reader until my teen years. The introduction of Grisham as well as the resurgence in the Star Wars universe, the Expanded Universe, came at a critical juncture for me. I loved Grisham’s legal thrillers, and I tore through the Star Wars novels. My mom and I went into the old WaldenBooks in our mall, and while she browsed the romance – read: porn – section, I was in the sci-fi/fantasy section, where there were a few Star Wars books. I turned to mom and said, “Hey ma, can we get those Star Wars books?” She knew my love of the original trilogy – read: able to recite it ad nauseum – and practically scooped the books up into her basket. I still have those books in my library, too.

7. What is one thing that you are asking for this year for Christmas?
Not a thing, other than people enjoying my books. That would make my year.

8. Are you working on another story now? If so what about.
I am. I’m actually about to resume work on a historical romance entitled Eminent Souls, which is set in the waning years of Boston’s Scollay Square (1953-1963). A lot of my books are set in Boston, and Scollay Square is now Government Center/City Hall Plaza, which featured prominently in the start of Model Agent. There is a line in MA that connects the books: “They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot.” You’ll have to read ES in order to get what that means.

9. What is your favorite genre that you write?
I wanted to be a fantasy writer when I started. I loved the work of Tolkien and Salvatore. I still do.  My first four novels were fantasy, and seven of my first nine were fantasy. I’ve gone away from fantasy a bit (even though I continue to release fantasy novels that I wrote a few years ago) and I’m now settled into thrillers. I love keeping people on the edge of their seats now, and what better way to do it than with a pulse-pounder!

10. What is your favorite dessert?
Warm apple pie a la mode. Yum.

11. If you can bring any character from a book to life who would it be and why?
I cannot say on the grounds that my girlfriend will shoot me.

12. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Every Christmas Eve, we bought Chinese food or subs and had that for dinner. Now that I’m usually alone for the holiday, I have the Chinese food but add in a movie marathon of Christmas movies.