January 19, 2021
Shattered World Post Two
Week 3, Day 2 – Shattered World
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
Release Date: October 1, 2014
Cover Design: Jimmy Gibbs
Formats: ebook, audiobook, and paperback
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Universal
Audible
Goodreads
Stranded in the middle of the Mojave Desert, surrounded by zombies, Vivian and Axl’s group are sure they’re facing the end. The dead are closing in and the shelter they were promised is sealed tight, only they refuse to go down without a fight. Just when they think they’ve run out of time, the doors to the shelter are thrown open and they’re given refuge. Five years in underground condos with all the provisions there for the taking. It’s almost too good to be true. With the promise of security, Vivian hopes she’ll finally able to take a deep breath and deal with everything that’s happened.
What can you tell us about the characters in Shattered World?
We meet some new – and diverse – characters in Shattered World and I have a lot to say about them.
When I decided to send my survivors to an underground luxury bunker I knew, I knew right away that most of the original owners of these condos wouldn’t be there. Remember, 85% of the population died from the original virus, so the odds are good most of the people wouldn’t make it. I did know that whoever did make it there would have to be rich, and the idea of throwing a celebrity into the mix was appealing. Enter Hadley Lucas. I didn’t know at the time exactly what I would do with her – although for a short time I did toy with the idea of her and Angus ending up together since I’d always planned on redeeming him – but I knew I wanted her to be surprisingly down to Earth. In my head I somewhat modeled her off Emma Stone – Zombieworld vs. Zombieland – but I channeled several other actresses as well, which was I mentioned how thin she got once she became famous. (I’ve seen that happen to so many actresses and have never understood it.) For the most part, though, I let her personality develop on its own.
Lila was another new character and was always meant to be perfect for Al. I got her name from the Sweet Valley High books, which I loved when I was young, who was the best friend of Jessica. I was also a little inspired by the character of Shannon in the television show Lost – played by Maggie Grace – because I loved how spoiled and useless she was when they first crash on the island, but how she slowly started to change. (Spoiler alert: I was so sad when they killed her off because she’d just started to really grow as a character and I was excited to see what would happen with her.)
The Doctor, Victor Gates, was thrown in because I needed another wealthy person to make it to the shelter, and it makes sense to have that one character who just cannot let go of a loved one no matter how dire (and disgusting) the circumstances.
Then there’s Darla, Vivian’s estranged mom who abandoned her when she was only ten years old, leaving her with an abusive father. Over the years I’ve gotten some crap from readers for throwing this chance meeting in, and even from my husband, but honestly, I don’t think it’s very far-fetched. The world has always been a relatively small place, and with 85% percent of the population dead, it just got a hell of a lot smaller. Let me give you an example. I went to Paris with my French class when I was a junior in high school and as we were walking down the street one day we bumped into the older sister of someone from else from our junior class. This person wasn’t with us – they didn’t take French – and their older sister had no idea a group from the high school she’d graduated from was in Paris and we had no idea she was there either. We were just walking down the sidewalk and saw her. What are the odds of something like that happening? I mean, even if we’d happened to be in the same city at the same time, it’s extremely unlikely that we’d run into one another in a city with a population of over two million people. Yet we did. Vivian had heard rumors that her mom ended up in Vegas, she tells Axl that after they get back to the condo, and since being immune to the virus seems to be hereditary, odds are good that Vivian’s mom would survive the initial outbreak. If they accidentally ended up in the same area after most of the population is gone, they’re bound to run into one another at some point – at least in my opinion. Adding Vivian’s mom to the mix didn’t come to me until the moment she and Axl were running through the casino, but to me it seemed like the perfect time to let fate step in and bring them back together.
