January 25, 2021
Mad World Post One
Week 4, Day 1 – Mad World
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
Release Date: January 3, 2015
Cover Design: Jimmy Gibbs
Formats: ebook, audiobook, and paperback – grab the ebook for just $0.99 for a limited time!
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Universal
Audible
Goodreads
When Vivian and Hadley find themselves in a situation even more threatening than the dead walking the Earth, Axl and Angus must find a way to put the growing tension between them aside and work together to rescue their friends.
Where did you get the idea for Mad World?
I discovered Kindle Unlimited around the time I started writing – although I think it was called something else back then – but since it was a pretty new thing, the selection was pretty limited. I discovered very quickly, however, that there were a lot of zombie books.
I started devouring them. The Walking Dead was a new show and I had just started toying with the idea of writing a zombie book of my own, so it made sense to read as much as I could and familiarize myself with the genre. Plus, I really liked discovering the different ways people created zombies.
It was one of these books that gave me the inspiration for Mad World. I’m not sure if I should tell you the name of the book – you never know how other people will respond – and this was only one small part of the series, but in one of the books, the main character is captured by a group of men and finds herself being held prisoner with a bunch of other women. She’s freaked out, of course, and gets even more freaked out when she discovers that the men are using these girls in some kind of zombie-fighting scenario. Now, I can’t remember exactly what happened in the book, but I do know they were in a hotel and the pool had been drained and they had zombies in it. I think the girls were supposed to fight them off or die, but I’m not positive about that because it’s been a long time. I remember reading this book and thinking: no way. I don’t believe for a second that men would capture women just to watch them die. Now, for the record, I think the idea of a zombie fighting game is great and it’s totally something people would do in the apocalypse, except they wouldn’t use women, because we all know what they would use women for. Also for the record, this book was YA, so it made sense why the author didn’t take it in that direction. It’s just way too dark.
Anyway, so this is the book that got me thinking about what people would do to one another if society broke down. If there are no laws and no consequences, what would most people do? Prey on the weak. It also made sense to me that women would be used as an incentive in a situation where there’s no longer any form of currency available. I know it’s dark and twisted, but it’s not nearly as dark and twisted as it could have been, because I’m fully aware of the fact that in a real life situation, it wouldn’t just be women who were captured and used, but as a mom, that was a scenario I just couldn’t stomach writing – or thinking – about.
