April 12, 2021

Silent World Week

Week 15 – Silent World

Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Zombie
Release Date: July 5, 2016
Cover Design: Kate L. Mary
Formats: ebook, audiobook, and paperback – grab the ebook for just $0.99 for a limited time!

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When Jim ran out of that farmhouse in Forgotten World, not only did he leave the promise of safety behind, but he was sure he was about to meet a horrible end. 

Amira has lived most of her life surrounded by silence, and this new world has dangers lurking around every corner that could mean the end for her. 

When two survivors, never meant to meet, find each other in the middle of an apocalypse, it will mean the difference between life and death. With silence as their constant companion, and the threat of death always hanging over their heads, Jim and Amira will learn not only what it means to trust another person, but how to let go of the past so they can survive this new world of violence.


***Before I get into the blog post, I want to thank everyone who has been reading them. It’s been fun to revisit writing these books. I am going to start cutting down my posts, though. While I enjoy doing it, I’m not getting a lot of traffic and it’s very time consuming. Which means that starting this week, I’m going going to do one long post per book. Again, a huge thank you to people who’ve taken the time to read the posts!


I didn’t plan to write this book, which I’m sure most people who have read the series realize. When I finished Forgotten World, I really thought I was going to end the story there. Yes, I left it open just in case I decided to write more, but I really wanted to be able to create other worlds and focus on something other than zombies. It didn’t take long, however, for me to change my mind, and since so many people wanted to know what happened to Jim after he sacrificed himself for the rest of the group, I decided this story was the way to go.

As I’ve said before, I try hard to add diverse characters into my books, which is where Amira comes in. She’s deaf – in case you haven’t read the book – and it was so much fun to put myself in the shoes of a person who couldn’t hear and imagine what it would be like to have to survive an apocalyptic situation. So many times in the other books the characters are alerted to trouble because of something they hear, and to have that sense ripped away added an extra layer. I had to work hard to create warning systems for Amira so she would be alerted to intruders, such as dirt or flour spread across the floor so she could see footprints if anyone – or anything – happened to wander into the house. I also loved exploring how cut off she would be if plunged into sudden darkness. Without the ability to hear, losing her ability to see made the scenario twice as terrifying. Despite all that, I wanted Amira to be a strong and capable character. Jim helps her, but he isn’t her knight in shining armor, and she saves him just as many times as he saves her. That was important to me because – as you should know by now – I always want my female characters to be strong and independent.

A lot of people have asked over the years who the Watchers are. Short answer: I don’t know. I added that part of the story on a whim and have always thought that one day I’ll expand on that, either in a different zombie series or maybe in one of the novellas. All I know is they’re going to be bad news for anyone who bumps into them.

Jim was such a complicated character in the Broken World series, and writing from his perspective and expanding on his backstory was both fun and challenging. I wasn’t sure at first if I’d be able to pull it off – and I felt he same way the first time I wrote from Axl’s perspective – but it ended up being a lot of fun. As I’ve said before, I was watching Sons of Anarchy when I created Jim’s character, and he’s definitely inspired by Jax Teller.

The last thing I want to mention about this story is when Amira and Jim finally arrive in New Atlanta. By the this point I’d decided that I was definitely going to continue the story, which is why I added the little nugget about Angus in there. I don’t think I quite knew what I was going to do next, but I did have plans to write Twisted World and I did plan a time jump.

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