Saturday, May 14, 2011

Dead Dead West

Fellow eastern Kentuckian and zombie writer, Jason Thacker, is getting published… Again. Being a Kentuckian or a zombie writer as well, I feel the need to post about this news. He isn’t just getting a short story published, but a few novel. A zombie novel by the name of ’Dead are Alive’-- here is his blog post here.

First of I want to congratulate him. Not that I am sure that he reads my blog, but that is what twitter is for, but this is covering my butt on here as well. I have to say I plan on getting this book when it comes out, not because he is from Kentucky or that it has zombies, well yeah the zombies but not on the zombies alone. I think it’s good to support authors from your local area, but seeing as I am poor, I have to be picking about who I support. Thing is, I was published alongside Jason in ‘First Time Dead 2’ with the story the ‘Hungriest Zombie’. Which is one of the stories I really enjoyed and I enjoyed the story before finding out he is from only a few miles away from me. It’s corky, well written, has heart and had me pulled in. So yeah, I am going to read more of his stuff, also it’s a zombie western. Which is just kick ass. I have loved the idea of zombies and westerns for some time now, well after playing ’Gun’ For the Gamecube a few years ago. In fact I have wanted to write a zombie western type thing before.

So to make this post a bit longer, I want to touch on something that seems to happen to all writers at some point, an idea being used before you get the chance to do it yourself. Some get mad, some even go as far as violence (verbal mostly) and some, like myself, just try to deal with it. But dealing with it is hard. It’s hard because there isn’t much you can do. Lets list the options to an author in this situation.

Toss out the idea, so no one will think you’re a copycat.
Write the damn thing and get called a copycat.

Now I know that list is long and you may need to sit and let this news sink in for a moment, but we must push forward here. So as you see there isn’t much you can do, and either way your getting called a copycat. Yeah, I know I said you could toss it out so people wont call you a copy cat, but if you ever repeat your idea, people will say you just stole it or wanted to cash in on it. I once had the idea of superheroes during a zombie filled post apocalyptic world. I assume, unless I don’t make it as a zombie writer and a writer of other fiction, that you know there are tons of zombie superhero type things out there. So for the sake of this lets say I do go with writing this idea. Well there is a long list of things to pick form here.

Read the subject, so if my idea close to it I can plead ignorance.
Read it and change my ideas biased on what was done before as to not repeat.
Read it and give up if it’s too good.
Read it and think you can do better.
Not read it as to not let it influence you in any way.
Not read it so you truly are ignorant to the “original”.
Not read it so you don’t give up on the idea.

So yeah, that list is a bit longer then the other and the fact is it feels way longer when your in the situation. In fact both list feel longer when your in the situation. Truth is I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer. I’m sure there are people out there that think there is a right answer, but let them think that. I’m sure they may have been in the situation before and went with an idea they didn’t care much about and must support their decision. I say, bah to that. I don’t think there is much wrong with backing out of things, but at least admit it.

Then again, there is a lot of bravery to push forward. Or arrogance. See it never ends, so I say go with it. People will think what they think and you can only do what you can do. In the end if no one sues you, or uses some sort of violence on you then your in the clear. Critics seem to hate things anymore when it comes to movies and books, so as long as you don’t think you can’t write no bad, then just go with it. Either it will suck or it won’t.

Long story short, Jason broke past this, from what I understand and stuck it out. Now he has a book coming out. Writers should all take note of it. I hope the book does well.


Side note, sorry if parts of this seem weird, I’ve been watching Bones while writing this. I really need to try reading some of those books.

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