Zombie Q&A—Sylvester Barzey (Planet Dead)
“I want to sit back and be like, ‘Damn, I wish I thought of something like this.’”
The author explains his unique spin on zombie fiction, shares why his books set an example for his son, and reveals why he’s written clown zombies.
Sylvester Barzey is a father, a husband, a soldier, and an “Anything Goes HORROR” writer who launched his post-apocalyptic zombie Planet Dead series in 2017. He focuses on using diverse characters to push down the wall that is the horror/fantasy genre. His goal is to prove that people of color and women can kick as much ass as any of Hollywood’s blockbuster stars and tell a great story while doing it.
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What’s your unique spin on zombie fiction?
I feel like my take on the zombie genre is different due to how I go about it. I try and look at the apocalypse through different eyes. We always see a group of survivors come together or that one military badass rise above it all, but we hardly see a black mother battle to save her family or how the zombie uprise impacts a inner city gang. Maybe how the Mexican government would defend the broader against a fallen infected America.
I feel like the genre is lacking different stories and fresh voices, which is how I go about attacking it. I don’t think my stories are like any other stories you’ve read in the genre...period.
What inspired you to go on this direction?
I’ve always enjoyed writing and it really wasn’t until I read Bobby Adair’s “Slow Burn” series that I really wanted to try and create my own world. That story really stuck with me and I wanted to make something that did the same to my readers.
Aside from why I started, the reason I go about my work the way that I do is because I am a black man in America, raising a black son and I want him to read about black heroes. People think representation doesn’t matter but those are people who have always been represented.
Kids pick up on the littlest things and when you see in horror genre that black people are gang bangers or victims then slowly that’s what your mind really believes. When I first started writing Planet Dead, Catherine was white because I couldn’t wrap my mind around having a black final girl and if that’s how I thought in my late 20s imagine what my son would think at his young age? I write how I write for him and every black horror fan out there.
When and how did you first become interested in zombie stories? (Childhood reading, movies, what?)
I 100% owe my love for zombies to Romero and his movies. Night of the Living Dead and especially Day of The Dead have always been big in my life, those movies created the zombie genre and used it to take a look at society and the rules of the world. I love how Romero took the lens of the genre and gave people a look into how ugly the world was (or is).
What are your “zombie story” pet peeves?
This is a hard one...I once read a story that stated in the Preface how “realistic” it was going to be and that’s why women weren’t gonna be shown as heroes and why they were gonna be traded as sex objects and I closed the book.
I don’t like the whole damsel in distress trope that you find in books, I really don’t like it in any genre but I hate it so much in horror because I was raised by strong black women and saying they need me to save them is ridiculous. Can it happen? Yes, but it’s not needed to push a story forward. I hate to read a book with an underdeveloped female character who is more or less nothing without the male or main character.
This one really isn’t a pet peeve but I’m not really into the deep science of the zombie apocalypse, if you wanna tell me a solar flare or the book of dead clowns made zombies, cool that’s good enough for me...the how or why doesn’t matter much to me, what matters is what you’re doing with it. So, chapters filled with explaining the virus has never been my thing but that’s just me.
What do YOU look for in a good zombie story?
I love finding different types of zombies like Z Nation had a ton of different zombies or Resident Evil, Left 4 Dead, or Dread Nation. A normal zombie story is cool too but when I open a book and it says they have flying zombies or radio active zombies, I’m like “Awesome! How are they gonna get out of this one?”
I’ve heard the same stories so often that now I can read a few chapters and figure out how the book ends, so I like to be surprised or entertained along the way with something I don’t normally run into.
In my work I’ve done clowns, voodoo queens, ghost, and mutated smart zombies. So, when I’m reading I want to sit back and be like, “Damn, I wish I thought of something like this.” That’s all I really want, surprise me.
Find Sylvester Barzey Online
Facebook: AuthorSylvesterBarzey
Twitter: @SylvesterBarzey
Instagram: @SylvesterBarzey
Complete Planet Dead Series in Order
Planet Dead (A Post-Apocalyptic Zombie Horror)
When the world goes to hell in a zombie handbasket, you find out that true evil hides among the living!
"Michonne of The Walking Dead and Selina from 28 Days Later have a new heroine to welcome to the club in Catherine."
—Horror, Sci-Fi, & More!
It’s 2019, the wall is built. The president is missing and an unknown virus has quickly taken over the world. People are dying but like an 80s b-rated horror movie, they won’t stay dead for long.
This is the world Catherine Briggs calls home. A loyal and mouthy Mama bear, Catherine was ripped from her family by her new worst foe, the apocalypse! The Army prepared her for the enemy. Law school prepared her for liars. But nothing prepared her for the evil behind the apocalypse's mask...Survivors. From a clueless socroity girl, who brings hell with her in the dead of night, to a backwoods cirus of clowns who want to have Catherine and countless others for dinner.
Planet Dead has every bit of nightmare fuel to keep you up for days. Can a modern day wonder woman survive long enough to be reunited with her family or is hope the only thing that stays dead in the Apocalypse?
Patient Zero (Planet Dead Book 2)
Welcome to 17 floors of zombie hell, with a fatal and final stop in Planet Dead!
In Austin, TX, Christian Fidal is coming to terms with a car accident that killed his father and placed his little brother in a coma. Chris just wants to leave the real world behind, but is forced by his office crush Trinity and his cousin Hector to go to the hotel's holiday party.
What was meant to be a fun night turns into a fight for their lives when a mysterious virus quickly starts claiming victims within the grand walls of the Eastman hotel, but when these victims die, they don't stay dead. Confusion is spreading just as fast as the virus but one man knows exactly what's going on, because he's the cause of it all and the Eastman is just his first stop on his infectious North American tour, up next is Mexico.
The race is on to stop this modern day Tyhopid Mary from bringing North America to it's knees. If you're looking for a gory, action-packed excitement, and horror, then this book is a must read!
It's The Office meets The Walking Dead! Sylvester Barzey brings you the continuation of the zombie comedic thrill ride known as Planet Dead!
Promise Land: Post (Planet Dead Book 3)
My name is Catherine Briggs and my story...well, it's not done yet!
"Everybody dies! Young, old, men, women...everybody dies."
—Liam Davis (Planet Dead 3)
Catherine Briggs survived a zombie outbreak. She survived a bombing and lets not forget the cannibalistic circus, but all that was a cake walk compared to her new troubles. It's 2020 and Catherine's world has entered a whole new level of hell. Accompanied by two survivors from Atlanta, Catherine has traveled to the cold post-apocalyptic waste land of New Orleans in hopes of finding her family and the monster known as Tennessee. A helping hand from a group of NOLA survivors, drops her first and only lead into her lap, Christian Fidel, the sole survivor from the original outbreak in Texas. Christian finally escaped his CDC kidnappers and only wants to make his way back to Texas.
At odds about who's mission is more important, our heroes are forced to put all their needs on the back burner, because New Orleans has its own problems, other than zombies and crazed survivors. Since the start of the outbreak, children have gone missing and the Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau, is on the hunt for the animal that's taking her city's youth. Catherine has to prove that she's not the serial killer the city's been looking for, all while figuring out if her helping hand, is really the sinful palm of The Devil of Bourbon Street.
You thought your 2020 sucked...welcome to The Promise Land, where many enter, but none leave.
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