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Zombie Book Club
Welcome to Zombie Book Club! We're a Podcast that's also a book club! We talk about Zombie / Apocalyptic horror novels, TV and movies.
Zombie Book Club
Mental Health for the Zombie Apocalypse Writer | Zombie Book Club Ep 142
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The heart of this bonus episode is writing craft and writer mental health. Dan breaks down why it wasn’t “writer’s block” so much as an emotional block, what it feels like to stare at the page and produce nothing but an ellipsis, and how he rebuilt momentum with a routine, a weekly word-count goal, and permission to skip ahead to the scenes that actually matter. We also swap notes on writing books that help, revision realities, and the long game of finishing a zombie novel without hating what you make.
We talk about coping in a nonstop political news cycle, why social media can turn into both therapy and trauma, and how roasting trolls on Threads becomes a pressure release when everything feels unreal. We also highlight a creator we’ve been following who baits bad-faith DMs into accidental lessons on history and feminism.
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Bonus Episode And Time Confusion
SPEAKER_00It's a bonus episode. It's a bonus episode. Yeah, is that the song now?
SPEAKER_01That's what you did.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I did. I I don't know if I was ripping off a song or not.
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_00I was just kind of like going with a melody that was in my head, but then when I listened back to it, I was like, this sounds really familiar. So it's probably a song.
SPEAKER_01Well, I guess everybody knows it's a bonus episode. So we all get into it. Yeah. Uh we're recording this bonus episode right now because what is time? What are time zones? I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01We thought we were meeting with somebody, but I think that they thought that they were meeting in their time zone, and we thought we were meeting in our time zone. And sadly, while it is all the same time in reality, the stupid clock we live by. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00What if we were just all one time zone? So like two o'clock in the afternoon in Australia is like the morning, and uh and on the West Coast, two o'clock in the afternoon is like ten.
SPEAKER_01I think you're dreaming too big. I think we just need to start getting rid of daylight savings time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Daylight savings time needs to go. I'm not a fan.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Except when it's the fall and you gain an hour. What if we just kept doing that? Just gain an hour every time. Yeah. So like in the spring, instead of springing ahead, we spring up. We spring back again. No, you spring forward. Wait, back. You're right, back. We would spring back, then the fall, fall back, then spring, spring back.
SPEAKER_01No, no.
SPEAKER_00I think it's a great idea.
SPEAKER_01Well, let's just talk about how time is a construct. And that before we had the need to track every single fucking second of our lives, we just kind of were like, it's morning, it's night, it's winter, it's fall, it's somewhere in between.
SPEAKER_00Is that the intro episode? Uh I don't know. Yeah? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01One time two rule them all.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I like your song. Thank you. Great song, Leah.
Life Updates And Getting Sick
SPEAKER_00Uh we've we we've got updates.
SPEAKER_01We do. We're gonna basically make this a very casual episode. We're gonna talk what have we been up to since the last time we had a bonus episode or last time we had a casual dead, which honestly I don't remember. Uh we're gonna, Dan's gonna talk about writing his book.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, let's talk about most of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because I feel like a lot of people are are are having some struggles. I'm having some struggles. Let's talk about those struggles.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We're on the struggle bus. Struggle bus. Some people are dealing with it better than others.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Joe. And and that's it. Alice. Alice. Alice, of course.
SPEAKER_01Alice, who says, Oh, I'm not feeling very productive. And then the next day is like, oh, but just finishing your short story.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I just publish.
SPEAKER_01Are we roasting you publicly right now?
SPEAKER_00Yes. And also I'm doing a free everyday uh choose your own adventure zombie story on Facebook. Yeah, go check that out. Alice writing another book.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, so unproductive. I know, our friends. But again, what is time? There is no um perfect right time. It's your time. Yeah. That's my big philosophical commentary today.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So at this time, uh, what's what's your big updates?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I've been back to work for uh two weeks. Two of those days, I was out sick because um Simon brought us disease and pestilence. He brought it home from You can't say that. We don't say our people work. People don't know where Simon works.
SPEAKER_00Don't tell people where Simon works.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we try to respect his privacy because he has not consented for us to share details. I don't think sharing about the fact that he has a dog named Janeway or um that he made us sick is like inappropriate. But beyond that, yeah. You know? Uh but anyways, yeah, he made me very sick. He made Dan very sick. We were sick for like what like a week and a half at least. Yeah, I started my job sick, and then I was like, no, I'm gonna power through. I got this. Uh and then Thursday came and I was like, I don't got this. And um I didn't got it. I have a very understanding new set of colleagues that believed me because they saw me slowly going downhill the first three days.
SPEAKER_00They said they saw they saw your face just like drag and my voice, yeah. Every on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I was sick, but I guess oh, that's what I was gonna say is that my job is remote primarily. I will be traveling again, which is exciting because we're in a different stage of life. I don't have a dog who makes traveling hard, and yeah, Dan is becoming a full-time writer. I feel like that's a big update. Can I share that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you can share that. I feel like did we share it last time? I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, let's share it again because it's a big deal. Dan is freed from the shackles of capitalism.
SPEAKER_00As much as I can be.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I mean, I still live here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, true. I mean, we still need to earn money, but um, thankfully, Dan doesn't need to go back to the trucking job this year. So uh we're gonna have a very different reality, and it's quite a shift to go from being fun employed, both of us, um, not knowing what our economic future is, to me being an employed and you being in a better situation too. So that feels nice. I like my job so far. I like my colleagues, I like the work. Um, has it been hard to wake up in the morning? Yes. Do I feel like my brain has been um battered with a hammer by the end of the day? Yes. If you've been noticing on Instagram or anywhere else where I might be having conversations with you that I've sort of disappeared, yes. Uh it's gonna take me a minute, I think, to get back to a normal rhythm. And I apologize for all the ways that I will probably be flaky for like the next six months, I would say. When my brain catches up and like gets used to being like this, because being feral and again, like what is time? I didn't have to worry about that. I just did what my body wanted every day.
SPEAKER_00Um I've I've also been pretty flaky too. Uh I haven't really been spending as much time uh talking to our dear humans um as as I as I would have. And I feel a little I feel a little bit bad about
Coping Through Threads Roasts
SPEAKER_00that, but also like I'm really tired. I've been really tired since getting sick. And also just the world as it is has been very hard to deal with. Um I've been uh I've been I've been coping by taking out my anger on uh ma uh MAGA trolls. On threads. On threads.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if you want to follow Dan's um rage, just go to his replies section on threads. What's your threads handle? Dan the zombie writer. Yeah, I think that if you want us some vicarious joy by MAGA trolling, go go read. They're very funny. So funny that our librarian friend texted me and said, I am living for Dan's threads right now. Do you want to do you wanna hear a thread? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay, let me let me.
SPEAKER_01This is like micro writing by Dan.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I this is like the most writing I've been doing. It's just like slam dunking on trolls. Ah, here we go. I found a perfect one. Uh Alex N. Roberto says, Threads is full of liberals. Where are my conservatives at? So I replied, they're all getting oiled up for their daily routine of whacking it to an AI-generated image of Donald Trump.
unknownWhat?
SPEAKER_01I wasn't expecting that. Like oiled up. Ew.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they I mean they like, but they really like to get into it. Yeah. Yeah. But uh, yeah, that's that's give us one more.
SPEAKER_01Okay. This is how Dan is emotionally coping with um our very toxic times. It's uh I'll I'll give my little while you're finding one, I'll give my little update in terms of how I'm coping with um living in our techno slash Christo fascist nightmare of a country right now, uh slash a horrifying amount of pedophilia. Um is now anytime I see an adult man with anybody under the age of 18, I just just it's like I unfortunately am like, what are you doing? Is that kid okay? Like it's um it's it's rough out there. Maybe I shouldn't have, maybe this is we're gonna stop talking about that because I don't want to trigger anybody. But I do well, we want to trigger, you want to trigger the people on threads. I'm talking about our listeners. They don't, I know, you know, I don't know people's experiences are that are listening. So we'll move on. But everybody knows.
SPEAKER_00Oh, but I just found I just found one.
SPEAKER_01I found a good one.
SPEAKER_00Is it gonna traumatize our listeners? Oh no, definitely not. Okay, go for it. Um, so uh Zach KC fan uh said, Went to my mom's this morning, had a good laugh. Uh he has a picture of somebody's front door that has a flag that says I am Antifa, and the other one says impeach Trump. And uh so yeah, he said, had a good laugh. What color do you think their hair is? Um, which implies that uh he thinks that this person's um dumb, a dumb liberal.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00With probably blue hair. That's the joke. It's like blue haired. So if you have blue hair, it means you're a liberal. To them, if you have blue hair, like that's that's a that's I mean, if I had blue hair, I'm not a liberal, I'm a lefty. Those are two very different things. So um, so I responded to this person because uh, you know, the the picture is just a flag that's saying I am Antifa, impeach Trump, and then this very uh stupid comment about it. So I said, Yes, let's impeach Trump, then sue him into oblivion, then send him to prison for his crimes against humanity, then laugh when he dies in prison, then piss on his grave. And uh people love that. 116 people like that.
SPEAKER_01I'm glad that you brought joy.
SPEAKER_00I did. I bring joy to people because there's a lot of really frustrated people, especially on threads, and they are sick of the ignorance, the willful ignorance of conservatives who are just ignoring everything that's happening, or they just have an alternate version of what they think is happening because Fox News told them that's the reality that they live in. Yeah. Um, a lot of my threads are also responding to Fox News. Fox News is my favorite threads account right now. Oh my god. Because the comments section on anything that they post is just a roast. It's a roast of Fox News. Um, and it doesn't matter what they're posting about. They're like, look at this DUI driver that got pulled over by the cops, and everyone's like, that's interesting. Can you tell us about the Epstein files? Oh my god. Yeah. Fair. And uh yeah, we're all taking turns just absolutely roasting the shit out of Fox News and Newsmax and pretty much every uh every congressperson and senator, left or right, because right now, like there's so many, there's so many um people on the left side that are just so weak in fighting this. Like the minority leader, Chuck Schumer. When Chuck Schumer says something, he's like, he's like, the the First Amendment is being attacked by Donald Trump. And the rest of us are like, yeah, we fucking know, Chuck. God damn it, we're gonna vote you out of office, asshole. And that's most of the comments under Chuck Schumer's post where he's acknowledging that things are bad, and we're like, Yeah, thanks for catching up to where we were last fucking year. 2016. Yeah. Yeah, 2016. Anyways, that's my uh brief update in the state of threads right now. Yeah, I think where I'm doing most of my writing.
SPEAKER_01Your uh your threads account, and then I wish I could remember. Do you remember the name of the woman who basically um baits MAGA dudes?
Brooke America And Bait Tactics
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. Um she brings me a lot of joy. Brooke America. Brooke America.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, check out I mean I don't think she goes by Brooke America on um she goes by let's not date. Let's not date, yes. Yeah. Um, but she has an alternative account on Facebook called Brook America, where she poses as a conservative influencer, and she just makes things up and sounds really dumb. That's her whole thing. And then um lonely MAGA dudes go into her DMs trying to start up a flirtatious conversation with her, and she will use that as an opportunity to teach them about history or feminism or to ask them questions about what's really going on and making them explain it to her because she's just a dumb girl who doesn't know anything, and she's just like she'll she'll just start talking about how terrible it was that uh Hitler was was um was sending Jews to concentration camps, but she'll describe everything that's happening right now and then be like, um, I'm sorry, I'm so confused. This is happening now, it's not the Nazis. It's they're called ICE. Have you heard of ICE? And watching them flip-flop from being like, Yeah, what Hitler did was really bad, to being like, Well, we should probably respect the authority.
SPEAKER_01Well, there was one, I gotta give cred. There was one person who was like, Holy shit, I really didn't know this. Uh, and they seem to be a little more open. So there's there it's possible, it's unfortunately not as common as we'd like. Also, there um this has a gotta be a kink, is she's currently making some guy post uh whatever she wants him to for different selfies. So she's like, here, I want you to write this, and then like in exchange for a picture of me and my bra. And then she sent a picture of her in her bra because he did it. And it's him basically being like, I don't know, he's I think Trump's gone too far, blah, blah, blah. And then all the people responding are like, what happened to you, Brian?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01But then all the people are like, Oh, wait, really?
SPEAKER_00It's got like a maybe a little bit of a humiliation kink.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was it's uh really enjoying her. I don't know, I guess her name's Brooke America, or that's her her stage name.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but let's not date is her where she exposes it. Yeah, like she keeps it separate so that they don't find out that they're that she's doing it, and she has like two personas, which is Let's Not Date, which is all of these conversations that she collects. Yeah, and then Brooke America, which is the bait. I got it.
SPEAKER_01Got it. Well, Brooke America or whatever your real name is, I salute you, I appreciate you. Thank you for what you're doing for America and for my mental health. Because like at this point, we gotta laugh at some things.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for your service.
SPEAKER_01Yes, you can say that. Let's talk about writing,
Writing Block And Craft Books
SPEAKER_01Dan. It's been a while since we've had a writing episode.
SPEAKER_00The writing's been really hard since I was having a hard time before January just because things were crazy. Things get crazy, it gets hard to make the time to write, you know, and and December's always like the worst time because there's so much stuff going on. There's planning to like go visit family members, there's shopping, there's various uh events to go to, like local things that we're doing. There were a lot of um, we were doing a lot of craft fairs around that time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was busy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so it was a kind of just a non-stop. But then, you know, January came around. I'm like, ooh, I'm gonna I'm gonna spend all of January really focusing on the writing and maybe catch up where I kind of left off in December, you know, like all that progress that I should have made last month. I'll make it up this month. And then, you know, a bunch of um murders by ICE happened, and it really made it difficult to like sit down and not be completely enraged.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah. I mean, I talked a bit a little bit about this. I forget what episode it was. I was talking about how like PTSD affects your brain.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And how it becomes difficult to communicate, even in the written form. Like those words don't come out. The you know, you have a lot of unresolved conflicts within you that are all battling for your attention. And it makes forming words very difficult, um, is what it feels like. That's that's the feeling you get, is just like there's so much going on, how could I say a single word at all? You know, they're all like battling to get out, and you have it you just don't have the words. So January was bad month. And I think that this was a common thread for a lot of our writer friends, um, except for the ones that seem to, you know, write no matter what because it is their first love is to communicate via written word.
SPEAKER_01People everywhere have different coping mechanisms, they also have different things that are affected, right? Different parts of their being that are affected by different things. Like some it's like, you know, when some people are dealing with tragedy, they just want to work because they don't want to think about it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I get that.
SPEAKER_01Um, and then other people, more like me, become like frozen and paralyzed. Although sometimes uh there's some times where I can be like, you know what, I think I'd just rather work than contemplate the latest, most disturbing news from the Epstein files. Let's just, let's just not today. Uh so I I don't I think there's no wrong or right way. It's just like there's no wrong or right way to write.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I've heard that. I feel like I'm doing it the wrong way sometimes. Sometimes I write and I'm like, that's wrong.
SPEAKER_01That's just wrong. For folks who might not know us well, Dan's writing a zombie book as an aside. Yeah. If you haven't looked that up yet.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh and I would say we've been three years into having a podcast, but you've been writing on the off season from your trucking job. So I would say in total, you've had a year to work on your book since you started. Because you really did just start that first winter in 2023.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think I think that's correct. You know, I'd I'd been writing other things, but 2023 was when I was like, I gotta, I gotta write one thing. I can't write nine things. Yeah. Um, and I know that a lot of people also struggle with things like that too.
SPEAKER_01I have a question for you. I've been wondering this in my brain for a while.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So you've read a lot of like how to write books. Yeah. Uh how are they helping you right now? Oh, they help a lot.
SPEAKER_00Um I so right off the top of my head, I gotta give props to a few books. Uh the first one, if if you if you want to understand like story structure, it's called Save the Cat. Read the original, the one that's meant for screenwriting. There is one for novels, but I didn't like it. Um the original is the best one. And what I love about that is they use movies to explain story structure to you. Um and uh I think I think story structure comes naturally to me. But it's it's good to like understand the different the different beats. There's they they break it down into 15 beats throughout three acts. Uh-huh. And that's the three acts structure. It's really great. Um, and it's got a lot of great examples. It's it's well written. Um, it's great. Uh the next one I would say is Saul Stein. Um, I think it's called Stein on Writing. Saul Stein is like a writing professor. He's written a lot of uh he's he's a playwright, uh wrote for TV, like a big writer and a big editor. Um that's worked with a lot of very influential writers as well. Um, and he has a lot of really great advice for like how to take your writing to the next level. So like if you're trying to if you're trying to make your writing better, Solstein, I think, helps do that. And also very well written. Um, I really like Stephen King's on writing. Stephen King's on writing is a really great autobiography of uh of Stephen King's life up until like the year 2000. Um has a lot of great uh advice for like getting through roadblocks when you're writing, you know, like uh developing a routine, overcoming how's your routine coming? We'll talk about that.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's why I was wondering because I like you've read the books, but sometimes there's just there's there's you, right? There's you, the person, there's the context you're in, and like, yeah, tell me about the routine.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Uh last name drop bird by bird. I forget who wrote it, but um, the audiobook's amazing. Uh, she's she's hilarious. And it's a great story. Uh yeah, my routine. Routine
Routine Building And Skipping Ahead
SPEAKER_00is, I think, the most important thing for me, because like if I don't have routine, and I I think this is what it was like the kind of the problem that I've had up until until this point is that life was so chaotic that I couldn't form a routine. Um, but I like I have to like if I don't have a specific plan for how I'm going to approach each day, I end up just doing the most important things that I have to do that day to get to the next day. You know, like if it's a Wednesday, like I have to load up the truck with all of our recycling and go to the recycling place and also pick up groceries and also do uh like whatever other thing, like go to the bank or some random thing that needs to be done. And if I don't have like on my clock saying nine o'clock, start writing, then I'll put that aside and I'll never get around to it. Um because there's always something more important to do. Yeah, there's always things. There's always things to do. So like I I have to have a spot where I I don't even have to look at my schedule because I know that's the time. And I have to be doing it so much that I don't think about it anymore. And I've had a really hard time getting to that place. So I'm trying really hard now, since the beginning of of February, to to make that happen. And um I've done I've done some writing, but just in very small amounts. Um I figured like writing a small amount is better than that. Writing anything at all.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And developing that schedule and that routine is the most important part, even if all the words that I write barely add up to what I would consider a normal writing sprint for a week's worth of writing. Even if I don't accomplish very much and end up having to delete it anyways because I wasn't in the right headspace and it all sucks. Getting in the routine is the most important part because I've just really been lacking any type of structure in my life for months.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think me being unemployed, um, fun employed, I like to call it that. Fun employed. Uh had an impact as well because there's a certain point where I knew that I was getting close. There were like a few jobs that it was like, it'll be one of these. Uh, and so I was not like vigilantly applying five days a week all day, which was what I was doing up until that point. And like Christmas came and then January happened, and like uh we were just vibing. Yeah, we were very vibey.
SPEAKER_00Sometimes we were waking up at like noon.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and we were like, let's watch uh the expanse all day. Let's watch the entire extended version of Lord of the Rings. It was great. Let's not lie.
SPEAKER_00Let's watch let's binge watch Pluribus. Yeah, yeah, we did watch all the entire Lord of the Rings.
SPEAKER_01Which we're having an episode come up soon, uh about Pluribus.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we do. It's already recorded, but it's it's coming up for for the people.
SPEAKER_01Sometime TBD. I had a I think I had an idea of when it would be, but it might switch out just because we've had a time conflict with the person we're supposed to be talking to. But that's okay, because what is time? What is time? I don't know. It's when the sun comes up, the sun goes down, the moon comes out, and the people dance all around by elephant revolving. There you go. That's dancing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't know who the elephant revival is.
SPEAKER_01I'm pretty sure I've sang it once, but I don't want to do it again because my voice is still cracky and like it's not great on a good day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, so tell me about what's going on now with your writing.
SPEAKER_00Oh, with my writing? So I felt like I was at a really big roadblock um because I was writing this part that I wasn't excited about. Um, I went back and rewrote the beginning, which was a good idea. I needed to rewrite the beginning. Uh, but this kind of like part after the beginning like was kind of going a bit too long, and I kind of got to a point where I wasn't excited about that. I was just trying to make it to this next big part, this big next big location, this next big scene, this new thing. And um yeah, so I mean, just like sitting here, just like trying to figure out like how I can get myself interested in writing the rest of this bullshit that I don't really like very much. I realized like maybe maybe it just needs to end here and just move on. Um, so I just left it where it was, and I'm like, if it needs more, I'll write that later. It does need more, but I'm I'll write that later um and not really worry about it whole a whole lot. And I'm going to skip ahead to the parts that have a lot more meaning to me and is living freshly in my mind. Um, so I'm just I'm just moving ahead, just moving on.
SPEAKER_01And how does that feel?
SPEAKER_00Uh it feels great. Um, I mean, I don't like leaving things un undone, but I knew that I would just have to go back and delete it anyways. I would have to go back and rewrite it, probably probably delete a whole chunk of it just because it was unnecessary. Um, which I feel like seeing that it was unnecessary ahead of time probably saved me a lot of time. So, really, if you think about it, Leah, I didn't waste all of January and December. I just didn't write the thing that I would have deleted months down the road.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh. Yeah, because uh recently Ollie Eats Brains asked you, how many books have you deleted? And we concluded about three.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. How does that feel? Um, I mean, it's fine because I I know that I I don't believe in like the nano-RIMO method of writing a book where um you do a uh a flow of consciousness every single day for November, um, and you write a certain number of words uh for a certain amount of time. Um and then by the end of the whole idea behind NanoRIMO, which apparently the whole organization has is problematic. But anyways, I digress. The whole idea behind it is that if you write every single day, uh doing like two 20-minute sprints a day, then by the end of the month you should have a book done. And then when you have that book done, like you're ready to publish. Um, and if that if if that were the case, I would have written a completely different book three years ago, and that book would have been not the book that I want to write, and I would have hated it. So deleting all that, I this it's it's a process of finding the story within what I've already written, like understanding what I need to get rid of for the story that I want to be there.
SPEAKER_01And that's where we're gonna pause because our person has arrived. This is gonna be a very strange and disjointed bonus episode. Be right back, everybody. BRBs. It's a bonus episode.
Two Weeks Later And Bad News
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's two weeks later, Leah. From the first attempt at recording this bonus episode for Patreon.
SPEAKER_00You know how you were listening to us literally seconds ago, and then it abruptly stopped. Um, it's because something happened that uh, you know, that was that was unplanned, and we had to stop. And now it's two weeks later, and we're invading Iran.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that is happening. Uh they killed the I don't think they called him the Supreme Leader, do they? Ayatollah? Yes, they didn't know. Did they? They did. Oh wow, I didn't know that. Yeah. Um, but also they killed a bunch of children.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh a whole um school of children.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so that's that's what's happened in the last two weeks. I mean, a lot of other things have happened in the last two weeks, but uh essentially when we were recording before, just as a recap for our own brains, um, we were recording because we had a miscommunication around timing or some technological difficulties for one of our interviews, and we were like, let's record a bonus episode, but then that got fixed, so we had to pause that bonus episode, and then life happened.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Including invading Iran, including um making it so that trans people in Kansas can't drive a car or vote.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, other horrifying things have happened, I'm sure, but those are the top two in my brain.
SPEAKER_00So many horrifying things. Yeah. Um, I mean, I I I can't store all of them in my brain. I'd have to research. I'd I'd I'd have to look at my notes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, that is the that is this time where it's really easy to like there's so much shit that's happened you can't remember it all.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, you know, there's this website uh called, I think it's called Trump
Trump Tracker And Billionaire Taxes
SPEAKER_00Tracker. Hold on.
SPEAKER_01Is it the one that's like slowly filling up as it's towards the end of his term?
SPEAKER_00Uh it's it's a website, and this is run in the UK because obviously it couldn't run here. Um that's not it. I got I got duped. Hold on. Ah. Yeah, it's called TrumpTracker.org. This is a website that's tracking all of Donald Trump's actions um that are subverting democracy. Um cool.
SPEAKER_01We love that. Thank you, person or people. I'm sure there's many people that are involved in this project.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's also uh tracking all of the cabinet members' combined assets and liabilities, which is sixteen point three billion dollars in total assets.
SPEAKER_01Wait, whose assets are these?
SPEAKER_00The all the cabinet members combined.
SPEAKER_01It's sixteen point three billion. Yeah. Can you see a breakdown of like who owns who's gonna be able to do it?
SPEAKER_00Oh, I can tell you who's who's got how much money.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00JD Vance, uh, you know, the the the hillbilly who wrote hillbilly elegy, uh, a person of the people, a real man's man. He's got fourteen point two million dollars. Um I feel like Marco Rubio might be the the poorest.
SPEAKER_01What does Marco have?
SPEAKER_00$292,000 to his name.
SPEAKER_01I'm shocked.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I feel like there's gotta be some shell accounts somewhere. I don't believe that number. Who has the highest?
SPEAKER_00Well, Donald Trump, obviously.
SPEAKER_01What is Donald Trump's worth right now?
SPEAKER_00Uh 6.8 billion. That guy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What about Steve Miller? Steve Miller. I mean, he doesn't technically have a cabinet position, does he? I think he does. What's it? Is he just not on here? What the hell? Oh yeah, he's the deputy chief of staff. Yeah. Um well.
SPEAKER_00Well, anyways, this uh so this uh this website, it actually looks different from the last time I I came here, but it's for tracking all of the uh things that Donald Trump has done to subvert democracy, and it's sitting at like somewhere around 2,500 things since January.
SPEAKER_01I mean, some might say he's being very successful. Probably this is the most success this man has ever had. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00This is the biggest thing.
SPEAKER_01This has been his best year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, he he really hasn't made money with business before, with the exception of the apprentice and being president. Yeah. Everything else has been a failure.
SPEAKER_01Well, this reminds me of a thing I wanted to randomly share, which is that I, you know, on on the interwebs, just reading about everybody being like, we can't, the problem is that billionaires, it's all in assets, it's not in realized gains, and so therefore you can't tax it. And someone else responded with the most basic fact, and I was like, oh my god, it's true. Anybody who owns a house, which by the way, hard to do right now. Um, but anybody who owns a house pays unrealized gains taxes every fucking year in the form of property tax. So absolutely, there are ways to tax these people, and I want all their money. I want all of it. I want all what was it, how many billions, six billion dollars Trump has?
SPEAKER_00Six point something. Yeah. Well, especially him. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01All of it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I th I, you know, there needs to be some big investigations because like everything that he like he's doubled his his net worth um by exploiting his his seat in the presidency. Um, also a lot of uh crypto, crypto stuff.
SPEAKER_01I was reading an article about how crypto um like doing crypto blockchain, which like those words altogether don't even mean something to me. Maybe they mean something to you, is like apparently a job of the future.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, the block the blockchain is what um what crypto is designed on. It's it is how it is it it's it's what it's built on.
SPEAKER_01But what is it?
SPEAKER_00I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's not the point of this bonus episode.
SPEAKER_00It's a it's data, and you can transfer that data from one person to another, and that's one block.
SPEAKER_01Is it an IFT or an NFT? Sorry.
SPEAKER_00NFTs are built on non-fungible, non-fun non-fungible token. Yeah. Um NFT and cryptocurrency are built on blockchain.
SPEAKER_01But we don't know what blockchain is.
SPEAKER_00Nobody knows. Nobody knows.
SPEAKER_01Nobody knows. Yeah, it's a bonus episode.
Emotional Block Behind Writing Struggles
SPEAKER_01So speaking of all of these terrible things that are going on, when we were last recording two weeks ago, you had been describing that you had been going through this process that made writing impossible. You were having writers block. And if I remember correctly, one of the things that you said in that conversation was about how it felt like there was a pressure valve inside of you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And that you're now at a place, you know, you're just starting, you were two weeks ago, you were just starting to be able to like turn on that valve just a tiny little bit, like get you got like 300 words out on one day. Where are you now two weeks later with this?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Uh to back up a little bit, I I think that when when we're when you're writing what we write, us zombie authors, like we're we're writing about the real world in a fictional sense. And to write is to have to confront all of the horrible shit, but then also like try to entertain people with it. Like you're trying to create a new story from something that's actually happening in real time. And that I think that's causing a lot of like I don't even think it was writer's block. I think that it's like an emotional block. Despair, grief. Like it like emotions were the problem. The emotional the the the buildup of emotion was what stopped me from writing. Not like it wasn't that I didn't know what to say, like what my story was about. I like I wasn't it wasn't a lack of creativity that was keeping me from putting words on a page. It was that every time I sat down, you know, I'd I'd think about the the next horrible thing that happened, and I'm just like, fuck. And I literally wrote an ellipses. I sat I sat in front of my computer for like four hours, and an ellipses is all I produced.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00Um but this week I've or you know the last two weeks, you know, I've been kind of exploring that and trying to understand it, which I think for me, understanding things is how I'm able to find ways to get past it. Um and kind of that realization that like it's just this this build up, this build-up of of grief and anxiety and depression and fear. You know, it's like I'm I'm sitting down and like having to having to go through it again all at the same time just to make up a make-believe version of it. And since then, uh so this this week I probably wrote more than I have in like the last two months, which is both good and sad at the same time because it was about 3,300 words. In a perfect world, I would really like to be putting down like 5,000 words per week. Like I like having a weekly goal instead of a daily goal. Um, because days sometimes days just don't work out for you. But like if you have a weekly goal, you can be like, well, I missed yesterday, but if I make up for it today, then that's okay. Uh so 3,300 words in a week is still not like where I want to be. But um but it's a lot better than where I've been in the last two months. Because the last two months, like I'd sit down to write and like I'd there was a few there's a few times that I sat down and wrote like a hundred words. And I felt like I'd been writing for hours. Like that hundred words like took it out of me. And then and then the following week I wrote 150 words, and I'm like, well, I guess it's progress. Uh but since since uh since the last time we were recording this exact episode, um I started by bumping up to 300, and then it was you know five hundred, and then it was seven hundred, and then before I knew it, like I I had a 1700 word day, um, I think Friday. And then yesterday
Word Count Wins And Writing Momentum
SPEAKER_00was my uh write-in with Naila. Yeah, Naila King, shout out and um did a almost eleven hundred words in that one hour. In that one hour, yeah. So the the last couple days have been really productive and I feel like I'm moving past some things, and that's that's great.
SPEAKER_01You know what's great about that on a couple levels is like one, sometimes this might happen for other reasons, but now you know that there's another side, right? Like you'll get to the other side where you can write again. Yeah. And I think you also went through some battles with yourself about what to write, and you made a a decision, right, to write something a little bit different than what you had left. Uh didn't you make a decision to like write a little further into the future? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And that did that help free you a little bit?
SPEAKER_00I skipped over some parts that like I was either struggling with or just like weren't important enough to focus my energy into at the at that moment. Like I could I could skip it and come back later, you know. Like I just have to fill in the blanks. I know what happens. I just have to fill in the blanks later. And I found that that was like holding me back in a big way because I was just like trudging along with this part of the story that I knew would have to be deleted and rewritten later when I am more in the headspace to like actually write it. And I just needed to move along to, you know, the part that lives in my brain. Uh you know, because like there's there's there's parts of a book, like you're you're at the beginning of the book and you're like, I can't stop thinking about the end, but you're at the beginning. And smart people would just write the end and be like, well, that's that's what inspired me. But um I I think I I I need to know what happens in the beginning before I know what happens at the end. Like I know where I'd like things to go, but I know that's gonna change. That's gonna change because my characters come to life and they tell me what happens, and you know, all of my best laid plans uh don't matter to them because they're like, you put us in this world and you think that we're just gonna follow your rules. That's the experience for me. Um, but yeah, I don't I don't know. I've just been working things out uh out loud, and that's been that's been helping me see what was causing the problem and to figure out how to get past it.
SPEAKER_01It's really exciting. The other day you were writing, and I forgot for a second what you were doing, and I like read a couple sentences. I was like, oh no, I'm invading Dan's privacy because we were sitting right beside each other. I think I was working one of the rare moments where I could work from the couch for a little bit of a break from being in my office, and uh what you what I read was good. I mean, I would like to believe I'm your biggest fan, but there's probably some other ones out there listening right now.
SPEAKER_00No, I think it's you.
SPEAKER_01But I just like really can't wait for you to be done. But I also know that these things take time and good things take time. So um I'm just happy, like when you tell me you wrote 1700 words that day, like that just makes me uh makes my whole heart glow because I know it's something that gives you a lot of meaning and that's been really difficult lately. You want to know something great though, Dan?
SPEAKER_00I do.
SPEAKER_01Even though you haven't published a book yet, the internet is absolutely convinced the Zombie Book
Spam Emails And Trolling Scammers
SPEAKER_01Club podcast is actually an author. So we have some groans from the horde that are not from our friends or zombesties, they are from people who really want to help you out as an author.
SPEAKER_00Oh, great. I can't wait to hear what they have to say.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00I wonder what part of my book is their favorite.
SPEAKER_01Well, let me read you this one. This is from um Roland Monet from the Creative Manager European Book Club. Yeah. He says, Dear author, I hope you're having a wonderful day. I recently came across your book and personally wanted to share how much I appreciated it. Your perspective and writing style made a lasting impression, and it's always exciting to discover a work that resonates so strongly. I'm part of a small online book club made of passionate readers, and from time to time we invite authors whose books we admire to join us for a casual virtual chat on Google Meet. It's friendly, laid-back conversation where members can ask questions, hear about your creative process, and connect with you directly. There's no cost, no expectations, and no pressure at all.
SPEAKER_00Well, I have to disagree because I think the pressure is that I haven't finished the book.
SPEAKER_01You know what's even more weird? I just realized that it's signed off by Beatrice, but then the like um signature below is Roland, and there's a picture of somebody who's clearly not Beatrice. But these are the kinds of emails we get all the time. And we've heard other like authors who have published stuff getting just like bullshit spam all the time. Yeah, but it makes me laugh because I'm like, we're not. I mean, one day you'll be an author, but you're not one yet.
SPEAKER_00You know, my my mom published uh self-published her book this year. I know I talked about it in a previous writing episode that a lot of people say that they they love that episode. Um, it's called The Light in the Whirlwind. Um and giving your mom a shout out. Yeah, shout out, shout out, mom. Um, so uh uh she got similar emails where it's like we're we're a we're a book club and we want to read your book and then like we'll do a we could do like a QA after, and that'd be and she was very excited about it. Um and then like as she like conversed back and forth with them, eventually, like even though at the beginning they're like there's no cost, then it became a a uh a conversation about cost. I I think they even brought up like you know, this will this'll this will cover like snacks snacks and beverages for the book club. And it's like um, hello, I wrote the book. Um, I'm not I'm not a part of the planning committee. Make get your own fucking juice.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's obviously a scam. We've seen this quite a bit from fellow authors. Here's another one from Tommy Miracle. Tommy Miracle 9, High Zine Book Club Podcast, all one word. I'm a book promoter with Book Browse and Film Freeway. I'm currently screw scouting new titles to feature in my weekly newsletter, and I'm looking for narrative-driven books to pitch to film producers from movie adaptations. Sound exciting? It sure does. Your work caught my eye, and I'd love to explore whether we explore whether we can get your story in front of more readers and potentially onto the screen. Are you open to a quick conversation about your current projects, Dan?
SPEAKER_00I mean, should we write back?
SPEAKER_01We could. What should we write back? You want to do it right now?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. I'll say, dear Tommy.
SPEAKER_00Dear Tommy.
SPEAKER_01Dear Tommy. It's a miracle.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I thought I was gonna dictate.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'm gonna start because their last name is Miracle. It's a miracle nine, because that's their last name, that you reached out to us, or that you reached out to me, comma, zombie book club podcast, all one word. Okay, now what do you want to say next to Tommy?
SPEAKER_00Um, I am thrilled that you took such an interest in my book.
SPEAKER_01How about we take turns? I never knew. I never imagined that someone would someone else would want to see my banana zombie book come to life on the big screen trick too. Okay. Next.
SPEAKER_00This it speaks to the impact that my book. book has on my readers that it could have such an impact on you despite not existing.
SPEAKER_01We could pull um a Zelinda Morrison and say, oh, gotta go, I got diarrhea. Bye.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I feel like that's that's a good direction to go. Yeah, because I mean I f I feel like this is just getting piped through an AI. So whatever whatever we put in here, we're gonna get a response on it.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I'm gonna say, uh oh, I'd like to say more, but my I have bubble gut gut. Bubble gout. Bubble bubble gout. And I was gonna say bubble gut and I'm afraid I'm about to shit my pants. Talk soon. XOXO zombie club podcast very necessary. Gossip girl. You want me to hit send? Yeah hit send. All right. Well next casual up bonus episode we can give you an update on whether or not Tommy Miracle 9 responded to us. But we get so many emails that say that we're an author that they've got the solution to promote the book and uh we just need to give them a little bit of money first.
SPEAKER_00Yeah for snacks. Yeah and juice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Snooks uh yeah uh they accept money only in Capri Sun. Capri Sun is uh the new currency new the new currency. Yeah it's gonna be now that we're at war.
SPEAKER_01Curious listeners if you've had uh an experience with spam have you read have you trolled back a spammer a spam artist? Let us know. I actually just recently had to take um for my new job I had to do like the IT training IT awareness training and if this was actually my job the correct thing to do when receiving this is to never respond. Oh I'm gonna report it as not spam too so that I get the response.
SPEAKER_00Yeah we need that response.
SPEAKER_01Uh and never respond and if they're impersonating your boss or something like that to immediately stop and check and see if it's actually your boss before you respond. I was like that's good advice. That's good advice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01The spammers be spamming out there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah there's so many there's so many spammers. If only we had like a cyber crimes division that actually investigated things you know maybe maybe maybe maybe we'd be able to move forward as an online society somehow without all the trolls and bots and scam artists and you know all the Ponzi schemes and the Tesla dog bots and autonomous drones and um missile batteries controlled by AI. Yeah. That'll be fun.
SPEAKER_01It will be fun.
Good Newsletters And Women In Horror
SPEAKER_01You know what's a newsletter that I get that I really like Sylvester Barzi's.
SPEAKER_02Yeah?
SPEAKER_01Yeah um he calls it his his newsletter The Den. The Den. And lately he's been sharing early chapters of a book he's writing that I am already hooked on. It's not zombies. Uh I'm pretty sure it's called hold on yeah it's called He Who Prays a Southern horror novel about a woman returning to her hometown in South Carolina after her father who is accused of being a serial killer dies in prison. When she and her family return to bury her father the kidnappings and murders start up again. Is it a copycat or a killer back from the dead or did Facebook bring him back to life? I guess that's an option yeah but anyways if you follow Sylvester's newsletter you will get chapters on a bi-weekly basis in chapter one I was like gotta read more yeah gotta know what's happening next which is unsurprising for Sylvester. So we do get some good mail some great newsletters from our zombesti authors.
SPEAKER_00Yeah that's that's way better than the than the than the Robobots.
SPEAKER_01And then the last thing I wanted to share for this bonus episode is about the George A Romero Foundation and that they're doing something really cool this month. They're doing a women in horror short film contest. Oh and George's daughter Tina Romero, creator of Queens of the Dead, is going to have a virtual panel discussion on March 20th at 7 p.m uh where they're gonna pick the the winner and that person's gonna get a pro camera a design black magic design pocket pro camera 6K uh they also are showcasing the talent of women and non-binary creators who want to be sharing their stuff out there for Women's History Month. So you can submit right now your horror inspired art writing and music. I just did that yesterday. I spammed our our Instagram so I could share some of our art. I can think of a few people that should uh submit to that yeah yeah uh so that's definitely out there they're great to follow I'm really hoping that when we go to Living Dead weekend this year that Tina Romero will be there and some of her zombies. That's like the dream.
SPEAKER_00Yeah that'd be really cool. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01In the meantime
Patreon Perks Book Club And Goodbye
SPEAKER_01thank you for being a part of our Patreon. And if you're listening to this because you're on Patreon and getting it first thank you especially since this is an extra chaotic bonus episode. Oh the chaos of this episode. And if you're listening to this in some indefinite period of the future where everything I just said about March is long gone because it's April or it's the end of March, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah the war is already over.
SPEAKER_01If the war is over in Iran probably not it's in their interest to drag this out make more make more money for the Lockheed Martins of the world. Yeah uh and all of their shareholders regardless if you're not on Patreon you should come join us it's fun over there. We are talking about our book club read um for March 22nd the episode coming out or has come out is about zone one by Colson Whitehead. Likely by the time you're hearing this outside of Patreon we have chosen another book to be reading and if you want to be a part of choosing the books that we read and talk about together you should come hang out with us there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. I mean the people who are there will get this early.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00But this will become an episode like a lot later uh to everyone else.
SPEAKER_01That's what I was trying to say. I don't know if I was successful but thank you for clarifying Dan Yeah or did you just did you just do the thing that men do in meetings where I said a thing and then you you said a thing as if it had never been said I said that. Okay. That was me. I'm going back to being my one dimensional female character from episode one of this podcast then one dimension oh I think I've grown to four dimensions as you were describing in another conversation we had recently yeah we're four dimensions now yeah what is the fourth dimension again uh it's it's a wormhole through space and time love that like our phones yeah any screen well thanks for listening everybody thanks being a part of the book club we love you don't die stay human and fuck all those rich guys yeah eat the rich and divest yeah divest from everything bye bye don't die don't die