Toxic: Writing the Obligatory Zombie Tale
Every writer these days has to tell a zombie story. It's the rules. That kind of thing is insanely popular, and there are a lot of different books, movies, tv shows, etc. that have characters running the zombie gamut. So, even though it's usually a solid financial idea to jump on creative bandwagons (I hear there's this thing called economics [which I do not condone], a field containing buzzwords like "supply," and even "demand"), it's important to differentiate yourself, lest you find yourself edged out by the crowd.
With all of that in mind, I'd like to officially announce that I'm writing my own zombie story called Toxic. The twist is in the pudding, or so they say (hey, someone may have said that, at some point), and Toxic comes with a mighty powerful one. Plenty of stories over the years have railed against oppressive forces, like big corporations, governments, or ideas. Some of them have been done very well, and others of them are caricatures of literally tropes. For the first time, I'm taking on a different boogey man: the "natural" industry.
For anyone who isn't aware, natural products mostly fall into categories that are exempt from FDA regulation. That means they can do anything they want, from putting lead into toothpaste to literally selling water as medicine (these are real things). The customer base of natural companies are led to the shelves by good intentions, they just could use a little information about what they're buying. For instance, most shoppers would probably be surprised to find out that big natural sellers are almost always owned by pharmaceutical giants.
Thanks for bearing with my little PSA there. Regardless of your opinion about who exactly is trying to poison us, Toxic will be the first story to really tackle this issue of unregulated products. Without spoiling anything fundamental to the plot, let's just assume that something is going to go horribly wrong with a particular company's unregulated selling of things that are potentially harmful.
I'm planning to serialize Toxic into three volumes, though as anyone knows who's ever written anything ever, three could quickly become twelve thousand. Just ask George R.R. Martin about that. At the end of the journey, I'd love to release a definitive print edition. I'm currently sketching out covers and doing my best to pretend I'm a graphic designer. Some of it is working, and I have a solid cover for Volume 1 already. Look for Toxic: Volume 1 to be available by August.
Here's the current cover of Volume 1.
