Author Neil Cohen Talks Exit Zero
Mr. Dark
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Zombies, zombies everywhere! It’s definitely the era of the undead. Films, TV, comics… you name it, they’re all chock-full of rotting humans munching on gray matter as living humans victimize each other.
Books are no exception, and author Neil Cohen has tackled the decaying creeps in a unique way in his book Exit Zero, published on Permuted Press. I ran into Neil at this year’s Texas Frightmare Weekend and asked him a few questions about his work.
DC: Tell us about Exit Zero!
Neil Cohen: I have been a lifelong fan zombie movies and books. The zombie as an allegory feeds into so many of our fears, from a religious, political and sociological standpoint, and I hope I address all three and more in Exit Zero. I tell people that even if they don’t like zombies, they will like the book as it is as much in the realm of Soylent Green and Manchurian Candidate as it is World War Z.
DC: So… why the New Jersey settting?
NC: New Jersey is the perfect canvas for the zombie apocalypse. Like the zombie genre itself, NJ is a state that is both loved and hated. I wanted to make the setting of the story equal to a character in the story, and Jersey is a fantastic and fascinating character.
DC: I don’t know how deep you want to go into spoiler territory, but it’s revealed fairly early in the book: You have an interesting method of kicking off the zombie apocalypse that leads to an interesting twist in zombie anatomy. What inspired you to take that turn from one of the most prominent zombie tropes?
NC: My real job allows me a lot of interaction with the types of military, first responder and federal government agencies that would be on the frontlines if a true zombie apocalypse began. While zombies are not first and foremost on their threat matrix, they are constantly thinking about mass pandemics, large scale civil unrest and catastrophic disasters. A zombie apocalypse would be comprised of a combination of the three and is often workshopped as an X-Event to encourage out-of-the-box thinking on how to better respond to a more credible wide scale event. I conducted interviews with people from the World Health Organization (WHO), the CDC, HHS and the US Military, particularly those focused on chemical, biological and radiological events, as well as with many state and local first responders to understand how a scenario like this actually could occur. Now, I do take some literary license to stretch the net a bit, but nothing in the book is completely out of the realm of possibility.
One complaint I have heard about zombie films is that they never tell you why or how the zombies came to be. I wanted to address that and go into detail as to exactly how the zombie pandemic begins, why it begins and what physiologically happens to the victims that causes them to do what they do. People have really responded positively to that part of the book.
DC: The zombie field is a little crowded these days. What led you to go there with Exit Zero?
NC: I am not a professional author, nor do believe I would ever be confused for one. But I am a zombie fan, and I wanted to add to a genre that I love. I felt there were areas that were not yet explored or that had become forgotten over time. The original Night of the Living Dead was meant as a social commentary as much as a horror movie, and I wanted to get back to that. The movies of the 1970’s such as Soylent Green, Rollerball, Westworld, Hail to the Chief were great films that can be enjoyed on the surface as fun, exciting or funny films; but they also contained powerful messages and commentary that could be discussed long after the movie. I wanted Exit Zero to be a quick, fun read but also to spur conversation and debate.
DC: Anyone who looks at the cover can see a very (in)famous New Jersey native has a quote about the book. Just how did that odd pairing come about?
NC: My publisher had asked me to get some “blurbs” for the book cover. I did receive some great comments from government figures and horror book reviewers, but I needed a celebrity. I was watching “Access Hollywood” one night; yes, I love gossip shows, and they had Snooki on after her “Dancing with the Stars” stint. She mentioned how she never misses an episode of “The Walking Dead.” So I mailed her a pre-release copy of the book, and sure enough, she received it, read it and loved it. She is very sweet, and I was so appreciative for her support. I am working on a third book right now which also takes place in NJ. I hope she will take interest and we can work together on a future project.
DC: Are you planning on taking Exit Zero further with more stories in that universe?
NC: Yes, I just submitted the final draft of Pope Judas of Jersey to my publisher, and I hope it will come out soon. Pope Judas is about an Atlantic City casino blackjack dealer who has his own unique experience at the very beginning of the Exit Zero zombie outbreak. It also features three characters from Exit Zero, one of which was only a minute away from death when you meet him in the first book, so you get to experience a little more of him in Pope before he meets his ultimate demise in Zero.
DC: What else is next for you, if not more Jersey zombie mayhem?
NC: More Jersey mayhem! My goal is to bring Exit Zero to the screen and continue the stories of those that survived the previous books. But right now my focus is working on the book The Boys. The Boys is a very different storyline and follows a group of Jersey friends and their absolute debauchery. I hope this book to be the most anti-PC book written. If you aren’t offended by it, you aren’t reading it.
DC: Final traditional question: what’s your favorite horror movie?
NC: Easy, it is the one yet to be made: Exit Zero, the Movie!
You can check out Exit Zero in the EvilShop below!
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