Today it is my great pleasure to hand the wheel over to author, editor, and all around kick ass guy Armand Rosamilia.  He is the editor at Rymfire Books and is one hell of an author.  His newest novella, Dying Days 2 is now out and I found it a really fun read.  So my friends, I bring to you…Armand.

Dying Days Confusion

 

Armand Rosamilia

    I’m knee-deep into this Dying Days Blog Tour 2012 (less impressive than it sounds, I assure you) and had a question (or three) about the series, so I am going to answer those questions… and ask my mom to stop sending them in and leave me alone so I can write… anyway…

 Question: If Dying Days 2 is the THIRD book in the series, why isn’t it named… wait for it… Dying Days 3?

 Answer: Oh, there will be a Dying Days 3, but it will be the next one. Actually, when I wrote Dying Days there was no Darlene Bobich: Zombie Killer book on the horizon, because only a couple of short stories had been written with Darlene in them. But when I finished Dying Days I had quite a few readers that had been lucky enough to read the prequel short stories ask if I was going to eventually release them in one book. I decided to collect them, add new ones, and before I knew it I had thirteen Darlene Bobich stories bound together. The original idea was going to have it as Dying Days 0, like a comic book origin issue thing, but I decided it would be confusing.

So, I went all-out (not really) and named it Darlene Bobich: Zombie Killer, but added a preview of Dying Days at the end to maybe get you to figure out it was part of the same world and story.

 Question: Where does Highway To Hell fit into this?

 Answer: None of your business. Actually, it was written as a stand-alone novella to see if I could write something extreme and with zombies, with plenty of sex, profanity, drug use, and raping zombies. I succeeded. While the story is set in the same world, Randy, the main character doesn’t have anything to do with Darlene and Dying Days directly… although I’ll let the proverbial cat out of the bag and tell you that Randy will show up in a short story in the upcoming Still Dying: Select Scenes From Dying Days short story release.

 Question: Is Darlene Bobich based on a real person in your life?

 Answer: Yes, she’s currently tied up in the crawlspace. Actually, no. When the first short story was written, “Anything But Luck”, all I needed was a name. I got it by asking my 5,000 Facebook friends for a name of a female to use. One of my friends on there said to use her name. Yep, her name is Darlene Bobich. Simple as that.

That being said, other characters are based on real people I know: Murph (Kim’s father) and John-John (Kim’s brother). Luckily I don’t know anyone like Doug Conrad.

 Question: How many books will there be in Dying Days?

 Answer: Three or more. Actually, I have no set goal. I think the story will be done when its done, and I’ve given up trying to tell Darlene and her friends what to do and when to do it. If you saw my notes on each book and where it was supposed to end, you’d think it was a different book. And it ended up being a different book. But a better one.

I know I’ll do a Dying Days 3 at some point in 2012, and there are plans to do a few off-shoot books like Still Dying: Select Scenes From Dying Days, which will give some back-story on several characters in shorts, as well as some longer novella-length books starring characters other than Darlene but set in the same world and loosely tied to her (she might even make a cameo).

I’m treating this like an epic series, with many releases. So far readers have responded and purchased all three books, and I intend to keep giving them zombies as long as they ask for them. And as long as I have something fresh to give.

 Question: OK, but –

 Answer: No more questions.

 Armand Rosamilia

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 Want to know more about the “Dying Days” series? Want to win free eBooks and maybe print books of them? My contest is simple: e-mail me at armandrosamilia (at) gmail (dot) com with DYING DAYS in the subject line and I’ll enter you into the daily giveaway… also, post a comment here and you get another chance… follow my blog at http://armandrosamilia.com for yet another chance, and friend me on Twitter (@ArmandAuthor) and simply post DYING DAYS to me, and you’ll get another shot… nice and easy, right? If I get enough people joining in the giveaway there will be a print book given away that day!

 

“Dying Days” series information can be found here: http://armandrosamilia.com/dying-days-series/