Scott G. Browne

Andy is dead. He’s still with us, mind you, but he is most assuredly dead.  His parents aren’t too thrilled with him for reanimating, but can you blame them? They had to come and bail him out of the animal shelter so he wouldn’t be used in experiments.

By the way, Andy goes to zombie group sessions twice a week and to a therapist once a week.  He has issues.  If you haven’t lost everything you ever knew in life by dying, only to come back and have to face it day after day, you wouldn’t understand.

Scott G. Browne’s book “Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament” hit shelves in April.  Readers are being introduced to his crisp, fun and irreverent style as they make their way through Andy’s misadventures from the wine cellar to his civil unrest.  Scott enlightened us on his writing career, the story, what inspires him and who he is reading.

Scott currently resides in San Francisco.  When asked about living in San Francisco, he gave a brief rundown of his life and how ended up there. He started his journey at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, where he studied engineering.  After discovering his distaste for physics, he moved on to Business and Organizational Management before completing his degree.

Once he finished his degree he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked for Disney where many talented people often make their start. Scott worked, doing post production for their movies and theatrical trailers. He said that during this time, though, he “wasn’t getting much writing done.”

After a couple of years at Disney, Scott moved to Santa Cruz to do more writing.  He waited tables about 30 hours a week, and wrote when he was off.  Over the course of 13 years, he wrote voluminously in the horror genre and had some of his work published.  He says that though having his short works published lent a feeling of success, there is “no money in short stories.”

Eventually Scott moved from Santa Cruz to his current locale, San Francisco, where he has been for 3 years.  In the years spent living in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, Scott wrote four books.  Three went unpublished and were in the Horror genre.  The fourth was ‘Breathers,’ his current.

‘Breathers,’ as suggested earlier, is about a zombie named Andy.  He rises from the dead after being embalmed and wanders to the streets.  Eventually he ends up making several trips to the animal shelter and lives with his parents in their wine cellar.  During the course of the book, Andy makes new friends, finds love with a fellow zombie and fights for zombie civil rights.

Scott explained that he chose to write about zombies in general and Andy in particular because he had written a short story, which was published, called ‘A Zombie’s Lament.’  Ultimately, ‘Breathers’ was written using the short as a basis and incorporated elements from other authors that Scott had been reading recently.

Scott summarized his early influences and, as his early writing was mostly horror, his list was not surprising.  Authors like Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Clive Barker top his list.  Growing up with these famous horror authors, Scott started by writing supernatural horror.  Eventually he discovered a new camp of authors.

After writing horror for years, Scott changed direction toward a new, fresh voice.  He discovered Chuck Palahniuk and began incorporating an edgy, witty style into his writing.  Though Scott maintains his own voice and vision, it is clear that other authors have started to influence his direction.

Scott said that he saw ‘Fight Club’ and got interested in Palahniuk from there. After reading several of Palahniuk’s works, Scott started to incorporate the edgy tone that Palahniuk is known for.  Scott also cites Christopher Moore as an influence. Though these writers have influenced Scott’s direction, he states, “my writing isn’t as edgy as Palahniuk nor is it as absurdly whimsical as Christopher Moore.”

On the book jacket, it reads “for fans of Max Brooks’ Zombie Survival Guide.”  Many fans of Scott’s work have taken notice of his Palahniuk influence.  Scott said of ‘Breathers,’ “If [people are fans of] Palahniuk and Moore and [they] are recommending it, I consider that an honor.”

Scott explained that social commentary was not originally part of his book. Though civil rights became part of the central theme in ‘Breathers,’ Scott said that he was not originally intending on writing any sort of expose on the civil rights movements through the 20^th century.

As he wrote ‘Breathers,’ Scott said that he “started off trying to make [himself] laugh.” The fight for civil rights is simply “part of the narrative,” and that he had no intention of writing on discriminatory practices.  In the end, Scott had written a book covering an interesting blend of monster-movie undead and civil rights, but he states that he simply “made the book as [he] went.”

Not only is ‘Breathers’ making its way across the country, winning readers over one at a time, but Scott is also in the process of finalizing a deal that may lead to the smartest Zombie movie to hit the screen in the past three decades.  Diablo Cody is said to be on board and working with Scott to prepare a screenplay that conveys the book with fidelity and energy.

Scott says that negotiations are underway with Fox Searchlight and that, in the best case scenario, the movie will go into production in 2010 and be released in 2011.  He also noted, though his hopes are high, he also understands that things don’t always progress as people would like in Hollywood.

Scott has a new book that has been sold and will be published in the near future.  Though the title was not given, there are elements that he was willing to share with us.  What brought this to light was information on Scott’s web site stating that the main character of his newest book is named Fabio.

Fabio represents fate in Scott’s new work.  Fate is one of many characters such also including “destiny, lady luck, sloth, gluttony, secrecy and honesty,” whom all live in a world where different characteristics of human behavior and abstract ideas are personified.  Ultimately, fate and destiny have a run in as Fabio grows weary of his lot in life.

Humans make poor choices in life and fate must deal with these people as they come.  Unfortunately, Fabio is fate, so Fabio must select the appropriate consequences for humans that have gone astray.  Eventually, he chooses to get involved in people’s lives and ultimately interferes with destiny.

Watch for Scott’s upcoming releases and take a gander at his website.  He may be doing a signing near you, and you should take the opportunity to say hi.  Also, bring some baby food for Andy, his teeth must be getting loose by now.