While most high school juniors are worried about acne, grades, and dating, Mavis Harvey has a host of issues to deal with, like her appetite for human flesh.

Targeted Age Group:: Science Fiction,Fantasy,Action & Adventure,Post-Apocalyptic,Dystopian,Supernatural,Thriller,Suspense,Horror,Humorous,Humor,Satire,Paranormal,Coming of age,Young adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?

‘Zombie Diaries’ is a funny, off-beat story of Mavis Harvey, Girl Zombie. Readers will get to know Mavis a bit, and they will get a strong sense of the personality of this girl who is slowly turning into a flesh-eating monster.

This is not a horror novel in the traditional sense, and I never intended it to be. What I wanted to do with Mavis and her life was, have fun by asking, ‘What would it be like if a normal, everyday girl were to experience this type of change alone, out of the blue? What if she retained her intelligence and logic, realizing something was happening, but not sure what? How would she deal with it?’ I wanted the book to be light, with a tad of humor, and I wanted it to contain a story that was acceptable for reading for an audience of almost any age.

How Did You Come up With Your Characters?

I didn’t intend for Zombie Diaries to be bloody, or scary. What my vision for Mavis consisted of was something laid-back and fun to read, something that takes an already insane idea (zombies) and turns it into a story that takes away the sting of the same old idea. With that in mind, readers of any age will enjoy the story of Mavis, and they will want to stick this crazy experience out with her until the bitter end.

Book Sample

Mavis Harvey reclined lazily on the family sofa, one leg resting on the backrest, a shoe dangling from her toes. Both of her arms were thrown up over her head, and her other foot tapped to the poppy tune pumping out of the television speaker. She loved this show: The Cravens. It was about a family of nerds, with the exception of one daughter, who just happened to be the hippest, most popular girl at her high school. Mavis often daydreamed that her life would be more like that of Carrie Craven on the show.

As it was, Mavis was pretty much your average, everyday teenage high school girl. Almost seventeen, she liked boys, but as of yet, she had failed to gain the attention of the opposite sex at all. She was limited to her daydreams and hopes for the future. Hopes of changing from what she considered to be an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan, and gaining the attention of boys.

It didn’t help that she was pretty down-to-Earth. She wasn’t a ‘Barbie girl,’ as she called them. Her hair wasn’t perfect, and she didn’t pile on the makeup. Mavis Harvey was about as real as one could get. With Mavis, there were no false pretenses or masks. She was just… Mavis.

Her best friend was Kim Coleman. Kim was a pretty girl who carried just a bit too much weight. She was funny and smart, but she did depend on makeup and hair to balance the scales of her love for all things food. Mavis didn’t care how Kim looked. She believed that someday, they both would blossom and surprise every last idiot at Westside High, especially every girl who had pointed and snickered at them when they’d walked by.

Mavis lived in Greenville, a small suburb of Toledo. She had lived there her entire life; in fact, her mother and father had bought their home when Mavis had been only eighteen months old. She was a very content, happy, and well-adjusted teenager, with goals, ambitions, and dreams.

A commercial came on, and Mavis put both of her feet on the floor. She was hungry. It was two o’clock on Saturday afternoon, and they wouldn’t eat until six. Jumping up, she raced to the kitchen and, in a hurry to get back to The Cravens, blindly grabbed a fresh bag of chips and jogged back to the sofa just as the commercial ended.

Carrie Craven was bringing a boy home for the first time ever, but he wasn’t just any boy; no, this one was the captain of the football team. Carrie was embarrassed by her family’s nerdiness, so before he came, she was trying to make them all cool. This Carrie character was one of the ‘Barbie girls’ that were so unlike Mavis and Kim. In this episode, her entire family was running around the house like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to do and be what their daughter wanted them to do and be for this guy she was dating, and Mavis thought it was hilarious. She laughed loudly as she opened her chips automatically grabbing one and popping it into her mouth.

Suddenly, her eyes went wide; the chips were burning hot, seasoned with some kind of pepper. Jumping up, Mavis ran for the kitchen and grabbed the first glass she saw out of the dish drainer. With a quick turn of the knob, she filled the glass with water and proceeded to gulp it down. After a moment, she knew it wouldn’t be enough.

Mavis held the glass out to refill it but immediately stopped. The water coming from the tap was now brown, and a bit snotty-looking. The water in her glass had been clear, and a smack of her lips told her it tasted normal, overall. Maybe a slight dirt taste, but nothing she would have ever noticed if she hadn’t seen the sludge oozing from the tap. She stared into the depths of the glass, but the few drops of water inside appeared to be clear.

“Mom! Dad!” Mavis left the water running and yelled around the corner and down the hallway. “Something is wrong with this water! It’s all gross and stuff!” Her father’s head popped out of their bedroom door. “What? What do you mean, gross?”

Mavis shrugged and rolled her eyes. “I don’t know, Dad. It’s all brown and stuff. Like, dirty, you know?”

Todd Harvey stepped out of the doorway and started up the hall, his wife Jane right on his heels. He was dressed for the day in blue jeans and a polo shirt; his wife was clutching a robe around her body, and a towel was wrapped like a turban on her head.

“I just got out of the shower ten minutes ago, Mavis and the water was fine,” she scolded.

Ten seconds later the three of them stood before the double-panned kitchen sink, staring at the muck which was shooting out of the tap. It was thicker now, and still brown, but there were tinges of green here and there as well.

“See?” Mavis muttered. “I told you so. Gross.”

Todd took a coffee cup from the drainer and caught some of the muddy mess in it. He held it up to his nose, took a brief whiff, and jerked his head back, a sour, disgusted look on his face. Mavis could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to figure out what the heck was going on.

“Well, Todd?” Jane asked. “What is it?”

He shrugged and set the cup aside, then turned off the tap and plucked his cell phone out of his pocket. I have no idea, but nobody drink this water until I get the plumber over here, got it?” He turned to Mavis. “You didn’t drink this, did you?”

She gave him a surprised look. “Dad! That’s disgusting! Actually, I filled a glass, and the water was fine. I drank it and went to fill it again, and the water was like this; it happened just like that.”

Todd looked her over, contemplating. “Did it taste bad?”

“No.”

“Okay,” he continued. “Well, no more. I’m calling Ralph to come to take a look at it. Back to your business, everyone.”

Mavis and her mother exchanged a brief glance before leaving the kitchen and going their separate ways, Mavis back to the television, and Jane to her room to finish dressing. As soon as she plopped down on the couch, however, Mavis realized she had completely missed the rest of The Cravens; she groaned and flopped back in annoyance before grabbing the remote and beginning the search for new entertainment.

After a moment, she found some reruns of Rock and Roll High School, another popular program for teens her age. She put the remote on the coffee table and settled in, her father’s voice echoing slightly from the kitchen as he spoke to Ralph, the plumber. Mavis barely let it register, though. She was feeling a bit as though a nap might be a good idea. What a lazy Saturday.

“Mavis, wake up.”

Her eyes fluttered open to see her mother bending over the back of the sofa, leaning toward her daughter. “What? What do you want? I was sleeping.”

Jane put her palm flat on her daughter’s forehead. “You’re covered in sweat! Are you feeling okay?”

Suddenly, Mavis was very aware of the sweat; she was covered in it, her shirt even soaked clear through. She struggled to sit up. “Yeah, I am all sweaty,” she muttered as she plucked the material of her top away from her skin. “Must be super-hot in here, Mom. Turn the heat down.”

Jane turned to the thermostat on the wall. “The heat isn’t on, Mavis. You need to go take some medicine and put yourself to bed.”

Suddenly, the girl was wide awake. “Bed? I thought we were going to eat out. Prime rib? I know what’s going on.” She reached up and poked her mother playfully. “You want my share. I see how it is.”

Taking her daughter by the arm to help her up, Jane shook her head. “Stop being silly.” Jane felt her head and knit her brow. “You don’t seem to have a fever. You’re sure you’re feeling all right? I sure hope that water didn’t throw your system off somehow.”

She began to steer the girl down the hall to her room, and even though Mavis felt fine, she didn’t fight it. If she was honest, she did feel a little bit woozy, even though her appetite was in full raging force.

“No, we aren’t going for prime rib,” Jane replied, opening Mavis’ bedroom door and pulling back her blankets. She put her daughter in the bed and pulled the blankets up under her chin, then flipped on the small flat-screen hanging on Mavis’ wall. “We have to wait for Ralph to come about the water. We’ll eat here. Are you really hungry? Because, to be honest, you look like death warmed over.”

Mavis let her mother tuck her in. “I’m starving! Promise to wake me up when it’s time to eat, please Mom?”

Jane gave her daughter a kiss on the forehead and smoothed her hair back. “You don’t seem to have a fever. Just rest up, and as soon as it’s time for supper I’ll come get you, okay?”

With a loving look, Mavis smiled and closed her eyes. Her mother was right, perhaps; she did feel tired, and even a bit dizzy. It was much cooler in her room, even with the blankets on, which made it easy to get comfortable, and before long she was snoring lightly and beginning a new dream.

She dreamed about being the most popular girl in school, like Carrie Craven on TV. She was going to bring home a boy, and she didn’t want her dork family to embarrass her. While the story played out behind her closed eyes, Mavis smiled.

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