Zach Bohannon is the top 100 Amazon bestselling horror author of the Empty Bodies series. On the blog, we go deep inside his mind to find out what the hell’s wrong with him.

Tell us about your current book/project

I currently have two projects going on, as I tend to start a new draft while I have a book out for edits. I just finished the second draft of a standalone novel called “Lines of the Devil” and sent it to my editor. It is actually a novel adaptation of an early short story I wrote. It’s a supernatural/demonic possession horror story about a tattoo artist who comes to find his art might be a little more powerful than he thinks. Can’t say much else. I’ve also started working on the third book in my post-apocalyptic/zombie series, Empty Bodies. That book is called Deliverance and is due out September 1st, and is currently on pre-order.

What makes a story great?

I’m someone who easily gets hooked on the concept of a book, but I think the character development has to be there to really “feel” the story. My favorite book(s) of all time is the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. The characters are so well developed, and you just feel like you’re riding with them until the end. Right now, I’m taking a break from reading horror (which is what I normally read), and reading “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline. The concept immediately drew me to the book, but I almost immediately fell in love with the main character, Wade. It’ll probably end up being one of my favorite books I’ve read before it’s all said and done. Bad dialogue will ruin a book for me quickly. I don’t expect you to write dialogue like Tarantino, but at least pretend like you’ve heard two people talk to each other.

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If you could do it all over again, which mistakes would you make more quickly this time?

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve really made any mistakes, luckily. But, I think I might take a little more time writing some short fiction to work on my craft and pay an editor to go over them to give me feedback. The difference between my first book, Empty Bodies, and the stuff I’ve written after has been enormous. And a lot of that credit goes to the feedback I got from my editor after we worked on that first book together.

Plotter, pantser, or some mix of both?

Definitely both. I find that my method changes a little bit with each project. With Empty Bodies, my first book, I actually beat out every single chapter. I knew the whole story before I started, improvising very little along the way. Where I’ve kinda settled is having a few plot points I want to happen in each act, then just go. It’s worked really well.

Tell us something we don’t know.

My biggest fear is being accused of a crime I didn’t commit.

If you owned a bakery, would you refuse to make a cake for a dog-cat wedding? Why or why not?

I love dogs and hate cats, but if they wanted to get married, then whatever. I’ll bake ’em a cake as long as I don’t have a deadline on a book to hit!

Zach on Zach:

zac

Something about the dark side of life has always appealed to me. Whether I experience it through reading and watching horror, or listening to my favorite heavy metal bands, I have been forever fascinated with the shadow of human emotion.While in my 20’s, I discovered my passion to create through playing drums in two heavy metal bands: Kerygma and Twelve Winters. While playing in Twelve Winters (a power metal band with a thrash edge fronted by my now wife Kathryn), I was able to indulge myself in my love of writing by penning the lyrics for all our music. My love of telling a story started here as many of the songs became connected to the same concept and characters in one way or another.

Now in my 30’s, my creative passion is being passed to willing readers through the art of stories. While I have a particular fascination for real life scenarios, I also love dark fantasy. So, you’ll find a little bit of everything in my stories from zombies to serial killers, angels and demons to mindless psychopaths, and even ghosts and parallel dimensions.

My influence as a writer come primarily from the works of Clive Barker, Stephen King, Jack Ketchum, and Blake Crouch in the written form, the beautifully dark, rich lyrics of Mikael Akerfeldt from the band Opeth, and an array of movies, going back to the root of my fascination at a young age with 70’s and 80’s slasher films such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

I live in Nashville, Tennessee with my wife Kathryn, daughter Haley, and our German Shepherd Guinness. When I’m not writing, I enjoy playing hockey, watching hockey and football, cycling, watching some of my favorite television shows and movies, and of course, reading.

You can find Zach on his website here, or go straight to his amazon page here.
And read all of jim’s author interviews here.