Daryl Dixon & Xander Macnamara: Where The Walking Dead meets Zombie Attack!

People often ask me where the idea came from to base the novel around a 16 year old boy with a katana. I think the most honest answer is that Xander springs from my childhood obsession with martial arts and weapons and all things horror. As a kid I would read about ninjas and fantasize about becoming one. I watched Enter the Dragon with religious fervor. I sent away for nunchucks and throwing stars from the back of martial arts magazines. I would sharpen the metal blades up and hurl them at my backyard fence until it was pockmarked with proof of my 'extensive' warrior training. I still have some of them and a pair of fading chucks with the gold painted dragons peeling off. During this same period of my childhood I also spent Saturdays mornings doing chores and Saturday afternoons watching Kung Fu theater.

So Xander is my inner child set loose in a more modern setting after all hell has broken loose. He's also so many things I wasn't at that age as well – including a killer, albeit a reluctant one. He is the perfect protagonist to me because he had wisdom beyond his years but he still had the heart of a kid. His weapon of choice being a katana just made sense because it tied into his love affair with martial arts and his need for family, since it was a gift from his older brother. Also swords are quiet, a big plus in the zombie filled world, and they don't need reloading.

When I set out to write Zombie Attack I knew that I wanted it to be about more than just mindless gore and violence. I had been a fan of young adult literature since the second Harry Potter book was released in paperback. I knew I wanted to create a world where characters dealt with the aftermath of the end of the world, at least as much as they killed the undead and ran for their lives. Far from being just another story about killing bad guys and monsters, Zombie Attack quickly began to develop around the idea of family. Xander leaves in search of his older brother and mentor Moto. He brings his new friend Benji with him, caring for him like a brother. Along the way he attempts to help out Sam, an even younger kid in need of protection and support. When he meets his teen crush in the form of Felicity Jane, former child star turned reality television disaster, she convinces him to take her to see her mother. Over and over the theme of family, and what constitutes it once the world has gone mad, comes up. I'd say it's the second most important issue of the book, right after the scourge of the undead.

At the time I wrote Zombie Attack I hadn't seen a single episode of The Walking Dead. People kept telling me that it was amazing but I was afraid that if I watched the show it might accidentally end up influencing what I was writing. After I wrote both my zombie novels I sat down and watched all of the episodes available in a row. Naturally I was hooked! I'm now a fan of the show and looking forward to seeing season 4 and what happens with the Governor like the rest of you. I did find interesting parallels between the show and my book, but not enough similarities to make me alarmed. Naturally I was impressed with Michonne and her katana skills. I was also very glad that I had written my novel and published it long before she came on the show.

What struck me most about The Walking Dead when I compared it with Zombie Attack was how congruent Norman Reedus's character Daryl Dixon and my protagonist Xander Macnamara were. At first glance they didn't seem all that alike but the more I compared them the more overlap I began to find in their characters personalities and lives.

Xander grew up in a military family with his retired father. His mother died when he was young. His father's indiscretions during his service led to the birth of his half brother Moto, who came to live with them when Xander was a kid. Xander is clear that Moto made them a family, made them complete. It is the love and guidance that his brother showed him, along with the survival skills he taught him, that make Xander so amazing.

Daryl Dixon seems to have come from a world where his older brother antagonized him more than anything else, but Merle makes it clear that he trained him to be resourceful and self-sufficient and to survive anything. There is a lot of pain in their shared family history from what is inferred but Daryl sticks by his brother, even when he makes the wrong choices, because he is family.

Daryl, like Xander, is also extremely loyal. Faced with the heart breaking decision of choosing between his brother Merle and the group at the prison who had become like family he chose his brother, but he never stopped fighting for his new friends either. He worked hard to bring his brother around and to make peace between the two – realizing, just as Xander does, that in the post apocalyptic world of the undead family is more important than ever. There is a certain tenderness about him, a sensitivity that is held just beneath the surface, that shows what a kind heart he has. Likewise we see Xander suffers this same tender heart. It gets both of them in trouble and leads to interesting plot developments in both The Walking Dead and in my novel Zombie Attack.

The most compelling similarity between Xander and Daryl is that they are both loyal to their families as well as their friends. It's what makes them attractive characters that we root for and want to see win. They both fight for what they believe is right and aren't afraid to speak their minds. They both manage to maintain a certain tender, good heart despite living in a world that requires daily killing and making decisions with deadly and permanent consequences. Both are exceptionally skilled at using their preferred weapon of choice. You never see Daryl without his crossbow just as Xander hates being without his katana. And both exhibit a mind numbing amount of control. When the rest of the world around them is falling apart it's the cool headed approach of Xander and Daryl that ends up seeing them through to another day. Last but far from least they both have something about them that just seems to drive the ladies crazy. I'm guessing it's the fact that they both have great hair.

At the end of the day I'd like to believe that if Xander ever met Daryl Dixon they would become the best of friends. I imagine them hunting together and swapping stories about what it was like growing up as the baby of the family, talking about how their brothers tortured them the way only an older sibling can. Xander would teach Daryl martial arts techniques and Tai Chi. I'm fairly certain that Daryl would be able to teach Xander a few tricks about catching food and sneaking up on people as well. They'd certainly come in handy, considering where Xander is heading in the sequel.

Ultimately I guess that's why so many fans of The Walking Dead have told me they loved Zombie Attack. There are a lot of great zombie stories out there but I believe ZombieAttack transcends the genre to become about more than just the end of times. It focuses on what matters most in this world – family and what defines it.

Zombie Attack is available now on Amazon. It will be available in paperback and Audible this November from Permuted Press. Grab a copy while you're waiting for The Walking Dead to return and let me know what you think.

Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself

For those of you who don't know me - my name is Devan Sagliani and I am a writer. It's all I've ever really wanted to be since I was a little kid, as far back as I can remember. In fact when I turned five years old I spent my birthday money to buy a toy typewriter at Toys R Us.

The first thing I remember writing was a short story when I was in fifth grade. From what I can recall it was a horror story about a man stuck on an island with some kind of unseen monster out to kill him. I wish I still had that story, but it's gone now.

I wrote a lot of poetry and short fiction that never went anywhere when I was young. I spent so many hours on my writing growing up that I was often with a notebook and a pen, in some corner, scribbling away. Judging by where I am today you'd think that I had a great deal of support and positive encouragement around my obsessive writing habit, but that wasn't the case at all. More often than not what I heard was that most writers are broke and that if I planned on writing for a living I would starve to death.

This theme of certain failure and impending doom has been repeated like an anti-mantra since I was a kid. I couldn't even begin to count the number of times I've been told by a well meaning authority figure or so-called friend how I would never be able to do something that I later accomplished . A few years back I kept hearing that I would never sell a movie. Then when I did I heard it would never get made, even though it was sold. Then I was told by some that the movie might have been made, but that it would never get run on television or in a movie theater. All of those things happened in one form or another.

I also heard how I could never sell a book on Amazon and make any money, that there were just too many people doing it now to make it worthwhile, that you had to be there a few years back to get anything out of it. I was also told that if I did publish online I would never get a traditional publisher. Once I'd tarred myself with the stigma of being an indie author I'd never be seen as anything but a failed writer unable to get published on my own merit who'd given up and resorted to vanity publishing. I was told that the stories about people jumping from being self-published on Amazon to being traditionally published were the rare exception, that they were few and far between, and that most people just struggled for years to sell even a few copies of their work.

I really wish I would have stopped listening to these dream killers earlier. Now I know the only limits that exist are the ones we set for ourselves. But I've gotten ahead of myself a little. Let me go back a minute.

After I graduated UCLA I wrote a failed novel, a very cathartic experience that allowed me to hone my voice, then a string of short literary fiction. I became obsessed with writing short stories around 2003. After almost a year of serious attempts to get published in the kinds of respected literary journals I thought were important to launch my career, I finally gave up and built a website called Thirst For Fire so I could publish my favorite story of the bunch – Hollywood Babylon. Soon I was helping other unheard voices publish stories that weren't likely to find another home in the world as well. It was fun but took time away from my writing and I ended up passing it on to a worthy successor who still runs the site today. I meet an author years later who bragged he'd just had a story accepted by the site, never realizing my connection to it's birth. I still get a little blush of pride at the memory.

After Thirst For Fire was up and running I also began submitting to places I loved, webzines that represented other writers like me. Along the way I had the privilege of seeing my name on Outsider Ink, Thieves Jargon, Cherry Bleeds, Word Riot, Outcry, Antimuse, and Mourning Silence. I also found myself nominated for a prestigious Pushcart Prize and the Million Writer’s Award.

In 2010, I wrote a movie called 'HumansVersus Zombies' for a director I had worked with before on a horror movie that never was released. He got the rights to turn the live action role playing game into a movie that he later shot in Texas. After a small theatrical release the movie was featured on Chiller TV and is now available via Amazon, NetFlix, and several other sources. It can be purchased on DVD at Walmart. It was a real rush to see my name on television next to the words SCREENPLAY BY...

That was the upside of the movie. There is a downside too, but I don't want to go all negative. Let's just keep it simple and make it about the writing. Working in Hollywood means having your original vision tampered with and altered. It means a lot of things will be out of your control no matter what they promise you or what the contracts say. Don't take my word for it. Just ask Max Brooks about his experience watching World War Z being turned into a movie.

After HvZ I wrote several spec scripts, a few movies, and a comedy pilot. Despite bugging just about everyone I knew in Hollywood I didn't make any progress. I took meetings with heads of production companies only to have them talk down to me and act jealous because I had sold a movie. I teamed up with a writing partner, a very motivated and talented guy who went into reality television casting and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. Meanwhile I went to workshops and wasted money listening to people tell me there were two ways to make it in Hollywood – (1) Be the relative of a famous person or (2) Just get lucky in some random freak way that no one could ever predict. It was a frustrating period of my life full of empty promises and a lot of wasted time. I lost friends just by asking them to read my work. I was spinning my wheels, big time.

Most of all I was frustrated by how people were always willing to use me and my work, but tried to talk down to me in the process and make me feel lower than dirt. It was as if they saw that I had something to offer in the form of my writing, that I had talent, but they couldn't help but try to run me down because of it. After what had happened with my first movie I realized I never wanted to be in that position again. I didn't want anyone else to take my work and mangle it. And more importantly I didn't want to give my work to people who were only interested in exploiting what I had to offer while actively working to make me feel like they had done me a favor.

That's when I decided that I needed to put my heart into what I loved. I had wanted to write a novel since I was a kid and now, thanks to digital online self publishing, I didn't need anyone's approval. So I sat down and wrote Zombie Attack, a young adult novel about zombies and bikers and MMA fighting and child celebrities and cult members and neo Nazi's and cannibals and so much more! I hired an artist to make a cover and an editor to help me clean it up. I published it on Amazon and began telling people about it. I also sat down and wrote The Rising Dead, an adult horror novel about zombies that finally answers the age old question – If the Zombie Apocalypse Happens in Las Vegas, Does it Stay in Las Vegas? Spoiler alert – it doesn't. I also had it edited and published it myself.

Last December they both were in the Top 100 Amazon for their categories. I had been approached by a couple different small press publishers but hadn't been given a deal yet. I had been promoting the book with reviews and using social media to drive sales and meet new friends. That's when Permuted Press reached out and made an offer to publish both books and their sequels. The rest, as they say, is history.

Zombie Attack! Rise of the Horde is available now on Amazon. It will be in paperback in November 2013 and on audio book from Audible as well. The Rising Dead will be in paperback and audiobook in 2014.

I also put out a bunch of those short stories I was telling you about in a collection called A Thirst for Fire that is available on Amazon now.

I am currently working on the sequel to Zombie Attack as well as a few side projects. I don't want to ruin the surprise of it but I pretty much always have something up my sleeve. I've got enough writing ideas to keep me busy for the next several years. Trust me.

So that's it for the writing side of things pretty much. Now for the basic getting-to-know you stuff.

I was born and raised in and around Los Angeles. I've lived other places but never for long. Los Angeles is my home and always will be. When people complain about living here or talk about how fake and flaky people from Los Angeles are I shake my head and laugh. If you grew up here then you know what I'm talking about. As far as native born Angelinos are concerned if you don't love this city, you should go. It's already overcrowded as it is. Go elsewhere and be happy. You officially have my blessing!

I grew up in surf and skate culture and it is still a big part of my life. The ocean is my heart and, even if I don't surf every day anymore because I am busy writing, just seeing the water puts my soul at peace.

Well, that's my story for now. Thanks for taking the time to read just a little about my wild history. There is a whole lot more but I'm saving it for some future books! In the meantime feel free to write to me and tell me what you think about my writing or anything else. Thanks,

Devan Sagliani

devan(at)devansagliani(dot)com