First I have to say, I am rather fond of author's notes. It is a chance to break out of telling a story to say whatever I want. I feel pretty confident doing so because, hey, who reads "Author's Notes" anyway? I look at some of the writer's I admire and they always seemed to have these notes at the end that I rarely read, until one day I started reading them. Usually the information was of only trivial interest to me. Who cares how you came up with your character "Ted"? Or that the book was written on a bus ride from L.A. to New York? Just give me more "Ted"! Now! Now! Now! These days I do tend to read the author's notes, I see it as a sign of my growing maturity. Oh and I find most of them interesting too.
"Undead Advantage" started life as "The Ballad of Hank and Juan" which was shortened to "Hank and Juan" then the title search got left to stew for awhile until I did the editing. The book does not really end; it just comes to a stopping point where I know it can be left to the imagination on how things go from here. I could write more on the group, but I don't think there will be an "Undead Advantage II". Hank and Juan will be looked in on from time to time, especially a decade and a half after z-day, but for now their story is finished.
This book was the second one I started and the third one I finished. Between starting it and finishing it I wrote "Found" and I cannot imagine why I did things that way. I have always been one who jumps around with different writing projects, then looks in surprise at those I have finished, wondering "Now just how did that happen?" Please don't misunderstand me; I usually do a great deal of plotting out what is going to happen and how each book will end, I just don't write them all at once. I am settling into a pattern where I am getting closer to that goal, to focus on a single item at a time, but I am not there yet.
I write zombie books because I like writing about zombies, not because I have any illusions that my works are great world literature. The point of fiction is just to give the reader a bit of a break from a 'normal' life and if I did that, then I did my job.
Thank you for reading!
Mark Clodi
June 16th, 2009
Revised July 3rd, 2010