This is the day I’ve been waiting for all week, Rhiannon Frater Interview day! Woop, woop! Alright, official business time… enjoy!

Today at ReaWrite we have the wonderful Rhiannon Frater, author of the ‘As The World Dies’ trilogy you have been seeing all over ReaWrite this week. If you’re just tuning in, the series is a riveting look at the realities of surviving a zombie apocalypse because it isn’t all guns and action, you need to help start society from scratch and that’s no small task. Without further ado… Rhiannon!

ReaWrite– Hi there, thank you so much for doing this! First off, could you tell us a little about yourself, and your books?

Rhiannon– I’m Texan, I live in Austin, I’m married to a great guy, I have purple hair, and I love to wear black.

As for the books, they were inspired by my travels as a governmental consultant. I started writing AS THE WORLD DIES online in 2005, self-published it in 2008, and in 2010 Tor bought the entire trilogy. The revised versions started hitting bookshelves in 2011 and the final one, SIEGE, came out April of this year.

I’m also a hybrid author, which means I continue to self-publish some of my novels while continuing to publish with Tor.  My latest is PRETTY WHEN SHE KILLS, a sequel to my modern day vampire/necromancer/zombie novel PRETTY WHEN SHE DIES.

In 2012 I have also released the AS THE WORLD DIES UNTOLD TALES VOLUME 2, THE LAST BASTION OF THE LIVING: A FUTURISTIC ZOMBIE NOVEL, and BLOOD & LOVE AND OTHER VAMPIRE TALES, a short story collection.

So I’m pretty busy!

ReaWrite– After reading your trilogy, it’s clear that you are a fan of zombie fiction. How did you decide what your ‘zombie rules’ would be in terms of things like movement speed, infection etc.?

Rhiannon– It takes place in Texas and we’re heavily armed, so that was the primary thing I had to take into account. So to make the virus spread quickly, I had to make the zombies very fast in the beginning. They slow down over time as wear and tear, the elements, rot, etc takes hold.  Also, zombies are stupid, so they’ll walk off a bridge trying to get to a human they see in the street below.

ReaWrite– Both Katie and Jenni are such strong characters, do you have a favorite?

Rhiannon– I love them both dearly. I would like to be more like Katie, because she’s so strong, but I don’t have a favorite between the two.

ReaWrite– Right from the beginning of the series you have had no issues with writing for heartbreak or tackling some pretty politically charged subjects. What was the hardest part of this series to write?

Rhiannon– The hardest part was the death of a character I adored, but didn’t know was going to die. It comes very close to the end of the novel after there have already been some major deaths.  When I realized this one particular character was not going to make it, I stalled writing the death scene for about a week. I finally gave up and wrote it, but I sobbed the whole time.  The character is in the supporting cast, but one of the more beloved ones.

ReaWrite– How long do you think you’d survive during the zombie apocalypse? What would your survival plan involve?

Rhiannon– I live in Texas, so I hope I’d last for a long while. I’m surrounded by military bases and we own weapons. Plus, there is a lot of empty land in Texas.  As for my survival plan, I’d shoot for the head, pay attention to what the authorities were doing, and use the grey cells in my head.

ReaWrite– What are you currently working on?

I’m working on DEAD SPOTS for Tor. It will be released sometime in 2013. It’s a very disturbing premise and it’s been a challenge to write. It’s the story of a woman who becomes trapped in a nightmare world between the living and the dead and her struggle to escape.

ReaWrite– Sounds awesome, and more than a little chilling. Thank you again for answering questions today and being a part of zombie week.

If you want to learn more about Rhiannon, you can visit her at her website and be sure to check back tomorrow for my review of Siege, the final book in the ‘As The World Dies’ trilogy.