Suzee: Tell me about the inspiration for the book.
Dana: It arose out of watching zombie movies with my daughter, Georgia, a genre we both love. We wanted to explore the zombie apocalypse genre in a unique way. Writing together was also a way to help Georgia process some social challenges she was facing at school at that time.
Suzee: What was it like as a parent writing with your child?
Dana: What was extraordinary is that when we are working together, I do not see Georgia as a child or even as my daughter as much as a creative equal. That realization was pretty extraordinary for me.
Suzee: What was the writing process like?
Dana: It was wonderful fun. We'd discuss what happens next in the story, what the characters should be named, etc, then I would write out a chapter and have Georgia then read them aloud. Because the story is written from the point of view of a twelve-year-old girl, Georgia had a lot of amazing input!
Suzee: What is the message of the book?
Dana: It is a story of love and acceptance. Many of the characters in the story are suffering from a lack of these things. Screens are how people become infected and zombified. Dawnah realizes that with the help of her non-binary sibling, they can bring people back, but that requires some growth to get there.
How did you get it published?
Dana: We self published using Amazon KDP. We hired an illustrator for the cover and a designer for the interior and exterior of the book.
Suzee: Where can we find it?
More info and some sample chapters can be found on our website: https://www.dawnahandthedarkhearts.com/
Suzee: What are your future plans, I hear sequels are in the works?
Dana: Yes, we have a Dawnah trilogy planned and a loose outline for those books.
Suzee: And now something personal about the two of you...
Dana's Top Books:
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - the most cinematic and yet non-filmable book I ever read.
The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins - I just really sunk my heart and soul in Katniss Everdeen.
Deliver Me From Nowhere by Warren Zanes - a profound exploration into what it means to be an artist.
The Red and the Black by Stendhal - That really affected me deeply when I read it in my early twenties.
Georgia's Top Books:
Dr. Zhivago, The Sisters Grim, Lord of the Flies
Last Three Series Dana Watched:
Breaking Bad, The Last of Us, All of Us Are Dead
Last Three Series Georgia Watched:
All of Us Are Dead, Wednesday, The Twilight Zone
Dana's Favorite Movies of All Time
That's a tough one. The litmus test is how many times I've seen a film. Probably: Jaws, Star Wars, The Godfather.
I think a movie worth talking about is Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein. As a child, I love that movie because it was scary, but not Too much for me to handle. The book that my daughter and I wrote is like that as well. It shouldn’t be scary for kids. It should be more as an adventure story than horror.
Georgia's Favorite Movies:
The Shining
The Gold Rush (1925)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1956)
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE BOOK: