Zombies & Atheism

Author Emily Dietle

My focus is on state-church separation & social issues. I'm an avid reader, and feel that one of our most valuable tools is the free movement of information and ideas. | @emilyhasbooks

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Zombies and atheism? What is this, a bad joke about Jesus returning from the dead? No. This is a short tale about finding inspiration in odd places. In early July 2011, a good friend turned me on to Mira Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy, a brilliant thriller combining politics, blogging, and a zombie apocalypse; it was the final inspiration needed to propel me into the blogosphere.

Feed, the debut novel, introduces the Mason siblings and their successful team of bloggers. In the post zombie apocalypse world they live in, blogs have become a staple media source, and the team welcomes an opportunity to be part of the official press for a Presidential campaign.

Throughout this fast-paced trilogy the importance of writing and truth-telling run hand-in-hand, darting from zombies and chasing-down a conspiracies. Originally compelled by their competitive nature to succeed as a news crew, the characters in Newsflesh find their motivations shifting when the importance of their investigative reporting is slowly revealed.

I loved the idea that this crew was able to make such a huge difference in their world just by writing about their experiences, and the idea of starting my own blog became persistent- perhaps my lengthy comments on news articles and facebook could actually comprise a blog. By the end of the book, I had my first blog post drafted…  a few short months later I came out of the atheist closet and the slam of those doors created a wind that propelled me into posting regularly.

Inspiration comes from odd places, for me, it was genre-transcendent Zombie fiction. Where will you find yours?

*Mira Grant is the pseudonym for novelist Seanan McGuire.