Alice in Zombieland Author Gena Showalter on the Best-Laid (Zombie) Plans

In Gena Showalter’s White Rabbit Chronicles, Alice Bell is plunged into a dark supernatural world after a mysterious car crash kills her family—including her eccentric father, who claimed he was being stalked by monsters. After their deaths, Alice learns that the monsters are real, and that battling them is the only way to avenge her family and save herself. Here’s Showalter on why she’s an unlikely candidate to write a horror series…and why she fell in love with it anyway.
I’ve never been a fan of horror movies. I refuse to watch them and won’t even close my eyes and listen to them. So of course I was the perfect person to write about zombies. ~head scratch~ Trust me, I know how improbable it sounds. The horror hater diving into a world where monsters stalk the night and the good guy doesn’t always survive? Please.
But I loved every second of it.
When I first sat down to write Alice in Zombieland, book one in the White Rabbit Chronicles, I thought I had a pretty good idea about the direction I wanted to go. At least to kick things off. In fact, here’s a snippet of the synopsis I originally submitted to my amazing editor:
Sixteen-year-old Alice Randall is beautiful, a little shy despite the self-defense training her dad has drilled into her head, and she has always felt distanced from life, as if she were merely walking around in someone else’s dream.  On the outside, her family appears normal.  Her dad is a computer software tech whose hobbies are working out and boxing, her mom is a lawyer, and her little sister is a wannabe ballerina. But that’s only surface. Her dad is straight up crazy.  Sometimes, when he drinks, he rants about seeing zombies.  He’s always been afraid of the dark, he’s been on and off medication for years, but he never ventures out at night…until Alice and her mother convince him to attend the little sister’s dance recital one fateful Friday evening.  All goes well until the drive home.  He hasn’t been drinking, but he begins to rave about the monsters on the road. The girls try to calm him down—they see no monsters—but the car spins out of control, flips, and crashes.
Sounds familiar, right? (The biggest change is Alice’s last name…had to protect the not-so-innocent, you know!)
Curious about the bigger changes I found in the original synopsis? Here are just a few. After the crash, Ali is supposed to live with her aunt and uncle (no Nana and Pops, gasp!). Cole’s name was supposed to be Noah Hatter. (Yes. I’m serious.) Ali and Cole’s first kiss happens at school. (They actually make out in the grass outside. Why did I cut this?) They go on a date soon afterward—and McKenzie Love is waiting for him to return home. She throws herself at him and kisses him. (The horror!) The zombies were fought in body rather than spirit and could be killed only by cutting off their heads (hence the “Off with their heads” tagline on the first cover).
I followed the outline pretty closely as I wrote the first draft of book one, but when I finished, I had a better grasp of the characters and plot and knew I needed to twist things up. Welcome, spirit zombies! Of course, this opened up all kinds of problems. Like, what did the zombies eat? How could the slayers see a ghostlike creature? How did the slayers fight and kill such an enemy? (For those who haven’t read the books, I’ll give you a taste. The only way to fight a spirit is with a spirit, so the slayers had to possess the ability to separate their spirit from their body.)
The new direction inspired me in a way the original did not, and book two, Through the Zombie Glass, practically wrote itself. My editor said, “Can you use mirrors?” and I was instantly like, “Mirrors! Yes!” The thought of someone’s reflection coming to life thrilled me—seriously, how cool would that be in real life? Well, not quite so cool if the person in the mirror happens to be worse than the zombies on the streets. ~insert evil writer laugh~ Maybe I don’t hate horror so much, after all.
By the end of Zombie Glass, Ali and her crew reach what seems to be a happily ever after. SPOILER ALERT: They’ve defeated hordes of zombies, as well as the company controlling the zombies. But there are things I’d unwittingly set up…things that could slash their happiness to ribbons. (Yay, Gena’s subconscious! Gold star!)
When I dove into The Queen of Zombie Hearts, I had one goal: tie up all loose ends. Honestly, I kind of felt like a woman about to perform surgery, even though I’d never actually attended medical school…I’d only completed a semester of nursing school. (Ask me about my beside manner. Or don’t. Yeah, probably don’t. You’d only cry for my patients.) The book should have been a bear to write. No mirrors. Boo! But once I started, there was no stopping. The words poured out of me. I tortured the characters—even killed a few. (What?) I had fun with their dialogue. (Freelance valet, anyone?) I wrote scenes where the slayers had to battle zombies and humans at the same time. Ultimately? I had FUN. I’m not sure I’ve ever enjoyed a process more.
And yeah, okay, I definitely don’t hate horror anymore.
The White Rabbit Chronicles series features snarky characters, intense action, a little gore, a lot of creep, and my personal favorite, sizzling romance. If you’re ready to fall down, down, down the zombie hole—and you love things that go bump in the night—this series is for you.
All my best,
Gena Showalter
Book three in the White Rabbit Chronicles, The Queen of Zombie Hearts, is on sale now.