Zombies running wild in Northern Shenandoah Valley
Roger Bianchini of Mind Candy Magazine interviews “Reign of the Dead” author Len Barnhart
 
 In Len Barnhart’s novel “Reign of the Dead” we find zombie hoards roaming the streets and neighborhoods of Warren, Frederick and Clarke Counties, as well as the streets of Winchester, White Post and Front Royal, the latter thinly disguised as “The Town of Warren,” in search of their next meal and marking down time much as they had in their previous lives: in the malls, convenience stores and prisons of the Northern Shenandoah Valley.

I will let “Reign of the Dead” speak for itself in two brief passages: On page 75 a surviving human ponders the fate of relatives. “She didn’t want to think of the possibility of them being dead. Death was no longer eternal peace; it was now the dwelling place of demons.” Then on page 125 we find this melancholy description of a zombie’s plight as it listens to humans on the move in a truck. “One hundred yards away, a lone zombie raised its head at the sound of the truck leaving. It moaned a song of confusion and desire.” 

 These passages from “Reign of the Dead” give a hint of issues deeper than the simple horror concept of mutilated, walking dead seeking their place in the food chain. Throughout this action driven, almost cinematically written horror story, issues such as destructive, almost Satanic misuse of religious zealotry; and the basic human predicaments of who we are, why it is so, and what our place and fate in the universe is; come boiling to the surface, sometimes subtly and sometimes SPLAT, right in your face. We sat down with 42-year-old, Warren County resident Len Barnhart to discuss his perceptions of the world he created in “Reign of the Dead,” as well as his perceptions of the world in which he has operated day to day as a singer-songwriter-musician for 25 year and now as a published author.

 RB: Len, are zombies an allegorical comment on the state of humanity?
 LB: Well, I guess we have a lot in common with them. They were, after all, us at one time. I guess the reader has to determine what similarities remain.

RB: So, what are the intellectual seeds of the world of “Reign of the Dead?”
LB: Overall, the book pretty much describes my opinion that when things are at their worst, people act terribly, kind of the opposite of what everybody believes. When things fall apart, civilization falls apart with it. It doesn’t take much to really let that happen.

RB: Sort of like people saying that war brings out the best in people but it must also bring out the worst since all wars seem to have episodes of rape & pillaging?
LB: Well yea, that’s going to happen. In the book you’ll notice a lot of religious overtones and mainly that things got out of hand quickly. The reason it got out of hand quickly is because religion is something that is pretty deep into a person. It’s hard for them to change their mind about it. All religions are different and they all have their points. But there’s one thing that’s the same with all of them and that’s that it is almost impossible to change people’s minds about what they believe as far as religion goes.

RB: So, in your book, who wants to admit that their mate or parent is dead and going to become a zombie, so they’ve got to cut their head off or put a bullet in their brain?
LB: Yea. How hard is it to go destroy what you see to be your son? You can’t do that. And the authorities, as far as the reason they let it get out of hand, it was something far fetched; there had to be a better answer. To come out and say that this was happening could hurt them politically because if it came out later that they were wrong, they would look like a fool. So they procrastinated.

RB: I perceived the question of whether or not the government might have been responsible for the zombie plague, like some allege about the AIDS virus, that it was a government germ warfare experiment that got out of hand.
LB: It’s never answered in the book. There are people that make accusations that it was government caused. Then there are other people that say it was God’s doing. In this book there’s not a definite answer to that. It’s not explained.

RB: Will it be answered in the sequel?
LB: Yes.

RB: So the sequel will tie up the loose ends of “Reign of the Dead?”
LB: Everything will be answered specifically. However, each reader will still be able to draw his or her own conclusions as to whether they want to believe those answers or not. Maybe science will come up with a nice little explanation but it doesn’t necessarily mean that science is right with its reasoning.

RB: Any hints you can give us about the sequel?
LB: The time frame of the first book was over a year into this plague. The sequel takes place about a year after the first book and it covers a period of a couple of years after that. So what’s happening is that these reanimates have a life span of 10 years or longer due to decomposition. They start rotting away. The worse they get, the less mobile they get and the less dangerous they are. The danger is declining from them but in the process of all of this happening, civilization has just been wiped away. There are no governments anymore. There are pockets of survivors everywhere and there are some pockets of survivors that were really prepared to survive pretty much anything and you’ll have people, who have their own ideas on how the world should be rebuilt. They want to rebuild things in their own vision of what things should be and these people are not necessarily good. So you’re not only going to have a battle with what’s left of this plague that wiped out civilization but you’ve got civil wars, the same wars that we’ve always had between the survivors. If this was God’s doing maybe that all should have been done away with but it wasn’t.

RB: Do you think there is a basic tendency in human society that people who come to power are people who are driven by a need for power, which may not be a wholesome need?
LB: I think there are genuine people out there that want to do the right thing to help people but there’s also a lot of them that are motivated by greed, not only for money but also for power, to force their ideas and will upon other people.

RB: I think it’s a very action driven book but I’ve heard writer’s say sometimes they feel like the characters they’ve created actually begin propelling their book forward. Did you experience anything like that?
LB: I had maybe four or five different, key points, ideas that I had for the story but you’re talking spaces of 50, 60 pages between those and yea, a lot of the time the characters did drive that space in between and the characters developed as I was writing them. I tried to sit down and decide who and how these characters would be before but its hard to do that and cover the full personality of that character until you actually get into it and get to know the character and you don’t get to know the character until you start writing them. When I started the book out I wanted it sort of fast and furious because I knew one thing when I started: grab the reader within the first three chapters because if you don’t, chances are you won’t.

RB: Do you know any of the characters in the book?
LB: There’s really not one single character in the book I can point to and say this is that person. There are some personalities of people I know that I used in personalities in the book but the characters are not a direct copy of anyone that I know. As I said, sometimes characters kind of make themselves as you’re writing them. So even if I had intended to use people at the beginning, by the end of the book it was not that at all.

RB: You've played in a number of bands. Any plans to get back on the live music scene or is the sequel keeping you busy?
LB: It keeps me as busy as I want it to keep me. Yea, every once in awhile I get the urge to do it. Once you get music in you, it’s hard to get it out. You can quit for awhile but eventually you get the urge and it’s a little too strong and you gotta get back to it.

RB: Sort of like that zombie urge to eat or reproduce as you theorize in “Reign of the Dead.” Speaking of zombie reproduction, since you theorize that their feeding habits may be directly related to their desire to reproduce, do you think that zombies have sex?
LB: If they do, it’s nothing that I’d want to see.

 

Interview: LEN BARNHART
by Author: Richard Mullenax

I can humbly admit that not enough horror movies scare me. I find horror movies usually corny, funny, or serious, more like a drama when well presented. But when you bring up George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead series......now I'm terrified! As a kid and even today I can't shake them off, something about them haunts me.

Ever since Night of the Living Dead and it's sequels, many have tried to carbon copy what Romero created and most failed, but as a self publisher, I found a novel that will come close if not to the same level of the Night of the Living Dead trilogy. That book is REIGN OF THE DEAD!

RM.com: What is Reign of the Dead and Apocalypse End: Reign of the Dead 2 all about?

BARNHART: Reign of the Dead and its sequel are about people. It's about the indomitable human spirit and sometimes the worst situation can bring out the best in people. However, it can also bring out the worst. An apocalypse is upon mankind and the unbelievable has happened. Death no longer means eternal peace. It is now the dwelling place of demons. Reign I covers the first year, it is a book of survival. Reign II is about rebuilding, though remnants of a corrupt and lost civilization would like to see things rebuilt to their own liking. A new danger shows itself in the midst of a fading horror.

RM.com: Why did you to write Reign of the Dead?

Barnhart: Well Reign is my first book. So I wanted to write about something with which I was familiar. I considered a Star Trek novel since I've always been a Trekkie, but the book stores are already filled with them. The zombie apocalypse was my next choice.

RM.com: Sharon and Amanda were my favorite characters in Reign of the Dead.Sharon for the detailed and well told possible scientific explanations for the zombies existence and Amanda for being head strong, but who were your favorite characters to work with? Who were your least favorites?

Barnhart: I think Jim Workman has to be my favorite. He was the most thought out. He's a reluctant hero. The preacher was also fun. Insanity is always interesting to delve into a bit and look around. I'm not sure if I have a least favorite. I tried to make every chapter and character entertaining in one way or another.

RM.com: Who are your inspirations? I'd have to think George A. Romero would be one of them, but who else?

Barnhart: Well If not for George, writing a zombie novel would be like writing a vampire novel without the existence of Bram Stoker. They created the blueprint. Another inspiration was Stephen King. The Stand is one of my favorite books. I tried for that flavor in Reign.

RM.com: How did you get published?

Barnhart: My agent shopped the book for two years. It came close a couple of times with other publishers and even got an ear from Roger Corman, but in the end we went with Iuniverse. Since then many exciting things have been coming my way concerning Reign. I don't want to say too much about them just yet.
Besides, I still have almost a year left in my current contract.

RM.com Do you have any marketing tips for hungry self-published horror authors or any writers in general?

Barnhart: I do a lot of signings and horror conventions. It has helped more than I would've thought. When publishing through small press a lot of the promotion is left up to the author, lots of legwork and trips to push the product. You can't write a book (even a very good one) and expect things to fall into place. There are many novels out there that are classics now that were turned down over and over again before someone finally gave them a chance. Don't take no for an answer. Keep on a keepin’ on. Don' let the rejections get to you. Like I said, many good authors find rejection before success. Reign is just now starting to build success.

RM.com: How many copies of Reign of the Dead sold?

Barnhart: I'm not sure exactly. Though I will say that my quarterly checks are getting bigger and bigger. I've not sold enough yet to buy that house next to Stephen King.

RM.com Do you have any other plans besides Reign of the Dead 1 and 2?

Barnhart: Yes. I have an idea for my next project. It's about an astronaut that finds himself on a strange planet. It's gotta nice twist.

RM.com: Are there any last words that you'd like to say regarding book signings, appearances, updates, anything at all?

Barnhart: I'm going to be at the Comicon Convention in Pittsburgh Pa October 12-13th along with Leonard Lies of Dawn of the Dead and several stars of Night of the Living Dead. Tom Savini will also be there. It should be fun. It's looking good that I will also attend April's Comicon as well when they have the Dawn of the Dead 25th anniversery.

 


Interview with Len Bernhardt by Movies Online
by: Michael
 

Len Barnhart is one of the best horror authors writing books hands down. Not only is he providing us with fantastic novels, he is also doing up some really fantastic Dawn of the Dead like comic books. To start off let me tell you what Reign of the Dead the Novel is all about.

Jim Workman returns from a three-week wilderness retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains to find that the world is a vastly different place. In the few short weeks since he dropped out of civilization a bizarre plague has swept the planet.

The recently dead are rising as feeding machines that feast on the warm flesh of the living. A bite from one of the creatures is ultimately fatal as one ghoul becomes two, becomes eight, becomes sixteen, until the human species is nearly extinct. Jim joins a group of about a hundred survivors who are temporarily barricaded in a local rescue center as they search for a way to make it through this waking nightmare.

In an isolated country house just miles from the rescue center the sanctimonious Reverend R.T. Peterson is leading a group of troubled teenagers. Guided by his visions and voices, the Reverend forges a twisted plan to carry out God's will now that the apocalypse is upon them.

In a nearby government installation, tucked deep beneath the mountain, scientists search for answers as the scientific, military and political forces involved battle for dominance and survival. The story follows the lives of six main characters as they attempt to navigate through a nightmarish world of death and destruction.

It is a tale of good and evil, of love and of the indomitable human spirit, leading to the climactic encounter as the three factions finally come together.

On with the Interview. First off Len thanks for taking time for your fans. I want to start with tell us about yourself, what makes Len Tick? On top of that tell us something cool or a quirk about yourself that perhaps nobody knew before now.

Now that I’m a bit older, family makes me tick. In my younger years I was balls-to-the-wall with my music. All of my free time was spent there and believe me I had a lot of free time, but it was an unbelievably good time with so much freedom.

I loved meeting new people and performing on stage. There was no better feeling than when the lights went up to reveal a full house there solely to hear us play. Well, to hear us play and for the booze. As time passed I grew away from that scene and into a more settled lifestyle.

These days I spend a lot of time with my beautiful wife (I am so lucky she stuck with me) and a few hobbies that have me hooked. Football… I love football. I live for football. I eat it, drink it and well, you get the point.

I’m also a pretty good chess player and have won a tournament or two. There’s nothing more stimulating mentally than a great chess game with a worthy opponent. Getting back to music, I’m actually playing again. We’re still doing the heavy stuff (new and old) I may take this outfit on the road to a few horror conventions where I do signings. Maybe play in the hotel bar or one of the conference rooms. Should be fun… and loud!

Give us the low down on Reign of the Dead, the synopsis so to speak without giving away too much or spoiling it for the fans still waiting to pick up a copy.

The star of Reign of the Dead is without a doubt Jim Workman. Jim owns his own construction company. For three weeks each year he goes into the mountains to get away from it all. When his vacation is over this time he finds the world is a vastly different place. The dead have risen and mankind is an endangered species. Unlike other dead stories Reign of the Dead has many survivors. There are over one-hundred holed up in a rescue center. As time passes the situation deteriorates and a safer place must be found. Of course heroes emerge and there’s lots of zombie action ..and feasting.

In the book you sort of get the impression of a plague source for the zombie infection similar to many zombie flicks, it’s never really openly answered, your comments?

Well, certainly that is true to a point in the first book. The second book, “Apocalypse End: Reign of the Dead” explains the reason behind the cannibalistic corpses and even explains why they crave warm human flesh. If you want, you can find an explanation tightly sewed up for you, it’s there. However, I also allowed openings for those that prefer to not be sure. Maybe in was God’s doing etc…

The characters in the book have and in the comic series have a lot of depth can you tell me are they based on anyone in particular? Did you draw from films, or other works of fiction? Or did they just come to you one night at the desk?

They are, for the most part, from my own head. I’ve had many people from my home town think that I was writing about this guy or that guy, but really there’s no one in the book that I can point to and say yeah, this is that guy that I used to know. Actually, I let the characters build themselves, gradually evolving through the writing process into the end-result. Pretty soon they were dictating their own actions.

What direction are you going to go in your next book, and will it answer most of the underlying questions we have introduced to us now?

Well, most of the questions are answered in the second book. Except for one major question about a certain character. That character is not a part of the next Reign of the Dead novel, “Outbreak” However; I am adding a long chapter at the end of the book to deal with a few things from the original story including his fate. “Outbreak” is a prequel to the other two novels. “Reign of the Dead” begins three weeks after the Dead first walk. “Outbreak will begin with the first known case of reanimation. It takes place in New York City. I am about 1/3 of the way through the initial draft and it is without a doubt the most exciting of the three.

What made you decide to do a Comic Book and a Novel? Are they the same story, variations on it, give us the scoop.

I had several requests to do a comic version and I thought it would be fun. The Comic version is different from the book. It is taken from one of the movie script versions. It is faster paced but does not have some of the elements in the original story. There are also a few new twists to the storyline.

Is their a date for the Reign of the Dead vol2

If you mean Issue 2 of the Comic, yes, it will be available late July 2004. If you mean a second novel, “Apocalypse End: Reign of the Dead:” is the sequel to “Reign of the Dead.” And… coming in 2005 will be a prequel “Outbreak”

Will the comic have diamond distribution?

We are still working on a better method of distribution. Diamond would be great! They are the best in the country.

What was your first novel/comic project?

Reign of the Dead was my first attempt at a novel. I wanted to write something that I would enjoy writing and was also familiar with to avoid the hassle of research. Too many things can get in the way of a first novel. I wanted to keep it simple. Reign of the Dead is in the end a fun to read paperback that was designed to allow the reader an easy time of it. The chapters are short and the style is to the point. This was done intentionally. It’s a zombie novel. Not “War and Peace.” I didn’t stray too far from a proven formula either. I think Mr. Romero did a fine job defining present-day zombies. When I began writing “Reign” (1994) there was no such thing as a running zombie. I doubt I would’ve allowed mine to run even had there been. I wanted to write something that was not only familiar to me, but also familiar to my targeted readers.

Do you have an official fan site where everyone can immortalize you and enjoy your work?

Ahhh, immortality… I guess writing a book is one way to gain it. Books are forever, right? Yes. http://www.reignofthedead.com/ I keep it updated when something new happens.

What is your favorite zombie film, and most importantly WHY?

EASY! “Dawn of the Dead 1978. It is a masterpiece. A work of cinema art! No other zombie movie comes close or has the heart. GAR has a lot of apples in that basket. “Night” comes in a close second, but “Dawn” is the cat’s ass!

What is your favorite breakfast Cereal?(this one is from Lorkanox one of our staff, we dont let him out much, only for water and the occasional cold cereal)

LOL …Cheerios w/ bananas. I love ‘em. They’re great at 7AM or 7PM.

What other projects are you working on?

After “Outbreak” the third and final zombie book, I plan to do a book of short stories. It seems my writing style fits that format pretty well and I have quite a few stories rolling around inside my head (my wife insists it’s because there nothing in there to stop them from rolling). There will be one about an astronaut that finds himself on a strange planet …a ghost that has his brain reboot every time the sun rises, a story about warring aliens that has a surprise ending, and more.

If Zombies attacked today what would you do first?

Head fer the hills!

What are your final thoughts on Reign of the Dead overall, has it evolved how you wanted?

Yes, indeed. More so. I figured I’d write the first one… maybe sell a few copies and that’d be it. Reign of the Dead and its sequel has sold thousands. Most of the readers love the books and I love hearing from them. It has turned my life in a new direction. It has added color and new experiences.

It has allowed me to meet and get to know the stars of “Dawn,” “Night,” and even “Day.” I’ve met George Romero, and a lot of other great people. These were all people I looked up to and enjoyed watching in some really great movies.

I’ve become a good friend of Lenny Lies (machete zombie in Dawn) and he is in partnership with me to see Reign of the Dead gets to film. It has been great and I look forward to what is to come next!

Is there anything you would like to add for your fans at MoviesOnline?

Indeed, I hope to see and meet some of you at upcoming shows. Give me a yell on email at: staff@reignofthedead.com and let me know what you thought of the book(s) or just to give me a yell.

Will you be attending the Fear Festival in Toronto with Romero, Savini and the MoviesOnline Staff?

Dunno. It sounds interesting. I need more info. If you have it... send it my way. I took a few moths off from the signing thing after spending every week for two months at conventions or book signings. I’m getting the urge to do a few again. Besides… My new band wants to do some shows in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and New York. As long as they aren’t too rude, crude and socially unacceptable, I’d like to take them up there to do a few shows for the crowds.

 

I will send you some info via email. It would be great to meet you, shake hands, and have lorkanox buy you a beer. :) Thanks again for your time. On behalf of everyone at MoviesOnline & Hells Library we thank you and appreciate your time for your fans!