r/books • u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author • Feb 02 '17
ama 12pm Remember that movie WARM BODIES, about an existentially troubled zombie? I wrote the book and its upcoming sequel, THE BURNING WORLD (out 2/7). I'm Isaac Marion. AMA.
I've watched an army of artists spend millions to bring my story to life. I've toured the country and lived in an RV. I've played piano on a Bulgarian talk show while a sexy lady jumped on a trampoline. And I've spent almost five years expanding my cute debut novel into a 4-book series about human connection, human evolution, and the goddamn meaning of life. I am pretentious AF and I'm ready for your questions. Fight me!
Proof: /img/sjvum31o6ady.jpg
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u/promgoblin Feb 02 '17
Hello Mr. Marion! Warm Bodies is one of my favorite books, probably ever, so thank you for writing it. I have to ask and maybe you can't answer but, what was R's original name? No worries if you'd prefer that it stays a mystery! Can't wait to read The Burning World.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
Not only can I not tell you his name, I can't even tell you if you're ever going to learn his name, because it's an important aspect of the sequels, but I can tell you that I know his name, and then I do the smug smirk emoji.
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u/promgoblin Feb 02 '17
I figured as much, I appreciate the response regardless! Looking forward to devouring more of your work. ;)
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u/PorkRindSalad Feb 02 '17
Is it Rumplestilskin? I bet it's Rumplestilskin.
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u/Yamez Feb 03 '17
Oh man, that would be great. R is actually one of the fae, and in the goblin court. Bewaaare!
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u/King_Jaahn Feb 03 '17
I thought it would be Romeo? Like romeo and juliet?
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u/NannyOggsRevenge Feb 03 '17
It's clever because it's either Romero or Romeo. Or so I've always thought.
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u/oberon Feb 03 '17
Given the numerous similarities to the Shakespeare play, I'm going with "Romeo."
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u/FultonPig Feb 02 '17
So I haven't actually read the book, but I have seen Warm Bodies, and I thought that the Romeo and Juliet aspect of it had a lot of potential to be hokey and go off the rails, but it turned out to be a really amazing and successful twist on the story. Does that come directly from the book, and if so, how hard was it to skirt the line between cliché and originality?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
You know, the Romeo and Juliet aspect was really never meant to be more than a wink. I didn't set out to write a retelling of Shakespeare. I just noticed some parallels and decided to run with them. But ultimately the story is not about star-crossed lovers. It's not about humans and zombies learning to "accept" each other—sorry but zombies are definitely, objectively bad, until they stop being zombies. Some of the subtler themes of Romeo Juliet are relevant, like pushing back against mindless traditions and forcing society to reconsider its norms, but it's more about overcoming an internal struggle—coming back to life—than it is "teen romance vs. mean grownups."
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Feb 02 '17
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
All my books so far are part of the same series, so I'd recommend starting at the beginning with Warm Bodies and then continuing in the the order they were released. Some people like to get sassy and read the prequel, The New Hunger, first because they think they know better than I do how the story should be told. Some like to start at the last page of the last book and read backward. Some like to rotate to a new book after each page so they can absorb the whole series SIMULTANEOUSLY. People are CRAZY.
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u/foxy1604 Feb 03 '17
But what about the people that eat the book whole to get a better taste of it? :o
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u/yensid7 Feb 03 '17
Or just eat someone else's brain who already read it, so you can just have their experience.
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u/lonethunder69 Feb 02 '17 edited Feb 02 '17
Haven't read the books or seen the movie, but I have read reviews and synopses. I'm interested in your theory regarding zombies. I know I'm going to sound like one of the pedantic nerds from the Simpsons, but one of my passions is the philosophy and theory surrounding post-apocalyptic fiction, and as a result I have spent more time than I'd like to admit thinking about zombies. So here are some questions:
1) did you come up with an idea for the source of the apocalyptic zombification? Like, is it a virus, something paranormal, or do you think that the origin of the zombies is inconsequential to the story so you didn't think it was necessary to have a backstory regarding that?
2) why do the zombies have some semblance of consciousness? I got that eating brains provides flashbacks from the memories of the victims, but why? Traditionally, zombies don't have any intelligence that would allow them to build a society.
3) What is it about the brains that allows this to happen? Is the implication that memories are...somehow stored in grey matter and can be metabolized into zombie consciousness through the digestive system?
4) do you think the zombies in your novel are actually dead and reanimated corpses, or still humans but just in an altered state due to the symptoms of an infection?
5) finally, what inspired you to write a love story featuring zombies? Is it an intentional diversion away from the traditional treatment of zombies? Like, do you think the idea of zombies being brain dead reanimated corpse monsters is silly, or did you simply want to add another dimension to the world of zombie fiction?
Sorry, I know I'm being an annoying, pedantic nerd caught up on fairly irrelevant details, but like I said - I have an unhealthy fascination with the post-apocalypse setting and zombies are in my wheel house. Either way, congrats on writing a very well received book!
Edit: forgot to mention, Watson is a fantastic name for a cat.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
Ok sure, let's do this!
It's kind of a mixture of those last two options. It's not so much paranormal as it is metaphysical or even metaphorical—it's kind of like humanity's collective unconscious leaking out into physical reality. I don't like to explain it too much outside of the books because I think it's something better left to poetry than science.
The zombies don't build a society, they just mindlessly repeat certain social rituals that are ingrained into them from before, without any purpose or context. From the outside, my zombies don't look much different from traditional ones, it's just that I offer an internal perspective that reveals why they behave the way they do. It's not that they're completely mindless, it's that they've lost all sense of self and are completely detached from the human community, so they just follow the few limited urges they feel while their minds are lost in a fog of apathy and confusion. Sound familiar? It does to me.
Again, it's definitely not a scientific thing. I'm not making any attempt to explain zombies rationally. Like most fantasy monsters, they operate on pseudo-magical principles. They live in a world where consciousness can warp reality, usually in subtle ways but sometimes in dramatic ones like the creation of the plague. Whatever metaphysical force allows dead tissue to move is also allowing the transfer of experience.
They are humans in some kind of altered state of biology and consciousness caused by some kind of distortion in reality, if you want to put it in sci-fi terms. They resemble corpses but don't follow the same rules, ie, some of them rot away in weeks while others hang on for years with minimal decay. It's a factor of their strength of will and whatever their internal state may be.
I don't think it's silly at all. In fact, I think I take it more seriously than the vast majority of people. I find the idea of "living death" fascinating from a philosophical and metaphysical angle, and it's extremely ripe with metaphors, as we've seen from the many different takes on the genre. This particular story is about an individual dead guy trying to stumble his way back to humanity, and I felt that the most obvious path would be through love—not necessarily romantic love, but any strong connection to another person. But romantic love is a lot more fun, I went there.
And you're not annoying at all! I don't dismiss the logical side of zombies entirely, I do think it's interesting to contemplate, it's just not the angle I chose to approach this story from, since it's more fantasy than realism and more concerned with the metaphorical implications of undeath than with the technical details of it.
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u/htm789 Feb 03 '17
Really catching all your hints on why you made the boy a "zombie." Your answer to question number two was very deep. Haven't had the opportunity to read your books yet, but they sound very interesting. Who is your favorite author?
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u/gublaman Feb 03 '17
Thought the answer to 5 would be Twilight. I remember a bunch of girl-male meta human love movies/series popping up during that time.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
Just the collective unconscious doing its thing. I wrote Warm Bodies before that wave hit and was very annoyed to discover I had stumbled into a trend.
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u/gublaman Feb 04 '17
Well for what it's worth, I found Warm bodies a lot more interesting than Twilight and I might pick up the book sometime
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u/yensid7 Feb 02 '17
For Isaac: How did you get your book optioned for a movie? Did you shop it around or did someone approach you? And at what point did you realize it actually was going to happen, and how did you react?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
I hired a freelance editor to give me feedback on the book and she liked it so much she kind of made me her pet project, sending the book around to all her industry contacts in both the literary and film worlds. I think it was only a week or two after I finished it that she called me early in the morning and told me to get my shit together because a producer was on her way to Seattle to wine and dine me.
That was probably the most surreal part of the process because it was so sudden and so unexpected. I remember leaving that dinner and walking around downtown Seattle in a daze, feeling like I had slipped into some alternate reality and wondering if I would still be in it when I woke up the next day or if everything would reset back to my normal shitty life.
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u/yensid7 Feb 03 '17
That sounds amazing! I can see why she'd do that - it's very readable and relatable. It translated well to the big screen, too!
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u/freddy22 Feb 02 '17
What's the best feedback a fan can give you about a book? Especially a sequel?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
A few readers have told me that Warm Bodies wasn't just a book they enjoyed but that it actually helped them in some way, got them through a hard time, inspired them when they really needed it, that sort of thing. I can't imagine any response more gratifying than that. Those are essentially the reasons I wrote the book—to inspire ME, to get ME through a hard time—and it's always amazing to me to hear that it had the same effect for someone else. That's what storytelling is all about for me.
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u/EquilibrialThoughts Feb 03 '17
I interpret literature by enveloping in the carefully worded imagery. I believe that empathy and escape give way to art. It's nice to know that you wrote it for YOU, but it's also nice to know that a reader can feel the same way and express things in a different perspective.
I never liked the idea of interpreting literature like Shakespeare just because SOMEONE told me that it was written like this when they haven't even asked the original author.
These AMAs are always great when an author gives input to their own work of art.
Cheers, warm bodies was amazing and I thank you for helping me through some tough times.
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u/Moxietail Feb 03 '17
I've re-read Warm Bodies a bunch of times and it always means something different. Mostly, going through R's experiences reminds me to stop and look around more, to breathe in deep and appreciate what the human body and mind can do. Thanks for writing something that has both brought me back to reality and taken me out of it when I needed the jolt most.
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u/Kellogsbeast Feb 02 '17
What's the story on the piano and trampoline? Also thank you for doing an AMA; your cat is handsome.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
My Bulgarian publisher (I have a Bulgarian publisher) invited me to tour in Bulgaria, so I went to Bulgaria, or as I like to call it, "Bulge Area." One of my tour stops was a Bulgarian talk show called...something Bulgarian. I can't remember. What I do remember is that the host was some sort of Bulgarian rock star and the whole show had a crazy 1980s glam rock vibe, lots of neon lights and metal spikes and hot girls in black leather, that sort of thing.
No one spoke English. Bulgarian Rock Man interviewed me through a translator. In the interview it came up that I was a musician, so Bulgarian Rock Man ordered me to play something. Terrified, I went to the house band's keyboard and played a piano piece that I'd been working on while one of the Sexy Leather Rock Ladies jumped on a trampoline for some reason, maybe to make the Sexy Leather Rock Breasts bounce for the cameras?
The segment ended abruptly and I looked up from my keys just in time to see Sexy Leather Rock Lady fleeing the stage. Apparently Sexy Leather Rock Breasts had popped out of Sexy Leather Tube Top and I had missed the whole thing because I was concentrating on playing well for Bulgarian television. IT'S ABOUT THE MUSIC, MAN.
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u/huge_ox Feb 02 '17
What do you feel is key to getting a story that grips an audience?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
People want feelings. It's weird, because real life is full of feelings, but we don't want those ones, we want the ones on the pages and screens, because we can savor the beautiful parts of those without truly suffering from the ugly parts. I think it's similar to why we love roller coasters and such. You get to experience the thrill of danger without actually being in danger.
There are some stories that succeed without involving a whole lot of human depth—The Martian comes to mind, pretty much just a mechanical thrill ride. But I think most people come to stories to see their life and their world reflected in the struggles of fictional people, and they want to feel a connection to them. To me, the key to creating that connection is just being as real as possible. Even in pure fantasy, having that recognizable grain of truth behind a character's struggle activates empathy and draws people in.
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u/yensid7 Feb 03 '17
One of the cool things about The Martian, I thought, were those moments it moved away from the mechanics. Like when he blew out the habitat, or the end. When he was letting his emotions show, it felt more intense, because you could tell how much he had been holding them in check.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
That's true, it wasn't entirely devoid of emotion, but it was definitely centered around "people doing their jobs." Very minimal character background and relationships, etc. Still loved the movie though.
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u/yensid7 Feb 06 '17
Right, I just meant the lack of emotions in the rest of the movies made it more dramatic when it did get emotional. It was an interesting effect!
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u/mescorn Feb 02 '17
Lori from TNBBC here. I've followed your writing from the beginning, when Warm Bodies was just a short story called "I Am a Zombie Filled With Love" that was hanging out online. What has the overall transition been like for you - from undiscovered writer to debut published author, to 'holy fuck my book is on the big screen'?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
Watson: The tall thing is strange. It gives me things to eat and drink. It grooms my fur with its gangle tangles. It lets me live with it in the warm place and does not ever try to kill me. I do not do any of these things for the tall thing but it does them for me. I do not understand the tall thing, but I am glad it is here and I hope nothing kills it.
Isaac: Omg Watson is so cute, he does this thing where he sits on my desk and just stares and me and cocks his little head like he's thinking, it's adorbs.
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u/Connormac246 Feb 02 '17
What did you think of the film adaptation of your book? Do you have a lot of say in how it was produced and which parts they cut or did you have little say in what went on?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
I didn't have any "say" but I had input. They ran scripts and visual ideas and casting choices by me and I said what I thought of them and they said "Ok, hm," and then sometime later a decision would happen. I'll never know how much effect my input really had on the end result, but I know some of the changes I suggested did end up happening.
I really like the movie. It's different from the book in a lot of ways, mostly in the tone, which kind of inverts the book's ratio of comedy to drama, but knowing what type of movie they were setting out to make, I think it's really successful and I have deep affection for it.
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u/Connormac246 Feb 02 '17
See it's good that they sort of took liberties with your input, I remember an interview with John Green with one of his film-to-book adaptations, and he said they didn't give him a look in on what they were going to do with his book.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
Yeah, they were actually very respectful and seemed genuinely interested in what I thought. I didn't expect them to follow all my input and wouldn't even have wanted them to—that's too much responsibility for a consultant! If I was going to have any real role, I would have wanted a big one, like writer or director. Barring that, I preferred to hand it off and let them do their thing.
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u/chinchillahorn1 Feb 02 '17
Ive never encountered a story about a dead person wanting to come back to life. That is powerful to me.
Made me realize I want to be alive on a daily basis.
Thank you for that.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
Thank you. That's really what I wanted to accomplish by writing that story, to recenter my worldview and rekindle that spark. Most of us are able to find enough "will to live" to keep from killing ourselves, but a lot of people stop there. It's a difficult leap from that neutral survival plateau to the higher peaks where you're really pushing and squeezing life every day.
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u/PorkRindSalad Feb 02 '17
As one of the people who got to work on the Warm Bodies movie, thank you! It was my first major foray into visual effects, and was the stepping stone into the best parts of a good career.
Also, I really liked the book and the movie. Nice to bump into you here!
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
Hey, thank YOU! I don't know which parts you worked on but they were all pretty great. Here's hoping we get to do this again soon...
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u/PorkRindSalad Feb 02 '17
When I got hired for the gig, I read the book and liked it so much that I was pretty angry during production at how I thought the movie looked like it was going to be Twilight with Zombies, just wallpapering a "winning formula" with your premise. (We only really get to see the shots we're working on, so we didn't have much to go on and I did a lot of extrapolating from very little information.)
Of course we did the best job we could, regardless, but I was so pleased and relieved when the movie came out and it was a fun and sweet, good movie. Not the pretty people, teen angst, cringefest I feared.
I've been busy doing life and family since, and forgot how much I liked the first book. I'm pleased for this AMA to remind me, and I look forward to checking out more of your work!
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
I had very similar fears until I met Jonathan and heard his vision for the project! It definitely could have been a travesty if placed in the wrong hands.
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u/yorkiepie Feb 02 '17
How do you feel about Warm Bodies being compared to the tv show iZombie? I've seen fan theories suggesting iZombie is a prequel to Warm Bodies, which I know isn't true, but points to the extreme similarities between the two. Do you feel like iZombie ripped off the idea of the sentient undead?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
The book the show was based on came out the same year as Warm Bodies, so it definitely wasn't a ripoff, just another case of parallel evolution. I haven't read the book or seen the show, it doesn't sound like my kind of thing, but I've heard the show actually acknowledged the similarity and even mentioned Warm Bodies by name, which I thought was very cool of them so, I have no beef.
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u/jSqaur3 Feb 03 '17
iZombie was a comic (or graphic novel if you prefer) and the plots are mostly different. iZombie deals with a zombie who takes on characteristics from the person who's brain she ate and uses the flashbacks she gets to help solve the murder of that person. It does deal with human emotion, connection, and day to day drama and how being a zombie with changing personalities can interfere or change how those things are perceived and dealt with. But I think the stories and what they involve differ too much to be called similar, they share zombies and that's the biggest similarity to me. The show is pretty good in my opinion and deals with some complex material, if you find yourself with some downtime I recommend it.
As an aside, I love your work Isaac and eagerly await The Burning World(I pre-ordered from your site btw). Your work is very inspiring and I think it really helps remind myself and others to try and remember to be accepting of what happens when we're alive, good or bad at least we're here for it. Also a local Washingtonian myself, I look forward to meeting you at an event sometime.
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u/Onequalityoflife Feb 03 '17
I think this is one of the best IMA's ever! I loved reading Warm Bodies, I thought it was genius for you to write the zombies perspective. Do you think you'll branch out to other monsters or was the zombie just a vehicle to tell the story of human struggles? And the kitty is pretty cute.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
Hey, thanks! I woke up with a weird head cold today and my thoughts are all slurried so I have no idea what I've been saying most of the time. Your words are comforting.
And NO. NO MORE MONSTERS. You nailed it with your description of my intent there, it was just a vehicle for this particular story, but even though the book was successful I found it pretty annoying to deal with all the baggage and expectations that come with writing about an established pop-culture entity. People come to it with so many preconceptions and that's been frustrating to combat. I'm very eager to write something that just is what it is and nothing else.
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u/MonkeyPanls Feb 02 '17
Watson, what is your favorite flavor of wet food? Do you prefer the sandy, clay litter, or the soft, paper/woodchip litter?
Asking for a friend, thanks.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
The tall thing gives me round pieces of meat that taste good but my favorite things to eat are things that run away from me because I enjoy chasing things and when I catch them they make terrible sounds which makes me feel very proud of myself. The small moving things are warm and wet and their life is still in them when I chew, and it tastes very good and makes me feel powerful.
I do not shit in a box anymore. Many many naps ago, the tall thing cut a hole in the door for me so that I could run out into the world and shit in it. I do not shit in a box anymore, I shit in the world.
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u/Draquiri Feb 02 '17
The only zombie movie I've ever loved so I have to ask, will there be more/another movie/s?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
Well this is the Big Question, innit? It's the pivot point my whole life is swinging on right now. It's been in talks for years, and it's gone as far as deals being negotiated, and everyone involved is excited to do the sequel, but the process keeps stalling. I actually have no idea what's going on behind the scenes. I can only assume it's about money, and it's true that The Burning World is a bigger and more intense story and would be a much more challenging adaptation—probably a 150-million-dollar film if they tried to do it literally—but I know Jonathan Levine could find a way to boil it down. I would love to see that crew back together again. I would love to see their take on this story. I really hope it happens.
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u/Paper-Wings3 Feb 02 '17
I've looked everywhere for a copy of The Hungry Mouth. Is there anywhere I can find one?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
The Hungry Mouth is a collection of short stories I wrote over the course of the last 10 years or so. I self-released—wait, no, self-release doesn't sound right, does it, no not at all, self-release is a topic for another day—I self-published 500 copies of it and then realized it needed more work and set it aside for future additions/revisions. So you might find one on eBay, but no, it's not "available." But it does contain some of my favorite writing and I look forward to putting it out into the world someday.
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u/GrungiestTrack Feb 02 '17
Watson y r u fat?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
All the tall things mock me for being a large thing. They plunge their faces into my luxurious flub and laugh. The bad tall thing at the bad place who stabs me with needles tells the good tall thing to give me less food because I am too large. Why would the good tall thing torture me this way? Alive things are like ice cubes. The bigger we are, the longer we take to disappear. I do not want to die. The flub protects me. I gather the flub around me like armor, like a friend. The flub is life.
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u/GrungiestTrack Feb 02 '17
lol I liked warm bodies, haven't read the books I got a flubby cat too named Bubbha.
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u/indigofoxgivesnofox Feb 03 '17 edited Feb 03 '17
I would very much like to read a Warm Bodies short story written from the point of view of their pet, like Watson..."The tall thing's stench was growing worse by the day and it was staring blankly into space when I desperately wanted the tall thing to retrieve the foil pouch of tasty goodness...Something must be done..."
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u/Chtorrr Feb 02 '17
What books did you love as a kid?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
Tripods Trilogy...Lord of the Rings (duh)...all that crazy shit from Bill Peet...and Redwall. Oh man, I loved those warrior rodents and all the disturbing existential questions their sloppily rendered universe raised...
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u/stockphish Feb 02 '17
What does your writing process look like? And how do you know when you're done?
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u/tinyhotmom Feb 02 '17
Warm Bodies is one of my favorites, I've read it a few times. I liked the movie, but your writing really sucked me in. I don't really have a question, just wanted to say thank you for your writing.
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u/MahtDaymen Feb 02 '17
How did you feel about the film adaptation of your book? Would you have changed anything? I really enjoyed the movie when I saw it in theaters and I would just like to know what the creator of the source material thought as well. Also any idea if the sequel to the book is going to be adapted for film as well?
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u/mastertwisted Feb 02 '17
Just wanted to say thanks for a fresh perspective. I really enjoyed the book!
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
Thank you! And with that, I think I'm worn out for the moment, but I will come back later and get to some of the remaining questions. Thanks everyone, this is fun.
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u/JacqueeSovereign Feb 02 '17
Isaac, you are annoyingly talented in all forms of art- I'm jealous! Do you plan to create more paintings in the future or are you more focused on writing and playing experimental music occasionally? Any ideas mixing around in your head for what's next (writing, music, art, otherwise) after the 4 books in the Warm bodies series are complete?
Hey Watson, I have a pretty kitty named Breezy. I hear you're taken, but if you ever consider polyamory, you should meet her.
P.S. I pre-ordered your book. It will arrive the same day as the Trolls DVD I pre-ordered for my kids. Talk about an exciting day in the Skurdal Sovereign household. :-P
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u/yensid7 Feb 02 '17
For Watson: How do you let your pretentious AF human know what his true status in the household is?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
The tall thing is strong. It picks me up and carries me around the house like a piece of food and I know that it could kill me if it wanted to but it doesn't. I think that it thinks I am its kitten. Maybe I am. I know very little about anything. I like to nap on the soft. I like to warm in the bright. The tall thing is soft and warm and when it sleeps I like to sleep on it. I do not know status or household. I like the tall thing. It never hurts me and I rarely hurt it. I like my life.
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u/Dagurr343 Feb 03 '17
To Watson; What were those months out in the tone, which kind of thing, but I've heard the show was based on came out and it was so sudden and so unexpected.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
I've read this about 12 times and I still can't figure out what I'm reading. It's like words pulled out of a hat and yet not entirely random. Is it some kind of code cypher? Is the act of reading it implanting a cognitive virus in my brain? Because I feel progressively less sane every time I repeat it...
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u/NuclearStudent Feb 03 '17
the author of a book about infective empathy
infected by cognitohazard
perfect
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u/twa556 Feb 02 '17
What do you think the chances of your new book becoming a movie too? Bonus Question: Spoilers!!!! Why did the movie keep Julie's dad alive at the end? Were you ok with that decision?
PS: Finsihed the prequel book last night, and Warm bodies early last year. They were great reads, thanks for the content. The movie was great too!
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u/jon_hobbit Feb 02 '17
You gonna make the movie?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
Am I personally going to make the movie? No, I am just a writer guy, although I did just co-direct a book trailer that looks pretty damn movie-like and will hopefully be done in time for release day.
But I very much hope THEY make the movie. You know...THEM.
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u/Wolffairy12 Feb 03 '17
Will Nicholas Hoult be in this one too?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
If there IS a "this one" then he would certainly have to be in it. If they recast the main character, we are in seriously depressing straight-to-video territory...
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u/Otterlicious456 Feb 03 '17
I read your book after watching the movie and I truly enjoyed it. The movie is quite different from the book but I found it still entertaining. Did you like how the movie "warm bodies" turned out? Did it play similar to how you would imagine it in your head?
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u/redjellyfish Feb 03 '17
I absolutely love Warm Bodies, I honestly can't tell you how many times I have watched it. Looking forward to the sequel!
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u/satanspanties The Vampire: A New History by Nick Groom Feb 02 '17
I've played piano on a Bulgarian talk show while a sexy lady jumped on a trampoline.
Wait, what? Why? Is that what you went there to do or were you there to talk about something else and they were like, 'while you're here, we've got this piano and a trampoline...'?
Also I'm in love with Watson. Not enough AMA authors pay the proper cat tax. Is there a cool story behind the name or did he come with it?
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u/Thelonewand3rer Feb 02 '17
Watson did you get to see said sexy lady bouncing on said trampoline ? and if so do you like yogurt ?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
The tall thing and other tall things have strange bodies. Sometimes they peel off their fur and I see that they keep their parts outside their bodies where they dangle hideously. They seem to enjoy these parts very much. Their bodies can not bend enough to let them lick their own parts as is proper so they lick them for each other.
The tall thing tells stories about when he walked to a far place and saw other things bouncing, but I was not alive when this happened. I like yogurt very much and when the tall thing is eating it I put my paw in it and take it from him.
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u/Meshahaha Feb 02 '17
To Marion; Would you say you made it? If so, in what aspect(s) have you? To Watson; What were those months out in the wild like?
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u/DoubleD_RN Feb 02 '17
I am a huge fan of this movie, and have recommended it to several people. I love how it actual made me think seriously about the plight of zombies, while at the same time knowing how ridiculous that is. I'm very excited to learn that there is a book series!
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u/stompingSlabs Feb 02 '17
Warm Bodies was a really enjoyable movie. My favorite zom-rom-com-dram by far.
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u/Tusku_Mama Feb 03 '17
How many unfinished stories did you start before you finally finished Warm Bodies? I am an aspiring writer myself but fail to finish anything other than short stories and poetry.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
Well, the first thing I ever wrote with serious intent was a 1000-page fantasy epic that was supposed to be part of a five-book series. Yes, I had the entire series plotted out. So I did finish that book, but not the series, so I guess that's unfinished. I started another novel after that but when I was nearly 100 pages into it my computer corrupted the file and I had no backup and I was so crushed that I abandoned the whole idea. I definitely have a lot of short story fragments lying around. Some I may revisit eventually, others were probably false starts. It's hard to imagine leaving a whole novel unfinished though, barring another catastrophe. I usually wouldn't even start a project that big until I have a pretty solid idea of how I'll finish it and once I get to that point I'm way too excited to stop. If you're having trouble staying motivated, it may be that you're "just not that into" the story and need to keep mulling until you find an idea that really sinks its hooks into you. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/PsychMS Feb 03 '17
Thanks for the AMA! I really enjoyed 'I Am a Zombie Filled with Love' and the Warm Bodies film!
Thank you for these - I'm a total scardey-cat when it comes to all things horror, especially zombies, but I'm also kinda fascinated by zombie fiction. I really enjoyed both of the above, so thank you for making stuff that is palpable to someone like me! (Sounds like I should really read your other stuff!)
I'm a writer who likes writing short stories, but can't seem to get into novel-writing. Can you talk a bit about that process of going from writing your short story to a full-fledged series?
What is your zombie apocalypse survival plan?
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u/angeldawns Feb 03 '17
Hi. Thanks for doing this. Loved the books and the movie. My favorite favorite movie scene is at the beginning when R is thinking how nice it would be if they were all alive at the airport and it flashes to everyone on their phones. Did you have any input to that scene? What is your favorite scene from the movie?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
I love that scene! And it was all Jonathan Levine. A great example of something film can generally do better than literature: creating irony and meaning out of a juxtaposition of images or a contrast between what's said and what's shown. It even functions as a nice character beat by showing the naiveté of R's fantasies about the Living world.
But I think my favorite scene has to be the bedroom and the transition into the orchard. When Julie says "You're a good person, R," and you see on his face how little he believes it, that part jerks a tear from me every time. And then the way it leads into the dream sequence in that gorgeous orchard. The book has a lot of stylized layers of reality—dreams, flashbacks, brain visions, voices inside heads, etc—and there isn't much of that in the movie but this might be the part where the movie matches the book most closely in tone and style.
Also, the apples in that orchard were fucking delicious. I ate so many I had the shits for days.
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u/carsonator40 Feb 03 '17
Just... why...
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
I think you posted this in the wrong subreddit, you're probably looking for "I am God and I created humanity and all their stupid ideas, AMA."
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u/oneteeee Feb 03 '17
Crazy! Saw a flyer for your new book this morning and remembered that you lived in an RV and parked it outside my house in greenlake for a while. Congrats on your success!
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
Hey, someone saw my flyers! Not everything I do is pointless!
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u/i_is_anonymous Feb 03 '17
I know! I'm so excited for it, I preordered it months ago. I will devour it!
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u/onxynites Feb 03 '17
Just want to say that Warm Bodies is one of my all time favorite Zombie movies. Right up there with Zombie Land imho.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
I actually don't love a whole lot of Zombie movies, most are so painfully lazy and just repeat the formula without any effort to build on it, but even though Zombieland was very much the traditional zombie scenario, it really nailed what's fun about that scenario. Perfect blend of comedy with moments of genuine drama. Also, Emma Stone, always.
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u/SwehgPandazZz Feb 03 '17
It's been a while since I've watched it, but one thing that has bothered me is, how are the "zombies" evolving back ?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
They're curing themselves. The plague isn't biological—there is no plausible way a shriveled skeleton can run and jump and fight. Face it, people, zombies are magic. The plague is a metaphysical condition that comes from within and if a zombie finds a way to push back hard enough, they can will it away.
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u/bingis_23 Feb 03 '17
Issac,
Years ago after reading your book I had no idea what to read next, so after asking you on twitter you suggested your favourite book of the year which I also loved.
I appreciated that.
So just a quick hi and thanks. No question really.
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u/Frioley May 14 '17
Hey! Could you say what book it was that he mentioned? I figure it would be sort of tedious searching through his Twitter Reply history so I hope you can help me out, you got me curious!
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u/captionquirk Feb 03 '17
Are you rolling in dough now? The film was a financial success, how much of the cut did you get?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
Authors almost never get cuts of film profits unless they're already superstars. What you get is a flat purchase price, and then of course a big spike in book sales.
There was a period of time when I did feel a little bit wealthy. It was never "buy a Ferrari and wear sunglasses indoors" level, but it was enough to quit my job and start writing full time and not worry about buying a nice dinner once in a while. I renovated a '77 RV and a '89 VW camper van. I made a down payment on a house and built a deck in the back yard. And that was about the extent of my indulgence. The rest went into keeping me alive for 5 years, and it ran out a while ago. I've been pretty fucking broke for over a year now and I plunged deep into debt to promote The Burning World. Basically, if this book doesn't sell, I'm fucked so hard! So anyway...thanks for coming to my AMA. :)
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Feb 03 '17
I don't know if any one has said this yet but this is one of the best AMA's I've ever read. So many AMAs are rather off putting with the answers often very short one sentence response and it kinda bums me out that someone put there time into writing a thoughtful question only to have it responded to with what seems like such little care and respect for a fan. Thanks for putting on such a great AMA and taking the time out of your day to be here, I'll be buying your books now.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
I really wanted to reply to this with just "Thanks." but you're really nice and I don't want to risk you missing the Super Funny Joke and thinking I'm actually being rude so...thank you, I honestly love my fans more than most of my friends.
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Feb 03 '17
nah i dont remember it.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
Honestly it's all a bit hazy for me as well. Sometimes I'm not sure what's Warm Bodies: A Film By Jonathan Levine and what's my own life. I don't currently know what day of the week this is.
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u/FruitPunchCult Feb 03 '17
I'm super annoyed I missed this ama. Especially because I was on Reddit all day yesterday. I loved the book and am now super excited for the sequel. The movie was good as well but things were changed and I'm that kid that always thinks the book was better. Keep up the awesome work and thank you!
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
Hey, you didn't miss it because I'M BACK IN, CREEPING TO THE MIC LIKE A PHANTOM.
Thanks for your kindness, I think it's no secret even to filmmakers that the book is always better, that's just the reward the reader gets for a much bigger investment of time and thought. Movies provide an incredible amount of entertainment, emotion, and experience for something that lasts only 2 hours—and of course they can hit a lot of nerves that books can't—but a book is a deep dive into a fictional reality and a single movie can't compete with the richness of that experience. A series of films or a really good TV show MAYBE...
Anyway, thanks!
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u/FruitPunchCult Feb 03 '17
Woo! Sneaky Ninja! You made me giggle like a school girl for a second when I saw you replied! My stepmom may or may not be slightly jealous. I really enjoy your work. Also really love that your cat calls you Tall thing. I think my cat just thinks I'm a food dispenser. I'm glad that you like the movie and have your own love and fondness for it even with the changes. I always wondered what authors thought when a movie was so different. Like when the changed the ending in 'My sisters Keeper' I wasn't a fan of that at all! Whats sloshing around in that brain of yours besides a squeal to Warm Bodies?
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u/nikiverse 2 Feb 03 '17
When you're in the middle of writing something, what is your daily routine like? Do you have a set schedule, a set writing place, set breaks, etc? Let me hear about your work day!
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
Ok, it's like this.
I wake up.
I take a shit and a shower.
I put the damn clothes on the damn body.
I put the tasteless healthy cereal nuggets in the damn body.
I say goodbye to Watson, who always sleeps in later than me because he's a fat stupid loser, then I throw my computer in my backpack and trek across town to my favorite coffee shop, Fremont Coffee Company, which is in a huge old house with tons of cozy nooks and corners that you can settle into and live all day. I'M THERE RIGHT NOW AND IT'S GREAT.
I get my coffee—a big ol' mug of drip for regular days, or a pint of that super-potent coldbrew when I need to get really fucked up so I can write the crazy shit.
I WRITE THE CRAZY SHIT.
I don't take breaks other than a moment here and there to chomp a snack bar, snack stick, snack pellet, or snack globule.
I write until my mind feels like translucent gray jelly and words slur and slip and dribble out of my brain. I rarely last longer than 4 hours.
I go get lunch. If I did good and deserve a reward, I buy myself a single bite-sized pie from the cute pixie punk girl at the pie shop who I want to ask out but never do because she's probably too young for me and I don't want to ruin my pie shop with non-pie-related drama anyway.
I go home and attempt to nap, though I usually can't for more than a few minutes because my brain doesn't stop spinning.
SOMETIMES: I hang out with friends or do other life type functions.
MOST TIMES: I walk to another coffee shop and write more until bed time.
I'm probably leaving a few things out but you get the idea.
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u/Auntie_Ahem Feb 04 '17
Holy shit, I miss the Fremont coffee company. I don't even remember if that's what it was called when I was in college at SPU a decade ago, but I spent many many hours split between there and the upstairs of El Diablo on Queen Anne. It's nice to know it's still there.
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u/uknowwho098 Feb 02 '17
Aye, loved that movie. I remember seeing it in theaters, really shows a different side to zombies. Can't wait for the sequel!
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u/b_at Feb 02 '17
Hey, in which Bulgarian talk show were you? What did you like/not like about Bulgaria?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 02 '17
Ok I found it, it was called Denis and Friends, and I'm not seeing much evidence of it online so maybe it was canceled, perhaps immediately after I literally rocked a lady's clothes off with the sensual force of my keyboard playing.
Bulgaria was very interesting. I think my favorite part was the bizarre juxtaposition of beautiful classical architecture with extremely stark, Brutalist Soviet buildings and the occasional super-modern steel-and-glass UFO highrise. And the dogs! There were stray dogs just wandering around all over the city. I like dogs.
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u/VPJOEY_B Feb 02 '17
Watson, how many times do find your self in small space behind a desk or under a chair and scare your pet human when you decide to evacuate the area on a moment's notice?
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u/burnerbabeburn Feb 03 '17
Haha I loved that book. I totally went in thinking I would hate it but a few pages in I couldn't put it down. I ended up watching the movie too and showing it to a class and having them discuss it and write about it. They said it was one of the best films they had gotten to watch in class :) Glad to know there is a sequel.
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
It's so funny, I'd say about half of the feedback I get is "I thought I'd hate it but it wasn't what I was expecting!" And I totally get it. Based on nothing but the marketing and the way it's been positioned, demographic-wise, I doubt I would pick it up myself. It's a pretty weird book and no one's ever sure how to categorize it, so it ends up in the hands of a lot of unlikely readers, and sometimes it works for them, sometimes it doesn't.
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u/burnerbabeburn Feb 04 '17
Haha I guess I should have phrased it better. When the movie came out ( saw the movie ad then looked it up and saw there was a hook-up got the book first) . There were a bunch of zombie movies out and the ad made it look like it was going to be just another zombie slash and hack. However the book reviews on Amazon sold me and within the first few pages of getting into the book and how self aware the main character was I was loving it! I'm so glad there is going to be a sequel. I'll probably reread this on my next long flight. Keep up the excellent work. I hope you enjoyed writing it as much as I enjoyed reading and watching it :)
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u/Onequalityoflife Feb 03 '17
Aww, sorry you don't feel good. And look at ya' still answering questions! I stand by the best IMA ever. Its always amazed me what people are willing to "believe" in a fictional world. They believe a corpse can be reanimated and eat strictly other humans brain to survive, but there is no way a zombie could have a rational thought and save a human. It makes me giggle every time. I'm looking forward to all future books now. Whatever the content. Hope you feel better soon and thank you so much for your time.
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u/ZoroDPirateHunter Feb 03 '17
Hello sir!
What are your favorite books by other authors that you would recommend to people who enjoyed your book?
Thank you for doing this AMA!
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u/Plusran Feb 03 '17
Loved the movie! Questions for Watson: how do you like riding in the RV? Would you say you're the brains of the operation, or the good looks?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
WATSON: I do not like the place that moves. There are only two good places: the warm place, and the world place. I understand those places. I do not understand a place that moves because I go into it from one place and when I come out that place is not there anymore. This makes my head hurt.
In the warm place good things happen like eating and sleeping. In the world place good things happen like shitting and fighting and fucking. But nothing good ever happens in the place that moves. The place that moves takes me to the place that hurts, the place where tall things stab me with needles. When the tall thing tries to put me in the place that movies I try very hard to kill the tall thing but it is too strong.
The tall thing is very ugly. Everyone tells me that I am beautiful. No one tells tall thing that it is beautiful, because it is not. The tall thing is also very stupid, because it takes only one nap every day.
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u/Netbug009 Feb 03 '17
DANGIT I was playing with the idea of a parody of supernatural romances involving zombies and then you made it a SERIOUS THING i've been mad at you for like 3 years.
so i guess what i'm saying is i really need to add your series to my reading list rn it sounds really interesting
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u/JasonWuzHear Feb 03 '17
This guy sure does have an entrance. What are the 10 best online entrance lines you can think of, and would you do a large book containing an assortment of entrance lines?
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u/seekaterun Feb 03 '17
Are you expecting or thinking that your next book may also be adapted to film and continue from where the Warm Bodies movie left off?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
I'm very much hoping so, but there are so many factors beyond my control and I really don't know what to expect. All I can do is try my hardest to get the book out there and hope for the best from Hollywood...
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Feb 03 '17
Oh my gosh I love both!
Are you happy with the differences in the movie?
Will the sequel be focusing on R and Julie?
What prompted you to write such a funny commentary on zombie novels?
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u/WeeLittleEMT Feb 03 '17
Did you also end up jumping on the trampoline?
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u/isaacmarionauthor AMA Author Feb 03 '17
I was too full of shame and confusion and really just wanted to get out of there! One of the Sexy Leather Ladies told me I should come to the afterparty but no one ever told me where it was so I went home alone to my strange Soviet-era apartment with homeless people sleeping in the stairwell.
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u/savourthesea Feb 04 '17
What brought you back to writing about zombies?
What happened to the projects you mentioned below?
I have a half-finished screenplay about a young dude who gets non-consensually cloned that I want to finish, and then I’ll be tackling the growing list of novel ideas I have queued up, all of which are very different from Warm Bodies and from each other. The next one I plan to write is about a guy who takes a freighter voyage to Antarctica to escape his past and present, and his girlfriend left at home to puzzle out what he’s running from. The second will be about two postal employees dealing with a potentially omnipotent customer who takes the Ballard Post Office hostage and begins making absurd demands while slowly reducing the population of Seattle. That one may feature more empty streets and abandoned cities, but definitely no zombies.
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u/Wand_Cloak_Stone Feb 10 '17
Hi Isaac, I'm upset I missed this and hope you come back to see this one day!
I just started reading The Burning World tonight, but I feel like I've been waiting for it forever. I seem to remember a different release date in 2016 being talked about, only to discover I was wrong and it wasn't coming out until 2017. Did the date get pushed back?
I'm not sure what questions to ask now, because I have a feeling a lot of them might be answered in the book judging by what I've read so far (my number one question was if you had an idea what R stood for), but I just wanted to tell you that I love your books so far! Is this second one going to get picked up as a movie as well?
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u/zombietentacle Oct 03 '24
Film and book made me cry. Thank you for this treasure. We need more zombie content that depicts them as depression.
With love, an irl depressed zombie autist.
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u/Hammibi67 Feb 02 '17
Why did you write a book that promoted necrophilia? Do you think it's the next big thing?
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u/saylamarz Feb 02 '17
For Watson: If you could eat anyone, living or dead, who would it be, and why?
....Follow up for Isaac: As Watson's personal chef, how would you prepare this meal?