Character Inspiration for Zombie Novel, Dead Soil

Dead Soil is about one town in the Midwest that is responsible for unleashing the zombie plague on the rest of the United States. We get to know a group of about thirty different people who all don’t really know each other in real life, except for small interactions. Once the apocalypse hits they get to know each other pretty well as they struggle to survive with each other or against each other. Here are some photos I found (which I do not own the rights to and are purely for inspiration) that represent how I envisioned these characters in my mind and a little about them.

Christine Moore is a young lawyer in downtown Chicago, fresh out of school. She works for a corporate law firm. She lives in Chesterton, Indiana with her British fiance, Liam Scott.

Liam Scott is a too adorable British Ginger and a plant geneticist at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana. He has been asked to join Dr. Hyde’s vaccine research team after the outbreak of one of the most deadly flues to ever hit mankind.

Anita is sweet, fun, and a little crazy. She is modern rockabilly at its best, but her life isn’t as wild and free as everyone thinks. She’s tied down with an aging father who can’t get over the death of her mother. Every weekend she cooks him dinner and cleans up his home in hopes he’ll pull himself out of his slump.

Gretchen lives in downtown Chicago with her girlfriend Charlie Perez. She works in her girlfriends photography studio at the front desk. She ran away from her family the minute she turned eighteen, traveling the country with what she had on her back and what little money she could scrounge from odd jobs. Charlie may just get her to settle down, even though it’s Gretchen’s first relationship with a woman.

Charlie Perez lives in downtown Chicago as well and is a photographer. She’s a graduate of the private art school, Columbia College Chicago and does very well for herself. She’s a bit of a tomboy and can be jealous over the attention Gretchen gets. She’s not sure if her girlfriend is serious about her or if she’s just part of her experimental phase.

Lee Hickey is from Ireland and he’s a male nurse. He came to the states on a work visa, but fell in love with another nurse from delivery. They married after six months and now he has to face her parents, even fifteen years later, who think the only reason he married their lovely Anna was because he wanted a Green Card.

Gale Lewis is an older woman and also a lesbian. She is marrying Charlie Perez’s aunt. It’s only weeks before the wedding she thought was never going to happen. She met Salena, her fiance, while Salena was a colonel in the US Marines.

Luke Benson lives in the same apartment complex as Liam and Christine. He has little interaction since he lives a floor above them, but has his own drama with the young blonde across the hall and the family that’s always fighting diagonal from him. Thankfully the apartment next to him is empty. He’s a librarian at the Valparaiso Public Library. He’s divorced with one teenage daughter.

Mitchell Barnes is a young college student. He goes to ITT tech for computer graphics and works at Game Stop part-time where he has some interaction with Christine Moore (he thinks she’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen) and her fiance Liam, who’s always in to buy new games and he knows on a first name basis.

Rowan Brady is strikingly handsome, but the minute he opens his mouth he can’t keep a girl. Classic smart ass who says the first thing that pops into his mind, no girl can put up with him. He works road construction and lives alone in a two bedroom ranch.

And what would a zombie story be without its zombies? I’m going to do my best to make them the most disgusting, different, and real zombies you’ve ever read about. You won’t want to turn the lights off after you read this story!

And yes, there will be zombie love, though it’s not the cheesy kind you’re thinking of. It’s the kind that will give you nightmares.

A sneak peek at life after the apocalypse with Liam Scott.

Bob the cat is the timeline for the book. He’s given to Christine by Liam for her birthday right before the outbreak of the zombie apocalypse. I mainly added him in because my little black cat, Bob, is a jerk and writing about him during the zombie apocalypse will be cathartic for me. Muahaha! Hope things end well for you, Bob! Maybe you’ll stop pulling everything out of my bottom drawer from now on!