When I first heard about Lynne Murray‘s new book Bride of the Living Dead and the fact she was looking for blogs to host her on her upcoming blog tour for BotLD’s release, I admit I jumped up and down and shouted “Me! Me!  MY blog!” partly because I fully expected zombies. I anxiously awaited my preview copy (I ripped open the envelope with all the eagerness and ferocity of a ghoul really wanting to get to the best gooey parts inside…) and settled in to read it right away once it arrived.

I kept expecting zombies to show up even after the first few zombie free chapters.  After all, the heroine Daria  loves horror movies (I love her T-shirt collection depicting old movie posters) so it stood to reason there would be monsters coming along at some point.  

As I reached the mid-point, however, I finally realized this book was zombie free.  And I found I didn’t care.  Daria’s tale of true love, wedding planning trauma, crazy exes, and her relationship with her anorexic control-freak sister didn’t need flesh-eating ghouls to entertain me.  Funny, touching and unique, Bride of the Living Dead was a joy to read and I am delighted to welcome Lynne here to the Den as she talks about:

What’s in a Title?

A book title, like a book cover, has a job to do. Its primary assignment is to get the reader to physically pick up the book, or if it’s viewed online to click on the link to find out more. At that point the words in the short description of what the book take center stage. At any point the reader can move to away from the book, so these are very important words.

The title, Bride of the Living Dead, has changed since I wrote the book. For a long time it was called A Guide for the Dysfunctional Bride.  When the book found a home at Pearlsong Press both the publisher and I felt that it sounded too much like a nonfiction how-to book. We had fun brainstorming possible titles and one candidate became a chapter heading–Attack of the 50-Foot Wedding Planner.  However Bride of the Living Dead won out over the rest.

The main worry I had was that fans of books like Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies might think that there be disappointed to find no zombies or similar undead creatures in the book. The heroine, Daria, loves old movies that feature such critters, which is why she views the effort to turn her into the Stepford Bride as a horror movie in action, aiming to transforming her into a rose-petal pink, mindless bridal creature.  People have asked if Daria is a Bridezilla, super-demanding bride, but the truth is that she needs to find a way to access her inner giant reptile. We all need that monster sometimes to help us fight for what we want.

Fortunately those who demand zombies and other undead creatures in their fiction have not (so far) been roused to form a mob, light torches and hunt me down for impersonating a zombie in a romantic comedy.  It might help that I live on an extremely steep hill in a windy part of town-very hard on torches.

I am an avid reader of urban paranormal books and I moved deeper into the real realms of the fictional undead in the book that followed Bride of the Living Dead.  Vampires and other paranormal creatures inhabit my next book, The Falstaff Vampire Files, which will be published by Pearlsong Press (though the publication date isn’t yet set).  The book has humor, ghosts, vampires and life-sucking entities from another dimension, creatures that humankind was never meant to encounter, that seize upon the slightest invitation to prey upon the living and the undead.

The charming creator of this blog was kind enough to say that she “came for the zombies and stayed for the humor.” Thanks for that, Dana, it was my fondest hope for the title.

Lynne Murray, author of the romantic comedy, Bride of the Living Dead, has had six mysteries published. Larger Than Death, the first book featuring Josephine Fuller, sleuth of size who doesn’t apologize won the Distinguished Achievement Award from NAAFA (the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance).  She has written three ebooks of encouragement for writers as well as essays, interviews and reviews on subjects that rouse her passions, many of those can be found under “Rants and Raves” on her web site at http://www.lmurray.com. Lynne lives in San Francisco and when not writing she enjoys reading, watching DVD film directors’ commentaries and spoiling her cats, all of whom are rescued or formerly feral felines.Want to know how to reach Lynne and/or find out more about what she’s doing?   See below for links a plenty!  Web page: http://www.lmurray.com

http://www.pearlsong.com/brideofthelivingdead.htm

Blogs: brideofthedead.blogspot.com

http://lynnemurray.livejournal.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/lynnemurray

http://booktour.com/author/lynne_murray