Zombie Cookbook: Featured Chef Lisa Haselton

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Lisa Haselton bring culinary assassination to the Zombie Cookbook with her story, "The Secret Ingredient."

Mystery lover at heart, Lisa's writing was influenced by Stephen King at an impressionable age. She enjoys writing flash and short horror, as well as mystery and other genre pieces. Her fiction has been published in Mysterical-E, The Fiction Flyer, Pen Pricks Micro Fiction, and Flashshot. Lisa's first historical time-travel romance was published in June by Red Rose Publishing under a pseudonym. She's a full-time independent editor and freelance writer. There's nothing more satisfying than playing with words. Lisa Haselton has been writing since her youth. She's written in many genres including horror, mystery, and fantasy, and has several short stories published. Some stories have won or placed in contests. Words are like oxygen to her; she needs to write every day. She hopes her stories are as enjoyable for others to read as they are for her to create. She loves creating a perfectly good world and then twisting it out of proportion.

Why did you write this story?

I wanted to write a story to go with the poem “A Zombie Named Clete”. The poem came to me in a rush, and I thought it would be great to have a story to go with it. It took me quite a while to decide on the setting for the short story which turned into “Secret Ingredient”, but once I figured out the setting, the story developed for me.

What was your favorite part of writing the story?

Doing a little bit of research on zombies so my story would be based with zombie ‘facts’.

Do you like zombie tales? Why or why not? – in general I’m more of a vampire and werewolf person, but I like to try new subjects, and when the zombie one came along I thought I’d give it a shot.

What else do you write?

I write a lot of mysteries and horror. I was definitely influenced by Stephen King. I can be writing a happy-go-lucky story and then it’ll twist into something I never expected. I love that part of the process – when the story takes off and I’m along for the ride instead of trying to figure out the roadmap.


Where can we find you online?
I can be found at http://www.myspace.com/lisahaselton and http://lisahaselton.tripod.com

Is there anything in your story based upon a real life event? If so, tell us about it. – The setting is based a bit on a WY dude ranch I spent some time at this year. I liked the idea of having a ranch because it is set off from the general population. Serving meals and having a non-meat-eating zombie who loved to cook just made me giggle, so I had to work with it.

When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

Since my very first journal when I was a young girl. I have always enjoyed reading and exploring (I grew up with very few neighbors and lots of land to explore), and I’d make up stories as I was out in the woods. There is a long family history with my home and so I tried to imagine what other generations experienced on the same property. My mind has always been awhirl with stories. I have to write to get them out and make room for new stories.

Have you ever written something that you’re afraid to let other people read? Why?

Absolutely. My dark side scares me at times. I have a couple of stories that I’m not sure anyone will ever see.

What is the toughest part about being a writer and how do you get past it?

The toughest part for me is deciding when a piece has had enough editing. Deciding when it is as good as I intended it to be. I get past it by eventually telling myself to stop editing and move on to my next piece. I believe I average about 5 rewrites for short stories now. It’d be so easy to keep tweaking and changing and rewriting.

About the rest of the contributors:

Kim Richards, Editor: Co-founder and CEO of Damnation Books, she's also on staff for Writer's Chatroom www.writerschatroom.com; writes columns for Myshelf.com and Writers and Readers of Distinctive Fiction; and blogs at The Write Brigade bi-monthly. Her website featuring her own writing is at http://www.kim-richards.com. Becca Butcher: Becca Butcher lives in western North Carolina with several family members who frequently give her strange looks. She can be found scribbling into a notepad while working the day job, singing loudly with the radio while driving, or online both writing and flirting, for research purposes of course. Becca writes fantasy, humor, romance, erotica and personal blogs on everything from writing to relationships. More info can be found at http://beccabutcher.blogspot.com, http://www.facebook.com/writerbecca and www.myspace.com/beccasmagicpencil.

Carla Girtman: Featured Oct 9.

Cinsearae Santiago, contributor and cover artist: A digital artist and still-photographer, Ms. Santiago is Editor/Publisher of Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine--a 2nd place finalist in the Preditors & Editors Readers Poll for 2008--having created this publication to give new and unpublished writers and artists of the genre a chance to shine and see their names in print, preferring unique, edgy stories that are out-of-the-box. She also received the Author's Site of Excellence Award in December 2007 from P & E, and is a Cover Artist for Damnation Books. She is also author of the dark, paranormal romance series, "Abraxas", found here: http://bloodtouch.webs.com/abraxas.htm. An avid fan of 'old school' horror movies (Freddy, Jason, Michael, Pinhead, etc.), Halloween is her favorite time of the year. She attended Community College of Philadelphia, majoring in English, with interests in creative writing and Theater. Ms. Santiago enjoys the Vampire/Goth scene and can be found haunting Philadelphia's "Dracula's Ball" from time to time, or roaming cemeteries and state parks. She has always been drawn to the flipside of life--the supernatural, odd, bizarre, Gothic, and 'darkly beautiful' always being an inspiration to her. She can be reached through her website, http://Bloodtouch.webs.com. She did the awesome cover for The Zombie Cookbook!

Dawn Marshallsay: Dawn is a vegetarian writer, journalist and artist, whose fascination with zombies began after watching Night of the Living Dead as a child. She draws inspiration from natural beauty and decay in her local Kentish woodland. Find out more at http://www.myspace.com/484164002

George Silliman, artist: George is a 36 year old self taught artist living in New York. His specialty is horror. He confesses to having an endless passion for drawing and painting and is willing to try anything that allows him to experiment and further his boundaries. George's fondness of horror influences every piece of his work. "Imagination is the key to a great horror illo." George currently is on the art staff of DAMNATION BOOKS and his artwork has also been published in such magazines as RAZAR, Black Petals, The Corpse, Writers post Journal, 'Opinions' Magazine, Hoodz and Kopfhalter. He has also had his works appear on the website REVOLUTION SCI FI. George also does private commissions and frequently sells finished pieces. http://georgesilliman.daportfolio.com/

Karina Fabian: Karina Fabian suffers from an overdeveloped sense of humor and a twisted imagination. Little wonder, then, that she enjoys writing quirky stories for anthologies like Zombie Cookbook. In addition, she writes novels about a dragon detective working in the Mundane world. People have been warned not to read her DragonEye, PI, stories and books in the library. When she's feeling more serious, she writes and edits faith-filled science fiction and fantasy. Visit her website at http://www.fabianspace.com. Check out DragonEye at http://www.dragoneyepi.net. (Twitter: @karinafabian Facebook: Karina.Fabian)

Kate Sender: Kate Sender wrote her first short story as a child in response to her dad's encouraging challenge; that if she really wanted something, and worked hard for it, she was bound to attain her dreams. She sharpened her pencil with prose and poetry until, decades later, she realized one dream with publication in Falling Star Magazine. Encouraged now by the writing community where she is a moderator and monthly editor of Mystery and Horror Newsletters, Writing.Com, and the versatile, creative authors at Writerspace.Com, Kate continues the journey prosaic and poetic. While realizing her other dream, of being the first mortal female starship commander, required more math than she cared to master, she never lost her desire to explore physical and ephemeral wonders. Her stories and poetry are inspired by the natural world in its myriad manifestations, obvious to the discerning writer's eye.

Lin Neiswender: Featured Oct 10.

Scott Virtes: Scott Virtes has had over 400 stories & poems published since 1986. His works have appeared in Nature (June 2009), Analog (July/Aug 2007, Jan 1997), Space & Time, Ideomancer, Star*Line, Cafe Irreal, Illumen, and many more. He has two story collections and 5 poetry chapbooks available. You can watch him die in "Master and Commander", but he's okay now. Home page: http://scott.virtes.com

The Zombie Cookbook: Yes, the band called The Zombie Cookbook. Hailing from Amsterdam, these five rockers love zombies as much as we do, so we're honored to have had them write our introduction. If you like metal music, they're online at: http://thezombiecookbook.blogspot.com/ http://www.myspace.com/thezombiecookbook Be sure to tell them Damnation Books sent you!