Please tell us a little about yourself and Where We Stand Now.

Hello to those reading. My name’s Brandon. I’m a late twenties indie writer from Michigan. I have a passion for fiction. It tends to be my preferred kind of entertainment and it’s become my domain creatively. I’m the author of the zombie apocalypse survival series Where We Stand Now. I have two entries published on Amazon, An End and Fangs Bared, and four more planned. Writing my first series has proven to be quite the journey.

How did you choose the genre of your book?

That’s a funny story. I’ve always gravitated toward darker, more character-driven narratives, and as it happened, some of my favorites dealt with the zombie apocalypse. What ultimately sparked my interest in trying my own hand at it was actually the disappointment I felt with the direction these other stories went in. There was a lot I loved about them early on, but, as they went on, there came to be a lot that I didn’t love. And so I took some notes and followed my muse on things.

How did you develop your characters?

I looked at what I liked and went from there. For me, I prefer to follow human beings. Their strengths. Their flaws. Their complexities. I never did care for characters that were all one way or the other. With any good story, of course you want a sense of heroism in there, too. It’s in the shades of gray, though, that things get really interesting for me. So I applied that to my protagonist, and I applied that to everyone around her.

If it feels real and human, then that’s what I go with when creating my characters.

Is there anything you would do differently in your next book?

I aim to take my time a bit more. I basically wrote the first two back-to-back. And, hey, it worked out from what I gather. But the story only gets bigger going forward, and that’s not something I want to screw up. That’s one of the beauties of being self-published. There’s no deadline and I can let the writing breathe and grow as I feel it needs to.

What are you working on now?

I’m writing the third book and piecing together a roadmap for the rest of the series to come. That’s really it. I took the plunge on this and I aim to see it through, so, for now, it’s full steam ahead.

I want to give thanks to Kirkus, both for seeing something in my books and for offering me a chance to share a bit here. And thanks to all of you for reading.

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.