The Zombie topic in literature and film industries is very common. Whether it’s The Walking Dead, World War Z, or Pride Prejudice and Zombies, the idea of the undead is anything but undead.

On October 26th, author Isaac Marion took the time to come to Sedro-Woolley High School for a Q&A with students and faculty to explain why he chose the zombie.

  “What would this thing be thinking if it were alive?” Marion takes a new approach on the somewhat exhausted genre of zombies. Rather than focusing on the blood, gore, and killing, he delves deeper and zeros in on the thoughts and emotions of a lifeless being.

  Marion’s Warm Bodies takes the simple idea of a zombie apocalypse and turns it into a romantic yet witty novel, which was then created into a movie.

  Marion grew up in Washington, what he describes as “the moodiest place in the world.” Despite being an avid writer, his interests revolve around other artistic activities as well. When he began writing, he had to push his painting interest to the side in order to fixate on writing solely.

  In order to create such a different novel, he reports thinking, “What would this thing be thinking if it were alive?” during the writing process. “It’s usually people that are younger than me that I’m talking to and I enjoy it,” Marion says. “There’s something about being young and just being geeky in general. Coming to high school, it’s exciting because everyone is just getting started with their lives and you can see the sparkle in their eyes and they want information and…it’s fun to talk to people who are still alive.”

  Since the huge success with Warm Bodies, he now has a little bit more time to spend on working with his band: Thing Quartet. “I have my own music as well,” Marion went on to say. “I’ve recorded a couple albums several years ago but I want to get back into that and do another album.”

  Marion’s advice that he would give to aspiring writers is to be willing to make sacrifices. “You have to be prepared to not hang out with your friends, you have to turn down invitations, just to like lock yourself away sometimes,” Marion advises. “There’s a lot of work in [writing].”

  The Warm Bodies journey is winding down to an end. The last book in the popular series is coming out now. It will only be found on Isaac Marion’s website- isaacmarion.com. “It’s basically my last big hurrah in the word of this story… I just want people to know about it because even it doesn’t sell any copies, I just want it to be out there and have people experience that ending with me.”