James Gurley was ahead of the curve, a trend setter, Zombie Cool before the rest of us knew! Local author and Zombie King James Gurley shares his zombie knowledge in his novels Ice Station Zombie, Judgement Day, Judgement Day: Redemption and Judgement Day: Retribution. The current IT monsters of the day have never been as interesting as those in Gurley’s novels.

James Gurley

Gurley dabbled with writing until his 40s when he had a collection of short stories privately published as a Christmas gift for his family. They encouraged James to continue writing. This private collection grew into his first published novel, a science fiction piece titled God Seed. Fifteen novels followed. Hell Rig from Damnation Press was the fist to have commercial success. Hell Rig is about a haunted oil rig with battles between Voodoo Loas or gods. This is where zombies came to life for Gurley with dismembered Zombies prowling the rig. They eventually land in Antarctica and Australia.

A publisher from Severed Press in Tasmania contacted Gurley with interest in a zombie series. Thusly, Ice Station was born. A series in Arizona featuring more weapons followed. Gurley is working on his seventh zombie novel and fourth series, each featuring a unique cause for outbreak.

When asked about writing his “dream” novel, he responds, “My ‘dream’ novel would be one with elements of supernatural horror, but mainly a straightforward murder mystery — a serial killer, a hard-nosed detective, a slightly devious reporter. I’ve toyed with the idea for a few years and have finally written four chapters. I’ll take my time with this one. The tentative title is The Rose Petal Murders set in present day Atlanta with tie-ins to the Atlanta child murders in the 70s. I love detective murder mysteries but I want the reader to know who the murder is. I want him to be one of the main characters, not just the goal of the detective.”

Meet James Gurley in person from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 10 at the next Bookmans Speedway Author Fair, Novel Geekout.