Ain’t it ironic?
I recently noticed Amazon placed my “Christian Business Secrets” book right next to my new “Zombie Cop” novel.
I can already hear the shrieks of Churchianity:
“Ben how can you sell a violent and deranged zombie book next to a Christian book! That is inappropriate!”
Maybe it is.
I don’t really know.
What I do know is this:
1. Amazon’s book placement will help both books’ sales
(Not that it matters to anyone but me…)
2. Maybe I’m a more complicated guy than I thought
3. As my editor Greg Perry said:
“This is always my big bugaboo about lukewarm christian critiques: Ask why Tolkien gets unlimited praise and kudos for showing good elves and wizards conquering evil orcs and demons and wizards but you aren’t allowed to create characters even though YOU, unlike Tolkien, actually use Bible verses to show possible origins of your characters.”
It’s a good point.
So, here’s my advice:
If you’re a mush cookie, don’t read “Zombie Cop”.
It’s violent.
It’s brutal.
And, yes, it’s deranged.
I suggest reading “safer” books — like an Oprah book-of-the-month pick. In fact, don’t even read that Bible gathering dust on your coffee table, either. There is, after all, sex, violence and profanity in it.
And we wouldn’t want you to be “offended” now, would we?
Which brings me to another point.
Something I think about a lot.
And that is:
I can’t imagine 1st century Christians who were being fed alive to lions, nailed to wooden posts and their organs literally hanging out from being scourged with whips being such mush cookies about these things.
Only today’s milquetoast Christians are.
But hey, what do I know?
I got kinda sorta kicked out of the last church I went to.
Anyway, “Zombie Cop” ain’t a “Christian” book.
Nor does it pretend to be.
It doesn’t preach.
And it doesn’t proselytize.
But, here’s the scary thing about it:
There are probably more hard Bible teachings in it (as part of the plot — as I do have a Biblical explanation for zombies and other monsters that will be in the sequels) than a lot of the books in the “Christian” sections of bookstores.
I can’t say fo’ sho’.
But, it wouldn’t surprise me.
Anyway, here’s the “Zombie Cop” link:
Ben Settle
P.S. Also…
Tomorrow’s “Ben Settle Show” episode walks you through all the writing and marketing lessons I learned while writing “Zombie Cop” (and the marketing and copywriting stuff I used to help make writing the novel easier). If you’re interested in writing fiction, this show is going to be the fodder for what will probably be a paid product on the subject some day. If you couldn’t care less about writing fiction, I think you’ll still get a helluva lot of value from it for your emails, copywriting, etc.
Anyway, it posts to iTunes tomorrow.
Watch for my signal, Batman…
