Undead Kev rises from the grave

Charmaine Clancy, Brisbane author and fellow Write Links member, launched her book Undead Kev at Black Cat Books, Paddington last Saturday, 7 June.

Undead Kev is the second book in her series, following the success of her first book, My Zombie Dog. The concept for the series began when Charmaine, a teacher wanted to inspire boys in her Year 7 class to read. What did they want to read? You guessed it, zombies and they became the beta readers for her book.

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The premise for My Zombie Dog emerged from Charmaine’s somewhat possessed little pet dog who used to bite everyone and pick fights with big dogs. One day she found him dead in her yard, she covered with him a sheet and when she returned, he disappeared. It turns out he was fantastic at playing dead for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Spooky! Her dog has moved on to greener pastures, now living with Charmaine’s mum.

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After reading, My Zombie Dog, Charmaine’s readers wanted more of Kev. Undead Kev features zombies, invisible stealth monkeys and delves into what friends need to do to save their relationship.

Charmaine dangled a carrot for her fans, revealing the third book in the series will be titled The Invisible Kid.

Her method of writing is to meticulously plan her story on index cards and plot these from beginning to end. Once Charmaine starts writing in Scrivener she then goes rogue, ignoring her own planning and letting her characters take the story on a wild adventure.

Charmaine has found a way to combine both her love of teaching and writing. She conducts writing workshops for children for Juniors, 9-13 years and Young Adults, 13-17 years once a month at Black Cat Books, Paddington. She also has an upcoming holiday workshop for children on Friday, 11 July. Find out more at www.iteenwrite.com/brisbaneworkshops/.

Don’t worry adult writers, you haven’t been forgotten. Charmaine organises the Rainforest Writing Retreat. 2014 has been and gone, but the next one is organised for 2015.  

For more fun snaps from the book launch, check out Charmaine’s website charmaineclancy.com.