While writer John Ringo may have started the Black Tide Rising series of zombie novels and stories, he’s often handed over the reins to other writers.
In the following email interview, author Jason Cordova talks about how he came to write the new Black Tide Rising novel Mountain Of Fire (hardcover, Kindle), as well as what inspired and influenced this horror story.
For people unfamiliar with the Black Tide Rising series, what are these books about, and what kind of world are they set in?
The Black Tide Rising series was created by John Ringo, and stars the Smith family as they struggle to stay alive to (eventually) rebuild society. What begins as a family of four quickly grows into a makeshift armada as they begin to “clear” islands in the Bahamas and Caribbean in a bid to eradicate the zombie menace.
It’s a fun, hard-hitting, and action-packed homage to the zombie apocalypse genre done in a way only John Ringo can do.
And then what is Mountain Of Fire about, and when and where is it set in relation to the most recent Black Tide Rising novel, Charles E. Gannon’s At The End Of The Journey?
Mountain Of Fire is a continuation / expansion of my short story “Appalachia Rex” from the Black Tide Rising anthology We Shall Rise, which takes place at a Catholic reformatory school in the rural mountains of western Virginia. Unlike most of the Black Tide Rising novels, all of Mountain takes place on land but in low population areas, such as Alleghany County, Virginia.
So, who came up with the idea for Mountain Of Fire? I ask because, as you said, the Black Tide Rising series was created by John Ringo, who wrote the first book, Under A Graveyard Sky, and has written most of the novels and co-edited the four short story collections.
The creation of Mountain Of Fire was completely by accident. I was invited to submit another short story to the fourth Black Tide Rising anthology, United We Stand, but ran into an issue. Namely, my story was too long and caused the entire anthology to be too big. (For those wondering, this is not the proper way to get a book deal at Baen.) After consulting with John, co-editor Gary Poole, and Baen Books publisher Toni Weisskopf, it was decided that pulling my story from the anthology would be for the best. But then all three of them asked if I would be interested in expanding the short story into a novel. That wasn’t exactly a hard question, and I quickly agreed, and within a few months had the book finished and ready to go.
Once you had that idea of how to expand your story into Mountain Of Fire, I assume you had to run it by John, right?
Oh, definitely. John and Gary both had to sign off on the outline. Then Toni Weisskopf needed to sign off on the complete manuscript, and it went back to John and Gary for final approval.
What kind of feedback did John give you on your idea?
When I first received the go-ahead, John instructed me to watch the British comedy movie St. Trinian’s. I didn’t know why, so I went ahead and watched all of them. Then it clicked that he was envisioning Madison and the rest of the survivors at my school being in the same vein as the girls at the fictional St. Trinian’s: tough, resourceful, and out to protect one another. The comedy in the films was an added bonus. But the “protect all” mentality allowed me to shape the main character’s mindset and why she would be the one to step up and protect all of the girls. Even the ones she really isn’t sure she likes.
So, why did you decide to set Mountain Of Fire at a girls prep school as opposed to a boys school or one that’s gender neutral?
I blame the main character, Maddie, and her biggest supporter in the story and novel, Sister Ann. I tried writing the original story from We Shall Rise as a boy but it just didn’t work. So I switched it to a girl’s school with the main character and a nun and everything took off.
Plus, different challenges presented themselves to the characters, and that took the story in new and interesting directions I hadn’t anticipated.
Similarly, the school is called St. Dominic’s Preparatory School For Girls. Is there a reason you made it a religious institution as opposed to a secular one, or maybe a correctional one?
I worked at a home for at-risk boys in Virginia — I literally transposed the fake St. Dominic’s over the Boys’ Home Of Virginia, and changed some of the building locations, but everything else was fairly similar — and watched how they helped young boys become men through structure, guidance, and patience. Since my main character had decided she was going to be an eighteen year old girl, I swapped out the school for a girl’s school.
I toyed with the idea of making it more of a correctional facility like MacLaren Hall, or a group home like Orangewood Children’s Home in southern California, but that might have negated the impact Sister Ann would have on Maddie. Maddie needed structure, but imposing a correctional institution mindset on helping her would have had the opposite effect of how I envisioned her becoming the protector she was meant to be. Patience, structure, and guidance was needed for her, and a fake Catholic reform school with very understanding teachers and nuns seemed like a pretty good fit.
Now, Mountain Of Fire sounds like it’s a post-apocalyptic horror story…
It’s not really a horror story. The zombies (“shamblers” as the girls call them) are almost an environmental and existential threat at this point due to the low population of the surrounding area. It’s a story more about rebuilding, rising up to the challenge, and having hope for a better future while trying to rebuilt the one we lost. Yeah, they have to deal with the zombies, but that isn’t the primary focus. Maddie and the girls at St. Dominic’s not only need to survive the zombie apocalypse but navigate the treacherous world that the Black Tide Rising universe has created, which includes groups of people who think the world would be better off with dictators in charge.
Mountain Of Fire is not your first novel, but it is your first Black Tide Rising novel. When you knew you were going to write it, and on your own, did you ask John or Charles for advice? Or was that unnecessary because you’ve written books in other people’s fictional universes before, such as the Homeworld series and The Four Horsemen series?
Other than picking John and Gary’s brains for ideas and direction of the book as a whole, I was pretty much on my own when it came to writing it. I re-read both of Chuck’s [Charles E. Gannon’s] books, as well as the collaborations John did with Mike Massa [The Valley Of Shadows and River Of Night], so I had an idea of just how other people were doing, post-Fall.
Having written in many other people’s intellectual properties, I knew that changing how things were done or certain legacy plot points would be bad news. I stuck to focusing on the smaller world view of what was going on in Alleghany County, and not worry too much about what Wolf Squadron or others were doing elsewhere. There are many other stories to be told in this universe and didn’t want to hamstring anyone by painting them into a corner.
Speaking of your other books, are there any writers, or specific stories, that had a big influence on Mountain Of Fire but not on anything else you’ve written?
Other than the ones mentioned above, not really. This was an entirely different book from anything else I’d ever written before, so it was a fresh mindset.
What about non-literary influences; was Mountain Of Fire influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games? Because there are a lot of zombies movies, shows, and games. Granted, there’s also a lot of movies about all-girl prep schools, but Fire isn’t that kind of a book…
Ha! No, not that kind of book.
Like I said earlier, St. Trinian’s was hugely influential. I did watch some the George Romero zombie movies, but these aren’t those types of zombies, so all I got out of those were that the more guns and friends one brought to the zombie apocalypse, the better off one will be.
And then, to flip things around, do you think Mountain Of Fire could work as a movie, show, or game?
Hmm… I actually didn’t think about this until you mentioned it, but having it be a world-building game while being able to shoot zombies would be interesting.
It being made into a movie, of course, would be easy to market — Catholic schoolgirls versus zombies! — but I think a TV series would be best. Black Tide Rising is the sort of series which wouldn’t make the viewers scream at the characters.
So, if someone decided to make a Mountain Of Fire show, who would you want them to cast as Sister Ann and Maddie?
Sister Ann…I could see [A Quiet Place‘s] Emily Blunt portraying her. She could be the ideal mentor for someone like Maddie; still a touch of being a badass, but more focused on helping others.
Maddie? Maybe Chloë Grace Moretz [Let Me In], but they’d have to put her in a wig. Maddie’s frizzy red hair is almost a character unto itself.
So, is there anything else you think people should know about Mountain Of Fire?
It’s not a classic zombie horror book. It’s more about the relationship between Maddie and the others, the world around them, rebuilding, and having hope.
Finally, if someone enjoys Mountain Of Fire, what zombie novel of someone else’s would you suggest they read next?
I’d recommend Death Warmed Over by Kevin J. Anderson. His Dan Shamble, PI books are zombies books with a touch of humor and noir thrown in, and highly enjoyable.
