Introducing 2011: Carrie Harris

Carrie Harris is a geek of all trades and proud of it. Brains are her specialty; she used to work in a lab where they were delivered daily via FedEx. After that, it seemed only natural to write a zombie book. Now she lives in Michigan with her ninja doctor husband and three zombie-obsessed children.

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Carrie's debut novel, BAD TASTE IN BOYS, will be published by Delacorte Press on July 12, 2011!

1. What was the inspiration behind BAD TASTE IN BOYS?'

I’m a huge monsterphile. Zombie movies in particular always crack me up, because movie characters never seem to have any problem believing that their neighbors are turning into zombies. Um, hello? Only crazy people think things like that. So I started off thinking I might want to do a book about a completely rational person who discovers a zombie virus. And then I started mashing it together with other ideas that I had floating around in my head, kind of like a math project gone completely whack-a-ding-hoy. So Bad Taste in Boys is really Frankensteinian weird science plus the undead football players from Beetlejuice divided by high school geekery.

If math books were more like that, I might have become a mathematician.

2. What was your reaction to finding out you were going to be published?

Well, the road to publication was very long for me. Like *cough* fifteen years. *cough* When The Email finally came, I ran around the house screaming and then left a voice mail for my husband that said: “OhmygodcallmecallmeCALLMERIGHTNOW!” And then I put Thriller on and did the zombie dance, because that’s obviously the best way to celebrate selling a zombie book.

About an hour later, I realized I should probably email my agent back. I went to my computer and found another email from her asking if the shock had killed me and did she need to call an ambulance.

3. In what ways do you relate to Kate?

One of my friends always calls me Kate Grable in disguise, which cracks me up. And admittedly, we are similar personality-wise. But the biggest similarity? High School Carrie and Kate both have HORRIBLE taste in guys. I dated a guy who got a cue ball stuck in his mouth, and one who thought he was a werewolf, and…I could continue, but it’s too painful to remember. Lucky for both of us, our tastes improved. Drastically.

4. Zombies are obviously a big part of BAD TASTE IN BOYS. Did you have to do any research on them before writing?

I’m already a huge fan of zombies and creatures in general, so I was pretty familiar with the standard mythology. But it took a lot of work to get the science just right. My poor husband; every five minutes I was asking him another question about hypothetical viruses or zombie combat. But he’s a ninja/doctor, so these things fall into his area of expertise!

Really. I’m married to a ninja. How cool is THAT?

5. If you were trapped on a deserted island, what three books would you want with you?

Well, I have to go with a survival manual of some sort, because that just seems logical. I’m not going to be able to read much if I’m DEAD, right? And then I’ll choose two of my comfort reads—old favorites that I go to when my brain feels like it’s dribbling out my ears. I’m thinking Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett, and maybe The Hunger Games. It’s hard to feel bad about being stuck on an island when you’re snarfing coconut milk out your nose as a result of reading the former, or drooling over Peeta when reading the latter.

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Thanks so much, Carrie!

Click here to visit Carrie's (awesome) website!