Get Zombiefied: Interview with Author Armand Rosamilia

Armand Rosamilia

Another horror writer that impressed me is Armand Rosamilia.  His prose flows smoothly and his stories shock the senses.  Meet the gifted Armand Rosamilia. 

Here’s a brief author’s bio for Armand Rosamilia. 

Armand Rosamilia is a New Jersey boy currently living in sunny Florida. When not chasing his kids, bothering his fiance' Kim or watching his beloved Bosox or listening to Heavy Metal music way too loud, he's writing about zombies. His extreme zombie novellas "Highway To Hell" and "Dying Days" are available now, and he's been featured in a bunch of cool anthologies so far this year. Go here to chat about baseball, zombies and Manowar...

Tell us about your latest book. 

"Dying Days" is an extreme zombie novella that continues the story of Darlene Bobich, who had her start in the Daily Bites of Flesh 2011 anthology (Pill Hill Press) in the flash fiction piece "Anything But Lucky" and then in the bonus story "Rear Guard" in the "Highway To Hell" extreme zombie novella release from Rymfire eBooks... "Dying Days" follows Darlene as she gets into Florida, looking for warmer climes and less zombies...

How did you get started as a writer?  

I was always a reader, and always loved horror... I wrote horrible horror stories that made no sense as a kid, but I kept at it... by high school I was dabbling but afraid to send it out and get rejected... in my mid-twenties I had a couple of short story sales, but didn't keep up the momentum... in my mid-thirties I dabbled again but got more into the publishing end of it... finally, about four years ago I got serious and started 'honing my craft' with tons of stories (most of them crap) until I hit a groove recently, and about 60% of my stories are seeing the light of day...

In your story, Obsessed with a Song, in the Masters of Horror: Damned If You Don’t anthology, you did a brilliant job giving readers a taste of psychological horror.  Do you prefer writing psychological horror over gore?

 I prefer horror, I guess... I think there are so many interesting ways to tell the same story... I tend to shun away from tons of sex and gore in my stories of horror, but in my zombie writing it's extremely sexual and bloody... no idea why... that story immediately came to me when I read the prompt for the anthology, it was one of those 'easy' stories that just flows.

What’s a typical day like for you?

 I'd love to say 'write all day' but I have a job (store manager for Dollar General) and I have kids and a fiancé and bills to pay... but I usually find at least an hour a day to write, and some days it's just enough time to get a good chunk of story done... I tend to write two or three stories at the same time (it's how I read books as well) without mixing them up.

What do you like most about reading and writing?

The escape they both offer... when I'm inside a great book or writing a new story a bomb could go off in the living room and I won't hear it... it gets my fiancé mad at times because she'll ask me questions and I'll ignore her.

Which author influenced you the most?

Dean Koontz and Robert E. Howard were the two that I read constantly... they were the two authors that got me into writing and wanting to write... later, authors like Brian Keene, Scott Nicholson, John Everson, Gord Rollo... writers like that showed me that you could have your own unique voice...

Tell us 3 interesting things about you.

Hmm... I'm from New Jersey but I'm a diehard Red Sox fan, stuck in the 80's with Heavy Metal music, afraid of dogs, and even though I look like a biker I can barely ride a bicycle...

Would you say you write specifically for the horror genre and if not, what’s your favorite genre to write?

I definitely write horror, even when I don't want to, haha... my work tends to be dark and people tend to die... I am dabbling in some erotic horror/paranormal right now, but the horror writing is my comfort zone.

Best and worst part of being a writer?

Best part is all of the friends you meet, and the big authors that you can meet at a convention and grab a beer with... and selling books and have people commenting on your work is great as well... the bad part is the solitary existence you spend when you're writing and how difficult it is for me sometimes to manage my time when I'm 'in the zone' and don't want to eat, sleep or deal with my family because I need to kill someone or a zombie horde is attacking, haha...

Advice to writers?

Write, write, write... don't ever stop... finish that book and then start the next one, and then the next... and get yourself out there, meet new people, be strong about bad reviews and not too excited over good ones, and then sit down and write some more...

Interesting story about writing.

About five years ago I was asked to do a book signing in Tampa with some other authors, so I did... it turned out that Jeff Strand was there, right across from me, but I was too awestruck to talk to him... later, at someone's house, we all met and chatted and I finally got to talk to him... he was hysterical and so was his wife...

To purchase his books feel free to visit Rymfireebooks here 

Thanks Armand for visiting Knight Chills. We look forward to reading your books. 

© Copyright Armand Rosamilia 2011. All rights reserved. 

Armand Rosamilia has granted Knight Chills non-exclusive rights to display this work.

© Copyright Nomar Knight 2011. All rights reserved. 

A Knight Chills author interview.