Stefanie Oberhansley doesn’t look like zombie novelist In fact, she was in high school before she could

even bring herself to watch a horror film

“Up until I was about l6, I had never really watched or read anything scary because I just couldn’t handle it. My imagination was always so active, and sometimes I’d picture ghosts and ghouls hiding in the shadows, waiting to pounce when I least expected it,” she said. “Occasionally, I’d see something scary on accident, or a preview for an upcoming horror flick, and I’d have nightmares for days.”

Her path to zombie obsession and her book “Silence of Souls” began in 2002 with the movie 28 Days Later.

“I know a lot of people don’t actually consider that to technically be a zombie movie, myself included,”

Oberhansley said. “If I hadn’t seen 28 Days Later, I don’t think I would have discovered the zombie genre when I did. Maybe I would have fallen into the vampire craze instead and gone a completely different route, but I’m glad I didn’t because zombies are so incredible. I consider 28 Days Later to be my ‘gateway’ film that led me into the deep obsession with the undead.”

Oberhansley said the movie opened her up to the idea of flesh-eaters and gave her a vision of the ultimate terror.

“It’s hard to imagine a worse way for our extinction to come than by literally consuming each other until there’s nothing left but walking death,” she said. “Zombies represent the ultimate fears most people have — death, pain, the loss of free will, the fall of our species, and being destroyed by our own kind. The heroes and heroines in zombie fiction represent what most of us want to be – good in a difficult situation, brave, hopeful, and strong.”

In the decade since that first experience, Oberhansley has developed a deep passion for the genre, becoming well versed in the works of others.

This article appears in its entirety in Zombie Apocalypse Monthly issue 4 and can be downloaded for free here: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/437984.