Today, I am chatting with Terry Tyler about Infected, the first novel in her SFV-1 trilogy.
A rapidly spreading virus has begun to transform those it infects, while elsewhere people remain unaware of just how dramatically their world is changing. Through the experiences of Cat, Norah and Lion, Infected follows the frightening early stages of a crisis in which recognising the danger may prove every bit as important as surviving it.
Terry joins me today to talk about creating her own take on the zombie apocalypse, developing the terrifying SFV-1 virus, and exploring what happens to ordinary people when the familiar structures of society begin to disappear.
But first, let's check out Infected
Publisher: Independently Published
Print Length: 193 Pages
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
'Every time someone gets bitten, that's one more of them, and one less of us.'
SFV-1: a virulent virus that sends its hosts into a state of extreme rage and ravenous hunger. When it attacks the UK, 127 people are infected within the first hour.
London wife and mother Cat is taking part in TV reality show Year Out, on a remote Scottish island. Her world turns dark when the TV crew fails to arrive for the monthly health check—her one lifeline to her family is now broken.
Completely absorbed in the commission of a lifetime, artist Norah ignores what is taking place outside the safety of her studio, until the virus reaches her hometown and a shocking event jolts her back into reality.
Lion, a stressed out marketing consultant, is enjoying a month away from his hectic online life in northern Cumbria when he encounters a worrying sight in a nearby village. Is it some kind of zombie? It can't be, can it?
Infected begins with SFV-1 spreading with terrifying speed, with 127 people infected within the first hour. What first sparked the idea for the virus and the world of the SFV-1 series?
I love good zombie apocalypse fiction, whether in film (eg Train to Busan), TV series (The Walking Dead, Black Summer) or books (Keith C Blackmore and Frank Tayell), and I thought, I’m not going to my grave without writing my own zombie apocalypse. I couldn’t get my head around writing dead people coming to life, so I decided on a virus that affects the living, instead.
Rather than following one central protagonist, you introduce readers to Cat, Norah and Lion, who are experiencing the developing crisis from very different circumstances. What made you decide to tell the opening stages of the outbreak through several perspectives?
It’s just the way I write – most if not all of my books are written from different perspectives. I like to read books from multiple POVs, so I write them too.
Cat is already isolated on a remote Scottish island when communication with the outside world suddenly disappears. What interested you about taking a situation that initially offers protection from the virus and turning that isolation into something potentially frightening in its own right?
I love writing situations in which the reader knows what’s going on but the character doesn’t. Not even when their friends venture out to find out what’s going on and never return, leaving those in isolation none the wiser.
Norah is so absorbed in her art that she initially pays little attention to what is happening beyond her studio. Was her story partly inspired by the way people can dismiss or distance themselves from a developing crisis until it directly affects their own lives?
Not quite, though that’s a very valid point. With Norah, it is because the commission she’s working on is everything to her; it would make her career. She refuses to believe that the crisis won’t be dealt with, and wants only to think about her work. The idea of her exhibition not happening is so awful that she can’t bear the thought, so she shuts it off.
Lion encounters something his rational mind tells him simply cannot exist. How much fun was it to explore that moment when a character has to abandon everything they think they know about how the world works and accept the impossible reality in front of them?
I actually find that quite difficult, though I do enjoy the build up! I always write big scenes by imagining I’m that person in that situation – this was hard.
SFV-1 doesn't create the traditional undead. Instead, it drives infected people into extreme rage and hunger. What considerations went into establishing the rules of the virus and deciding exactly what infection would do to its victims?
I explored brain viruses, and how they can arise, or mutate. I was most pleased when I discovered what the cordyceps fungus can do, until I watched ‘The Last of Us’, and realised it had already been used!
You have described yourself as a Walking Dead addict, but Infected gives you the opportunity to create your own version of a society facing catastrophic collapse. Were you more interested in the infected themselves or in how ordinary people behave once the structures they rely upon begin to disappear?
It’s always about the people. That’s what fascinates me about the whole post-apocalyptic scenario. Who will thrive, who will go under, what previously hidden aspects of the person will rise to the surface, once social norms are stripped away? As I have said more than once about The Walking Dead – it’s not about zombies. It’s about how humanity adjusts to constant hardship and fear.
Infected is the first book in a trilogy, followed by Darkness and Reset. When you began the novel, how much of the wider trajectory of the SFV-1 outbreak and its consequences had you already planned?
A vague outline of the story, not much more than that. I get ideas as I go along.
At the heart of most outbreak fiction is the unsettling question of what we ourselves might do in the same circumstances. What do you hope readers find themselves thinking about after experiencing the beginning of the SFV-1 crisis through Cat, Norah and Lion?
The need to stay alert and to accept a new reality. Not to wait to be saved, but to allow their survival instincts to kick in, immediately. And if something big and dangerous that could kill you is coming up the road, RUN!
A huge thank you to Terry Tyler for joining me today and taking us into the world of Infected.
If you enjoy character-driven post-apocalyptic fiction, multiple perspectives and stories that ask what ordinary people might become when the rules of everyday life disappear, then Infected is certainly one to add to your reading list.
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See you on your next coffee break!
Take Care,
Mary Anne xxx