Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith

And I said to myself again (albeit kicking myself now), “Why didn’t you think of that, you putz?” Foreign rights were sold to every market but Atlantis and Middle-earth. It hit the New York Times bestseller list. (This memory is a lot more reliable than my one about fifth grade, by the way.) And I’m sure I said to myself what I always say when I run across a brilliant idea: “Why didn’t you think of that, Hockensmith?”Īnd it was indeed a brilliant idea-brilliant enough to turn Pride and Prejudice and Zombies into a worldwide smash. I remember laughing when I read the title. A publisher, I read somewhere or other, was taking Jane Austen’s classic comedy of manners and inserting zombie hordes and chop-socky ultraviolence. No one could have. It was about 18 months ago, coincidentally, that I first heard about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Because you know what? Not only could I not have predicted Dawn of the Dreadfuls when I was a kid, I couldn’t have predicted it 18 months ago. That thing is a scream! (Or so I thought at the time.)Ĭome to think of it, I’m pretty sure now I didn’t mention the English girls. But I wanted to be a writer, I know that. Maybe I wasn’t quite so specific about the kinds of books I wanted to write. I think Jason Ault wanted to be President of the United States.Īnd me? I got up in front of my fifth-grade class and said this: “When I grow up, I want to write a prequel to a best-selling book about English girls who kill zombies with kung-fu.” And now, thanks to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, my childhood dream has come true at last! Sorry, Jason-it doesn’t work out for all of us. Of course, I might be misremembering things a bit. John Harrington wanted to be a fireman, as I recall.

Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith