Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

I didn’t mention this at the time, because I wasn’t sure how to do it without sounding like an utter braggart – that kind of thing actually does worry me you’d be suprised to know – but I recently won the Judge’s Prize for my poem “A Timid Work Friendship”, which was part of this year’s Moving Galleries Exhibition. Yay me.

The prize was a book voucher, so I was out bookshopping on my lunchbreak today, working out what to spend it on, and I happened to walk past the table where the bookstore in question had their display of their store’s best sellers. Not a very surprising list – a lot of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight books, &c, but coming in at #8 was this little gem:

PRIDE. AND PREJUDICE. AND ZOMBIES. That’s a hell of a high concept right there.

You can read the first few pages of this work of genius! on Amazon, and I highly recommend that you do, if only to experience for yourself what comes after the immortal first line:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.

Now, I did actually know about this book beforehand, but I just figured it was one of those internet things, like giant robot chickens dressed as Abraham Lincoln or monkeys punching dinosaurs. It’s one thing to find that kind of stuff on the intarwubs, but it’s a whole ‘nother bouilloire de poisson entirely to find it in your local bookshop on the best-sellers table.

I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of excited at the prospect of living in a world where not only will somebody publish you if you mash George Romero and Jane Austen together, but you might also stand a chance of making money out of it.

UPDATE: I was in the store again today and it’s now at #3, with the Twilight books sitting at the sad end with 8s and 9s on their little signs. And I saw a girl reading it at the train station this morning, too. hee hee hee hee hee…