Why I Want Mark Tufo’s Fans
by Armand Rosamilia
Let’s get a few things out of the way… I don’t want Mark Tufo’s life (although I guarantee it’s better than mine… just a feeling), I don’t want his looks (I’m damn good-looking if I do say so myself – and I guess I just did), and I don’t want his pets (I hate animals, remember? I blogged about it here: http://armandrosamilia.com/2012/04/28/animals-in-your-story/), and there’s a bunch of other stuff about him that I could bring up. The fact that he’s a fellow Red Sox fan makes me quite happy, and someday I hope to sit back with Mark Tufo and a few beers and watch the Red Sox game in Fenway Park while sitting next to Stephen King and have Stevie ask us about our latest books… and then Ben Affleck will get mad at me because his wife, Jennifer, will be hitting on me and trying to make out with me…
Where was I?
Oh, yeah, Mark Tufo.
I came late to the Mark Tufo party, having never read any of his zombie books when I started diving into the indies and what was out there. But when I did… I enjoyed it, plain and simple. Here was an author who could write some memorable characters, and I looked forward to each new release of his Zombie Fallout books.
Then, I innocently stumbled upon a couple of his fans, who talked about the books and loved them. And kept talking. And recited lines and talked about characters like they were old friends, and couldn’t wait for the next book.
Then… I was innocently invited into an online chat about Mark’s books, where the author himself was gracious enough to answer questions about the books. And it blew me away. Dozens of rabid fans, asking questions about every little aspect of his stories, begging for clues to what happened to this one or that one and where a storyline was headed.
I started to sweat, because I had a vision of readers of Dying Days and the Darlene Bobich stories peppering me with these questions and wondered if I knew the answers. It was amazing the amount of back-story, information and familiarity Mark had with each and every character, and it got me thinking. At that time I’d been writing Dying Days 2, and I made a conscious effort to dive as deep into these characters as I could, in the event I was asked important questions like Darlene Bobich’s favorite color (green, definitely green) or other important facts, like her first baseball game.
That would be Darlene’s daddy taking her to Fenway Park as a kid, where she watched the Bosox crush the Yankees easily. Darlene loved the game so much she didn’t notice me and Jen Garner making out, either.
I’m looking forward to reading more of Mark Tufo’s books and seeing what his rabid fans think of them!