The Z Plan Series
Interview with Mikhail Lerma
Author of The Z Plan Trilogy
Author Bio:
Mikhail Lerma was raised in the small town of Holdrege Nebraska. In the third grade he wrote his first short story, in which the main character was a monkey. Not taking his career as a writer too seriously after that, he finished his high school years by joining the army when he was only 17.
He spent 10 years in the army starting as a truck driver and eventually becoming a combat medic. While deployed to Iraq in 2007 he spent missions in a turret as gunner. In his free time he began writing a story having nothing to do with monkeys. Only time will tell if this was a good career move. With encouragement from his friends and family he decided to start taking his writing seriously.
Story telling has become a passion of his, with a strong interest in horror and science fiction.
An interest that began at a very young age. He draws inspiration from classic sci-fi horror flicks such as The Last Man on Earth and Night of the Living Dead. Mikhail is looking forward to expanding outside of the zombie genre.
He is currently going to school to become a paramedic, and finishing his first series for Permuted Press. He lives in Iowa with his wife and three daughters. He does not have a pet, but if anyone would like to donate a male dog to level out the hormones in his house that would be much appreciated.
2 Book Lovers Reviews
What originally inspired you to start writing the Z Plan trilogy?
My inspiration was kind of a perfect storm of events. I had zombies on the brain and was surrounded by guys with zombies on the brain. But it wasn’t until a 0300 shift of guard duty and a strange noise in the dark that my imagination was triggered.
You were overseas with a wife and daughter at home, a situation similar to Cale’s. Is there anything autobiographical about Cale?
Quite a bit actually. Many of his reactions and behaviours are mine. It helped in making him real. To me and to the readers.
What is the worst thing that you ate while deployed? What is the strangest thing that you ate overseas that you surprisingly enjoyed?
Let’s see, the worst? That’s kind of a blur. The dining facility (DFAC) didn’t always have the best, but it didn’t have the worst either. It was just blah. As for strangest, I didn’t really sample the local cuisine. I avoided it because of our different standards of preparing food. But there was one time at the DFAC that the female behind me in line ordered a really spicy dish of stir fry and the civilian taking orders was absolutely focused on her. So he ignored me and made my food the exact same way. She apologized to me but it wasn’t bad at all.
Besides your family, what did you miss most while deployed?
Tell you the truth my list of missed things really only consisted of one thing. My family. At the time I didn’t think of anything else.
When you kick back and relax with a good book, what are you reading?
I’ve been enjoying books written by my colleagues(fellow Permuted authors), but really just any book. I can be a little picky at times, it’s just dependent on my mood.
At what age would you let your girls read the Z Plan trilogy?
I’d prefer they waited till they were at least sixteen, it would make any of their questions a lot easier to answer. But my two oldest, ages six and eight, are excited to read whatever they get their hands on. That just happens to include any extra copies around the house.
There are a lot of military and former military who write in the post-apocalyptic genre. What would you attribute this to?
We’ve seen what a lack of authority looks like. The chaos and the anarchy. We’ve seen survival. It’s what we were trained for. Writing is also very therapeutic.
What would the Lerma’s be found doing on the Labor Day weekend? Would you be down by the lake, on the rollercoasters at a fun park, or relaxing in your own backyard?
Backyard. Definitely. It’ll give me time to write as well.
Do you have a zombie apocalypse plan, or will you just wing it?
The problem with plans is that they never workout 100%. I’m better when I have the flexibility of spontaneity.
With Cale’s story complete, what is next for Mikhail Lerma?
I’m already working on my next idea which is a step away from zombies, there will be a teaser for it on my blog soon. But even after that I have many more ideas. Who knows where I’ll be in a few years?