My Love-Hate Relationship with Zombies & American Idol

Halfway through this blog, it occured to me that I should have written about my current release. I have a novella in Brides of the West, the April anthology from Love Inspired Historical. You can check out the excerpt here.  I promise you, it’s not about zombies. But it does have a few hooks a la American Idol.

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This is an odd topic for a blog focused on western romance, but hang in there with me.  Thanks to my sister-in-law, I recently got hooked on AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” In case you haven’t seen it, it’s about a group of people fighting to survive in a world taken over by zombies aka “walkers.”

I am NOT a zombie fan. They gross me out. Totally. But I’ve got to say, this show hooked me.  And it hooked me because it has good guys and bad guys, moral questions and a lawman hero. The Walking Dead  isn’t a western, but it feels like one. The leader of the group, Rick, swaggers like a marshal in the Old West. He’s an alpha take-charge kind of guy. When hard decisions have to be made, he makes them. He also loves his wife and son, though I’ve got to say, she’s a piece of work.

So we have a western style hero fighting zombies . . . .  Maybe I’m just hungry for a good western on television and seeing what I want to see.

But there’s more. The survivors have taken refuge on a farm. Every day they fight for survival like Old West pioneers. Threats abound, but they keep going. Even when things get rough, these people fight for each other. They fight with each other, too. This show has tons of personal drama. That’s one of things that kept me tuning in each week: the choices between “me” and “group,” or “me” and “other.”

I love westerns, but I don’t quite get the zombie thing.  I definitely don’t like to be scared, and this show can be a nail biter.

Okay, I need a transition between zombies and American Idol . . . How about this: Both shows are nail biters? I know there’s a zombie joke to be made but I can’t bring myself to make it. I started watching American Idol in Season Three, and I blame Bo Bice for what turned into an addiction. It’s just plain fun to watch this show.

There aren’t any obvious ties to western romance, but there’s a big tie between Idol and writing. Talk about hooks!  Every week  I tune in to see who’s going to be eliminated. Every performance is a question: Will the singer “blow it out of the box ” or hear “dude, it wasn’t great.  Idol is one big hook, and I’m caught.

So what about you?  Which TV shows have you hooked? I hear Once Upon a Time is good.  Have you found anything with a western flavor?  Maybe an actor who should star in a western?  Or how about Idol?  I like Jessica and Phillip, but I’ve been known to change my mind as the season moves on.