Q&A with H.J. Ramsay

 

 

 

 

H.J. Ramsay is the author of the new novel Love & Other Cures for the Recently Undead.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Love & Other Cures for the Recently Undead, and how did you create your character CeCe?

 

A: I’ve always been fascinated with zombies. Way back in 2008, I published an article, “How to Survive a Zombie Invasion: An Analysis” in Dark Fire Magazine, which has since gone defunct, but it was the only short piece I ever wrote that I received emails from readers saying they liked it.

 

The following year, I wrote a draft of a paranormal romance of a zombie, who was also named Derrick, and a normal, non-zombie girl, but that story faded into oblivion when I started my master’s program.

 

Flash forward to 2022, and I was golfing with a friend who is also a writer. We were talking about her latest short story about an ex-zombie who still had cravings for human flesh, and it got me thinking about zombies again and what an ex-zombie world would look like viewed through a psychological lens. 

 

As far as CeCe, I wanted her to be a tennis player. I love tennis and have been playing regularly for the last five years, so it was something I wanted to bring into the novel.

 

By doing that, it opened a series of questions of how someone whose previous life was utterly wrapped up in a sport would deal with the loss of it, the loss of what the virus had done to her body, and how that would affect her mental health moving forward.

 

While I wasn’t (and still am not) a star athlete, I could sympathize with what that must have felt like to have a passion suddenly ripped away.

 

My dad was a pilot, lived for flying, and had a brain aneurysm when I was young that physically prevented him from ever flying again. I saw how losing the ability to do what he loved affected him for the rest of his life. I imagined that some of the things CeCe had to cope with were probably similar to what my dad coped with as well. 

Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: A few years ago, I won a critique from an editor at HarperCollins who said my original title, “All That Is Here,” was too vague and didn’t say anything about what the book was about. I thought to myself, “Okay, if that’s the case, then I’ll include everything.” Love and Other Cures for the Recently Undead pretty much sums it up.

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I did know how it would end. It was one of the first scenes I created in my mind. I knew from the start, this story was going to be so steeped in emotional trauma—the infection, the turmoil of the apocalypse, the losses in the aftermath—that I needed to end with seeds of hope, a final scene that shined a light on what is possible. Otherwise, it would have been far too depressing.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?

 

A: I want readers to take away that there is hope when terrible things happen. We’ve all experienced some kind of trauma that has felt so overwhelming that life beyond it doesn’t feel possible.

 

But there is always a way, always a path to move forward. Just because things might not look like they did before, it doesn’t mean there isn’t still beauty and joy to be found. When you’re in it, I know that looking for those things isn’t easy, but it is there, waiting for you when you’re ready. 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Right now, I’m working on another little morbid romance. It’s a story of two college students who find love in the afterlife after they’d been murdered by a serial killer. So far, I’m addicted to the storyline. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I have another book coming out in February 2026 through Conquest Publishing called Water Clock. It’s totally different from Love and Other Cures for the Recently Undead.

 

Water Clock is a historical reimagining of the fall of Ancient Greece, with Atlantis being a political power at the time, with, of course, all the Greek Gods and Goddesses meddling. Water Clock has been a passion project two decades in the making and I’m very excited that my Atlantis is finally getting resurrected from the deep. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb