By Kelley Simms
WAGNER'S STORIED ARC
Photo by
Stephanie Cabral
M
any know Chicago legacy death-
metal stalwarts Broken Hope’s gui-
tarist Jeremy Wagner for his music.
But some of you may not know that Wagner is
also an accomplished fiction writer who has
just released a new horror novel Rabid Heart
(Riverdale Avenue Books). The 258-page post-
apocalyptic nightmare tells the tale of a world-
wide pandemic that infects people with a
Necro-rabies disease, turning them into zom-
bies. Influenced by Stephen King’s The Stand,
George Romero’s Day of the Dead and Cormac
McCarthy’s The Road, Rabid Heart takes the
reader on a thrilling white-knuckle ride. The
book’s protagonist, Rhonda Driscoll, is a
strong female character in the vein of
Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley from the
Alien franchise, and Uma Thurman's The
Bride from Kill Bill: Volume I. As the chief lyri-
cist for Broken Hope, Wagner has penned
hundreds of lyrics about death and gore.
Jeremy Wagner
However, Wagner’s fiction writing travels a
more cinematic path and his new book is ulti-
mately a human story with the themes of love
and hope at its core. We talked to Jeremy
about his literary influences and the new
book.
Mosh: How did you come up with the plot for
Rabid Heart?
Jeremy Wagner: It all started when I was writ-
ing a short story for an anthology called
Hungry for Your Love from St. Martin’s Press.
The story I started writing was actually Rabid
Heart, and I intended it to be just a short story,
5,000 words or less. After a couple of weeks, it
was growing and growing to the point of
30,000 words. So I put Rabid Heart on the side,
and I went back and wrote a brand new short
story, which was a zombie short story about
Haitian voodoo. That’s the story that got pub-
lished (in the anthology), and it’s called
Romance Ain’t Dead. When that came out, I had
another novel called The Armageddon Chord,
and I got a book offer for that right away.
Right around 2012 as I was going to start back
on Rabid Heart, Broken Hope came off our hia-
tus. So for six years, I’ve just been doing
Broken Hope. I’d been working on Rabid Heart
and making revisions over and over. It wasn’t
until this past year I really got it into good
shape and got an editor to work with me and
polish it up. I got a new book deal with
Riverdale Avenue Books, and here we are.
Rabid Heart came out worldwide on Oct. 4,
and it’s been great.
Mosh: Rabid Heart reminds me a lot of The
Stand. Did Stephen King or H.P. Lovecraft
influence your writing?
JW: Especially with this book. My two favorite
horror movies of all time are George Romero’s
Day of the Dead, and Tom Savini, he remade
George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead in
1990. So those two movies definitely had an
influence on Rabid Heart. Even 28 Days Later,
the movie, really had an interesting angle.
And when you talk about books, H.P.
Lovecraft when I was a kid was definitely an
early influence, just as Stephen King was. On
the subject of Stephen King, Rabid Heart is not
even a quarter of the length as The Stand, but
The Stand as a setting, a post-apocalyptic
world, that had an influence on me for sure.
That stuff always appealed to me, and I never
had a chance to write that kind of story before.
So, all those inspirations I just mentioned in
one shape or form played a role, even a cata-
lyst for the setting of Rabid Heart.
Mosh: Has fiction writing and metal always
been your two biggest passions?
JW: Absolutely. I always tell people that writ-
ing came before music. I started writing fiction
at age five. When I got into my teen years is
when I got into being a guitarist. I heard
Metallica’s *Ride the Lightning* and I wanted
to play electric guitar and make a band and do
this. I was so into metal. I look at writing fic-
tion and being a metal guitarist as, every time
I think of the two I think of the yin and yang
sign, white and black together. One is writing
fiction, and the other is writing music. The two
go together. And the two take a lot of time to
follow those passions. I really love doing both.
Mosh: Did you base the book’s strong female
protagonist, Rhonda Driscoll, on someone
specific?
JW: Sigourney Weaver definitely comes to
mind as one of my all-time favorite super
strong leading women characters. I think I had
Sigourney Weaver in my subconscious. I have
respect for Uma Thurman as well. Another
[actress] who is someone I really admired
since I was eight or nine was Jamie Lee Curtis,
just because of her role in Halloween.
Sigourney Weaver’s the bad-ass part of
Rhonda Driscoll, the gun-wielding type. The
Jamie Lee Curtis side is a side of Rhonda
Driscoll as well, someone who is traumatized
and in survival mode. She’s definitely a mix of
those two screen characters. Then I go into my
personal life. I was raised by a single mom
who raised me and my younger sister. And
my mom was a really strong woman. My
mom came from a family of 10 kids, so I had
all these aunts who I always admired. Many
women in my life at a young age also encour-
aged me to do what I do now, which is read a
lot of books and write. My life has had pro-
found female influences in it in such positive
ways. So, I take all of that and inject it into
Rhonda Driscoll.
Mosh: How do you think you’ve gotten better
as a writer since your first novel, The
Armageddon Chord?
JW: My skills and the time I’ve put into writ-
ing, I think, has been really rewarding and has
served me well as a writer as far as getting bet-
Continued
on
42
Continued
on page
page 49
Tobias Music Showcase
Acclaimed Award Winning Guitarist
Adrian Legg
at Tobias Music
Saturday, Nov. 3rd
8:00PM performance
Tickets $25 • Limited Seating
Advance tickets recommended.
Phone for more details.
Doors open 7:00PM
are wizards. Adrian
"There are guitarists, there are axe-wielding maniacs, and then there
anything he wants,
about
just
do
to
ue
techniq
enough
has
He
Legg is one of the wizards.
lphia Enquirer
Philade
–
."
melody
a
of
s
contour
the
honour
to
ity
sensitiv
the
also
but
fiddle. This man is
"To say Legg plays a good guitar is like saying Menuhin saws a fine
ridiculously talented." – Music Week
40
Like Us on Facebook
34 illinoisentertainer.com november 2018
Tobias Music 630-960-2455
5013 Fairview Ave • Downers Grove IL 60515 www.TobiasMusic.com