His Father Must Be So Proud

I know there are more young authors (i.e., younger than me) every year, but Max Brallier is the first I met when he was really young—going into middle school or so. I used to work with his dad.

The New York Daily News just interviewed Max about his opus Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? It traces possible responses to a zombie assault on New York City, using branching paths. Max described the creative process this way:

"As I was writing, I kept thinking, man, I want to do this in the story, too. I wanted to do a dirt bike scene. I wanted to do an underwater scene. I also wanted to have zombies on fire and zombies at Yankees Stadium, but how do I get all of this into one narrative?" he says.

"I used to love these Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid, so I thought, why not get in as an adult, and put every stupid zombie thing that ever happened into one book?"

Max survived being on a TV series in his early teens, so I figure he can easily survive the rough life of an author. He might even survive the zombie apocalypse.