Why MOZ?

I've long been the kind of person who, when he enjoys, and I mean really enjoys something, he doesn't want to just be a consumer, but a contributor and creator. I've been like that with horror fiction. I've been like that with movies. Rap music. Comic books. Role-playing games.^*

The bottom line is that there are a lot of things I enjoy so much that I've found a way to somehow get involved in them; that's how it was with podcasting.

I spoke a little bit about this when Bren and I appeared on The Podcast Podcast, and may have even touched on it a few years ago at HorrorCommentary.com; I fell in love with horror podcasting before launching Mail Order Zombie. I was listening to Deadpit.com (don't call them a podcast!), and used to joke that my weekend didn't start until I got home from work Friday night and listened to their latest episode, and then if there was time before Bren got home from work herself, I'd check out Rue Morgue Radio afterward. Later, I drifted to Night of the Living Podcast, discovered Dread Media and the Dead Lantern Splattercast, and listened to shows that have long since podfaded.

And I decided I thought podcasting looked, or sounded, like so much fun that I wanted to give it a go myself. At first, I wanted to put a crew together, but wasn't able to find the folks that would be willing to commit to a weekly recording schedule. Additionally, I was worried about mkaing sure my podcast identity was unique enough. There were a number of horror podcasts popping up all over the 'net, and ultimately I really wanted to focus on an aspect of horror that I REALLY loved, which is why I came to zombie movies as my topic.

Now I knew there was another zombie movie podcast out there. I was listening to The Midnight Podcast, but I decided to move forward on creating my own zombie podcast anyway for two reasons: 1) my show was originally designed to focus more on the straight-to-DVD zombie movie sub-sub-sub-genre (movies you would only be able to see through outlets like Netflix, hence the "mail order" of Mail Order Zombie), and 2) I've long believed that "there's always room for one more good one," and I hoped that I would be "good" enough to find a little place to exist in the podcast community.

Obviously, the show's evolved since its launch. Our focus is a lot more broad, and, yes, notice I said our focus, in that there's more than just me. Bren's a full-on co-host, and I'm honored to have her rocking the mic with me every week. Additionally, the MOZ Family has grown to include regular contributors like Scott M., O'Day, Dr. J, Tony, Scott C. and even a zombie named Wayne. And the listeners? Man, I'm SO thankful that so many people support the show just by listening to it.

I'm still having a blast with Mail Order Zombie, and I don't see it stopping any time soon. As the show has evolved over the past near-two-and-a-half years, it will continue to change as we move into the future.

I'm rambling a bit and have gone a bit off-topic. Why did I launch a zombie movie podcast? Because I love zombie movies and I love podcasts. And why do I continue to produce a zombie media podcast? Because I still love zombie media and I still love podcasting. I should really learn to self-edit a bit more; I wouldn't have wasted nearly as much of your time otherise.

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^*Role-playing games - I didn't make it much further than reviewing and editing some small press third-party d20 products. It was fun, but as I drifted away from table-top gaming (lack of time, lack of a gaming group, etc.), my creative energies went elsewhere.

Comic books - I got involved with a group putting together an ongoing anthology book. I was fortunate enough to be teamed with an artist (since I can't manage drawing as well as I'd like), and my story was set to run in issues #3-#6. The book folded after issue #2.

Rap music - I sometimes talk about it like it was a bigger deal than it really was, but in the mid-90s, my friend Mike and I formed a rap group in the middle of Montana. We called ourselves So Damn White, and appeared on the local college radio station a few times, as well as a handful of times at a few bars in either Bozeman or Livingston. Oh, and there was one dorm party when Brenda and I started dating.

Movies - In grade school, I wrote scripts for movies starring my GI Joe figures which I planned to film stop-motion style with an old home movie camera. In junior high, a friend suggested we make a movie with a video camera for a class project, and throughout high school and community college, I was producing no-budget and student movies. Eventually, I won an award for one short zombie movie, and then later had a movie shown as part of the 2003 HP Lovecraft Film Festival. It was a lot of fun, and while I haven't seriously pursued making anything since '03, someday, I'm sure I'll get back to it.

Horror fiction - I've been writing off-and-on since at fourth grade, and scary stories just appealed to me even back then. As I've gotten older, my tastes have matured, but I've never left the dark behind (which is appropriate considering the recent release of Dark: A Horror Anthology which features not one, but two Derek M. Koch short stories).