Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
DMZ welcomes Isabelle, who writes funky LGBTQIA+ fantasy/dark-fantasy/fun-horror like Zombabe under the name I S Bell.
Note: post updated to include Zombabe playlist and Isabelle’s best links.
Dark Matter Zine Acknowledges this recording is taking place on the unceded Country of the Bunurong Peoples’ of the Kulin Nation as Traditional Owners and Custodians of this Country. I pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
I S Belle is a Young Adult author living in New Zealand. She works in a bookstore and stops to pat dogs in the street. (Silkie approves!) She has a Creative Writing Masters from the International Institute of Modern Letters. If you want to find her on Tiktok, she’s @i.s.belle_writes.
If you want to find Isabelle and her book, hit her LinkTree. It has all the shiny buttons.
Social links to her Tiktok and Instagram. Also here’s her website, which includes the subscription link to get BABYLOVE for free.
Here’s the Amazon link to ZOMBABE and BABYLOVE. And to SUGARSNAP, the BABYLOVE sequel which comes out on June 25th.
And a fan made a playlist for Zombabe. It’s on Spotify here.
So many things to discuss! My notes for the interview:
- Small town; small town dying
- Kids wanting to leave, people staying
- Hiding sexuality because small town vs coming out and being happy
- Killing nazis vs nazis complaining that they rights to call for genocide, enslavement and deportation while being violent.
- Poisoned soil in the real world (Africa, crops, imported into Western countries) versus in Zombabe.
- Dysfunctional families – so many types!
- People who are “shades of grey” being good, trying to be good, when the place is poisoning them
- Zombabe is a trilogy? (Not quite, Isabelle explains.)
- Babylove novellas are spinoffs from Zombabe; tell us about them
Thanks
Thank you to today’s guest, Isabelle who writes under the IS Belle! Soon (dates TBA) Isabelle returns to talk about publishing, selfpublishing, social media and all those authory behind the scenes issues. Horror novel Bunny’s co-authors are in awe of Isabelle’s skills so they highly recommended this discussion. My conversation with them (edited out of this podcast part one and part two) ended with us all sighing with admiration and wistfulness about the amazing “GenZ”. I’m looking forward to learning from the up-and-coming generation taking the world and especially social media by storm. This has been a Dark Matter Zine podcast, and I’m your host Nalini Haynes. Thank you for listening, stay safe and have fun.
