Deadly Dames in Dallas

How I came up with this story.

One day back when I lived in Dallas, my friend group had gathered to watch movies, grill wings and hangout, and the guys were all talking about their “zombie plans”. I listened for several minutes about who had a flamethrower, and where they would keep their bunkers. But after a moment I realized none of the ladies present were involved in the conversation. So I asked, “What’s your Zombie plan?”. And I was met with blank stares. Finally one woman said “I don’t know, if the world ends, I’m just gonna follow him wherever he goes!?!” Her husband grinned. And the story exploded into my imagination.

What would we do if our ‘men’ were not around and we had to escape a Zombie Apocalypse? What skills do we have that would keep us alive? How would we work together? Would we work together? Heck, could we even survive? The women in the story changed as I wrote to an idealized version of what would work in the story. The classic literary archetypes of women in literature over time have grown but are often still defined by male writers and protagonist counterparts. The longer the story rolled around in my head the more I thought about how women grow into different responsibilities, even in classic tropes. And they trade different roles based on group dynamics. A woman who takes the lead in as an older Mother in a PTA group, might present as the inexperienced junior in an older group of people at a family gathering. People associate with roles that bear different responsibilities in professional or social groups, even if they are mostly made up of the same women. I didn’t notice that this happens as often in male groups of friends or co-workers. To me it seems, the Alpha is the alpha no matter the social or vocational contexts. So I defined my characters in this way, the three classical literature archetypes: the Virgin the Mother and the Crone, and then in three more modern archetypes: The lover, the scorned lover or the EX, and the Omega (basically ‘the woman who don’t need no man’). I evolved these characters in the story and watched how as the dynamics of the environment and situation dictated they trade and step into each other’s roles and responsibilities as needed.

Coming soon, more updates for “Deadly Dames in Dallas”