Author Terry Webb in his den where for the past ten months he has spent working on his first novel The Phoenix Gene. (HERALD Photo/Dustin Wilson)

“I wanted to write about something I enjoy, and I really enjoy horror,” Webb said.

And horror it is. Titled “The Phoenix Gene,” the novel follows the character Mac through Texas, trying to escape an outbreak of zombies as he makes his son’s house in Alabama. This is the Big Spring author’s first full length book.

Webb says that he wanted to explore the world of the zombie genre a bit further than most authors. “The one thing that always bothered me about zombie stories in the past is that they never told you how the zombies came about,” Webb explained. “You’d have a person walking down the road and then boom — there’d be zombie’s everywhere. With my book it gives an insight into how the zombies come about.”

The author cites his biggest influences span from movie director George A. Romero to well-known horror novelists Dean Koontz and Stephen King. “I’ve read them for years and years, and I’ve always wanted to write in a similar direction,” Webb added.

When asked how long it took to fully write and edit the novel, “The first page of the book was written two years ago, and once I sat down and convinced myself to write to book it took a total of ten months. It took a while,” he laughed.

The book is going to be very familiar with many Big Spring residents, as much of the story takes place on the streets of Big Spring and surrounding areas.

“I picked this area because it’s isolated, it seems to me that something like this would have a better chance of spreading since it’s in a small town and there aren’t a lot of available resources to stop it,” Webb explained.

“By the time the resources do get here, they’d have to try and not only contain Big Spring, but all of West Texas. It would spread quick, because you wouldn’t be able to catch them all,” Webb said. “And I think that people from West Texas are friendly to a certain degree, so that helps propagate the spread of the zombies. People that read the book who do live in Big Spring can say, ‘Hey, I know that place or I recognize that area.’ They can relate to what’s going on.”

Readers can order the book online at www.amazon.com or directly from the publisher’s Website www.PublishAmerica.com.

Currently, Webb is working on a sequel to “The Phoenix Gene” that follows six months after this book ends. Right now, he has a few more projects that he’d like to work on.

“A lot of things in the future depend on how well this book does,” he admitted. “I’ve got some other things in the works. I’d like to see how everything goes from here on.”

Contact Staff Writer Dustin Wilson at 263-7331, ext. 236, or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it