People grow up, though, or so Andrew has been told. His interests expanded, limited world views were shattered, horizons increased in scope. Mental health problems became intractable, psychedelic medicines and following one’s dreams were recognized for their curative powers. Atheism became raving pantheism became ‘wrong question, dude’ as Andrew found himself no longer young enough to know everything or believe anything. Instead, he finds himself writing characters who think they know everything.
If you really want to stroke Andrew’s ego, tell him you’ve never read anything like his work before. It makes his writing nearly impossible to market but at least I’ve got chicken, as young Leroy Jenkins once proclaimed to a bunch of nerds in the mid-aughts.
What’s that? You want bog-standard biographical info? Lawyer, father of one, man nearing middle age who gets his jollies pushing and bending and licking the literary envelope.
Happy?
Andrew Marc Rowe’s latest book is Hi De Ho, Infecterino! The Come Up.
Website & Social Media:
Website ➜ http://www.andrewmarcrowe.com
Facebook ➜ https://www.facebook.com/andrewmarcrowe
TikTok ➜ https://www.tiktok.com/@bawdybardwrites
Before you started writing your book, what kind of research did you do to prepare yourself to write it?
I don't really research things before hand. I'm more of an 'on the fly' type of guy. That said, this is billed as a 'Psychedelic-Soaked Zombie Horror Comedy.' I mean, on this subject, zombie horror and psychedelics, I spent most of my adult life ingesting both. I mean, information about both. For zombie horror, I got hooked with Resident Evil on the PlayStation when I was thirteen and I just have been addicted ever since. With psychedelics, if I'm being honest, they saved my life and helped me find purpose. I am as well read on the subject as anyone I know. As for comedy, I mean... can you really learn how to be funny? Or do you just have to be raised in a viper pit with three other siblings who spent their formative years watching comedy movies together and teasing each other relentlessly?
Did you pursue publishers or did you opt to self-pub?
When I published my first book, The Yoga of Strength: A Fable, in 2019, I pre-sold it and got it crowdfunded using a service called Publishizer. It was a decently successful campaign. I was offered a few deals, including a couple of traditional deals from what seemed like solid publishers with decent pedigrees. But the reality is, I have to follow someone else's rules enough at my day job. This is my chance to truly be liberated, and I'll be gorsh dorned if I'm going to have someone else tell me what I can and can't write. So I chose a hybrid publisher, what people might call a vanity press, using the money raised. It was called Atmosphere Press. Nick Courtright, the owner, did exactly as the name suggested - he courted me right. He also showed me enough of the ropes that I found an editor and a cover artist, did some further auto-didactical education, and moved into self-publishing after that. Hi De Ho, Infecterino!: The Come Up is my twenty-second published book.
If self-published, did you hire someone to format the ebook version for you or did you do it yourself? Can you tell us what that was like?
I use Jutoh to format my e-books. It's an old school looking piece of software - something from the old glory days of Windows 3.1. That said, it is good at what it does and I'm happy with the output.
If self-published, how did you determine the price?
I went with $4.99 for the ebook because I'm at a stage of my career where I feel confident enough in my work to give it a reasonable price for what I think it's worth. I would pay five bucks for the book if I knew what it was. Before I bought it. Somehow.
Did you purposefully choose a distinct month to release your book? Why?
This dropped in January of 2024. I was going through a hard time in my personal life and I kind of rushed it out the door, which is why I'm only starting to promote it a year later.
How did you choose your cover?
Welp, there's an atomic bomb which is being ridden by a zombie with the tip of a fly agaric mushroom cap on his head dropping into London. There is psychedelic tie dyed gas coming out of the back of the bomb. It's about as appropriate a cover as it can possibly get. Obviously I'm going for a very serious and sedate thing, since this book means serious business. It's got 'literary fiction of incomparable gravitas' and 'short listed for the Man Booker prize' written all over it!
What are some of the most important things you believe an author should do after their book is released?
Take a chill pill and be satisfied that you just released your baby into the world. The book will sell itself.
Hahaha, psych! Now the real work begins. Like picking up the gold coins from the bank to add to the swimming pool in the backyard before getting ready to take a dive, a la Scrooge McDuck. Particularly since you published your book in a very popular category, beloved by forlorn married women wishing that their husbands would learn how to give proper... oh, hey look at that, I'm almost out of space!
What would you like to say to your readers and fans about your book?
If you don't read this book, you will die. You will die if you do read this book, too. In fact, death is the inevitable end of this mortal coil, nothing we do in these lives will stand the test of the eons to come, we're all so much dust and echoes...
So we might as well have a laff while the laffin' is gud.
Inside the Book
Title: Hi De Ho, Infecterino!
Author: Andrew Marc Rowe
Publication Date: January 28, 2025
Pages: 202
Genre: Zombie/Horror/Comedy
Larry Evans was on the brink of his big break. As the lead singer of a rising rock band in 1980s London, his dream of leaving behind his small-time drug-dealing days seemed within reach. But fate—or more accurately, a freak fire and a faceful of experimental fungal spores—had other plans. Transformed into patient zero of a flesh-eating zombie outbreak, Larry unwittingly becomes ground zero for a pandemic that’s more psychedelic than apocalyptic.
The culprit? De Longeuil, a hallucinogenic fungal infection created by the brilliant but socially awkward scientist Hester. As the infection spreads, it alters not just bodies but minds, creating a hive mind of infected individuals who crave brains and challenge the limits of human evolution. Meanwhile, global leaders weigh the nuclear option, threatening to obliterate Great Britain in a desperate bid to contain the outbreak.
Enter an unlikely alliance: Larry, fighting to maintain his humanity; Starseed, the newly sentient fungal hive mind; and a ragtag crew of survivors, including Willy, an adult bookstore clerk battling his own addictions, and Ralph, whose experimental fluconazole offers a glimmer of hope but at a strange cost to her own humanity. Together, they must find a way to prove to the world that the infected aren’t mindless monsters, all while dodging fallout—both literal and figurative.
Across the Atlantic, Subject #30452—a crow gifted with sapience thanks to Parasol Industries’ sinister experiments—embarks on his own odyssey. From revenge to psychedelic enlightenment, his journey takes him to a New Jersey arcade run by a hippie named Zane, where unexpected connections begin to reshape his worldview.
Hi De Ho, Infecterino! is the first explosive installment of The Parasol Files, a mind-bending trilogy that blends apocalyptic chaos with dark humor, wild characters, and a sharp, satirical edge. Equal parts zany adventure, raunchy comedy, and biting commentary, this is a story of survival, evolution, and the absurdity of it all. Buckle up for a trippy, laugh-out-loud ride into the end of the world—and the strange possibilities it might bring.
Hi De Ho, Infecterino! The Come Up is available at Amazon.
