Over the last week or so numerous blogging top guns such as Jen Fulwiler and The Anchoress and Dorian Speed have plugged Ryan Charles Trusell and his publication Ora et Labora et Zombies as well as his printing/publishing company called Labora Editions.
The unique thing about Ryan’s book is twofold. First it is a Benedictine zombie apocalypse novel. Yeah, get your head around that one. But first read what Ryan posed on his website:

While his wife, Ava, is out of town, Dr. Thomas Schutten is off for a week to take care of their eighteen month old son, James, and to enjoy the last few days of carnival, and then… something misunderstood and mysterious… and his world changes, almost overnight, into a dangerous place. Information services stop, society begins to pull itself apart, and Dr. Tom does the only thing he knows to do; he follows his own emergency plan and flees with James to the nearby Benedictine monastery, where he and his wife serve as oblates. They have agreed upon the Abbey as their meeting place in emergency circumstances. Now, without word, without news, with only hope… he waits.


Ora et Labora et Zombies is an epistolary novel, told through letters. In this case they are Tom’s letters, written to Ava while he waits for her to join him and their son at the Abbey. All that stands between them is time and uncertainty… and zombies?

Second, his novel isn’t available in book format. Rather it is written in the form of Tom’s letters to Ava – real letters. The handwritten letters are sent as a weekly serial through the mail. Real paper. Handwritten letters. Watermarked stationery. The mail box. Anticipation. Egads, I swoon at the thought. It is new school meets old school.
Okay, I admit when I first heard about it I kept thinking, whaaaat?? But after reading over his website and all the great things others were saying, I couldn’t help but order the first set of letters. I’ll let you know what I really think after I receive them. I can’t wait. 😉
You can order your copy here.