How to write about zombies

Last night I took a writing class called "How to Write a Zombie Fiction or Horror Novel." I found out about this class from one of the 80,000 "daily deal" newsletters I now subscribe to and, naturally, my curiosity was piqued.

There were a lot of fans of "The Walking Dead" (both comic book series and TV show) in class and the author who was teaching said the comic is what inspired him to write a zombie book as well as the Romero movies and WORLD WAR Z, both mentioned in reverent tones. The author, who resembled a more realistic James Franco, had worked in TV and in book publishing before his writing career had taken off. He described being around editors as "the most exciting thing" about working in publishing. (That's one for all my editor and would-be editor friends. Suitable for framing.)

There were several self-described working writers in the class, as well as a few filmmakers, a woman with a children's book and man whose company is organizing a zombies vs. vampires scavenger hunt.
A woman in an argyle sweater who looked like my mom described a recent Sears appliance ad featuring zombies and described herself as "fairly zombie obsessed at the moment." There was a couple on a date, and she was more attentive than he was.

A man who said he had worked with Neil Gaiman (he even referred to him as "Neil") asked the author whether zombies had peaked as a concept for entertainment, an opinion held by at least one person who reads this blog, and if the "market was going to collapse" for zombie-related entertainment. "Yes," the author said. "No. I don't know. I mean." It may not be as easy to get your zombie fiction read now, he said, because it has to be taken to the next level -- zombies and something else. In some cases the "something" is represented by a social critique (i.e. Romero's malls) or a moral dilemma (my wife has turned into a zombie, should I kill her before she can get to me?). But in that sense, the novelty has worn off.

A few examples of "zombies and something else" I did not know existed before this class: The movie "Zombie Strippers!" The market for zombie erotica ("larger than literary fiction," apparently?) The Beatles parody book PAUL IS UNDEAD.

I was hoping he would elaborate more on what specifically made zombie fiction such, but instead he focused on the following principles:

1. Almost anything can have zombies in it. He had us go through newspapers to find stories that could be adapted to be zombie stories. His concept of CATCHER IN THE RYE with zombies was particularly attractive. 
2. Focus on writing a good story, not just a good zombie story -- effectively contradicting my class expectations, oh well. 

The class was organized through the Learning Annex, which is kind of the New York version of "community enrichment" courses. A lot of celebrities teach one-off seminars; on the cover of the catalog they gave us last night was a Real Housewife, Patricia Field (fashion designer, "The Devil Wears Prada," "Sex and the City," etc.) and a woman I had never heard of with the fantastic name of Drita D'Avanzo, who is married to someone in the Mafia. I'm not sure what her hook was. They were holding several classes concurrently at our site (the basement of a Hilton in midtown) and next door's was "How to Marry a Millionaire." I did not attend, because who cares, but I heard that the audience was "95% women" and "fairly scary," which is something coming from a fellow attendee of a class about zombies.