What if zombies were coming for you?

That’s what Kyle West, OU graduate, thought two years ago when he was a professional writing junior in the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

It was a question that provided framework for the writer’s first novel where the reader is the protagonist, and the outcome is undetermined.

He began writing about 40 pages before he realized the project was larger than he had intended, West said.

Jelani Sims, professional writing senior, got involved in the production process when he and West were in professor Melvin Odom’s Writing the Short Story class and West announced his idea for a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

Sims jumped on board, and the two began the long process of mapping out the story.

“We would work on it late [at] night,” said Sims. “Kyle would come over to my room and we would sit and map it all out. . . . We took things that you often see in zombie movies: forests, malls, Walmart, cities, airports.”

During the summer, they wrote it all out, West said.

“I was really cruel sometimes,” he said. “I guess it was my job to keep everything on track and stuff. Jelani would get distracted with school and I would have to tell him the book was more important – no, not really.”

Though they were inspired by books like the “Goosebumps” series, West and Sims say their end product — “The Night of the Necromancer: Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?” — is unique.

“There are Choose Your Own Adventure books, but the book is unique in its own way because there are none that are as big as this one,” West said.

Sims said he and West tried to pay closer attention to detail than is evident in other books of the same genre.

“We tried to have some detailed characters, like make it a story that maybe you feel like you’re reading a novel,” Sims said. “The only difference is you’re making decisions every now and then.”

Their goal, Sims said, was to make a true hybrid of a novel and a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

It wasn’t the duo’s intention to publish the book once they began writing, they said. With Odom’s encouragement, however, they decided they should go for it.

“We kind of advised ourselves,” Sims said. “We basically motivated ourselves.”

Printing the book cost nothing but time.

“Basically, you just go to Amazon.com and it’s easy, anyone can do it,” Sims said.

Amazon’s CreateSpace, which West and Sims used to publish their book, is a manufacture-on-demand model and requires no up-front investment in inventory, according to Amazon.com.

Through Amazon, writers can create Kindle e-books as well as print versions, and the company takes royalties from sales of the book.

Barnes and Noble’s Nook also sells West and Sims’s book.

“The Night of the Necromancer” costs $3.99 for a digital copy, and the print version costs $16.99.

Being published authors has evoked some mixed emotions, especially once OU and Gaylord College began publicizing their new book.

“I was like ‘oh my gosh now people are going to know about it, and they’re going to read it and they might think I’m dumb and can’t write,’” Sims said laughing. “Or they might like it. You know, either way it’s kind of terrifying to kind of set out your child — this thing that you’ve birthed — and just have people have their way with it.”

But reviews have been positive. Sims and West created a Facebook group and a blog for the book. All three reviews on Amazon.com have awarded the book five stars.

That excitement, the authors said, was the very thing that attracted Sims and West to write a zombie novel.

“I think it’s just the aspect of the unknown — fearing the unknown,” West said. “Like whenever you read a horror book, it’s not so much the zombie or the monster that’s scary, but it’s the fact that you don’t know what’s after you.”

Sims said he has always liked stories in which people are put to the test.

“It’s just people in situations — dire situations — and coming out and surviving,” Sims said. “I like that theme in horror, and I like the monsters and gore as well.

Sims said “The Night of the Necromancer” is written to capture that thrill by using second-person point of view, so the reader feels like part of the story.

West said he feels proud of what he’s done and that it’s something he’s wanted to do his whole life.

West and Sims said they are both are in the process of writing and refining new novels, they said.

“It’s kind of my aspiration to be the black Stephen King, and to be a popular horror author,” Sims said. “That’s my goal — to become a popular horror author and make a career out of it.”

Editor’s note: Jelani Sims is a current Daily columnist and Kyle West is a former Daily staff writer.