David Moody's Blog, page 30

Here Comes the (Bloody) Flood…

As I hope you already know, the first book in THE BLEED trilogy – RUPTURE – is released next month. Co-authored by CHRIS PHILBROOK, MARK TUFO and myself, it’s a wild and epic horror/science-fiction/fantasy story that spans worlds and universes. It’s like nothing I’ve been involved in before, and I can’t wait for you to read it. Due for release on 14 July, it’ll also be available to listen to on the day as an AUDIBLE exclusive release. Chris, Mark and I wanted to build your anticipation so, every week between now and release, we’ll be sharing an excerpt with you. This week, allow us to set the scene with an introduction…

 

The planet was so old that it didn’t have a name. The people who lived there were nameless too. They had evolved and grown over countless generations and had become a strong and complex society. The needs of all individuals were considered; the collective was everything; the past, the present and the future were always in mind.

In this utopian society, the rule of law was sacred. People understood that, for them to remain strong and prosper, their friends, families, and neighbors needed to be strong and prosperous too. And for generation after generation, those principles held true and people worked with each other for collective reward. But the multiverse is a whirlwind of chaos, and sometimes no matter how hard people try to plan for it, chance and circumstance conspire to devastating effect.

An asteroid.

A massive spinning, rolling lump of rock hurtled through the void of space and hit the planet, and though the initial damage of the impact was limited, the long-term implications were stark. Clouds of noxious dust and ash were spewed into the atmosphere, plunging the planet into a brutal ice age. Oceans froze. Crops failed. Millions died. And the millions more who survived now faced the most uncertain of futures.

When there’s not enough food to keep everyone alive, how do we decide who lives and who dies?

The ancient society collapsed with terrifying ease and speed.

With the world’s equilibrium now out of balance, it became a fight for survival. The society was torn in two. On one side, those who still believed in the values of their elders and the past did all that they could to help as many people as possible. Those on the other side of the divide, however, said fuck you to the rest of their world. Base and carnal, they spilled the blood of their brothers and sisters without a second thought. The roads and rivers ran red.

This was the genesis of the Bleed.

Those who still believed in the values and structures of their ancient society used their collective wisdom to find a way of escaping the hell their planet had become. Able to travel between different worlds, universes, and dimensions, they became gods and sowed the seeds of all civilizations throughout the multiverse.

Those left behind, consumed by anger, jealously, and rage, became demons.

The abandoned people of the Bleed stole the technology of the gods and set out for revenge. And wherever they found the children of the gods, they attacked. They mutated and killed. They turned natural worlds against their indigenous inhabitants; insects became giant monsters, life-giving water turned to blood and was filled with disease….

Blinded by its anger, the Bleed won’t rest until the gods and all other living things are dead and it is the only thing that remains.

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THE BLEED: RUPTURE is released on 14 July. THE BLEED: RAPTURE follows next March, with THE BLEED: ARMAGEDDON to follow in September 2021.

 

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Hate coffee?

Thanks to Mikael and the team at RELISH COFFEE in Whitley Bay for sending me a stash of HATER-inspired coffee. Excellent use of the GOLLANCZ Hater cover art, and damn fine tasting coffee. Love it!

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Quatermass and the Pit

Over the course of the last couple of months in lockdown, I’ve been working my way through a box set of 21 Hammer films. Some are great, some are not. One of them – QUATERMASS AND THE PIT – just happens to be one of my favourite films of all time and, when I realised I’d not recommended it here, I thought I’d better correct that. It also gives me an opportunity to plug issue 60 of SCREAM MAGAZINE, which just happens to feature an excellent article about the various adaptations of Nigel Kneale’s tale.

Professor Bernard Quatermass is one of my fictional heroes. He’s a man in search of truth and explanation; someone who refuses to be bullied by the military or the media or politicians into making assumptions or rash decisions. It’s interesting – watching the TV news from around the world right now, you can see more than a few Quatermass-like characters biting their lips in the background while our so-called world leaders talk nonsense and bullshit their way around the truth about the pandemic and its effects.

There are four Quatermass stories, and all of them are worthy of your attention. The first, the Quatermass Experiment, was a ground-breaking serial first broadcast live by the BBC in 1955 which told the story of the first manned space flight. On the ship’s return, two of the three-man crew are missing. The sole survivor begins acting strangely and it soon becomes clear that he has been taken over by an alien presence. I can only imagine how terrifying this must have been for viewers back in the day, prior to the beginning of the space race, as they watched huddled together around their black and white TV sets. But it’s QUATERMASS AND THE PIT, the professor’s third outing, which is the most well-known of Kneale’s stories. To my mind, the 1967 Hammer adaptation is a classic.

During excavations in London a large unidentified object is unearthed. It defies definition although the area has always been associated with diabolical evil. Within its walls Professor Quatermass discovers the remains of intelligent alien creatures that attempted to conquer the Earth in prehistoric times and, through their experiments on early man, altered human evolution to its present state. Though dormant for many centuries, the power supply from the excavations is being drained by the ship until its terrifying force can be unleashed and the creatures can reinstate their violent dominance over man.

To say QUATERMASS AND THE PIT is influential would be something of an understatement. It has been cited by Stephen King and John Carpenter amongst others, and it’s had a huge influence on my writing over the years. There are so many fascinating themes at play here, and they’re handled in a smart and logical way. The story unfolds gradually, peeling back layer after layer, discovery after discovery, to reveal the ultimate outcome. And that outcome is about as far removed as possible from what you’d expect at the outset. Kneale sets up a stereotypical sounding tale of alien contact but elevates it to new heights by rooting it many hundreds of years in the past. A situation which initially appears to be focused on one specific corner of one specific city steadily spirals to encompass the entire human race and beyond.

I’ve always strived to make the implausible situations I write about seem as believable as possible. Whether that’s alien invasions, zombie apocalypses, climate disasters or any other nightmare scenario, I’ve always found that by rooting the premise in normality, it exponentially increases the impact of the horror. Part of the way I’ve tried to do that is by focusing on characters who are far removed from the centre of the problem; my ‘heroes’ are typically unfortunate buggers who just happen to get caught up in the chaos. With Quatermass, though, Nigel Kneale tells the stories from the perspective of the character who is both the expert and who is invariably trapped right in the eye of the storm. This works so well, I believe, because the professor is continually being rebuffed and ignored. It’s a powerful narrative choice, which allows Kneale to build on the strength of the professor’s character. He’s constantly undermined by those who believe they know best, but he focuses on the facts and the truth and doesn’t pander to other influences. As I said earlier, there are some surprising parallels with today’s pandemic where political point-scoring and profit appears to have more importance than people’s lives.

This adaptation of QUATERMASS AND THE PIT also succeeds because of its pacing and production values. Kneale’s screenplay (adapted from his original TV script) is taut and perfectly pitched. The cast, notably Hammer stalwart Andrew Keir in the title role, and Julian Glover as the officious Colonel Breen, are excellent. Technically ambitious and accomplished – a few dodgy model shots and visible wires aside – it’s a good looking film which feels a class apart from many of Hammer’s other productions. There’s a feel of mounting unease which permeates the entire movie; a feeling of the blind leading the blind, of the human race sleepwalking into something catastrophic. As I said, it’s a timely watch right now.

QUATERMASS AND THE PIT (known as FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH in some territories) is available on bluray. British readers can rent the movie cheaply from the BFI website, where you can also catch an introduction from Mark Kermode. Can I also recommend you pick up a copy of the latest SCREAM MAGAZINE (and you’ll have to be quick, as it’s almost sold out). As usual, it’s rammed full of interesting features. As well as the Quatermass article I’ve already mentioned, you’ll also find pieces on PUMPKINHEAD, EXORCIST III, and Lucio Fulci’s zombie movies. Visit www.screamhorrormag.com for more information.

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The Bleed – available to pre-order

I’d planned to post about this a couple of weeks ago, but my heart had other ideas.

I’m thrilled to announce that THE BLEED: RUPTURE – the first in the new fantasy/horror/science-fiction trilogy written by myself, CHRIS PHILBROOK and MARK TUFO – will be released on 14 July 2020. The novel will be available as an ebook, paperback, and an AUDIBLE exclusive audiobook, which I’m very excited about. Pre-orders for the audio and ebook editions are open now.

You’re going to enjoy this one!

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Missing in Action

When the lockdown began, I promised visitors to this site more regular updates. Things started well, and I gave away a load of audiobooks and ebooks and recommended a decent short film. And then it all came to an abrupt halt. I wanted to write a brief post to explain my sudden absence, and to thank the people who’ve helped me through it.

Two weeks ago today, I had a heart attack.

It came out of the blue. My dad suffered years of heart-related problems at the end of his life, and I was determined my life would take a different route. I did everything I should – I sorted out my diet to reduce my cholesterol and lost weight, I exercised several times a week, I took steps to sort out my high blood pressure… At 8:00am on Tuesday 14 April, I can honestly say I felt in better shape than I ever had. Ten minutes later, though, it was a very different story.

I’ll cut to the chase. My family are incredible, and our NHS is second-to-none. Within an hour or so of suffering the attack, I was in hospital and undergoing treatment. Within three hours I was sitting up in bed in the coronary care unit of the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham, feeling well enough to be able to send my wife and kids the picture below.

I’m doing well now, all things considered. Because of the quick response time, there’s barely any damage to my heart, and I’m hopeful that within a few months I’ll be back to normal (whatever normal is these days). But there’s no question that this has been a life-changing experience. I was very fortunate, but when something like this happens, it’s easy to think ‘what if…?’. Things could have been very, very different. The outcome could have been much, much, much worse.

So I just wanted to let you know I’m still around and I’ll be back at work soon. The real purpose of this post, however, is to publicly thank some folks. Firstly, to my wonderful wife Lisa and my amazing kids. I’m a very lucky man. I put you all through hell that morning, and I’m sorry. Thank you from the bottom of my (now improved) heart for your love and support. I pride myself on usually being able to string a few words together, but I could never express how much I love you all. Also, to my extended family and friends – I will never forget the outpouring of emotion and the deluge of good wishes I’ve had from so many folks. It’s enough to bring a tear to this grumpy old bugger’s eye. Actually, who the hell am I kidding? I’ve been reduced to tears on many occasions since my ‘mishap’ (as my youngest daughter Zoe has labelled it).

I also want to pay tribute to everyone at the QE hospital, and to the NHS as a whole. I received incredible care, delivered at astonishing speed. In normal circumstances that would be remarkable enough, but I had a heart attack at the peak of the most serious and wide-reaching health crisis in living memory. I am simply in awe of the NHS and will be forever grateful for the treatment I received.

So there you go. It’s been a tricky couple of weeks. If my 2020 was a novel, no one would publish it because it would be too far-fetched! In all seriousness, though, wherever you are, please give your loved ones a hug and also show your appreciation for the many thousands of healthcare workers keeping us all safe and well at this unprecedented time.

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The FREE Big Thing

Hello. I hope everyone is as well as they can be in the circumstances. I thought I would give some books away as a lockdown distraction. I’m very proud of THE LAST BIG THING – it’s a collection I released last year of some of my favourite short stories. You can download the ebook version of the book free from now until the end of Monday. Click here to get it. Please leave a review or tell a friend if you like it.

And I still have a few codes for free audiobooks – TRUST, STRAIGHT TO YOU, THE COST OF LIVING and STRANGERS. Fill in this form if you want one. There aren’t too many left, so be quick. I’ll remove the form from this post when they’re all gone.

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Joe and Me

I’ll admit, when I first started writing the original AUTUMN novel back in 1996 (I think), I wasn’t too bothered about trying to work out what caused the horrific infection that wiped out most of the human race (then made millions of them them get up again). As I’ve always said, the books are more about the human stories that followed than anything else. But by the time I got to AUTUMN: PURIFICATION in 2004, I’d spent quite a bit of time thinking about what might have happened. You sort of get a hint of an explanation in that book.

It was much, much later when I decided to come clean and write about the chain of events that triggered the AUTUMN apocalypse. The story – JOE AND ME – was written, but as far as I was concerned the AUTUMN series was done and dusted and I had no immediate plans to publish it. Enter my friend MICHAEL WILSON of THIS IS HORROR. Michael asked me to write the first THIS IS HORROR chapbook, and I saw an opportunity to release JOE AND ME into the wild. I was thrilled with the reception the story received, and that inspired me to re-write and expand the companion collection, AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION. JOE AND ME also features in that book.

I’ve thought a lot about JOE AND ME since the coronavirus pandemic began (you’ll understand why if you read it), and I decided to share it again. I thought the best way of doing that was to link to the episode of the THIS IS HORROR podcast when I narrated an audiobook version. Forgive my rough around the edges Brummie delivery – I’m very much an amateur when it comes to audio – but here it is. I hope you enjoy it.

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La Cabina (The Phone Box)

I hope you and your loved ones are well wherever you are. I’m in lockdown at home with the family and am trying to write my way through the pandemic. My next project is to start the first book in the new AUTUMN trilogy, but inspiration for that is proving elusive given what’s going on right now.

We all need a distraction in times like this, so I have one for you. It’s been a while since I recommended a movie here, and I’m going to put that right today. It’s a classic short film which, at the moment, is available in its entirety on YouTube, so this post is really just to point you in the right direction.

A little bit of background to begin with. My office window looks out onto our back garden, and one feature in particular. My wife Lisa has – how can I put this? – an eclectic taste in outdoor ornaments, and her prize possession is a genuine K6 telephone box. It was lovingly restored and now takes pride of place in the garden. I’ve joked with a few folks about using it as an isolation pod during lockdown, and the thought of being trapped in the phone box reminded me of the 1972 Spanish movie, LA CABINA (THE PHONE BOX).

If you’re as old as me and remember the horror double bills which used to be shown on Saturday nights on the BBC in the 1980s, you might remember seeing this one. It starts as a gentle, almost comedic short about a man trapped in a box, but over the course of its 30-odd minute duration, the tone shifts completely.

LA CABINA is highly recommended, even in these worrying times when we’re all feeling as isolated as the man in the box. Take care, stay safe, and enjoy the film.

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TRUST audiobook now available

Hello everyone. Hope you’re all doing as well as you can be in the circumstances. I wanted to let you know that, at long last, the audiobook version of TRUST is available. Click here for more details. If you want to get hold of a free copy, read on.

TRUST is one of my personal favourites, and I know it’s a book that’s affected a lot of folks over the years. I’ve always loved that CRAIG PATON, the designer of the beautifully otherworldly cover art, described it as an ‘anti-science-fiction novel’. To me, that description has always felt spot on. My other favourite quote came from a reader who said the final chapters of the book were ‘like dozens of pages of falling down the stairs.’ This adaptation has turned out brilliantly. Narrator STEVE WAWMAN has done a magnificent job.

We’re all going through a pretty shitty time at the moment. There’s not a lot I can do to help, but I’m keen to offer a distraction from the pandemic (with a heart-warming tale of alien invasions… or not). I have 50 copies of the TRUST audiobook to giveaway, as well as copies of the audio editions of STRAIGHT TO YOU, STRANGERS and THE COST OF LIVING (probably best to give that one a miss for now!). Fill out the form below and I’ll get copies sent out. It’s first come, first serve, and I’m afraid the codes are only redeemable in the UK and US.

Please submit the form below. Your details will ONLY be used for the purposes of sending an Audible promotion code to you. One code per person. Please note – your code will be sent to you by email within 48 hours of your submission. This post will be updated when all available codes have been claimed.

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If you enjoy listening to TRUST or any of my other books, please consider leaving a review. TRUST is also available as a low-price ebook and paperback.

Stay safe everyone.

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Remain Calm! (it’s probably going to be okay)

Hello everyone. Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. It’s actually only a few weeks, but it feels like a lifetime. In my 20+ years of writing apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, I never believed we’d ever collectively experience anything like Covid-19. Before you stop reading, don’t worry – this isn’t me using this nightmare situation to try and sell a few books.

Couldn’t resist sharing that video, though. My old pal Iain McKinnon and some of his colleagues made a series of short HATER promo videos back when DOG BLOOD was about to be released, only for us to be unable to use them because it looked like the movie was about to happen.

Anyway, back to the point.

It’s surreal and frightening to be sitting here in lockdown like this. If I’m honest, it does feel like something out of one of my books, and plenty of folks have been quick to point that out. I wrote THE COST OF LIVING when my family and I moved into our current house and set it on our development; now we’re genuinely isolated in our home from a viral pandemic. The AUTUMN series, of course, is all about a world ravaged by a virulent disease, and with the toilet roll panic buying hysteria in the supermarkets, I’ve seen things on the TV news which definitely remind me of HATER (chapter 20 in particular). But for all these similarities, I DON’T THINK THIS IS THE APOCALYPSE.

Terrifying though, isn’t it?

The books I write have always focused on the worst case scenario. You can bet the folks you meet in the first chapter will have been through absolute hell by the time they get to the last page (if they get that far). The infections they’re dealing with are just a MacGuffin designed to cause maximum chaos for my characters to sort out. We are not those characters, and though the disease we’re fighting today is an absolute fucker, I’m hopeful it will be beaten. Things feel so oppressive and grim right now that it’s easy to believe we’re all trapped without hope in a grim Moody dystopia, but we’re not. We can and we will get through this!

Stay safe, stay positive, stay sensible and stay healthy. My sincere best wishes to you and your families. I’m going to make a conscious effort to post here regularly in the coming weeks. I have some freebies and other things of interest I want to share with you (although my stories might be the absolute last thing you want to read right now!).

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