David Moody's Blog, page 66
July 1, 2014
Dead Water
Sometimes things just click into place. Here’s an example: a while back I had an idea for a short story which was inspired, in part, by the steel works at Port Talbot, Wales. You can see a photograph below. I’d always loved the idea of a place like this, perched on the very edge of the land, being one of the last enclaves of the human race after some unspecified apocalyptic event.
And then I was contacted by a friend of mine, Dan Boucher, who is one of the minds behind www.thenovelblog.com (and who has helped me out on a number of occasions in the past… remind yourself of his incredible work here). Dan’s partner in crime on the blog, Peter Mark May, runs Hersham Horror Books and releases regular PentAnths – themed anthologies featuring stories from five invited authors. So I landed myself an invite to contribute to DEAD WATER, and my Port Talbot-inspired story seemed to fit the bill perfectly.
We all need water to live, but what if that life giving body was not so friendly after all?
The book is available now (Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk / Kindle US / Kindle UK – more links to follow) and features my story THE LUCKY ONES alongside tales from Dan, Maynard Sims, Alan Spencer and Simon Bestwick.
Click the link below the steelworks picture for a brief snippet.
William is one of the lucky ones. He knows this, because his mother tells him so, several times every day. One of the old men told him too, that time he dared to question. The old man hit him across the face, bloodied his nose. ‘You’re safe, you’re warm, you’re alive,’ he shouted at William when they caught him trying to get away. ‘Things don’t get better than that anymore.’
But William’s not so sure.
The factory is home. It’s a man-made island; a mass of concrete walls and metal pipework, surrounded by water on all sides. The acidic seawater is devoid of all life. Toxic. Poison. It isolates them from everything else, leaves them vulnerable and exposed.
This place used to be an immense steel production facility, connected to the mainland by road and rail. Not anymore. Not for a long time. Those connections to the homeland have been permanently severed.
The factory itself used to be many times this size, once employing more people than are probably left alive in total now. Now the last vestiges of industrial activity are confined to one end of the complex, with the remains of the isolated population eating, learning and living, away from the furnace, the chimneys, the exhaust fumes and the noise.
The decline began when war broke out, so long ago that the reasons for the fighting have been all but forgotten. Our brave men and women are still out there, though, risking their lives on foreign, polluted shores, to preserve the freedom of those who keep the factory fires burning. William’s most recent letter from his father, received only last week, said his division had secured an important tactical advantage in the preceding days, and that the end of the fighting would almost certainly soon be in sight.
It’s a funny old beast, this place; a safe and reassuring home, yet with all the restrictions and inflexibility of a prison. William’s teacher used to always use a particular word to describe it. Symbiotic, that was it. The factory needs its people, and the people need their factory, she’d always say, and she was right. You can’t have one without the other. The people keep the place working and keep the furnace lit and stoked, and in turn the factory keeps them warm and dry, safe from what the rest of the world has become.
But William is still not convinced, no matter what they tell him.
Buy DEAD WATER from Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk / Kindle US / Kindle UK.
Dead Water is a post from: David Moody - author of the HATER and AUTUMN books
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June 25, 2014
A quick plug for a good friend – David Shires, the COST OF LIVING cover artist
I just wanted to take a moment to publicly thank David Shires of The Image Designs for his stirling work in putting together the brilliant cover art for THE COST OF LIVING at short notice recently. Often when I’m working on an Infected Books release, I’ll have an idea what kind of design I want to use and I’ll give the artist a very general brief. In this case I had an idea and I’d made an incredibly amateurish attempt to produce the artwork myself. I emailed David all the details, and received the finished piece within a day. Phenomenal!
David’s done work for me previously and has been featured on this site before. You might remember his AUTUMN illustrations which are on display over at www.lastoftheliving.net. My personal favourites are the images he produced for OFFICE POLITICS and SKIN.
For more information about David’s work, email create@theimagedesigns.com or visit www.theimagedesigns.com or facebook.com/theimagedesigns. Once again, huge thanks to David for his work on THE COST OF LIVING which has been a massive factor in the book’s success. I’m incredibly grateful.
THE COST OF LIVING is available now from AMAZON.COM | AMAZON.CO.UK | AMAZON.DE | AMAZON.ES | AMAZON.IT | AMAZON.CA | AMAZON.COM.AU.
Watch for an announcement in the next few weeks about another zombie-themed novella and an undead print collection coming soon from Infected Books.
A quick plug for a good friend – David Shires, the COST OF LIVING cover artist is a post from: David Moody - author of the HATER and AUTUMN books
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June 18, 2014
Suffer the Children by Craig DiLouie
Now I like my character-driven horror fiction to be dark, but in his most recent book, Craig DiLouie has taken dark to a new extreme.
SUFFER THE CHILDREN (out now from Simon and Schuster/Permuted Press) is a genuinely horrific book, extraordinarily uncomfortable reading. DiLouie takes that most precious of things – the relationship between a parent and their child – and pushes it beyond breaking point. The synopsis follows. Click the link below for some thoughts on the book from Craig himself.
“One day, the children die. Three days later, they come back. And ask for blood.
With blood, they stop being dead. They become the children they once were.
But only for a short time. Too soon, they die again. And need more blood to live …
The average body holds ten pints of blood. How far would you go for your child?”
I asked Craig how he felt having written a book with such a disturbing premise. He told me “SUFFER THE CHILDREN is very different than my zombie books. It’s primarily psychological horror, grisly and chilling. The novel tells the story of a disease that strikes down the world’s children. Three days later, they come back and ask for blood. If the parents give them blood, they become the living, breathing children they once were, but only for a short time, forcing the parents to continually feed them. After a while, the only source of blood left will be each other.
The question becomes, how far would you go for someone you love? At what point does doing good become evil? These are daunting questions about our nature and instinct as humans–and the love expressed from that source–that are haunting readers of this book. I think it’s easy to say as a parent you’d put your arm in a shredder for your child. But would you put somebody else’s arm in a shredder? The concept fascinated me to an extent I had to write it.
The children in the book, yes, they’re something like vampires, but not in any traditional sense. They’re simply kids who need blood to survive, though they’re slowly changing. The real monsters in the book are the parents. They become monsters over time, with one little rationalization after another, and the evil some of them end up committing is horrible and macabre but also somewhat heroic, as they’re doing it out of love. The result is, I think, a story that horrifies readers, makes them think, and will haunt them long after they close its covers. Yes, it’s a dark read. I knew the novel would have less appeal than my zombie stories and, being horror, it’s more limited than general fiction, but it’s a powerful story I wanted to tell, and I’m proud of it. It’s honestly the most authentic and disturbing thing I’ve ever written. If you like horror, I think you’ll love this read.”
SUFFER THE CHILDREN is available now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository, and Indiebound. Find out more about Craig and his work at craigdilouie.com.
Suffer the Children by Craig DiLouie is a post from: David Moody - author of the HATER and AUTUMN books
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June 16, 2014
Infected Bookstore closing Tuesday at midnight!
One final post to advise that the Infected Bookstore will close its virtual doors tomorrow at around midnight UK time. Head over there now for one last look around…
And just to confirm, signed books will still be available from Amazon and eBay (and eventually from this site too). This is a ‘repositioning’ (to use a horrible corporate term). Infected Books is a publisher first and foremost, not a book shop!
Please click here to see what’s still available.
Infected Bookstore closing Tuesday at midnight! is a post from: David Moody - author of the HATER and AUTUMN books
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June 13, 2014
The genesis of THE COST OF LIVING
If you’ve already got the book, you’ll already know this but, if not, I thought it would make an interesting post. Did you know that I wrote three entirely different versions of THE COST OF LIVING, and that all three are included in the ebook?
It just goes to show the effect a format can have on the story you’re trying to tell.
The first incarnation of THE COST OF LIVING came back in 2010 when I was invited to put together a story for John Joseph Adams’ excellent LIVING DEAD 2 anthology. A different tale altogether ended up in the book (WHO WE USED TO BE), but I also finished PRIORITIES - the 5,000 word short story of mom, dad and disgruntled older son, trapped in their home at Dad’s insistence with no way out, surrounded by hordes of zombies.
I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the story. A while later I was invited to write a piece of flash fiction by my friends at THIS IS HORROR, and I decided to strip back THE COST OF LIVING to bare bones. Just 750 words.
But I still wasn’t happy. It seemed to me that whenever I tried to write the story, I was being curtailed by its length. I never saw THE COST OF LIVING as being long enough to make a full novel, but I knew it needed more than the short formats I’d already tried. So, at the beginning of this year, I started writing again with the sole aim of telling the story I wanted, irrespective of word count and length.
And I’m absolutely blown away by the reception you’ve given the 38,000 word novella version of THE COST OF LIVING, so much so that I’m planning to return to the format sooner rather than later. One novella a month, perhaps?
Wayne Simmons says: “THE COST OF LIVING is character-driven zombie horror at its very best. No fan of the genre should be without it.” And Chris Hall at DLSReviews.com says the book is: “A truly superb post-apocalyptic story.”
If you haven’t yet read THE COST OF LIVING, it’s available for $1.99/£1.22 from AMAZON.COM | AMAZON.CO.UK | AMAZON.DE | AMAZON.ES | AMAZON.IT | AMAZON.CA | AMAZON.COM.AU
The genesis of THE COST OF LIVING is a post from: David Moody - author of the HATER and AUTUMN books
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June 10, 2014
New event – Birmingham Readers’ Map Spoken Word Event
I’m very pleased to announce that I’ll be taking part in this event in Longbridge, Birmingham on 9th July at 7:00pm. The venue is Ashton Levi Coffee (5 & 6 Longbridge Lane, Birmingham, B31 2AJ) and there’s a Facebook event you can join here.
You might have seen me posting about the Birmingham Readers’ Map on Facebook a while ago. It’s a great initiative from Pigeon Park Press, and you can see it below.
A number of local authors have contributed to the map with links to where their stories took place in and around the city. It’s fascinating to explore. It came as a huge surprise to me, for example, to find that the place where Tom Winter grew up in TRUST, is just a couple of streets away from where Cal in Clive Barker’s WEAVEWORLD visited a psychic investigator!
On 9th July I’ll be joining some of the other Birmingham-based authors for an evening of readings, and it would be great to see some of you there.
New event – Birmingham Readers’ Map Spoken Word Event is a post from: David Moody - author of the HATER and AUTUMN books
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June 9, 2014
Rare signed book sale – update
Not long left now before the Infected Bookstore closes its virtual doors for good (though some signed books will still be available via this site and eBay and Amazon). I just wanted to update you on what’s still available.
I’ve just found a few original Infected Books editions, and there are still some AUTUMN and HATER bundles. Click the link below for more details or go straight to www.infectedbooks.co.uk.
Other titles are also available. Please visit www.infectedbooks.co.uk to find out more.
Rare signed book sale – update is a post from: David Moody - author of the HATER and AUTUMN books
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June 8, 2014
Miracle Mile
Quite a weird movie for this week’s recommendation. MIRACLE MILE (1988) is one of the strangest films I’ve seen in quite a while. It’s an almost surreal mix of genres: love story, thriller and comedy for starters, with a healthy dose of added paranoia. Here’s the synopsis and trailer. Click the link below for my thoughts.
A young man meets and falls in love with a young woman at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. This area is known as Miracle Mile, and the whole movie takes place there. They make a date, which he misses, and while he is searching for her, he accidentally finds out that we (the United States) are about to start a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. He frantically searches for her so that they can escape Los Angeles.
MIRACLE MILE has a fascinating premise: imagine the best thing that ever happens to you, happening on the worst day of your life. Musician Harry falls head over heels in love with waitress Julie but, through no fault of his own, sleeps through his date. Whilst searching for her in the middle of the night, he answers a phone box call – it’s a wrong number, but the caller has terrifying news.
Way, way back when I first started adding these film recommendations to this site, I talked about TAKE SHELTER – a wonderful movie with an unforgettable central performance by Michael Shannon as a man who is either a). completely insane, or b). genuinely aware that the world’s about to end. For me, the beauty of TAKE SHELTER was not knowing which way the story was going to go until the final scenes. Although nowhere near as powerful or well made, MIRACLE MILE holds a similar fascination.
The film has a distinctly unusual vibe about it with its cheap-looking, late eighties visuals and unforgivable fashions. And the look of the movie just serves to further compound its overall strangeness. For me it felt like an uncomfortably familiar nightmare – one of those disorientating, spiralling fantasies that you know doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but which becomes undeniably terrifying. With much of the action taking place in the middle of the night, there’s an emptiness and calm which feels unsettling because you know, one way or another, it’s not going to last. It’s like the story takes place in our world, but not quite our world.
To say much more would spoil the film for you, so I won’t. Please just hunt down a copy and watch it for yourself. I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts. Get the movie on DVD/VOD here.
Miracle Mile is a post from: David Moody - author of the HATER and AUTUMN books
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June 4, 2014
The Cost of Living – a couple of questions answered
First of all, thanks to everyone who already downloaded a copy of THE COST OF LIVING. I’ve been blown away by the book’s popularity. It’s been sitting at number #3 on the Amazon.co.uk Survival Horror charts pretty much since release, and that’s amazing.
I’m regularly being asked the same couple of questions about the availability of the book, so I thought I should post the answers here.
First, can I get an ePub version (Nook, iBook etc.)?
Technically, no – I’ve restricted this release to Amazon to take advantage of their promotional tools. But… if you desperately want an alternative version, please buy the Kindle book, then send me a copy of your receipt and I’ll email an ePub version back to you asap.
Second, can I get THE COST OF LIVING in print?
Not yet, but here’s my plan. TCOL is about half the length of one of my novels, and I don’t think a print edition would be economical. My plan, however, is to repeat this later in the year with the release of another similar-length novella, then to bundle the two stories together in a single paperback.
I hope this all makes sense. As always, get in touch if you need more information.
And finally…
Just one last bit of clarification. I’m only closing the Infected Bookstore, not the Infected Books publishing business. Apologies if I confused/alarmed anyone. If you were thinking of making a purchase from the rare book sale I’ve been holding this week, I’d get in fast. There’s not a lot left! Click here for more information.
The Cost of Living – a couple of questions answered is a post from: David Moody - author of the HATER and AUTUMN books
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June 2, 2014
Infected Bookstore to close – rare and out-of-print books for sale
It seems like I’m always trying to get you to buy signed books from www.infectedbooks.co.uk, but please allow me one last post…
I’ve decided that I’ll be closing the Infected Bookstore shortly. Signed books will still be available (direct from this site, eventually), but running the store as is just isn’t working out as I’d hoped.
Just before it disappears, however, I have one last announcement to make. I need to free up some space in my office, so I’m selling off a large number of rare and out-of-print books. You can see everything that’s available by visiting this link or clicking the image below. There are plenty of AUTUMN and HATER bundles to be found.
All the books are in mint condition and will be personally signed.
Rest assured, this isn’t the end of me or of Infected Books, just a re-focus. I hope you’ll find something of interest in the store, and do please check back regularly over the coming days as I put more of my inventory online. If you’re looking for a specific title to complete your collection, drop me a line and I’ll see what I can find.
Infected Bookstore to close – rare and out-of-print books for sale is a post from: David Moody - author of the HATER and AUTUMN books
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