David Moody's Blog, page 75

Trust – free versions disappearing shortly

A little advance warning: the free online versions of TRUST will shortly disappear. At the moment you can read the entire novel at www.trustdavidmoody.com and Wattpad, but I’ll be removing the last third or so of the book from these sites at the beginning of August. Why? A couple of reasons, actually.

First, as I’ve already revealed, I’ll be serialising the brand new version of STRAIGHT TO YOU from late summer onwards. The reality of life as a writer at the moment is that I can’t afford to give away as much of my work as I’d like. My kids are a demanding lot. They’re always after something… food, clothes, a roof over their heads, those kinds of things! Over the years I think I must have given away upwards of a million free books, and there are plenty more to come, so I can’t be accused of being stingy.

Second, I’m planning to try a few new things with TRUST, which I’ll tell you more about in due course. I won’t be able to judge the success of these initiatives if the free versions remain available.

But there are positives! The price of the ebook will be reduced next month (at $2.99/£1.99 it’s hardly expensive as it is), and if you already own the ebook, the paperback or the limited edition hardcover edition of the novel, you can benefit from the Infected Books initiative I mentioned recently. If you own the ebook, click here to claim a discount on the signed print editions, and if you have the print editions, click here to download a complementary ebook.

Right. Have a great weekend. Stay safe in the sun and come back here next week for (at long last) more details about the limited edition Infected Books/Gollancz edition of AUTUMN: AFTERMATH.

Trust – free versions disappearing shortly is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

Herbst: Ausklang – German edition of Aftermath – out in September

I’m pleased to announce that, at long last, HERBST: AUSKLANG - the German language edition of AUTUMN: AFTERMATH – will be released in September by MKrug Verlag.

It’s been a long wait for German readers (since 2009 in fact, when ZERFALL – the German language edition of DISINTEGRATION was released – the first version of DISINTEGRATION to be released anywhere in the world, in fact). The Autumn (or Herbst) books have always been really well received in German, so I’m thrilled readers will soon get to read the final chapter in the series. More details will be available shortly.

Herbst: Ausklang – German edition of Aftermath – out in September is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

The Ups and Downs and Ups of Writing

I thought it was time for a quick update to bring you up to speed with a few projects I’m working on now that AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION is done and dusted. You should know me well enough by now… everything here is subject to change and nothing’s set in stone. The first part of this update will give you an indication of why that’s true.

The Ups and Downs and Ups of Writing. Weird name for a post, I guess, but I think it’s quite apt. You see, I reckon this is one of the best jobs in the world. In fact, I love it so much it feels wrong to call it a job… most of the time. Things don’t always go to plan.

17 DAYS

You’ll probably remember me posting about this novel earlier this year – round about the time I’d put the finishing touches to it and sent it to my agent to hear his thoughts. Well, those thoughts came back, and after another couple of reads, I added a few thoughts of my own too.

The book’s not right. It needs more work. The themes are there, the story is there, but it’s not quite working. There are a couple of reasons why which I won’t go into in detail here because they wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense out of context. Suffice to say I’d made a huge character misstep along the way, and had also misjudged the tone of parts of the book.

Up. Down. Up. I was on a high when I delivered the manuscript, followed by a crushing low when I realised it hadn’t hit the mark. But now, with the benefit of discussion with my agent and a couple more months thinking about the story, I know exactly what I need to do. Up. Down. Up. Strangely enough, I’ve done this once before. The exact same thing happened when I was writing DOG BLOOD, and that turned out okay…

I remain insanely excited about 17 DAYS, more so than ever in fact, but the rework is inevitably having a knock-on effect on other projects as I’ll be giving it priority over the coming months.

STRANGERS

I’m about 40,000 words into the third and (hopefully) final draft of this book, and hope to have it done by the end of July. I’ll then start thinking about how best to release it. Expect to hear more about STRANGERS – the closest I’ll probably ever get to a vampire novel – later this year.

STRAIGHT TO YOU

Is going really well… first draft is done, ready to start work on the second. I’d previously talked about serialising the second draft online from this month as the book was being written, but I’m putting that on hold temporarily for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because I need to work something into the second draft which I don’t want to do ‘live’, so to speak. Secondly, because the additional work on 17 DAYS means STY won’t be touched again for a while. At the moment, if I can get some work done on the second draft of the book over the summer, I’d hope to serialise the third draft online as I’m writing it from September/October onwards. I’ll tell you more about this completely new version of my debut novel in the coming weeks to whet your appetite. Incidentally, I started writing the original book on 1st January 1994 – I want to properly release the new edition in January 2014 to mark its twentieth anniversary. Bloody hell, twenty years. Now that makes me feel really old…

More news soon.

The Ups and Downs and Ups of Writing is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

Recommended reading – James Herbert’s DOMAIN

When I’m asked to name books which have influenced me, I regularly mention DOMAIN by James Herbert. In fact, when I’m talking about books which have influenced my writing career, DOMAIN is the book.

For those who don’t know, DOMAIN is the third and final book in Herbert’s RATS trilogy (beginning with RATS in 1974, then LAIR in 1979). Set in the immediate aftermath of a nuclear attack on London, it remains a visceral and relentless read. To this day it’s still the only book I’ve ever finished reading, only to turn back to the beginning and immediately start again. Following the author’s untimely passing back in March, I thought I’d dig out my old yellowed paperback edition (now signed by the man himself – see this link to find out how) to see if the book still resonated with this forty-something bloke as it had when I was in my teens.

Short answer: not quite, but it was still a bloody good read.

Here’s the back cover blurb. Click the link below for my thoughts.

“The long-dreaded nuclear conflict. The city torn apart, shattered, its people destroyed or mutilated beyond hope. For just a few, survival is possible only beneath the wrecked streets – if there is time to avoid the slow-descending poisonous ashes. But below, the rats, demonic offspring of their irradiated forebears, are waiting. They know that Man is weakened, become frail. Has become their prey…”

For me, DOMAIN stands head and shoulders above Herbert’s other books. Those of you who know me and my writing will probably also know that I have little interest in the supernatural – I don’t do ghosts, gods or demons, and I much prefer horror which feels rooted in reality. Growing up in the 1980’s, with the constant threat of thermonuclear war kicking off at any moment, DOMAIN had such an impact on me because it felt less a possibility, more like an inevitable certainty.

I was captivated by the first few chapters – views of the apocalypse from a number of different locations, seen through the eyes of characters who, it was clear from the moment we met them, were probably about to die. Steve Culver, a commercial pilot, stops to help another man, Deeley, as the bombs strike. Fortunately for all concerned, Deeley is a lower-level government lackey, who is able to direct Culver to a shelter.

There’s a certain inevitability to the rest of the story which I’ll not completely spoil because I’d definitely recommend you read this book. The underground shelter, safe for a while, is eventually compromised by rats, and the remaining band of survivors set off on a mission to find the main government bunker, encountering fellow survivors, thousands more rats, and other hazards along the way. It reads like a lot of Herbert’s other books: plenty of clichés, familiar character tropes, and the inevitable romance. It’s also dated in a number of respects with some typically eighties descriptions of ‘undesirable folk’, and the mildest nuclear aftermath you could imagine. Whilst the initial blasts and immediate effects are suitably horrific, after a while the sun comes out and a sense of some normality returns. The book was first published in 1984, its writing pre-dating TTAPS and the theory of nuclear winters (see this link for more information). And yet despite this, DOMAIN remains a hugely entertaining read.

So why did this book have such an impact on me back in the day? A couple of reasons, I think. Firstly, it’s an extremely horrific book. There’s a huge amount of gore, and it’s pretty relentless. As a teenager, I couldn’t remember ever reading anything as bloodthirsty before. Herbert’s descriptions, particularly those of the mounds of bodies eviscerated by rats, remain chilling today. And I loved the fact that every way the heroes turned, they inevitably found themselves facing something even worse than that which they’d just managed to escape.

But for me the most effective parts of DOMAIN (aside from the brutal opening scenes) are the vignettes – little slices of post-apocalyptic life featuring characters unconnected to the main events of the novel. I’d never come across this kind of storytelling before. Rather than jarring against the main thrust of the story as you might expect, these interludes instead massively expand the scope of Herbert’s devastated world and show the futility of trying to survive in this dead land. My personal favourite was subsequently published as a short story entitled ‘Breakfast’. It deals with a woman who, overcome by shock, tries to continue to live normally in the remains of her devastated home with only the bodies of her dead family for company.

Her son silently gazed at the green bread beside his bowl of cornflakes, the cereal stirring gently as small creatures fed beneath. He was grinning, a ventriloquist’s dummy, cheek muscles tightened by shrinkage. A misty film clouded his eyes, a spoon balanced ungripped in his clawed hand. A length of string around his chest tied him to the chair.

If you’ve read the recently republished AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION, you’ll no doubt understand just to what extent these short stories influenced me. Herbert’s book inspired me to write the first ‘AUTUMN: ECHOES’ which went on to eventually become the HUMAN CONDITION’s 150,000+ words of additional AUTUMN fiction.

I really don’t want to talk about DOMAIN in any more detail for risk of spoiling it – I’ll just recommend you pick up a copy and experience the book for yourself. It was clear just how popular this book remains amongst Herbert’s fans when I interviewed Jim last year – even the slightest mention of the title seemed to get a cheer. I was thrilled to be able to talk to him about the book in private and to tell him just how important it had been to my career. His response? He just looked at me. ‘Yeah, it’s a good book that one,’ he said.

Pick up a copy from Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk / The Book Depository / Hive.co.uk / Barnes and Noble / Waterstones and let me know what you think.

 

Recommended reading – James Herbert’s DOMAIN is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

Paul Kane’s Sleeper(s)

I’m sure many of you know of Paul Kane. Paul and I go back a fair few years now – I think we first spoke around the release of HATER in early 2009. Our paths crossed more recently when Paul and his other half Marie edited THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BODY HORROR which contained my story, ALMOST FOREVER (and that’s an anthology well worth checking out – click here to remind yourself).

Paul’s back with a new novella – SLEEPER(S). It’s a great book with a real Quatermass-like vibe to it, and I was honoured to be asked to write the introduction. Here’s the blurb:

“The sleepy English locality of Middletown is about to get even sleepier, as a strange malady starts to affect the population. It spreads quickly, causing the authorities to quarantine this small city, and seek out the only person who might be able to help: Doctor Andrew Strauss. However, Strauss has a secret, one that has linked him to this place all his life, one that has linked him to a particular person there, though he doesn’t yet know who. But he’s not the only one hiding things – and as he ventures into Middletown to collect samples with an army escort, a mixture of UK and US troops, cracks soon begin to appear in the operation. Especially when his team come up against the most terrifying threat humankind has ever known…”

SLEEPER(S), from Crystal Lake Publishing, is available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Paul Kane’s Sleeper(s) is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

World War Z and the Hater movie

I wanted to talk about WORLD WAR Z for a couple of reasons. A discussion of the film follows (stick around for a half hour video review from Mr Simmons and I) but, before that, I have a more personal reason to be interested.

For a long time I’ve thought that the immediate future of the zombie sub-genre would, to a large extent, hinge on the success or failure of the WWZ movie. It’s fair to say that after all the well-documented issues with budgets and scripts and reshoots etc., I don’t think anyone expected the success the film has had, nor for a sequel to have been greenlit so rapidly. That has to be a good thing, I think, and I’m hopeful that, as a result, Hollywood will have a renewed interest in large budget, zombie-style movies. I would say that… the HATER movie rights have just been re-optioned.

As an enjoyable, effects-laden, dumb old zombie flick, WWZ certainly delivered. As an adaptation of Max Brook’s novel, however, it failed on just about every level. But does that really matter? Looking at things from my perspective, with a film adaptation of Hater on the horizon, I can see two sides. Sure I’d like a fairly literal interpretation of my original story to be filmed, but I’d also like the publicity and sales that a more commercial movie would hopefully generate. I have to accept that such publicity and sales might come at the expense of the integrity of my story. As wrong as it might sound, at this stage in my career with mouths to feed and bills to pay and many projects in the pipeline but few under contract, if I’m honest I’d have to say I’d rather take the cash. With Guillermo del Toro still attached to Hater I’m happy to take that chance of course, and regardless of how any movie turned out, my original book would still be available. It’s not like it would disappear or be replaced. Despite his understandable frustrations with the filmmakers, I’m sure Max Brooks is more than happy with the thousands and thousands of people who’ve picked up his book because of the film…

Right, back to WWZ. Rather than write a long blog post, I’ll let Wayne and I do the talking.

If you’ve not yet read the book, I’d definitely recommend it. If you have and you’ve seen the film, what were your thoughts on the movie adaptation, and what are your hopes/fears for a Hater adaptation? I’d be really interested to hear them. Let me know in the comments or on Facebook or Twitter etc.

World War Z and the Hater movie is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

Important update for those who’ve ordered THE HUMAN CONDITION from Infected Books

A quick post and an apology for those who’ve ordered AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION direct from Infected Books.

For someone who communicates for a living, I’ve not been doing too well with this release. I’m guilty of not keeping folks properly updated.

I’d advertised dispatch by last Friday but, due to a couple of errors by the printer, the books weren’t delivered to me until late on Monday. All orders have, however, now been signed, sealed and posted, so all books should be received shortly (tomorrow for UK orders, I hope).

Apologies once again for the delay and the lack of updates. It makes me look and feel unprofessional, and I’m sorry. If anyone has any concerns, please do get in touch.

On a more positive note, signed hardcovers and paperbacks are now available from Infected Books (for immediate dispatch!) See this link for more information.

Important update for those who’ve ordered THE HUMAN CONDITION from Infected Books is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

Moody versus Simmons – event report

Had an absolutely cracking time in the company of Mr Simmons this weekend just gone. Sunday was devoted to World War Z, and our video review (well, the half hour we recorded of the several hours we spent talking about it) will be online shortly. But the main purpose of the weekend was our ‘head to head’ event in Coventry.

As you know, Wayne and I have done a lot of events together over the years, and we wanted to try something different this time. We drove hundreds of miles last year travelling from event to event on our ‘Never Trust a Man with Hair’ tour, and often those long car journeys were more entertaining than the signings. We’d put the world to rights talking about writing, the publishing industry, films, music, and so on and so on. So we thought, rather than sit behind a table and sign books for people one at a time, why not have one of our ‘car conversations’ in public?

So that’s what we did. In front of a decent-sized and very receptive crowd, we read excerpts from our books and talked frankly and honestly about our careers, how we met and became this bizarre double act, our past and future works, how we both write, when we write, genre labels, and our views on publishing and the industry in general. It made a refreshing change (both for us and the audience, I think) from the usual author event format.

Thanks to Rich Coad from Waterstones Coventry, Michael Wilson of This is Horror, and everyone who came along and supported the event (particularly Paul Feeney, who drove almost 200 miles from Lowestoft to be there, and who’s photographs I’ve pinched for this post). The only downside to the evening… being turned away from a pub in Coventry because the door staff ‘didn’t like the look of one of us’. The shame of it! And to make matters worse, they wouldn’t say which one of us it was they didn’t like…

The lack of post-event drinks apart, it really was an excellent evening. We’re more than happy to put on similar events if there’s sufficient interest in the future, so if you want us and you can arrange a venue and a crowd, please get in touch.

Moody versus Simmons – event report is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION – now available!

The title of this post says it all really… AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION – the final book in the AUTUMN series – is now available for the first time since 2008.

Experience the end of the world as seen from almost fifty different perspectives. Part-companion, part-guidebook and part-sequel, AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION follows the individual stories of these desperate survivors through their final dark days.

LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVERS AND SIGNED PAPERBACKS

…are now shipping. They’re also disappearing fast, so if you want one, please get in quick and use the links below to secure your copy:

UK hardcover orders (£20 + £2 p&p) – click here

European hardcover orders (£20 + £4 p&p) – click here

Rest of World hardcover orders (£20 + £6 p&p) – click here

UK paperback orders (£10 + £1 p&p) – click here

European paperback orders (£10 + £3 p&p) – click here

Rest of World paperback orders (£10 + £4 p&p) – click here

Signed paperbacks and hardcovers are also available from AMAZON.CO.UK

EBOOKS

Are available in all the usual formats:

KINDLE (US) / KINDLE (UK) / NOOK (US) / NOOK (UK) / IBOOKS (US) / IBOOK (UK) / SMASHWORDS

(KOBO due any day now…)

Don’t forget that with this book if you buy a print copy, you’ll be able to download a free ebook version, and if you buy an ebook, you’ll be able to claim a discount on a signed print copy direct from Infected Books. See this page for more information.

TRADE PAPERBACKS

Are also available from the usual online retailers:

AMAZON.COM / AMAZON.CO.UK / BARNES & NOBLE / BOOK DEPOSITORY / WATERSTONES / HIVE

AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION – now available! is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

A new approach to ebooks

With the Infected Books release of AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION next week, I’m taking a new approach to ebooks. You see, I’m a big fan both of ebooks and traditional print editions. I love the physicality of ‘real’ books, but also appreciate the immediacy and portability of ebooks. What really, really annoys me is the lack of flexibility between the two, and also the inherent belief that when you make a purchase, you can only have one or the other.

There’s a slightly more detailed explanation of the approach I’m taking on this page, but here’s the briefest of summaries:

If you buy a print edition of AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION, on the last page there’s a link you can follow to download a complementary ebook version.
If you buy an ebook then decide you wish you’d bought the print version, click the link at the end of the ebook, enter a few details, and you’ll receive a voucher to the value of the ebook you bought, redeemable against the print version.

There are terms and conditions (there always are, aren’t there?) and they can be found here. I think this is a fairer way of doing things, and it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out in practice. I’d be interested to hear what folks think, so please let me have your thoughts…

And on the subject of ebooks, I thought now would be a good time to mention this:

On 10th October, Gollancz will release THE COMPLETE AUTUMN. It’s an ebook collection of all five original AUTUMN novels, available for Kindle, iBook and all other formats.

Priced at £19.99, it effectively means you get one of the novels free. If you’re in the UK and you haven’t yet read the series, this will be a great way of doing so!

A new approach to ebooks is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books