David Moody's Blog, page 77

MURIEL – a free zombie short story for the weekend

By way of apology for not posting for a couple of weeks, I thought I’d share MURIEL with you – a nice little zombie short which was originally published in the SFX Magazine Zombie Special a couple of years back.

When the dead rise, a young survivor, left home-alone, follows all the rules to outlive his neighbours and establish his post-apocalyptic credentials. But life after the end of the world proves to be far more difficult than they made it look in the movies…

Click here to read the story on WATTPAD, and I hope you enjoy it. And don’t forget, you can also read TRUST at WATTPAD too – the entire novel, available free.

Things have been deathly quiet here for the last couple of weeks, but that should change in the very near future. Pre-order details about the AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION re-release will be announced in the coming days, as well as details of some new events, and interesting updates on a few long-gestating projects.

Until then, have a good weekend!

MURIEL – a free zombie short story for the weekend is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

This is Horror – Edinburgh event report

Another cracking THIS IS HORROR event! I had a great time in Edinburgh on Saturday, talking horror and reading a brand new AUTUMN short story to a very appreciative crowd.

Writing, by its nature, can be a very solitary vocation, and it’s easy to lose the connection between author and reader. Doing these events always reminds me what a great job I have. There’s nothing quite like reading a fresh, untested piece of work to a crowd of folks and getting the kind of reaction you hoped for. And that reaction doesn’t come via email, Facebook or Twitter: it’s immediate and genuine. As I mentioned in a recent post, I’ve had a last flurry of AUTUMN activity and have been writing a few final short stories. After making that post and announcing the contents of the new edition of AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION a week or so back, I went on to write a couple more shorts and one of them, ANGEL, is a piece I’m very, very proud of.

Although numbers weren’t quite what we expected on Saturday, and even though Gary McMahon was unable to be there, Jasper Bark, Joseph D’Lacey and I had a brilliant time. Joseph was there to launch his excellent new fantasy tome, BLACK FEATHERS, which is out this week, and which you can find more about here and here. And Jasper was there just… well, just being Jasper, really. I think the photograph below (pinched from Jim Mcleod – hope that’s okay, Jim!) explains everything. After being asked nicely to read something that wasn’t too crude and full of obscenities (as we were in the middle of a busy bookshop on a Saturday afternoon), Jasper read from his book WAY OF THE BAREFOOT ZOMBIE. If you have it, turn to page 258 and start reading. It’ll explain mine and Joseph’s expressions…

Huge thanks to all at This is Horror and Blackwells for making the event happen and making it such a success. Particular thanks to Ellie Wixon, and to all those who came to listen to us, including David McDonald, Iain McKinnon, and The Ginger Nuts of Horror himself, Jim Mcleod.

This is Horror – Edinburgh event report is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

New issue of SCREAM now available

Great new issue of the always excellent SCREAM magazine now available. As well as an interesting look back at the much misunderstood HALLOWEEN III, and articles on zombies and the MANIAC remake, there’s also plenty of EVIL DEAD (new and original) coverage including an interview with the mighty BRUCE CAMPBELL and with the director of the remake, FEDE ALVAREZ.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – SCREAM continues to feel like a mag for real connoisseurs of the genre. Whilst it does focus on current releases, there’s also always plenty that’ll interest the long-term, die hard horror fan too. Recommended!

Click here to get hold of a copy.

New issue of SCREAM now available is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

Punishment Park

At this point in time, when news about my books is thin on the ground (I am busy writing, honest!), I’d like to try and keep your interest by making regular book and film recommendations. So here’s another submission to my ‘Post-Apocalyptic Movie Club’ (click the link for previous films), and it’s one that’s a little more obscure than some of the others I’ve posted about.

Peter Watkins is a fascinating, controversial and, in my opinion, unfairly overlooked film-maker. Click here to be reminded of my thoughts on one of his earliest films – THE WAR GAME – a 1965, Oscar-winning BBC film which portrayed the effects of a nuclear attack on Kent and which, due to it’s unflinching treatment of the subject matter, remained largely unseen for over twenty years. Today I’d like to introduce you to another of his films, PUNISHMENT PARK. A movie made in 1971 which, at the time, was effectively buried and given only the most cursory of releases.

Here’s the trailer. Click the link below to find out more.

Set in 1970 against the background of the Vietnam War, the film portrays the United States as facing some uncomfortably familiar problems. Anti-government sentiment is high and jails are full to overflowing. Convicts are given a stark choice: spend their full sentence in prison, or spend three days at Punishment Park. Far from an easy option, Punishment Park involves having to traverse fifty-three miles across the desert within the allocated timescale and without food or water, whilst being chased by National Guardsmen. Reach the flag at the end of the course without being captured and the convicts will be released. Get caught, and they’ll end up in prison (or worse).

The film follows two groups of detainees – one already trying to get across Punishment Park, the members of the other still being tried in a desert-based hearing. Largely improvised, I found it to be an extraordinary movie – clearly rooted in the social issues and desperation of the day, but with frightening parallels with world events and political attitudes today. Try watching this and not thinking about Guantanamo Bay, the numerous desert wars, and the social inequalities protested about by Occupy and countless others.

In my piece about THE WAR GAME, I mentioned Watkins’ unique style. PUNISHMENT PARK is similar in that it’s a faux-documentary, filmed by a crew which is not quite there, if that makes any sense. They watch events unfold and document them, but remain somewhat detached. That’s a particularly effective approach as far as this film is concerned, as it allows Watkins to show the good, the bad and the (very) ugly of all the characters and organisations involved. The film crew is there to show the impartial intentions of the military, but as the prisoners approach the end of their ordeal, things change drastically. Watch for some intense scenes as the line between improvisational acting and genuine anger becomes blurred…

I’ll not say anymore about the film, I’d just like to recommend you check it out. It’s available on DVD (with a very interesting introduction from Watkins) here, and you can always check LOVEFiLM or Netflix. Uncomfortably relevant and well worth your time.

Punishment Park is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

JAMES HERBERT OBE (1943 – 2013)

By now I’m sure you’ve heard that horror legend James Herbert passed away yesterday. There are countless tributes all over the web, and you can read a few words I put together for This is Horror here.

Meeting James last year was an amazing experience, and it was only when I found out I was going to be interviewing him and I started my preparation that it became obvious just how much of an inspiration he’d been to me as a writer. I don’t profess to have read all of his books, it was more what he did and how he did it that had a real impact on my career.

There was a period in the early 1980′s when it seemed every home in the UK had been issued a regulation set of James Herbert novels. Everybody had them, even those who reckoned they didn’t read horror. I’d been working my way through them when I got hold of a copy of DOMAIN and, as I’ve said previously, that was the book which redefined what a horror novel could be for me. It made me want to write horror. I’ve taken my yellowed with age paperback (signed by James last year) down off the shelf to read again this morning, and I’ll write more about it in the near future.

But I just want to go back to some statistics for a moment. James Herbert sold more than fifty six million books (I know everyone quotes the figure fifty four million, but he told me otherwise…) which were translated into more than thirty languages. Despite his international success, though, the bulk of those sales were here in the UK. I think that’s the most astonishing thing… to have generated such spectacular sales in a relatively small market, writing for what’s often thought of as a niche audience. Amazing.

He sent me a letter earlier this year, thanking me for interviewing him last September. In the letter he said he hoped we’d get to catch up again soon on the horror circuit. I’m devastated that’s not going to happen now, because I learned a huge amount in the few hours I spent in his company and I would have loved the opportunity to talk with him some more.

Goodbye, James, and thanks for the cracking advice and the wonderful stories. My deepest sympathies go out to his wife and family.

JAMES HERBERT OBE (1943 – 2013) is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION

Lots of stuff going on behind the scenes to get the limited edition hardcover of AUTUMN: AFTERMATH and the new, expanded edition of AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION published. Prices and release dates will be announced in the coming weeks, but today I thought I’d share the contents of THE HUMAN CONDITION with you. It’s turned into a monster – almost 40,000 words longer than the original edition.

The book will be available as an eBook, trade paperback and limited edition hardcover in May from Infected Books. Click here to register your interest (with absolutely no obligation) and click the link below to find out more about the book – the very last piece of the AUTUMN story.



AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION was originally released in May 2005. A collection of the online AUTUMN: ECHOES shorts (the backstories of minor characters from the first three novels), it also included a number of standalone stories designed to enhance and expand the series overall. Much of this original material remains free to read at www.lastoftheliving.net.

The 2013 edition of the book has been completely rewritten and re-edited, and includes a number of new stories and others making their first appearance in print. Here are the full contents:

BEFORE

JAKE WILSON (not available online)

DAY ONE

AMY STEADMAN (part i)

JIM HARPER

SHERI NEWTON

SONYA FARLEY

HARRY STAYT

JACOB FLYNN (part i)

BRIGID CULTHORPE

PETER GUEST

JACKIE SOAMES

WEBB (not previously available in print)

GARY KEELE

CARON (newly written for this edition)

JULIET APPLEBY

KAREN CHASE

BEGINNING TO DISINTEGRATE (part i) (newly written for this edition)

PHILIP EVANS (part i)

DAY THREE

AMY STEADMAN (part ii)

PHILIP EVANS (part ii)

JACOB FLYNN (part ii)

KIERAN COPE (not previously available in print)

INNOCENCE

DAY FIVE

AMY STEADMAN (part iii)

BEGINNING TO DISINTEGRATE (part ii) (newly written for this edition)

DUCK AND COVER

BEGINNING TO DISINTEGRATE (part iii) (newly written for this edition)

PENELOPE STREET

DAY SEVEN

AMY STEADMAN (part iv)

JACKSON

OFFICE POLITICS

DIGITAL (newly written for this edition)

BEGINNING TO DISINTEGRATE (part iv) (newly written for this edition)

THE HUMAN CONDITION (part i)

DAY NINE

THE GARDEN SHED

ROBERT WOOLGRAVE

KATE JAMES

DAY FOURTEEN

BREAKING POINT (not previously available in print)

DAY SEVENTEEN

AMY STEADMAN (part v)

DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME? (newly written for this edition)

THE HUMAN CONDITION (part ii)

DAY TWENTY-THREE

AMY STEADMAN (part vi)

KILGORE

HOME (previously published in THE UNDEAD and EXTREME ZOMBIES, new to this collection)

SKIN

DAY THIRTY-EIGHT

ANNIE NELSON

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN

UNDERGROUND

BONUS

JOE AND ME (previously only available as a limited edition chapbook published by This is Horror)

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

BEFORE DAWN – Dominic Brunt interview

Last week I promised you a quick interview with Dominic Brunt – writer, director and star of the brilliant BEFORE DAWN – and here it is.

Dom’s a huge fan of the horror genre, and that definitely shows. But as I mentioned in my piece last week, there’s far more to BEFORE DAWN than a by-the-numbers zombie story. It has a real depth to it. I asked Dom if he’d always had a burning desire to make a zombie movie, or whether the project came about as a result of finding a story he wanted to tell. He told me nothing was planned initially, and that it began as “a purely hypothetical argument between myself and my wife about what was wrong in her view with the zombie genre. I love a big, loud, shallow crowd pleaser of a zombie flick while Jo likes to delve a bit deeper into a situation and is a huge fan of European and specifically French cinema. It bothered her that there was no one she could relate to and that British zombie/horror films were still trying to copy American cinema styles. The idea was then built around a couple with similar problems and differences to our own and we tried to portray a very realistic world but with a sense of drama and intrigue at its core. We then built on this adding to the tension and tightening the screw before introducing the twist and indeed the undead with all the resulting blood, gore and violence.”

It feels like a very personal movie, not least because the couple behind the camera were the same people on screen. Dom had previously said that the production of BEFORE DAWN was quite intense, being filmed over a short period of time with limited resources. I wondered if that behind-the-scenes intensity added to the film? ”We planned BEFORE DAWN very carefully and made sure we had a water tight schedule. However, nothing can prepare you for the realities of a film set with it’s own set of disciplines. We knew that as long as we stuck to the schedule then we would be on solid ground as far as getting everything covered. It was an intense and, at times, fraught shoot but we were all fulfilling what we had set out to achieve. It was quite exhilarating but at the same time very hard work. We all slept where we worked and the days were long.

“I think the fact we were up and running kept us all up and concentrated. Getting to all the special effects shots was great fun. The more gory the effect and the more blood involved, the more we were all falling about the place. We like to believe we’ve captured some truly appalling shots of gore and violence in BEFORE DAWN but it was so much fun setting them up. The out-takes on the DVD show that the atmosphere on set was the total opposite to that of the atmosphere of fear and confusion within the film!”

So what is it about zombies that fascinates Dom? He’s co-founder of the LEEDS ZOMBIE FILM FESTIVAL and cites his favourites as including “Dawn of the Dead, Colin, Night of the Living Dead, Re-Animator, Return of the Living Dead, Flesh Eaters, Nights of Terror, The Blind Dead series, Fido, Le Horde, Nightmare City, 28 Days Later and many more.” I asked him why the living dead are his monsters of choice? “I think zombies are guilt free horror and usually the goriest films within the horror genre. Even if someone is badly mauled by a zombie it’s okay because they will get back up again, albeit as a zombie, then when they are killed again it’s still okay because you’re killing a monster and now they deserve it! It makes sense to me anyway! Also there’s no reasoning with the undead. They want to eat you and that is their only reason for being. You can’t offer them an alternative and they’re not listening anyway. They will only stop if you destroy their brain. Running or shambling, I don’t care. I love a good zombie story whether told in book, comic or film form.”

Something else I touched upon last week was the polarity of the reviews I’ve come across for BEFORE DAWN. I asked Dom how he responded to this. “I have huge respect for horror fans as they are (for the most part) open-minded to anything different. I’m a big geeky nerd of a horror film fan. I’m proudly one of them myself, and this film is for them. The negativity we have come across has been more on the shallow side. The film is an allegory, It is about how far you would go for love. There are themes of redemption and regret. It is about the disintegration of a relationship set against the disintegration of society and the world. Then you read a review saying “I don’t like Emmerdale, zombies shouldn’t run and they talked a lot in the first fifteen minutes”. Fair enough. The support we have been shown though has blown us away and we could never have expected things to have gone as far as they have. We have been dubbed into Japanese and German with distribution in these countries as well as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, America and showing at Cannes and Berlin film festivals. Metrodome have been brilliant to us in the UK, even giving the film a limited theatrical release. We are very proud of BEFORE DAWN and hope people like and understand it.”

Finally, I asked what’s next? “We’ve done two shorts in the last year (Grace’s Story and After Three) which will be showing at festivals this year and we will start shooting a female revenge thriller in November which has got us really excited.”

Thanks to Dom for his time and enthusiasm. Once again, I highly recommend BEFORE DAWN. If you’re in the UK you can get hold of the DVD here.

Speaking to Dom and seeing his film has rekindled my desire to make a zombie movie myself. And with that in mind, I hope I’ll have some news to share with you in the very near future…

 

BEFORE DAWN – Dominic Brunt interview is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

BEFORE DAWN

Dominic Brunt is a name more familiar to UK readers as a long-running cast member of the even longer-running ITV soap, Emmerdale. But there’s another side to Dom – he’s an obsessive horror fan. As well as being one of the organisers of the annual Leeds Zombie Film Festival (click here for information on the 2013 event), he’s also the director, co-writer (along with his wife, Joanne Mitchell) and star (also with Joanne) of an excellent zombie movie, BEFORE DAWN. Here’s the trailer. Watch the clip, then click the link to read why I think Before Dawn is, for me, one of the best zombie movies to come along in a long time.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dominic after a screening of the movie last November, and I was amazed to discover he was a fan of AUTUMN. Before Dawn is a quiet, lo-fi zombie apocalypse like the first Autumn book, and maybe that’s one of the reasons the movie appeals to me so much.

The plot’s relatively straightforward. Alex and Meg, an estranged couple, head away to a cottage in the countryside to try and salvage their troubled relationship. While they’re there, isolated from civilization, the dead rise and the rest of the world begins to fall apart. Whilst out running, Meg is attacked and bitten. She makes it back to the cottage and the couple fight to survive as the situation rapidly deteriorates.

So far, so what? Sounds like something you’ve seen/read a hundred times before, right? Wrong.

I found Before Dawn to be a truly remarkable film. Intelligent, gripping and not at all what I was expecting. There are subtle layers to this story which catch you unawares, and it’s told in a well-paced, intimate way. It’s bleak and very well crafted with limited resources (the movie was filmed over a very short period of time using locations including the couple’s own house!).

Before Dawn was released on DVD in the UK last month (click here), and it’s been interesting to watch the reviews roll in. They’re unexpectedly familiar to me – reminiscent of how people often react to the Autumn books. Some folks immediately get that the focus is the living, and that they’re not going to get a story full of blood and guts and gunfire, others take real objection to the fact they’re being denied their standard zombie fare. In fact, I even joked with Dom that I wish he’d got hold of Autumn to film, because Before Dawn is far closer in tone and feel to the novel than the 2009 Renegade movie adaptation.

By the way, that’s not to say you’ll be starved of blood if you watch Before Dawn. Far from it, in fact. There’s plenty to keep you happy, and I found the zombies themselves in this film to be particularly effective. They move unpredictably – spitting, spasms and twitches, whines and screams… and there’s an unexpected development towards the end of the movie which adds a new twist to the debate about the mental state of the living dead… truly fascinating.

I’ll not say too much more – I want you to go into the film with an open mind and hopefully enjoy it as much as I did. I’d definitely recommend Before Dawn to any discerning admirers of zombie film. Come back here next week when I’ll have an interview with Dom about the movie. In the meantime, click here for the movie’s website, or here to get hold of the DVD.

BEFORE DAWN is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

Sci-Fi Weekender

Well that was good. Actually, that was more than good. That was a bloody brilliant weekend.

Wayne meets a couple of friends (fans?)

Wayne Simmons and I often spend a lot of time chatting about what makes an event a success. It’s different for everyone, I guess, but for me it’s all about engaging with people. It’s good to meet other writers, publishers and media folks, but it’s absolutely incredible when you get the chance to meet with people who’ve either read your books or want to. At this years Sci-Fi Weekender I got to hang out with 3,500 fellow geeks, and I loved it.

Highlights? Talking horror and writing with a constant stream of very cool people. Selling loads of books. Meeting other authors including Hugh Howey (Wool) – an incredibly nice guy – and Sean Jeffery (Deadfall) at long last. Catching up with Sean Page (Ministry of Zombies head honcho). Sitting on panels with a host of folks including Hugh, Wayne, Peter Brett, Simon Clarke, Sam Stone, Steve Lockley and many others (even though we couldn’t hear the audience or each other most the time). Experiencing the majesty of MANBORG with Wayne, JD Gillam, David VG Davis, Robin and Stephen Pierce, Gary Main and Roy Young… The list goes on. Here are a few photos:

The It’s the End! panel with (l-r) Peter Brett, Emma Newman, Hugh Howey, Gareth Powell and me (photo: Gary Main)

Writing Horror panel with (l-r) Simon Clark, Christopher Brookmyre, me, Gordon Roxborough, Theresa Derwin, Wayne and Steve Lockley (photo: Gary Main)

Wayne, Gary, Roy and me

Wayne, Shaun Jeffrey and me

Huge thanks to everyone involved in organising the Weekender, and to all those who came along to the event. And if you’ve not come across the mighty MANBORG yet, watch this…

Sci-Fi Weekender is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

Everything and Nothing – free Dog Blood prequel story

I have a feeling many of you might have missed this first time around…

Just prior to the release of DOG BLOOD back in June 2010, I released EVERYTHING AND NOTHING, a free HATER short story which takes place just prior to the events of the second book in the series. It goes without saying, if you haven’t yet read HATER, read that first. It also goes without saying, it’s a HATER story, so expect copious amounts of violence.

“The world has fallen apart with incredible speed and brutality. Your only choice now is how hard you fight – hate or be hated, kill or be killed.

With the war between the Haters and Unchanged increasing in intensity, Danny McCoyne drifts from fight to fight, from battle to battle. His old life is over. This is all he has now. But a chance incident on the battlefield changes everything, bringing him back into contact with everything he thought he’d lost forever.”

I’m pleased to make EVERYTHING AND NOTHING available as a free download in all the usual eBook formats. You can download it from Smashwords here. You can also read the story online via Wattpad. I’ve just got involved with the folks at Wattpad and I’m interested to see what the site has to offer. If you’re a user, please follow me. I’ll have a Wattpad exclusive coming up in the next couple of weeks…

Everything and Nothing – free Dog Blood prequel story is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books