K.R. Griffiths's Blog, page 3

Wildfire Chronicles in pictures

This was inspired by a reader who got in touch to say that she had googled some of the locations I used in the Wildfire series to get an idea of what they really looked like, and it dawned on me that I could post some pics! Some poetic license was used in some of the books (there is no Moorcroft Hospital for the clinically insane, for example) but a lot of the places I mentioned are real, and here are a few: This is the farmhouse in which Michael, Rachel, Jason and John take refuge in Psychosis. It was owned by my late great uncle (who appears in the pic, along with his cat) and is located just outside St. Davids. It really is 400 years old, and it really does have 18-inch thick stone walls. No zombie rats, though. St. Davids Cathedral, which features in Panic, and which has repelled viking attacks and survived earthquakes, and which, so far, has not faced a zombie apocalypse. One of the cramped streets of St. Davids. This was the street my grandparents lived on, and which I visited loads as a kid. The tiny park in the foreground is where Michael meets Rachel and Jason in Panic. The treacherous coastline around St. Davids, and the location of Victor's secret beach in Panic and Shock. The ruins of Aberystwyth Castle, which Michael spots in Psychosis, and which gives him the idea for a place that can 'be defended.' Aberystwyth Harbour, where things go bad in Psychosis. Pretty peaceful and idyllic, until a rampaging herd of Infected appears... Caernarfon Castle: one of the major locations throughout Mutation, Trauma and Reaction, in its current guise as a tourist attraction rather than a stronghold to cower in and defend against the end of the species.

I now sell book covers! :O

I've sort of stumbled into this. When I'm not writing I love to spend time messing around on photoshop (yup, you thought I couldn't get more nerdy; you were wrong!) and this has led to me designing a lot of book covers. At first I thought this would be no problem: I'd just have my next few book covers lined up :D

But then things started to get out of hand, and I realised that having twenty book covers lined up was probably overkill. Anyways, I'm happy to offer a selection of premade book covers for other authors out there searching for cover art, and am happy to take on a little custom work for those who like my style but don't see something that fits their story.

Mostly I gravitate toward making covers for horror, action, thriller, sci-fi etc, so although I'm happy to take a crack at any genre, if you're looking for a romance cover for example, I may not be your best bet!

Anyway, head on over to Griff's cover design to check out what's available, and drop me a line if you're interested in working with me :) 

New adventures in audio

Narrator Scott Thomas Very happy to announce that, in addition to the ongoing work done by Craig Beck on Wildfire Chronicles, work is now also underway on producing an Audiobook version of my latest release Survivor :D

The audio version is being produced by AMC studios and will be narrated by the excellent Scott Thomas.

Scott has a wealth of experience in the field, including voiceover work for high-profile clients like Disney and Coca-Cola in addition to his work on radio, TV, audiobooks and video games. His style sounds perfect for Survivor, and I'm looking forward to hearing the finished version, which should be available on Audible, Amazon and iTunes around November.

Recently read: The Troop by Nick Cutter

I'm on a roll with short, nasty horrors with punchy titles. Following The Ruins and The Ritual, I found my way to The Troop by Nick Cutter, and it's a winner.

The first thing to say is that I didn't find The Troop especially scary or spooky, but I did find it thrilling and intense. And disgusting. Cutter's got a real flair for the wet stuff. Things might get a little spoiler-y from here on in, so if you want the short version without spoilers, read no further than this: a scout troop trapped on an isolated island with a hungry something. In all honesty, Cutter had me at 'trapped'. Throwing in hungry-somethings just confirms that I'm gonna love it.

So, the spoiler - the hungry something in this book is one of nature's best little eating machines, and a creature I can't remember coming across in a horror before: the tapeworm.

Or, in this case: genetically modified ubertapeworm :D

I love a little conspiracy in my horror stories, and The Troop has it in abundance, excellently delivered by interview segments that break up the narrative flow and lend a real sense of mystery and foreboding to the action.

The characters: five boys and their scoutmaster, are really well drawn, and believable in their slide toward Lord of the Flies-style chaos. The pace is pretty relentless, and mostly the actions of the characters are believable. Occasionally I found the characters' viewpoints a little jarring - for young teenage boys, some of these kids sure do ponder things in an eloquent philosophical manner. That pulled me out of the action a little, but it's a very minor complaint, and never stops the prose being eminently readable.

If there's one thing I absolutely hated though, it's the animal cruelty. That's a weird thing for somebody who routinely tortures his own characters in horrific ways to say, but something about cruelty to animals just makes me an unhappy reader. That's not to say the scenes involving animals are particularly out of place in The Troop, or even badly done-they're not-and they are very important to establishing a couple of the characters. In fact, those awful scenes excellently written, and two sequences in particular - involving a kitten and a turtle - punched me in the gut about as hard as a book can. So, I didn't *like* it, and it made me squirm, but I can't fault Cutter for that: The Troop is a horror that, at times, is heartbreakingly horrific.

Well worth a read, but if you like kittens, prepare yourself.

4/5.

New release: Survivor

My newest book, and my first post-Wildfire Chronicles release, is available now :)

Survivor is available for Kindle and in paperback, and is the first of my books to be enrolled in Amazon's new Kindle Unlimited program, so KU subscribers can borrow it free :D

Here's the blurb:

Clive Barrett is a fast learner. His first kills were amateurish, but Clive knows that practice makes perfect. Soon, he expects to be one of the most notorious serial killers in the UK. He expects to be number one. 

There is just one problem: one of Clive's victims simply won't stay dead. 

It turns out that one of Clive's early kills wasn't just sloppy; it wasn't a kill at all. Now, improving his craft might just be the least of Clive's worries, because the woman he thought he'd murdered knows his name. She knows where he lives. 

And she's coming for him...

Listening to the end of the world

The first three volumes of Wildfire Chronicles are now available in audiobook format at Amazon, Audible and iTunes :D

To celebrate, I have a few free review copies of Panic and Shock to giveaway courtesy of Audible. If you would be interested in getting your hands on one, drop me a line with the email address you use for Audible to krg@krgriffiths.org

Survivor: coming soon

I'm hoping to be able to release my serial killer novella Survivor in the next week or two :D

Survivor started out as an idea for bonus content to give free to subscribers to my mailing list, and initially I expected it to be pretty short, but it's grown considerably and might now best be described as a short novel. 

This represents a slight shift toward the thriller genre, at least in terms of plot and setting, but for me it is still firmly horror material. I will be releasing it free to subscribers in addition to giving it a wider release, and then moving on to complete Adrift , which I hope will be ready in September. Busy times!

If you're on my mailing list, keep an eye on your inbox for your copy of Survivor over the next 7-10 days.

Survivor:

Clive Barrett is really going places. His first kills were amateurish, but he is a fast learner and, soon, he expects that he will become one of the most notorious serial killers operating in the UK. He expects to be number one.

There is just one problem. One of Clive's victims simply won't stay dead.

It turns out that one of Clive's early kills was more than just sloppy; it wasn't a kill at all. And now getting recognition for his work and improving his craft might just be the least of Clive's worries, because the woman he thought he'd murdered knows his name.

She knows where he lives.

And she is coming for him...

Recently read: The Ritual by Adam Nevill

Oh, yeah, now we're talking. The Ritual is something of a book of two halves, but well worth reading because one of those halves is roughly 150 pages of the best horror money can buy.

This is a tale of survival, as four old friends reunite for a camping/hiking trip in a deserted part of Sweden. After attempting to take a shortcut through some uncharted forest, the group finds that this most deserted part of the world isn't deserted at all. Something else is in the forest...and it's hungry :D

It's rare for me to find a book that grips almost from the first word, but The Ritual grabbed me immediately and refused to let go. The first part of the book, as the four friends are hunted in the dark by something terrible, is fantastic. If you were a fan of The Blair Witch Project in the slightest, this book will resonate, and provide another damn good reason to stay away from the woods at all costs. Hell, I've got one tree in my garden, and right now I DON'T TRUST IT. Yeah, tree, I'm talking to you. You leafy bastard.

The characters are likeable, and their slow deterioration as they confront something far beyond their understanding is expertly handled. These are old university friends whose lives have moved in different directions over the intervening years, and the strain this puts on their relationships is believable and compelling.

And then there's the forest. Oh lordy. The grim mysteries of the forest are chilling and enthralling. The Ritual didn't produce surprise or fright so much as inspire crawling dread. One scene, in which the four friends wake up to find that *something* has happened to each of them while they slept, is excellent and genuinely unsettling.

Had this book simply stopped at the halfway point, it would be a solid 5 star horror masterpiece for me.

As it is, The Ritual almost seems like two books shoehorned together. The second half is not bad, not by any means, but it introduces a new plot and some new characters which, while fine in itself and well worth reading, suffers by comparison to the sheer sweaty adrenaline rush of the opening chapters. 

Hard to go into the plot any further without spoilers, so I'll finish by saying that this was one of the creepiest books I can remember reading in a long time. Take it camping with you, read it in a tent by torchlight, and lose your mind with terror.

Highly recommended. 4/5.

Feeling the strain

Right you got me. I only wrote this post to get that pun in the title. Sue me (please, don't).

I'm feeling the strain in more than one way at the moment. In one sense, the strain I'm feeling is repetitive. Yup: the writer's injury. It's pathetic - an injury I've picked up while sitting down ferchristssake, and yet still somehow EXCRUCIATING. So I'm supposed to be resting, not typing. This post is risking actual damage to my actual health. Blogging on the edge.

So I'm trying to cut down on the writing a bit and catching up on some books and TV, which includes The Strain, the (non-repetitive) new vampire show on FX.

I really liked the book this show is based on, written by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. I remember it being one of those books that really hooks you with intrigue, and then the payoff, when it comes, isn't anticlimactic as it could have been. A real page turner. The book was the first of a trilogy, but for some reason, I never got around to reading parts 2 (Strain harder) and 3 (Strains on a plane), but that failure works in the TV show's favour. I find far fewer must-watch shows than I do must-read books, so now I can add this to Game of Thrones as a TV show I will finish before I read the book version.

(Take that, George RR Martin, I ain't even starting to read the books til you finish the damn thing. Who's laughing now? Not me, that's for sure! Uh...) 

And it's pretty good, I think. The Strain, I mean. I've watched the first couple of episodes and most of the actors feel right for their parts, though I'm a bit unsure about the guy playing Ephraim Goodweather, despite liking him a lot in House of Cards. Somehow, a couple of episodes in and he just doesn't seem to fit yet. And I have to admit that his taking breaks for AA meetings during the crucial early stages of the emerging crisis is not cool. Cut the shit and get to work, Eph, there's a deadly plague out there with your name written all over it.

Still, I'm here for the horror, and the show does retain a hint of menace, and some slick Del Toro visuals.  It feels like it won't pull its punches, and I hope it doesn't. It has to be said, though, that any time I watch a TV show I end up thinking it should be darker. It's like an affliction. If I got my way I'd drop a crazed serial killer character in the middle of pretty much every show on TV, regardless of genre:
Shit, I'm digressing.

Anyway The Strain looks like a decent show, and I'm sticking with it. Check it out when you get a chance.

Recently read: The Ruins by Scott Smith

The Ruins by Scott Smith

I owe my reading of this book to Goodreads - which I'm finally getting the hang of as an awesome way to get recommendations for new horror books to read :D

I picked The Ruins primarily because I watched the film version a few years back and remember it being a notch or two better than most horror films, but that is both a blessing and a curse, really, because I think it...er...ruined (see what I did there? So proud!) what may have been a few of the book's more effective surprises for me.

The Ruins was a Good Read (Again? Puntastic! Okay, I'll stop now) but perhaps not the high point in horror literature I hoped it would be. The tale of a group of young Americans vacationing in Mexico, who follow a German they meet on a quest to find his brother, who has been lost somewhere in the jungle. Naturally, what they find puts them in mortal danger.

The Ruins is eminently readable, and does include a few sequences that were genuinely squirm-inducing. It also makes good use of the sort of low grade fear associated with being lost in a foreign country and struggling with language barriers and a general lack of knowledge. Having wandered off the beaten track while abroad myself, I was easily able to identify with the tension and helplessness of being lost.

My major problem was with the characters, who I found to be pretty dislikable on the whole. This may well have been the point, and I suspect Smith's intention was to show just how badly prepared this group of pampered people (two young couples, along with the German and a Greek friend who tagged along) was when faced with a situation beyond their control. Forced to survive while being trapped in a dangerous part of the jungle by hostile locals, the breakdown of morale, mental stability and logic is pretty swift. The way the characters react is almost wholly negative, and it isn't long before they begin to turn on each other.

There are good ideas in The Ruins, and some highly effective gross-out moments, in particular a sequence involving one man and his knife which will linger in the memory. However, there are also a few plot points that didn't quite work for me, most notably the moment at which the non-human adversary that the group is dealing with becomes sentient. It works, but it requires a pretty big suspension of disbelief.

All that said, The Ruins was a quick read, and something of a page turner, and I'd recommend it, particularly if you haven't already seen the film. 3/5.