Alexander Gordon Smith's Blog, page 3

Vlog No. 1!

So, because I have such a gorgeous face (hahaha), and you guys need to see more of it (hohoho), I thought I’d have a go at vlogging! Here is my first (and possibly last) vlog! Hope you enjoy it.

The Most Awesome Thing I Have Ever Seen!!! (Part 2)

Here’s Part 2 of Sara Kipin’s AWESOME graphic novel version of one of my favourite scenes from Death Sentence. I was blown away when I saw this!!!! If you missed Part 1, click here!!!!

Reprinted here with the kind permission of the awesome artist, and all artwork remains © of the artist! Click on the images for bigger versions (and you are going to want to see bigger versions)!

Thanks again, Sara!!!!!!!!!

The Most Awesome Thing I Have Ever Seen!!! (Part 1)

Somebody alerted me to this, and it is simply the most awesome thing I have ever seen. The amazingly talented Sara Kipin has turned one of my favourite scenes from Death Sentence into a graphic novel. I don’t know how she managed to get inside my head, but this is almost exactly what I was seeing when I wrote the book. It’s just stunning. Sara, I want you to do the whole series now!!! Thanks so much for this, it made my year!

Reprinted here with the kind permission of the awesome artist, and all artwork remains © of the artist! Click on the images for bigger versions, and for Part 2 click here!

For Part 2, click here!!!

Warning: It’s Going to get Stormy!!!

The weather forecast is just in, and there’s a storm brewing…

And the reason for that is because today is the day that The Storm is published! For those of you that don’t know, The Storm is the sequel to The Fury. And for those of you who want to know a little more about it:

 

THE STORM

It started with the Fury.

It will end with the Storm.

Cal, Daisy and Brick now know the terrifying secret of the Fury, but the truth has made the world more dangerous than ever. In one direction the human race is still trying to murder them – every single person they meet becomes a bloodthirsty savage. In the other rages a monumental storm, born from a living corpse, a seething mass of darkness that threatens to devour everything.

Cal and the others must venture into the heart of the storm. But in unleashing their new powers they learn that they too pose a terrible threat, and that it is their own fury that could burn a hole in the world.

The concluding book in Alexander Gordon Smith’s cult epic The Fury series, The Storm continues the rollercoaster ride of horror and thrills.

So that’s the good news, and here’s the slightly-less-good-but-potentially-even-better news…

The Storm isn’t actually available as a physical book. It is ONLY PUBLISHED ON KINDLE. Yes, I know Amazon still has a physical book for sale, but please don’t buy it because nothing will arrive, it doesn’t actually exist and probably never will. However, those of you with Kindles can definitely buy it, and I really hope millions of you do!

Here’s the link!

 

So what’s going on then?!

Good question. The reason The Storm isn’t available as an actual book is because Faber have decided to follow in the shoes of my US publisher, FSG, and release both books in a single-volume mega book which is simply called The Fury. I’m not sure of the actual publication date for this yet, but I think it will be in August sometime. You’ll know when it happens because there will special cranes on standby outside your local book shops lifting the vast books inside one by one. Only kidding, The Director’s Cut (as it has been named) is around 700 pages long, which is still light enough to hold in a single hand. If you warm-up first…

The good thing about this is that I do think it works well as a single volume. It’s a big book but a fast one, and hopefully it flows quite smoothly between the first and second parts. I think it was really meant to be a single book, but at the time of writing we all made the decision to split it. Now, though, we have the option to make it a stunning single volume, and hopefully it works even better this way.

The bad thing about this is that unless you have a Kindle, you won’t be able to read The Storm on its own. Of course, if you do want to read it, then this means buying the whole book, half of which you have already read. I am SO SORRY about this, I know it sounds like we’re taking the mickey a bit, but it’s just the way it worked out. I really hope none of you mind, and I can’t apologise enough for those of you who feel a bit put out that you’re paying for something you’ve already half paid for. Ultimately the decision was out of my hands. For those of you who do hang on, though, the new edition will look something like this:

It uses the US artwork, and looks terrifying!!!!!!

Whichever version you end up reading, I really, really hope you enjoy it. And sorry again for all the confusion.

 

Fan Art Friday No. 3!

We haven’t had a Fan Art Friday in a while, which is totally my fault! *slaps wrist* There’s some amazing Furnace fan art out there, and it needs to be seen!!!!

An awesome fan called Jennifer has just emailed me this fantastic picture of the wheezer on the cover of Lockdown. It’s terrifyingly realistic! Thanks so much for sending it, Jenn, I love it!!

If anyone has any fan art they’d like to share then email it to me using the links on the homepage!

Furnace in France!!!

It’s a tres exciting day today because Furnace is released in France!!! It is called La Fournaise: Enferme, and it is published by the awesome people at Pocket Jeunesse. They have really gone to town on their website, devoting their home page to the book:

And they have made this massively cool trailer for it too:

I’m so excited!! This is my first book to be released in French, and I’m hoping to head over there at some point to do some signings. I can’t actually speak much French at all – apart from the very petit I remember from ecole – but this is a good opportunity to brush up on my language skills. I just want to say a HUGE merci to everyone at PKJ for making the book look so great, and for putting so much behind it!! I’m thrilled!

Oh, and I have a spare copy, which I’m giving away. To win, just leave a comment on this blog and I will pick a winner at random in a few days. Bon chance!!

 

Meme Monday No. 3: No You Can’t

It’s Wednesday, but who cares! This is awesome!

If Warden Cross was a cat...

Hang on, it’s April?!?!

Easter is well known for the dead rising, but not like this!

Hi guys! Happy February! Oh, wait, I mean happy March. No… It can’t be April already… It’s still snowing for one thing! I’m sure time gets faster as you get older. Or maybe not so much faster as slippier. When you’re a kid you seem to be able to hold on to the leash of time pretty easily. You can keep it to heel. But the older you get the harder it pulls, and just tears off without you, leaving you chasing it down the road shouting ‘Wait, come back, don’t go in there, stop eating that cat!’ Time is a dog. Metaphor of the day.

Anyway, my excuses are that I’ve been away on tour – three weeks of events around the UK. It’s been awesome, and I’ll post a more detailed report soon, but there is never time to blog when I’m away. I’m always too busy raiding the chocolate vending machines in Premier Inn. The other reason is that my lovely other half, Lyns, has been in hospital for surgery. Nope, the wheezers weren’t turning her into a blacksuit (although part of me thinks that would actually be quite cool). She’s back home now and all is well, but schedules have been completely thrown to the wind while she recovers.

The great thing about that is Lynsey, Lucy and I have pretty much spent the whole of the last week playing video games! And we’ve been lucky to find a couple of really good ones. I picked up LA Noire for pocket change at the weekend. I always wanted to play it when it was first released, but for some reason never got round to it. I’m so glad we finally gave it a go, though, because it’s a superb game with a great story. It really does feel like you’re in the middle of a film noire, but everything is in colour! Really well worth checking out – although fair warning, the crimes that you’re investigating are pretty brutal.

The other one we stumbled across is the Walking Dead game, by Telltale Games. I love the books and the TV show, and I’d heard good things about the game, so we gave it a go. It’s awesome! It really puts you right in the middle of the WD universe, and forces you to make some lightning quick and very difficult decisions, the same way you would if you were actually there. There’s no time to think, and people’s lives hang in the balance, so you can end up making some pretty awful choices, but just like life there’s no going back. You really do feel exhausted after playing it. Check it out!

But sadly the Easter weekend is over now, so I guess it’s back to work. Wait, I’m a writer, I don’t work. Yay!

More soon!

 

Win Dog Tags!

Perfect for Soldiers of Furnace!

Over on my official Facebook fan page!

They’re cool.

They’re exclusive.

They say Furnace on them!!!!

I only have three!

The competition ends tomorrow!

This isn’t an April Fool!

Or is it…?*

There’s only one way to find out!

* It’s not.

Happy Easter!!!!

My face is shiny.

 

Meme Monday No. 2: Beneath Heaven…

Here’s another awesome meme for the Meme Monday slot! I first saw this a while back, but it still makes me chuckle (and fills me with pride that Furnace made it on to I Can Has Cheezburger)! Thanks to the mega awesome Courtney Kraft, for this amazing honour!

One of the greatest moments of my life!

More memes next Monday!