Tim Lebbon – horror and dark fantasy author

This Wednesday, via Facebook, Star Wars Books are hosting a chat with Tim.  It all kicks off at 4pm EST (so about 9pm UK time) and you can join in on their Facebook page here.

Into The Void made it onto the New York Times Hardcover Bestseller list at #22!  Full list is here.

A new Star Wars Interview is over at the Knights’ Archive here.

Finally if you can’t get enough of the reviews and interviews then Roqoo Depot has a full list of interview and review links, plus some extras, right here.

Today is a very exciting day for me … my Star Wars novel INTO THE VOID (Dawn of the Jedi) is released!  It was 35 years ago that an 8 year old boy sat wide-eyed in the cinema watching an amazing, groundbreaking movie called Star Wars, and he could never have believed that three decades later he’d be writing his own novel set in that far away, long ago galaxy.

And now I have!

Check here for all the places you can buy it online, and of course it’ll be in brick and mortar stores as well.

There has also been a whole rush of reviews released today, as well as recent interviews I’ve done (still plenty more to come).  Here’s a list of reviews, just click the links to check them out.  I’m thrilled say that reviews are splendid so far…

RODOO DEPOT

CLUB JADE

KNIGHTS’ ARCHIVE

 TOSCHE STATION

 FAN GIRL BLOG

 PURE TEXTUALITY

(If anyone else has reviewed the book, or seen a review, not listed here, please let me know!)

Here’s an interview at Roqoo Depot, too.

And a podcast on TechTalk.

Exciting times here.  It’s lovely to hear such great reaction, good to hear that people want to hear more about Lanoree Brock, and I’m sure there’ll be lots more reviews and interviews out in the future.  Keep checking here for more updates!

The Star Wars Novel – Dawn of the Jedi – Into the Void is out today in Hardcover, Ebook and Audio book editions.  Check the book page here for details.

A new interview discussing the Novel is available at Jedi news here.

Hi,

For everyone waiting for tomorrow, or the postman, or payday, here is a 50 page excerpt of Into the Void, courtesy of Star Wars books.  It may only be available until this coming Friday, so be quick, or read fast.

You can find the excerpt here

The time’s almost here … next Tuesday is official release date for my first Star Wars novel, and the promo machine is marching ahead full-Force (see what I did there).  I really wish release date had been May 4th (Star Wars day!), but never mind.  It’s very, very exciting.

Look what I had delivered yesterday.

And when I opened the book and read this (right), I had a genuine shiver-down-the-spine moment.  That 8 year old who stared in wonder at that big screen in 1977 could have never believed that one day he’d be writing a novel set in that universe.

At present I’m undertaking a series of interviews and podcasts, all of which I’ll post links to as and when they happen.  Here are a couple to get started!

Hollywood.com did a nice feature and an exclusive extract.

I did a guest post for Amazon’s Kindle Daily Post.

And here’s the first of several podcasts, this one Forcecast (my interview starts at 41 minutes).

Lots, lots more soon!

Yep, today is the big day for the release of REAPER’S LEGACY, book two of the Toxic City trilogy.  You can go here to check out where to buy it.  Or, you know, pop along to your local bookshop.

The Toxic City trilogy is still in development with ABC Studios as a TV series.  More soon!

Some nice reviews of my recent books have come in recently, thought I’d share them here:

The Heart of Horror reviews COLDBROOK

Dreadful Tales gives THE THIEF OF BROKEN TOYS a lovely review.

Bart’s Bookshelf reviews LONDON EYE.

Nice!  Hoping for some more reviews to come in next month as REAPER’S LEGACY hits the shelves in the USA.  There’s no UK deal for the TOXIC CITY trilogy, so if you’re interested you’ll have to order from the USA.

More soon!

When I was ten years old I consumed books.  I read maybe 4 or 5 books per week, helped at the local library with my mate Ahmed Din, and I read Willard Price’s adventure books again and again.  It’s a long time ago, now, and I don’t recall being dissatisfied with what I was reading at all.

But then my mum gave me a book called THE RATS, and my life changed forever.  So violent … so sexy … so adult.  It was the first adult book I read, and really from then on I didn’t look back.  I entered my teens reading everything James Herbert wrote (several times), and then Stephen King, and then Clive Barker, and then … the whole wonderful world of books opened up to me.

But James Herbert was the first.  To that pre-teen boy his writing was so vital, brutal, colourful, imaginative, and it explored areas that Willard Price never did.  I always say that James Herbert’s rats got me into horror, and I’d like to thank them very much.  But what I really mean is, James Herbert got me into horror.  And lucky for me, I had the opportunity to thank him for that at the World Horror Convention in Brighton a couple of years ago.

I’ve met a lot of the great writers in our genre, the masters, those writers who built the genre.  But meeting Herbert was the first time I’d ever felt nervous and, frankly, a little tongue-tied.  Probably because of what he meant to me as a kid, and how his books shaped the way I read all through my early teens.

“Mr Herbert, I’m a big fan.”

“Oh, you’re the one!”

“I’d like to shake your hand and thank you, because you’re the reason I’m writing horror.  My mum gave me The Rats to read when I was ten years old.”

“You had a very open-minded mother!”

“I did, that’s so true.  So, anyway … thank you.”

“No, thank you.”

We shook hands, and that was the first and last time we spoke face to face.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t read a Herbert book for a long time.  The last couple I tried didn’t really do it for me, and those earlier books that hold such a precious place in my memory — The Rats, Lair, Domain, The Fog, The Dark, Fluke, The Survivor, The Spear, Shrine — well, I probably shouldn’t go back to them.  I’m scared I won’t love them as much as I did back then.  That happens sometimes, and while it’s all a part of growing up and growing older, it can also be sad.  A bit like loss.

Because when you’re a kid, I think it’s so much easier to fall in love with a writer’s work, become almost obsessed with it, be heavily influenced by it.  That memory remains.

What I said when I met James Herbert is true — if it weren’t for him and his books, I wouldn’t be writing horror today.  I can say that with certainty.  He’s responsible for me doing something I love for a living.  And I’m so glad I got to thank him for that.

My fantasy novel THE ISLAND is now available as a stunning audio book!

It’s released by AudioRealms, and you can pick up the CD version from their website.

You can also download it from audible.com here.

“.. gripping adventure … (a) solidly constructed tale.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

For anyone who’s not read it…

No one knew about the Strangers from beyond Noreela, and it was the Core’s job to make sure it stayed that way. Kel Boon was once an agent of the land’s most secret organization, tracking, observing, and eliminating the Strangers as part of an elite Core team. But then one horrifying encounter left his superior officer – and lover – dead, along with many innocents. And Kel has been running ever since.

But the worst was still to come

Forsaking magic, living as a simple wood-carver, Kel came to the fishing village of Pavmouth Breaks to hide. But when a mysterious island appears out to sea during a cataclysmic storm, sending tidal waves to smash the village, his Core training tells him to expect the worst. How can he warn the surviving villagers – especially the beautiful young witch Namior – that the visitors sailing in from the island may not be the peace-loving pilgrims they claim to be? That this might be the invasion the Core has feared all along…and that he, Kel Boon, may be Noreela’s last chance?

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve signed with Titan Books for two novels.

First, COLDBROOK will be published in North America.  It’s been out for a few months in the UK and has gathered some of the best feedback of any book I’ve written.  I’m so delighted that it’ll be released on the other side of the Atlantic at last.

And then there’s THE SILENCE, which Titan will release simultaneously in the UK and the USA.  This is a brand new novel about the end of the world … and perhaps the beginning of another.  It follows a family and their close friends as they struggle to survive in a world overrun by ravenous creature that hunt purely by sound.  Yes, I like the apocalypse, as any readers of my work will know by now.  But this one will be a little different …  It’s going to be a real challenge to write, and I can’t wait to begin.

Titan’s most wonderful editor Cath Trechman says:

“Tim has a wonderful ability to create characters you really identify with and believe in and then put them through hell. His novels are beautifully written and heartfelt as well as frightening and compelling, and I’m so thrilled to have both Coldbrook and The Silence on the Titan list.”

I’m very excited about working with Titan, who are fast establishing themselves as one of the UK’s premier genre publishers.

And as if that wasn’t enough, there’s more novel news coming very, very soon.

Watch this space.