Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great Christmas break. We had fun … lots of socialising, some walking, and I even fitted in a few runs (one on Boxing Day, only a few miles but utterly quiet and peaceful). So now it’s 2012, and no, the world’s not going to end. Believe me. If it does, call me a liar.
So what’s in store for 2012? I’ve already talked about new books of mine that will be released this year. And it was naughty of me not to mention my novelisation of The Cabin in the Woods, which is due for release imminently. Check out that stunning cover!
I’m writing a script for a kids’ spooky animated movie, which should be a huge amount of fun. Itching to get stuck into that one, for sure. I’m also writing a solo script called The Silence (which might also be a novel), and just recently had a great idea for a new novel which I’d love to write this year called Endure. My script Hell Came Down will be off to my agent very soon (weird, apocalyptic, and I like to think pretty original). And there are more novels I want to write, including an exciting new fantasy novel called The Wolves. But we’ll see which one surfaces first.
I’ll also be starting a new blog pretty soon, talking about my running and training (marathons this year, triathlons next year), getting fit in my 40s, and lots of associated stuff. I hope you’ll try it out when it launches … check out here for details.
Meanwhile, I hope 2012 is lovely for you, full of love and fun, great food and drink, lots of sex, and a few nice surprises. What more can we ask?
Here’s one big bit of news I’ve been hinting at … my new novel COLDBROOK will be published in March next year by the one and only HAMMER. Here’s the press release. I’m absolutely thrilled about this, as you can imagine. A book. Of mine. with ‘Hammer’ on the spine.
Coldbrook is a huge, sprawling apocalyptic zombie novel about the end of this world … and others.
More soon. I’m off for a glass of wine.
Coming soon …. a HUGE book announcement. Watch this space.
And some more big news I can sort-of reveal … I’ve sold a YA trilogy to a wonderful publisher in the USA. Lots more news and details on this when I can spill the beans, but suffice to say I am delighted. Oh yes.
Last Saturday I completed the Mountain Trail Challenge with my mates Pete, Russ, and Phil. It was a 20 mile walk across some of the most beautiful landscape in the country, the Brecon Beacons. We had a great time––mud, streams, marshes, rain, sun, mountaintops, forests, trails, moorland. And then afterwards there was curry and beer. Lots of fun was had, and next year Pete and I are hoping to run the same course. Hoping to, at least.
Had a lovely summer … a week in France with my family, a few days at home, then a week in the USA, first at Horrorfind convention, then staying with my buddy Stephen Susco and his lovely wife and son. Far more fun than I deserve. But now I’m back at the coal face, and as I hinted at above there will be some exciting news to share with you all soon.
Workwise … I’m currently working on some novel revisions, as well as a couple of secret projects.
More soon!
Hello again! It’s been a while. I love what you’ve done with your hair. Got a few things to mention, so I’ll jump right in.
My novella collection WHITE AND OTHER TALES OF RUIN is now available as an ebook from Necon Ebooks. Ordering details and other stuff here. There’ll be more ebooks of mine coming out soon, so watch this space for details.
In two weeks I’ll be at Horrorfind, where I’m one of the Literary Guests. I’m so looking forward to catching up with some old friends who I haven’t seen for years, but it’s nice making new friends too. Please come up and say Hi. I’ll be at a table in the Celebrity Room during the day, and at the bar in the evening. There’ll be books for sale, and you can also bring books along to be signed. In fact, I’ll sign anything. Within reason.
My ‘suddenly got a bit fit and am doing a bit of mad stuff’ craze continues, this time with the Mountain Trail Challenge on 17th September. I’d love it if you sponsored me––doing stuff like this is fun enough, but it’s satisfying to know I’m also raising money for a good cause. Later this year I’ll be asking again … I’m running the Cardiff Half Marathon in October, a mountain bike race the same month, then the Sodbury Slog in November. There are also some Coastal Trail races I’m going to enter, and next year I’m already considering entering a trail marathon or two (as well as tackling the Welsh 3000s with the same gang I did the Three Peaks Challenge with). Love it!
I’m currently working on revisions on my new novel for Orbit (if you read ECHO CITY, please do leave a review on Amazon), a new novel with Chris Golden, and loads of other stuff I’m itching to tell you about. And there’s Big News coming soon.
Watch this space!
The very splendid James Lovegrove, on ECHO CITY:
Tim Lebbon made his name as a writer of cheerfully gory horror fiction, and that’s evident in Echo City’s prologue, which opens with a monstrous creature shambling across a toxic wasteland and dying. From its corpse emerges another smaller creature, which continues the journey until it too dies, and from its corpse emerges yet another, still smaller creature, and so on. It’s a ghastly, death-inflected parody of the cycle of life, and sets the scene superbly for the existential torments that are to come.
Echo City is packed with gruesome detail and outlandish characters but the star of the show is the city itself, marooned in an unending, lethal desert. Lebbon seems to know every sinister nook and dusty cranny of the place, and enriches his creation with an intricate backstory of internecine religious cults, social stratification and genetic engineering. His seething urban stew bubbles over with the arrival of an outsider who has, impossibly, survived the rigours of the imprisoning wilderness, sparking conflict and the fulfilment of apocalyptic prophecies.
Last Thursday was my birthday. Sitting in the pub garden with family and friends, my phone buzzed and I read the email from Brett Savory – my novella The Thief of Broken Toys has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award! Happy Birthday to me…
Icing on the cake is that CZP Publications are also nominated.
Here’s the full listing.
I’m thrilled, as you can imagine. This is my second World Fantasy nomination, the first being for the novella Exorcising Angels, co-written with my mate Simon Clark. With Thief also being nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award (which it didn’t win), and a British Fantasy Award (don’t know yet), these are exciting times. You really should read it. Honestly.
…in which I talk about sex, swearing, and beer in fantasy novels. It’s fun!
Also, I’m looking forward to announcing a major new book deal soon. Watch this space for exciting news.
ECHO CITY is on the shelves across the UK. It’s getting some great reviews:
‘Echo City … Brilliantly conceived and exquisitely well written by one of the genre’s most original and inventive writers. Tim Lebbon is one of the few fantasy authors whose new works I eagerly anticipate’ — Steven Erikson
Lebbon’s prose is a pleasure, and so too his seamless hybridisation of horror and dark fantasy – were there to be another novel set in the same world, I’d gladly go back for a second helping’ –The Speculative Scotsman
‘ECHO CITY is a gloriously atmospheric piece that pulls you right into the various Cantons and leaves you on the wall of the city, staring out across the desert and wondering what lies beyond the horizon . . . An engrossing story’ — Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review
You can read blogs on the orbit site here and here, and they’ve also designed a beautiful wallpaper you can download for various devices.
And coming soon, another blog on the Orbit website about swearing, ale, and hand-jobs in fantasy fiction.
I’ll be signing copies of the book this Saturday, 23rd July, at Abergavenny Bookshop, from 12 til 1pm. Then after that some drinks at the Hen & Chickens.
Next Saturday, 30th, I’ll be signing at Forbidden Plant in London. That’s just two days after my birthday! Details here. Please come along to one of these signings!
If you read Echo City, I’d love to hear what you think, so please do leave comments on Twitter, Facebook, or reviews on Amazon. Thanks! And I hope you enjoy the book. Here’s the first line:
As it left the city, the thing did not once look back.
Today is a very big day for me. After being a published writer for many years, and seeing books published by mainstream publishers in the USA (about twenty novels, and counting), my novel ECHO CITY has hit the shelves in the UK. It’s not the first book of mine to do so — a couple of years ago, Allison & Busby published three of my books. But it’s the first book from a major publisher, and I feel at last that I’m properly published in my own country.
And that’s cause to celebrate.
You can go here to the Orbit website to read an exclusive extract, and also to check out the great reviews that are already coming in for the novel. My mate, fantasy writer Steven Erikson, said:
Brilliantly conceived and exquisitely well written by one of the genre’s most original and inventive writers. Tim Lebbon is one of the few fantasy authors whose new works I eagerly anticipate.
Nice, eh? And check that gorgeous cover…
I hope you’ll pick up and enjoy ECHO CITY. If you do, please let me know what you think. And please spread the word. This is only the beginning.
I’m thrilled to announce that I have two books on the British Fantasy Awards shortlist this year. First is The Thief of Broken Toys, published by those splendid folks at CZP, nominated for Best Novella. You can also see a great review for this book here. It was also nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award, and I’ll hear the result of that soon direct from the presentations at Readercon.
The second nomination is for Last Exit for the Lost, my huge collection published by Cemetery Dance.
I’m delighted at being shortlisted again for the British Fantasy Awards. It always makes FantasyCon weekend that much more enjoyable, and a little more nerve-jangling.
