Tim Lebbon – horror and dark fantasy author

You’ll soon be able to read FACE, my first title translated into Spanish.  Yay!  check it out here.

The Thief of Broken Toys has been reviewed in PW, who said in part:

Lebbon (Bar None) superbly captures the thoughts and feelings of a man whose misery so unhinges him that an encounter with the uncanny is unavoidable

The book will be launched at the World Horror Convention in Brighton in two weeks, at a special CZP Publications party on the Thursday evening.  More details about WHC and what I’m doing there soon.

Check out this wonderful cover for the forthcoming third novel in the Hidden Cities series, written with my excellent collaborator Christopher Golden.  What a scorcher, eh?

So what do you think?  Would love to hear.

Taken from the British Fantasy Society website, here’s a wonderful, thought provoking, uplifting quote from the late Robert Holdstock:

“Everything we know now is destined to die except for the forest and the earth. Earth is the eternal survivor, and homo sapiens is not part of its mindless and inexorable plan. There are many forests to come. There will be flashes of intelligence. The last thing to burn will not be a man, but a leaf.  So eat pizza and drink beer. And cheer up. It’ll soon be over.”

“There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”

More about W. Somerset Maugham …

Watch out for photos of Zombie Family Lebbon on Sunday …

It’s almost that time of year again, when a bunch of misfits and weirdos get together to talk until their mouths go dry, drink to try and prevent that from happening (indeed, drink the bar dry … it’s happened … I was there), then get up and eat inedible breakfast food (waiter, these aren’t sausages!), drink hot fluid laughingly called ‘tea’, move on from that crappy drink to the other hot fluid available in the hotel that’s called ‘coffee’ but most decidedly isn’t, and then that day and evening do it all again.

Ahh, Fantasycon, my favourite time of the year.  Meeting friends I haven’t seen for, sometimes, a whole year.  Talking lots.  Drinking lots.  Spending too much money on too many books that I haven’t got time enough to read.

Love it.

This year I’ll be on an 11am panel on Saturday morning (11am?  Who do these people think we are???), talking about writing weekends.  It’ll be fun, believe me.  There’ll be pictures.  Then after the banquet and award ceremony, I’m on a midnight panel on Saturday about apocalyptic fiction.

Now then.  Let me explain something.  A midnight panel is not a good idea at Fantasycon.  Especially considering some of the people I’m on with, I think it’s the panel itself that could be apocalyptic.  That’s right.  Come along to our midnight panel, and witness the ened of the world as … well, probably as we know it.

I’m also up for a British Fantasy Award for THE REACH OF CHILDREN.  Wish me luck!

Midnight panel.  Christ.

Time flies when you’re having fun.  Maybe that’s true!  Yesterday I went to my dad’s place to help build a fence (his old one had rotted and almost fallen over … we breathed on it and it fell down).  Most of my family were there, and in 8 hours of solid work we’d taken down the old fence, dug new post holes and cast them in, fixed rails and nailed up featherboarding.  One new fence – job done.  It felt like 2 hour’s work, not eight, and the beers last night were well-deserved.

Whilst beering, I watched EDEN LAKE.  I wouldn’t have bothered – lost in woods and hunted by killers type movies lost their appeal for me long ago – but Empire gave it 4 stars, and I usually find that mag’s opinion is worth listening to.  I’m glad I did.  It wasn’t so much a viewing experience, but an ordeal, and it left me feeling exhausted, shocked and quite spooked.  It’s a staggeringly well-made debut from writer-director James Watkins, providing an unbearably tense, unpredictable take on the ‘couple being stalked’ theme.  The acting is superb throughout, the script fresh and impressively almost cliche-free.  I won’t say ‘enjoy it’, but … watch, survive, and then move on.

I’m four days away from delivery ECHO CITY FALLS, so this week is going to be spent editing and revising, drinking coffee, more revising, more coffee, and a couple of hour’s sleep here and there.  Once that’s delivered, I have a short story to start, and a few other things to get stuck into before I start my original 30 DAYS OF NIGHT novel.

So … it’ll be quiet here this week.  Forgive me.  I’m in the biggest city ever, trying to figure out what is rising from the Falls.

The long list for the British Fantasy Awards has been released, and I’m thrilled to see The Reach of Children on there.  You can go here to see the full list and to vote.

In other news, yesterday I finished my new novel ECHO CITY FALLS in first draft.  It’s the longest book I’ve ever written, and I’m sure it’ll remain that way even after rewrites and edits.   So I’m giving myself the weekend off before plunging in to that …