Tim Lebbon – horror and dark fantasy author

I’d take time to comment on this more fully, but sometimes brevity is best: what a load of old bollocks.

The year’s not over yet, but already I’m looking forward.  Nothing wrong with that!  If you check out the Forthcoming Books box in the column on the right you’ll see info about future publications due out next year sometime.  As well as these there are a couple of unannounced projects (yes, one of them is the collection, and yes, I do hope it’ll be out next year, but who’s to say?), as well as some short stories and one or two novellas that might or might not surface in 2009.

Next year will also see the mass market paperback releases of Fallen (both in the USA and UK), and Mind The Gap (USA only).

Watch this space for more exciting 2009 announcements coming soon!  As well as many book publications, I’ll also be hitting the big 40 next year.  Will there be a party?  You bet.

There area a few shopping days left until Christmas.  All those presents you’ve forgotten to buy are worrying you, now.  Aunt Ethel doesn’t need another scarf, your father-in-law has enough baseball caps to warm the heads of a full stadium, and your best friend’s not really interested in chocolate now that she’s on a crash diet to impress that new window cleaner she’s having in once a week …. so what do you buy them?

Books, of course.  The answer’s so easy it barely needs thinking about.

Things are bad right now, with the recession biting deep, companies going bust all over, joblessness, and the doom-sayers in the media enjoying themselves more than they have for some time.  A new campaign has been launched called Books Are Great Gifts.  You can visit their website if you want, but really you shouldn’t need to because the facts speak for themselves.  Books are great gifts.  I can turn around and browse my heaving shelves now, and remember just who bought me some of my books, and when, and what I was doing when I read them.

That copy of Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman was bought by my mate Richard in our late teens.  A bit tatty now, I still remember reading it before we went off together to a Motorhead gig.

Ian McEwan’s Saturday was handed to me by my mother just before she went blind, and later passed away. It’s the last book she ever read.

King’s The Stand was bought for my eighteenth birthday by an old friend I’ve lost touch with (Anthony Joslin, where are you?)

And there are many more …

Books are unique (matched only perhaps by CDs) in that as well as a useful present, they become a part of your history.  Read the spines on your bookshelves and your past comes to life, in the same way that each individual world inside those covers develops a life of its own the minute you start reading.

Buy books.  Buy mine, that would be nice, but any books will do.  You don’t even need to get off your arse … just log on to any of the online booksellers.

Happy reading this Christmas.

My books have been out in the UK for a good couple of months now, but until today I hadn’t seen them in a bookshop (apart from the day of the launch in my local indie bookstore).  But today the family and I went to Abergavenny – Dan needed some new wellies, I needed fruit jellies – and I popped into Waterstone’s.  Never that hopeful, I approached the Fantasy and Science Fiction aisle … and saw the gorgeous blue cover of FALLEN staring at me.  And not just one copy, either … two copies!

Feeling a bit cheeky, I approached the staff and mentioned the book, asked if they’d like me to sign it.  A lovely lady there almost bit my hand off!  So I signed the books – happily – and they asked if they could have a proof copy to read, so that they can write one of those little ‘recommended’ cards and stick it in front of the books.

Ah, I do so love my job.

Right, tonight I am mostly drinking real ale and watching The Invasion.  Something tells me I’ll wish I hadn’t (watched The Invasion, that is) … but time will tell.

I’m delighted to be able to point you towards my first Guest Blog!  It’s not about writing, or movies, or music …. but another love of my life: Beer.  This is a great site, so once you’ve read my post please do have a look around.

I’m even more delighted to tell you that I’ve been invited to become a regular blogger on Blog O’ Beer!  As such, it is now my duty to sample many more ales, exploring the depths of supermarkets and off-licences across the land to bring you news and views on new, exciting brews. All in the name of research.  Ahhhhh, nice.

Welcome, one and all, to my very shiny, very new, very lovely website.  And before I go any further, a big hats off and a round of applause for the excellent Paul Raven, web guy extraordinare.  Cheers Paul!

It’s just possible you’ll notice a few little quirks and tweaks being made over the next couple of weeks.  Some of that might be stuff Paul does, some of it will be me playing with my shiny new WordPress toy.  Everyone tells me I won’t miss Blogger at all, so I’m looking forward to being all clever with WordPress, and stuff.

So, do let me know what you think of the site, look around, tell me what you’d like to see.  Have fun. Be nice to each other.  Read more books.

More soon ….

Folks, my website will be down for some maintenance over the next few days, on and off. Watch this space for something snazzy!

I’ve just seen John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) advertising butter on TV.

Butter.

Er …

I’m a bit ….

Well, disturbed and ….

OK. I can barely talk. I’ll think this through and post again tomorrow.

Just returned from Cornwall, where I spent a few days drinking some splendid ale and eating some equally splendid pasties. I’m working hard to finish my new Hellboy novel right now (Hellboy: The Fire Wolves), but expect a longer posting here sometime over the weekend …

My good mate Chris Golden came to stay with us for a couple of days after his Guest of Honour stint at Fantasycon. We were both tired from the weekend – add on top of that Chris’s jet lag – so we decided to have a leisurely day on Monday in Hay on Wye. For anyone who’s never heard of it, it’s a small town in the Welsh hills with about 35 bookshops.

Yes, you read that right.

And of course, what we both needed after a weekend at Fantasycon was the opportunity to spend more money on books.

But Chris insisted. It’s all his fault, really. That’s what I told my wife, at least. I’d bought about ten books at Fantasycon, and in Hay I bouth another twenty (you just can’t not buy them!). At my current reading rate that’s about 8 month’s supply, on top of the probably 1,000 books I haven’t yet read. Do the math in too much detail, and it all gets a little depressing …

Recent acquisitions include books by Ken Bruen, Ed Gorman, Walter Mosley, Dennis Lehane, Mark Chadbourn, James Lee Burke, and Joe Lansdale. Oh yes.

We had a great couple of days. We got some work done, too, though most of it consisted of chatting over current project THE SECRET JOURNEYS OF JACK LONDON in the car or over drinks. (The book, by the way, is progressing extremely well, and it’s going to be a fantastic looking publication … more details as and when the time comes).

It’s been a good couple of weeks. On top of all this, I sold some more novels, details of which I’ll post here as soon as the ink’s dry and I get permission from the publishers. Suffice to say, I’m a happy puppy, and anyone who enjoys the collaborations I write with Chris, or my solo fantasy novels, will be happy too.