Tim Lebbon – horror and dark fantasy author

Ahhh, Fantasycon. I’ve been to lots of conventions, but this one always seems to be the highlight. This time last week I was just about to leave, and it already seems like many weeks ago. This one was particularly fun because my mate Chris Golden was over from the USA as Guest of Honour, and I had the pleasure of interviewing him on stage (the whole interview was filmed, and will be available online soon – I’ll post details here).

I was on a good panel about Trends in Horror, along with Mark Morris, Sarah Pinborough, Joseph D’Lacy and Bill Hussey, and it was a refreshing change being on a panel where the overall feel for horror in this country was positive. Bill and Joe are writing for Bloody Books, a fine new outfit, and Adam Nevill, editor at Virgin, was in the audience, providing some insight into their line as well. Very positive.

There was the usual curry on Friday evening, and a very civilised bedtime of 2:30. Saturday evening was the banquet (where they served food I’m certain I saw the year before … really, I wrote my name on a carrot to see if I get it again next year), and then the awards. I didn’t win either award I was up for, but I was delighted to see my mates Conrad Williams and Joel Lane beat me. After the awards, the raffle, hosted by Guy Adams and Sarah Pinborough. Started off OK … but even their sparkling wit and presentation couldn’t save it from becoming tedious and soul-destroying by the end. Really, let’s have twenty really good prizes, instead of 300 books that few people really want.

More beer, more wine, then home. I brought Golden home with me for a couple of days … but that’ll wait for another blog post.

Also subject of a future post … I sold three new novels this week (hoorah!), which I’ll tell you about when the contracts are signed.

Metallica’s new album has taken a long time to grow on me. Sometimes when it takes me this long to get into an album, it’s because it is, in fact, crap. Other times, it’s because the album is destined to be a classic, rediscovered and replayed again and again over the years. I’m pleased to say that mostly, Death Magnetic falls into the latter category.

Let’s face it, it’s been a long time coming. St Anger infuriated a lot of people – I was one of those who initially loved it beause I felt it needed loving, and then I’ve fallen out of love with it over the years. Can’t recall the last time I played it. And after the embarrassing, painful mess that was Some Kind of Monster, Metallica really needed to pull something out of the hat with this album.

What they’ve done, and mightily successfully, is to remember that they’re a rock band. Hetfield’s singing (not shouting) has never sounded better. Ulrich has rediscovered how to play the drums, dispensing with the terrible sound from the last album. Hammett is allowed to play guitar again, and Trujillo fits in as if he’s always been a part of Metallica.

As for the songs … they’re all a fuck-you-MTV seven or eight minutes long. And they are HEAVY. My favourites so far are Broken, Beat and Scarred, which carried a thunderous chorus that’ll shake your granny’s dentures loose for sure. All Nightmare Long is a stormer, Cyanide is an obvious crowd-pleaser … they all have quality, and though I find the instrumental a little tiresome – mainly, I think, because I’m so taken with Hetfield’s singing once again – it’s still worth a listen.

So, in summary: it’s not the best album they’ve ever done. But it’s fifty thousand miles from the worst. It’s safe to say that Metallica are back, and that makes me a very happy puppy.

… my news from the British Fantasy Convention, among other things. It’s been a busy time here, but watch this space!

It’s definitely growing on me. Definitely better than St Anger, that’s for sure. I shall give it a couple of uninterrupted listens tomorrow on the way to Fantasycon.

Full report – about Death Magnetic, and Fantasycon – next week!

Jury still out ….

Well, wasn’t summer a pile of shite this year? We had a sunny day a couple of days ago, and it felt like we’d moved to another part of the world. We love eating al fresco, and this year I reckon we managed it maybe fifteen times in total. The day of my UK book launch was a scorcher, and since then it’s been crap.

Ho hum.

But the good thing about September swinging around, rainy weather and all, is that Fantasycon is fast approaching. In fact, it’s on Friday! It’s always one of the highlights of the year for me, and this one is going to be more exciting and busier than most. Chris Golden, my mate and co-writer from the ‘States, is one of the Guests of Honor (see what I did there? In honour of our American friend?). Though Chris and I chat most days, it’ll be great to actually see him for the first time in over a year.

Here’s my schedule for the weekend:

Friday 7:15pm – Humdrumming Book Launch (where they’ll be launching my novella The Reach of Children).

9:00 – Curry. Oh yes.

Saturday 10:00am – Trends in Horror (panel … bear in mind this is 10am on the Saturday of Fantasycon, most of us wouldn’t have hit the sack until 4am, and if you want anything approaching coherent discussion – let alone insightful and knowledgeable – go elsewhere).

Saturday 2pm – Allison & Busby book launch (for my novels FALLEN and THE EVERLASTING)

Saturday 4:45pm – I’ll be interviewing Christopher Golden on stage. Bwa-ha-ha.

Saturday 7pm – Banquet

Saturday 9pm -British Fantasy Awards ceremony (I’m presenting Best Small Press with Reggie Oliver, and I’m nominated for Best Short Story and Best Novella)

Sunday 11am – When Does Fantasy Become Horror (panel)

So there you have it, the busiest convention weekend I think I’ve ever faced, and I cannot wait. If you’re coming along, please say hello. Mine’s a pint of decent ale, if you can find one.

I’ve yet to see someone reading one of my books on a plane, train or beach. Maybe it’ll happen one day, maybe not. But a neighbour made my day for me today. He’s been on holiday to Lanzarote, and in his hotel was a small library, and in that small library were a couple of my books. Hoorah! I am well-travelled!

Jack London said “The function of man is to live, not to exist.” And he certainly did much living in his forty years. It’s quite humbling to think that he died when he was just a little older than I am now, and yet he experienced so much in his lifetime. He was a student, explorer, tramp, gold prospector, political activist, oyster pirate, convict, and one of America’s first celebrity authors. He had a very full life, yet challenging and depressing as well. This experience comes shining through in his writing.

When I was a kid I read London’s most famous books: The Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf and White Fang. I’m re-reading them right now as research for an exciting new project (more of that in a minute), and I realise now that as a young teen I never realy got as much out of these books as I should have. The Call of the Wild isn’t just about a dog; it’s about being human. It contains what is probably my favourite passage of writing from any book (and as it’s available for free download, I see no problem quoting it here):

There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive. This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame; it comes to the soldier, war-mad on a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf-cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him through the moonlight. He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time. He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars and over the face of dead matter that did not move.

That is just beautiful.

Chris Golden and I are writing a series of YA novels about Jack London for Atheneum in the USA. Based on his three most famous works, they explore London’s inspiration to write, the lengths he went to to live, not just exist, and the strange events that followed him along the way. It’s fiction, of course, but fiction about one of the very best storytellers there has ever been. I’ll update here when there’s more news on these books.

It’s always a pleasure to work with Chris, and this time doubly so. I look forward to the next year or two, delving deeper into London’s extraordinary work, and trying my very best to live.

Over the past couple of days I must have signed my name over a thousand times. Three sets of signature sheets came in all at one, and my poor pen has been put through its paces.

The first was for CHILDREN OF THE NEW DISORDER, the novella I wrote with a popular children’s writer (publishing under the pseudonym Lindy Moore). Creeping Hemlock Press will be publishing this one, and if the sig sheets are anything to go by, it’s going to be one very gorgeous book.

Then came the sheets for THE REACH OF CHILDREN, the novella which Humdrumming are launching at Fantasycon. Thiis is a very personal piece for me, and I’ll be talking about it more in forthcoming interviews in Black Static and Interzone.

Last to arrive were … but I can’t talk about this one. Not yet. Though I can give you a clue: Red Monks in hardback.

Coming soon, a blog post about the genius of the incredible Jack London, and why Chris Golden and I are researching his life so throughly.

Hoorah! Confirmed sightings of my UK books have reached me. I didn’t find them in my local Newport Waterstones’, so looks like I’d have to travel to Cardiff to see my books on the shelves. Which would be a bit silly really.

However, here’s where I ask a favour – if you do spot either THE EVERLASTING or FALLEN, please comment here to let me know!