Tim Lebbon – horror and dark fantasy author

It’s been an exciting year work-wise for me. First, The Secret Journeys of Jack London: The Wild hit the shelves. Written in collaboration with my good friend Christopher Golden, this is the first volume in a trilogy. Fox2000 optioned this mid-2010, and the book itself is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever had published, with wonderful artwork from Greg Ruth and such fine attention to detail from HarperCollins. The exciting news just in is that Fox has re-optioned the book, and 2012 should see a lot of progress on this front!

My novel Echo City was released by Orbit in the UK (it was out from Bantam in the USA last year). It’s had a great reception and some lovely reviews, and I hope this is the beginning of a long relationship with Orbit. They’re wonderful to work with, and their covers are all works of art. I never understood the true science of book covers until I worked with Orbit.

My 2010 novella The Thief of Broken Toys was nominated for World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Shirley Jackson Awards. It won none of them, but I was thrilled with it

being on such prestigious awards lists.

I was a guest at Horrorfind in Gettysburg, and had a great time catching up with loads of friends and making many new ones. It was my first US convention in several years, and it made me realise how much I miss them. Especially the breakfasts. Cake for breakfast. Oh yeah.

2011 also marked 5 years since I’ve been writing full-time, and I took a moment to reflect on whether or not it had been the right decision. A moment that lasted about 6 milliseconds. Of course it was the right decision!

So after such an exciting year, can 2012 be any better? You bet. In fact, it might well be the most exiting year of my career to date. Here’s what’s happening:

February will see the release of The Secret Journeys of Jack London: The Sea Wolves in hardback, and The Wild will be out in paperback. And Fox2000 will be progressing the movie of The Wild, of course! These books have also sold in Germany, France, Brazil, and Hungary, so we’ll see releases in those countries too (in fact The Wild is already out in Germany).

In August, my new fantasy novel The Heretic Land will be published by Orbit in the UK.

October will see two releases. Firstly, my huge apocalyptic zombie thriller Coldbrook will be released by Hammer/Arrow in the UK. And London Eye (Book One of The Toxic City) will be released by Pyr in the USA. This is the first in a YA trilogy that I’m just so excited about.

There’ll also be various short stories and novellas, as well as some forays into the ebook market.

Other stuff, equally exciting … I’ve been commissioned to write a screenplay, and more of that soon (when contracts are signed). Mark Morris and I hope to complete our collaborative YA novel in 2012. I’m working on a Top Secret collaboration, and Chris Golden and I are throwing around ideas about what to work on together next. I have a script that will be ready to go out early in 2012 called Hell Came Down, and I’m itching to get stuck into a new script called The Silence, which I’m really excited about. Stephen Volk and I hope to collaborate again next year, too. And there’s also a novel I want to write which … well, I can’t tell you anything about it. It’ll be different.

So that’s a recap of 2011 for me, and a little peek forward into 2012. If you’ve read this far that might mean that you quite like some of the words I write. If you do, I thank you, because I couldn’t continue writing so many of them without your support. I hope you’ll stay with me. Things are getting exciting.

Have a great Christmas, a safe and enjoyable New Year, and let’s have some more adventures together soon.

(coming soon, a personal look back on 2011 … the year I got fit!)

Hi Folks

Been a busy time here at Lebbonville, so I’m sorry for the lack of recent updates.

Firstly, FOUR RODE OUT arrived from Cemetery Dance Publications, and it’s it’s a beautiful book.  It’s sold out from the publisher now, but I’m sure you’ll still be able to pick it up from dealers or second-hand markets.

My collection LAST EXIT FOR THE LOST received another wonderful review.  You can still pick this up from Cemetery Dance in the USA, or PS Publishing in the UK.

I’m working hard on COLDBROOK revisions and the script for Fox2000 (with Chris Golden), and several other exciting projects that I can’t really mention just yet.

Meanwhile, my brand new fantasy novel ECHO CITY hits the shelves next week in the USA.  Please go and buy it, order it, shout it from the rooftops.  I’m so pleased with this book that I want everyone to read it, and please let me know what you think.

‘Til next time, be good to each other, drink fine ales, and happy reading.

And that’s because I’ve been insanely busy.  I delivered COLDBROOK to my publisher Corsair, which was a great feeling.  I’m delighted with the book.

I also attended the AltFiction event in Derby, beautifully organised, well-attended, it has quickly become one of the convention highlights of the year.  And rumour has it it’ll be two days next year …  And if you scan Facebook you’ll see loads of pictures from the event, showing writers etc in various stages of deliberation, conversation, and inebriation.

My contributor copies of LAST EXIT FOR THE LOST arrived today, and … to paraphrase Chief Brody, we’re gonna need a bigger house.  My office is quickly becoming overrun with books – no bad thing, but when I can’t type without being suspended above the keyboard by some hi-tech Mission Impossible style wire system, things are getting desperate.

Here’s an interview online with me, Chris Golden, and James A Moore about the nomination of British Invasion for the Shirley Jackson Awards.

Currently working on the Secret Journeys of Jack London screenplay for Fox2000, and THE SEA WOLVES (Book 2 in the Jack London series for HarperCollins).

And don’t forget THE THIEF OF BROKEN TOYS, which has been picking up some lovely review.

Well this is a bit wacky!  Here’s a podcast review of my novelisation of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT.  I really like the idea of podcast reviewing , and although the guys chatting seem sorta hazy about how the book came about  – graphic novel, to movie, to novel – it’s good to hear that the reader’s favourite scene is the polar bear scene … which is the one major scene in the book that is my own creation, and not translated from the screenplay.

That polar bear is also indirectly responsible for the Jack London books I’m writing with the most excellent and unfeasibly sexy Christopher Golden.  But more on that another time.

Three years ago today I was sitting at my desk – this very desk – as a full-time writer for the first time.  I was a little hungover.  The night before I’d had a leaving do from work at The Hanbury Arms in Caerleon, drank too much Reverend James, and generally celebrated leaving work to live my dream.  That last day in work was a lot of fun … wandering around to say goodbye, collecting leaving presents (bottles of whiskey and wine … they know me so well).  And that first day of full-time writing I spent on the first chapter of my 30 Days of Night movie novelisation.  I remember it well, because I had to scrap it three days later when the updated shooting script came through and I realised all the relationships had changed … but since that day to this, I’ve had the best time of my life.

It’s been three years.  I worked at my old day job for six times that, yet I only have vague memories of the place: I remember the people, many of whom still remain friends.  I remember cheese and bacon toasties on Friday morning.  I remember being in a tea-group of one and having to steal other people’s milk from the fridge (yes, everyone … it was me!)  But it’s rare that I sit and dwell on my time there, because that was another life.

Since starting to write full time I’ve written so many novels, shorts stories, and novellas that I’ve lost count – they include two 30 Days of Night novels, Hellboy: The Fire Wolves, Echo City Falls (coming soon), The Island, Fallen, two Hidden Cities books with Chris Golden, the first of the Secret Journeys of Jack London books (also with Chris), the novella The Reach of Children … and there I was, hoping I’d turn prolific.

I’ve also started branching out into some screen work, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.  I’m collaborating on an exciting new screenplay, and I’m also currently developing two TV series.

And last week, as if to celebrate my impending 3-year anniversary, I had some Very Good News.  Thrilling, exciting news.  But more on that soon.

I’m very, very lucky.  I commute to work past the dog, sit in my own office with all my books and other stuff around me, make stuff up, write it down, and sell it.  I walk the dog in our lovely local woods at lunchtimes, and occasionally go out for lunch with friends.  I always wanted to get here, but was never sure I would.

Thank you, to everyone who enjoys buying and reading my books.  That means you.  You keep buying them, and reading them and liking them, and I’ll keep writing them.  There’s lots on the horizon.

So without further ado … I’m writing a novella about a thief of broken toys. I must away.

Two years ago today was my first day working as a full-time writer.  Leaving work to write for a living was a big decision, but definitely one of the best I’ve ever made, and through the downs as well as the ups I haven’t regretted it for a moment.  It seems a lot longer than two years ago that I last left Monmouthshire County Council’s dodgy old building (it’s effectively falling down), and looking at the amount I’ve written since then, perhaps there has been a time-warp thingy going on somewhere.  Here’s a rough list:

• 30 Days of Night
• Fallen
• Mind the Gap (with Christopher Golden)
• The Map of Moments (with Christopher Golden) – forthcoming
• The Secret Journeys of Jack London: Book One (with Christopher Golden) – forthcoming
• Hellboy: The Fire Wolves - forthcoming
• The Island - forthcoming
• The Toxic City: London Eye
• A Whisper of Southern Lights
• The Reach of Children

As well as those novels and novellas I’ve done several short stories, two screenplays (The Everlasting and The Dregs), and plenty of other stuff.  It does make me wonder how the hell I wrote so much when I was working, but the fact that I’m still working just as hard after two years is great.  I’ve still got plenty of work on … and a big THANKS is due to you discerning readers who continue to buy my books!

And on it goes …!  I wrote a novelette this weekend for a US market (sending it to the editor for consideration today), brainstormed a new screenplay with a good friend of mine, and this week it’s back to the Yukon to finish off book one of the Jack London series.

Many more announcements coming soon, including a new short story option.  So please do keep popping by, and in another year I hope the above list will be much, much longer.

My wife often accuses me of being absent minded, and of having my head in the clouds.  My excuse is that I live in (at least) two places at once: reality, and the reality of my latest novel or story.  I say at least two places, because I’m inevitably working on more than one project (right now there are at least eight or nine different projects on the go).  When I’m bloody minded as well as absent minded, I completely deny her allegation.

This, I can no longer do.

Yesterday, my wife called home from work to ask me if I’d seen her mobile phone.  When she rang off I called her phone, and heard it buzzing away merrily in the kitchen.

Hoorah! I thought.  Found it!  I must tell Tracey.

So I sent her a text.

Now then, my excuse for this is that I’m currently in several places at once.  These include:

• The Yukon during the gold rush, following Jack London on his intrepid journeys (for the novel I’m co-writing with Christopher Golden).
• A small town close to where I live, where zombies are chomping their way through the diminishing population.
• A tropical island, where I’m still dwelling upon my screenplay THE DREGS that is currently with my agents.
• A very long train tunnel (project still a bit hush-hush).
• A huge imaginary city where the results of weird scientific experiments run loose and where the lands beyond the city are impassable and deadly (Echo City Falls, the new novel I’m working on for Bantam).

So you see, it’s understandable, isn’t it.

Isn’t it?

This is just such a neat idea …

Take one crap reality TV show, have it take place in a world slowly being taken over by zombies, people it with characters no more outragous that the oddballs you usually get on the show … and then turn the real-life presenter into a zombie!

I can’t stand Big Brother.  I watched some of the first series and found it mildly interesting, but from series 2 on it was painful to watch, exploitive victim-TV at its worst.  There was a time when I thought, “Why not introduce a mass-murderer into the house and see how these feeble fucks handle that!”  Never happened – probably because the producers couldn’t get permission, more than anything else – but this is certainly the next best thing.

Davina as a zombie. I’m there.

Writing updates: I’ve been working hard on The Secret Journeys of Jack London, the YA series I’m writing with Christopher Golden for Atheneum in the USA.  It’s going to be a scorcher, and Chris and I are thrilled with how it’s going.  More news on this as and when it’s available.

Also been tinkering with ideas and sample chapters for a possible dark crime novel … we’ll see if this one has legs.  And a screenplay, a novella, and some short story idea for three anthologies I’ve been invited to submit to but which I can’t say much about just yet …

More soon!