Due to the ongoing Covid 19 situation around the world the release schedule for Eden has changed a bit. In the UK the ebook is available now (and is still cheaper via KOBO) with an official release date of April 7th, while the paperback release has been pushed back to May 25th. In the US the release date is still April 7th for both paperback and ebook, however this is for online retailers only. For ordering details please visit the book page here, where a selection of reviews have also been added.
Unfortunately the signing tour has been cancelled. If you did buy tickets then you should have already been refunded by Waterstones, but if not please contact them. Stokercon has also been cancelled.
However for some good news in these troubling times, Tim will be taking part in a blog tour for the next two weeks. Details below, and I’ll post links to each one here.
Another release from PS Publishing is due out soon, click on the image for ordering details.
If you love Hammer, Amicus, AIP and other classic horror, you’re going to love STUDIO OF SCREAMS: The Blythewood Horror Omnibus. You’ve heard of concept albums–this is a concept book, including novellas by Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon, Stephen Volk and Mark Morris, plus a wraparound story and history of our entirely-invented British horror film studio by Stephen Bissette. Meanwhile, gaze upon this AMAZING cover by Graham Humphreys!
There is also an interview with Tim, and a review of Eden in the latest issue of Black Static magazine, click on the image for details.
We live in interesting times. With hundreds of millions of people in lockdown around the globe –– not yet in the UK, but I feel the time fast approaches –– I’ve made a load of my Kindle ebooks (backlist stuff I’ve self-published) FREE for 5 days. Just in case you’re at a loose end. Be warned: yes, I destroy the world in some of them. But in a fun way.
To access the list of free ebooks, either click the “Dreaming In Fire” section at the top of this page, or click the image below. Then click the cover to take you to the kindle store.
If you are from the UK then you can also buy the ebook of Tim’s new novel “Eden” before anyone else (and at a discounted price), just check out the post below.
Finally if you are visiting this website for the first time, please have a look around and leave us a comment or two, it’s always appreciated.
UK fans, the wait is over, Eden has received an early ebook release, at a discounted price. For everyone else the paperback will be released on April 7th 2020. Ordering details for both versions can be found by clicking the image below
Alongside the appearances covered in the post below, Tim will also be at the Abergavenny Literary Festival on April 2nd, and also at Cymera in Edinburgh from June 5th – 7th
Tim also has a story in the charity anthology “The Dystopian States of America”
Welcome to 2020. The big news is that Tim’s next novel, Eden, is due out on April 7th, and hot on the heels of the release will be a UK signing tour alongside Christina Henry. Both authors will be at Stokercon in Scarborough from April 16th -19th. They will then go on a week long tour of the UK stopping at Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham and London from April 20th – 24th.
Tickets for Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham are now available from Waterstones at the link here. With Newcastle and London to follow in the near future.
In other news, an interview with Tim discussing such varied topics as whiskey nights with Josh Malerman, becoming an endurance athlete, seeing his novel The Silence become a film on Netflix, and his upcoming novel, Eden, hitting shelves, can be found over at the Authors on a podcast talking books here.
Nightworms.com are taking pre-orders for their April 2020 spotlight package which features Tim and Grady Hendrix. This Includes a new release by each author, publisher & author goodies + the Night Worms goodie bag you’ve come to love!
Close to the end of 2019, I’m saying goodbye to a pretty fun year work-wise, when two of the most exciting events of my whole career came to pass.
First, the release of The Silence from Netflix. I could write a book about the whole experience––and if you followed me here and on social media for the first half of this year, I pretty much did––but suffice to say it was a dream experience from beginning to end. I’m told by people who’ve been there that I was lucky enough to have the perfect Hollywood experience! The whole team was terrific, and I’m still friendly with them all (producers, film company, the Netflix crew, and the splendid director John Leonetti). My visit to set in 2018 was so much fun, and the actual release of The Silence was a pretty mind-blowing couple of weeks. My wife and I were in LA on release day, for a screening at Netflix (as well as other meetings and events), and I remember waking at 3 in the morning and, foolishly, checking my social media. The film was already being watched in the UK, and so the madness commenced.
What an incredible experience. I think the film turned out great, and it was a major hit for Netflix. I still sometimes pinch myself when I think about it! And in any other year it would have had no competition for highlight.
But …
2019 was also the year when I became a concert promoter, arranging a gig by my very favourite singer/songwriter/entertainer/rocker Frank Turner, to launch the anthology Ten-Word Tragedies from PS Publishing (co-edited with Chris Golden). Frank was a true gent from beginning to end, singing a stunning ten song set at The Lexington in London for 120 enthusiastic fans, then hanging around for 2 hours to sign books and have his picture taken with everyone. A really magical evening … during which, I have to admit, I got pretty messed up drinking tequila with Frank.
So, those were two very different but equally memorable moments during my working year. 2019 also saw the release of The Edge, third and final book of the Relics trilogy, as well as the movie tie-in edition of The Silence, and quite a few short stories in anthologies.
I also had a very enjoyable visits to Leipzig, courtesy of the excellent Olaf and Yuka Buchheim (to launch the stunning German edition of The Silence), and also Dublin, courtesy of Sean O’Connor and Matt Heyward, for a great bookshop event at Hodges Figgis. Fantasycon (loads of fun, as ever) was in Glasgow, in a hotel that was also a hospital and which looked like a prison from the outside. So that was interesting!
So, what does 2020 have in store work-wise? First, there’s a TV series in development based on one of my books (I can’t say more right now, but it’s moving on apace). I’ve spent some time this year developing my own original TV series idea, and I hope to advance this in the new year. My Firefly novel, Generations, will be released later in 2020. And last but not least, my brand new novel Eden will be hitting the shelves in April, supported by a host of terrific blurbs from some of my very favourite writers, and a short UK signing tour. Lots more info about Eden soon, so watch this space!
Away from the keyboard and screen, I’ve had a busy year racing too, the highpoint of which was undoubtedly Ironman Canada in July, which I raced on my 50th birthday. My family and I had a lovely two weeks in Canada––truly the holiday of a lifetime––and I fell in love with Whistler. I’d love to go there again. And, strangely, the TV series idea I’m developing is set in Canada!
I’m not doing an ironman
in 2020, but I’ve already marked my calendar with the Fan Dance (this
coming Saturday!), Outlaw Half, Brutal Half, Windsor Triathlon, and
the epic Wales in a Day (180 miles on a bike, north to south Wales,
in one day). So … not exactly having a rest, but as usual I’m
itching to get into racing again.
It’s also the end of a decade! Recently on Twitter I posted a pic of my #bookdecade and the pile was 30 books high. That includes some novellas and collaborative books, too. I wonder what my #bookdecade photo will look like in 2029?
If you’ve read this far, I’d like to send a huge thanks for your interest in my work. You keep reading it, I’ll keep writing it! I have so many exciting projects I hope will come to fruition next year.
Hi, short notice on this one, but if you happen to be in Newport tomorrow – Friday 29th November – then Tim will be selling books at the Fourteen Locks Canal Centre Christmas Fayre – The event is from 6.30pm to 8.30pm
Me:
‘What do you think about going to Canada for my 50th birthday?’
Mrs
L: ‘Sounds nice.’
Me:
(… smiling …)
Mrs
L: ‘Is there an Ironman there?’
Me:
‘There … might be.’*
*There
was.
Two
weeks ago…
And
so we landed in Vancouver and drove to Whistler and I did Ironman
Canada on my 50th birthday and we (me, my wife, our two kids) had the
holiday of a lifetime. That’s the short version. The long version,
as anyone who’s read my race reports before knows, is … longer. So
settle down with a cuppa. There are bears, spiders, puking runners,
potential penalties, whales, beers, eagles, and deer (though not all
of them were involved in the race).
There’s
a danger this will become a holiday report rather than a race report,
but I’ll do my best. Suffice to say, it was very easy to decide to do
this. The doing––from booking everything, to actually racing on
a different continent––was not so easy. But I wouldn’t change a
moment of it.
Realising
last year that my 50th birthday fell on a Sunday, my first thought
wasn’t what most people would think. ‘Oh great, a weekend, we can go
somewhere and have a big slap-up meal and loads of fine ale and wines
with family and friends’. My thought was, ‘Bloody hell, there’s
bound to be an Ironman someone in the world on that day’.
Lucky
me. It was Canada. We decided to build a holiday of a lifetime
around the occasion. Pointless going all that way for a race, right?
So it was Whistler for a week (landing on the Wednesday before
Sunday’s race), then Vancouver Island to recuperate, then Vancouver
for three days before flying home. It was epic.
But
this is a race report!
This
was my first race outside of the UK, my fifth ironman (though the 3rd
IM branded race). And from the very beginning I sensed that this was
a much more laid back event. The briefing concentrated on the
positives, whereas my memory of the IM Wales briefing was a long list
of reasons why you could be given a penalty or DQ’d. In Whistler,
the announcer sounded almost apologetic when he mentioned penalties
and offences. If you want to hold onto the kayaks for a bit in the
swim, you can. If you litter it’s a 5 minute penalty (although
actually I think this SHOULD be an instant DQ if it’s obviously
intentional). Very laid back. I liked it!
In
fact, the whole organisation was superb. It might have been one of
the best organised races I’ve ever attended. It’s a split transition,
but it was utterly painless both before and after the race, with
shuttle buses taking me and my kit to and from T1, and everything
being available in T2 after the race for me and my family to collect.
The only slight hiccup was when the crew at special needs couldn’t
find my bag. I could have really done with that PB&J bagel and
Mars Bar right about then…
So,
all the prep done, I hit the sack on the eve of my 50th birthday
nervous, but mostly excited. I knew I could do the distance. I’d
witnessed the breathtaking scenery I’d be racing in. And most
importantly, I’d decided weeks before that this was going to be a
‘fun’ race. Training hadn’t gone brilliantly (with whole weeks here
and there with no training due to work and time away), so for this
one I was content to get my money’s worth. Besides, why smash myself
to pieces for a time, when I’m racing in some of the most beautiful
landscape I’ve ever seen?
So.
It was going to be easy.
Right.
Swim…
Meeting
at 4:30 in the morning in T1 for the shuttle buses to the swim and
T2, getting body marked by volunteers (no tattoo transfers, this was
old-style marker pens all the way … which had totally smeared off
by the time I’d sun-creamed up and finished the swim), was a perfect
opportunity to mention what the day was.
‘Age?’
asked the pen-wielding volunteer, ready to write my age group on my
calf.
‘Fifty.
TODAY!’
Cue
cheers and whoops and a few ‘you must be fucking mad’ comments. And
yes, I might just have told quite a few people throughout the day
that it was my fiftieth.
Have
I mentioned that yet?
Waiting
for the swim, daylight dawned, and it was … beautiful. Just
stunning. Water temp was announced at around 19 degrees, and on the
distant mountains I could see snow and glaciers. Sun poured across
the mountain ranges, a gentle orange and yellow glow welcoming in the
long day to come. I had the first of several emotional moments that
hit me throughout the day, thinking, ‘Just look where I’m racing!’ A
singer sang the Canadian anthem, and there were plenty of tears all
around me.
Then
I stepped in bear shit. ‘Hmm, squishy!’ said the guy next to me, and
it made a great moment perfect. The cannon fired to commence the
rolling start, and I was standing in bear shit at the beginning of
Ironman Canada. Some moments you know you’ll never forget.
The
water was beautiful––clear, perfect temperature––and each
time I turned to breathe I saw the wooded, snow covered mountains. I
settle into a rhythm and completed the first lap quite comfortably.
It was a two lap swim, no exit, and on the second lap I started to
suffer. It’s been happening for a while on longer swims––numb
arms and hands, and this time it got so bad that I just had to use my
hands as flippers or oars. Maybe it’s bad technique, maybe it’s just
wear and tear. I am old now, you know.
Swim completed in 1:26, a pretty bad time when I’d hoped for anywhere between 1:10 and 1:15. Voices of my NEWT clubmates echoed in my head in T1 (‘Don’t be shit!’). But nuts to it, I was settling in for a long, fun day. And I had the usual ‘what do I wear on the bike?’ quandary. Plenty of people were heading out just in tri suit, plenty more slipping on a jersey. I wore my bike jersey, and perhaps that was a mistake. It was going to get HOT out there.
The
bike course was two long laps. The roads were excellent, the route
glorious, and the first lap went pretty well. My strategy had been
to aim for an average of 16mph for the whole bike. With 8,500 feet
of climbing it’s known as one of the toughest on the North American
circuit, but … I didn’t find lap 1 that tough. The hills were a
pleasant surprise––there were lots of them, but they were all
steady and long rather that short and sharp, such as in IM Wales for
instance. It was pretty much all up and down with very little flat,
but definitely a TT course. I’d elected to hire a road bike, not
wanting to face the faff of bringing my Canyon TT, and I reckon I was
one of only 10% of riders not on a TT, or at least a roadie with
bars.
No
excuses, though. The tough lap 2 was more down to being undertrained
than the type of bike I was riding. I still enjoyed it. Sort of.
But around mile 90 I had to batter down the creeping voice in my
head. ‘There’s no way you’ll finish this. You’re knackered. You’re
undertrained. Do you really think you can run a marathon after
this?’
I
smiled, and looked at the view, and lapped up the areas of support,
having received a real boost from seeing my wife and kids on the
roadside outside Whistler. I had to finish this. I had to prove
that an old bastard like me could still do an Ironman. So I dug in
and––
Oh
no. A motorcycle was riding beside me, keeping pace, and I
immediately tried to think of what I might have done wrong. I was
being ultra careful, but even so everyone here but me rode on the
wrong side of the road, and maybe I’d let myself slip once or twice?
Then
I turned and saw the camera aimed at me.
‘I’M FIFTY YEARS OLD TODAY!’ I shouted, and that clip made its way into the official IM race recap vid!
By
mile 100 my right foot was hurting like hell, but I ignored it. It’s
only pain, right? Pain’s temporary, and this is an Ironman! Even
so, by the time I handed my bike to a volunteer in T2, the first
thing I did was to take off my shoes and breathe a sigh of relief.
Maybe wearing the same bike shoes for 5 years isn’t the best idea.
Maybe I should buy a new pair. Yeah, don’t be shit, Tim.
I
finished the ride in a moving time of 7:16, but with a couple of
stops that averaged out about 15mph. A tough ride, and even though
none of the hills had been intimidating, I think the cumulative
effect of constant climbing and descending––especially the long 7
mile drag up to the old Olympic Park, averaging maybe 5%––drained
me more than I realised.
I
saw Tracey and the kids again before the T2 tent, then I headed out
onto the run. It was hot now, upwards of 25 degrees or more, and I’d
been really careful on the bike to keep myself hydrated. I felt …
surprisingly good. A bit of banter in T2, then I was out onto the
run, and enjoying the more consistent shouts of supports through
Whistler. I’d planned to start out and continue at a 10 min mile,
and for a while this worked. But not for long. I was weakening, and
the sun beat down, and I was sweating and sore and now I couldn’t get
enough fluids into me. I felt queasy at the end of the bike and that
continued a little onto the run––something I’d never experienced
before––and I saw two runners stop and throw up beside the path.
I didn’t want to get that bad, so I eased back a little, and started
walking through the regular aid stations.
The
run was also two laps. A couple of miles around Whistler, then out
alongside a couple of beautiful lakes (Lost Lake, and Green Lake),
where people were swimming (no thanks, had enough of that for one
day) and barbecuing (bastards!), and on Green Lake seaplanes were
taking off and landing. The long run out alongside Green Lake was
particularly tough, and hitting Whistler at the end of lap 1, with a
half marathon to go, and hearing people finishing was torture.
But I was smiling, saw my family, enjoying the support, and the surroundings were beautiful, and I reminded myself again and again how bloody lucky I was to be doing this somewhere so beautiful. Chatting to fellow runners helped (including a shouted ‘Hi!’ to the guy from Cardiff Tri!), and the marshals were uniformly excellent. Aren’t they always? But in Canada … well, they were Canadians, and something we learned on our holiday is that Canadians might just be the nicest people on the planet.
For the second lap I ran for a mile and walked for a 100 seconds, and that tactic seemed to work. And then I ran into Whistler for the finish, hearing the cheering from a mile or two away, trying to run all the way in, and when I hit the long road leading to the finish chute … the route jigged left and doglegged for another couple of hundred metres. That was the hardest and the best part of the run for me, and even though my time was entirely forgettable, my whole day had been remarkable. It had been painful, and a struggle, and I had to shove down moments of self-doubt … but wonderful.
Tracey and Dan were waiting at the finishing chute. I almost ran past them, then spotted them and went in for a kiss. Ellie was waiting for me at the finishing arch to take pics, and I ran in with the announcer saying ‘Happy birthday Tim Lebbon, you are and Ironman, Tim!’ Epic.
Something else that was refreshingly different at the finish was the attention given to the athletes. The moment I crossed the line a volunteer zeroed in on me, gave me my medal, a foil blanket, a bottle of water, my tee shirt and cap, and she said ‘Lean on me if you need to.’ I might have felt a little bit emotional. She insisted that she saw me out of the finishing compound and into the care of my family.
I
met my lovely family and hobbled across to where they were giving out
the pizza. Pepperoni. Pretty standard. But perhaps the best pizza
on Planet Earth at that precise moment.
‘I’m
fifty today,’ I told the woman handing out pizza.
‘You
must be mad,’ she said, and she gave me another slice.
14:30. Not a great time. But I had a great time. And that’s what I always intended. Canada is an incredible place, and finishing that race was just the start of a wonderful holiday I had with my lovely family. We went white-water rafting and kayaking and cycling and hiking, saw a bear and an eagle and a whale and ospreys and deer and seals, ate some wonderful food and drank some splendid local brews, and made loads of great memories.
I’ll
always remember where I was and what I did on my 50th birthday.
Today is Tim’s 50th Birthday so join me in wishing him many happy returns for the day. As can be expected if you have been around here long enough, rather than celebrating with beers and cake (though I’m certain they will follow), Tim has gone off to compete in Ironman Canada.
In case you were wondering that consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a marathon to finish.
So all the best Tim in the race and for making it to half a century, as is tradition around here, I’ve left a cake for you…
SST Publications are producing a limited edition of The Silence, due for release in early 2020, but available to pre-order now.
Limited to 400 signed and numbered hardcover copies, it will feature interior illustrations by Francois Vaillancourt, and three brand new 500-word short stories set in the same world written exclusively for this edition.
For more details and to pre-order a copy click the image below.
