It’s been a good year! Books of mine published this year include The Silence, The Hunt, Predator: Incursion and the novella collection Borrowed Time.
The Silence had some fantastic feedback and is appearing on quite a few best-of-the-year lists, and it’s also currently edging towards being adapted for screen. No firm news yet, but I’ll be the first to shout if and when something happens.
The Hunt was a big book for me — my first non-fantastical novel, a straight thriller influenced directly by my love of endurance sports. It was great seeing my book for sale all over the place, including supermarkets and bookstores everywhere. It was also a real thrill working with Avon and their wonderful PR company Light Brigade, and attending the HarperCollins Summer Party was a real thrill. We might have been drunk.
The book has been really well reviewed and received, and it has been strange bumping into people I’ve known for years, sometimes decades, and them telling me they read my new book. In many cases it was the first of mine they’ve read, and it seems that I’m now a ‘real writer’ in many peoples’ eyes because I’ve been in Tesco’s. Hey ho.
Predator: Incursion is the first in a big Alien/Predator trilogy called The Rage War. This has been fun to write, and the third book will be finished in the next couple of months. People seem to like the series. There are a lot of dedicated fans of these franchises (just as dedicated as the Star Wars fanbase I encountered when I wrote a Star Wars novel!), and it’s nice to have good feedback from these fans.
The undoubted highlight of the year was the release of Pay the Ghost, and the private screening I organised in Newport. Based on my short story of the same name, the movie stars Nicolas Cage and was released in time for Halloween. The screening was an amazing experience – attended by family, and writing/triathlon/ex-work/old, old friends, it was a surreal moment standing in front of them all and trying to say something coherent. And seeing that credit on the big screen – Based on the novella by Tim Lebbon – was a real thrill. Especially as they spelled my name right.
So that was 2015. 2016 is looking to be a really busy year too, with my new thriller due for release in July (tentatively titled The Family Man), as well as the second and third in the Rage War Trilogy. A few other projects are ticking over too, including a huge new collaboration with the excellent Christoipher Golden, a few new short stories, and some very exciting TV and movie stuff which I can’t talk about in detail just yet. Watch this space.
A huge thanks to everyone who continues to read and enjoy my books. I’ve been doing this full-time for over 9 years now, and it really is the best job. You keep buying them, I’ll keep writing them.
Also a massive thanks to Tim Love, a good mate who works hard to maintain this website throughout the year.
Happy New Year!
