Nazi Zombie Army: Götterdämmerung

It's Wednesday and, oh look, I've got another book out. Well, okay, maybe book is exaggerating things a little. It's an eBook and the story's about 10,000 words long, but it only costs 77p!

Following in the well-trodden footsteps of fellow Abaddon authors Jasper Bark and Scott K Andrews, I have written a story set within the world of Sniper Elite, Rebellion Developments' flagship World War Two first-person shooter.

My story is a prequel to the new game Nazi Zombie Army*. Götterdämmerung tells the story of a team of British soldiers sent behind enemy lines towards the end of the war, to discover precisely what it is the Nazi Occult Division are up to and to put a stop to it.

Here's the blurb from the book's Amazon page:


The Nazis, desperate for victory at all costs, explored every avenue open to science, including some long forgotten... and some best left dead. But what if they had succeeded?

In the obscure village of Totenstadt, a team of the Reich's best minds, under the terrible Colonel von Teufel, are blending technology and the occult to create a new and terrible weapon, to test the boundary between life and death itself.

Elite British snipers Joe Randall, George "Ginger" Gibbs and Harry Atkins are sent deep into enemy lines to locate and destroy the facility. The mission will test their courage - and their sanity - to the limits...


You can pick up a copy of Götterdämmerung (published by Abaddon Books) for your Kindle here. You can purchase a copy of the game Nazi Zombie Army on Steam here.


Warning! The following video contains scenes of gore, Nazis and the occult!



* Goodness knows what sort of hits this blog is going to receive now that I've got the words 'Nazi', 'Zombie' and 'Army' in the title of a post.

This is Horror - a.k.a. The Blood Fudge Incidient

So, on Friday night I was one of the guests at the launch of Joseph D'Lacey's new novel Blood Fugue, along with Pat Cadigan (who has once the coveted Arthur C Clarke award not once, but twice). The event was organised by Michael Wilson of This is Horror, and Den and Amelia of the Charing Cross branch of Blackwell's where the event was held.

Jasper Bark regaling the audience.

Jasper Bark - a.k.a the Voice of Horror - was compere for the evening and a very good job he did of it too. His research was thorough, his questions incisive and his faked allergic reaction to vegan Blood Fudge extreme. I know several people had 999 ready to go on their mobiles, until Jasper went completely 'zombie' and attacked Joseph. At that point, they just let him get on with it. (My copies of Blood Royal and Time's Arrow will never be the same again!)

Jasper Bark again, post 'zombie'.

I was first up and read an extract from White Rabbit - a certain Ulysses Quicksilver story of mine that earned me my commission for Jonathan Oliver's House of Fear - before Jasper probed me about my authorial voice, writing for different genres and properties, and the medium of short fiction.

Pat was up next. She gave an amazing reading of The Power and the Passion, which proved why she was never asked to write for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And then it was Joseph, an extract from Blood Fugue and the now already notorious Blood Fudge Incident.

Joseph D'Lacey reading from Blood Fugue.

It was my first This is Horror event and it was a bit of a baptism of fire, but I had a great time. The evening concluded with a panel discussion, about taboos and the breaking of them, and a few questions from the audience before Joseph got busy with his signing pen.

The authorial discussions continued down the road at the Spice of Life where I met Joseph's charming wife, Fiona, and got chatting with Robin the Pirate, Richard the Generous, and James De Carteret about everything from the human race as descendants of the most successful psychopaths to Mary Poppins as trickster deity, via zombies, fungi and dinosaurs.

The Unusual Suspects: (l-r) Pat Cadigan, Jonathan Green, Jasper Bark and Michael Wilson.

It just remains for me to thank Michael, Den, Amelia, Jasper, Pat and Joseph and I sincerely hope that there will be many more This is Horror events to come.

You can see more photos of the evening's shenanigans here.

This is Horror, at Blackwell's tonight!

Just a quick post to remind you that I'm one of the guest authors appearing at the launch of Joseph D’Lacey’s new novel, Blood Fugue, at Blackwell’s Charing Cross London branch this evening. The event kicks off promptly at 6.00pm and will run through until about 8.00pm.

It will also feature a reading by Arthur C. Clarke award-winner, Pat Cadigan, and the whole shebang will be curated by the voice of horror himself, m'colleague Jasper Bark.

So, maybe I'll see some of you there tonight...

Steampunk Thursday: Do you feel scared yet?

I know I do, looking at this awesomely creepy caricature of myself by Nick Gucker. (I'm the one in the middle by the way.)

As you can see, I shall be joining Joeseph D'Lacey for the launch of his new book Blood Fugue, along with Pat Cadigan. M'Abaddon colleague and ward-winning author Jasper Bark will be interviewing. Start time is 6.00pm on Friday 16 November and you need to confirm how many places you would like (if you want to attend) by emailing events.london@blackwell.co.uk.

I think I'm there because of the reputation my Pax Britannia books have for being quite horrific in places, but of course I also have a growing number of horror short stories in my published bibliography and my next novel could definitely be termed as horror.

Maybe I'll see you on the 16 November...

This is Horror: Hanging out with me at Blackwell's in November

As some of you with long memories may remember, I was interviewed earlier this year by This is Horror (back when I only had 35 books to my name, as opposed to 40, as I do now).

Well, I'm very pleased to inform you that the next This Is Horror event will take place at Blackwell’s Charing Cross, London branch on Friday 16 November 2012. Kicking off promptly at 6pm and running through until 8pm, the evening celebrates the launch of Joseph D’Lacey’s forthcoming, Blood Fugue.

The event also features readings from Arthur C. Clarke award-winner, Pat Cadigan, and the creator of Abaddon Books’ Pax Britannia steampunk universe, Jonathan Green (apparently). Proceedings will be curated by the voice of horror himself, m'colleague Jasper Bark.

So stick 16 November in your diary, and maybe I'll see some of you there...

Vote House of Fear Anthology of the Year

House of Fear (edited by Jonathan Oliver and published by Solaris Books) is up for Anthology of the Year over at the This is Horror Awards 2011.

Voting closes at 12:01am GMT on Friday 30 December 2011, so you've still got a few hours in which to vote. And while you're there, why not vote for Dead Air by Jasper Bark, for best Short Story Collection of the Year, and The Caretakers by Adrian Chamberlin, for Novel of the Year?

The End of the Line launch at Foyles

So, last night I attended the launch of The End of the Line, the new anthology of Underground-inspired horror from Solaris Books, edited by Jonathan Oliver.

"This one goes out to the Phoenix massive!"

I have to confess I was a little late (due to family matters) and only really arrived in time for the Q&A session at the end. But all was not lost, for as the Foyles part of the event wound up, things really got going at the Phoenix Club, right across the road.

It was great to catch up with so many fellow writers, many of whom I am pleased to consider my friends now, as well as the Abaddon/Solaris editorial team, who are really like a kind of family (just don't ask me what kind).

Some of the highlights (or otherwise) of the evening were Jasper Bark and Scott Andrews pointing out that I am now genetically redundant since my son has recently won a prize for his writing (which I something I have failed to do myself so far), Al Ewing wondering what the world of Pax Britannia would be like in the year 1,000,000, David Moore's moustache, struggling to join in a conversation with Rebecca Levene and Jasper Bark because they are both a good head shorter than I am, seeing the expectant Mrs Oliver looking so well on it, meeting David Bradley, editor-in-chief of SFX magazine, again (and him recognising me!), and posing for Holmes and Watson-esque sepia tints with Michael Rathbone, Esq. (who has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in the new PB novella Proteus Unbound).

Rathbone and Green - here to save the civilised world!

And here are five things I didn't know this time yesterday and yet I do now.

1) Scott Andrews is a self-confessed Tequila snob.
2) Jared Shurin liked (or was that disliked?) the fact that I killed him off in Dark Side not once, but twice.
3) Adam Nevill believes it is more effective to disturb and unsettle with a horror story than to horrify.
4) Rebecca Levene likes the X-Men.

5) Richard Owen, champion of the Natural History Museum and inventor of the word 'dinosaur', also invented the word 'dentine'.

So there you go...

Scott "It has to be lime for me, every time" Andrews.

If you really want to, you'll find all sorts of embarrassing photos of myself (and other writerly types who'd also had possibly one Tequila too many) here.