And on the subject of horror movies…

I’ve written before about the great and very active Facebook group – Moody’s Survivors – which was set up by Shawn Riddle. As well as working on their own anthology, raising funds to help a group member replace damaged computer equipment, and discussing the end of the world and the coming zombie apocalypse in unhealthy detail, the group also arranges interviews with authors, artists and filmmakers.

Coming soon, courtesy of group member Ryan Fleming, are interviews with Emily Booth (star of Evil Aliens, Doghouse, and well known UK horror model and presenter) and Kim Poirier (Monica in the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake). If you have any questions for either of them, head over to the group and submit them or use the contact page on this site to send them to me and I’ll forward them to Ryan.

Scream Magazine Issue #4 is a post from: David Moody - author of HATER, DOG BLOOD and the AUTUMN series

Kirkus Reviews selects Dog Blood as one of the best of 2010! is a post from: David Moody - author of HATER, DOG BLOOD and the AUTUMN series

Cheers Scott!

Kind words from the FDO is a post from: David Moody - author of HATER, DOG BLOOD and the AUTUMN series

I’ll be launching a new HATER website very soon, and the ‘Projekt’ you might have heard me talking about will finally be revealed. In the meantime, here’s a photograph (courtesy of Gavin Brogan) to whet your appetite…

And finally… the publisher’s advance mailing has begun and the first reviews of DOG BLOOD are starting to appear. I wouldn’t recommend reading them if you haven’t read HATER, but for those of you who have…

• A Will to Act
• Alternative Worlds

New edition of HATER and the first DOG BLOOD reviews is a post from: David Moody - author of HATER, DOG BLOOD and the AUTUMN series

On a similar note, loads more reviews and other odds and ends have also been added to the site. There’s a page of Hater-specific reviews here and more press cuttings here. If you look at the sidebar to the right (if you’re reading this on www.djmoody.co.uk), you’ll also see three RSS feeds you can subscribe to to be automatically updated whenever new reviews, interviews and articles are posted.

New interview is a post from: David Moody - author of HATER, DOG BLOOD and the AUTUMN series

“It’s a bleak world view but one that transcends wallowing in self pity thanks to Moody’s intuitive characterisation. Make no mistake, this is humanity seen through a frighteningly dark lens, and while we may be unsettled by what we read, it’s the job of books such as this to make us confront the allure and repulsion of our taboos. Love it? Hate it? It really does not matter. Not to read it and not to have some form of opinion… Well, now that would be just hateful.”

Press is a post from: David Moody - author of HATER, DOG BLOOD and the AUTUMN series

mX, a free Australian newspaper, ran a feature on HATER this week. Click here to download a copy.

An interview I did with www.scyla.com in Spain is now online (in English and Spanish!) here. (An update to this update… another Spanish interview with www.fantasymundo.com is now online here in English and Spanish.)

And finally, Herbst: Läuterung (the German language version of Autumn: Purification) is attracting some great reviews like this one from www.roterdorn.de.

Have a great weekend (an extra long one if you’re in the UK!). Maybe I’ll bump into some of you at Sci-Fi-London on Sunday.

(By the way, the ‘The Men They Couldn’t Hang‘ competition is now closed. Winners will be announced next week.)

Global round up is a post from: David Moody - author of HATER, DOG BLOOD and the AUTUMN series

Hater has had an unusual publishing history, being self-published by Moody in 2006, but now picked up by Gollancz. A movie version is in pre-production by Guillermo del Toro of Pan’s Labyrinth fame. Hater is a fast-paced novel written in a staccato style that highlights the growing horror of a  British society  falling apart. The main character, Danny McCoyne, stuck in a dead end office job and suffocating commuting lifestyle, observes one of an increasing number of  violent attacks in the street. Moody fills out this scenario through dark vignettes of violence by ‘haters’ who attack  people without warning and without provocation. Moody conjures up an increasing atmosphere of suspense and paranoia with society disintegrating into warring factions with McCoyne initially straddling the two.

The cause of the increasing epidemic of violence is largely unexplained. A ’hater’ reflects ” There is a fundamental genetic difference between us and them… which, until now, has remained dormant… its now us and them’. Unlike the novels by Lindqvist and Ryan , Moody says ”what I’ve actually done is to write a zombie story from the perspective of the zombies”. Moody’s twist is the ‘haters’ “don’t lose their intelligence or feelings, rather they are convinced that everyone else are the bad guys”.

Moody extrapolates from current British fears about immigration, street violence and terrorism to highlight that  fear is used in society to justify pre-emptive strikes. As one character says, “we know who poses a threat to us and who is on our side”. Hater’s relentless pace, tension and graphic images will lend itself admirably to its film adaptation.

Australia and New Zealand is a post from: David Moody - author of HATER, DOG BLOOD and the AUTUMN series

A couple of weeks back I was reading INFECTED by Scott Sigler. For those who don’t know him, Scott has a similar background to me in that he initially built up a readership by giving away his stories for free online. The main difference between us is that Scott has an extremely cool approach where he distributes his books as top-quality, episodic podcasts.

Anyway, while I was reading the book, I got an email from an associate who mentioned that Scott was reading HATER. A few days later, this great review appeared on www.scottsigler.com. A very cool review. Thanks, Scott!

I’d been meaning to write this post for some time but I held off for a few days because I didn’t want it to read like a bout of planned mutual backslapping between me and Mr Sigler! The truth of the matter is that INFECTED was a cracking read which I thoroughly recommend. On the face of it, there are similarities between INFECTED and HATER in that both books feature ‘ordinary’ people becoming inexplicably psychotic, but the rest of the stories couldn’t be more different…

Sigler writes with a cool, conversational style which wrong-foots you from the start. It’s like having a good friend promise to look after you, only for them to take you to the darkest, most horrific places you can imagine. Not only that, once you get there they force you to watch everything that’s happening, eyes wide open. No matter how horrific the events in INFECTED become (and that’s pretty bloody horrific, trust me), he doesn’t let you look away for even a second. This is the first book in a long time that I had to take a break from while I was reading to get my head around what had just happened!

But it’s not all blood and guts. Sigler has crafted a cracking story that grips you from the start and doesn’t let up. There are some truly bizarre twists and turns, but they’re handled with a real skill and enthusiasm which carries you along. Extreme gore, intense action, intelligent writing. Magnificent!

Visit www.scottsigler.com and listen to INFECTED, CONTAGIOUS or any of his other novels to see what I mean!

Scott Sigler liked HATER! is a post from: David Moody - author of HATER, DOG BLOOD and the AUTUMN series

“Parceled out in lean, economical prose, Hater offers a slow-burn depiction of the modern world consumed by revulsion.”

Fangoria review is a post from: David Moody - author of HATER, DOG BLOOD and the AUTUMN series