Some of you have noticed there is a new book out.
Some of you have even read it. Thanks to those who took the risk.
I’m nearly three books in and I’m still trying to figure out where the idea for this book series came from. Some authors sit down and plan meticulously how their characters and plot will develop. But I’ve never been able to do that. The books tend to write themselves, weaving together characters that just appear on the page.
When I started writing The First Seal, I had no idea how it would end. I certainly had no notion of how books 2 and 3 would develop.
Unlike the bulk of my books, this isn’t a zombie epic. Although there will be zombies in it, that isn’t the focus. This is more akin to what I started writing in an older book (The Defiled), just without the twist that veered it away from what many thought was happening. That plot tangent won’t be happening with this series, because there is actually a blueprint for me to follow, of sorts.
The Book of Revelation.
The plan is for 7 books, each representing one of the 7 seals that break in the biblical “prophecy”. The series is about the devil, demons, the antichrist and the hardcore religious assassins that hunt the earth for the demonic scourge. But it’s more than that, it will be a long-drawn-out tale of how the apocalypse would unfold if Revelation actually turned out to be prophecy. It’s important for people to understand that this is horror fiction, not biblical end-times hype.
In the universe of the book, God and Satan exist, but they aren’t what religion would have you believe.
When you look at it, Revelation has everything the apocalyptic fan could wish for. It’s got earthquakes, famines, plagues, war, huge rocks falling out of the sky, poisoned seas, scorched earth, and even a few undead folks to sweeten the pot. It’s got a chosen few who will be spirited away to escape the Great Tribulation, leaving survivors to deal with the destruction of civilisation and everything that follows.
Basically there’s a reason the first book starts with the tagline “7 billion people won’t stand a chance.”
Would this be of interest to the highly religious who believe in end-time prophecy? Perhaps, but you have to take into account that I wasn’t willing to compromise on reality. That means there will be dastardly deeds, death, destruction, repugnant acts by nefarious individuals and a few F-bombs thrown in for good measure. In hard times, people curse and perform vicious acts that would make your teeth turn white overnight.
To those without a religious bent, there are pieces of biblical lore in there, but only as points of plot reference. I’m not banging any kind of drum for a particular religion. The characters believe what they believe, but I’ve tried to stay pretty neutral in the whole thing. Will that cause a problem with who reads it? I don’t know, but as I’ve already said, I go where the book takes me. To compromise on that writing style would end up with a different, and I would argue a weaker product.
Thanks
SD