Posts Tagged ‘post-apocalypse’

Welcome K.S. Merbeth, author of BITE

Merbeth author photo 1Giving a whole new meaning to the phrase “laugh in the face of danger,” K.S. Merbeth’s upcoming debut, BITE, will make you chuckle, it will make you cry — but most importantly, it is going to make you fear our very possible and not so distant future.

To find out a little bit more about the brains behind this epic debut, we’ve asked Merbeth to stop by and answer a few of our burning questions:

Where did the idea for BITE come from?

In post-apocalyptic stories, there are always groups of gun-toting psychos looting and killing their way through life. They’re usually presented as mindless villains, by-products of the craziness of the world, without backstories or motivations or anything that makes them seem human. And yet, they are human. So I started to wonder – who are these people? How’d they end up this way? What are their lives like behind the scenes? And those questions spawned the idea of a story with typical “bad guys,” a crew of raiders, as the protagonists.

How did you create such an unusual cast of characters?

Well, to be honest, I’ve never really been a fan of “normal” characters and standard heroes. Instead, I tend to fall in love with fascinating villains and weird side-characters – so those are the types of characters I end up creating, but in my case they’re the main cast. I started with some basic concepts and traits, but discovered a lot about the characters through writing the first draft. Many of them – especially Kid, my main character – really seemed to develop on their own.

Which character was your favorite to write?

That’s a tough one! Kid, of course, was super fun because of her tendency to magnificently screw things up, and the crew’s leader, Wolf, is full of one-liners that I thoroughly enjoyed writing. However, I think my favorite overall was Dolly. She’s a blue-haired markswoman who kicks some serious ass, and her odd personality creates a lot of awkward, interesting interactions with the other characters.

Who are some of your favorite authors?

Margaret Atwood, Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, Haruki Murakami, Neil Gaiman, Brandon Sanderson… there are plenty more, but those are some of my favorites!

What do you like to do in your free time?

Aside from reading, my main hobby is playing video games, which I probably spend way too much time doing. I also enjoy board games, binge-watching a variety of TV shows, cooking (badly), and laughing at horror movies. As for things that actually force me to get out of my pajamas and leave the house, I love to travel! I really like experiencing new places, new food, and new beer.

What are some of your favorite dystopian films or video games?

First of all, the latest Mad Max may be new, but it’s already secured a special place in my heart. Some of my other favorites are The Road, Zombieland, and The Matrix. Games-wise, I’m a big fan of the Left 4 Dead and Fallout series!

BITE will hitting bookshelves next summer. To find out more about the novel, check out the acquisition announcement.

Curiosity: The Hopkins Manuscript by R.C. Sherriff

My anthology, WASTELANDS: STORIES OF THE APOCALYPSE, contains most of my favorite examples of short-form post-apocalyptic fiction. And on the occasion of the UK release of WASTELANDS  (and my zombie anthology, THE LIVING DEAD), Orbit asked me to provide a guest post, so I thought I’d tell you about a curiosity of long-form post-apocalyptic fiction that I discovered during the course of my research into the genre.

Discovered in the ruins of Notting Hill at some unspecified future date, The Hopkins Manuscript is ostensibly a “day-to-day record,” written by retired school teacher/chicken breeder/amateur astronomer Edgar Hopkins, which chronicles the days immediately before and after the shocking discovery that the Moon’s decaying orbit will bring it crashing down into the Earth.

Doom is prophesized, but the world is not destroyed as expected.  Instead, the Moon strikes the Earth a glancing blow to the western coast of Europe .  Being nothing more than a “hollow body with a thick crust,” it collapses and forms a new landmass that bridges Europe and the Americas, like a cosmic puzzle piece settling into place.   Amicable plans are made by an international council to divide up ownership of this new land, but upon discovering that the Moon is not a lifeless rock—that instead it is rich in natural resources and possesses enough minerals “to give wealth to this world undreamed of”—the specter of war raises its ugly head in the immediate aftermath of the greatest cataclysm humanity has ever seen.

R.C. Sherriff (1896-1975)—a playwright, screenwriter, and novelist—is perhaps most remembered for his filmic collaborations with legendary Frankenstein (1931) director James Whale (1889-1957); the two worked together on several films, including an adaptation of Sherriff’s best-known play, Journey’s End (1930), The Invisible Man (1933), One More River (1934), and The Road Back (1937).  In The Hopkins Manuscript, Sherriff presents a dark vision that is both a reflection on humanity’s attitudes in the aftermath of The Great War and a portent of things to come when one considers its publication date of 1939—the year World War II began.  Though its science is obviously laughable, the novel remains thematically relevant and is an engaging read that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in seeing an historical view of the apocalypse through the literature of its time.

 

THE LIVING DEAD and WASTELANDS: STORIES OF THE APOCALYPSE are both now available as to buy digital-only editions in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

The Living Dead, an anthology edited by John Joseph Adams, featuring short stories abotu zombies from Stephen Kind, George R R Martin, Neil Gaiman, Laurell K Hamilton, Clive Barker, Nancy Holder, Joe R Landsdale, Joe Hill and many othersWastelands - an anthology of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic short stories deaturing Stephen King, George R R Martin, Orson Scott Card, Paolo Bacigalupi, Gene Wolfe, Elizabeth Bear, Nancy Kress, Jonathan Lethem and many others