David Moody is a British writer, editor, designer, publisher and promoter of books. He has so far written seven of them, with another two on the way. He also promotes them on his own web site which also includes a free download of his undead apocalyptic thriller Autumn.

The largest percentage of his work is based in this end of the world environment created in Autumn, plotting the immediate history of small groups of survivors. He then became script writer for the film of Autumn which is now in post production. I found the books riveting, with a resonance to real emotions and turmoil within the survivors that you very rarely get in this genre of book. David graciously agreed to a short interview so I could get an idea of the man behind these books, how was he moulded into the writer his is today and what does he hope the future holds?

AC:  Going right back to the beginning, can you take us on a journey through your inception into writing? What started your interest in writing? Is it now your full time career?

DM:  I never actually wanted to be a writer, I wanted to make films but I didn’t know how! I’ve always been able to string a few sentences together, so it was a natural progression for me to put into words the stories I really wanted to tell as films. That said, I’ve grown to love writing. It gives you a great chance to be in total control of a situation, to make all the rules and to decide the fate of the characters you create. Sounds like I’ve got a god complex, doesn’t it! I haven’t.

My first book was published in 1996, but life got in the way and it became a part-time hobby for the next nine years until I was made redundant from my job (believe it or not I used to be a bank manager; my job moved to Sri Lanka and I didn’t!). I then set up my own publishing company, ‘Infected Books’ which enabled me to produce and distribute my books without getting involved in the ‘traditional’ publishing industry. That said, some of my books have now been picked up by ‘proper’ publishers and that’s given me the freedom to be able to concentrate on writing full-time.

AC:  Was there any principled forethought behind your complete self publishing? 

DM:  First off, I have to say that I hate the term ‘self-publishing’. It gives completely the wrong impression; you’re automatically made to think about poorly produced, badly edited books that other publishers won’t touch, but that’s not always the case. I prefer to call it ‘independent publishing’ – I, and many other authors taking this route,  use the same printers and distribution channels as a lot of mainstream publishers.The creation of Infected Books was a natural progression after Autumn was made available free on-line.

AC:  It must have taken a great deal of self belief to offer the first book as a free download?

DM:  Not really. As I said, my first book, Straight to You, was published traditionally. As with the vast majority of the books which are published each year, however, it didn’t hit the top 10 bestsellers list. Thinking about it, it didn’t even scrape the top 10,000 list! So when Autumn was finished I reassessed what I wanted to do with the book. Did I submit it to publishers again and hope to get lucky, or did I use it as an advertising tool?

I was resigned to the fact that I probably wasn’t going to earn anything from it (because no-one had heard of me at the time) and so I gave it away, offering it as a free download safe in the knowledge that I had at least a couple of sequels planned which, I hoped, I’d be able to get people to buy. The gamble paid off. Using Autumn as a ‘calling card’ I managed to reach a much larger audience than I ever would have if people had been asked to pay for it. More than half a million people have now downloaded the book and even though it’s still available for free, the paperback sells in decent numbers each month. 

AC:  Do you see yourself in any of the characters of your books?

DM:  Yes. That’s unavoidable, I think, but I don’t tend to identify with any one character in particular. There are some of my traits in pretty much everyone I write about.

AC:  What would you do if you awoke with everyone gone, like in Autumn? 

DM:  I think most people would like to believe they’d have the time of their lives if they woke up and found everyone else gone! There are so many horror and science-fiction stories that deal with that kind of scenario and show people living in luxury and generally having a blast!

If it actually happened though, I think the novelty would wear off pretty quick and the fear, self-doubt, isolation etc. would soon kick in. So if I did find myself in such a situation, I guess I’d find myself somewhere safe to hide, make myself as comfortable as I could, and sit and wait to see what happened next...

AC:  Your undead hordes are not the classical Romero type so prevalently imitated; can you tell me why that is?  

DM:  My bodies (I can never bring myself to call them zombies) have upset a lot of genre purists because they don’t eat flesh and their infection can’t be spread etc. The dead in the Autumn books don’t breathe or drink or use the toilet, so why would they eat? There are a couple of other major differences; firstly, everyone in the world is either dead or immune in my novels. I think too many zombie stories become clichéd when the last survivors are running around trying to avoid contagion – inevitably someone will get bitten and try to hide it only to end up ‘turning’ at the worst possible moment...Another major difference in the books is that the dead evolve through the course of the novels.

They start off as non-threatening, almost comical bodies which keep walking until they hit something, then turn around and walk away in another direction. Their senses and controls gradually begin to return so that they can see and hear, then make basic decisions. As their physical shells continue to quickly deteriorate, they become smarter and more aggressive. You’ll never see a body driving a car or firing a gun in an Autumn story, but you will see them trying to defend themselves when they’re backed into a corner. Because they’re in such a poor state physically, the only way they can respond to survivors is to attack.

Finally, the sheer number of corpses presents the few living people in the books with a challenge. With the world so quiet and still, just a single sound or flash of movement can be enough to cause huge crowds of dead bodies to gather around them. The entire world is empty, but the few survivors who remain have to live in the shadows like prisoners.

AC:  Describe the feeling of having the product of your imagination committed to film? Being at the mercy of the interpretation of the directors and actors? 

DM:  Terrifying, incredible and terrifying. It’s difficult to put into words how it’s been watching Autumn come to life (pardon the pathetic pun). As a frustrated film-maker, I’m always critical, particularly when I’ve lived and breathed the source material for so long. That said, some of what I’ve seen from the team making the film has been superb, but I’ll reserve my final judgement until I’ve seen the finished article.

I was lucky enough to visit the set in Canada last December. It was amazing to see some of the scenes I’d written becoming real. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the buzz I felt seeing Dexter Fletcher, Lana Kamenov and Dickon Tolson (who play the three leads) acting together in the farmhouse. And I got to be a zombie, which is always cool.

AC:  What is the latest news on the film? Can I rest easy in the knowledge that Dexter Fletcher won’t remind me of his role in Press Gang when he is on screen? 

DM:  Latest news is that the film is almost finished and should be released in November. I hope to have more information very soon. And as far as Dexter and Press Gang goes, that was where I remembered him from too (as well as Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, of course). The Canadians didn’t have a clue what I was on about when I was talking to him about Gamesmaster and A Bear’s Tail!

AC:  Its 5 years in the future, what do you imagine yourself doing and what will the world you inhabit be like?

DM:  I have no idea! This is a pretty exciting time for me; as I mentioned the Hater books have been picked up by major publishers and the film rights to the first novel have been optioned by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Johnson (producer of the Narnia films amongst others). I guess professionally, I’d like to have another batch of novels under my belt and be a little closer to actually making a film myself!

Interview by Tony Planetos