Origins

With the paperback of The Reviver being released on Thursday, it’s a good time to look back at how the book came about.

There are plenty of people who deserve my thanks, but the two most directly responsible for the birth of the book are bestselling British crime author Peter James, and American master of Gothic, Edgar Allan Poe.

It was back in 2004 that I joined a writing course run by Peter James, and the homework Peter gave us at the end of the first lesson was this: write the first page of a scary novel, introducing your protagonist and a murder weapon.

He’d spent much of that first lesson drilling into us the importance of grabbing your reader on page one, so I knew I needed something different. We were going to be reading our work out to the rest of the class, something I hadn’t had to do since I was at school, and I wasn’t looking forward to it.

I had a week to get it done, but it wasn’t going to be easy. By ‘first page’, Peter meant the first 250 words – the first page of a manuscript that a prospective agent or publisher would read. And, unless you got their attention, it could well be all that they would read.

It’s a great writing exercise, because 250 words is a lot shorter than you might think – by the time you’ve read to the end of this sentence, you’ve already read over 250 words in this blog.

Days passed, and I’d come up with nothing. The idea finally came when a friend showed me Wikipedia’s entries for specific dates, letting you see who you share a birthday with. That’s where Edgar Allan Poe came in: we were both born on January 19^th. The thought of Poe brought back two of his most memorable tales: Murders in the Rue Morgue, widely considered to be the first modern detective story, and The Facts in the Case of Monsieur Valdemar, in which a man hypnotises a terminally-ill friend who then continues to speak after dying.

The image of the detective in the first story talking to the corpse from the second flashed into my head, and I had my opening! When I came to read it out, the response was fantastic.

Over the rest of the course, that one page became the first chapter. The reaction and encouragement I got from Peter spurred me on: to continue with the story, complete a novel, then hone it until the time came to send it to an agent.

It took a while, but it finally happened.

Now the paperback is coming out, appropriately enough, in the same week as Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday.

And if you want to read that first page? It’s there in the Amazon preview, and it’s hardly changed since I first wrote it.

2013

The end of a big year, one that saw my first published novel, and me going full-time as a writer.

The UK paperback edition is ready to go:

With the new cover and a tweak to the title, it’s going for more of a crime look. Out 16th January, the same week as Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday. It also includes a short story that was previously only available with the ebook version, called ‘The Death of Never Geary Will Be Televised’. (Which does not, be assured, feature the death of Never Geary.)

Remember, if you’ve read it and loved it, tell a billion other people! Or thereabouts.


Busy year ahead. I’m currently finishing off book 2, then I’ll be getting stuck in to the novelisation of French TV hit The Returned before rounding off the Reviver trilogy with – yes! – book 3.


So at this point of reflection, do I have any plans to change my ways in the coming year?

Well, I could vow to use Twitter and my blog more – AGAIN – but we both know where that ends up. I’ll vow to at least try and think about it. Take it, it’s the best you get.

I certainly vow to read more than I managed last year. I may have actually got the hang of stopping reading books I’m not getting along with. I still feel bad about doing it, but I finally realised that books I love I can read in two days, while books I don’t take weeks, meaning the majority of my reading life has been spent on books that just aren't for me.

That’s something I plan to change.

Finally, I vow to fit in plenty of messing about with stuff that is great fun and in no way helps to get the writing done. It always helps to commit to something you know will happen anyway.

Have a great year!

Childhood dreams

When I was a kid, I knew that when I grew up, I wanted to write novels or write games.

Neither was likely, I thought, and by the time I was in my twenties I was pretty damn sure I didn’t have what it took to do either. Writing prose, I discovered, was tough, and I didn’t have the discipline. Meanwhile, the games industry only had room for the supremely talented, the ones who lived and breathed coding.

By the time I hit thirty, though, games were big, and the studios had grown. A coder no longer needed to be an obsessive genius, the studios needed us ordinary folk too. I thought: what the hell. Why not give it a try?

Half a dozen interviews later, I had a job at The Creative Assembly, a studio that had just released Shogun: Total War. I would stay there for the next thirteen years, and I loved it.

I worked on Rome: Total War, and the BBC and History channel programme Time Commanders; Empire, Napoleon, Shogun 2, and Rome 2 followed. I was lucky enough to be one of those who picked up a BAFTA, representing the whole team, for Shogun 2.

There was something else, though. Landing that job, and fulfilling a childhood dream, had made me try my hand at writing again. It was in 2004, just after the launch of the original Rome: Total War, that I started writing Reviver. It took me a while, but in June 2013, it was published, and I had a further two novels in the series to write. Thing is, working in the games industry isn’t easy. It’s hard work, and it needs dedication. At times, it takes every piece of spare time, and every drop of energy you have. It was nine years from starting on Reviver to publication, and suddenly I had to finish a book in a year.

Then, last October, Legendary Pictures bought the movie rights to the novel, and things changed. I handed in my notice, with the longest notice period they’d ever had: I’d see Rome 2 through to release, and then I would go full time as a writer.

It was all a bit of a whirlwind, of course. The ‘every piece of spare time and every drop of energy’ rule had come into play for Rome 2, and as a result Reviver Book 2 was running late, but then, suddenly, it was time. My last day was Friday 13^th, exactly thirteen years after I’d joined. No omens there!

I bade a fond farewell to my colleagues, and wished them the best of luck with all future projects. As a leaving gift, I got a giant bag of jelly babies and a bottle of JD the size of my head.

I wasn’t a game developer any more, but one childhood dream had been replaced with another: I was a full-time writer.

And I had a bottle of JD the SIZE OF MY HEAD.

This may not have been a childhood dream, but... maybe it should have been? There can be no downside to that one.

Review update!

First, to those asking for updates on progress with Legendary's REVIVER movie, the script is currently being written. Patience! The folk at Legendary are a little busy with Man of Steel, Pacific Rim and Godzilla at the moment.

Second, I've not posted up any review links since launch day, so I thought it was about time to round a few up...


www.impactonline.co/reviews/1346-the-impact-review-reviver

"gripping and unique... Reviver is one hell of a fantastic ride, an amazing first novel. I’ll be keeping my eye on Seth Patrick; he’s bound to rise high in the genre."


www.guardian.co.uk

"a skilfully plotted and compulsively readable supernatural thriller"

 
www.lep.co.uk/what-s-on/reviews/books

"From its arresting first sentence through an opening chapter that is so irresistibly and hair-raisingly seductive and into a story bristling with originality and descriptive excellence, this is truly a book to savour.

...melds crime and the paranormal in a cracking, page-turning thriller.

An impressive, intelligent and exciting debut."

 

readerdad.co.uk/2013/07/12/reviver-by-seth-patrick/

"Crackling pace, believable science and characters worth spending some time with make Seth Patrick’s debut a must-read for fans of horror, crime, science fiction, noir.

Without doubt, one of my favourite books of the year from an author whose novels are sure to become a regular feature on my bookshelves. You can’t afford to miss it."


　
zombiehamster.com/reviews/books/reviver-seth-patrick-2/

"walks the line between criminology thriller and supernatural fantasy exceptionally well"


　
 www.milorambles.com/2013/06/09/reviver-by-seth-patrick-book-review/

"Impressive, intelligent and well crafted.

If you’re a fan of the supernatural, horror or the crime thriller genre then I think you’ll love this book. For some reason I couldn’t get Michael Koryta out of my head when reading Reviver, it’s that good!

Dark, accomplished, exceptional and rare."

Total War: Rome 2 Takeover

REVIVER author by night, games developer by day, that's me.  And given that I'm in the final few weeks of getting Reviver Book Two finished while also in the final few weeks of development on Creative Assembly's latest game, I'm VERY BUSY.  More coffee!

That new game is the massive (in every way!) Total War: Rome 2.

I've come full circle: nearly thirteen years ago, when I first got a job with Creative Assembly, it was to work on the original Rome game.

The world's gaming media were there for the Rome 2 preview event that was held earlier this month in Cinecitta Film Studios in Rome.  Within a huge marquee in the middle of the vast set of HBO's Rome, journalists were given the first taste of the new game, playing through the Prologue Campaign.

I was very lucky to be one of the developers attending, ready to give help when needed, and I thought I'd share some pictures of the event to whet your appetite. No spoilers, mind you - you'll have to wait until the likes of Gamespot, IGN and Eurogamer give their take on what they saw.

It was a great day. Incredibly hot, and our nerves were going as the temperature in the marquee soared, but even though some of the PCs got hot enough to melt lead, we had surprisingly few failures, thanks to the top notch IT support we'd brought with us.  All those sacrificial offerings had paid off!

Arriving in Italy, we soon learned that Sega (who own Creative Assembly) also happens to be an Italian slang word for, er, masturbation. A quick change of T-shirt was in order for some, who'd been wandering through the airport and the hotel lobby, oblivious that they were wearing shirts with WANK on 'em. Luckily I'd been wearing my REVIVER shirt. Shameless self-promotion never did anyone any harm...

Here I am, just to prove I was actually there:



Sprawling back streets with genuine Roman graffiti...



Note the authentic ancient Roman fire extinguisher, the Romans being famous for their insistence on Health and Safety. You can never be too careful when there are pigs around...

 

 



The game awaits...

 

 

The troops assemble outside ready to drill. "Ctrl-A attack, lads!"

 

Night falls, and the traditional Ancient Pink Lighting kicks in. Ale from all conquered lands is summoned!

Total War Devs, ogling genuine old stuff in the actual real world. WHAT! GET BACK TO HORSHAM AND WORK!

The Colosseum part of the set, very impressive. Hang on...

Pantheon-like temple on set... and how everything looks from inside, when you fall through what you thought was stone.

The actual Pantheon. Bigger, and more made-of-actual-stone.

 

Well, that's it for my Preview of the, um, Total War: Rome 2 Preview. I have to go and work on my book, now. More coffee!





Launch day!

It was in October 2011 that Reviver was bought by Pan Macmillan. Finally, last Thursday, 20th June 2013, the official UK launch date arrived.

The first order of the day was signing a stack of books...

Then, signing another stack of books...

Then, to Forbidden Planet, where I signed another stack of books - BUT only after I'd read the first chapter of Reviver. I like reading that chapter. The previous Monday I'd read it at the Jubilee Library in Brighton, in a joint event with Peter James. It went down a storm there, too. If you haven't read it yet, well, isn't it about time you did? The Amazon preview lets you, go ahead...

Books were signed, drinks were had, and, er, Portal merchandise was bought. (I was in Forbidden Planet.  It happens.)

My shed is safe.

Geek highlights - apart from 'launching your novel in Forbidden Planet' - were:

• signing the Forbidden Planet visitor's book right after Neil Gaiman:

• signing a bunch of autograph books (and an Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction) and having to find spaces between the signatures of, among others, Brian Aldiss and Clive Barker.

Thanks to all who wished me luck, especially Chris Fowler and Pat Cadigan - much appreciated!

Afterwards it was off to a suitably murky pub for some suitably murky drinks, in the kind of company where you mention authors whose books you just bought and discover you're actually talking to their agent. That's publishing!


Well, now the book's out there, and we'll see how the little tyke gets on in the real world.

Good luck, kid! (pinches cheek) Go scare some folk!

It's here!

My first copy of my first novel came today, in all its glory. 

Its arrival brought to mind the bit near the end of Back to the Future, when George McFly’s novel shows up. The part of the movie where I actually found myself being jealous. 

Jealous of George McFly.

Well, here it is:

A beauty! I peek at it every few minutes, just in case it’s disappeared in some unexpected alternate timeline subplot.

…Still there!


Elsewhere, I popped up in the new issue of SFX magazine, along with a great full-page ad for Reviver that carries the wonderful line: "The Dead no longer have the right to remain silent." I like that.


As if that wasn't enough, I also featured in an article in the Sunday Times this week, under the computer-geek-makes-good narrative. Pretty fair I guess.

For those who asked, the bit in the article about me and my wife having a cinema trip as our honeymoon was indeed true. Ten years ago, our dream honeymoon would have left us in debt for an age, so rather than compromise we opted not to have one at all. Besides, our daughter was six months old, and not conducive to relaxation. Meanwhile we’d not been to the movies together since she’d been born, and hell – the sequel to one of our all-time favourites was on!

How could we not? It was meant to be!

That movie was The Matrix Reloaded.

Let us never speak of this again.


I also had my first on-camera interview, for the good folk at Book Zone TV.  The opening question was:  “So, your new book Reviver… what’s it about?” 

Wasn’t expecting that. (Seriously.) It took a few tries. Once I got going, though, I think it went pretty well.  Here it is...  how did I do?


Now, with only 22 days until Reviver launches in the UK, things are ramping up. I have an event in Brighton Library on the 6th of June, me and Peter James talking about our respective new books, assuming Peter can avoid serious injury. Did I, er, mention I fell off my bike? While stationary?

Then, 20th June, Reviver launches at Forbidden Planet, London. I’ll be doing a reading, before signing books and getting entertainingly drunk. In that order.

Hope to see you there!

I’m just a little bit excited.