TIM LEBBON

Meet the dark fantasy writer who’s a marathon man too

the seed for Tim Lebbon’s new novel, Relics, came from a short story he wrote for an American anthology, “in which someone was trying to sell an alleged relic from a dragon”. And so things might have rested, except “the real ‘that’s it!’ moment” hit and Lebbon realised he could expand the story by making the book as much thriller as horror story. “It wasn’t only the idea of the relics of mythological creatures being traded that interested me, but who would indulge in such a trade, similar to the criminal gangs behind ivory poaching and the like,” he says.

The answer, of course, is people you wouldn’t especially want to meet down a dark alley, as the novel’s lead character, Angela, learns when she goes in search of her missing boyfriend, Vince. “She discovers that Vince works for a crime boss whose passion is dealing in the relics of mythological creatures – mummified cyclops head, angel’s wing feather, gryphon’s claw,” says Lebbon, “and he’s gone missing because he discovered some of these relics are fresh.”

It’s a brilliantly simple idea brilliantly executed, and one that should make Lebbon far better known outside the dark fantasy scene where he got his start. “My first story sales were to small press magazines in the early ’90s and it was known as something of an ‘underground’ scene, separate from the commercial horror publishing markets,” he says.

COMMUNITY SPIRIT

These days, thanks to advances in publishing technology, the scene is no longer underground and the modern equivalents of saddle-stapled magazines are lovingly designed small press books and websites. “The community is stronger than ever, and attending events like the British Fantasy Convention feels like having one big family,” says Lebbon. Nonetheless, it’s been a long journey to make his living from writing.

It’s one that begins, he says, with his mother’s influence. From an early age, she instilled a love of reading and writing in him, to the extent that, when given essay lists at school, he’d write all the essays. Via short stories published in his teens and twenties, Lebbon’s debut, Mesmer, a story that had its roots in a report about an Italian woman charging people for admission to her kitchen to see the faces of dead people manifesting in the floor, was published in 1997.

“From that moment on I worked hard to write more, publish more, and then eventually make it a living,” he says. “I think I’ve always felt a need to tell stories, and that stems from my love of reading them, so it’s all down to my mother and her sharing a love of reading with me.”

At times, this has meant writing franchise fiction and Lebbon gives short shrift to those who are sniffy about such books. “I always work hard to make my tie-in books as good as I can,” he says. “I could never just ‘phone one in’, as I think that would be offensive to the people who love these properties and worlds, as well as a betrayal of my own creative urges. It’s a fact that sometimes the deadlines for these projects are pretty restrictive, but that doesn’t mean I can’t strive to make them as good as possible.”

Besides, he adds, these can be technically challenging projects that let him “play in some of my very favourite universes” such as that of Alien. “That said, I do most prefer working on my own novels, but the tie-in projects help me spread my writery wings and hopefully reach audiences who would never know about me otherwise.”

FIGHTING FIT

A sense of steely determination doesn’t just manifest itself in his determination to succeed as a writer. This year, Lebbon is undertaking a dozen challenges, including triathlons, marathons and bike rides, in aid of the charity Delete Blood Cancer. “A few years ago on 1 January I realised I was overweight and on a big downward spiral into my girth-expanding, sofa-sitting forties,” he says.

“The change was almost overnight – after committing to a challenge way beyond my ability at the time, the national Three Peaks Challenge – and I’ve never looked back. I’ve dropped three stone, and gone from not being able to run a mile or swim a length, to regularly entering extreme endurance races like Ironman triathlons – 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, then run a marathon. I love it.”

This even helps his creative life. “We live in a beautiful part of the world, and three minutes in any direction on foot or bike and I’m out in gorgeous countryside,” he says. “It’s great for my writing. While I don’t often muse over story ideas or plot points while I’m running or biking, it helps clear my head and prepares me for a day’s work.”

And work is busy at the moment. Lebbon is, among other projects, working on completing a novel co-written with longtime collaborator Chris Goolden; there are various films in the pipeline, including an adaptation of his 2015 crime novel The Hunt, which has writer Derek Kolstad (John Wick) attached; TV pitches; and two sequels to Relics.

But for someone who’s always wanted to be a professional writer, this isn’t a problem. “I’m still working hard to become an overnight success,” he deadpans.

Relics is out now from Titan Books.