School's Out Forever (afterblight chronicles)
Page 81
Your father (noted folk musician Harvey Andrews) has also written quite a bit on the power of war and violence (albeit in a slightly different creative form). Has that had any influence on your work?
Definitely. I don’t see how he couldn’t really, as he’s the best storyteller I know [Learn more about his work at www.harveyandrews.com]. If you listen to “Soldier,” or “Somewhere in the Stars,” those songs evoke a strong sense of people caught up in violent times who are kind of bewildered by how they got there and unsure how things got that bad. All they want is to go home and live an ordinary life. And that’s exactly who Lee and Jane are.
The key sequence for me in School’s Out is where Lee says that he just wants to be able to find somewhere quiet and read a book, have a normal day. That’s what he’s fighting for — the right of people to be left alone to do nice things like play football and bake cakes and stuff. I could never make a hero out of a character who’s fighting for power or glory. Those people are monsters.
In the end, I think that even though my Afterblight books are extremely violent, blood and thunder tales, they’re essentially anti-violence. Which is having my cake and eating it I suppose. But the characters are all extremely reluctant warriors who want to stop fighting but find the world won’t let them. The books don’t glory in violence, or at least I hope they don’t.
Lee’s growing up a bit now, and so are his adventures. Initially he defended the school, but now he’s liberated Iraq and defended the British Isles from invasion (from the US, no less). He’s accomplished a lot for something that can’t even get his driving license yet. How will he top this in Children’s Crusade?
The first book was very interior and personal, kind of like a horror movie; the second was a big, widescreen war movie. Book three, which will probably be Lee and Jane’s last outing for the time being, is hopefully a blend of the two. But it’s more Jane’s story than Lee’s this time around.
Jane has some serious stuff from her past to deal with, so it’s an extremely personal mission for her, but there’s also a really nasty and powerful enemy to fight, albeit not one quite as OTT as the entire US Army! The bad guys in book one were cannibals, in book two they were warriors, in some ways the villains of book three are the worst of the bunch in that they don’t kill you or eat you, but they’ll treat you as if you were cattle, totally dehumanising you.
And speaking of growing up… In Operation Motherland, I started to see the first inklings of a little something between Lee and “Matron.” I suspect the Daily Mail would have a fit. Or is this just my sordid imagination?
No, they’re a couple by the time book three begins. I hope the Daily Mail does have a fit. That would be mission accomplished!
In Operation Motherland, you cheekily added a nod to Paul Kane’s French mercenaries from Arrowhead. Was this a one-off, or can readers expect to see more “cross-overs” coming? Did he know you were doing this? Are there Blighterbrunches where you all sip tea and chart the post-Apocalyptic landscape?
Paul and I have swopped notes extensively. I love his books. I was really pleased to be able to have a new short story at the back of his last one and — first exclusive scoop! — I’m pleased to announce that he’s returning the favour by doing an original story for the back of Children’s Crusade. It’s quite the love-in!
In fact, Lee takes a little trip to Nottingham in book three, so the crossover is far more explicit this time. It’s a bit tricky in that our timeline doesn’t match the publication schedule — Operation Motherland is set before Arrowhead, but was published after. And Children’s Crusade is set before Broken Arrow, which is already out. So we’re leapfrogging each other. In fact I was able to tease the villain for Broken Arrow in Operation Motherland, though because it wasn’t out yet, no-one noticed!
Also, Children’s Crusade takes place concurrently with The Culled, the book that kicked it all off, and if things go according to plan we’ll see certain events from that first book in a slightly different light.
School’s Out, Operation Motherland, Children’s Crusade and… The Unofficial Guide to Dawson’s Creek? Somewhere in a drawer, is there the first draft of the Cull hitting Capeside, Massachusetts? Who starts the crucifixions first: Dawson or Pacey?
Pacey is Lee, obviously, because of his affair with his teacher in season one. I reckon Dawson would be the first to snap. It’d be snuff movies and all sorts with him. And now I’m picturing Michelle Williams in combats with a gun… sigh…
Red Dawn or Battle Royale?
Red Dawn, dude, every time. Lea Thompson with an M16? Hell yeah!
SECOND INTERVIEW
JUNE 02, 2010
As it says on the back cover, Children’s Crusade is the “third and final year of St Mark’s School for Boys.” Say it ain’t so! Is this truly the final volume of my favourite homicidal schoolkids?
Yes. I like stories that have a beginning, middle and end. I would be wary of revisiting the well too many times and hitting diminishing returns. The day I got the commission for School’s Out, once I’d finished doing cartwheels, I came up with the basic outline of all three books and knew, before I wrote word one of book one, that I wanted it to be three and only three. Look at how Lost picked up once they decided they were going to end it rather than stringing it out until they were cancelled. Big lesson there.
I don’t want to give anything away to our readers, BUT… not everyone makes it through the book. And I won’t lie — a few of the deaths really shocked me. As the author, how do you decide who lives and who dies? All that god-like power…
I never write with the explicit intention of shocking the reader — that’s a blind alley, a stupid thing for a writer to do, and kind of insulting to the reader. If there are shocks, they happen almost by accident, which is the best way.
I don’t want to sound wanky and say ‘the characters write themselves!’ coz obviously that’s untrue and I always sniff derisively when I read an author saying that. But I know what they mean, and I’ve found with each of the books that there comes a point where it feels like the events of the story are carrying me along with them and I’m just holding on for grim death, transcribing them. Obviously I’m controlling the story, but it feels like I’m not. It’s odd, hard to describe without seeming to be completely up myself, and it’s a great feeling.
What I tend to do is plot the book as it would happen if all the heroes’ plans worked, then I have the plans go horribly wrong and as the characters improvise to compensate, so do I.
So to answer your question — I really had no fixed idea who would live and who would die. Right up until a character actually breathes their last there’s every chance they might make it out alive. In the end, those characters who die were just in the wrong chapter at the wrong time, and paid the price.
Also, I firmly believe that a character’s death should be surprising and should hurt the reader. I remember how devastated I was when Tara died on Buffy, or Wash bought it in Serenity, or Penny died in… hang on… WHEDON!! (shakes fist)
So if a character’s death surprises me — and they always kind of do, actually, even as I write them — then hopefully they’ll surprise a reader too. And I like the idea that the deaths of my characters knock the reader back. That’s satisfying, ‘cause it means the characters worked and connected.
Children’s Crusade reads like the Afterblight’s All-Star Game — with substantial appearances from characters developed by Paul Kane and touching on villains and themes first introduced by Simon Spurrier. We touched on this before, but what’s it like working in a world this cooperative? Does Mr Kane mind you killing off a Ranger or two?
Paul picked out the two Rangers who have lead roles in the book and handed them off to me for development. But he did rein me in on their use of firearms and their rule that they should fight to wound, not kill, wherever possible. Also he was kind enough to say that I nailed Robert’s character — then gave me a whole slew of notes on what I’d got wrong about the scene wher
e he met Lee :-) So I did rejig things to keep him happy. (Cause, you know, he scares me!)
I always intended to tie book three very closely in with The Culled. As time passed and The Culled started to seem less immediate I questioned whether it was still wise, but I eventually decided that it added texture and rewarded long-time readers. There’s even a very small reference to one of the character from that book in the long flashback in the middle of this one — see if you can spot it.
I should stress, though, that you don’t have to have read the other books to enjoy mine, just that it’s an added layer if you have.
As the last in the trilogy, Children’s Crusade might not be the best book for Afterblight virgins. What would you suggest to our readers that want to get into the series?
There’s a chronology at the back of Children’s Crusade. I’d recommend reading them in chronological order, which just co-incidentally means starting with School’s Out. How about that :-)
Ok. Zombies attack. You can have one weapon, one sidekick and one song for your zombie-slaying soundtrack. Go…
Flamethrower; Felicia Day; Zippity Doo Dah.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SCOTT ANDREWS has written episode guides, magazine articles, film and book reviews, comics, audio plays for Big Finish, far too many blogs, some poems you will never read, and two previous novels for Abaddon.
He lives in a secret base hidden within the grounds of an elite public school which serves as a front for his nefarious schemes to take over the world. His wife and two children indulge him, patiently.
You can contact him at www.eclectica.info, where you’ll find all sorts of nonsense.
The Afterblight Chronicles Series
The Culled
by Simon Spurrier
Kill Or Cure
by Rebecca Levene
Dawn Over Doomsday
by Jasper Bark
Death Got No Mercy
by Al Ewing
Blood Ocean
by Weston Ochse
The Afterblight Chronicles: America
An Omnibus of Post-Apocalyptic Novels
Arrowhead
Broken Arrow
Arrowland
by Paul Kane
School’s Out
Operation Motherland
Children’s Crusade
by Scott K. Andrews
‘The Culled’ by Simon Spurrier
HE MADE A STAND AGAINST THE END OF THE WORLD…
The Blight arose from nowhere. It swept across the bickering nations like the End of Times and spared only those with a single fortuitous blood type.
Hot-headed religion and territorial savagery rule the cities now. Somewhere amidst the chaos a damaged man receives a signal, and with it the tiniest flicker of hope. The chance to rediscover the humanity he lost, long ago, in the blood and filth and horror of The Cull.
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
Available to buy from the Kindle Store
Kindle Store USA
Kindle Store UK
Kindle-Shop DE
www.abaddonbooks.com
‘Kill or Cure’ by Rebecca Levene
WE ALL GO A LITTLE CRAZY SOMETIMES…
Jasmine has spent five years underground, locked in a secret government bunker. Outside, the world has gone to hell, a mysterious virus killing all but 1 in 20 of the world’s population.
It’s enough to drive anyone mad — but Jasmine’s crazier than most. The cure she was working on had an unexpected side effect, psychotic symptoms which only powerful drugs can suppress. Jasmine’s rescuers, the pirate rulers of the New Caribbean, don’t care. They need Jasmine’s help to discover what it is that has turned the inhabitants of Cuba into rabid killers. Jasmine’s quest to find a cure for this new plague, as well as for her own madness, draws her across the fractured continent of America and into the darkest recesses of her own past.
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
Available to buy from the Kindle Store
Kindle Store USA
Kindle Store UK
Kindle-Shop DE
www.abaddonbooks.com
‘Arrowhead’ by Paul Kane
AS THE WORLD DIES SCREAMING A LEGEND IS REBORN!
In the years following The Cull England has reverted back to the Middle Ages, ripe for invasion by the Frenchman De Falaise and his group of mercenaries. They enter through the Channel Tunnel and work their way up the country. Ex-policeman Robert Stokes lost everything to the virus that ravaged these isles. Along with his wife and his son, it took Robert’s whole reason for living. Retreating into the woods and forests near Nottingham, he has become a hunter, living off the land and avoiding any form of human contact -until now. Pockets of survivors are attempting to build up small communities in the region, bartering at makeshift markets and forming tentative connections. But when De Falaise arrives at Nottingham — proclaiming himself the new ‘Sheriff’ — Robert finds himself drawn reluctantly into the fight, using the famous legend of a Hooded Man as his guide!
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
Available to buy from the Kindle Store
Kindle Store USA
Kindle Store UK
Kindle-Shop DE
www.abaddonbooks.com
‘Death Got No Mercy’ by Al Ewing
ONE MAN AGAINST A CITY OF MANIACS!
This ain’t a complicated story, but then Cade wasn’t a complicated man. He didn’t exactly care about people, did Cade, but if one of the people he almost cared about was in trouble, he’d help out if he could. If that meant heading down to San Francisco — even though nobody ever came back from there alive — well, fine. If that meant taking on whole armies of religious maniacs, coupon-clipping cannibals and helter-skelter hippies who dealt out free love and fast death in equal measure, armed with nothing but his two fists and a decent hunting knife… well, I’m kind of runnin’ my mouth here. This ain’t a peaceful story, is what I’m tryin’ to say. And Cade… Cade wasn’t a peaceful man.
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
Available to buy from the Kindle Store
Kindle Store USA
Kindle Store UK
Kindle-Shop DE
www.abaddonbooks.com
‘Blood Ocean’ by Weston Ochse
LIFE AND DEATH ON THE WAVES
Kavika Kamalani is a Pali Boy, a post-plague heir to an ancient Hawai’ian warrior tradition that believes in overcoming death by embracing one’s fears and living large. His life on the Nomi No Toshi, the floating city, is turned upside down when one of his friends dies, harvested for his blood, and he sets out to find the killer.
Kidnapped himself and subjected to a terrifying transformation, Kavika must embrace the ultimate fear — death itself — if he, his loved ones, and the Pali Boys themselves are to survive.
“Weston is one of the best authors of our generation.”
– Brian Keene, author of Take the Long Way Home and City of the Dead
“Weston Ochse is a mercurial writer, one of those depressingly talented people who are good at whatever they turn their hand to.”
– Conrad Williams
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
Available to buy from the Kindle Store
Kindle Store USA
Kindle Store UK
Kindle-Shop DE
www.abaddonbooks.com
Indicia
An Abaddon Books™ Publication
www.abaddonbooks.com
abaddon@rebellion.co.
uk
This omnibus published in 2012 by Abaddon Books™, Rebellion Intellectual Property Limited, Riverside House, Osney Mead, Oxford, OX2 0ES, UK.
Editor-in Chief: Jonathan Oliver
Desk Editor: David Moore
Cover Art: Luke Preece
Original Series Cover Art: Mark Harrison
Design: Simon Parr & Luke Preece
Marketing and PR: Michael Molcher
Creative Director and CEO: Jason Kingsley
Chief Technical Officer: Chris Kingsley
The Afterblight Chronicles™ created by Simon Spurrier & Andy Boot
School’s Out Copyright © 2007 Rebellion.
Operation Motherland Copyright © 2009 Rebellion.
“The Man Who Would Not Be King” Copyright © 2009 Rebellion.
Children’s Crusade Copyright © 2010 Rebellion.
All rights reserved.
The Afterblight Chronicles™, Abaddon Books and Abaddon Books logo are trademarks owned or used exclusively by Rebellion Intellectual Property Limited. The trademarks have been registered or protection sought in all member states of the European Union and other countries around the world. All right reserved.