Easter Eggs that can be found in Quiver

by | Dec 14, 2012 | Pimping

I’m a massive fan of “easter eggs“, meaning when intentional hidden messages, inside jokes, motifs and homages are hidden inside other works. That, plus my love of puns and other word bastardry, means I have included several easter eggs within my new novel “Quiver”.

Here are just a few that keen-eyed readers might spot:

  • Throughout the story the characters encounter several boats – these all start with the same letter.
  • I’m a fan of the UK series “Shameless”, and I’ve included many riffs that pay homage to this show. Character names, several references to Manchester (a brief mention of a community of survivors, a moment where Tamsyn wears a Man-U scarf etc) and others that fans might spot.
  • Going against the threads and tropes of postapocalyptic fiction, everyone in a position of legitimate civilian authority is female. The only male community leader found in “Quiver” is the Mayor of Gravesend, and his rule is FAR from legitimate. Most of the military leaders are male, and the polished war machine of today is rapidly devolving into barbarism. This is a very deliberate homage to one of my favourite postapocalyptic books, “The Gate to Women’s Country” by Sheri S. Tepper.
  • Most of the villainous military officers that Tamsyn encounters have surnames starting with the same letter.
  • References to other postapocalyptic or dystopian works such as “Lord of the Flies”. There’s the deliberate inclusion of a cat for Tamsyn as an antonym to the Harlan Ellison classic “A Boy and His Dog”.
  • Finally, while I’ve reined in my natural instinct to pun, there are at least two whoppers that I can think of that made it to the final version.
  • EDIT: Also, the titles of the original novellas attached to the After the World project were all  puns riffing on place names, death, and whatever Tamsyn was doing at the time. These are (in chronological order) Gravesend, Corpus Christi, Army Corpse, and Better Red than Undead. Hint for the last one: Cuba.

I’ve gotta say, this book was a lot of fun to write. If you’d like to nab yourself a copy, head over to the official website tamsynwebb.com. You can order the book in hard-copy, or get an e-book through either Smashwords or for the Kindle. By all accounts it’s selling well – I’m one proud and excited author!

Today, Quiver goes LIVE

by | Dec 9, 2012 | Announcement, Pimping

Hi folks,

Well, it’s all official-like. My first full-length novel “Quiver” is now officially on sale, and available both in hard-copy and as an e-book. Publisher Baden Kirgan at Black House Comics has put together a stunning new website for the book, the aptly titled:

http://www.tamsynwebb.com/

This, for the uninitiated, is the name of my tough-as-nails protagonist. The girl with the dead-eye aim, putting arrows into zombie brains. This book has been a long time coming, and it actually took a few years to get to this point. Starting off as four connected novellas (from the “After the World” series), I’ve done my best to tie these together into one coherent novel, in the grand SF tradition of “fix-up” novels. This should be appearing in book-stores soon, and there’ll hopefully be an official launch of “Quiver” at some point in the near future.

Huge thanks to those who helped me with the behind the scenes work on this story (especially Jason Franks), and big kudos to Baden Kirgan and Julie Ditrich at Black House Comics – they’ve moved mountains to get this thing going.

If you like zombies with your YA, and if you’ve enjoyed books such as The Hunger Games and the Passage, “Quiver” might just be the book for you. Tell your friends, and I’d count it as a personal favour if you added the following nifty banner thing to your blogs and such:

http://www.tamsynwebb.com/#!promote/c14vf

Finally, I’m going to also be releasing this book as a Scott Sigler style podcast/audio-book…more details soon!