Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it's me - and I'm a PATRON OF READING!

Yep, it's true. I'm a patron of reading. (For more info on this check out: www.patronofreading.co.uk)

How awesome is THAT?

In fact, let's meditate on that notion a while...

I. Am. A. Patron. Of. Reading.

Of Norton Hill School, in Somerset (http://www.nortonhillschool.com) And if you want to know what they had to say on the matter, follow them on twitter and check out their msgs: https://twitter.com/nortonhill

Frankly, this is a massive deal. And I feel hugely privileged. To be given the chance to work alongside students and staff to promote reading? What's not to love?

Er ... Nothing.

On the day it was all made official, I spent my time with students just talking about books. And it was brilliant. I learned from them. I was inspired by them. And I wanted to help them read more, read wider, just READ.

I'm still reeling from it. Still stunned. Still humbled.

But a thought occurs to me. If we are readers, then surely we are all by default patrons of reading? It's up to us to show folk out there how important books are, stories are, words are. Because they are.

So here's a few ideas to help you promote reading:

1. Read. I'm serious: READ. Have a book on you. Carry it around with you. Let people see you with a book, holding it, reading it, loving it, wrestling with it.
2. Tweet about your books. Repeatedly. Tell people if it's good or bad. Ask what they think of it.
3. Read dangerously. You like crime? Why not read some horror? Like horror? Try a romance. Heard about a book that people think you shouldn't be allowed near? Get it, grab it, read it, devour it.
4. When you finish a book, don't put it on a shelf, leave it somewhere for someone to find. Like a pub table. Put a little note inside it from you to them. Tell them you hope they enjoy it. Include your twitter. Connect.
5. Visit the library. Not just to get another book out, but to meet other readers, chat with librarians.
6. Get involved with local schools. You could read with children, go talk about books, collect books for the library.
7. Invent the perfect sandwich to eat while reading. Go on! Then tell me what it is.
8. Take photos of your books in weird places: down a cave, up a chimney, inside the stomach of a dragon. Share these photos on Facebook, twitter. Ask other folk - where do you read yours?
9. Buy a dog and call it the name of your favourite book.
10. You know your fave independent bookshop? Buy them a cake.

Any more ideas, let me know.

Which reminds me of another idea...

Ebooks. No, they are not the devil. And no, they will not have us burning books in favour of only electronic ink. Buy them. Download free samples. Hell, why not publish your own book and get it up there? Like me, you could soon find yourself with readers all round the world. I know this because my Dead Trilogy is out in the US now. And you can even buy it well cheap for a limited time (if you're in the US that is). Don't believe me? Then click a link at the bottom of this and seeeeeeeeee...

So there you go. Patron of Reading. Me. WOW. Think of the fun I'm gonna have!

BOOM! YEAH! WOOHOO!

Dave 'Patron of Reading' Gatward

The Dead: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GBEO8DE

The Dark: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GBEP9PA

The Damned: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GBFINS4

Wot no zombies?

OK, I'll admit it: i'm not watching The Walking Dead. I caught a few of the first ones then dropped out. I've no doubt it's brilliant. I just couldn't be bothered with all the zombies.

When I was writing my Dead Trilogy, I wanted to make sure it wasn't zombies. I wanted my Dead to have an emotional drive, a need beyond that of "brains... BRAINS..."

So I kinda used the idea of purgatory, but twisted it. I wanted the Dead to be trapped between heaven and hell by their own thirst to live again. Then I found a quote by Mark Twain (a total genius):

"Pity is for the living, envy is for the dead."

And there I had it: ENVY!

Wow - what a nut kicker of an emotional drive! There's so much weight behind that word! It's got lust wrapped up in it. A single-minded-twisted-ness too.

Envy...

And there they were, my Dead. No brainless brain-munching morons. But driven creatures who wanted to live, and would do anything to experience life again, even if for only a few moments.

I loved writing The Dead Trilogy. I'm really proud of it. And having it out now in the US is a proper honour.

And you know what? Something ace is happening right now...

We got ourselves a special promotion folks! The three books, starting with The Dead, are on Kindle Countdown. So you want to grab a copy for 99cents? Then click on the link below before the price goes back to normal again on March 1!

After that, The Dark comes in, ending on March 7, and then The Damned.

So get 'em while you can at a bargain basement price! Just click below and you're in!

The Dead: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GBEO8DE

The Dark: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GBEP9PA

The Damned: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GBFINS4

The Killer Inside

Everyone gets angry. And I'm not just talking about cross enough to say a few naughty words and stomp up the stairs.

I'm taking rage. Full on, ripping doors off fury. The kind of anger that makes your stare powerful enough to melt through steel.

Know what I mean? Of course you do.

This anger can boil up from anything. Usually though, when it really lets fly, there's a build up. A gradual drip-drip-drip to something that you hold back, keep at bay, until suddenly - BOOM...

The repercussions can be terrifying, not just for you, but those around you. And if you're on your own? The doors get it. The chairs. Things get thrown. You yell and scream and ...

I've always found the horror genre utterly unafraid of dealing with anger. You get an action movie or a thriller, quite often the anger leads to something good happening, where the hero's loss of control causes the downfall of the bad guy and in the end, all things are good. And we're left thinking, hey that anger? That was worth it. That was necessary. And it felt gooooood. We find ourselves justifying the anger because of the good outcome, the hero saving the day.

It ain't always like that.

Anger and fury do not generally lead to good things happening. We get hurt, mentally and physically. Bad things happen. Really bad things. And if a story doesn't shy away from that, then I reckon it's all the more powerful.

Good things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people. Sometimes, evil wins, because that's just the way things turn out.

So next time you're watching or reading something where the hero gets angry and it all turns out right in the end, look back to the moment anger turned into something righteous. And flip it. Take it in another direction.

Explore the darker side of who and what we are.

That way we can learn from it.

The Book That Changed My Life

This is something I invariably talk about during my school visits, but it's something I've never bunged here. So now I am.

One book changed my life: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, by Alan Garner.

I was on a family holiday. It was in a caravan. I've no doubt that it was raining. After all, we were in a caravan, and those blasted creations seem to have a knack of attracting bad weather (as well as not entirely in shape pensioners in pink flannelette jogging outfits, dog owners who think EVERYONE wants their dog to lick them, gangs of topless kids on bikes, and the acrid smell of sausages burned on a disposable bbq).

So, I was bored. There wasn't exactly much to do, bar eating a biscuit, playing scrabble, or listening to my parents drink EVEN MORE TEA THAN YESTERDAY (and very loudly, too), while shuffling through yet another leaflet about either a castle (a few bricks and an overpriced guidebook), an old house (rich people allow the poor people to gaze at their life of wealth and opulence), a zoo (donkey and a bird bath), or a poor attempt at family entertainment (a few farm fields filled with a couple of goats, a roundabout, a display of 'olde worlde farminge implents, and a coffee shop).

At last, the day's entertainment was decided. We would go and... (wait for it...) VISIT A VILLAGE! Yes! A VILLAGE! I was confused. We lived in a village. So why the hell had we come on holiday to go and visit one? In the rain? Back home, I could just open my bedroom window and behold! A VILLAGE! Anyway, kagools pulled on, off we were swept into the rain to look at old buildings, cobbled streets, and to then gaze in wonder at the displays in bakery windows.

We happened to pass a gift shop. The kind that sells everything from swords to hankies to taxidermy, toilet rolls, tins of beans and snow globes. It also had a few book carousels outside. The kind filled with books limp and pathetic courtesy of the elements. Books that look sad and depressed and close to just jumping off into the puddles below to end it all.

Anyway, one book grabbed my attention. Not just because the cover ROCKED (see below), but because the title was utterly mesmerising. What's not to love about "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen"? It's magnificent! So I grabbed it, bought it, and devoured it.

It's a brilliant read. Short, beautiful, dark, menacing, magical. But one section nailed it for me. The heroes are being chased through a cave. The cave gets pretty tight. And finally they end up not at a dead end, but a sump. This is where the cave is submerged. They've no idea how much of the cave is underwater. Could be a few metres. Could be a few miles. But they've no choice - they have to risk drowning to avoid capture.

ABSOLUTELY BLOODY TERRIFYING!

Even more so for me, because I had actually drowned a few years before, and was completely terrified of water. (True story. I didn't learn to swim till I was 28.)

It was that scene (which is little more than a couple of sides of a page) that did it. Those words haunted me. That book chased me through every moment of my life, pestering me, tapping its spindly fingers against my head. It knew I wanted to do the same, use words to haunt people, tell stories, scare, encourage, frighten, excite...

So now that's what I try to do. I'm no way saying I'm Alan Garner (who's a veritable genius). But I am a writer. With books and everything. And it was his words in that book all those years ago that set me on this path. And to me, that's just astonishing.

Thanks Alan - I owe you a lot.

Why I Want Rob Zombie To Buy My Film Rights

Rob Zombie... Isn't he?

Mr Zombie is pretty damned polarising. People love him. People hate him. People are confused by him.  People wonder just why the hell he puts Sheri Moon (his wife) in everything he does...

Sheri Moon. Wowzers...

Me? I think he rocks.

I started with House of 1000 Corpses many years ago. It confused me. I didn't like it. I forgot all about it.

House of 1000 Corpses. You know you want to...

Then I watched The Devil's Rejects and I was gobsmacked. This was rock n roll awesome. It was twisted and brilliant and the sound track was superb and there were guns and insanity and crazy dialogue and...

The Devil's Rejects. Not the most tactful of posters...

Then came his Halloween duo. Liked the first a lot. The second confused me. Then I watched The Lords of Salem. Which confused me.

The Lords. Absolutely bonkers...

So I was confused. And I don't like being confused because I like to know why I'm confused or it just gets too confusing.

So I went back to House of 1000 and this time watched it on my projector. The difference was immeasurable. Man, that film is crazy fun! Yeah, it's basically Tourist Trap with balls, but that's a good thing. Visually it's splendid. The sets, the way each shot is filled to bursting point with all manner of stuff, just the way Zombie seems to completely get how a scene should look. By the end I was converted - no more confused, lots of WOOHOO!

So I decided this week to rewatch Lords. Last time I saw it, myself and my good horror buddy sat in silence after somewhat befuddled. What had we just watched? What in tarnation was Zombie doing now? And just WHAT the HELL was that weird mutant dwarf thing with tentacles? And the sasquatch? and just who are the lords anyway? And... well, there were a lot of questions.

The rewatching didn't necessarily answer any of these questions. But it did draw me in. I loved the atmosphere and the general gentleness the film seemed to have (ignoring the completely bonkers witches scenes). Yeah, it did have a feel as though it had at points been made up on the spot, that it was a few good ideas stitched together by some nonsense, but I didn't care. Again, it was beautifully shot. That tiny corridor - how did Zombie make that such a part of what was going on? And Sheri - my god, this part was the moment she actually became something other than Zombie's Fit Wife. She was great in it, better than actually. And the supporting cast, too. The soundtrack - great. The dialogue - cracking. The everything about it - a mixed up, potion of crazy weird darkness to pour into your head and giggle and rock to.

So why do I want the man to bag my film rights? Well, I think Zombie has a certain magic to him. he gets horror. He gets metal. He gets theatre. He loves what he does. He doesn't care what folk think. he's unique. Original. Clever. Arty. Bonkers. Violent. Gifted. And I can't help wonder what he'd do with a horror for a younger audience. Think of the fun he could have...

Zombie, for all the flaws people seem keen to point out, for all the crazy, for all the confusion, is to me a seriously exciting dude behind the camera as well as on stage. Now all I've gotta do is work out a way to get him to notice my stuff...

... Goat sacrifice perhaps...

20 Word Short Horror Story Competition

Earlier this week I tweeted a very short horror story indeed written by someone I can't remember the name of right this minute. Anyway, it went something like this: "The last man on earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door." Simple, clever, chilling. And stuff.

So I had an idea...

And that idea was to find two different types of cheese, place them in a box in the garage for three years, and see if they created an entirely NEW kind of cheese when reopened!

Then I had another, slightly more relevant, idea...

So I'm going to run a 20 Word Short Horror Story Competition. Yes! It's true! For more info, just watch the movie below, then send your submission to me at: daveandthedead@live.com. WOOHOO! Grrr... argh... etc.

Dave "I 'heart' Suspiria" Gatward

Watch out America, the Dead are coming!

ok folks, it's happened at last - Gatward is hitting the US! woohoo! this is a huge deal for me and I'm massively excited.

So here's the info...

1 For the next 5 days you can download FOR FREE book 1, The Dead, here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00GBEO8DE/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

2. If you RT and FOLLOW me on twitter @davidgatward with #ShredtheDead you have a chance at winning one of 3 limited edition skateboards!

3 The other two books in the trilogy are available here:

The Dark

http://www.amazon.com/The-Dark-Dead-ebook/dp/B00GBEP9PA/

The Damned

http://www.amazon.com/The-Damned-Dead-ebook/dp/B00GBFINS4/

AWESOMENESS!