On Wednesday (3rd April) I decided it was the right time to unveil the title and front cover for my upcoming second novel, ‘The Web Tomb’ - a novel that has proven to be quite the turbulent process. As it stands right now, the novel exists as a fourth draft (fifth draft, technically, if we’re to include the ill-fated/incomplete draft zero into the mix, but more on that later), and is in the guarded hands of five beta-readers, one of whom is my fiancé who gets the pleasure of listening to certain ideas form and die throughout the writing process. Writing ‘The Web Tomb’ wasn’t at all easy, because the story has taken many different shapes since I started work on it in November, 2021, just two months after the publication of my debut, ‘The Ascension of the Seventh’. Originally, the story was a very, very different beast and harkened back to an old screenwriting project of mine from university. I still have that script, too. It’s a mess; a total, disjointed, mess, albeit one with some interesting ideas. Back in 2016, I originally wanted to write ‘The Web Tomb’ as my debut. An old notebook even shows pages upon pages of developed ideas for a loose outline. Perhaps if I hadn’t gotten sick, I never would’ve written ‘The Ascension of the Seventh’ and that long-standing idea about Death would’ve manifested into something totally different. To be honest, it’s a good thing I waited so long to take a stab at ‘The Web Tomb’, because I don’t think I was ready for it back then. Hell, even during 2022/2023 I had my doubts.

Sometime around 2022, I was hit with a major influence in a medium I never typically take inspiration from: video-games. ‘The Evil Within’, a PS4 survival-horror game directed by Shinji Mikami (creator of the ‘Resident Evil’ series), seemingly came out of nowhere for me. I’m ashamed to admit that I actually started playing ‘The Evil Within’ in 2020 during the Pandemic, but quit in the middle of the third chapter because it scared the absolute balls off me. I know, the horror addict spooked to death by a video-game, the irony isn't lost on me there. But for some reason, I decided to grow a pair and give it another go in 2022, and even though the game still proved to be a terrifying experience, something clicked and I became completely obsessed with the world and the monsters and the batshit crazy story-line. I’ve never been a die-hard gamer; I loved ‘Unreal Tournament’ and ‘World of Warcraft’ back in the day, and there are lots of old-school PS1/PS2 games I enjoyed as a teenager, but I never had that game or franchise that I’d always recommend to people. ‘The Evil Within’ remains my favourite video-game of all time, as well as one of my favourite horror stories, because the storytelling and imagination of that game is superb. (I should mention ‘The Evil Within 2’ is fantastic also, but falls short of the uniqueness of the original). Although ‘The Evil Within’ remains one of my core influences for ‘The Web Tomb’, I confess to being a little TOO influenced whilst writing the aforementioned draft zero, which is why 250+ pages ended up being cut. I wanted ‘The Web Tomb’ to be just as ambitious, just as sinister, and just as downright horrifying as ‘The Evil Within’, and as a result, my original voice fell quieter and quieter. I ended up with pages of a draft just as incoherent and disjointed as the screenplay I put together in university, with no constructive way to get it to make any lick of sense. It wasn’t a rip-off at all, but I was definitely trying to replicate the general atmosphere of ‘The Evil Within’. Being influenced by all manner of media is great, but sometimes you’ve got to rein yourself in and recognise when your own voice is trying too hard to be someone else's. Suffice it to say, draft zero for ‘The Web Tomb’ died a very quick death, and the current iteration of the book couldn’t possibly be more different, with the exception of the first four chapters which have remained pretty consistent throughout the drafting process.

Primarily, ‘The Web Tomb’ is influenced by the works of Italian horror maestros Dario Argento (‘Suspiria’, ‘Phenomena’, 1977/1985), Lucio Fulci (‘The Beyond’, ‘The House by the Cemetery’, 1981) and Lamberto Bava (‘Demons 1 & 2’, 1985/1986). If you’re a horror fan but haven’t taken the plunge into the wonders of Italian schlock cinema, quit reading this blog post right now and check out the aforementioned titles. I love Brit horror and American horror as much as the next guy, but there’s something really special about the visions of these eccentric Italians. There’s just nothing else like it; dreamlike storytelling, stellar practical effects, bloodthirsty kills and eclectic scores are a guarantee, and the more films you watch, the more accustomed you become to the distinctive voices of these directors, as well as the unique flavour that Italian horror brings to the genre. Personal favourites of mine include ‘The Beyond’, ‘Zombie Flesh Eaters’, ‘Suspiria’ and ‘Demons 2’. With ‘The Web Tomb’, I wanted to create an atmosphere that could rival the strangeness of Italian horror cinema, to envision something nightmarish and other-worldly. With monsters, of course. And spiders. Lots and lots of spiders.

Outside of fiction, I found myself thinking a lot about real-life manuscripts that are supposedly cursed. Perhaps one of the most infamous examples of a cursed book is the medieval manuscript dubbed ‘The Codex Gigas’. For the uninitiated, ‘The Codex Gigas’ is said to be the Devil’s Bible, a moniker given to the manuscript due to the full-page illustration of what many believe to be the Devil himself. Legend says the ‘The Codex Gigas’ was penned by Herman the Recluse who was sentenced to the grim fate of being walled up alive and subsequently starved as punishment for breaking his monastic vows. However, he made a bargain for his life; Herman (supposedly) pledged he could conceive a book that documented the breadth of all human knowledge in a single night, but upon realising no human could possibly complete such a task, he called upon the Devil’s aid and sold his soul in exchange for a completed manuscript. It is said by many that the illustration of the Devil is a personalised signature. An alluring tale, for sure, but whether it is true or not, we’ll never know. I opt to believe it’s true, because life is just more interesting that way. ‘The Codex Gigas’ is kept at the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm. Though I can’t say how just yet, ‘The Codex Gigas’ influenced a very specific plot point in ‘The Web Tomb’.

Though I’m at a stage with ‘The Web Tomb’ where I can consider it readable for my beta-readers, there is still work to be done with it, though I’m confident there will be no late cuts or spontaneous new chapters to write. I know for a fact I want to expand upon the last two chapters. I still listen to music whenever I’m writing, because music inspires me just as much as films and books. When I was writing ‘The Ascension of the Seventh’, I compiled a soundtrack that was very melancholic, bittersweet and a little depressing. For ‘The Web Tomb’, I’ve veered much closer to heavy metal/thrash metal/death metal for influence. Bands like Cradle of Filth, Slayer, Black Sabbath and Kreator have been quite influential to my writing this time around. Cradle of Filth’s ‘Midian’ (2000) has been on loop quite often, as has Kreator’s ‘Gods of Violence’ (2017) and Slayer’s ‘Reign in Blood’ (1986). I think it’s important to take influence from all manner of mediums, and as the months draw closer to my self-assigned release date for ‘The Web Tomb’, I’m feeling very confident that it’ll be a book that will entertain, thrill and, hopefully, terrify you.