The Pack, by Billy Freeman

[Billy Freeman]

Hi all,

I've been given the go-ahead to promote my book on it's own terms, so here goes!

"The Pack" is my debut novel, set in North East England, and is bleak, gory and gutsy. It is best described as James Herbert's The Rats meets Stephen King's Cujo. I hope it's appeal isn't limited to the gore because the characters and setting have all been carefully drawn to be important and thought-provoking in their own right. First, the blurb, then the links, and then a little about how and why I wrote it;

"In the recession-hit town of Druridge-by-the-Sea, Northumberland, a paranoid recluse has unleashed a gruesome horror upon his fellow residents.

Now man's best friend has turned enemy. The pack is growing, possessed by an insatiable hunger and an insane rage. They're hungry, and they can smell your blood.

The destinies of a handful of ordinary people who fought back that fateful day will collide in front of your eyes, and the shocking and tragic climax will stay with you long after the tale has ended."

PAPERBACK: http://www.amazon.com/Pack-Billy-Fre...2512556&sr=1-1

KINDLE: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Pack-ebo...2510509&sr=8-1

I first had my idea for the book during the 2010 swine flu outbreak. My next door neighbour is quiet and mild-mannered, but relies on tabloid newspapers for her news, which is a bad idea when they have a "global pandemic" to scream about. While me and my mother laughed at everyone getting so paranoid (including my own attempt to get treatment for dizziness, which resulted in swine-flu panic at the doctor's office, despite my not even claiming I had it), she got more and more worried. Everyday she'd update us on what the Sun, and gossip, told her about the pandemic, how close it was getting, how poorly the vaccine worked, how many had died.

So one day, in a pique of sadism, I asked my mother what the neighbour's worst fear was. She said "dogs." So I said, "I might just tell her the streets are full of packs of wild, rabid dogs and watch her lock herself away in terror." I never carried out my gruesome plan but instead, had a "what-if" moment. "What if there were packs of dogs in the streets? What would I do?"

I began writing in 2010 but stopped mid-way in 2011 when, ironically, by pet dog of 11 years had to be put down, hot on the heels of the death of my adopted father, my mother's ex-husband who pretty much helped raise my as a child. I didn't pick up writing again until late 2011, and quite a bit of each experience ended up in the book.

I hope you'll try it because it means a lot to me. A lot of my soul went into the writing of it, and it'll probably be the last gory story I write as the real appeal to me is in gripping storytelling.

So enjoy "The Pack" and let me know what you think.

[Billy Freeman]

The paperback is now out in Europe, including Amazon.co.uk!