Barnaby Taylor Author, Horror, Science Fiction, Television, Writing

VIRO – Proposal for TV Series – Introduction

Introduction

And so the task begins, as I start to turn the highly successful VIRO book series into a proposal for a TV series. Over the coming weeks, I will be sharing insights and updates as to how this process is going.  So let’s begin at the beginning.

VIRO – The TV Series Proposal

GENRE: Horror/Science Fiction – Post-Apocalypse

TAG LINE: Four Kids, One Apocalypse

LOG LINE: As a viral pandemic turns the world into bloodthirsty creatures, a boy with special needs looks for his missing mum.

VIRO tells the story of Jake, a boy born with special needs who wakes one morning to find that the world has been catastrophically overrun by a deadly virus and his mum has not come home after work. Determined but unused to being out on his own, Jake sets off to find her.

The book series is set in the south east of England and Season One takes place in Burton-on-Sea, a fictional seaside town modelled on Hastings. The time is somewhere in the 1970s. 

There is no knowing exactly where the virus came from and the point of the series is that no-one will ever know. There is a lot of speculation but no definitive explanation. This makes VIRO darker and bleaker as we soon come to realise that the world will not be saved. 

The story is not a race to find a cure but about finding a way to simply survive. Science, like God, and society, is broken now. It makes no difference, especially to a group of teenage friends who don’t really have time to try and make sense of what has happened.  They just want to stay alive.

Barnaby Taylor Author, Fiction, VIRO, Writing

VIRO – the Book Series – NEWS FLASH

As a viral outbreak turns the world into bloodthirsty creatures, a boy with special needs looks for his missing mum.

‘The writing style is beautifully compelling, and after the first couple of pages I couldn’t put it down. The author very skilfully creates a world and characters through deceptively simple prose that draws the reader right in. It is a fascinating blend of one-after-the-other edge-of-the seat scares, alongside a haunting narrative about what it is to be human.’

‘Capturing the voice of a young character with special needs (I spent 25 years as a special education teacher/administrator), Taylor’s story of a group of young people coping with a world disintegrating in front of them; with the loss of structure and trust, and with betrayal by the adults who should be protecting them is both uplifting and horrifying. Do not be fooled by the simple language of the narrator: there are hard questions asked and realistic, unsentimental consequences to the apocalypse confronting the children, and an ending that you are unlikely to forget easily.’

‘I absolutely loved this book. Powerful and poignant, VIRO packs a punch. Sad and haunting, VIRO is a new take on the zombie genre. The characters are dynamic and interesting, finding strength despite their horrifying circumstances. Jake is a character that will stick with you long after the final page. The action sequences are thrilling. I was on the edge of my seat!’

Get your copy today – Book One FREE for download HERE

Barnaby Taylor Author, Fiction, Writing

Inteachán – Book Three: Operation Turnback 3: 16 ‘groping for a better word’

Of course, lowering a rope is the easy part.

Lowering yourself is another thing altogether.

Breathing slowly, Inteachán checked her gloves and began her descent.

If the sight of child feeding a rope to a hole was bizarre enough then the sight of this same hole slowly swallowing the same child whole would undoubtedly leave any onlooker groping for a better word.

Not that the world will be saved by the finding of a better word.

We are way beyond that now.

Barnaby Taylor Author, Fiction, Writing

Inteachán – Book Two: A New Signal 2: 7 ‘People missing people’

And then the posters started.

Like petals fallen from the most hopeless of blooms. Handwritten. Photocopied. Badly printed.

Missing people. People missing people.

Everyone who attended the concert never returned home. Including Inteachán.

Though he knew it was helpless, Mac pinned his poster with the rest of them.

Barnaby Taylor Author, Fiction, Horror, Inteachán, Writing

Inteachán – Book Two: A New Signal 2: 6 ‘The Weeds of Priory Hall’

Cities normally return to nature after desertion.

Sand can cover office blocks.

Shopping centres fall in on themselves.

Civic buildings lose all semblance of significance.

Sewers clog and silt.

Vehicles return their elements to the earth.

Or house new tenants.

Fountains fall silent.

Slowly, troublingly, desperately, inexorably, the weeds of Priory Hall exerted their cosmic influence on the city.

Barnaby Taylor Author, Fiction, Horror, Inteachán, Writing

Inteachán – Book Two: A New Signal 2: 5 ‘It started with the weeds’

As he walked across Front Square Mac felt now that the world was only different.

He knew the First of the TheFive was here. The disturbance was now unignorable. The weight of this fact caused the world to spin ever so slightly out of kilter.

‘I knew this was always going to happen,’ Mac said to himself. And he steeled himself for the worst.

It started with the weeds.

Barnaby Taylor Author, Fiction, Horror, Inteachán, Writing

Inteachán – Book Two: A New Signal 2: 4 ‘A Brand-New Loneliness’

Loss hits hard and holds firm and deep and long.

After a lifetime of solitude Mac now found himself unable to deal with a brand-new loneliness.

There simply is no substitute for presence.

‘I’m a selfish cowardly fool,’ he told himself.

‘That a man should send a child to stop the darkness.’

Barnaby Taylor Author, Fiction, Inteachán, Writing

Inteachán – Book One: The Song of the NotBeSpeak 1: 40 ‘#The5’

Inteachán was half-way-up the ladder when the Biggest Band in the World took to the stage. The roar of the crowd was deafening now.

The darkness in the stadium was punctured by the countless tiny lights of thousands and thousands of phones and cameras taking photographs. The sky sparkled and danced, shimmering with a digital haze.

‘Welcome everyone,’ said the Rock Star into his microphone. He wore a t-shirt that said ‘#The5’.

ROAR.

‘We have a real treat for you all tonight.’

ROAR.

‘Something so amazing that it is going to change the world.

ROAR.

‘Forever!’

Barnaby Taylor Author, Bara Cailín, Fiction, Writing

Inteachán – Book One: The Song of the NotBeSpeak 1: 35 ‘The Dumb Waiter’

On the wall to her right was a dumb waiter used to supply artists with their pre-show meals.

Inteachán slipped her wrists free of the cable tie, leapt to her feet, grabbed the box, reached the dumb waiter, pressed the button and climbed inside before the Rock Star realised what was happening.

Frantically she pulled the door shut and felt herself descending in the darkness. As she did so Inteachán could hear the Rock Star raging up above her.

‘I’ll get you, you hateful little brat,’ screamed the deluded Rock Star. ‘And when I do you’ll know you’ve been got.’

Inteachán waited until the dumb waiter stopped descending. She pulled up the door and stepped out.

Barnaby Taylor Author, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Horror, Writing

The Eleventh Film – Horror/Science Fiction Flash Fiction Series

glitch 1

The Eleventh Film IX

The scars that the Earth now bore could best be seen in the varied spores of decay. The shift from life to death is laid before us like a portrait of the end of the world.

Each mould sits heavy like so much paint on the canvas. Or hangs like a poisoned star in the sullen night.