Woodland (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781540705808)

Sam Bateson was born in 1997 in the small town of Kendal, England. He attended Heron Hill Primary School, followed by a career in Kirkbie Kendal School. He is currently studying Film and Photography at the Arts and Media campus of Kendal College. Cousin of Wild Beast's drummer, Chris Talbot, Sam has always had a creative flair, from publishing books, to making short films. He is also the bassist for the band Spectre, formerly Liquid State, and regularly collaborates with fellow bandmate, Jacob Martin, for other projects outside of the band. Sam's love of writing first came to prominence with a failed project entitled Arcadia, a tale about a scientist who claims that he has found the origin of all life on Earth in the form of a plant on a previously undiscovered island. However, this project never came to fruition, after a technical fault erased his computer, and the book was lost. After a short hiatus, he wrote and published his first success, Midnight, for which he produced the free album Midnight (Original Novel Soundtrack), which blended experimental soundtracks and his novel for a marketing success, as attention was drawn to his efforts. The novel received positive reviews, whilst the soundtrack was less warmly received. He quickly followed this up with the publication of his second book, After Dark, which followed on directly from Midnight, and is the second instalment in his flagship series, The Into Darkness Trilogy. Originally, there was only one soundtrack to be released. The then-titled 'Moonlight (Original Novel Soundtrack)' would have been a single release, containing a similar number of tracks to Midnight. But as Sam developed the story of the book, he began to realise that there was room to expand. The soundtrack bloomed into what would become two releases; the standard version, and the deluxe version. The deluxe version would include a number of bonus tracks, which were made especially for the album. Following this, he released a short trio of stories to expand on After Dark, and to give clues as to the direction he would take the finale of the trilogy. After spending a brief time away from writing, Sam began work on a third novel, which would become Woodland. Originally slated for a late 2016 release, the book will instead see the light of day in January 2017. Te book was to be joined by a third soundtrack which was eventually scrapped.