We chat with author Curtis Jobling about Vampire Empire: Red Tide, which is set in 900 AD Shetland and follows a fearless Norse girl and a blacksmith’s son who must fight for survival when a supernatural Viking warband descends on their island, bringing terror, blood, and an unquenchable hunger.
Hi, Curtis! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Oof – I’m an author, artist, animation creator, and agent of chaos. You’ll know some of my animated shows like “Bob the Builder” and “Raa Raa the Noisy Lion”, but I also write horror and fantasy for older audiences. My “WEREWORLD” series of novels have been published the world over and were adapted into a major new animated series on Netflix, “WOLF KING”. My most recent novel, “WYRDWOOD”, came out at Halloween 2025, a folk horror set on the Isle of Man. Think Grimm Brothers meets Stranger Things and you’re getting there…
Your latest novel, Vampire Empire: Red Tide, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Vampires, Vikings, and Vengeful Gods!
What can readers expect?
This is a historical fantasy horror (I think that’s three genres ticked off) set in Shetland around 900AD. The principal cast consists of teenage shieldmaiden, Hilde, her best friend and apprentice blacksmith, Cormac, and the belligerent butcher’s boy, Aidan. It kicks off when a bloodthirsty crew of undead Vikings – the draugr – descend upon the tiny island of Unst, sacking the village and butchering the peaceful community of Picts and Norsemen. With Cormac and others are seized by the raiders, their fate bleak, its left to Hilde and her erstwhile enemy Aidan to go after their friend and their family members. With the help of the elderly shipwright, Blair, they embark upon an epic quest for vengeance, coming up against all manner of monster and horror, both Norse and Lovecraftian in nature…
Where did the inspiration for Vampire Empire: Red Tide come from?
Whilst I’ve always loved fantasy and horror, I’ve held a fascination with mythology since being a child, probably beginning with an unhealthy obsession with Odysseus in primary school. You can blame Harryhausen for my love of the Greek myths, but that interest in ancient deities only grew as I discovered the rich and bloody realm of Norse mythology as a teen. I’ve been a big roleplaying gamer down the years, running many campaigns with lifelong friends, not least Call of Cthulhu. Invariably, the games I ran were stories of my own making, dipping into Lovecraft’s extensive mythos and magpieing horrors here and there – “home brews” is how a tabletop gamer would describe them.
I began to play with the idea of a historical tale that had one foot in the camp of Pictish history and the other in Norse mythology, and wondered what might happen if I threw another pantheon of gods into the mix. And that’s where my God of Vampires, Hastur, enters the fray, an ancient otherworldly deity that precedes all the other earthly entities, an utterly terrifying Old One.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
The entire cast of characters are flawed in one way or another, either physically, emotionally or morally. Our heroes, if we’re to describe them that way, have their grey areas to contend with. Whether that’s psychotic tempers, dark and terrible secrets, or an insatiable hunger for blood, flesh and bone, our leads all have their demons to battle with. One of my favourite characters (and I don’t want to reveal too much about him) is the Viking Frostmark, one of the draugr, the undead warriors who make up The Harrowed Men. He’s a hell of a lot of fun to write, principally because he’s utterly reprehensible the first time we meet him and, in spite of that, the reader hopefully warms to him as the story proceeds. It’s nice to subvert the reader’s expectations about characters and do the ol’ switcheroo – villains can come good, and good guys can be rotten.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
Keeping track of the various mythologies and how they interact with one another – Christian, Norse, Eastern European, the Elder Gods of Lovecraft’s writing – that’s quite the smorgasbord of sky fairies to wrangle. I always plot things out pretty meticulously before I start writing, peppering the story with wee MacGuffins that will reveal their importance as the tale unfolds.
What’s next for you?
I’m presently writing a sequel to my folk horror, WYRDWOOD. It’s called “GREENTEETH” and is an absolute blast to write.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
I’m looking forward to reading THE FIRST ONE HUNDRED HOURS – an oral history of an alien invasion. This is from the brilliant Max Brooks, author of WORLD WAR Z, which was an incredible and imaginative take on a zombie apocalypse, pieced together by firsthand accounts of survivors. The less said about the awful Bradley Pitt movie the better.
You can find Curtis on Twitter and Instagram.
