The Blurbs

Unless you're a writer or you happen to work in the publishing industry, the chances are that you've never heard of cover flats. You can probably guess what they are from the name, of course. Cover flats are exactly what they sound like – flat versions of the cover of an upcoming book. Less obvious is that the flip side includes all kinds of information a retailer might find useful, such as ISBN numbers, marketing info, book dimensions, series background and more. Publishers send these flats out to prospective stockists to entice them into ordering cartons (boxes) of the book in question.

Earlier this week, the folks at Black Library Publishing sent me a few cover flats for my upcoming novel Gunheads. As you can probably imagine, I was pretty excited to see them. It's one of those little kicks a writer gets in between finishing the last draft of the book and actually having the published product in his hands (and in the shops) all those months later.

A short while ago, I also received cover flats for Imperial Guard Omnibus: Volume One, which reprints my debut novel, Rebel Winter, and includes my new Vostroyan short story, The Citadel.

I think you'll agree that both books are looking pretty damned smart.

It's not all roses of course. In a fit of frankness, I must confess to feeling a bit irked whenever I read the back cover blurb on one of my books. Maybe it's some kind of weird territorialism, but I always feel that the author should write (or at least co-write) this important part of the cover. Who could possibly be more qualified for that job?

In fact, that brings up a good question. How important do you think the blurb on the back of a book is? Is it more or less important than the cover painting? Do you ever select or reject books on the basis of the blurb alone?

Post a comment and let me know.

Heroes of the Space Marines

If any of you have read the comments attached to my first blog post, 'The First Shot', you'll know that my editor, Nick Kyme, let the cat out of the bag as far as the topic of my next story goes. I've been asked to write a short story for the 2009 Warhammer 40,000 anthology Heroes of the Space Marines.


Anyone who frequents the Black Library website or forums will already know that a number of story slots were opened to aspiring new writers via a kind of competition. In fact, it was this very process that led to my joining the Black Library's stable about two years ago. I wrote a Dark Angels story that was published in Tales from the Dark Millennium (see my Fiction page for details). The rest, as they say, is history.

Now, there aren't all that many publishers who give new writers this kind of chance, so I heartily recommend anyone who genuinely thinks they've got what it takes to give BL's short story competitions a shot. Even if you don't get published, the experience of working to a deadline will strengthen your writing skills immeasurably.

Anyway, I'm digressing. Back to Heroes of the Space Marines. As Nick mentioned in his comment, I've been commissioned to write a short story about those most elite xenos-hunters, the Deathwatch.

I'm looking forward to this one a lot. The Deathwatch are pretty rich in background and possibilities and, in fact, received quite a bit of coverage via the novels of C. S. Goto. But C. S. and I are very different writers, and I fully intend to put my own spin on things. For me, the most exciting thing about the Deathwatch is not their particular expertise or the variety of alien races they are called on to fight against, but the fact that they are drawn from so many diverse chapters. Some of the Space Marines forced to work together might have very different methods and attitudes. It's natural to expect a lot of friction. :)

So, there you have it. That's what I'm working on now. And after that...

Well, I'll tell you about it another time.

The First Shot

Hi there!

I'm Steve Parker, and I'll start by saying "Welcome to my site and my blog." I suppose previous visitors to red-stevie.com might be wondering what took me so long. I mean, the site has been live for a little over a year. Why wait till now to include a blog?

In a word... Gunheads.

Yup, you heard me right. Gunheads. My second novel. Here's a little pic of the cover:


FOOM! Gotta love that cover painting. Alex Boyd (who also painted the cover for Rebel Winter) really captures the darkness and grittiness that Warhammer 40,000 is so famous for. Awesome work as always, Alex!

The book actually comes out in March, 2009, which might seem quite far away, but the folks at Black Library Publishing have to proof it and typeset it and perform all sorts of other bizarre techno-sorcery that would put the upper ranks of the Adeptus Mechanicus to shame. And if you don't know what the Adeptus Mechanicus is... er... go check wikipedia. :)

Anyway, since blogs have been described as a kind of legitimised rambling, I'll be talking about a variety of things here. Of course, I'll have lots to say about writing in the universe of Warhammer 40k, but I'll be going off on numerous tangents, too. Video games, movies, weight-training, martial arts, life here in Tokyo... I'll be visiting each of these topics and more in the weeks and months to come.

Of course, I hope you'll all post questions and comments, too. That's part of the fun of blogging, after all. In the meantime, I'll bring this post to an end. It's definitely time for a protein shake and a bowl of brown rice!