Aftermath

According to numerous accounts, Black Library Live! was a huge success this year. Naturally, I'm a bit miffed that I couldn't be there in person, but there you go. Living on the other side of this rock has its disadvantages sometimes.

Those who attended the show and watched my half-hour video session will already know this, but it's high time I let the rest of you in on what I'm working on now. You ready for this? Hell, most of you probably guessed already...

My next novel will be about the Deathwatch!

That's right. Talon Squad are migrating from the pages of short story collections to their own full length novel (the first of many, if all goes well), and it's going to be a belter. Trust me. For my part, this is the most exciting Black Library project I've handled so far. Deathwatch, man! Special forces! The best of the best!

If I drank tea, this would by my cup.

In other news, I just received a link to another online review of Rynn's World. I have to say, if the book keeps getting reactions like this, it'll go to my head. HERE's the link to the review. If you haven't picked up Rynn's World yet, I hope you'll consider doing so.

And lastly, a special thanks to all of you who contacted me with your kind comments. I read every message, and they mean a great deal to me. Thank you very much.

Updated the Fiction Page

Just a quick note to say that I've updated the Fiction page on this site. It now includes a little teaser detail for my new Deathwatch Talon Squad story, Exhumed. Check out the details at the top of the Fiction page, and look out for the full story in Fear the Alien when the anthology is released in September 2010 (yeah, I know - it's bloody ages away, but Rynn's World will help bridge the gap!).

Listening to: 30 Seconds to Mars - This is War
Reading: Ghost in the Shell 1.5 by Masamune Shirow
Playing: Demons' Souls (PS3)
Watching: Inside the Actor's Studio (with Harrison Ford)
This week's link: http://www.drivenbydemand.org/ (warning: this is extremely upsetting stuff - please help stop the Japanese bastards who are doing this!)

Gunheads Out Now!

The Gunheads have rolled out ahead of schedule it seems. Though the book is officially listed for an early March release, I've been getting messages from a number of readers in the USA who have already finished the book. I'm delighted to report that the reaction so far has been overwhelmingly positive. My thanks go out to all the guys (no gals so far, sadly) who contacted me to say they enjoyed it and to ask about future adventures featuring Sergeant Oskar Andreas Wulfe.

Will he and his trusty tank return to action in the future? Hmm... they just might at that.

In an unusual reversal, it seems that American readers who pre-ordered the book started receiving their copies before the Brits did. Wherever you are, though, I hope your pre-order copy has already arrived. Don't forget to post reviews on your favourite sites once you've read it, will you? If there's a writer in this world who doesn't love to hear from his readers, I haven't heard of him.

In other news, I received my advance copy of the very spiffy Heroes of the Space Marine anthology today. It features my first outing with the ruthless xenos-hunters of the Deathwatch. The story is called Headhunted (as regular blog readers will already know), and it's so jam-packed with action I could barely get the lid on it. In fact, the story ended up at double its originally planned size. The anthology also features great stories by Nick Kyme, Graham McNeill, Gav Thorpe and a whole bunch of other scribes, many of them new to Warhammer 40,000. Look for the anthology in stores around May (though pre-orders will probably be sent out in late April).

Hmm... anything else on the go right now? Work continues on R- oops! I mean work continues on my Space Marine Battles book. The 'dramatis personae' at the front of the book is going to be so damned big it might just need to go in as an appendix instead. That would probably be better. Hands up if you like appendices at the back of your fantasy/SF books! (Raises hands)

Reading: Anything that puts me in the proper WH40k mindset.
Watching: Not much.
Playing: Are you serious? Nothing!
Listening to: (see reading)

2009 Begins...

...with bolterfire! Yes, you heard me right. This year, you see, is all about the Immortal Emperor's indomitable Space Marines! (Well, it is for me, at least!)

Having just returned to Tokyo after a three week visit to the UK, I'm pleased to report that I'm locked and loaded, and ready to get my next novel underway. It's all about the members of a certain Space Marine Chapter that has had more than its fair share of bad luck, and then some. I'll leave it to you lot to speculate on which Chapter that might be. I wouldn't want to break my non-disclosure agreements, now, would I? (Blasted NDAs!)

What a trip! It was, of course, fantastic to see family and friends, and to spend quality time with them. I also got a fair amount of physical training in, though less 'martial arts' practice than I'd have liked.

And, to top it all off, the tail end of the trip called for a visit to the Black Library studios in Nottingham and the best business meetings ever! A monster hello to George Mann and the team, and a very, very special thank you to Nick, his lovely lady Louise, and the apple of their collective eyes -- a large, fluffly critter by the name of Shakespeare.

I must give a shout, also, to the irrepressible Marc Gascoigne, formerly of Black Library and now the man in charge of the new Harper Collins imprint, Angry Robot. Marc and I had a great meeting which left me truly inspired, and I hope to have news about an Angry Robot project soon. In the meantime, check out the imprint's website, as they have loads of exciting and highly original projects in the works.

In other news, Heroes of the Space Marines has been moved forward in the Black Library publishing schedule, meaning that it will now be released in May instead of July as originally planned. This means that you can all read my Deathwatch story, Headhunted, a whole two months earlier. I hope you'll check it out when the anthology is released. The book promises to be, not action-packed, but action-stuffed-to-the-frakking-gills!

And don't forget that Gunheads, my new Imperial Guard novel (with the emphasis squarely on tank-based mayhem) will be released in just a few weeks. It's officially scheduled for a March release, but there always seems to be somewhere (usually your local Games Workshop store) that has copies for sale well ahead of everywhere else.

So, 2009 is looking like the best year yet in terms of my writing career, and 2010... well, all things in good time.

Fiction Page Updated

I figured I'd post a quick 'heads-up' regarding the latest update to the fiction page. There is now a listing for the next Warhammer 40,000 anthology, Heroes of the Space Marines, which will feature my Deathwatch short story, Headhunted.

I hope you'll all check it out when it's released in July.

Superhuman

It's been quite a week, a real mix of ups and downs. Fortunately, most were ups.

First, though, a downer: my beloved Xbox360 (easily the most dangerous threat to a writing career ever conceived) got the dreaded Red Rings of Death and is currently off getting repaired. I had already started to cut down on the gaming when this happened, but the real kicker is that the Xbox360 was the only machine in my apartment that allowed me to watch my fairly significant UK DVD collection. I was halfway through season two of Babylon 5 when the blasted thing packed up! Argh!

Yes, the Red Rings of Death are as bad as they sound, but actually they couldn't have struck at a better moment. I had fallen a little behind on the rewrite of my new Deathwatch short story (to be published in next summer's Heroes of the Space Marines anthology), and having my primary distraction suddenly die turned out to be a good thing after all. The short story is now finished and in the scaly claws of editor Nick Kyme. I hope you'll all enjoy it when the anthology comes out next year.


My 'author's copies' of the Imperial Guard Omnibus: Volume One arrived here in Tokyo this week. Damn, that's a big book. Plenty of reading in there. I'm proud to share the page-count with Mitchel Scanlon and Steve Lyons, both of whose stories I very much enjoyed. The omnibus should be in bookstores any day now, so look out for that one. Even if you've already read Rebel Winter, I'd urge to you borrow the omnibus from a library or a friend so you can read my related short story, The Citadel. That one came together rather well, I thought.

I also received a printer's sample copy of Gunheads, which isn't actually out until March next year. Wow! It really came out looking fantastic. Hats off to the folks at BL and their printers, they sure can put a book together. Gunheads is almost twice as big as Rebel Winter, and was easily the hardest thing I've ever written, but it was worth every minute of effort. I hope you'll enjoy it once it hits the stores.

Other news? Well, let's see. I'm now focusing on my next novel for Black Library, but can't say too much about it at this stage. It will be a Space Marines story focusing on the disastrous events that befell a certain Chapter sometime during the last five decades of the 41st millennium. It's definitely time these guys had a book of their own. No more clues.

People inspiring my utter awe and admiration right now:

• Brenden Foster, a little boy who recently passed away due to leukemia, but who somehow managed to do more good in his last weeks than 99% of humanity achieves in its lifetime.
• The crew of the Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin, who are about to cast off for the South Atlantic Sanctuary to try to stop the illegal Japanese whaling fleet from perpetrating their annual crimes. Fight hard, you lot. Good luck.
  

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.