Steve Parker - the official blog

Season's Greetings

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:26:00 +0000

Well, here it is, the last post of 2008. It'll have to be a short one, because I'll be flying to the UK in a few hours to spend Christmas with friends and family (the first time I'll have done so in seven years).

In writing terms, my year was mostly dominated by Gunheads, which is the biggest thing I've written to date and, in many ways the hardest - larger in scope than Rebel Winter, not to mention page count. I also wrote The Citadel for the Imperial Guard Omnibus: Volume One (in shops now) and Headhunted, which will feature in next year's Heroes of the Space Marines. All in all, I'd say a 416page novel and two fairly lengthy short stories isn't bad going at all.

2009, however, will see me taking things to another level. I plan to complete two novels during the 12-month period, and hope to fit in a few more short stories, too. The Year of the Cow is going to be a very busy one indeed.

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday season, wherever you are, and I wish you all the best for the coming year.

Merry Christmas!

Fiction Page Updated

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 09:37:00 +0000

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.

Stray Dog Swordsman Reviewed

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 08:23:00 +0000

Some of the Warhammer 40,000 nuts among you may be familiar with the website of my good friend and editor, Nick Kyme. If not, you could do a lot worse than to check it out and, even better, get your paws on some of his fiction. His recent Assault on Black Reach went down a storm with Space Marine fans, and rightly so since its packed to bursting point with non-stop action. But don't miss out on his Necromunda novel, Back from the Dead, either. It's my own particular favourite.

Anyway, Nick recently read my short story Stray Dog Swordsman on Redemption Road, and took it upon himself to post a review on his blog. If you're interested in seeing what he had to say, just head on over and read the review. And if you haven't read the short story itself yet, just click here to get the free PDF version. (Don't forget to check out Starfish while you're at it, will you?)

I'll be flying to the UK in just over a week, where I'll be spending the holidays with friends and family. It'll be my first Christmas in the UK for about 7 years, so I'm very much looking forward to it. It's not exactly a holiday, though. The notebook PC will be coming with me, and I'll be working on my current novel, which I'm dying to tell you all about (but it's still just a little too early to spill the beans).

In early January, I'll be taking a trip to the Black Library offices in Nottingham. There I'll be meeting with Nick and Senior Editor Lindsey Priestley to discuss the Warhammer 40,000 books I'll be working on over the next year and generally making a proper nuisance of myself.

In mid-January, it's back to Tokyo, where the trains run on time but nobody understands a bloody word I say.

Reading: Dune: The Machine Crusade
by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
Watching: Babylon 5: Season 4 by J. Michael Straczynzki

Superhuman

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 05:35:00 +0000

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.

Fish-baby Reborn!

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:31:00 +0000

At last, it's done.

Starfish is here as a free downloadable PDF file, re-edited and improved for your reading pleasure. I hope you'll all enjoy it.

Like Stray Dog Swordsman on Redemption Road (see earlier post), it's a special story for me. It made quite an impact on Jason Sizemore, too. He's the editor of Apex Science-Fiction and Horror Digest, the magazine to which Starfish was originally sold. Jason was so taken with it that he decided Starfish should be the magazine's cover story, and commissoned a wonderfully disturbing piece of full colour art painted by the incredible Alex McVey (who also produced a dark and creepy interior piece for the story). Check out his website sometime.

The genesis of the story was fairly simple. It was written as a knee-jerk reaction to the very worst things that surrounded me when I first arrived in Tokyo. Take my word for it, Tokyo isn't kind to animal lovers and vegetarians. Not by a long shot.

Despite being a very bleak tale, Starfish was extremely well received, and, about a year after initial publication, I was very flattered to hear that it had been selected (by vote) for reprinting in the Best of Apex Digest 2006.

Since these hard-copy versions are either no longer available or extremely hard to acquire, I'm pleased to be able to offer the story to fans in this updated digital edition.

I'd also like to say a big 'thank you' to editor Gill Ainsworth, whose advice helped me refine the story for print that first time around. She was a joy to work with.

Starfish... soon.

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:46:00 +0000

Apologies for not posting recently, folks. I've been a bit snowed under. All very exciting stuff, and I'm looking forward to telling you about it later, but it's pushed the free PDF release of my SF-horror story, Starfish, back a little.

Bear with me, though, and I promise I'll make Starfish available as soon as I can.

In the meantime, I hope you're all looking forward to the Imperial Guard Omnibus: Volume 1. I know many of you have already read each of the three individual novels contained within, but I'm hoping it won't put you off buying this new edition. There's an introduction by Dan Abnett, and each of the novels is accompanied by an all-new short story by the original author.

My own offering, The Citadel, stands out among all my works as one of my own clear favourites, and I sincerely hope you'll all take the opportunity to read it. It ties in very closely to Rebel Winter and is set both before and after the events of the novel.

Check it out when it hits stores this December.

Pipes!

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:02:00 +0000

From UFOs to ghosts... I seem to be on a bit of a mystery gig at the moment. It's entirely Sir Arthur C. Clarke's fault. In the last few weeks, I've watched both his Mysterious World and Strange Powers series in their entirety. If you have the chance, you must see them. For me, they're priceless nostalgia, and the theme music still gives me icy chills. Sir Arthur passed away earlier this year, and is sorely missed, but his work endures. He was also, like Nigel Marven (see earlier post), a great supporter of The Gorilla Organisation.

Anyway, ghosts. No, I haven't seen one, though I can honestly say I believe I have heard one, but that's a story for another time. Halloween is almost upon us, and, for me, it's time to look back 16 long years to the freakiest damned Halloween I ever had. It was all thanks to a BBC programme called Ghostwatch.

Some of you may remember this show. It garnered so much controversy after it aired that the BBC banned it from being shown or released at all for 10 years. It's available on DVD now (about bloody time), and is well worth seeing. Though the thrill of actually believing it was a real documentary has long worn off, it still has its moments. Even just reading the wikipedia entry about it made my room seem unusually cold.

Documentary, you say? That's right. The BBC presented it as a live documentary, using some very familiar and trusted faces, which explains a lot of why it freaked the nation out and caused alleged post traumatic stress disorder in certain children. That's how damned scary it was.

The programme was very well researched and concerned the suffering of a family forced to endure the ghostly terrorism of a long-dead, mentally disturbed man. He got his name, Pipes, due to his habit of banging on the plumbing. He did a lot more than that in the programme, though. His fleeting appearances were some of the cleverest and most spine-tingling moments I've ever seen on TV.

The programme is showing its age now, and some of the actors/actresses turn in some pretty hokey performances, but the strong elements more than make up for it.

I'll definitely be watching this again on Halloween. What will you be watching?

Watch the Skies

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:57:00 +0000

Like many science-fiction writers and fans, I've been fascinated by the UFO phenomenon since early childhood. I've even been fortunate enough to see an object in the sky that defied my attempts to explain it (ask me to tell you about it sometime). So I was very pleased to hear that Britain's Ministry of Defence was releasing some long-classified documents this week. The results, though, were a bit of a mixed bag.

The best of the bunch is probably the Alitalia incident. In 1991, when I was in my final year of high school, I heard a report on BBC Radio 1 of a near miss between a passenger jet and a UFO at Heathrow airport. I can't tell you how excited I was that the BBC were reporting it. In my teenage naivety, I was sure the truth was about to burst out. There were reliable witnesses this time (two Alitalia airline pilots in the air and a radar operator on the ground).

How can anyone deny the existence of UFOs now? I thought. Wait till the pilots are interviewed on television. This'll be great!

I rushed home at lunchtime to catch the news again, but the story wasn't mentioned even once. Not on TV. Not on radio. I listened again at dinner time. Same results. Nothing.

That night, my brother phoned a BBC Radio 1 DJ who was known to have a strong interest in UFOs. We were sure he'd have something to say. He did, but it wasn't much. 'I heard about it,' he said. 'Thanks for calling. Bye.' Pretty brusque for a guy who liked the sound of his own voice so much.

Anyway, that was the end of it. The story was squashed and, in a single day, I'd gone from thinking it would break the whole subject of UFOs open to thinking we'd probably never hear of it again.

Now, seventeen years later, the report has been released and we know that the incident definitely happened. Mind you, it's far from the earthshaking event that a seventeen-year-old Steve thought it was. The UFO was brown and missile-shaped (and definitely not a missile in the conventional sense of the word). The pilot shouted a warning to his co-pilot. The object was recorded on radar. And the MoD thought it was worth denying for seventeen years.

Funny lot, the MoD.

The ministry also decided it was worth classifying a letter and drawing sent to the authorities in 1990 by a woman who claimed to come from a planet called Amazon, and who crashed to Earth in the company of other beings from the planet Spectra who had 'ears like Mr. Spock'.

I'm glad they classified that one. Definitely a national security threat.

But releasing the Amazonian's letter and sketch at the same time as the Heathrow near-miss report shows just how smart the MoD really are. It's actually a bit of a masterstroke. You see, the Amazonian stuff is likely to draw a smile or a chuckle from a lot of people. And that's perfect if you want to downplay the significance of the other incidents. It's a very effective way to rob the military and civil aviation reports of genuine impact. I expect this will become standard practice with future releases: throw in a few cooky pictures with the good stuff.

(To beings from Amazon and particularly Spectra, I offer my apologies. Don't take it personally. It's just a blog post, after all. If you're ever in Japan, look me up. We'll have tea and talk about 'Battle of the Planets'. Maybe you were misrepresented. Bring Zoltar with you if he's not busy.)

Statistically speaking, the vast majority of people, when faced with the Drake equation, will concede that alien life in this galaxy is a certainty. It just makes sense. The difficulties of interstellar travel are another matter, but I've always contended that, since string theory allows for 10 dimensions (and M theory allows for 11), only four of which can so far be perceived by humans, any visitors to Earth might actually be extra-dimensional, rather than extra-terrestrial. They may even be both.

In any case, governments are always particularly cagey about things they can't explain, and I can understand that. But no one seriously expects them to have all the answers all the time. Classifying reports like those mentioned above is unnecessary in the 21st century. The days of Orson Welles-induced panic are over. SETI and the Mars rovers rule.

Now, I reckon this blog post is long enough, so I'll end it here.

But remember... Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!

Swimming with Monsters

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:12:00 +0000

First off, apologies to you all for the recent lack of posts. Things have been a bit hectic recently. Concerning fiction, I've an imminent short story deadline and a novel synopsis due on the same day, both of which I'm very excited about (and I hope you will be, too, when you read 'em). Can't say too much about the next novel at the moment, but keep your peepers open for an update soon.

Despite all my various goings on, I did manage to watch an absolutely awesome documentary mini-series originally shown by the BBC. It's called Sea Monsters: A Walking with Dinosaurs Trilogy and it absolutely blew me away.

Many of you who live in the UK are probably thinking, 'Eh? Sea Monsters? That was made back in 2003! You're not very up-to-date with your viewing, Steve.'

You'd be right, there. Living in Japan has quite a number of down sides, and missing great stuff like Sea Monsters is one of them. But I was fortunate enough to catch it on one of the cable channels here, and was completely blown away. I'm nuts about nature documentaries anyway, and I've always had an almost compulsive fascination for dinosaurs, monsters and the like. We're talking, here, about a boy who used to hound his parents into taking him to Loch Ness summer after summer, just on the off chance of spotting Scotland's most famous resident. Sea Monsters made me wish I was six years old again. I can only imagine the impact the series would have had on the child I once was (some would contend that I still am that child, of course!).

The series is so professionally written and directed that Nigel Marven and his team manage to immediately suspend the viewers' disbelief (something it has in common with good fiction) and take us on a journey through our planet's seven deadliest seas, each belonging to a period in Earth's distant past. It's a hell of a ride!

If you haven't seen it yet, you owe it to yourself to check Sea Monsters out. You won't be disappointed. Oh, and I'd like to give a big shout out to Nigel Marven himself, who does wonderful work supporting conservation causes such as The Gorilla Organisation. You're an inspiration, Nigel. Keep it up!

A Wintry Tale

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:37:00 +0000

This is something of a special blog entry for me. I've just added something to www.red-stevie.com that I think you'll enjoy. Let me tell you about it.

I think it was in the summer of 2005 that I visited Kawasaki City Museum for a special exhibition called Nihon no Genjuu. The title roughly equates to Strange Creatures of Japan, and the museum promised to take visitors into the mysterious world of the country's legendary beasts like never before. How? With the weirdest and creepiest exhibits I have ever seen.

I'm damned glad I went along. What an inspiration! From temples and museums around Japan, the exhibition brought together such eerie treasures as the mummified remains of diminutive mer-people - half humanoid, half fish. There was the severed, three-clawed hand of an oni (ogre). There were the skeletal remains of a karasu-tengu - a dangerous being somewhere between man and crow. There was all this and much, much more.

But it was one particular piece that defined the whole experience for me. It was another mummified body. I must've looked at it for at least an hour, and it was my exposure to that particular exhibit which prompted me to write the first short story I ever sold - a dark fantasy piece called Stray Dog Swordsman on Redemption Road.

Set in rural Japan in the mid-1400s, the story was published in Talebones #31 in the winter of 2005. And now, with that particular issue of Talebones almost impossible to find, I have decided to offer the story for free as a downloadable PDF on this website.

I hope you'll enjoy Stray Dog Swordsman on Redemption Road. Simply click here to open the file, or right click on the picture below and select 'Save Link As...' to save it.

And if you're passing through the woods in winter, and you hear something you shouldn't, grip the handle of your sword, keep your head down and hurry your pace. There are some things it is better not to stop for!

Art Inspiring... Fiction

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:51:00 +0000

It should be no surprise to hear that I'm an massive fan of science-fiction and fantasy art. People who enjoy F/SF books tend to like the same themes in their art, of course. I've already stated on this blog how much I enjoy Alex Boyd's work, for example. And that isn't merely because he's painted awesome covers for two particular novels by yours truly.

Alex, if you're reading this, get an online gallery together, will you? I've searched for your work on Google, but haven't found a dedicated web-site so far. Shame on you!

Anyway, back to the blog post. It's a well known fact that a tremendous amount of incredible science-fiction art has been inspired by the genre's fiction. I can hardly count the number of wonderful pieces I've seen that were created for books in the Dune universe, for example.

It goes both ways, though. I'm sure a good number of writers are regularly inspired by works of fantastical art. I know I am, and I can't be alone in that. I regularly peruse copies of Spectrum and I have a number of other art books within easy reach of the desk in my little studio.

Spectrum, by the way, is an annually published collection of 'the best in science-fiction and fantasy art'. I can't recommend it highly enough to anyone interested in this kind of thing, and, if you're an aspiring professional artist, you could do a lot worse than to submit a few pieces. The book is put together by a body of judges that utilise a kind of submissions competition. Be warned, though; the standard is extremely high... and there's a fee.

If, on the other hand, you simply want to see some amazing art and you need a quicker, cheaper fix, I have a great link for you. Check out conceptships.blogspot.com

There's more than enough incredible art there to satisfy almost anyone, and, if you happen to be a speculative fiction writer, you're sure to get some inspiration from it. Enjoy!

Lost Hours

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:54:00 +0000

Well, as you can probably tell from the frequency (or infrequency) of my posts, I still haven't gotten into a proper groove with this whole blogging thing. Not surprising really, since I'm basically a self-confessed introvert, but I'd like to get into the habit of blogging more. It might help if I didn't play my damned Xbox 360 so much.

Anyone who knows me knows that games are, and always have been, one of my greatest weaknesses. It was through my love of games that I ended up working as a video game designer for a couple of years before making the move to Japan and switching over to writing fiction.

There's something really compelling about the mix of music, art and story that a great game provides. Combine it all with well balanced and addictive play mechanics and you've got a really powerful combination. Video games might just be the most potent form of story-telling on the planet today, though the recent proliferation of game-based novels clearly shows there is more than enough room for both. In fact, I'd go so far as to say they compliment each other (when the latter are done right).

Of course, the video game as storytelling medium only really shines when it all comes together well. Hits like Half Life 2, Call of Duty 4 and others show what can be done, but it's a sad fact that the storytelling aspect often gets left in the hands of game designers rather than professional writers. That's not to say this is always bad. Some of these guys have turned out work I'd happily admit to being jealous of. But how much better could they be with a pro writer onboard who truly understands the freedoms and limitations of writing for games? It's starting to happen more and more often nowadays, particularly since the games industry is overtaking Hollywood in terms of revenue.

In my tray at the moment is the fantastic Lost Odyssey by Japanese studio Mistwalker. I'm only sixteen hours into the story ('only' he says!) but, so far, I'm enjoying the hell out of it. The music and art are exceptional and the character design (particularly that of Kaim, the central hero) is top rate.

If the game has a problem, it's the consistency of the writing, which stops the game short of being truly mind-blowing in quite the same way that CoD4 or Portal were. On occasion, the writing is genuinely mature and even quite moving. At other times, it lets the overall atmosphere of the game down. Part of this is no doubt due to the translation process. Perhaps understanding a little Japanese is actually a hindrance in cases like this - I frequently notice moments in the story where the subtitles deviate unnecessarily from what's actually being said by the characters onscreen. The original Japanese script seems to be of a far better standard than the English version. The difference is regrettable.

It's still an intense and beautifully crafted role-playing game, though. If you're an Xbox360 player with an interest in fantasy and SF, and can handle turn-based combat in your games, I urge you to check it out.

By the way, if anyone asks, you didn't get that recommendation from me. If my editor hears I've been playing games, it'll be fifty lashes... and he won't hold his strokes!

UK Games Day 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:50:00 +0000

This weekend sees the Birmingham NEC host Games Workshop's biggest event of the year (in the UK, at least). It's called Games Day and it's a chance for fans of the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 worlds to get together, play games, meet authors, compete for the prestigious Golden Demon awards and much, much more.

Last year, with Rebel Winter having launched only a few months before the event, I had the pleasure of doing a book signing, meeting the Black Library team, and getting to know a good number of my fellow BL authors. It was a great experience and one that I hope will be repeated in the near future.

Unfortunately, due to my schedule, I won't be able to attend Games Day this year. But I can whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone with an interest in fantasy and science-fiction. It's a hell of an event.

Fans of Warhammer 40,000 fiction can look forward to some new releases available on the day, such as Titanicus by Dan Abnett and Cain's Last Stand by Sandy Mitchell (aka Alex Stewart). I'm looking forward to reading both these books myself.

To all those who'll be attending, have an awesome day, and maybe I'll see you there next year.

Daydreaming, HD-DVD and BSG 1

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:23:00 +0000

Not all that much has been happening in the world of Steve this week, I must confess. I'm currently submerged in the important 'thinking stage' that comes before starting work on any new story. It's at this stage that a writer spends most of his time in a combination of daydreaming and research - basically, it's the fun part!

When I was at primary/elementary school, my teachers complained to my parents a number of times about how much daydreaming I seemed to do in class. The fools! Couldn't they see I was already in training for a career as a pulp SF writer?

Life is more than just writing, of course. I've had some great training sessions this week (plenty of scrapes and bruises to show for it, thanks to Hide-san, my current sparring partner). I've also just finished watching the first season of Battlestar Galactica on HD-DVD (the recent re-make, not the original series).

I was an early adopter of Toshiba's HD-DVD and was sorry to see it lose the recent high-definition format war. Despite the format being officially dead now, I haven't actually regretted buying into it for a minute. I've got a great little collection of films on HD-DVD that I genuinely love (like King Kong, Batman Begins, The Thing, The Matrix, etc.).

Battlestar Galactica was a joy to watch in high-def and, if you haven't seen the series but love quality science fiction TV, I strongly recommend that you see it. Give it a few episodes to grow on you, though. The characters don't really become sympathetic or engaging until the latter half of the first series, but stick with them. It's worth it.

If you have any recommendations for great sci-fi series that just have to be watched, why not post a comment and let us all know?

The Blurbs

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:05:00 +0000

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?

Heroes of the Space Marines

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:31:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Parker) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:48:00 +0000

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!