Gav Thorpe's Blog, page 10

Legends Of The Age Of Sigmar Omnibus

In case you missed it, the Legends of the Age of Sigmar omnibus has been released in paperback and eBook. The book contains my short story Wrathspring (originally printed in the Sylvaneth anthology).

In Wrathspring the queen of the Sylvaneth, Alarielle, returns as an avenging goddess, leading the spirits of the Wyldwood on a crusade to cleanse the Realm of Life from the corrupting taint of Chaos. As she restores the despoiled glades of the Vale of Winterbight, home to the Clan Faech branch of the sinister Darkwood noble house, she must not only drive back the followers of the Lord of Decay but overcome dark terrors and the distrust of the Darkwood that spring from her failure to protect her people in a bygone age.

Paperback: 978-1784964474

eBook: 978-1785725333

Legends of the Age of Sigmar includes:

Fyreslayers:

The Keys to Ruin and Shattered Crucible by David Annandale

Four Thousand Days by David Guymer

The Volturung Road by Guy Haley

Skaven Pestilens by Josh Reynolds

Sylvaneth:

The Resolute and The Outcast by Josh Reynolds

Heartwood by Robbie MacNiven

The Splintered by Rob Sanders

Wrathspring by Gav Thorpe

Buy It Now!

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Starburst Brave New Words Podcast – November 2016

Here you can listen to a podcast that was recorded live in front of an audience at Sledge-Lit 2 in Derby, in November 2016.

As well as myself, the panel included guests Stephen Volk, and Paul Kane along with Ed Fortune and the usual podcast team. Sledge Lit is a one-day event for genre book fans, publishers and writers (and an excuse for an early Christmas party).

Listen To The Podcast

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

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BIG STOMPY ROBOT PROJECT

Some of you may recognise these buildings.

So, in case you haven’t seen on my Twitter feed, Facebook page or in my monthly Newsletter, I have embarked on an ambitious hobby / games design project. Last year I was approached by Donna, the organiser of the new ROBIN wargames event taking place on 12th Feb 2017 at the Nottingham Tennis Centre. Donna has asked me to conduct a short seminar at the event, which should be fun. Feeling my hobby mojo needed a bit of external pressure to get into gear, I also offered to run a participation game during the event.

Short version: I have six more weeks to create a 10mm* scale mech-fighting game, including designing the rules system, creating the board, and assembling the mechs themselves. This I have dubbed Big Stompy Robot.

*Originally I was going to go for 6mm, but looking at my existing terrain I have plumped for 10mm instead for cost and speed. Also, mechs of this size actually fit better with the setting I am creating. It hasn’t changed the models I am using!

For the moment my only goal is to run a fun game at ROBIN, to maintain my sanity. However, should it go well I’ll continue developing the game, maybe taking it to some more events including Daffcon, and we’ll see where we go from there…

The Game

I’ve been kicking around various games ideas for years, obviously, but I ended up going with some completely new for Big Stompy Robot (although drawing from other ideas I’ve had over the last couple of years).

My first mock-up to get the ideas flowing.

The main inspiration comes from the Titan Legions rules for Imperator Titans, as well as earlier versions of the ‘Epic’ games systems. The idea is that each player controls one mech (known as an ATLAS in the universe I am also creating on an ad-hoc basis). The player distributes power through the control system of the ATLAS via dice on a series of cards that represent the mech’s systems. These dice determine the initiative of the mech, and when it gets to take an action the dice are then used to resolve that action. Different coloured dice have differing scores on them, so for example a yellow dice might be marked with 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, while the green dice can score 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3 and so represents a faster mech, or a better attack, etc. Damage is represented by critical damage dice getting introduced into the system, reducing the effectiveness of the ATLAS’s systems as they accrue.

That’s the bare bones, and other than some very early fiddling and ideas I haven’t actually played it yet. The system works, mechanically, so I need to start allocating actual numbers to the concepts – move distances, ranges, armour values and such.

The ATLASes

All-Terrain Land Assault Systems are the cream of the crop among the mercenaries that make up the military of the setting (the Mamertines, Sons of Mars, so-called because they were fundamental to the war during Mars’ battle for independence, which is the backdrop for this game).

The whole point of creating this game is so I can collect and paint a variety of big robots of approximately the right size, which in-universe is represented by the wealth of different outfits and manufacturers that run and build ATLASes.

To start I have acquired two Epiran Hunters from the Maelstrom’s Edge range, and two Wardriods from Pig Iron Miniatures. For Christmas, Kez was kind enough to gift me a Cutter Tag for the Infinity game (after some consultation), another welcome addition to the set. If I have time, when these are painted I’ll be looking at some of the models in the Heavy Gear Blitz range from Dreampod 9. I’d like to add a thank you here to everyone who replied to my Facebook post asking for mech recommendations – it was very helpful.

Each ATLAS represents an individual pilot and although a Mamertines company might have more than one ATLAS this is rare – they are so expensive to run that most operate as lone units. This means I can paint them however I like.

ATLAS pilots have become celebrities during the course of the Mamertines war (what with the constant news coverage) to the point that many have sponsorship deals, much like sports stars of today. Given the technology of the setting, physical camouflage is not necessary, so I’m free to paint each ATLAS as flashy as I like, and I will be adding decals and details to scale them with each other.

The Sands of Mars

The battle takes place on the semi-colonised plains of the Red Planet. To capture this I have envisaged a board that combines the archetypical rusty, ruddy wasteland with a greener compound showing the spreading colonies.

Suitable materials gathered for inspiration.

I threw together everything I have to hand and managed to get a reasonable amount of stuff. In particular, the vehicles and infantry that I received as part of my Road/Kill Kickstarter pledge add a nice element to go alongside buildings, rock columns and so on. The shacks are from Ground Zero Games, and though officially 15mm scale, they don’t seem out of place here.

I’m also looking to add some more civilian-type models, vehicles and details, because I think that sort of thing really makes a battlefield feel part of a world, an area that was lived in right up until the combatants arrived.

The start of a workable terrain layout.

The rocky / scrubby bits I was going to repurpose have warped so I’ll need to make new ones some from scratch, and some taller rock columns and mesas to provide cover for the ATLASes to fight around.

If I have the time I’m going to add a shuttle pad and freighters, as another nod toward the ‘lived in’ feel of the board. And after that? Well we’ll have to see what takes my fancy and how the rules develop.

I’ve delved into my terrain bits box – can you guess what the base for the hydroponics field used to be?

Going forward I hope to share progress on each of these three strands of the project (the rules, models, and terrain). Doubtless there will be occasional updates on the social media sites I mentioned at the start, and some more blogs, but you can also sign up for a special irregular Big Stompy Robot newsletter.

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Come On Then 2017 – I’m Ready For You!

Having looked back over 2016, I’m turning my mind to what 2017 will bring.

Writing

My newsletter subscribers get a monthly update of what I’m working on, so here’s a snapshot from my most recent email:

I’ve already got a couple of new projects to add to the January newsletter, including something that ties into the ‘Gathering Storm’ narrative that has just started to unfold within the 40K universe with the release of Fall of Cadia.

One of the titles listed above is Sharkpunk 2, edited by Jonathan Green. As well as my story Peregrinus Cibus Cedimus, it will also contain stories from fellow Black Library authors Guy Haley, David Guymer and Josh Reynolds. It will be coming to Kickstarter before the end of January, so expect my social media channels to be peppered with pictures like the one below.

The next title to be released is my audio drama Asurmen: The Darker Road, which is released in February (you can pre-order here).

And I know I said this in my last blog post (and at the start of 2016), but I *WILL* finish my original fiction novel that I started in 2013! I still have the freelancer fear of not being able to pay the bills, so it’s difficult to allocate time to a project that may never be picked up by a publisher. I’m still really excited by the new world and inhabitants I’m creating – I just need to listen to my own advice and actually start writing.

Gaming – The Worky Bit

Having committed to run a demo game at the new Red On Blue In Nottingham (ROBIN) wargames show in February, I’ve had the backside-orientated punt I need to progress a game I’ve been tinkering around with for a couple of years. Until I can come up with a proper name for it, we’re referring to it as the Big Stompy Robot game.

I’ve got vague plans to keep a developer diary, probably as blogs on the website and maybe some videos, and if there’s enough interest I’ll also send out the odd newsletter specifically about the game. If you would like to receive (very sporadic) updates on the progress of my new game, send an email to gav@gavthorpe.co.uk, and I’ll add your e-mail address to the mailing list (note: this is a separate mailing list from my monthly newsletter).

I still have plans to work with Carl of Second Thunder, to produce an Undead supplement for Open Combat. Carl is a regular member of my gaming group, so hopefully we’ll find the time to progress this soon.

And finally, a AAA-rated video game that I worked on will be released this year. I still can’t say much about it yet, but hopefully will be able to write about it soon.

Gaming – The Hobby Bit

My gaming group has met semi-regularly throughout 2016, and hopefully we’ll get into more of a rhythm this year. We’re starting a Blood Bowl league, and will also find the time to play the many Kickstarter games that I’ve backed. On my list are a return to Cthulhu Wars and Scythe, some more Tiny Epic goodness, and maybe delving into a bit of RPG stuff with Paranoia, Blades in the Dark and Unbound ( with a bit of Goblin Quest thrown in).

I’m also hoping I’ll be able to rope my group into playtesting my new mecha game for me.

Sammy was given a paint-your-own PAW Patrol model for Christmas (Chase, if you’re interested) – it will be his first foray into painting a ‘miniature’ (albeit a 150mm x 100mm one), so I’m looking forward to doing that with him. He’ll be painting Space Marines in no time. And then I can sit back and wait for him to get to work on my remaining Anaryal miniatures, the rest of the Oathsworn Burrows and Badgers, the Nakamura Tower loveliness and…

Yeah.

More painting and less Kickstarters added to the queue is going to be a big feature of the next year. Truth is, I am getting a little burned out by the amount of stuff I backed previously to the point that I actually pulled out of a project just before Christmas because of a moment when I realised I just wouldn’t have the time to play it even in 2018 with all of other stuff I’m still expecting. I’ve got Roots of Magic and Moonstone miniatures in-bound, as well as Mythos from Paranoid Miniatures.

Basically, 2017 is the year I’ll be enjoying what I have already rather than acquiring more stuff. There will be purchases, have no fear, but with time an always-scarce resource I’m really focused on playing the games I already have and painting the miniatures I want to paint.

And The Rest…

We’re hoping to have an extension built this year, which will give me an office space that I don’t have to share with the spare bed and laundry pile. I’ve got three posters of Neil Roberts’ artwork for my Path of the Eldar trilogy ready to go on the walls, as well as the great Paul Dainton cover for the 6th Edition of Warhammer Armies – Dwarfs. Just have to get through three months of building work disruption first…

The year is already filling up, including a couple of holidays and a trip to Legoland, but I’m hoping it won’t be quite as busy as 2016, so I can find the time to make a bit of progress on some of my original fiction projects. If you’d like to keep up-to-date with what I’m working on, and haven’t done so already, you can sign up to my newsletter here.

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

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That Was The Year That Was

‘A Brief History of the Deathwatch’ was one of my most popular blog posts in 2016

As has become tradition, I’m starting the year with a look-back over the last 12 months (and a slightly expanded Christmas cake-related waistline).

I’ll write another blog shortly, looking forward to what 2017 will bring.

My Blog

My five most popular blog posts in 2016 were:

1) My Author’s Notes for Warbeast: Age of Sigmar was – and still is for some – a source of great unrest, so it was no surprise that this blog which talked about my own journey with Age of Sigmar, became a place for people to vent their feelings about the new setting.

2) My Three Top Tips For Black Library Submissions: It is clear from my in-box, and from speaking to people at Black Library events, that there are many aspiring writers amongst the readership. I wrote this blog post to help those applying to Black Library’s open submissions window, and have received several notes of thanks from people who have made it through to various stages of the process.

3) A Brief History of the Deathwatch: With the release of two boxed games, an army, and various accompanying short stories and novels, I thought it was time to give some history to how the Deathwatch came about.

4) Angels of Caliban – The Story So Far: In preparation for the release of my Horus Heresy novel Angels of Caliban, this blog post summarised the most pertinent points from Descent of Angels, Fallen Angels, Savage Weapons, The Lion, Prince of Crows, Cypher: Guardian of Order, Master of the First, Unremembered Empire, By the Lion’s Command and (take a breath) Pharos.

5) More Dark Angels Secrets Revealed: Despite first being published in September 2015, this blog post still makes it into the top five for 2016. Answering questions about the Dark Angels, it was a follow up to the also popular blog post ‘Dark Angels Secrets Revealed‘.

Books

I had quite a few significant titles released in 2016, including Angels of Caliban, Corax, Azrael, Warbeast, and my two instalments to The Beast Arises series, The Emperor Expects and The Beast Must Die. But I wanted to draw attention to three of my stories published outside of Black Library.

Nu Thai Screw Job – a cyber-punk story about sex and power, and the dangers when both are abused – was written for Grimdark Magazine, and published in April. You can still buy the eMagazine here.

Stick & Woo was my second story for Voodooworx Miniatures, delving into the mysterious and dangerous world of Tir-Dagrau. You can find out more about this project over on my Voodooworx games page.

Lastly, A Fistful of Dirt was written for Parallax Miniatures’ Kickstarter campaign, to bring to life their unique races of Cayads, Minotaurs, Hadjen, Sicarius, Tir, and Devoid. You can read the story, which was serialised during the campaign, on the Kickstarter page.

Of course 2016 wasn’t all about book releases, it also included much writing for titles that have yet to be published or announced. I made little progress on the original fiction work I’m writing, mostly because paid work always come first, but the down-time over Christmas gave me the opportunity to consider it further and perhaps change my approach to the story. I’m sure I said this at the start of last year, but *this* year I WILL finish it.

Games

I think games design is in my blood – it’s something I started as a 9 or 10-year old, and was fortunate enough to make it my job for 14 years at Games Workshop. Although I’ve had to focus on my writing in recent years, I’ve continued to do bits and pieces of games design and consultancy when I’ve had the time. My notebook of game mechanics and rules has continued to grow however, and now that Sammy is a bit older, I’ve found more time to develop my ideas into something playable. The first of these will see the light of day at Red On Blue In Nottingham (ROBIN) the new Wargaming Event taking place on February 12th 2017.

2016 also saw the release of Space Hulk: Deathwing, a first-person shooter video game. I was involved with story development, and wrote the ‘battle hymn’ used in the trailer for Gamescom 2016. You can find out more about my involvement here.

Hobby

2016 was not good for my wallet. As well as my Kickstarter habit, I’ve bought several miniatures and some Games Workshop board games (including Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower, Bloodbowl, and Gorechosen). I’ve even managed to do some painting and play some games!

Unplanned and surprise hit this year has been Gorechosen. For a game that puts battle-mad champions of the Blood God against each other, there is a satisfying subtlety to the design and gameplay, making it one of the best gladiatorial games out there. The models are incredible too.

My game of the year for 2016 would be Scythe, I think. Amazing production, really slick design. It is one of those games that it is hard to imagine how one would start creating it – so many interleaving mechanics and ideas it seems like it sprang into being fully formed. I hope to play it quite a bit more in 2017, along with more Cthulhu Wars, and my little games group are also starting a Blood Bowl league. And… Well, that’s what the 2017 update is for, let’s not get distracted!

Interviews

Looking over the Interviews section of my website, it looks like I did 22 interviews in 2016 – apologies to those who have experienced Gav overload.

In case you missed them, here are a few you might like to read / listen to:

1) Here’s an interview with the Combat Phase podcast where we discuss in depth Angels of Caliban, including the Lion, the end of Imperium Secundus, and the character of Luther.

2) In this Mob Rules podcast, we talk about The Emperor Expects (book three in The Beast Arises series), wrestling, and my geeking out with Samoa Joe.

3) I discuss how I found out about Age of Sigmar, why I chose the Celestial Vindicators, and being able to include Easter Eggs in Warbeast, in this interview with Mengel Miniatures.

4) Here’s a short interview with Jousting with the Imagination website, where I discuss how I feel about writing for a living, what being freelance means to me, and that terrible moment my computer ate half a novel one week before deadline.

Thank you to everyone who invited me to be interviewed – I’m always happy to chat about my books or the hobby in general, so please just get in touch if you’d like an interview.

Sammy

I’ll end this blog post with a bit of self-indulgence.

My life as a freelancer working from home means I get to spend lots of time with Sammy, watching him grow into a kind, clever, and funny boy. He has a growing collection of board games, as well as two big shelves of books – his imagination is brilliant, and coupled with his language skills, it means we’re treated to daily stories about what his toys are up to.

I’m so proud of him.

I’ll write another blog post soon about what I’ll be up to in 2017.

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

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December 2016 – Q&A

This is a compilation of questions that have been emailed and messaged to me recently.

If you want to ask anything, you can post a comment here or get in touch through the contact page (and newsletter subscribers can just reply to any of my emails).

I’ve been posting Q&As for a few months now, so if you’ve found this one interesting, you can look back at previous Q&As here.

Maria asked on the blog: Hi! I’m currently reading Angels of Caliban and I noticed something, I wanted to ask you about. Luther thinks of himself as a “son to knights” – does this mean that his male ancestors were knights, or that both of his parents were knights?

Yes, it was my intent that the Order had both male and female knights – which gives rise to the idea that the non-space marine ‘augmented’ Dark Angels like Luther might include women (in fact Angels of Caliban contains the line, ‘On the other side of the Chapter Master the chair was occupied by Saulus Maegon, Mistress of the Angelicasta’).

Steve asked via Facebook [in response to a photo I shared of me signing the pages for the Limited Edition Jain Zar]: How many can you usually get done in one session?

I gave a video response so Steve could see just how long it takes.

Alvaro asked on the blog [about The Thirteenth Wolf]: Hello there, I am Alvaro, from Spain, I purchased the mp3 but I would be grateful if there would be any way to get the texts for a bunch of words I do not get easily from the audio. Is it any way to get them or any chance to take a look at them? Thanks a lot, and great work Gav, really nice audio drama.

Hi Alvaro – it’s difficult to know which words are causing issue, but here are some that might be unfamiliar or difficult to work out from the audio.

Names:

Bulveye, who wields the axe eldingverfall

Halvdan Bale-eye

Jurgen

Hroldir

Runepriest Asmund

Krodus

Greigor Fellhand

Bavdir

Jorllon

Eirik

Vangun

They begin fighting in the Syrianus Precinct of Tizca against the Prosperine Guard, and hunt the sorcerer Izzakar Orr.

Other potentially difficult words: phalangite (warrior that fights in a phalanx formation); khopesh (Egyptian-style curved sword); andulasite and nuumite (types of ornamental stone); codeword Valaskjalf (one of the halls of the Fang, actually one of Odin’s halls in mythology) answered by the name Vali Thunderbrow.

I was contacted via my website: My 10 year old has asked for your books on his Christmas list. I have been trying to find more information to make sure your books are age appropriate. Not much information online but he had one book he enjoyed and finding books that boys like isn’t always easy. What is your target age group on the Warhammer books?

[My gut reaction to this question was that 10 was too young, but I went a full 180 the more I thought about it. My final thoughts are in this “Age Appropriate” blog post.]

David asked via the newsletter: Is there any particular aspect(s) of the new setting [Age of Sigmar] that you would be really keen to write about and why ? For example the Duardin or the Aelfs!

I always look forward to writing stories that I have had time to think about, so as of this moment there isn’t anything in particular because I simply haven’t been directing my attention that way. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t want to return to the Age of Sigmar, but simply that as of this moment all of my creativity is directed toward 40K and the Horus Heresy (in regards to BL at least!).

The bald truth is that aside from the specific reading I did in preparation for Warbeast, Lord of the Cosmic Gate and Sylvaneth – Wrathspring, I haven’t had time to properly delve into the stories and setting for Age of Sigmar; there’s so much to take in that until I do that I can’t really process the setting and start generating themes and ideas I might want to put into a story. With further developments in the setting from the GW team I hope there will be scope for authors to start charting other stories set within the Mortal Realms.

Craig asked via the newsletter: Just a quick question or two is there any place I can find any of the other litanies and any background on the Dread Wing or the other wings of the Dark Angels?

I think your best place for more information will be – and I’m not sure how long a wait it is – the Forgeworld book that covers the 1st Legion. Most of the info in Angels of Caliban was based on notes by Alan Bligh, so hopefully we’ll see plenty of the Hexagrammaton and the Six Wings when the time comes.

Brennan asked via the newsletter: Do you ‘reckon we’ll see more stories on Eldar aspects like the Shining Spears, Swooping Hawks, probably something crazy like the Crystal Dragons (from the path series) in the near future (before we all join the Infinity Circuit)?

Thanks for getting in touch, glad that you’re enjoying more exploration of the eldar. There are plenty more novels and stories to come for our favourite enigmatic aliens, and I expect that as the Phoenix Lords series progresses it’ll show each of the main Aspects in more detail, by the very nature of the main characters involved.

As for the more esoteric ones… Well, I think it’s nice to leave readers and gamers some space to exercise their imaginations too. But you never know, I might do a Crystal Dragons story one day!

John asked via email: I’ve just started an Eldar army, based around Dire Avengers, and I am stumped at the start, by this: How do you pronounce Asurmen?!

I pronounce it as Ass-urr-men (middle syllable to rhyme with fur or cur). You can double check when this audio comes out

Warhammer 40,000 Legends Collection

If you are one of the many people who have subscribed to the Warhammer 40,000 Legends Collection, you will shortly see that the latest addition to the collection is my novel Angels of Darkness.

“Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain Boreas and his men protect the recruiting world of Piscina V, watching over those who will be the next generation of Dark Angels. But when the Chapter’s greatest secret – the existence of the Fallen, warriors who turned against their brothers ten thousand years before – comes to light, Boreas’s own past interrogating one of these traitors comes back to haunt him, with tragic consequences.”

This will be the fifth re-print of Angels of Darkness, and aside from my Horus Heresy novels, it is my best selling novel to-date. When I speak to people at book signings I am often told it is the first Black Library book they read, and what got them into the world of Warhammer 40k. Angels of Darkness was also my first Dark Angels novel, and what started me on the road to the Legacy of Caliban, although I didn’t know it at the time.

I intend to go back and write my Author’s Notes for Angels of Darkness at some point – there’s so much that could be said – but for now, if you want to delve even further into the book, here are some blog posts that you might like to read. If you haven’t read the book yet, you probably want to leave these until afterwards – there will be spoilers!

Read my original synopsis for Angels of Darkness*
The further adventures of Astelan – find out in which of my other fiction he appears
I used a passage from Angels of Darkness to illustrate how to write action scenes, including re-writes to illustrate different impressions of the scene
I talk a little about how I see the Dark Angels in general, their character and their motivations, in this blog post
If you want to know more about the Dark Angels in general, you can read my popular Dark Angels Secrets Revealed blog post, along with the follow up More Dark Angels Secrets Revealed blog

*As a teaser, this was Astelan’s original bio – how much has changed!

“Astelan: A Fallen Angel, one of the founders of the Legion and close friend of Luther the Betrayer. Captured and taken to the Tower of Angels by Boreas several years before the Battle for Piscina, Astelan slowly reveals the story of his life back to the point when his father, a retainer for Lion El’jonson, died in battle when the Primarch could have saved him. It was this, fuelled by Luther’s oratory, that persuaded him that Space Marines were superior to humans and that humanity existed to serve the Dark Angels, and not vice versa.”

It has been nearly 14 years since the original release of Angels of Darkness, and my ride with the Dark Angels has been extensive. If you want a definitive guide to my Dark Angels fiction, check out the ‘Warhammer 40,000 Dark Angels’ section of my Reader’s Guide.

There may well be more exciting Dark Angels developments in the New Year but, as the Sons of the Lion know well, Knowledge is Power, Share it Sparingly.

If you have any questions you’d like me to answer about Angels of Darkness, just leave a comment below.

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

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Interview with Combat Phase – December 2016

Listen to my interview with Kenny Lull of the Combat Phase podcast, where we discuss my favourite moment from the Horus Heresy so far, and what I’m looking forward to as the series progresses, as part of their look back at a decade of Heresy.

My interview starts at 2:29:35.

Listen To The Interview

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

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Age Appropriate?

There was a reason I decided against art as a career.

I was recently contacted by a parent whose son had asked for Path of the Eldar for Christmas, asking whether it was age appropriate. It is something that has crossed my mind several times since having Sammy – at what age do I let him read the stories I’ve written? Some of my short stories have a definite horror focus, there are x-rated scenes that would make my mother blush in Empire of the Blood , and as the saying goes for Black Library – there is only war.

I consulted the hivemind on Facebook, to find out what age people started reading Games Workshop / Black Library fiction, and from around 150 responses, it looks like most people begin reading at age 13/14, although some were as young as eight – but it obviously depends on when you’re introduced to it. Without asking everyone for a full psychological assessment, it’s difficult to draw a conclusion about ‘it never did me any harm’, but assuming everyone is still reading Black Library fiction now, it obviously encouraged many to continue reading into adulthood.

It’s only as an adult that I have appreciated the environment my parents gave me growing up. The house was full of books, crossing many genres, and both my brother and I grew up devouring everything we could get our hands on. My brother still gets through a novel a week – I read at least 20, although these days it’s the adventures of Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol. I know that some children can rebel against their parents jobs and interests, but I’m hoping that reading and gaming are so universal that Sammy will embrace them as I did.

I can’t remember at what age I started reading science fiction and fantasy, but it obviously had an effect – Anazar’s Crystal was my first completed story, which not only earned three House Points, but my mum said it was great too. I started reading Games Workshop fiction around the age of 16, with either David Pringle’s Wolf Riders, or maybe David Ferring’s Konrad, and it was just seven years later that I was commissioned to write my first story for Games Workshop, Birth of a Legend, for Inferno Magazine #2.

My first editors comment.

I probably only had ten years of reading ‘grown-up’ fiction before first being published, and if my parents had limited what I had access to, my career would have been entirely different. And so would my life. Reading gives you access to worlds and lives that you can never experience yourself, putting yourself in someone elses shoes gives you empathy for others, and enables you to recognise that everyone has their own story that brought them to where they are today.

With that said, I still don’t know what I’ll do when Sammy asks to read one of Daddy’s books – I guess it will come down to the exposure he has already had to the themes in the books, but having thought about it a lot over the last couple of weeks, I’d like to think that nothing will be off limits.

I still love the story idea behind Anazar’s Crystal – I’d love to have time to re-write it now!

So what do you think is an appropriate age for Black Library fiction – should books ever be off-limits? Let me know what you think in the comments.

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

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Thinking Outside the (Game) Box

Writing for the Black Library comes with a simple, undeniable truth: one is working on a world and stories primarily created so that people can collect, paint and fight miniature battles with toy soldiers. The contents of the rulebooks, supplements and White Dwarf magazine underpin everything else. Players of the games view it as a defining feature of the setting but as an author you must be aware of the game but not beholden to it.

Codex Schmodex

A very large part of this understanding must come from the way an author views the rules and troop types as delivered in the books for the game. For Warhammer 40,000 these revolve around the Codexes (yes, that is the correct plural in this instance, it being the trademark, rather than codices) and the army lists they contain.

The army lists exist to allow players to collect their miniatures and form them into forces upon the tabletop. They reflect the society and organisation of the factions to a certain degree, and the basic make-up of an armed force from that faction, its leaders and weapons.

All of which is very handy when two strangers meet over a tabletop battlefield but should never get in the way of writing a good story or creating a memorable character. Quite often a story needs the exceptional to happen. Very often, particularly in representing the more regimented military forces such as the Space Marines and Astra Militarum, the army lists portray a ‘paper organisation’ – that being what a squad should look like, how many units are organised in a platoon, company, etc. Pages of the Codexes are given over to these structural factors that shape how the army list was created from the fiction.

They are never to be mistaken for the ‘reality’ of the setting. The practicality of casualties, fluctuating command structures, battlefield logistics and the base cunning of the regular infantryman, all mean that stuff happens that isn’t detailed in the books.

As an example, there were many instances throughout World War Two of soldiers taking the weapons and equipment of the enemy – German Wehrmacht troops on the Eastern Front were initially woefully unprepared for the winter and took gear from dead Russians, for example, and many Soviet submachine guns (PPSh-41) were captured and issued to German troops. Conversely, Allied soldiers often took the more reliable German weaponry.

For instance, there might not be an entry in an army list that allows a regular Imperial Guard squad to be carried around in a Valkyrie gunship, but you might concoct a story in which said squad, at the end of a bloody and fragmented campaign, end up doing so in order to launch a last attack for victory or death. Ignoring the confines of the army list gives rise to a remarkable and story-worthy narrative. The exception provides the drama.

So while the universe of Warhammer 40,000 is riven with dogma and superstition and blind adherenece to rules, we must also remember that the occasional quirk that does not ‘follow the Codex’ is perfectly acceptable, nay desirable. This is in no way an excuse to get it wrong through lack of research, always be aware of the rules you are breaking, but also one shouldn’t be hidebound about opportunities to be characterful.

One of the most successful fictional characters, Ibram Gaunt by Dan Abnett, was introduced as a Commissar-colonel. No such rank or position had ever existed in the Imperial Guard background; it may have been intentional or a misreading by Dan, you’ll have to ask him. It did, though, make Gaunt a unique character from the outset, and thus worthy of writing about, and apparently everyone agrees as Gaunt’s Ghosts continues to be Black Library’s most popular Imperial Guard series by a long way.

All the Tales to be Told

Part and parcel of this attitude, and something I talk about in my Author’s Notes for Azrael, is that when writing Warhammer 40,000 it’s easy to fall into a narrow mindset. We look at the soldiers, we see the lasers and power armour, and we default to thinking of Military Sci-fi as the subgenre in which we are writing.

Resist this urge! Warhammer 40,000 is SF in only the most tangential ways, home to powerful technology but possessing very little of the scientific mindset, and while all stories from Black Library will be connected in some way to the motto “There is Only War!” as authors we need to push beyond a simple war story interpretation.

40K is a baroque fantasy married to a dystopian horror crushed against the thrashing corpse of space opera. It can be anything you want it to be, and though battles may feature heavily, the story is rarely about the battles. As I’ve said before in other posts the plot of the story and what the story is about are not the same thing.

This is also true of structure. Your story could actually be based on the pacing, style and tropes of detective fiction, or take on the trappings of urban fantasy, historical epic, cyberpunk, magical realism… Paranormal romance might be pushing it, but that could probably be done too with enough of a sidestep.

Miss Marple isn’t likely to be deducing the death of a ganger in the depths of the Underhive, but if you do a bit of study, understand how story structure works in various genres and subgenres, it’s possible to see how the breadth of the 40K setting can give rise to all sorts of stories. To follow the example, the death of the ganger may seem inconsequential against the backdrop of a Tyranid invasion of the hive city, but for the squad of Space Marine scouts that discover him, deducing the movements of the Lictor that killed him becomes a matter of life and death, and that means gathering up all the relevant clues.

My personal favourite would be a whodunnit set aboard a traitor Leviathan command transport, in which the villain is revealed to be a polymorphine-disguised Callidus assassin.

My point is that when thinking about what you could write for 40K, if a submissions window comes up, your first thought should be regarding the sort of story you want to tell. When you have that in mind you can figure out how to weave in the horrific beauty of the Warhammer 40,000 setting.

That is not to say that any story would work if you just throw in some cod-latin Imperial Gothic and a Space Marine. The horror, the overarching decay and themes of despotism and despair, the study of fascistic power, decadence, superstition, the lure of Chaos and the threat of the unknown are all intrinsic to a ‘proper’ Warhammer 40K story – but the structure and style of that story is not defined by the setting.

To put it another way… There is no such thing as a typical 40K story, only great stories set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

I’ve been so busy recently that I’ve neglected the Writing Advice section of my website – something I’ll try to remedy in 2017. If there are any topics you would like me to cover, leave a comment below and I’ll add them to my list.

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

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