Gav Thorpe's Blog, page 34

My Life in Books

You may have seen a Facebook meme floating around recently asking for folks to post their top ten books. I’ve been honoured to see my name in a few lists and have been tagged a couple of times to post my own. I had to decline these invitations at the time. It’s because I’ve basically […]

Latest Happenings

Busy, busy, busy. The same as always when you’re freelance. It’s a good busy, as they say. Better to be working than not. Of course, as a waffy creative type it’s not all about sitting at the keyboard churning out words. There’s the actual creating bit that needs doing, like coming up with stories and […]

Mark of War Kickstarter update

Despite the brilliant reasons set forth in my last post, the Kickstarter for Mark of War simply hasn’t gained the level of attention it deserved or needed, and the team at Warpforged Games have rightly decided to end the campaign rather than let things drag on pointlessly for another couple of weeks. Nobody likes to see those forlorn Kickstarters shuffling and twitching along in a semblance of life, unloved even by their creators. I’m disappointed but not disheartened. Mark of War will live on in a different way.

There will be debriefings, autopsies and feedback on the campaign itself. Every Kickstarter is different and there are some things that could have been done better, for certain, and I will be passing on my thoughts along with everyone else. It was always an ambitious goal, but the right one at this stage, to get enough backing to finance a top-tier game that would grace any PC, Mac or tablet. The Kickstarter – aptly named – has not delivered that surge of capital that would have enabled Warpforged to hire and expand quickly, so instead the team is going to carry on with the development of the game at a more modest level. Quality will not be sacrificed, but that will take time to deliver.

It’s all in the latest update from Mike, but basically the team have been working on a playable demo since the beginning and will continue to do so, with the hope that it will be free to download in a few months’ time. From here Mark of War can continue to grow, at a slower pace than would have been possible with the Kickstarter funding, but with all the relentless and resolute momentum of a dwarf advance.

I would like to thank again everybody that backed the Kickstarter, and also those that took the time to have a look, even if it was not for them. Please join us on the Facebook page and Mark of War forums to keep up with the latest developments and to continue providing your thoughts and feedback. If you liked the game but weren’t sure of the Kickstarter you can get involved.

Kickstarter or not, Mark of War is going to become a reality, and I’m just as eager to give it a first play as I was when Mike first approached me a few months back.

This is a ‘see you later’, not a goodbye.

You Won’t Believe These Top 5 Insane Reasons That Will Blow Your Mind Why You Should Support Mark of War

I’ve been pushing hard on the latest project I’ve been involved with – the virtual tabletop miniatures game Mark of War. Some of you might be thinking that I’ve banged on about it enough, but I beg your indulgence for just a few minutes more. Mark of War isn’t just a writing gig for me, it’s something that I really believe in. Not only am I excited to be working on a brand new fantasy world, but I love the basic premise of the game. From the moment Mike McTyre first approached me I’ve been keen to see this happen.

Ignoring my part in things (because I would say the background is going to be awesome, wouldnt I?), here’s my five reasons I think gamers should back Mark of War.

1. Organised Play

The heart of Mark of War is putting gamers together, whether in tournaments, Ranked matches, casual matches or with friends you already know. Imagine playing in a global tournament, finding a really great opponent and being able to play them again whenever you like – without any airfare or hotel costs involved. How many of us have tried to organise even a small tournament amongst friends, only for it to stall because nobody is free on the same weekend, or someone drops out. Creating your own tournaments on Mark of War, or perhaps a mini-league or ladder, is going to be quick and straightforward, and you don’t all have to be free at the same time.

2. Every Army

All four of the starting armies – Kingdom, orcs, elves and Ascended – as well as the two stretch goal armies – dwarves and vampires – will be available to everyone from the start. You can build them all up, try them out to see if you have a favourite to concentrate on, or simply swap now and then for a bit of variety. That’s simply not an option for most of us with regular tabletop games. And there will be no microtransactions. Mike has gone on record with this – the collecting feature of the game will be predicated on playing, not paying. Having access to virtual armies also allows you to try out some of the more extreme combinations without the dreaded proxy. Want to try nothing by knights in your Kingdom force? No problem. Think that just using winged elves with shooting attacks is the key to victory? Go for it.

3. Fiddly Stuff

Removing all the stuff that slows down a game – trying to balance figures on a hill, knocking over movement trays, picking up the hundreds of dice – is going to streamline the gameplay of Mark of War. Having, in effect, a computer-moderated gamesmaster allows other features into the game. This might include weather effects, interactive terrain, night fighting and other things that often add a lot of complexity to tabletop games and slow down play. There’s no chance of someone forgetting the rules either – random effects and the like will be automatically generated by the game itself.

4. Actually Play

This is a biggy for me. I haven’t played that many miniatures games since I went freelance about seven years ago. And since my son Sammy turned up… Let’s be honest, many of us gamers spend more time poring over army lists and painting than we do actually pushing miniatures around on the table. Nothing will ever replace the experience of a table filled with nice terrain and two armies lovingly painted by their owners clashing in battle. But someone has to host, have the room for a decent sized table, you need to transport your armies, unpack everything. Few of us have permanent set-ups, so the entire affair can take several hours even for veteran players who know what they’re doing. Compare that to logging on, finding and opponent and playing a game in 15-30 minutes… Although the gameplay has been streamlined neither the tactics nor the experience has been watered down. If you and I agree to a game and want to take our time, chatting as we play, enjoying a beverage, that’s what we can do.

5. Twenty Bucks

And you get all of this for $20. What else does twenty bucks get you in gaming these days? Some paints? A blister pack or two? Maybe some fancy dice. Twenty dollars gets you the whole game, all of the starting armies and all the space and terrain you need. And if you really want to get involved, $60 gets you access to the Beta testing stage, so you can directly influence the rules and mechanics, creating the game that you want to play. If you’ve never backed anything on Kickstarter before, this is a great one to start with. Your money is safe – either the project funds and you’ll get Mark of War, or we won’t reach our target and your pledge money never leaves your account. I can’t think of anything that comes close in terms of entertainment hours-to-money except maybe a cheap chess set.

I hope I’ve tempted you. If so, please back the Kickstarter. You can start to provide feedback on what you want and don’t want in the comments straightaway. And you never know, one day we might be having a game of Mark of War together.

Doom of Dragonback extract

As the End Times engulf the Warhammer world, why not read something from the other end of the historical scale? In celebration of reaching 4,000 followers on Twitter I present to you an extract from Doom of Dragonback, my forthcoming Time of Legends novel for Black Library, pre-orders available now! And if you like this,. there’s an extended e-book extract available, following a rumbunctious goblin hunt. Doom of Dragonback will be on general sale from the 5th September.

 

‘Fetch me that firebox, Haldi,’ said Skraffi. ‘And there’s some dried leaves in a sack over by the window.’

‘It’s Haldora,’ she replied, seeking out the objects as directed. The firebox was small enough to fit into her palm, about as deep as her thumb, made of tin, heavily dented and scratched. She checked the flint and it sparked nicely. Fetching out the sack of leaves, she handed the firebox to Skraffi and stepped towards the window.

‘It’s a good spot,’ she said, looking out. The glass was thick and filled with air bubbles – discards from the bottle plant she realised but it was clean and beyond she could see down one of the vales and had a good view of the majesty of the moun­tains to the north. Out of sight was the coast, and in her mind’s eye, recalling the maps Gramma Awdie had shown her as a youngster, she moved her inner eye up the seashore to the gulf at the top of the Dragonback Peaks. Further still Blood River emptied into the gulf, where the Barak Varr stood, its massive sea gates guarding the largest ships of the dwarf empire.

Dwarfs were not much for travelling on water, using the riv­ers only as needed and the sea even more rarely. It was hard to believe that huge galleys and triremes from Barak Varr had patrolled the coast, clashing with elven hawkships and merw­yrms. That was about the closest Ekrund had come to actual battle – most of its warriors marched to the defence of Barak Varr but had seen no fighting in the Dragonbacks themselves.

‘If the elves never reached Ekrund, what makes you worry the orcs will?’ she asked, turning to Skraffi. ‘I mean, the elves had ships and dragons. What’ve orcs got?’

‘Wyverns,’ grunted Skraffi. He was stuffing leaves into a fun­nel-shaped contraption, about the size of a helmet. When Haldora looked more closely she saw it actually was a helmet, with a length of pipe inserted into the top and a leather bag riveted on the bottom.

Skraffi stood up and placed the helmet-device to one side. He threw a long scarf to Haldora and started to wrap another around his face. He pulled it down for a moment to speak.

‘And the elves came from all across the world. Orcs are just a few days march away, even if the rangers don’t see them.’

‘Hiding, are they?’ said Haldora.

‘They can be clever, you know. And if there’s anything more dangerous than an orc, it’s an orc that can think a little.’

Haldora snorted at the thought and wrapped her face with the scarf, leaving only her eyes uncovered. She rammed on the wide-brimmed hat that Skraffi threw to her next and pulled on a set of heavy gauntlets she found drooped over the edge of a shelf. At a gesture from Skraffi she picked up a pile of blankets and pushed her way towards the door, her face already starting to prickle with sweat.

Outside she let the blankets drop to the ground and rolled them out with her foot while Skraffi busied himself with his helmet-machine and firebox. Soon a thin dribble of smoke was leaking from the pipe in the helmet.

They picked up a blanket between them and walked over to the closest hives. The two of them lifted the blanket overhead like a roof, and then Skraffi started to let smoke pour from the helmet, dousing the bee colonies with grey fume.

Haldora fought the urge to close her eyes as bees by the score swarmed from the hives, convinced that their colonies were on fire. Skraffi motioned with his head and they set aside the blanket. Haldora hurried back to the shed to fetch the specially-lined crates Skraffi stored there for taking the honeycomb. By the time she had returned he had opened up the first hive and was removing the delicate produce of the bees’ labour.

Careful not to break a corner or spill a drop of honey, Skraffi moved the honeycomb into one of the crates while Haldora went to fetch more. She had just stepped out of the shed with another crate in her hands when she saw Skraffi hurrying towards her, waving her back.

‘What is it?’ she called out, but the scarf muffled everything she said.

Skraffi knocked the crates out of her hands and grabbed her sleeve to drag her into the shed. He carefully closed the door behind them and stood with his back to it. He dragged down his scarf and took a long breath,

‘Troll,’ he whispered.

Haldora’s heart leapt at the word, and she quickly freed her face from the wrapping of smoke-smelling wool.

‘Where?’ She moved to the window and peered out, but could see nothing.

‘In the woods. I don’t know if it saw me.’ It was getting murky inside the shed and Skraffi realised he had the smoke-can in hand. He shut it off and placed it on a shelf beside a collection of broken firebox flints.

‘We’ll have to wait it out.’ Haldora leaned as far forward as she could, until she could just see the end of the row of hives to the right, and beyond that the smear of green and brown that was the trees distorted in the glass. There was nothing else there. ‘How can we tell when it’s gone?’

‘The beardlings…’ Skraffi’s eyes widened with alarm. ‘Down the path on the goat pastures and fields. We have to raise the alarm.’

‘How?’ Haldora looked around the shed. The only weapons were a short-handled shovel and the all-purpose knife that hung at her belt, and a small hand axe at Skraffi’s hip. ‘Neither of us is strong enough to fight a troll.’

Skraffi said nothing, deep in thought. A spluttering cough, deep and close, sounded outside, followed by the crack of splintering wood.

‘It’s breaking into the hives,’ said Skraffi. There was des­peration in his eyes. ‘We can’t… We need that honey. The meadery… Your father will make me sell up if I can’t at least keep up the brewing.’

‘Is it worth getting killed over? I’ll talk to pa, make sure he doesn’t close the meadery.’

‘He’s just looking for an excuse, mark my words.’

‘You’re still the oldest in this family, he can’t push you around.’ Haldora dropped her voice as she heard snuffling and snorting growing louder. The sound of grotesque chewing could also be heard, slavering jaws mashing raw honeycomb and wood at the same time.

‘Truth is, Awdhelga was always the one in charge. I’m not much for standing up to folks, never have been. I think that’s why she liked me. “Meek, not weak” she used to say.’

‘Then I’ll stand up for you too,’ said Haldora.

‘It’s no good,’ said Skraffi, turning around, his hand moving to the door latch.

‘What are you going to do?’ snapped Haldora. ‘Shout at it? It’s a troll. We can’t hurt it. We can’t outrun it. We have to hide until it goes away and then try to raise the alarm.’

Something heavy brushed against the door. Haldora froze, heart hammering, as the pad of heavy feet moved around the shed. Skraffi motioned towards the door with an inquiring glance but Haldora shook her head. If the troll came on them in the open they wouldn’t stand a chance and the trees were too far away.

Both of them flinched as something thudded against the stonework. A long rasping filled the shed as claws were dragged down the roof, in places splitting the wood. Haldora moved

to the other side of Skraffi and started looking over the shelves and under the tables, desperate to find something, anything that could help.

‘Oh dear.’

She looked up at Skraffi’s subdued exclamation, to see a flat grey face and gigantic eye peering at the window.

‘Stay still,’ she told him. It was not that bright inside the outhouse and from what she could remember trolls had poor eyesight. The glass was buckled and bubbled enough that per­haps it wouldn’t see them.

The troll turned its head to switch eyes. It was massive, bend­ing almost double to look inside the dwarven shed. She saw shoulders flexing and a hand crashed onto the roof. The troll pushed its head closer, smearing the windows with saliva, snot and honey. The wooden frame creaked and Haldora darted a look of alarm at Skraffi.

‘Fixed the jamb meself,’ he said with a confident nod. ‘It’ll take more than…’

His voice drifted away and Haldora looked back at the win­dow. The frame was buckling, the individual pieces of glass rattling as the monster let out heavy breaths.

‘You go,’ said Skraffi. He stepped away from the door. ‘I’ll keep it occupied here. You make a run to warn the youngsters and get to the tower at Funnock’s Elbow.’

‘No!’ Haldora thrust a hand out to push Skraffi back from the window but it was too late.

The troll gave an intrigued grunt and slapped a hand to the glass. Wood fractured and part of the frame gave way on the right. Thick fingers with broken claws pushed through the gap, scraping at the stone sill.

Haldora couldn’t stand it anymore. She dragged out her knife and lunged forward, burying it to the hilt in the back of the troll’s hand. It greeted the attack with a bemused grunt and pulled its hand free. Haldora clung onto the knife, dragging it

out of the troll as the hand withdrew. Brownish blood dripped onto the shelf below the window and seeped down the pages of a tattered book on bee-keeping.

With a roar that almost threw Haldora from her feet in shock and fear, the troll slammed two fists against the window. The frame gave way, showering glass and wood fragments over the two dwarfs within. A hand reached for Haldora – the back of it sporting a freshly-healed scar, she noticed as it swept the room, seeking anything to grab.

She ducked under the swiping paw and rolled to the base of the shelf. Skraffi backed as far into the corner as he could, his small axe in hand, teeth bared in a snarl. More glass crashed to the floor as the troll forced in the rest of its arm to the shoul­der, broad head wedged in the gap beside it. Haldora couldn’t stop a shriek as a clawed hand waved just in front of her face, yellowed talons scraping at the wood of the shelf, dislodging knick-knacks and cracking pottery dishes and bowls.

 

Guest Post at the Shellcase

With the launch of the Mark of War Kickstarter approaching fast, I’ve written a guest post over at the Shellcase talking about how the world of the game came about. If you want to know a bit more, have a read at the Mark of War website on the world and the armies.

This latter section of the website has just been updated with the two bonus factions. First off, there’s the sturdy guardians of the natural world, the dwarves:

And then there’s the Hollowed Ones, vampiric monsters that drain their victims of their Essence, making them enslaved, mindless Undead.

Three Tips for a Better World (Creation)

I’ve recently announced my participation in a very exciting project, creating the world for a ‘virtual tabletop’ game called Mark of War. It’s early days yet, so we’ve only just started scratching the surface and now seems an appropriate time to write a little about world creation, be it for games, novels, roleplaying or whatever you like.

World creation can be a surprisingly contentious subject, and many designers and authors will disagree with what I’ve written here. All I can say is that over the many years since I first started scribbling ideas for fantasy worlds and sci-fi universes I have found the following to be true and you might too.

And this is my blog, so I’m right.

“Come in, have a cuppa. We’re just making a blood sacrifice in a bid to understand the deeper mysteries of the universe. How’s your mum doing?”

1. Let it Grow

I’m a firm believer in having a world that exists just enough to tell the story you are telling and a little left over for fun. While there is a particular delight in creating a world – its peoples, languages, environments and everything else – for the purpose of a book, roleplaying campaign or game that creation begins and ends with what would make a good story.

In itself there’s not much wrong with creating your world wholesale from the outset, drawing maps and calling things the Forest of Azkaradanistha and all that, except for the fact that many writers and developers then feel the need to cram all of that world creation into their story, often at the expense of more useful things like characters and plot. A lot of fantasy in particular, but also sci-fi, is little more than a travelogue, of characters going to strange and interesting set-piece places that the author has invented, but without any actual purpose.

I take the opposite view that the characters and story come first and the world contains everything it needs for that story to happen. If the characters need to go to another place for a good reason – to meet someone, pick up something, insert macguffin of choice – then fill your boots and make it as cool and evocative and out there as you like. However, if the place and the journey exists purely for the characters to visit, without really challenging them or changing the plot or showcasing something fundamental about the setting that the reader needs to understand, then it is just travelogue.

The same isn’t just true of geographic locations, it can apply to metaphysical qualities or technology, philosophies, events in history, even people the characters meet. Unless the laws of magic, the worship of Holy D’shivara, the painting on the wall of the Grand Opera House have something relevant to the plot, why spend time working out what they are? You’re creating a world that the reader has to envisage, and details can help, but don’t get bogged down in those details.I find the easiest way to avoid this is by not having your head crammed full of cool stuff you want to show off no matter what. It’s my contention that too much up-front world creation is the cause of most of the exposition the exists in the genre. When editing, ask yourself if that lengthy description on the economics of Plainstown* really adds anything to the understanding of the characters and plot, and their place within the setting rather than just the setting itself. If not, feel free to pare it down or get rid of it entirely.

*Economics is an underused motivator for many heroes, but unless your world has something drastically different from the usual supply-and-demand model, why get into the nitty-gritty? If precious metals and gems are not your value items, what are? That’s when storytelling spurs world creation.

Some of the most enduring fictional realms were not created in a god-like moment of Genesis but evolved as a patchwork of tales or games, with perhaps a theme and core imagery to build upon but the details explored only as and when they were required. The Cthulhu ‘mythos’, the city of Lankhmar and surrounding lands, Forgotten Realms, Hyperborea, the Culture, Warhammer, the Star Wars universe (expanded or otherwise), all of these creations accreted and accumulated on a solid foundation, allowing for exploration, imagination and speculation.

If you don’t know it’s there yet, there’s no temptation to talk about it. In short, if you draw the map as you go along you can leave out the boring bits.

2. Less is More

Which moves me nicely onto the idea that when world creation becomes an end in its own right, it tends to become closed off. Every detail is worked out to the Nth degree, from the name of the cobblers on the street corner by the palace square to the intricate god-summoning rituals of the obscure mountain tribe that is really cool and will get worked into the damned story somehow.

Basically, if you make up stuff you go along, in the white heat of writing, the chances are that you will convey a tantalising glimpse into the world, enough for the reader to understand what is going on, but leaving them wanting more. Throwing in a line about the Forgotten City of Gostrama without even knowing what it is adds to the idea that the world in a big place, just like ours, and no person can ever know everything about it. Throwing in an entire myth about the Forgotten City of Gostrama, especially if its not related by the characters, is just filling up space that could be used more constructively.

A setting that contains grey areas, Here Be Dragons and all, of location, people and events, is more intriguing than one in which everything is laid out as truth like an encyclopaedia. The world becomes a thing that can be debated and interacted with in itself, by those within it and readers alike, aside from discussion of the characters and plots taking place across it.  Some questions you can answer later, some you might never answer. For every loose end that you tie up, fray a couple more. Something said cannot be unsaid, but something mumbled slightly incoherently can be argued back and forth for years.

It’s also worthwhile making sure that you are very wary about absolute, closed statements. If you do, make it in dialogue, because while characters can turn out to be wrong, narrators can’t. These definitive facts will come back and bite you on the bum at some point, because one day you will forget them but the readers/ gamers won’t!

Fan: So in book three Milandrius said that no enchantment has ever worked inside the Citadel of the Legacy, but in book nine Orfessio’s ring of truth still works when he arrives there with Meslai.

Author: Er, um… Milandrius was an idiot?

A dwarf. On a bear. Do I need to say anything else?

3. A Little Whimsy Goes a Long Way

The ‘by-the-seat-of-your-pants’ style of world creation also means that the coolest ideas can usually find a place because you’ve been opening all the doors and windows as you go along, not closing them, and that next room can contain whatever you want.

Another way of putting it, I suppose, is that worlds created for their own sake can have a tendency to be awfully worthy.  They lack a sense of whimsy. They can become a burden, to be endured while one tries to navigate the rules and guidelines laid down for how things work, rather than being a springboard for glorious ideas and adventures. 

This is not an excuse for bad writing – inventing a superspell or time portal or lazerbeam to get you out of a poorly thought-through plot obstacle is lazy no matter how the setting came into being  – it is a remit, a mandate, to ensure that the world is as exciting and creative as you can make it.

The big advantage is that one idea leads to another, snowballing into something wondrous. Coming up with cool ideas takes a really long time, and it never ends. Don’t answer questions that haven’t been asked yet, you’ll have a better (more entertaining )answer later.

If you think that your world is going to include all of your best ideas before you start writing book one, I have a bridge for sale.

A prototype map for Mark of War. It will evolve before we are done, to reflect our ideas, not dictate them.

 (Bonus) Take Plenty of Notes

Speaks for itself…

And to drag this back to Mark of War for a moment, it’s interesting that even in the small pieces I’ve written so far there’s been a lot of development. The need to create characters and geography has led to narratives arising, and in return those narratives demand that the world works in certain ways.

It also means that we’ve only just started on Mark of War. It’s bare bones and broad brush, and that’s the way it’ll work best for now. Let’s see what gets players excited and ensure there’s more of that and less of the things they aren’t so crazy about.

I hope you like what I’ve written so far – check it out on the Armies and World pages of the website – and back the Kickstarter if you would like to have the opportunity to explore further with me.

N-n-n-nine Worlds, Nine Worlds

Thank you, Paul Hardcastle, for digging me out of a title hole.

Leaving that aside, last weekend was pleasantly spent with Kez and little Sammy at an airport hotel near Heathrow, and not because of delayed flights. It was the Nine Worlds Geekfest. Those with long memories and some patience will remember that I wrote three whole blog posts on last year’s inaugural event. Be thankful that this year one post will suffice – not because I couldn’t give an almost hour-by-hour account of our activities (including nappy changes for the little one…) but because I’ve decided to take a slightly different angle this time.

Last year we tried to pack in as many panels as possible, mainly on the Skeptics track of events, and this led to a hectic weekend. With Sammy in tow, a more laissez-faire approach was required because at any given time we couldn’t be sure attending a panel would be possible.

Security at the hotel was a little overzealous for my tastes.

The consequence of this was an equally enjoyable event that turned out to be more about socialising than panels and signings. It highlighted to me what events are all about – community and meeting other people. It’s even truer at other events where I’m there in an ‘official’ capacity in some fashion – signing or on a panel – meeting people that share my passion and hobbies is a huge boost and inspiration.

And it’s always a mix of the old and the new, the expected and unexpected. There were some people that I wanted to seek out and spend some time with, there were others that I already knew but wasn’t sure were attending, and there were those that I met for the first time. It’s always good to hang out with fellow authors and catch up at these events, whether it was Adrian Tchaikovsky trying to hypnotise Sammy with mystical hand gestures, having breakfast with Anne Lyle and others and talking about Blakes 7, or learning first hand from Den Patrick that saying ‘Fiddlesticks’ can bring a baby out in fits of giggles. It’s always lovely talking to Ian Whates, and we caught up with Jonathan Green and heard how plans were progressing for Fighting Fantasy Fest in a few weeks’ time.

Similarly, I had a good chat with Matt Sylvester about his upcoming projects, including the progress of Raus Untoten II. Once again I met Dave Bradley (of SFX magazine) at the bar and competing social commitments required us to part company – we’ve been ships in the night at the last few cons I’ve attended but one day we’ll have a conversation that lasts more than the time it takes to get a served.

That just looks like a couple of paragraphs of name-dropping, but I promise there is a point to it, beyond trying to pretend that I am a networking god.

These are people that exchange tweets and emails, but I might see only once or twice a year. Sometimes we talk about books and writing, sometimes we want to talk about anything but those things (more often the former). Stuff comes up in conversation, bits of news or snippets of advice or war stories, which you wouldn’t necessarily go out of your way to find out or come across except in that more relaxed atmosphere.

SpaceSam. Not quite arriving from Krypton, but pretty super all the same.

As someone that writes mainly for Black Library but also has a few ‘original’ works published (please go and buy Empire of the Blood, I promise you’ll enjoy it…) I sometimes feel that I am standing with a foot in two worlds. Black Library mostly involves itself with its own events and is a microcosm in itself in which I feel very comfortable and established, and the publishing team and other authors are good friends with each other.

The wider world of publishing, and conventions in particular, I find more daunting. For the uninitiated there can seem to be a labyrinth of groups and cliques and circles depending on people’s publishers, their agents, who goes to what conventions. Most of this is purely subjective, of course, but things have got easier since my first outings into the wider genre. It’s nice that over the last few years the number of familiar faces has kept growing, as that list shows, and that helps when you’re not exactly a powerhouse at initiating conversations with strangers.

There are also the people that you get to know over the weekend, either just in passing or more socially. A conversation over another breakfast (on a different day, not a Hobbit-style second breakfast), for instance, meeting wannabe sky-pirate Liesel Schwarz and talking about her teen rebellion in South Africa and the excitement of getting a review in the Independent (two things I have not experienced; one of which I would like to). Of all the people I might have thought I’d meet, I must confess that Phil Lowles was nowhere near the list. Phil was one of the assistant games developers in the tranche Games Workshop hired after I’d moved on to become a ‘full’ games developer. He’s professionally involved with web design now, but obviously the geek-gene never goes away and he’s organising A Game of Thrones events, including Titancon in Belfast next month. It’s likely I would never have caught up with Phil if we hadn’t run into each other in the hotel foyer.

And then after the weekend reality returns.

For many people that means going back tot he 9-5 of work, but for me, for a writer, it also means stepping back out of the community and returning to the solitary tap-tap-tap at the keyboard. The culture shock kicks in both ways – dealing with people, getting up to speed, and then getting back home and finding that all the people have gone away. It’s not quite post-holiday blues, but it takes a day or two to recover from that sort of (to me) intense activity.

Anyway, random bits (to call them highlights would be unfair to many wonderful people not mentioned):

Check out Gengki Gear and their fantastic geekwear. We are assured that coloured baby vests will be coming soon… However, because I am very strange and can’t wear a T-shirt that I’ve seen someone else wearing (sort of) please avoid wearing this one to any event I am attending:

Writers, always keep an eye on Fox Spirit books. They’ve pretty much got a rolling submissions window for anything from flash fiction to short stories, and Adele (‘Aunty Foxy’) is one of the nicest people you’ll ever get a chance to work with.

Some fantastic cosplay outfits. Everyone gets 5 ‘Awesome Cosplay’ tokens to hand out to people they think deserve them, and any cosplayer that gets 15 could trade them for an ‘Awesome Cosplay’ badge.

Sammy spent Saturday in his UFO, and children that took part got a goodie bag as a prize, so we were trying to give away all the tokens he earnt. Even so, we ended up with 21 tokens… It’s hard to ignore the conclusion that if you want to attract attention, be a baby in a flying saucer (being super cute helps too!). But anyway, the tokens (which I hear are used at other events too) are a great icebreaker (as is a baby in a UFO it turns out) and really made the cosplayers part of the whole event.

If that sounds like your kind of fun, tickets for the 2015 event are already available at bargain price on the Nine Worlds website. Hopefully Kez, Sammy and I will see you there!

We couldn’t find Sammy for most of Sunday, but Batbaby turned up, which was cool.

 

More Dark Angels

So, as if it wasn’t enough that Master of Sanctity is now available, I only gone and done another Dark Angels story. With the tale in MoS moving on to focus on Asmoidai and Sapphon, our daring Ravenwing commander has moved out of the limelight a little, so this short is for Sammael fans and covers the most famous and important battle in his life.

It’s available to download now at Black Library: http://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/a-hunt-in-the-dark-ebook.html

 

This Blog is Mostly Filler

That’s right, it’s been so long since I wrote a proper blog post I now have to write a blog post about how long it has been seen I wrote a proper blog post.

I had Special K and a slice of toast for breakfast.

Back when I left Games Workshop and went freelance, I talked to Marc Gascoigne, chief editor of Angry Robot books now but back then recently-made former chief editor of Black Library – about going it alone in the big, harsh world of publishing. He told me to start a blog so that I would stay in the habit of writing often, and keeping in touch with my potential audience. He said that even if I just blog about what I had for breakfast, I should try to put something up regularly, or at least quite frequently.

Of course, at the moment I have more than enough projects to keep me busy writing everyday, from Black Library work, some speculative fiction of my own and some games design fun, which means that the blog has been the poor cousin of late.

When I started I wasn’t of a mind to write anything too personal; this would be a semi-professional blog not an online journal. It seemed a good idea to start with some writing advice, essentially putting my random thoughts in some kind of order for a blog post helped me focus on the other writing I was doing. This has fallen by the wayside of late, but not from any want of mine to knock it on the head. Just busy.

Also, I am hoping to relaunch my whole online presence sometime in the next few months, including a brand new website, all cross-platform with my various social media personas, links to back catalogue and all that jazz, and that means I have perhaps neglected the trusty old wordpress page.

So, here are a couple of bit of writing advice that I always give people, brought to mind by some conversations at the Horus Heresy Weekender.

* Work out your ending first, even if you don’t like doing a lot of planning. If you don’t know what you are heading towards, how do you know if you’re going in the right direction?

* Preparation sounds boring but it makes the exciting bit of writing all the easier and quicker.

* FINISH SOMETHING. You cannot edit unwritten words.

Thank you. I’ll be back with more insightful messages in the future. Follow me on Twitter or like my Facebook page where you can have far more frequent snippets of my brain.

All right, all right, it’s a bleedin’ bear for gawd’s sake. Can we move on?