Richard S. Ford's Blog, page 5

Reviews (or, taking the rough with the smooth)

Kultus is now in bookshops everywhere, and available for your digital reader of choice at very reasonable prices. It's still early days so I have no idea how it's selling but there have been some reviews in.

First the good. The Eloquent page seemed to like it a lot. They described Blaklok as 'the first proper Steampunk Geezer', which I thought was nice. Then there's Erik Lundqvist at iwillreadbooks who also liked it, describing it as a 'very entertaining, action packed and fun read'. Yes it is, well spotted!

And for purposes of completeness, there's also the bad. The chap at Falcata Times didn't like it so much. Apparently the whole story would have come across better in graphic novel form, although he did like the one-liners and reasonable pace. Finally there's SFX, which unfortunately I can't link to. They only gave it 2 out of 5 stars, which was obviously annoying for about ten minutes. I'm over it now. No really, I am.

Anyway, onwards and upwards, as they say. And if you haven't read Kultus yet, don't listen to anyone else's opinion… go out and get yourself a copy!

Free Stuff

I've added a Free Stuff page to the blog which you can click on now. Go on, do it, you'll find something most impressive in there. Illustrated by the very talented Ryan E Horvath (don't forget the E) is a thirteen page preview comic for the novel Kultus. The events of the strip take place just before those depicted in the novel and it's all yours absolutely free (did I mention free is my favourite word?).

Speaking of comics, 2000AD are also hosting a give-away in Prog 1758. By answering a simple question (though to be honest I don't know the answer myself) you can win one of five brand spanking new copies of Kultus. There's also a full-page ad for the novel on the back cover, so you could do a lot worse than to grab yourself a copy from the newsagents!

I can't tell you how made up I am about this. I've been a 2000AD fan since I was running around in short trousers (though I still do that on occasion) and if you told me when I was a nipper that one day I'd have a novel advertised in those hallowed pages I wouldn't have believed you.

Anyway, Kultus is now available everywhere in the US and Canada, and sees release in the UK on November 1st. If you like what you read in the free comic, it's more than likely you'll love the novel, so do yourself a favour and buy one!!

Real news this time… well, almost

Okay, so what's been happening with you, I hear you ask. Well, all right, there aren't that many of you right now, and no you're probably not itching to know what's going on with me just yet, but you will… oh yes you will.

I intend to fill you in regardless, so here goes:

Lion Rampant is still awaiting a publisher to see the light and take it on. Since the wheels of the publishing industry grind by at a snail's pace, I'm not currently holding my breath for this. A movie company did request a gander at the manuscript after seeing the synopsis, however, but decided it wasn't for them. That was most encouraging, if ultimately anti-climactic.

Behind the scenes development of Kultus continues apace, and I recently sent back the last print proof before it goes to… well, print. The novel's not even hit the shelves yet and already there's a buzz about it. Let's hope it lives up to the hype!

Anyway, that's all for now, apart from to say I might have some adventure gamebook related news very soon.

Ooh you are a tease!

Yes. Yes I am.

Update… or not

It's been a while, lots of silence and all that, so I thought it best if I give a little bit of an update on where we are with certain things. Essentially there's nothing much to report; the start of 2011 was a bit of an upheaval on a personal level for reasons you don't need to read about, so where are the books you promised us I hear you cry?

Kultus is still due for a November release. Word is the official launch will be at this year's FantasyCon in Brighton between September 30th and October 2nd, so if you're going I'll see you there. There'll be lots of fantasy goings on, I'm sure, but clearly one of the highlights will be me signing copies of my first novel, so pop along, see my happy smiling face and BUY ONE!

Knight Panther has been delayed from the originally touted release date, so now it'll be out some time during Q2/3 of this year. Still can't give out any details but Black Library fans should prepare to have their socks blown off by its awesomeness.

On other book related news, I've just signed a contract with a literary agent for another novel wot I wrote a year or so ago. It's called Lion Rampant and it's a straight-up heroic fantasy. I've just finished draft 2 and my agent will be touting it to publishers very soon, so fingers crossed there.

That's all I've got for now that's worth mentioning, but as soon as I've got news, you'll have news!

Cheers!

We Have Cover

Yes it appears we've gone public with the cover of my novel, Kultus. The ridiculously talented Frazer Irving has done an unbelievable job of capturing Blaklok in all his demoniac glory as he gazes through the Key of Lunos, probably without realising all the shit it's about to get him into.

Excuse me, I have to go lie down now.

Knight Panther

And how could I forget the other news – Knight Panther is a project I've been working on for the Black Library, and will hopefully be released by the start of next year. Unfortunately, with all their NDAs and disclaimers I'm not even allowed to say what form the project will take (seriously, if you reveal anything someone comes round and steals your washing) but needless to say it rocks!!

As ever – stay tuned!!

Kultus

Well I think I can say now, since I just signed the contract, that my occult steampunk novel Kultus will be published by Solaris Books in 2011. There's no firm release date as yet, but we're hoping for November, and there's no cover to show you, but we have preliminarily chosen an artist (and I did a little bit of wee in my pants when I found out who).

That's just about all I can say at the moment, so as soon as I have news, you'll have news. Stay tuned!!