Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 26
July 29, 2019
Chains and Promises
I’ve had a few things hit the shelves since I last posted. First up is the third and final entry in the Blackshields audio series, The Broken Chain.
The new audio-drama finds Endryd Haar and his merry band of renegades at the mercy of the Sons of Horus. Can they snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, or will treachery spell their end?
I’ve also got a short story in the Warcry anthology, featuring the disciplined, if brutal, warriors of the Iron Golems. “The Iron Promise” finds Dominar Vos Stalis and his warband investigating the reasons for a delayed tribute, and encountering a horror from the stars.
And as of today, you can also buy “The Iron Promise” separately, as a digital download, should you prefer.
All three are available from Black Library, Audible, Amazon and its affiliates. The Broken Chain is available as a CD or as an MP3 download. Warcry and “The Iron Promise” can be downloaded from the Black Library website or via Amazon.
July 5, 2019
Mid-Year Update
2019 has been a busy year, but not for the usual reasons. Perhaps the biggest one is that my wife and I had a child last year, and that’s the sort of thing that upends all former certainties and schedules. Even so, I managed to get some work done.
Most recently, I’ve been doing some work for Hi-Rez Studios – mostly background work on SMITE. I’ve also contributed scripts for a few reveal videos, one of which is below.
I’m also in discussions with several tie-in publishers concerning properties near and dear to my heart, which I hope to be working on sometime in the future. More on that later, if all goes well.
All of this is in an effort to diversify my income streams – something I’ve neglected of late. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got when I was starting out was that a freelance writer can’t allow themselves to tread water for too long. Sometimes you need to change things up and take your career in a new direction.
So, going forward, I’d like my schedule to be a bit more varied than it has been of late. I’m hoping to stretch myself a bit in the coming months – doing some work for Cubicle 7 on the Age of Sigmar RPG earlier in the year was, hopefully, just the first step.
Too, I wanted to take the time this year to focus on my own work. The first collection of Royal Occultist short stories is close to coming out, and I’ve written several new Royal Occultist stories which will be appearing late this year or next.
I’ve also managed to get a few non-Royal Occultist short story submissions in this year – not as many as I might like, but more than this time last year.
Regarding Black Library, I’ve apparently had a few things come out, including my Space Marine Conquests novel, Apocalypse.
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Apocalypse is available as an ebook, a paperback and an MP3 from Black Library, Amazon and all related subsidiaries. Also out this month is Venators, which includes my short audio drama, “Half-Horn”, and Underhive, which includes my short stories, “Death’s Head” and “Red Salvage”.
And that’s what I’ve been up to this year so far. Hopefully, there’ll be something a bit more interesting next time.
June 20, 2019
Reader Mailbag #6
On Twitter, @TaxFraud0 asks:
Have you ever considered writing about the people/culture of a city from the fractured States of the mortal realms (before they were wiped out in the Age of Chaos of course). I presume they’re quite different from Sigmars cities.
I have, actually, in Nagash: The Undying King.
That said, I’d love to write another book (or even a series!) set full on in the Age of Myth, before everything went to hell in a hand-basket. Unfortunately, there’s not much interest in it at the moment – at least from me.
I know Gav Thorpe’s newest novel, The Red Feast, is set in the time before the Age of Chaos. And David Annandale’s Neferata: Mortarch of Blood is set partially in the Age of Myth. So if you’re looking for that sort of thing, why not check those out?
June 7, 2019
Good Dies Here
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Everything good dies here. Even the stars.
I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Val Lewton’s horror films have a strange rhythm to them. Where the Universal horror films of that era have a sort of fairy tale quality to them, Lewton’s are more grounded, and the horrors more nebulous. Are they devils of the mind, or the flesh, or both?
Lewton’s 1943 effort, I Walked with a Zombie, exemplifies this approach. His second horror film for RKO, after Cat People, it was directed by Jacques Tourneur, the film blends creative lightning, music and staging to foment a disturbing atmosphere – but rather than one of fear, it is one of misery. The island of Saint Sebastian is a place of beauty that brings only sadness to its inhabitants.
This atmosphere is embodied by the insensate Jessica Holland (played by Christine Gordon), and her family. Holland, the titular zombie – one of only two in the film – is at the heart of a mystery never fully explained.
Is she merely a sufferer of some awful disease, or the victim of a vindictive god? The film provides no answer. Or, rather the answer is tailored to the audience. If you believe in zombies, Jessica can be nothing else. She does not bleed or speak. Like the eerie Carre-Four, who guards the island’s crossroads, Jessica is at once dead and alive. A symbol of the power of the loa, and the punishment which awaits those who transgress against their laws.
But she is also a symbol of stifled hopes and dreams. More than a supernatural horror, she represents the crushing weight of regret. She is the living – or unliving – symbol of the shared culpability of her husband, her lover and her step-mother. A crime that can never be redressed.
She is enslaved to the Holland clan, as the ancestors of the island’s population were. Brought to the island by a neglectful husband, she falls for the charms of his louche half-brother, and suffers for it. Demeaned and abused by both brothers, she makes clear her intentions to leave, when their desperate mother curses her in an attempt to prevent her from doing so. A sad story, made worse by her transitory state.
If Jessica were alive, or dead, life could continue. But like her, the other characters are trapped, unable to move either forwards or backwards. They cannot undo the past, and they cannot move on while Jessica sits, blind and mute, in her darkened room. She is their guilt manifested, and while she persists, they are caught fast in chains of their own making. And so the characters bend beneath the weight of guilt, both personal and shared.
And finally, in the end, they break.
I’ve told you, Miss Connell: this is a sad place.
May 21, 2019
Occult Preview
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Today, courtesy of 18thWall Productions, as well as artists Johannes (Cryptid Clash, The Chromatic Court) and Barbara Sobczyńska, I’ve got a look at some of the internal art for the forthcoming Royal Occultist collection, Monmouth’s Giants (as well as another look at that fantastic cover).
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As I’ve mentioned before, the collection includes eleven previously published stories, as well as an all-new novelette, “Fane of the Black Queen”, which you can read the first page of above.
The book also includes author’s notes on each story, and the table of contents is arranged chronologically, rather than by publication order. The table of contents is below:
“Monmouth’s Giants”
“The Charnel Hounds”
“The Unwrapping Party”
“The Artist as Wolf”
“The Door of Eternal Night”
“Krampusnacht”
“The Faceless Fiend”
“Iron Bells”
“The Wedding Seal”
“Wendy-Smythe’s Worm”
“Deo Viridio”
“Fane of the Black Queen”
For more on the adventures of St. Cyprian and Gallowglass, as well as past and future holders of the office, take a look at the Royal Occultist chronology on this site, as well as a number of free short stories, available only on Patreon. And be sure to ‘Like’ the Royal Occultist Facebook page, in order to keep up with all the latest news and info on the series!
May 11, 2019
Bonegrinder
Black Library released a new volume of Inferno this weekend, and it includes a new Topek Greel story by me. “Bonegrinder” sees Greel’s attempt to engineer a gang-war derailed as he’s forced to fight for his life, and his honour as a Steelgate King, against a savage denizen of the underhive – a monstrous sumpkroc called Bonegrinder.
From the blurb:
From the bar of the Brazen Claw where aelven Prince Maesa tells his tale, to the secretive rituals of the Adeptus Mechanicus and a feral Emperor-worshipping tribe, this anthology brings you 11 tales of action and adventure!
Topek Greel and the Steelgate Kings have appeared previously in the short story, “Death’s Head”, from 2018. While “Death’s Head” is the story of Greel’s initiation into the Steelgate Kings, “Bonegrinder” finds him a seasoned member of the gang, and attempting to usurp the authority of its leader, Irontooth Korg.
“Bonegrinder” was great fun to write. Pretty much from the first moment I laid eyes on the official Sumpkroc artwork, I knew I needed to include one in a story.
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Even better, I needed to force poor, Machiavellian Greel to fight one bare-handed. Because who doesn’t want to read about a super-steroid-jacked abhuman gangster wrestling a hideous mutated alien crocodile?
Thus, “Bonegrinder”.
I hope to continue the story of the Steelgate Kings in future issues of Inferno! but only time will tell. For the moment, why not pick up a copy of Inferno! V.3, and download a copy of “Death’s Head”? And if you enjoy them, be sure to let Black Library know, via their Facebook page.
Inferno! V.3 is available from Black Library as a paperback and as a digital download. It’s also available from Amazon and its subsidiaries, as well as all reputable booksellers.
May 1, 2019
On Dark Wings
There’s a new short story for patrons available at my Patreon today. “On Dark Wings” is the first solo outing for Baron Palman Vordenburg, first introduced in the Royal Occultist novella, “The Coventry Street Terror”.
“On Dark Wings” finds the Baron in the Ionian Sea, hunting a winged horror out of myth and legend. But he finds more trouble than he bargained for, in the ruins of an island monastery.
It’s a fairly simple story, as befits what amounts to a pilot episode. I wanted to (re) introduce Vordenburg to readers, show who he is, and send him into danger at a fairly brisk pace. Get things going with a bang, as they say.
Mostly, I wanted to avoid the usual occult detective tropes. Unlike St. Cyprian, Vordenburg isn’t much of an investigator or even that knowledgeable about the occult – save regarding means of dispatch. He’s more akin to a knight errant, armed to the teeth and looking for trouble. A monster-hunter, plain and simple.
There’s something refreshing about writing a character with that sort of focus. In fact, I’m already working on a second story – a sort-of sequel to/pastiche of E.F. Benson’s “The Horror-Horn”, set in the waning days of the Great War.
While future stories might explore the good Baron’s background a bit more – it gets touched on in “On Dark Wings”, but only sparingly – for the moment I’m going to enjoy the formula of ‘Baron Vordenburg + exotic location + monster of the week’. And I hope you enjoy them as well.
You can read “On Dark Wings”, as well as a host of other short stories, by pledging a dollar to my Patreon. You can also read a serialised version of “The Coventry Street Terror”, on my Patreon for free. I encourage you to check both of them out by using the ‘baron vordenburg’ tag. And if you happened to enjoy one or both, please feel free to leave a comment on my Patreon, as well as mention them on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.
April 30, 2019
Monmouth’s Giants
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Today I’ve got a special treat for fans of the Royal Occultist – a look at the top-notch cover for Monmouth’s Giants, the first volume of the Casefiles of the Royal Occultist. The book collects several previously published stories, as well as a brand new tale. It will be out soon from the kind folks at 18thWall Productions, publishers of Cryptid Clash. The fantastic art-deco cover is by Johannes (Cryptid Clash, The Chromatic Court).
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The collection includes eleven previously published stories, as well as an all-new novelette, “Fane of the Black Queen”. The book also includes author’s notes on each story, and the table of contents is arranged chronologically, rather than by publication order. The table of contents is below:
“Monmouth’s Giants”
“The Charnel Hounds”
“The Unwrapping Party”
“The Artist as Wolf”
“The Door of Eternal Night”
“Krampusnacht”
“The Faceless Fiend”
“Iron Bells”
“The Wedding Seal”
“Wendy-Smythe’s Worm”
“Deo Viridio”
“Fane of the Black Queen”
The keen-eyed among you might notice that this volume contains the stories featuring the monstrous Nephren-Ka – “The Unwrapping Party”, and “The Door of Eternal Night”. This is because the saga of the Black Pharaoh is wrapped up (get it?) in “Fane of the Black Queen”. This novelette also pulls double-duty as the first solo Gallowglass tale.
Needless to say, I’m very excited about this. At the moment, a further three volumes are planned, collecting every published Royal Occultist story to date. Each volume will include author’s notes and an all-new novelette or novella.
The book will be out soon, so watch this space for more news as it develops!
For more on the adventures of St. Cyprian and Gallowglass, as well as past and future holders of the office, take a look at the Royal Occultist chronology on this site, as well as a number of free short stories, available only on Patreon. And be sure to ‘Like’ the Royal Occultist Facebook page, in order to keep up with all the latest news and info on the series!
April 22, 2019
The French Connection
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Today’s look at the world of the Royal Occultist features on another ally of Charles St. Cyprian, the French occultist, Andre du Nord…
Andre du Nord, latest in a proud Gallic line of sorcerers, occultists and necromancers. The du Nords have owned land in the werewolf-haunted province of Averoigne since 1281 and they are one of the Heritiers de la Sorcellerie–the great sorcerous bloodlines of France–along with the de Marignys and the d’Erlettes, among others.
St. Cyprian and du Nord first met in Averoigne in 1913, not long after the former had become Thomas Carnacki’s apprentice and the latter had completed his own training in the necromantic arts.
Later that year, the two men would participate in the 1913 Grand Prix, where they ran afoul of a rogue patisserie in Amiens. Their friendship survived this rocky start and flourished in the following years.
Since that time, du Nord has aided St. Cyprian in a number of cases, including the Carpathian Repatriation of 1920 and the ‘Immacolata Abominata’ incident in July of the following year. St. Cyprian has returned the favour numerous times, joining du Nord in his own investigations into the unknown.
Andre du Nord, like Baron Vordenburg, is one of the Royal Occultist’s international peers. And also like Vordenburg, he has a notable literary antecedent – Gaspard du Nord, the protagonist of Clark Ashton Smith’s short story, “The Colossus of Ylourgne”.
Observant readers will note that this isn’t the first time that I’ve mined that particular story for my own benefit – Ylourgne, and the alchemical experiments of the dwarfish necromancer Nathaire, are mentioned in another Royal Occultist story, “Dead Men’s Bones”. Given that “The Colossus…” is one of my favourite CAS tales, this is perhaps unsurprising.
While I initially had no plans to spin du Nord off into his own stories, I’ve since had a change of heart. France is rife with fodder for occult detective stories, from the Court of Miracles to the Beast of Gevaudan. While I likely won’t write a solo adventure any time soon, du Nord may well appear in a few more Royal Occultist tales between now and then. Like Vordenburg, I think he’s a character with a lot of potential, and I hope to be able to explore it in the future.
Andre du Nord has appeared in the following stories:
THE INFERNAL EXPRESS
For more on the adventures of St. Cyprian and Gallowglass, as well as past and future holders of the office, take a look at the Royal Occultist chronology on this site, as well as a number of free short stories, available only on Patreon. And be sure to ‘Like’ the Royal Occultist Facebook page, in order to keep up with all the latest news and info on the series!
April 20, 2019
Reader Mailbag #5
On Twitter, @schafecast asks:
How is it going?
‘s going fairly well, actually. I’m surprisingly busy for this time of year, even accounting for a six month old daughter and an imminent change of scenery. I’ve got a collection of short stories coming out in a few weeks, (of Hellraiser fame) had some nice things to say about my contribution to The Wicked and the Damned in a recent interview, and the new projects I’m working on are both financially and creatively rewarding.
So, all in all, things are good.
