Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 28

Reader Mailbag #1

Amelia Gradt asks:

Do you accept fan art for your stories, and if so do you have a safe/secure means for fans of your work to send their art? I’ve seen some artists upload to twitter/tumblr but for non-twitter/tumblr users are there any other methods? I’d love to send you some Fabius art. Thanks!

I do accept fan art, but regrettably the only methods available at the moment are Twitter and Tumblr. I’ve considered setting up an email account for fan-mail, fan art and the like, but unfortunately, I haven’t gotten around to it yet – and probably won’t for a good while yet.  You could try sending it to me via Facebook, if you like – I’d love to see it!

That goes for all fan art, really. I love seeing readers’ interpretations of my characters. Nothing makes my day more than to see that what I wrote inspired someone to create art of some sort. So if you have some – feel free to shoot me a link on Twitter at @JMReynolds and/or Tumblr at @occultdetectives.

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar

I’m pleased to announce that Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar is now up for preorder from Moonstone Books. It includes a story by me, as well as a whole coterie of other authors, including Bobby Nash and Joe Gentile. 

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From the blurb:

For the first time EVER, BRAND NEW STORIES of the “man with the action-packed expense account”! One of classic Radio’s most beloved detectives makes his way to prose in Moonstone’s YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR!

This thrilling collection features today’s top authors, including Anthony Award winning Author Gary Phillips, putting Johnny in the cross-hairs of all kinds of danger, dames, and dark deeds! More stories by: Tommy Hancock, Joe Gentile, Ron Fortier, Eric Fein, Bobby Nash, Josh Reynolds, & Barry Reese.

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar is a classic of Golden Age radio-drama, and one of my favourites, along with The Saint and The Lives of Harry Lime. I’ve always got a handful of the Bob Bailey episodes keyed up on my listening device of choice, especially when I’m planning a road trip.

My contribution, “The Soda City Matter”, finds Dollar investigating insurance fraud and animal attacks in South Carolina. It was great fun, digging into the history of my hometown of Columbia, and trying to capture Bailey’s voice in my depiction of Dollar. I like to think I succeeded, but I’ll leave that up to readers to decide.

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar will be released in late February, but for the moment is available to preorder from the publisher as either limited edition hardback, or in trade paperback. 

#AskJosh

Last week, I mentioned that I’d be opening the floor for reader questions here. Well, today is the day. So…if you have questions for me, relating to my work, now is the time to ask them. You can do so either on Twitter, using the tag #AskJosh, or in the comments of this post.

As questions come in, they’ll go into the mailbag. I’ll then select one at random and answer it here once a day, once a week or once a month, depending on the volume, and my schedule. Fair warning, though – some might not get answered immediately.

Note:  To those of you who’ve already posted questions in the comments of the previous posts, don’t worry. They’ve already gone in the bag, so no need to post them here. 

PSA – Series Pages

Just dropping a note to say that I’ve begun updating the site with dedicated pages for characters such as the Royal Occultist or series such as the Nightmare Men. These pages will be regularly updated, with a chronological listing of all works in the series, as well as any relevant blog posts, interviews, etc.

While these are still very much a work in progress, I’ve completed the first few, and decided to link them here to see what people think. There are more to come, as and when I find time. But for the moment, why not check these out?

DAUGHTER OF GHOULS
EIGHT LAMENTATIONS
SILVER SCREAMS
THE GHOST-BREAKER
THE NIGHTMARE MEN
THE ROYAL OCCULTIST

 

Twenty Questions

So, in the past there has been a plethora of ways in which a curious reader might ask me a question, including Ask.fm, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Tumblr, et cetera. There was even a page on this site. Unfortunately, having too many options is just as bad as too few. In the interests of being a bit more efficient with my time, I’ve decided to consolidate my efforts. To that end, I’ve decided to start up a new regular feature here – the Reader Mailbag.

In addition to answering questions on Tumblr and Twitter, once a month I’ll be posting a call for reader questions here. If you have a question, you can ask it on social media, using the tag #AskJosh, or in the comments here. As questions come in, they’ll go into the mailbag. I’ll then select one at random and answer it here once a day, once a week or once a month, depending on the volume.

The biggest change as a result of this will be the closing of my Ask.fm account at the end of January. It’s done me proud service, and it’ll get the viking funeral it deserves, in around three weeks or so. I won’t be answering any more questions there from today, but feel free to peruse those I’ve already answered one last time.

By the same token, I won’t be answering questions on my Goodreads page, or on Facebook, for the foreseeable future. In the interim, any questions I’m asked on the aforementioned sites will go into the mailbag, as will any questions I’m asked here.

While it may seem counter-intuitive for a jobbing writer to prune avenues of reader interaction, I’ve given it a lot of thought over the past few weeks. To date, I’ve employed a somewhat scattershot approach, in order to reach as many people as possible.

While this has resulted in a mostly positive experience, it’s also reduced this site to one thing among many, rather than the central hub it’s meant to be. As one of my goals for the coming year is to draw more eyes here, I’ve decided that consolidating my approach is only sensible. Only time will tell if I’m right.

In the meantime, you can look forward to the first call for questions next week, and the first Reader Mailbag post not long after. I hope you’ll stick around to see how it goes.

New Year’s Open Day

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I’ll be signing books at Warhammer World this Saturday, from 11 to 1. If you’re around, swing by and say hello!

New Year, New Look

First off, happy new year. Though I’ve got to say, so far it’s remarkably reminiscent of the old one. I’m still working on the same book I was yesterday, and I’m still in the same office I was in last night. Some things have changed, though. This site, for one.

It’s a work in progress, at the moment. I went from not messing with the design for a few years to changing everything in a few days. I may change it back. I may do something entirely different. I’m relatively happy with the way it looks currently, however, so I doubt it’ll change much.

That said, there are some differences. I’ve removed a page (‘Ask Josh’) as I’ve decided to answer questions on the site proper, rather than in a slew of nested comments. If you have a question, save it up. Once a month or so, I’ll put out a call for questions you’d like answered, or topics you’d like to see me write about. I decided to do it this way for two key reasons: (a) I want this site to be relatively entertaining for people, which means content and (b) I’m a glutton for punishment.

There are other changes in the works as well. I’ve reorganised the ‘Works’ page so that it’s easier to navigate, as per the many, many (many) requests I’ve gotten over the past year. I’m thinking about combining it with the ‘Free Fiction’ page, as well – with links to the free stuff embedded in the work list, rather than being on a separate page – so if you have an opinion about that, feel free to sound off in the comments.

I’m also thinking of setting up individual pages for a few of my various series, much as I’ve done with the Royal Occultist. I don’t know that anyone cares about the chronology of the John Bass stories, for instance – but it might be worth doing, if only to remind people that the character exists. Again, if you have an opinion, feel free to share it in the comments.

As the year progresses, I’ll also be seeking to overhaul my social media presence. That includes Tumblr, Facebook, etc. I’d like to streamline my set-up a bit, remove some clutter and inject a bit of efficiency into what has been, until this point, a cobbled together machine of vague intentions and random interjections. Basically, I need to put some actual effort into this whole social media thing.

That also means I probably need to update this site more than once a month. So, expect more long-winded posts about monster movies and things that interest me – maybe even some hobby stuff – as well as more posts about writing in general, as well as my various characters, etc. If you have any opinions as to what you’d like to see more of (or less of), feel free to sound off in the comments below.

I know I say something like this every year, but I really mean it this time. I’m going to give it a shot, at least, and see what clicks. I hope you stick around to find out with me. Either way, thanks for being here.

Now, let’s see what 2019 has in store for us…

PSA – Site Changes

As you might have noticed, I’m fiddling with the site. I’ve removed a few pages and posts, and changed stuff around a bit. One of those things was the ‘Ask Josh’ page. I’ve decided to make that a more general ‘Reader’s Mailbag’ type of thing, where I can answer your questions in an actual post, rather than a brief comment.

So. If you have a question you want answering, and you don’t mind it being front and centre in a post, ask away. To anyone whose questions/comments suddenly vanished, my apologies. Ask me again, either via a comment here or on Twitter or Facebook, and I’ll endeavour to answer it in a timely fashion.

My apologies for any confusion or frustration this might have caused. Or will cause in the future, as I’m not done messing with things yet.

New Works, 2018 Edition

It’s been a busy year. I became a father. Got a dog. That sort of stuff. Also, I wrote some stuff. And since I’ve been a bit remiss in posting about some of it, I decided to get it all done at once before the year comes to a close. Below is a list of everything I’ve had published in 2018, with links to where you can check it out, if you’re of a mind to do so. 

AUDIOS

Blackshields: The Red Fief 
Hallowed Knights: The Denied
Eight Lamentations: War-Claw
Necromunda: Half-Horn

NOVELS

Lukas the Trickster
Soul Wars
Shadespire: The Mirrored City
Hallowed Knights: Black Pyramid

NOVELLAS

Nightscape: The Divined Drowned

PATREON SHORT STORIES

“The Coventry Street Terror”
“Hungerpillar”
“The Orphan of Bones”
“The Creeping Man”
“IA, Django, IA!”
“La Chauve-Souris”
“Fiends Fell”

SHORT STORIES

“Fabius Bile: Light of a Crystal Sun”
“Lukas the Trickster: Breath of Morkai”
“Necromunda: Death’s Head”
“The Bascomb Rug”
“Hallowed Knights: The Ghosts of Demesnus”
“Soul Wars: Threnody”
“The Ignoble Sportsmen”
“The Great Revelry”
“The Ghoul’s Portrait”
“Green Hell, Red Murder”
“Waking the Dragon”
“How Vido Learned the Trick”
“Bruno J. Lampini and the Boots of Frankenstein”

I’m going to be honest – not as much variety as I might have liked on that list. I received a handful of anthology invites this year that I just never got around to submitting to, or just plain forgot about until the deadline had passed. I even managed to talk myself out of a few interesting sounding novel-length projects due to an abiding lack of interest in video games, among other things.

Basically, I didn’t have my head in the game, this year. A lot of that was down to events out of my control, but some of it was pure laziness. I’ve gotten complacent, of late. I thought that since I was making money, everything was chugging along the way it should be. And maybe it is. But maybe it ain’t.

Tie-in fiction can be a double-edged sword for an author. On the one hand, it’s very often steady money – good advances and regular royalties are hard to turn down, even when you might not be particularly interested in the project in question. Paying bills is nice, especially when you can do it by writing about space marines.

But it eats up time like nobody’s business, and potentially your enthusiasm for work, as well. Of late, I find that the more tie-in work I do in a short space of time, the more quickly I hit my limit for the year, with neither the interest or energy for much of anything else. Short stories go unfinished, this site goes dormant, etc. none of which is good for a jobbing writer.

So, I need to find a happy medium in 2019. To that end, I’ve already withdrawn from a few projects I’d talked about doing with my editors at Black Library, in order to free up some time to do something different next year. I won’t lie – it hurt to do it. My inner mercenary hates the thought of leaving money on the table. But a little pain now might save me a lot of pain later.

That’s the theory anyway.

Adios, 2018. Roll on, 2019.

Haunted Holidays

It’s that time of year, when the spirits of the dead wander freely and stories are told around blazing fires. When the world is at its darkest, on the verge of a new dawn.

By which I mean it’s Christmas.

And since it’s the holidays, I’ve posted my most oft-requested Royal Occultist tale, “Krampusnacht”, to Patreon as a free read. While Krampusnacht is technically on December 5th, I figure you’ll forgive a bit of poetic license.

“Krampusnacht” was the first Royal Occultist story ever written, and was initially a free holiday give-away on my old, now-defunct blog back in 2010. It has since been reprinted several times. I like to think I anticipated the whole Krampus zeitgeist thing we have going on these days, as it seems the big bugger is everywhere you look now.

This is still one of my favourite stories, and the first of several Christmas-themed Royal Occultist tales I’ve written. The others, in order of publication, are:

“Merry John Mock”, Pulpwork Press Christmas Special, Pulpwork Press, 2011; St. Cyprian and Gallowglass deal with ghostly swine and malevolent mummers during a Winter Solstice in the Channel Islands.

“Feast of Fools”, Pulpwork Press Christmas Special, Pulpwork Press, 2012; St. Cyprian and Gallowglass face down the sinister Saturn Society on a bothersome Boxing Day.

“The Third Death of Henry Antrim”, Pulpwork Press Christmas Special, Pulpwork Press, 2013; St. Cyprian and Gallowglass hunt for a vampire during a Christmas party.

“The Teeth of Winter”, Pulpwork Press Christmas Special, Pulpwork Press, 2014; St. Cyprian and Gallowglass hunt a cannibalistic ogre, with the help of fellow occult investigator, Lone Crow, in Northern Alberta.

I encourage you to check them out, if you’re interested in some monstrously fun holiday reading. They’re all available for Kindle, and cheap.

In the meantime, please enjoy “Krampusnacht”. And happy holidays!

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!