Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 43

WIP Wednesday: Out of Sync

The problem with having ideas is the urge to share them all, in excruciating detail. Right now, I have a dozen ideas rattling around in my brain, looking for a way out. One or two of them will make it, but the rest will have to wait.

Right now, most of those ideas are bits of business for the current WIP. Stuff like, what sort of beer would you brew, if you lived on the back of a giant worm? What would you call the seasons? Does Nagash have missionaries? Are there people from Shyish standing on street corners, handing out religious tracts about the benefits of dying and consigning your soul to the Undying King?

I like to think so.

Anyway, I’m at the point in the book where I’ve stopped pretending that I’m going to do this thing in anything remotely resembling a linear fashion. Some books are like that. I write the scene I’m interested in on the day, and worry about how to tie it all together later. Great for word count, bad for anyone trying to make sense of what I’m writing. Luckily, that’s my problem and no one else’s.

Writing out of sync also allows for greater creativity on my part, I think. Especially in regards to dialogue. Just sitting down and writing a conversation between two characters can yield interesting results later on in the book. Granted, a lot of these conversations are unimportant, in regards to the main thrust of the plot, but anything that adds depth to the characters populating said plot is probably a good idea.

Today’s out-of-sync scenes, in no particular order: an elderly skaven warlord arguing with a somewhat dim-witted rat-daemon; a knight feeding a live wolf-rat to his demigryph; a vampire climbing the side of a giant worm; and shape-changing raven-assassins attacking a library. Make of that what you will.

Also, seven days left to enter the charity raffle for a copy of Nagash: The Undying King. To those of you who’ve entered, thank you. To those of you still considering it – what are you waiting for?

Nine Days of Nagash

Right, so…’tis the season. Christmas. A time of giving. A time of charity and compassion, unless your name is Jacob Marley. So, to that end, I’ve decided to raffle off a signed copy of Nagash: The Undying King, my newest Age of Sigmar novel, in return for charitable donations to a worthy cause.

The book is currently only available as a limited edition hardback from Warhammer World and Games Workshop events. So if you’re not planning to head to Nottingham anytime soon, this might be your best chance to get a copy, outside of ebay.

Nagash: The Undying King finds Nagash and his Mortarchs, Neferata and Arkhan, in the northern reaches of Shyish in the years following the Undying King’s defeat at the hands of Archaon, the Exalted Grand Marshal of Chaos. Can the Mortarchs rally the Rictus Clans in time to prevent the Pox-Crusade of Blightmaster Wolgus from finding one of nine gates into the underworld, or is Nagash doomed to defeat once more?

Sounds good, right? Right. So, to get a chance at a signed copy, all you have to do is donate £5.00 or more to the Sheffield RSPCA, and send me an email with proof of donation. Once you do that, I’ll write down your name, and throw it into the hat. Nine days from now, I’ll draw a name from the hat, and the lucky winner will receive a signed book in the post.

So, to sum up: Donate £5.00 or more to the Sheffield RSPCA, send me proof of donation at argus33 at hotmail dot com, and get your name added to the hat. Nine days from now, on December 13th, I’ll draw a name from the hat, and announce the winner.

I may even post pictures of the hat.

That’s it. Go forth and do my will.

And remember, children – all are one in Nagash, and Nagash is all.

Road of Blades

The first of my four contributions to this year’s Black Library Advent Calendar, “The Road of Blades”, is now available to download, if you’re of a mind. It’s an Age of Sigmar story, and a sort-of, not-quite prologue to my current novel-in-progress, Eight Lamentations: Spear of Shadows.

From the blurb:

Those who tread the Road of Blades do so seeking glory in the eyes of the Dark Gods, or so Ahazian Kel believes. He is the last of his tribe, a Deathbringer, a fearless warrior whose path leads him to the dreaded Soulmaw, a forge-citadel and bastion of Khorne’s Skullgrinders, a place between realms. To breach such a fortress… the rewards could be beyond imagining, even the power to determine your own destiny…

The story centres on Ahazian Kel, one of the antagonists for my current work-in-progress, Spear of Shadows, and brings together several plot elements from my previous novels, Black Rift and Fury of Gork. Ahazian, last hero of the people known as the Ekran, also has a connection to my forthcoming novel, Hallowed Knights: Plague Garden, but I’ll talk about that later.

Ahazian is an interesting character to write – a Bloodbound who uses his wits, as well as his weapons. Utterly uninterested in commanding armies or conquering territory, Ahazian fights with religious devotion, attempting to become one with the concept of war itself. He’s gotten plenty of screen time in Eight Lamentations: Spear of Shadows as well – first fighting his way through an undead army, then through a tribe of singularly unlucky orruks – with more to come. He’s a lone warrior, on a mission from a god, and he’ll fight his way through anyone or anything that tries to stop him.

You don’t have to read “The Road of Blades” to enjoy Eight Lamentations, but I recommend it, especially if you’ve been wondering just what the eponymous Lamentations are, and who’s after them. If you’re on the fence, why not check out this review, and see if it decides you.

“The Road of Blades” is available to download from Black Library.

Pater Mutatis

He is known by many names…Primogenitor…Clonelord…Manflayer. The epitome of deceit and perversion, feared by man and monster alike. And he might just be the last hope humanity has, in the grim darkness of the far future…

Fabius Bile: Primogenitor is now available to purchase, in all its various formats – hardback, digital, audio and limited edition (less than 600 of those left, btw). It’s already gotten a handful of good reviews, on Goodreads and various forums. If you’ve read it, and you enjoyed it, feel free to post a review yourself. Every little bit helps, and the more word of mouth there is, the more likely the book is to sell.

People have asked me whether this is the first in a series – it is, with the caveat that if Primogenitor doesn’t meet sales expectations, there probably won’t be a third volume. So, you know, re-tweets, shares, reviews, any and all of that would be appreciated, if you’ve bought it. And if you haven’t, maybe give it a try. You can even download it for the Kindle, if you like.

I’ll talk a bit more about it, in the weeks to come. It’s my second Warhammer 40,000 novel (after Deathstorm) and the first that isn’t tied into an ongoing release in some way, so it’s a big deal – for me, at least. For now, if you’ve gotten your copy, thanks for picking it up, and I hope you enjoy it. And if you did enjoy it, do me a favour, and let folks know.

Green Death

The kind gentlemen over at the Microphones of Madness podcast have composed a two-part review of Dark Regions Press’ new anthology, The Children of Gla’aki, which includes my story, “Squatter’s Rights”.

Part One is here. Part Two is here. I strongly suggest you listen to both, but if you’re only interested in their discussion of “Squatter’s Rights” (spoiler: they liked it), it’s in Part Two.

“Squatter’s Rights” finds Charles St. Cyprian, the Royal Occultist, and his assistant, Ebe Gallowglass, facing off with the monstrous Gla’aki and his followers, on behalf of a friend with poor taste in lakefront properties.

Children of Gla’aki is available as an ebook, trade paperback or deluxe hardcover from Dark Regions Press.

WIP Wednesday: Tik-Tik-Tik

Round and round it goes, all day, every day. Tik-tik-tik. The wheel of my mind, tik-tik-tik. Never slowing, never speeding up. Regular, rhythmic, routine. Tik-tik-tik. I am Jacques Futrelle’s Thinking Machine. See me ratiocinate.

All things that start must go somewhere.

The book is going somewhere. 35,000 words in, two and a half weeks. Characters have been introduced, motivations teased, the plot is moving smoothly. There’s a tendency, with a book like this one, to turn sections into a travelogue of sorts. ‘Here is a place. Look at it from a great height. Now look at it from a low crouch. Is it not glorious?’

I’m trying to avoid that here. Whatever its secondary purpose, the primary function of Eight Lamentations: Spear of Shadows is to tell a cracking good adventure story. I need the characters to do things, while they admire the view. And if not them, other characters. I’m bringing in some old favourites from two of my previous Age of Sigmar contributions – Black Rift and Fury of Gork – in walk on cameos, just for that purpose.

That leads to another danger, of course. Side-characters, especially fun ones, can easily take over a story. I have to be sparing with them, and remember that they’re part of the mechanism of the plot. That said, fun is fun, and sometimes it’s good to eat up some word count with old friends – in this case, a (very) elderly skaven warlord who’s busy threatening his subordinates to death, and a flock of shape-changing Arcanite raven-assassins who are hunting our heroes through the ochre skies of the realm of beasts.

In other WIPs, I managed to get two short story submissions off this week, and tweak a pitch for Black Library. In doing so, I managed to clear the decks of all outstanding projects, barring the book. Now I’ve got a month to finish the novel, take a few days off and get to work on Book #1 of 2017. I wonder what *that* will be about?

In other, wholly unrelated, news, you’ve got two days left to pre-order Fabius Bile: Primogenitor, before it hits the shelves. And if you’ve been eyeing the snazzy limited edition, well, there’s only about 750 copies left, so you’d best get one sooner, rather than later. If you’re on the fence about it, check out this wonderful review by Marc Collins and see if it sways you.

Sounds of the Sea

Sharkpunk, the ultimate anthology of killer shark stories from Snow Books and editor Jonathan Green, is now out in audio format, courtesy of Circle of Spears Productions. It’s available as a disc or as a digital download, for your listening pleasure.

Sharkpunk was also recently reviewed by both Black Static Magazine and the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviewer, with the latter making special mention of my contribution,  “Deep Red Bells”. The story sees Charles St. Cyprian, the Royal Occultist, and his assistant, Ebe Gallowglass, investigating a case of selachimorphic possession in Dorset. Needless to say, things go very badly, very quickly.

And speaking of the Royal Occultist and sharks, Sharkpunk 2 is coming, and a new story. “The Thunder, His Passing” finds St. Cyprian and Gallowglass in Fiji, facing off with a hungry shark god. If that sounds interesting, why not check out the Facebook page?

Last Rites

I recently took part in an interview of the more macabre sort, conducted by the Occult Detective himself, Bob Freeman. Why not go check it out? And be sure to check out the other interviews in the series. They make for interesting reading.

Turkeys Away

Happy Thanksgiving. Have some WKRP in Cincinnati.

WIP Wednesday: Eight Weapons

One of the biggest obstacles to doing these weekly updates is because I can only rarely talk about certain projects openly. But, since I got to talk about Book #6 at Black Library Live! 2016, I figure I can discuss it some here as well.

As of today, I’m about 22,000 words into the first draft of Eight Lamentations: Spear of Shadows (AKA Book #6). The book, which is set in Games Workshop’s Age of Sigmar setting, is a high-octane, interdimensional adventure. A band of heroes (some more heroic than others) are sent on a desperate quest for a long-lost daemonic weapon, pursued by vampiric spies, shape-changing assassins, and a murderous champion of the dark gods. Sounds simple enough, right?

Part of the brief for this book was that it include some elements of the intellectual property not yet explored in any detail. To that end, it has so far had scenes with members of the Ironweld Arsenal (an alliance of duardin and human engineers), the Stormcast Eternals of the Sons of Mallus Stormhost (specifically Gaius Greel, last seen in The Realmgate Wars: Fury of Gork), the Bloodbound (cannibalistic Chaos warriors who worship the Blood God), Deathrattle skeletons, Soulblight vampires, the Skaven (nefarious rat-men with a penchant for mad science and treachery), various flavours of duardin (fantasy dwarfs, with a twist or three), shape-changing Arcanites (another type of Chaos warrior, worshippers of the Changer of Ways) and at least one ogor (an ogre). And that’s just in the first quarter of the book.

One of the common criticisms levelled at this particular setting has been its relative lack of depth. We know who the factions are, and why they’re fighting, but not what they’re fighting for. Who and what are the various factions seeking to protect, conquer or devour? Now, anyone who’s read the various tie-in novels, audios and short stories related to the setting probably already has some idea as to the answer to that question.

But with this book, I’m getting the opportunity to really dig into HOW the realms work, and how a city in the Age of Sigmar might function. You want to know what people (and Skaven) eat? Got you covered. Want to know how the sewers work? Weird, but okay. Who patrols the walls? How do they brew beer? What’s a slum like in the Age of Sigmar (short answer: awful)? Where do the rich folks live? What sort of temples do they have? Where do all these people come from, if the armies of the dark gods are constantly attacking? These are all questions I’m hoping to answer. Satisfactorily, if not in detail.

More than that, I’m getting to explore how the various cultures of the mortal realms might interact – can the scion of a noble house of the Celestial Realm get along with a hard-bitten sellsword from the Realm of Metal? What does a librarian in the Realm of Beasts look like? What about a demigryph knight from the Realm of Life?

But, strip all of that away, and its a book about people, and the reasons they do what they do. It’s a book about family and expectation, trust and loyalty.

That’s what I hope, at any rate. But if you want to concentrate on the aerial battles, the giant war machine powered by thousands upon thousands of rats, and the giant spider nesting inside the trunk of a giant tree-citadel, I won’t hold it against you.

Anyway, that’s what I’m working on this week.