Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 44

Manglers Never Lose

My first Blood Bowl story, “Manglers Never Lose”, is out today, as a Monday Quick Read on the Black Library site.

From the blurb:

Tyrus Bundt, coach of the Middenplatz Manglers, finds his star player dead on the eve of the Doombowl finals. With no time to recruit a replacement, he can only think of one last, desperate option – find a necromancer!

This story was a blast to write. Probably the most enjoyable bit of work I had, this year, honestly. Bundt and the rest of the Middenplatz Manglers have quickly become some of my favourite characters to write about. So much so, in fact, that I jumped at the opportunity to write a SECOND story featuring the team, “Doc Morgrim’s Vow”, which’ll be out next month as part of the 2016 Advent Calendar.

My hope is, if these two stories prove popular, I’ll get to write about the Middenplatz Manglers again. So, I’d appreciate it if all you Blood Bowl fans out there could pick up the story and give it a shot. And if you enjoy it, and want more, be sure to let Black Library know.

“Manglers Never Lose” is available via the Black Library site as a digital download.

The Sunday After

Black Library Live! 2016 is over and done with, and a wonderful time was had by all.

Except the people whose cab Mark Clapham and I stole. In our defence, we didn’t know, and we’re very sorry. I mean, not really, because I had a train to catch, and survival of the fittest, et cetera and so on, but still, apologies.

Anyway, the day went better than I expected. I tend to be somewhat pessimistic regarding events where I’m expected to be entertaining. I’m not, by nature, an entertaining sort of fellow. I don’t like talking, I don’t like people, and I don’t like travelling. So, three strikes already. But I muddled through, in as best a fashion as I could manage. And I have plenty of people to thank for it.

I looked to others for examples of how to act – Aaron Dembski-Bowden. Guy Haley. The aforementioned Mark Clapham. John French. Gav Thorpe. Neil Roberts. David Guymer. Nick Kyme. Graciousness incarnate, the lot of them. I can generally count on them to show me how to behave.

To all those who came out to get a book signed, or just to chat – Nichola, Schafer, the Pauls (all five of them), the Jays (two), the Liams (three), David, Greg, Michael, Felicity, Alex, Frank, Andrey, Andy and the many, many others – thank you. Sometimes I get so caught up writing the things, I forget that there are actual people out there who read my books.

To the Games Workshop/Black Library staff who made a stressful event much less stressful – Claudia, Amy, Lindsey, Graeme, Laurie, Matt, Callum, Eddie, and the rest – thank you for putting up with me, and my inability to be anywhere on time. And for supplying me with caffeine. I appreciate it.

If you were there, I hope you enjoyed yourself. And if you weren’t, I hope you’ll consider coming next year.

Also, please consider pre-ordering Fabius Bile: Primogenitor. If it sells out, I promise I’ll write ‘The Adventures of Fabius Bile, Southern Gentleman’, to read at the next event I’m invited to.

Any Questions?

Tomorrow is Black Library Live. If you’re one of those unlucky few who are unable to attend, good news. Warhammer TV will be broadcasting live from Warhammer World all day. They’ll also be interviewing the attending authors, including myself. Visit the new Warhammer Community page and check out the interview schedule, as well as the way to pose your questions to your favourite author.

If you are attending Black Library Live, feel free to ask me your question in person. Or not. Whatever floats your boat. But if you’re NOT attending, why not pre-order Fabius Bile: Primogenitor, in the format of your preference? I suggest the eBook, so you can save money for a hardback of Robbie MacNiven’s forthcoming novel, Carcharodons: Red Tithe, when it comes out. Because that’s going to be a good book.

WIP Wednesday: Plenty in the Tank

It’s November, and I’ve got one more book left to write before the new year. Luckily, I think I’ve got just about one more book in me. To paraphrase a great man, I got plenty left in the tank.

I completed the first draft Book #5 last week, and turned it in. I’m not entirely happy with it, but that’s par for course. I’ve already scribbled out some notes for possible revisions. The book needs a bit more background colour in places, I think. It also needs some additional character-building scenes. Not many – one or two, at most. Just a few tweaks, to better illuminate the motivations of some of the side characters. Problem being, it’s already about 10,000 words over the word limit, and these aren’t large books.

Maybe I’ll get lucky and the editor will allow me another 10,000 or so words to play with.

I also completed the edits on Book #4 last week. Surprisingly minimal. Perhaps not surprising, given the subject matter. It was more in my wheelhouse than #5, at least. Speaking of wheelhouses, I started Book #6 this week. I’m about 10,000 words in and things are moving along nicely. I’ve been thinking about this one for the last four months give or take, so it’s nice to finally get started. It’s a summer blockbuster sort of book – lots of explosions and banter and monsters and airships and jungles and such. Very pacey and action-packed, with some nice bits of long-overdue world building for the setting in question.

Last Friday, I managed to finish some last minute revisions to “Inzignanin”, my cryptid Vs. cryptid novella, and an expansion of an older short story of mine, “Laying the Hairy Book”. I added about 2,000 words to the former, and 4,000 to the latter. I need to give the short story another once over before I submit it to the market I have in mind, but I sent the novella off today, a few weeks ahead of schedule.

Anyway, in closing, have you pre-ordered your copy of Fabius Bile: Primogenitor yet? FYI, the more copies of this that sell, the more likely I am to be commissioned to write a third in the series. So, if you want to read about Fabius’ hi-jinks in the Dark City, maybe buy this one, hunh? Or, if money is no object, this handsome fellow here.

Corpse-Light

Today is William Hope Hodgson’s birthday.

I guess it’s appropriate then, that the third and, sadly, final issue of SARGASSO: The Journal of William Hope Hodgson Studies is now available for purchase. I’m proud to say that among the 150 + pages of William Hope Hodgson related essays, review, fiction and poetry is my story, “Corpse-Light”.

Art by Robert Knox

My contribution, “Corpse-Light”, features the duo of Harley Warren and Randolph Carter, and finds them investigating an abandoned house, overrun by strange, fungal growths, on an island off the coast of Charleston. Warren and Carter have appeared in my work before, in the short stories “The Savage Dreamer” (Innsmouth Magazine, 2011), “The Bells of Northam” (Lovecraft eZine, 2013), “Dead Man’s Tongue” (The Dark Rites of Cthulhu, 2014) and “The Briggs Hill Path” (The Song of the Satyrs, 2014).

I’m pleased my story was accepted for Sargasso. I’ve long considered Hodgson an influence on my writing. Without Carnacki, I might never have come to know and love the occult detective genre as much as I do. If you’re interested in learning more about Hodgson and his work, I highly recommend Sam Gafford’s William Hope Hodgson site. I also encourage you to pick up the first two issues of SARGASSO, both of which are still available to purchase, either in paperback, as well as for the Kindle.

Invisible Empire

“An invisible man can rule the world. Nobody will see him come, nobody will see him go. He can hear every secret. He can rob, and rape, and kill!”

–The Invisible Man (1933)

The Invisible Man first hit theatres on the 13th of November, 1933. Directed by James Whale, starring Claude Rains and Gloria Stuart, based on the 1897 novel by H.G. Wells. Like many of Whale’s films, it has a strong undercurrent of absurdist humour, which only serves to amplify the horror. Too, Whale allows the characters to guide the plot, rather than the reverse. While the structure of Wells’ novel is there, Whale and screenwriter R.C. Sherriff breathe a raw vitality into the characters that is otherwise lacking in the source material.

It’s one of my favourites, for a lot of reasons. The humour, for one. Whale delighted in injecting the absurd into the horrible – brief moments of the ridiculous, to leaven the darkness. Praetorius’ mausoleum picnic, or Una O’Connor, shrieking forever, into a void, for instance. The Invisible Man could be considered the ancestor of such ghoulish comedians as Freddy Krueger, mocking his victims with a dry wit, even as he throttles them. He laughs, he chortles, he capers – he’s having fun, you see. It sets him apart from Larry Talbot’s dolorous moaning or Dracula’s arrogant pomposity, though he’s no less deadly than his fellow Universal Horrors.

Rains’ Dr. Jack Griffin is manic monster, alternating between oily menace and brutal savagery, save when confronted by his fiancee, Flora, as played by Stuart. In those moments, Griffin’s natural decency shines through – here is the man he was, the man he should be. Inevitably, however, those moments of lucidity crumble, leaving behind a ruin of a human being, rotten with hatred and desire.

As with later horrors, Griffin is no supernatural menace, arising from antiquity. Instead, he is a scientific abomination, a thing of test tubes and beakers, rather than tombs and gypsy curses. But like Frankenstein’s creation, there is an element of the eldritch to him – monocane might as well be an alchemical concoction, after all, and its effects are as much magical as they are scientific. As his affliction progresses, Griffin descends into monstrosity, as if being rendered invisible has given him license to revel in every secret thought and ugly desire that afflicts mankind.

And it is a revel. Griffin’s rampage through Sussex is positively bacchanalian. A drunken riot – violent, noisy, and humiliating. He engages in lewd behaviour and spiteful acts, amidst the more mundane carnage. Unlike the Wolfman, Griffin is in this for the giggles. He relishes the power that comes with his new abilities, even as he loses his grip on his humanity.

Griffin’s later murderous rampage is made all the more horrific by the tattered remnants of that very humanity. He is no golem of dead flesh, or blood-drinking night walker, seeking victims out of anger or to satisfy an unholy need. Instead, he is simply a man, with a man’s strength and a man’s cunning, but cursed with a freedom no man has ever known. His crimes are a man’s crimes, committed for the deranged joy of it. He wishes to crash trains and murder great men, because he wants to be feared.

Griffin is a maniac who becomes a monster, thanks to his invisibility.

Worse, he is a man who becomes a maniac, thanks to an accident.

And that is the true horror of Griffin’s story. That, under the right (or wrong) influence, anyone might lose all sense of self, and become someone else. Someone relentless and predatory, capable of anything.

A monster.

“Here I am. Aren’t you pleased you found me?”

–The Invisible Man (1933)

Primogenitor Pre-Order

Both the Limited and Standard editions of my forthcoming novel, Fabius Bile: Primogenitor, are now available for pre-order from Black Library. I’ll be talking a bit more about the book closer to the December release date, but until then, why not check out the full cover(s) and the blurb below. 

From the blurb:

He is known by many names – Clonelord, Manflayer, Primogenitor. He is the epitome of deceit and perversion, and feared by man and monster alike. Once the Chief Apothecary of the Emperor’s Children, the madman known as Fabius Bile possesses a knowledge of genetic manipulation second to none.

Now a renegade among renegades, he is loathed by those he once called brother, and even the most degraded of Chaos Space Marines fear his name. Exiled for his dark experiments, Bile has retreated deep into the Eye of Terror, leaving a trail of twisted abominations in his wake.

But when a former student brings word of the ultimate prize for the taking, Bile is unable to resist being drawn once more into the cauldron of war. For in seizing this prize, Fabius Bile might yet discover the one secret his has been unable to unlock… the secret which will prevent his inevitable doom…

The Limited edition, as you can see, is a very snazzy lump of gristle. It looks even better in person, and includes the short story, “The Howling Ship”, which finds Fabius Bile raiding the hold of one of the infamous Blackships of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, in search of raw materials for his experiments.

Limited to 1250 copies, each one individually numbered and signed by me. If that sort of thing interests you, I’d suggest going ahead and pre-ordering your copy today. For more pictures, a free extract, and ordering information, visit blacklibrary.com.

The Standard Edition isn’t quite as fancy, but Lie Setiawan‘s brilliant artwork more than makes up for the lack of a large screaming face, covered in stitching. No short story in this one, but you can pre-order it in electronic or mp3 format.

For ordering information and a free extract, visit blacklibrary.com.

Both versions of the book will also be available for purchase at Black Library Live! 2016, for those making the trip to Nottingham. In the meantime, why not check out Fabius Bile: Repairer of Ruin, the official audio prequel to Primogenitor, available to download now from blacklibrary.com?

WIP Wednesday: Ain’t Got No Time

I am (still) under the weather, so this is going to be a short one today. 

I missed three days last week due to illness. I’m still sick, but well enough to sit upright at my computer so…well. Despite this, I’ve managed to drag Book #5 over the 49,000 word mark. If you’ll recall, the word count for this one is 50,000 words which – hahaha. Yeah. No. I estimate things will wind down around the 55-58,000 word mark.

The deadline is Monday, so I’m really hoping to power through the lurgy and get it finished by then. I’ve always prided myself on getting things in early, or on time, and I’d hate for this to be the first time I fail to do so. The book is almost done, but it’s not something I can just rattle out. I need to think about it, and get the pieces in the right order, and that takes time. Which is the one thing I don’t have a lot of, at the moment.

Still, could be worse, I suppose.  I could still have a book pitch to finish – oh. Yeah.

Welp. Sing me home, Eartha.

All Hallows’ Read

Happy Halloween! Today sees the appearance of the fifth and final instalment of “The Coventry Street Terror”, this year’s free Halloween serial. In the spirit of the season, I’ve gathered links to all five instalments below, for ease of enjoyment. If you haven’t checked it out yet, now’s the time.

“The Coventry Street Terror”

St. Cyprian and Gallowglass join forces with a mysterious Styrian nobleman to destroy an undead monstrosity prowling the streets of London!

Part One – ‘A Curious Ailment’

Part Two – ‘Rooftop Deviltry’

Part Three – ‘The Last Vordenburg’

Part Four – ‘Shadows in Seven Dials’

Part Five – ‘Grave Peril’

You can keep track of the latest Royal Occultist news via the series’ Facebook page. And remember to use #RoyalOccultist hashtag when discussing the Royal Occultist on Twitter.

And, if you’re in the mood for more Halloween treats, why not download the free Royal Occultist Halloween Special, featuring three free short stories, including “The Creature from the Abysmal Sea”, my homage to The Creature of the Black Lagoon. Go check it out.

Vampire Weekend

It’s almost Halloween, and, to celebrate, I’ll be running a free, five-part serial over at The Royal Occultist site. “The Coventry Street Terror” finds St. Cyprian and Gallowglass joining forces with a mysterious Styrian nobleman to combat an undead monstrosity terrorising London. Part One, ‘A Curious Ailment’, went live yesterday, and Part Two, ‘Rooftop Deviltry’, will appear later today. Visit the Royal Occultist Facebook page to keep up-to-date on the serial, as well as all the other Royal Occultist-related news.

“The Coventry Street Terror” is something of a love letter to the great technicolor horror films produced by Hammer Studios in the Sixties and Seventies – films such as The Vampire Lovers (1970), Vampire Circus (1972) and, of course, Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter (1974). Too, the influence of Christopher Lee’s depiction of Dracula will likely be obvious to readers. There’s also a bit of inspiration taken from AIP’s The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), which is a film that, if I’m being completely honest, has a touch more influence on my writing than it should.

And, if you’re in the mood for more Halloween treats, why not download the free Royal Occultist Halloween Special, featuring three free short stories, including “The Creature from the Abysmal Sea”, my homage to The Creature of the Black Lagoon. Go check it out.