Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 66

Pythian Rhythms

Granted, I’m not the Pythia, a priestess, or Greek, but you can still ask me questions, if you like. And there are plenty of ways to do so, which don’t involve visiting a gas-spewing chasm, or catching me on my fifth pint at a convention. So, for ease of access, here are some routes the curious and questionable might take, in order to partake of my–ha!–wisdom.

First, and closest to hand, is the ASK ME A QUESTION page right here on this very site. For future reference, if you want to ask me a question in the comments here, this is the place for it.

Twitter is another good place for questions. I’m online off and on most days, so asking a question here is likely to get an answer fairly quickly. And hey, if you want to follow me, I’m not going to complain.

While I check it less frequently, Goodreads also provides a place to ask questions. It’s only for Goodreads users though, so if you don’t already have an account, you might want to get one.

Next up, we have my Ask.fm profile. Same deal, different design. Ask.fm allows for anonymous questions, so if you don’t feel like making an account, signing up for Twitter or Goodreads, etc. but still want to ask me something, this is the place for it.

You can also find me on most social media sites–Facebook, Tumblr, etc.–and I’m happy to take questions in those places as well, though you might have to wait a bit, until I notice.

Now, you might be asking yourself why I’m bothering to list these, or even worry about this. The answer is simple: I’m a firm believer in staying in touch with my readers. And since I don’t get invited to many conventions, events or festivals, this seemed the easiest way to do so. Whether you’re a fan of my Black Library-related work, or the Royal Occultist, or something else entirely, I’m happy to answer most questions, though I cannot put you in touch with another writer, read your stories/novel/script, or help you get something published. If you want to ask me for advice on writing, you can, but my advice almost always boils down to ‘write it/submit it/write something else’.

And there you have it.

Leviathan’s Shadow

Another Monday, another new story. Last time, it was a comedy caper with the Old World’s dynamic duo, Gotrek and Felix. This time, we’re travelling to the year 40,000, and the far side of the galaxy with Varro Tigurius, Chief Librarian of the Ultramarines Space Marine Chapter. 

From the blurb:

Far from the war-torn Cryptus system, the shadow of the Leviathan falls on a world under the protection of the Ultramarines. As his warriors lead a desperate rearguard to allow the world’s citizens to evacuate, Chief Librarian Tigurius tackles a monstrous new presence – a beast whose psychic powers threaten to overwhelm even him. Can he survive his first encounter with this creature, or will he be lost to the might of the hive mind?

You should totally pick up a copy of the story to find out the answer to that question. It’s available via the Black Library site. Also, for those keeping track, this makes for three founding Space Marine Chapters I’ve written about…

A Story of Moment

It’s Monday, and that means there’s a new digital short story available to download from Black Library. In this case, it’s by me, and features the Old World’s deadliest duo, Gotrek and Felix. 

From the Black Library site:

Long before the End Times, when Gotrek Gurnisson’s doom was still many years away, he and his Rememberer Felix Jaeger found themselves in all manner of adventures and scrapes. Here is one previously untold story… As the heroic duo travel through the Border Princes, a drunken night coupled with Gotrek’s dwarfish lust for gold leads to him agreeing to a marriage – for Felix. With a halfling. Gotrek is determined that this will be a “marriage of moment”, allowing an unamused Felix to abandon his diminutive wife afterwards, but will she see it that way? And just what is the mysterious Jabas that the villagers are so scared of? Will hilarity ensue from this wedding… or horror?

“Marriage of Moment” is available for download directly from the Black Library site. And if you like what you read, why not check out my other Gotrek and Felix short stories, including “Berthold’s Beard” and “Blood Sport”, as well as the novella, “Charnel Congress”?

Hail to the Queen: The (Unofficial) Neferata Mixtape

So, my recent spate of highly unofficial, in no way endorsed by anyone, End Times inspired mixtapes have apparently been quite popular. I chalk it up to the interest in the End Times as a concept, rather than my…eclectic taste in music, but hey, I’m just happy to be here. Anyway, of late, more than one person has asked me if I had a mixtape for a certain Mortarch of Blood. The answer was, of course, yes. And I figured it was high time to give the Queen of Queens a bit of the spotlight before things…well. It’s called the End Times for a good reason, people. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, yeah?

Of all of the myriad and colorful Warhammer characters I’ve had the chance to write about, Neferata has to be my favorite. I was tremendously lucky to be able to write about her as often as I have done, and I enjoyed every Machiavellian minute of it. WHF has precious few female characters of note, and I’m honored to have been the one chosen to tell Neferata’s story.  And now, I give you the (unofficial) Neferata mixtape, to join those made for Mannfred von Carstein, Arkhan the Black, and Vlad von Carstein.

Hail to the Queen.

 

The Great Motivator

Ask any author. Any of ‘em. They’ll tell you that fear is the great motivator.

— JMReynolds (@JMReynolds) November 3, 2014

Fear of missed deadlines. Fear of low sales. Fear of being dropped by the publisher.

— JMReynolds (@JMReynolds) November 3, 2014

Fear of your latest book falling flat. Fear of not being reviewed. Fear of bad reviews. Fear of being ignored.

— JMReynolds (@JMReynolds) November 3, 2014

Fear of not being remembered. Fear of being remembered, but as an a**hole. Fear of coming across wrong in an interview.

— JMReynolds (@JMReynolds) November 3, 2014

Fear of carpal tunnel. Fear of going blind from staring at the computer for too long. Fear of high blood pressure.

— JMReynolds (@JMReynolds) November 3, 2014

Fear of going out. Fear of becoming a hermit. Fear of being too honest. Fear of being too glib.

— JMReynolds (@JMReynolds) November 3, 2014

Fear of not being professional enough. Fear of being so professional, people think you’re just a text-extruding machine.

— JMReynolds (@JMReynolds) November 3, 2014

The fear is always there. It waits and whispers to you in your quiet moments. It can’t be beaten, only endured.

— JMReynolds (@JMReynolds) November 3, 2014

So you endure. And endure and endure, forcing yourself forward, one step, one story, one chapter at a time.

— JMReynolds (@JMReynolds) November 3, 2014

So.

I wrote this today. I do this sort of stream of consciousness babbling a lot on Twitter. It’s something of a safety valve for me. A way to get things off my chest in a way that I can’t do on this site. I’ve never been a very good blogger,as anyone who regularly checks in here can attest. Blogging is basically writing, and if I’m going to spend my time writing, it should probably be something I’m getting paid to write. Twitter is a handy way of expressing an opinion or mouthing off without it feeling too much like the day job.

In this case, I had an opinion about fear. A certain amount of it goes hand in hand with making a living as a writer. Your future is dependent on random fluctuations in a publisher’s spreadsheet and the whims of readers, a notoriously fickle lot, among a host of other factors, some you will have only the vaguest understanding of. Fear drives writers as surely as inspiration and obsession. Even at the best of times, when the advances are rolling in regularly, the royalties are plentiful, and commissions are easy to come by, the fear is there. It never goes away.

That’s a good thing, I think. Fear is healthy, as long as you can endure it, and keep it from paralyzing you. It’s not the only motivator, but it’s an effective one. It sharpens the wits and keeps you alert. Fear keeps you aware of your surroundings. Fear keeps you on your toes. Fear keeps you hungry for that next commission, in fighting trim for that next challenge.

Fear keeps you moving forward.

That’s a lot better than the alternative, in my opinion.

THE JADE SUIT OF DEATH Now Available!

Formed during the reign of Elizabeth I, the post of the Royal Occultist was created to safeguard the British Empire against threats occult, otherworldly, infernal and divine.

It is now 1920, and the title and offices have fallen to Charles St. Cyprian. Accompanied by his apprentice Ebe Gallowglass, they defend the battered empire from the forces of darkness.

Evil prowls the docks of Limehouse and a priceless artifact is stolen. St. Cyprian is contacted by an old acquaintance to find it, but what he and Gallowglass discover is far more than anyone bargained for.

London’s most notorious occultists gather in secret as St. Cyprian faces an assassin and Gallowglass goes toe-to-toe with a goat demon. The tide is already against our duo when a thousands-year-old spirit is released to unleash a plague that will feast upon humanity…

In the tradition of William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki the Ghost-Finder, Josh Reynolds presents the Adventures of the Royal Occultist. Join St. Cyprian and Gallowglass as they race to solve the deadly mystery of THE JADE SUIT OF DEATH!

The Jade Suit of Death, the second book in ‘The Adventures of the Royal Occultist’, is now available from Emby Press. It is available both in trade paperback and electronic format from Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com and other online retailers.

The Jade Suit of Death is  the second book in an ongoing series, featuring Charles St. Cyprian, the Royal Occultist, and his assistant, Ebe Gallowglass, as they battle the forces of evil on behalf of the British Empire.

The book is a sequel to The Whitechapel Demon (2013), but readers don’t need to read the one to enjoy the other, as The Jade Suit of Death serves as an introduction to the world of the Royal Occultist as well as delivering an exciting adventure for new readers and old fans alike to enjoy. For an overview of the Royal Occultist series, visit HERE. If you’ve read the book, and are interested in discussing it, or the world of the Royal Occultist, there’s a dedicated Facebook fanpage.

An excerpt from the next book, The Infernal Express, coming in 2015, is included with this edition. For more adventures of the Royal Occultist, be sure to check out the Royal Occultist Primer, a collection of free short stories.

If you are a reviewer or book-blogger interested in reviewing a copy of The Jade Suit of Death, please contact me at royaloccultist at gmail dot com.

Free Halloween Treat-”The Faceless Fiend”

Giving away free stories is something of a tradition of mine, especially when it comes to the holidays. Last Halloween, for instance, I gave away a little snippet called “The d’Erlette Configuration”, a Royal Occultist story which owed a small tip of the hat to a certain film series. This Halloween, I decided to follow the same format, and pit the Royal Occultist against another favorite movie monster of mine–the murderous, ambulatory brain.

The above image is from a brilliant little cinematic gem called Fiend Without a Face, which is, without a doubt, the best man-eating brain movie to come out of the 1950s. Based on a 1930 short story by Amelia Reynolds Long (“The Thought Monster”), the film is a fast-moving little caper, with plenty of creepy sound effects and a surprising amount of gore. As is my tongue-in-cheek homage, “The Faceless Fiend”.

“The Faceless Fiend” sees St. Cyprian and Gallowglass go up against a monstrous killing thought, summoned by a combination of higher mathematics, devilish incense and illicit carpentry, in a Seven Dials garret. Like last year’s story, it’s absolutely free. Too, feel free to share this post, retweet, etc. “The Faceless Fiend” is available in several formats, mostly because I just downloaded Calibre, and I want to see whether or not I can get it to work. So, I apologize in advance if these are a bit fiddly. Just contact me if there are any problems, and I’ll get you a readable copy posthaste.

MOBI version
PDF version

Enjoy! Oh, and Happy Halloween!

Free Halloween Treat-“The Faceless Fiend”

Giving away free stories is something of a tradition of mine, especially when it comes to the holidays. Last Halloween, for instance, I gave away a little snippet called “The d’Erlette Configuration”, a Royal Occultist story which owed a small tip of the hat to a certain film series. This Halloween, I decided to follow the same format, and pit the Royal Occultist against another favorite movie monster of mine–the murderous, ambulatory brain.

The above image is from a brilliant little cinematic gem called Fiend Without a Face, which is, without a doubt, the best man-eating brain movie to come out of the 1950s. Based on a 1930 short story by Amelia Reynolds Long (“The Thought Monster”), the film is a fast-moving little caper, with plenty of creepy sound effects and a surprising amount of gore. As is my tongue-in-cheek homage, “The Faceless Fiend”.

“The Faceless Fiend” sees St. Cyprian and Gallowglass go up against a monstrous killing thought, summoned by a combination of higher mathematics, devilish incense and illicit carpentry, in a Seven Dials garret. Like last year’s story, it’s absolutely free. Too, feel free to share this post, retweet, etc. “The Faceless Fiend” is available in several formats, mostly because I just downloaded Calibre, and I want to see whether or not I can get it to work. So, I apologize in advance if these are a bit fiddly. Just contact me if there are any problems, and I’ll get you a readable copy posthaste.

EPUB version
MOBI version
PDF version

Enjoy! Oh, and Happy Halloween!

Riders of Chogoris

This year my work for Black Library took a slight detour off the well-trodden paths of Warhammer Fantasy and onto the oil-stained highways of Warhammer 40,000. While I’ve written a number of stories set in the grim darkness of the far future, I’ve come back to the white armored Space Marines of the White Scars Chapter more than once. Granted this was mostly due to opportunity, but opportunity breeds affection.

There are a lot of things to like about the White Scars, if you’re me. Their sense of humor, for one. That isn’t to say that the Space Marines of other Chapters don’t have one, but for the White Scars, laughter is as much a tool as a bolter or combat knife. It’s equal parts ritual and instinct–a belief that a laugh can pierce an enemy’s heart as easily as a spear point, and that it can sustain the soul as surely as power armor sustains the body.

Too, their philosophy of fluidity–the idea that a White Scar is not simply a soldier, but the eye of a storm–is an interesting one. Where the sons of Chogoris ride, all attempts control the flow of battle fail, and the enemy is forced to discard strategy for tactics. The White Scars do not see war as a thing of maps, markers and mission objectives, but rather as a season, a celebration, and they follow its tides wherever it takes them. For the White Scars, there is a totality to war; it is at once a way of life, a work of art, and a religion. War is their milk and meat, and they shelter in its frenzy, drawing inspiration from the carnage and comfort from the storm.

To date, I’ve written about the White Scars three times–one audio and two novellas. “Master of the Hunt”, the audio, was an interesting beast. It was the first script I’d ever written, and originally it didn’t have any White Scars in it at all. Instead, it was all about their quarry–the daemon-prince Doomrider. Things changed in editing, as they are wont to do, and the White Scars faced off against a creature who was, in many ways, a dark mirror, reflecting twisted versions of their own values back at them. “Hunter’s Snare”, the first novella, was an opportunity I leapt at, mostly because it gave me an opportunity to revisit characters from “Master of the Hunt”, and pit the White Scars against their philosophical antithesis, the alien Tau. “Dante’s Canyon”, the most recent novella, was a bit of a departure from the previous stories, as it was an opportunity to show the White Scars in battle with their most favored enemy–the orks–rather than a despised foe. To the White Scars, the orks are the best of enemies, for they too see the totality of war, and ride its tides without care or concern.

All that said, I hope I get to write more about the sons of Chogoris in the future. But if not, I’ve enjoyed my time with them, and I hope you have as well. And if you haven’t yet checked the above stories out…well why not give them a try and see what I’m talking about?

A Halloween Treat

It’s the countdown to both Halloween and the release of The Adventures of the Royal Occultist #2: The Jade Suit of Death, and to celebrate, starting today until All Hallows Eve, the first Royal Occultist novel, The Whitechapel Demon, is available as a free download for the Kindle! And speaking as the author, it’d make my month if we could get Whitechapel Demon to climb the Amazon rankings as high as it can go. So grab your copy today, and please share, retweet and spread the word so that others can do the same!