Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 69
August 13, 2014
A CITY WILL FALL
I should probably mention that I have a new story out.
Had out, I mean. It came out a week or two ago.
I’ve been busy, what can I say? At any rate, I contributed a short little number called “The Fall of Hive Jensen” to Black Library’s ongoing Sanctus Reach event, joining the ranks of such luminaries as Ben Counter, David Annandale, Cavan Scott and Guy Haley.
From the blurb:
An ork horde descends on the hive world of Ghul Jensen.
As the Imperial defenders prepare the planet’s defences, an inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos takes this opportunity to carry out the secret mission with which he has been tasked – a mission that will decide the fate of Hive Jensen and the world…
To read a free extract, or to download the story, head over to the Black Library site. And while you’re there, be sure to check out the rest of the Sanctus Reach storyline!
August 11, 2014
WAR IS COMING
World War Cthulhu, the newest anthology from Dark Regions Press, will be arriving on shelves on August 19th. I happen to have a story in this one. “The Yoth Protocols” is part Cold War thriller and part cosmic horror, with a dash of Edgar Rice Burroughs for seasoning. If you feel like picking up a copy, it’s available from the publisher in a variety of formats, including deluxe hardcover, trade paperback and ebook. Check it out at Dark Regions Press.
July 14, 2014
NEW STORY AVAILABLE-“THE HUNGRY STONES”
Today sees the release of a new Royal Occultist story in Luna’s Children: Stranger Worlds, a new anthology from Dark Oak Press. “The Hungry Stones” finds St. Cyprian and Gallowglass matching wits with a possessed woman and a lupine horror in rural Derbyshire in 1923.
From the blurb:
Fear The Full Moon!
For countless centuries, mankind has watched as the sun goes down knowing that Luna will rise in its place, to rain her brilliant shards of light upon the Earth. But for the cursed and afflicted, that silvery orb brings horror and death.
Luna’s Children: Stranger Worlds takes the stories of the werewolf and turns them in their pointy ears. From the American Old West to the Victorian-era streets of London, from the Far East to worlds undiscovered, from steampunk to Nazis, Stranger Worlds takes us on 21 horror-filled journeys from the twisted minds of some of the best writers.
The anthology is available in trade, hardback and electronic editions from Amazon.com and its international affiliates, as well as Barnes & Noble. To read an excerpt from the anthology, visit the Dark Oak Press website.
Click HERE to read an excerpt from “The Hungry Stones”. The story features the first appearance of the infamous Gubbio Sigillum, one of the Royal Occultist’s tools of the trade. To see where this story fits into the series, visit the Royal Occultist Chronology.
You can also keep track of the latest Royal Occultist news via the series’ Facebook page. And to download the ROYAL OCCULTIST PRIMER, a free PDF containing previously published stories, click HERE.
NEW STORY AVAILABLE-”THE HUNGRY STONES”
Today sees the release of a new Royal Occultist story in Luna’s Children: Stranger Worlds, a new anthology from Dark Oak Press. “The Hungry Stones” finds St. Cyprian and Gallowglass matching wits with a possessed woman and a lupine horror in rural Derbyshire in 1923.
From the blurb:
Fear The Full Moon!
For countless centuries, mankind has watched as the sun goes down knowing that Luna will rise in its place, to rain her brilliant shards of light upon the Earth. But for the cursed and afflicted, that silvery orb brings horror and death.
Luna’s Children: Stranger Worlds takes the stories of the werewolf and turns them in their pointy ears. From the American Old West to the Victorian-era streets of London, from the Far East to worlds undiscovered, from steampunk to Nazis, Stranger Worlds takes us on 21 horror-filled journeys from the twisted minds of some of the best writers.
The anthology is available in trade, hardback and electronic editions from Amazon.com and its international affiliates, as well as Barnes & Noble. To read an excerpt from the anthology, visit the Dark Oak Press website.
Click HERE to read an excerpt from “The Hungry Stones”. The story features the first appearance of the infamous Gubbio Sigillum, one of the Royal Occultist’s tools of the trade. To see where this story fits into the series, visit the Royal Occultist Chronology.
You can also keep track of the latest Royal Occultist news via the series’ Facebook page. And to download the ROYAL OCCULTIST PRIMER, a free PDF containing previously published stories, click HERE.
July 10, 2014
NEW INTERVIEW
I was recently interviewed about all things Royal Occultist (and occult detectives in general) for the Nocturne Travel Agency podcast by Tom Deja, author, film-critic and all around raconteur. Why not go give it a listen?
July 8, 2014
NEW REVIEWS
Two new reviews of The Whitechapel Demon have popped up–one by Sean P. Robson and the other by James Fadeley. Both reviews were excellent, and both are well worth reading.
From Sean P. Robson’s site:
From James Fadeley’s site:
Both reviews are worth checking out. And if you like what you read, why not pick up a copy of The Whitechapel Demon for yourself? It’s available on Amazon.com, as well as all international subsidiaries, in both print and electronic format. It’s also available from Smashwords and Barnes & Noble. For a free PDF preview of the the first three chapters, click HERE.
You can also keep track of the latest Royal Occultist news via the series’ Facebook page. And to download the ROYAL OCCULTIST PRIMER, a free PDF containing previously published stories, click HERE.
July 3, 2014
2014: Six Months In
Six months into 2014, and several things have become apparent to me. First, I’m godawful at scheduling regular (or even semi-regular) updates for this site. Second, it doesn’t seem to have effected the site’s stats in any meaningful way. Third, I don’t know whether I should care about that or not.
I’m going to go with ‘not’. I got better things to do.
What better things are those, you might ask? Well Johnny, I say, as I tousle your hair in a paternal, yet friendly manner, that’d be telling, now wouldn’t it?
Then I’d laugh all menacingly, slow at first, and then more loudly, like Sideshow Bob in that one episode of The Simpsons where he ran for mayor. Remember that episode? That was great, right? Yeah.
Anyway, I’m currently working on Book #5 for the year. I can’t tell you the title is or what it’s about, but I can say it’s for Black Library. As was Book #1 and Book #4, interestingly. No, I can’t tell you the titles of those either. I CAN talk about Book #2 and Book #3, however.
Book #2 was Jade Suit of Death, the sequel to The Whitechapel Demon and the second installment in the ‘Adventures of the Royal Occultist’. Jade Suit… sees Charles St. Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass confront the machinations of a murderous cult, a sinister demon, and the monstrous secret contained in the eponymous jade suit. So, business as usual for the Royal Occultist and his plucky (yet murderous) assistant.
Book #3 was my third entry in the long running Executioner series, writing under the house name of ‘Don Pendleton’. It involves arms dealers, mercenaries, a psychopathic head-hunter and more saltwater crocodiles than is entirely healthy. My previous entries in the series, Border Offensive and Arctic Kill, are available for purchase and pre-order, respectively, if you’re interested.
As far as books released this year, there have been three: Gotrek & Felix: The Serpent Queen, The Vril Agenda and the aforementioned Arctic Kill, which is available for pre-order.
On the short fiction front, I’ve had a number of short stories appear in print this year. “Mordiggian’s Due”, my sword & sorcery tale of ghouls and necromancy, appeared in Libram Mysterium; “Dead Men’s Bones”, my World War I-era zombie-kaiju story, appeared in Kaiju Rising; “Dead Man’s Tongue”, a tale of Tibetan sorcery, appeared in The Dark Rites of Cthulhu; “The Briggs Hill Path”, a satyr/Cthulhu Mythos story, appeared in Song of the Satyrs; “Hochmuller’s Hound”, another WWI-era story, about brain transplants and killer dogs, appeared in Blood Trails; “Mr. Brass and the City of Devils”, a steampunk/Cthulhu Mythos story, appeared, appropriately enough in Steampunk Cthulhu; and, finally, “Bernheimer’s Gun”, a Warhammer Fantasy story, is available as an electronic download from the Black Library site.
What I haven’t done is written much, a fact which brings me no end of disappointment. I’m not joking here–I’m actually quite annoyed with myself. I’ve been a bit lazy this year. I’ve only written a novella and five short stories, two of which were, like the novella, for Black Library. So not much at all to show for six months. Granted, the stories were all commissioned, which is a nice change of pace, but still…lazy.
That said, I have been occupied this year reading for my first (co) edited anthology, A Grimoire of Eldritch Inquests, which has been a much more rewarding experience than I expected. Seriously, I’ve read a lot of good stories for this anthology, and I’m quite impressed with the overall level of quality in the submissions to date. I think the final product is going to be the best damn collection of occult detective stories (To come out in 2014. Co-edited by me. From Emby Press.) By the way, if you’re interested in submitting, you’ve got one month left. No pressure.
On the non-fiction side of things, I’ve started a new essay for my long-dormant ‘Nightmare Men’ series at Black Gate, on Frank Lauria’s ‘Dr. Orient’ series. I’ve got essays planned for Mark Valentine’s occult detective Ralph Tyler, and Bob Freeman’s Landon Connors as well. I’m really hoping to get these written before the end of the year.
And that is pretty much it for the first six months of 2014.
June 26, 2014
BERNHEIMER’S GUN Now Available
A new Knights of Manann short story is now available for download from Black Library, as part of ‘Warhammer Week‘. “Bernheimer’s Gun” sees Erkhart Dubnitz and his comrades in the Order of Manann face their most dangerous foe yet–the Empire.
From the site:
When the Imperial engineer Mikal Bernheimer flees to the free city of Marienburg, it falls to Erkhart Dubnitz and the Knights of Manann to protect the exile while the great and good wage diplomatic war over the matter. Not too onerous a task, so it seems, but with enemies on all sides and intrigue around every corner, Dubnitz and his men are guaranteed a good fight as well…
In a lot of ways, this story acts as a coda for the ‘Knights of Manann’ series. For various reasons, it’ll probably be the last one, but I think it’s a fitting capper to the series and for the characters. “Bernheimer’s Gun” is available for downoad from blacklibrary.com.
June 23, 2014
INTERVIEWS
I’ve been interviewed a number of times over the years, on various sites, about various things. I’ve collected the links together below, for ease of access, both for myself and anyone interested in seeing them. The links are organized in order of most recent to least, and new ones will be added periodically.
2012, Monster Hunter: Campfire Tales
June 22, 2014
THE ROYAL OCCULTIST VISITS THE CROSSOVER UNIVERSE
The Royal Occultist is the subject of this week’s ‘Crossover of the Week’ at Sean Lee Levin’s The Crossover Universe. Does this mean that St. Cyprian and Gallowglass are officially part of the Wold Newton Universe? Who can say? Pretty cool though. Go give it a read, and be sure to check out the other entries in the ‘Crossover of the Week’.
