Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 75
November 15, 2013
Friday Sneak Peek-NEFERATA and MASTER OF DEATH
Black Library has released a look at my forthcoming novel, Master of Death on their blog today. Master of Death is the second book in the ‘Blood of Nagash’ series, focusing on the wacky antics of the primogenitors of the vampiric bloodlines of the Warhammer world. They’ve also released a look at the brand-spanking new edition of the first book in the series, Neferata, which I’ve talked a bit about before. For a bit more about Master of Death, keep reading.
Here’s the swanky looking cover:
That handsome fellow up there is W’soran, father of the Necrarch bloodline (or, as I call ‘em, ‘wizard-draculas’. Not to be confused with ‘sneaky-draculas’, ‘fighty-draculas’ and ‘dracula-draculas’…) and all around pain in the keister for every other character in the series for roughly four hundred pages. W’soran was a bit player in the first book in the series, but this is his time to shine. And by shine, I mean set fire to, sass-mouth and back-stab every character who crosses his path over the course of the book.
Things–ah–things don’t end well. For anybody.
To read an excerpt from the book, head over to the Black Library blog. And, if you’re so inclined, please feel free to pre-order the book in whatever format suits your reading requirements.
November 11, 2013
CARNACKI: THE NEW ADVENTURES contents!
Reblogged from william hope hodgson:
I'm still waiting for confirmation on a couple of items but want to announce the following contents for the upcoming anthology:
William Miekle--"Captain Gault's Nemesis"
Josh Reynolds--"Monmouth's Giants"
Jim Beard--"The Haunting of Tranquil House"
P.V. Ross--"A Gaslight Horror"
Robert Pohle--"Carnacki & The President's Vampire"
Fred Blosser--"The Spar: A Story of Carnacki"
Buck Weiss--"The Magician's Study"
Amy K. Marshall--"The Ghosts of Kuskulana"
I'm not going to lie--I'm really quite excited about being a part of this particular anthology. I've been a fan of William Hope Hodgson's work since I was a wee sprat of a student, and a fan of Carnacki the Ghost-Finder in particular. But "Monmouth's Giants" isn't just a Carnacki story--it's also the long-awaited origin story for the Royal Occultist! As ghastly phantasmal giants stalk the crypts of Guildhall in 1914, Thomas Carnacki takes a young Charles St. Cyprian under his wing in an encounter that will change the course of the latter's life...forever.
November 1, 2013
New Story-”Remorseless”
The aforementioned story actually came out yesterday, but, well, I had stuff going on. Anyway, “Remorseless” is my second foray into the 40K side of things over at Black Library, the first being “Cadre”. Will I write more? Time will tell.
Have a blurb:
I’m pretty proud of “Remorseless”, all said and done. I got pretty fond of Skaranx in our limited time together, and I wouldn’t mind exploring the nasty, back-alley vivisectionist world of the Gland-Hounds a bit more. How many of Skaranx’s comrades are left? What are they up to now? And, perhaps most importantly, what was their intended purpose? That said, it’s not likely to happen any time soon. I was squeaking on the sharp-edge of IP there, I think, and the editors were probably feeling generous, otherwise they might not have let me get away with it.
Such are the perils of tie-in writing.
Anyway, why not pick up “Remorseless”? Or, better yet, why not grab the collected edition, featuring stories by CZ Dunn, David Annandale, Nick Kyme, LJ Goulding, and Graeme Lyon, as well as myself?
October 30, 2013
Free Halloween Story-”The d’Erlette Configuration”
It’s Halloween, and to celebrate the spookiest day of the year, I wrote a little something I like to call…”The d’Erlette Configuration”. Even better, I’m giving it away free!
An excerpt:
St. Cyprian studied the box with the air of a billiards player lining up a shot. “I did warn you about playing with this grisly little device,” he said.
“I couldn’t help it,” Wendy-Smythe moaned. “It called to me, whispered sweet nothings about the hidden knowledge that would be revealed unto me should I but solve a child’s puzzle. I just wanted to know—to see!”
“I hate to point this out, old thing, but this is really just the powdered werewolf teeth all over again, ain’t it?” St. Cyprian gave Wendy-Smythe a stern look. “And that dratted business with those canopic jars two months ago—you remember that?”
“Yes,” Wendy-Smythe said weakly.
“Do you? Because I don’t think you do. A man who remembered unleashing a phantom clowder of angry Egyptian cat spirits might not be so eager to play with an obviously demonic puzzle-box.”
“I did write a dashed swell letter of apology about the cat-thing,” Wendy-Smythe muttered. “And those werewolf teeth weren’t real anyway.”
St. Cyprian patted the other man on the shoulder and turned back to the box. The hum had grown louder and more piercing. It sounded as if there were a nest of hornets trapped in the box. The light which emanated from the box had grown stronger, shrouding the room with a sickly haze, and strange shadows squirmed just out of his eye-line.
“What’s in it, Charles? What have I awoken?” Wendy-Smythe whispered…
You might have noticed that it’s a Royal Occultist story, because why not? It’s also an homage to several of my favourite horror stories, including the one about a certain puzzle box full of other-dimensional sadists.
Download “The d’Erlette Configuration” HERE.
New Interview at The Bloghole
The folks over the Bloghole have interviewed me about writing and various writing-related things. This makes the second time I’ve been interviewed there–the first time was back in 2011. Hopefully, I’m a more interesting interview subject this time around.
From the interview:
He2etic: Any advice for new authors?
Josh: Write everything. Try your hand at every genre, especially ones you don’t like. Don’t argue with the editor, unless you know you’re right, and not even then, unless you absolutely have to.
Embrace formula, cliché and stock characters. They’ll make your job easier, when you start out. When in doubt, have a man with a gun come through the door. If that doesn’t work, try a monkey with a switchblade. Everybody writes something a bit crap on occasion. It happens. Move on, do better next time. Last but not least, always get paid.
It’s a nice interview. I talk about sitcoms and the Royal Occultist. Go check it out.
October 25, 2013
The Halloween issue of "Lovecraft eZine" is online!
Reblogged from Lovecraft eZine:
The October issue of The Lovecraft eZine (issue #27) is now online! Read it for free here. This issue is a tribute to Roger Zelazny’s beloved book, A Night in the Lonesome October.
Comment on one or more of the stories in this issue, and you could win a copy of A Night in the Lonesome October…
This issue includes my story, "The Bells of Northam", which finds Charles St. Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass joining forces with Harley Warren and Randolph Carter in an attempt to prevent the awakening of a horror out of black aeons.
St. Cyprian and Gallowglass previously encountered Warren (as well as several other occult adventurers) in "The Gotterdammerung Gavotte", which appeared in issue 18 of the Lovecraft eZine in 2012.
October 10, 2013
New “Cadre” Review
Given that my short story “Cadre”, written for the recent Space Marines: Angels of Death anthology, was my first go at writing the power armored poster boys of the Black Library, I’ve been a bit nervous to see how it’d be received. Well, the kind folks over at Fifty Shades of Geek have been reviewing the stories in the anthology. Let’s see what they had to say…
From the review:
In short, they enjoyed it. If you’d like to see for yourself, you can still grab a copy of “Cadre” for yourself, or, better yet, a copy of the whole anthology in one handy-dandy electronic edition.
October 9, 2013
Better Late Than Never
I didn’t see this until too late, but there’s an exclusive excerpt from my contribution to the Kaiju Rising! anthology, “Dead Men’s Bones”, available over at the ‘Only the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy’ blog.
From the excerpt:
It’s not a long excerpt, but it is one of the more exciting bits in the story, involving an armored car, a corpse-giant, a Royal Occultist and a Ghost-Breaker.
October 8, 2013
A Helping Hand for Eugie Foster
Eugie Foster taught me the difference between ‘sci-fi’ and ‘science fiction’. True story. She did this over the course of giving me an opportunity to read and review for The Fix, a sadly now-defunct fantasy and science-fiction review site, and I don’t believe I ever properly thanked her, though I like to think I did. She was one of the best editors I’ve ever had, and she’s one of the best writers I’ve ever had the good fortune to read.
She’s a Nebula Award winner. A proud skunk owner. She’s one of those writers that, when I read them, encourages me to up my game a bit. Really, she’s just an all around wonderful person, who really makes me wish I was better at being social, so I could mention that on occasion.
Luckily, she’s got insurance. Unluckily, insurance being what it is, it ain’t nearly going to cover what it ought. But, she does have a number of books what you can buy, to help her defray the costs of it all. I encourage you to do so and post haste. Every little bit helps.
October 4, 2013
TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN (Vol. 10) TOC and Cover Sneak-Peek
The table of contents and the cover art for the tenth volume of Tales of the Shadowmen, ‘Esprit de Corps’, has been announced on the Black Coat Press site. Among the former is “The Swine of Gerasene”, a story by me, which sees William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki the Ghost-Finder team-up with Algernon Blackwood’s John Silence and Norbert Sevestre’s Sar Dubnotal in order to combat the machinations of the sinister Brotherhood of Gerasene. From the site:
The feelings of loyalty, enthusiasm and devotion–in other words, esprit de corps–that we feel towards those cherished figures is as undiminished today as it was when we were in our teens. They are more than fictional characters; some are our companions, our reflections, who have followed us all our lives!
For those keeping track, this’ll make my third appearance in Tales of the Shadowmen, and I hope to make many more. While my first two contributions (“The Carolingian Stone” in V.8 and “Nestor Burma Goes West” in V.9) featured Jim Anthony, the Super-Detective, I decided to give some other characters a try this time. The story sees Carnacki and co. match wits with a cult of pig-worshipers, foul swine-things, and the irredeemable Count Magnus in a certain ruin in Ireland.
The anthology should be available sometime later this year or early 2014.
