Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 85

New Review-”Master of Mourkain”

Stefan Fergus over at the Civilian Reader site has reviewed my Digital Monday offering, “Master of Mourkain”. To see what he had to say about it, why not pop over to his site and take a look? And if you want to see what all the fuss is about, why not nab a copy of “Master of Mourkain” (or my Gotrek & Felix story, “Berthold’s Beard”) for yourself?

‘The Arm of a Champion Bowler, the Teeth of a Shark…’

It’s a new week and we’re starting it off right…I’m pleased to say that “Owd Hob”, the newest St. Cyprian and Gallowglass story, will appear in a forthcoming issue of  Monster Corral. 

“Owd Hob” finds St. Cyprian and Gallowglass matching wits with a vicious boggart in a certain rotten burrough in Suffolk in 1924. The story is a quick one, but plenty of fun, at least in my entirely unbiased opinion.

On an unrelated note, there’s still one signed copy of Gotrek & Felix: Road of Skulls remaining, and all you have to do to get it is donate a bit of cash to one of two worthy causes. In the meantime, a big thank you to Evelyn and Justin, both of whom donated and whose books have already gone out, because I am nothing if not efficient.

GOTREK & FELIX: ROAD OF SKULLS Giveaway [UPDATED 04/02/2013]

So…want a signed copy of Gotrek & Felix: Road of Skulls? Because I happen to have three two one NO extra copies just cluttering up my tiny corner office, and I’d like them to go to good homes.  So here’s how we’re going to do this…

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THIS is the donation page for the Austin, Texas-based Cat Jazz Rescue. And THIS is the donation page for the RSPCA Sheffield, in the UK. So far, so good?

The first three people to donate eight dollars/pounds/euros or more to either of those two organizations, and to forward some official notification of donation (from Paypal or the like), along with their address to argus33 at hotmail dot com, will get a signed copy of Gotrek & Felix: Road of Skulls in the post.

Easy enough, right–you’d spend about eight bucks on the book, so why not donate it and get a signed copy for your trouble?

Why eight bucks? It seemed appropriate.

UPDATE: And the last copy just went to Eric Slaney! So, congratulations to the three winners–Evelyn, Justin and Eric!

GOTREK & FELIX: ROAD OF SKULLS Giveaway

So…want a signed copy of Gotrek & Felix: Road of Skulls? Because I happen to have three two one extra copies just cluttering up my tiny corner office, and I’d like them to go to good homes.  So here’s how we’re going to do this…

♦♦♦

THIS is the donation page for the Austin, Texas-based Cat Jazz Rescue. And THIS is the donation page for the RSPCA Sheffield, in the UK. So far, so good?

The first three people to donate eight dollars/pounds/euros or more to either of those two organizations, and to forward some official notification of donation (from Paypal or the like), along with their address to argus33 at hotmail dot com, will get a signed copy of Gotrek & Felix: Road of Skulls in the post.

Easy enough, right–you’d spend about eight bucks on the book, so why not donate it and get a signed copy for your trouble?

Why eight bucks? It seemed appropriate.

An Interview with…Me?

Well, yes. Apparently so. Greg Mitchell, whom you might recall from this post HERE, has interviewed me over at his blog. We chat about my influences, my obsession with the occult detective genre, and Charles St. Cyprian. Why not go check out what all I have to say, hmm?

Digital Monday-GOTREK & FELIX: BERTHOLD’S BEARD

It’s Digital Monday over at Black Library, and one of today’s offerings is “Berthold’s Beard”, by me, myself and I. “Berthold’s Beard” originally appeared in the first of the Black Library Weekender 2012 chapbooks.  

Here’s the blurb:

When Gotrek and Felix agree to help an impoverished nobleman reclaim his birthright, they are thrown into a battle for survival against a creature from their darkest nightmares.

Why not grab a copy? And if you enjoyed it, why not check out ‘Charnel Congress’ or Gotrek & Felix: Road of Skulls?

Starburst Magazine: THE BLACK LIBRARY GIVEAWAY

Starburst Magazine is holding a contest, featuring a whole mess of Black Library books as the prize. All you have to do is answer a fairly simple question. To see what you can win, peek below the cut. 

The Black Library have generously given us a bumper pack of their recent releases to give away.

Starburst is giving away a box filled with books from the extremely well received Time of Legends series. The prize include’s Josh Reynold’s Neferata, C.L. Werner’s Dead Winter and Nick Kyme’s The Great Betrayal.

The prize also include Omnibus editions of Graham McNeil’s The Legend of Sigmar, Mike Lee’s The Rise of Nagash and Gav Thorpe’s The Sundering. In addition, we’re giving away the Horus Heresy Audiobook, Prospero Burns, signed by Dan Abnett. and Ultramarines; The Second Omnibus signed by the author, Graham McNeil.

If that sounds like your sort of prize (and, having read 3/4 of that crop of books there, I can safely say that even if BL books aren’t your thing, you might want to think about entering…) just head over to the Starburst Magazine site and get entered today!

‘The Feast is Over and the Lamps Expire…’

Today is Robert E. Howard‘s birthday. Or would have been, were he still alive. Which would be impressive, given that he was born in 1906. Nonetheless, he left a big footprint.

As with Lovecraft, my feelings regarding REH are complex things best broken down to the simple statement– ‘dude was real racist, but he wrote some good stuff’.  He was a big man, and loud. But easily hurt, I think. Not in the physical sense, but there was a distinct emotional vulnerability there that was at odds with the blood and thunder of his words. The sort of guy who comes across tough, but is always on the back-foot when it comes to other people. You can see that wariness in his letters, and it’s pretty plainly evident in Novalyne Price‘s recollections of her time with him in Cross Plains.

Too, like Lovecraft, there was a lot of REH in his characters. Unlike the former, however, those characters weren’t ciphers so much as bald wish fulfilment on Howard’s part. They did the things he couldn’t do, free of the chains that bound him, whether those chains were ones of familial obligation, economic status or societal disapproval. Howard had a secret life–all writers do–and he lived it to the fullest, wedding imaginative clarity to an admirable work ethic.

He poured his blood and soul on the page, and stripped it bare for everyone to see. Even the nasty, hateful bits of him were on display. There’s a bravery in that, I feel. I don’t have that bravery. I don’t want people to know my soul, because to know a thing is to own it, and the Reynolds family motto has always been ‘what we have, we hold’. I’m jealous and greedy, and Howard was certainly one, but just as certainly not the other.

I think on some level, the world just plain confused Howard. I think it frustrated him, and stung him, and that maybe he died the death of a thousand cuts long before he decided to take a pistol and paint his car’s wind-shield red. People like to say he died on his own terms, but I think he died as he lived–contrary and sad and groping for something approaching a kind of poetry.

Maybe he achieved it, in the end.

GOTREK & FELIX: ROAD OF SKULLS Now Available

Gotrek & Felix: Road of Skulls, the thirteenth book in the long-running WHF series, and my first full-length novel featuring the characters, is now available to purchase in print or e-book format from Black Library. From the blurb:

Gotrek and Felix: unsung heroes of the Empire, or nothing more than common thieves and murderers? The truth perhaps lies somewhere in between, and depends entirely upon whom you ask… Gotrek and Felix race to the dwarf hold at Karak Kadrin, finding it besieged by one of the grand armies of Chaos under the command of Warlord Garmr. When King Ungrim Ironfist speaks of the legendary ‘Road of Skulls’ and of the hated foe’s attempts to open a portal into the Realm of Chaos, Gotrek senses that a great doom awaits him – though it may not be the one he would choose for himself. As the king’s own son leads his army of Slayers to fulfil an ancient prophecy, it seems that Garmr’s hour of victory may be at hand…

Black Library have also released two brief excerpts from the book.

Here’s the first:

‘Where are we going?’ Felix said. He kept his voice pitched low. Sound carried surprisingly far in the mountains, as he’d learned to his cost more than once. And with a Chaos force in the immediate area, the slightest shout could draw the veritable wrath of the Dark Gods down on their heads. ‘I trust you have a plan of some sort.’

‘We’re going where we’ve always been going, manling. Karak Kadrin,’ Gotrek said.

‘Gotrek, it’s back that way,’ Felix said, ‘And under siege.’

‘So?’ Gotrek said.

And here’s the second:

Gotrek stamped forwards, never wavering or retreating. Felix thought that he might actually be incapable of even thinking of doing either. One of the Chaos marauders lunged desperately, but Gotrek simply shrugged out of the way, letting the edge of the blade graze his impossibly muscled forearm even as he grabbed the shaggy furs the warrior wore and jerked him forwards into a skull-shattering head-butt. The last warrior, rather than fleeing, flung himself at Gotrek. Gotrek’s blow was lazy, and he watched the two halves of the marauder fall with disinterest. He looked at Felix. ‘You walked right into that one, manling,’ he said. ‘If you get your head lopped off, who will record my doom?’

And, given the recent flurry of perfectly understandable questions regarding the book, I also put together this handy-dandy FAQ, for readers.

So…what are you waiting for?  Go buy that book.

‘Name of a Black Cat!’

I got bored and started a tumblr. This is possibly of interest to you, and quite possibly, not. Either way, it’s there and it’s got some lovely images on it, if you consider old French pulps or Weird Tales covers ‘lovely’.  Why not go look at it?