Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 86
January 16, 2013
A Brief GOTREK & FELIX: ROAD OF SKULLS FAQ
Okay, so Gotrek & Felix: Road of Skulls is now available (at least in e-book format; print will be out in two weeks and counting, unless you go through Amazon), and my e-mail inbox is staggering beneath the weight of an inordinate amount of continuity-related questions.
So, in the name of efficiency, the answers to those questions, for all future reference, in brief, are below.
Q. Why does RoS read as if its taking place after Trollslayer rather than Zombieslayer?
A. Because it is.
More specifically, RoS is ‘continuity-free’ Gotrek & Felix. As I’ve mentioned before, the next few G&F books/audio/novellas/etc. will all be continuity-free, with few if any references to other adventures.
All you need to enjoy them is to have read Trollslayer, or to simply know the gist of the germ of the set-up, i.e. Gotrek Gurnisson is a dwarf Trollslayer, damned to seek an honourable doom in battle in order to make up for some mysterious transgression and Felix Jaeger is his hapless Remembrancer, equal parts sidekick and amanuensis, sworn to accompany Gotrek after the later saved his life.
That’s all you need to know. If we’re talking continuity, then the only book that counts is Trollslayer. And possibly “Charnel Congress”. Gotrek and Felix haven’t even been to Nuln yet, strictly speaking. They have yet to meet the magnificence that is Thanquol and Gotrek hasn’t even killed the first Boneripper.
…
Poor old Boneripper. He just wanted love.
…
I…I need a minute.
…
Okay, I’m fine now. I’m cool. On with the FAQ!
Q. Where’s Kat/Ulrika/Snorri/etc.?
A. Depending on how you read it, they either haven’t met them yet, or they have met them, but just aren’t talking about them.
Again, continuity-free. Basically, RoS fits into continuity wherever you want it to go. Heck, if you want it to take place in one of those alternate universes Felix saw at the end of Giantslayer, that works too.
Q. Hasn’t Felix already met Ungrim Ironfist?
A. No. Also, yes. Again, it depends on you. If you put it into continuity AFTER Dragonslayer, then Felix HAS met King Ironfist, but only briefly, and not under circumstances that lent themselves well to interaction. If you put it before, well, that explains the lack of interaction, don’t it?
Q. I thought Garagrim got squashed by a giant. Why is he still alive?
A. Because this takes place before he got squashed. Perhaps he will never be squashed. Maybe he got better. Gotrek’s probably had half a dozen giants fall on him, and Garagrim’s at least a quarter as tough as Gotrek. Possibly even a third.
Q. Will the REAL series ever continue? Or will we be stuck with this lousy spin-off forever?
A. First? Ouch. Second, yes, but I don’t know when, and I don’t know who by. At this point, I don’t even know if I’m writing another one. Gotrek & Felix is a fairly important series–if not quite Horus Heresy important, it’s still a big deal. And Black Library want to treat it right.
So, for the next year or three, you’re going to get more G&F material, from a variety of writers, but the meta-storyline is going to be on hiatus. It will continue at some point, but as to when–I dunno.
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That’s pretty much that. I did say it was brief. However, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them via the comments section here, Facebook, or Twitter. I will be happy to answer them.
January 14, 2013
Mastering Mourkain
The first of Black Library’s anticipated ‘Digital Monday’ stories has been released, and one of them is mine. Specifically, “The Master of Mourkain”, originally written for the 2012 Games Day chapbook.
“Master of Mourkain” focuses on the battle for control of the ancient and corrupt mountain kingdom of Strigos between the necromancer-king Kadon and the vampire Ushoran, last seen (chronologically, at least) being set on fire and left for dead in Mike Lee’s Nagash Immortal. It also happens to be a prequel to Neferata: Blood of Nagash.
It’s a short one, as stories go, clocking in at only 5000 words or so, but I like to think it’s punching above its weight class. It’s got a pretty nifty vampire/necromancer throw-down, and if you ever wanted to see Ushoran just straight up tap-dance all over some poor evil so-and-so’s face, well, this one’s for you.
Of course, it’s not the last time you’ll see either Ushoran OR Kadon…but more on that later.
“Master of Mourkain” is available via the Black Library site. And for another Neferata-related tie-in, why not check out “Fangs of the Asp”, in issue 26 of Hammer & Bolter?
January 11, 2013
QUALIFIED: Guest-Post by Jacob Milnestein
♦♦♦
Hello ladies and gentlemen!
As some of you will know my main job comes to an end on Monday leaving me somewhat high and dry. I found this out today. On the plus side, I look forward to spending longer in bed, on the down side, I look forward to be evicted from that bed and forced to sleep face down on the street whilst dressed in the requisite dirty anorak and knitted hat.
This means of course that I now face the unfavourable task of attempting to find a new job in the solemn post-Christmas period. It’s not impossible, of course, and I’m more than happy to work in any role… and yet it is not desirable.
At times like this, I do like to remind myself that at least I am qualified to clean toilets. And it’s true, I really am.
Yet there’s also something else I can, something perhaps not quite as glamorous but something that I pride myself on.
In case some of you don’t know, I write things. Look this is me - http://amzn.to/WTjNN0 and http://amzn.to/11jWH99.
If you haven’t heard me mention this before, it’s because I don’t like to. Speaking about this now is in fact a sign that I’m more than a little concerned about money.
I’m very much against the whole double-standard of the present publishing industry and strongly believe that writing, no scratch that, the idea of telling stories, is not something that can conscripted into this notion of an industry constructed with the notion of making rich people, well, rich.
What I am a big supporter of however, is patronage.
First of, don’t feel bad if there’s nothing you can do. Primarily, I want to get the message out there more than force you to sign on the dotted line.
Full disclosure I earn(t) next to nothing in my job and yet, through the grace of my wife and a little cutting of corners, I have found that it’s really only about £900 a month I need to make as a bottom line. It’s not ideal, but it is something I can do.
Why am I talking to you all about money though? More so, why am I talking to you about writing.
The answer is because I think you should sponsor me.
I’m certainly not asking any one person to give me £900 a month and I don’t want anyone to have to commit to paying my bills – such an idea is anathema to me. I don’t want to borrow money, I loathe the notion.
But I do think I can offer you, as a collective, something in exchange for money.
See the above. I write things.
I am considering crafting a Kickstarter or fashioning some method via Paypal in which people can pay what they want for fiction.
Yes, I want you to give money in exchange for make believe things, I want you to hand over gold and silver for fairy dust, substance for sentiment, money for dreams.
I want you to ask yourself if you would be interested in becoming my patrons and in helping me spread an inordinate amount of fables throughout the world without the aid of a publishing company.
So what are the hard facts, what am I actually saying here?
If I can make £900 a month, I will give you your dreams back. Not necessarily in the shape you left them, but they will be yours nonetheless.
There are a variety of ways we can do this. For money that is donated, each of you patrons will get an electronic version of an ebook I plan to release on a monthly basis as a way of substantiating this. Other people will have to pay for it, but you people, you’re going to get it for free because you’re helping me afford to feed my cats.
The book will be able in three different formats for you – PDF, epub and mobi for Kindle. You take your pick.
What will this ebook contain? Well, if you’ve read anything by me before, you know the kind of nonsense I like to write about; boys and girls lost and found, fantastic beasts, dead language, girls who grow up to be boys (and vice-versa!) and the beautiful city of London, recreated brick by brick, stone by stone in loving prose just for you.
In addition to these weighty themes, you will be able to request things for inclusion. Remember that bear that you lost as a child whilst watching the sea roll off the stones at Southend? I can tell you what happened to him, where he went.
Did I mention I’m a magician, by any chance? Well now you know.
Also included, will be free copies – actual hard copies – of the books that I publish this year. I am hoping to roll out three of them, the first you can already purchase for Kindle but as it is a sideways glance at my first published work of juvenilia, I feel nostalgic enough to want to give it a print run.
But you deserve more! £900 is a lot of money to help a guy make, right? Especially on a monthly basis!
Well, how about some music. Yeah, I can do that. I’ll give you acoustic demos, songs that you can consider canon within the world we are slowly building here, storyteller and patron.
Even more? Well how about me!
That’s right, me the writer.
I’ll come and visit you if you live in the UK and I’ll tell you these stories, I will actually physically relate these tales to you in person. I may even make some of this shit up on the spot. You will be obliged to buy me a coffee, but what’s a coffee (and £900 a month) in exchange for a little bit of adventure?
Alternatively, you can come to London! We’ll walk alongside the fallen Wall featured in Sophistry and at every juncture, I will introduce you to the keepers of the old gates through way of story and factoids.
Perhaps you’re uncertain, maybe you’re thinking that you don’t know whether I can write or not. Well, here’s a free copy of a recent seasonal book I put out for one month last. Have at it!
You’re more than welcome to tell me this won’t work. I’ll level with you, I actually have very big doubts.But if there’s one thing I believe… it’s my qualifications to clean toilets.I can do that for you too.If that’s not what you’re looking for, if you’re willing to settle for the stories and adventures of this old magician with his fondness for cats and his unresolved issues about childhood, then let’s talk seriously. Don’t tell me that you think there’s something missing in life and that we shouldn’t try to fix things when we see a chance. Even if nothing comes of this, when I go to the Job Centre on Monday, I know I will have tried.
Please pass this message on to people who are rich.
Thank you very much.
Your friend,
January 10, 2013
SANTO!
I’m busy writing a book. In lieu of actual content, have some Santo. Specifically, 1962′s Santo Contra Los Zombies. It’s in Spanish, and there are no subtitles, but even if you don’t speak Spanish you probably won’t have trouble following it. One of the great joys of these films is that they more than make up for their lack of nuance by giving us the unadulterated magnificence of a man in a silver mask fighting undead supermen with his bare fists and impressive in-ring technique.
January 9, 2013
GOTREK & FELIX: ROAD OF SKULLS Teaser
Black Library have released a second brief teaser excerpt from Gotrek & Felix: Road of Skulls on their site, should you wish to peruse it. And if you missed it the first time around, here’s the first teaser, from September last year.
From the teaser:
The book is available for pre-order, and is due to hit the stands at the end of January. It is also available for pre-order from Amazon and its regional affiliates, should that be your chosen book purchasing venue.
January 7, 2013
BLACK LIBRARY ADVENT CALENDAR 2012 eBundle Now Available
Black Library has announced the release of the 2012 Advent Calendar eBundle, containing all of the stories from this year’s Advent Calendar, including my contribution, “The Riddle of the Scorpions”.
In “The Riddle of the Scorpions” the Great Sage Zavant Konniger must rescue his assistant Vido from a deadly trap before the eponymous riddle claims the halfling’s life.
And if you enjoy “The Riddle…”, be sure to check out issue 25 of Hammer & Bolter, and “The Problem of Three-Toll Bridge”, wherein the duo investigate a murder that might not be all that it seems as Altdorf threatens to erupt in violence…
Whither the Wings
It wasn’t what you’d call a favourite eatery of mine, but now that it’s gone, I can’t help but feel a bit of the old nostalgia creeping up on me. I’m not sentimental enough to actually feel bad about it, but all the same, it’s another landmark on the map of my personal history…pfft, gone.
When I was at USC (South Carolina, not Southern California), the Gervais Street Carolina Wings & Rib House was a frat joint. Lots of Greek letters and brightly coloured shirts, a multitude of popped collars and khaki shorts. Young men wearing sun visors and sun glasses, even on a cloudy day and young women wearing roll-hem denim shorts and pastel sorority colours. A veritable faux-Nordic explosion, all bleached hair and teeth and the smell of tanning lotion. Impromptu cheering sections and bellicose buddy-wrestling in front of the self-service iced tea dispenser.
The televisions were permanently tuned to ESPN, and God help you if you went on Game Day–any game day, didn’t matter. The noise rolling out of that place was a solid force, washing over you and shoving you back. I remember popping in for some wings on the wrong Saturday and watching the windows flex with the noise. If the Gamecocks happened to be playing that day, it was so loud the floor tiles would shake loose in smooth, rippling formation expanding outward from beneath the wall-mounted televisions and sounding like the world’s largest keyboard–clat-clat-clat.
Even when it was quiet, it was a loud sort of quiet. That mid-week ‘eye of the hurricane’ quiet, where the echoes of the previous weekend haven’t quite faded and the early stirrings of the coming one are just sort of clinging to the walls. The waitresses all had that ‘first thirty days on the front line’ look, hundred yard stares and exhaustion lines. They’d start work blonde and by end of the week be brunette again.
I don’t remember the food at all. Just the noise.
January 4, 2013
New MOUNTAIN MAGIC Review
There’s nothing like the first review of a new year, especially when it’s a good one. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised by Angie Lisle’s recent review of Mountain Magic: Spellbinding Tales of Appalachia, an anthology I happen to have contributed to.
The review is short, but pretty dang sweet. Here’s a snippet:
My contribution, “Glory Hand” features the cantankerous old ghost-breaker John Bass and sees an old acquaintance of his attempt to force him to lead the way to an ancient treasure with unpleasant results.
You can purchase a print copy of Mountain Magic direct from Woodland Press, or from Amazon. It’s also available for the Kindle.
December 31, 2012
Roll On 2013
It’s only been four months since I started this ‘all-new, all-different’ blog, but it feels like a lot longer. Part of that’s the year coming to a close. There’s a part of me that thinks I should have waited until January 1st, 2013 to start posting here, but given that that’s the same part of me that wants to trash it and start over with a new blog every time I write a post, in pursuit of some mythical professional perfection, I’m happy to ignore it. More year-end rambling below.
I’ve blogged far more regularly these past four months than in my previous attempts. This is mostly due to there simply being more to write about, from a self-promotional standpoint. I’ve had three books–Knight of the Blazing Sun, Neferata: Blood of Nagash and The Executioner: Border Offensive–come out this year, with a fourth–Gotrek & Felix: Road of Skulls–up for pre-order, as well as more than a dozen short stories published, and an equal number sold. And I talked about what I’m working on, novel-wise. Heck, I got a Goodreads page!
I’ve shared my opinion a bit more, on such topics as Lovecraft, racism and–perhaps most controversial of all–Frankenstein. And not just my opinion! Luminaries such as Sarah Cawkwell, Jonathan Green and Greg Mitchell have all written guest-posts.
I’ve discussed my work as well, talking about some of my work for Black Library, including KotBS, N:BoN, and my short story, “The Gods Demand”. I talked a bit about Games Day UK and the first ever Black Library Weekender.
I also talked about some interesting characters–John Bass, the Ghost-Breaker, Mr. Brass, the Clockwork Pinkerton, and Charles St. Cyprian, the Royal Occultist.
All in all, it’s safe to say I crammed a year’s worth of stuff into four months. I’m looking forward to seeing how much is in store for 2013…
December 29, 2012
The Nightmare Men: “The Blind Man”
Following up on last month’s entry on Jim Beard’s ‘Sgt. Janus’, this month I’m taking a gander at August Derleth’s Dr. Laban Shrewsbury.
“They are at the mouth of the Miskatonic now. But I am ready.”
-Dr. Laban Shrewsbury, “The House on Curwen Street”
‘…an elderly man who wore his hair long and white…a firm, almost prognathus chin, half-pursed lips and a strong Roman nose. His eyes were not visible at all, for he wore dark glasses with shields which prevented one from seeing his eyes even from the side.’ Such is our first glimpse of Dr. Laban Shrewsbury, late of Arkham, late of the distant star Celaeno, and the Hyades in the 1944 story, “The House on Curwen Street”. Blind, and yet all-seeing, Shrewsbury stands between humanity and Lovecraft’s nightmarish god-things, employing weapons both material and supernatural in the world’s defence.
Created in 1944 by August Derleth for a series of interlinked stories set firmly in the dark universe of HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos—a term coined by Derleth himself—Shrewsbury was far from the standard Lovecraftian protagonist. With his incantations and machinations, he is at first glance the antithesis of the hapless antiquarians and artists who populate both the original stories and many of the pastiches that came after.
Shrewsbury is far more active than his predecessors, who are, in most cases, passive victims of the horrors they encounter. Unlike John Kirowan, who has seen the audient void and been frightened by it into a haunted and semi-reclusive retirement, Shrewsbury is more akin to Titus Crow—he is an active combatant in a war in which humanity is, at best, a pawn and at worst, food for the titanic forces at play.
To read more, visit BLACK GATE MAGAZINE…
