A Week of Firsts
This has been a week of important firsts for me. It’s already seen the release of my story, Plan B, in the anthology, Drainpipes for Strikeposts, featuring eight stories of bone-crushing mayhem from the galaxy’s favourite sport, Dreadball. Published by Mantic Games, this little short has the privilege of being the first story I’ve sold to anyone but Black Library. Strike one to the Veer-myn!
Alas, it doesn't seem to be on Goodreads, but you can get your gloves on it at Mantic Digital here: https://www.manticdigital.com/product...
Fittingly then, this was the week I’ve also managed to do something else that’s escaped me ever since I started writing for money, and that’s write something entirely speculatively and then send it off to a magazine. I haven’t done that since I wrote Tilean’s Talisman for the Black Library open submission window in 2012. I’ve always told people it’s because my schedule is ridiculously slammed and it is (job, toddler, novels with tight deadlines), but a couple of weeks ago I had a bit of a mini-revelation. I managed to write a 5000 word story for Age of Sigmar in one day, because I had to, and it made me realize that the only thing I was lacking to get a story of similar length done was the promise of a pay cheque and a deadline. Of course, there wasn’t a lot I could do about the first part of that, but I tried to address the second as best I could essentially by telling everyone I could (including the editor of the magazine in question, who I’m at least on e-mailing terms with) that I was writing the thing. I figured that if people were expecting a story then I’d feel obliged to produce one, and it seems to have worked.
Strike two!
4000 words of grimdark adventure on the high sea, and set in a world I hope to be able to develop into more shorts and novels one day, was dispatched to Grimdark Magazine this morning. It may pass, it may not, that’s sort of what you have to expect if you want to be a writer, but either way I’m glad I finally wrote it. Hopefully, next time I see a week or two of daylight in my writing schedule with Black Library, I’ll know exactly what to do with it.
Alas, it doesn't seem to be on Goodreads, but you can get your gloves on it at Mantic Digital here: https://www.manticdigital.com/product...
Fittingly then, this was the week I’ve also managed to do something else that’s escaped me ever since I started writing for money, and that’s write something entirely speculatively and then send it off to a magazine. I haven’t done that since I wrote Tilean’s Talisman for the Black Library open submission window in 2012. I’ve always told people it’s because my schedule is ridiculously slammed and it is (job, toddler, novels with tight deadlines), but a couple of weeks ago I had a bit of a mini-revelation. I managed to write a 5000 word story for Age of Sigmar in one day, because I had to, and it made me realize that the only thing I was lacking to get a story of similar length done was the promise of a pay cheque and a deadline. Of course, there wasn’t a lot I could do about the first part of that, but I tried to address the second as best I could essentially by telling everyone I could (including the editor of the magazine in question, who I’m at least on e-mailing terms with) that I was writing the thing. I figured that if people were expecting a story then I’d feel obliged to produce one, and it seems to have worked.
Strike two!
4000 words of grimdark adventure on the high sea, and set in a world I hope to be able to develop into more shorts and novels one day, was dispatched to Grimdark Magazine this morning. It may pass, it may not, that’s sort of what you have to expect if you want to be a writer, but either way I’m glad I finally wrote it. Hopefully, next time I see a week or two of daylight in my writing schedule with Black Library, I’ll know exactly what to do with it.
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Looking forward to reading it. Hope I'll be fine, having no prior knowledge of Dreadball whatsoever."I know now that it's not all done by the Goodreads pixies, but it still seems like magic to me!
I knew nothing about Dreadball or the Warpath Universe when I wrote it, so I expect it'd be pretty accessible. And Guy Haley's in it. I've not read his offering but I don't have to to know that it'll be good :)
Drainpipes for Strike Posts
Looking forward to reading it. Hope I'll be fine, having no prior knowledge of Dreadball whatsoever.