Assault on Black Reach is printed!

I have the proof right here, folks - Assault on Black Reach, my first foray into the universe of Warhammer 40,000 has been printed. Here's a nice little snap of it sat on my desk...

It really is a neat little book, totally different to any other Black Library release and the first of a small range. Compact and smart, it's great for a single sitting reading or trips on the bus/train and even lunch breaks.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts upon its release.

New Published Works & Links!

Courtesy of my esteemed webmaster, the 'Published Works' and 'Links' sections
of the site have now been updated. In the former you'll find Honourkeeper (on sale April 2009!) and Assault on Black Reach (on sale 6th September and available at UK Games Day - where I'll be signing, too). In the latter, there are new links to Steve Parker's website and blog (see earlier post) and my friends at 40K Radio.com.

Enjoy!

Meet Shakespeare!

No, I'm not referring to the 17th century playwrite; as you can see, I am in fact talking about my pet house rabbit!

This little guy (mischevious as he is - a fridge freezer and electric cooker cable later, I know he is), keeps me company when I am home alone writing. Though, he does tend to eat my print outs rather than read them.

He lives in the house with Louise and I, generally confined to the kitchen when we're not around but given pretty much free rein of the ground floor when we're in.

Not writing related in the slightest, but he's quite cute so I had to get him on the blog.

Here's a few pictures of the little fella getting into trouble in the storeroom. Aww!

Steve Parker's blog

A good friend of mine, as well as a fellow author, Steve Parker now has his own blog.

For those who don't know (and shame on you), Steve is the author of Rebel Winter, as well as number of short stories appearing in Black Library Warhammer 40,000 anthologies. His latest book, Gunheads, is released next and on his blog he's got the scoop on all of his upcoming projects.

Just a couple of posts up there at the moment, but I'd urge you to take a look as we often comment on each other's blogs and that in itself might be worthy of some attention.

Steve's blog will soon be available in the links section. Meantime, just tap in red-stevie into your search engine and you should find him okay.

'In the Nick of Kyme' - 40K Radio interview goes live!

Fans of the blog will know that I did an interview for 40K Radio a couple of weeks back, well the interview is now live on the internet station!

My chat with Spencer Harding is on Epsiode 14 and appears towards the end of the podcast, approximately an hour and a half in. It means if you want to get straight to it, you'll need to fast forward a bit, but there's loads of other great stuff that the guys have put together beforehand. The interview itself is about 20 minutes long and touched upon are my new book, Assault on Black Reach (released 6th September and available at Games Day, where I'll also be signing), and the forthcoming Salamanders project.

Hope all you blog fans enjoy the interview: check it out on www.40kradio.com

Arkham Asylum - The Video Game!

How stoked am I? I've just read that Eidos are due to produce a brand new Batman video game, titled Batman: Arkham Asylum!

Aside from the fact that Arkham is one of the most important and pivotal landmarks in Batman's Gotham City and the Batman mythos (excepting the Bat Cave, of course), it also suggests - given Eidos's - of Tomb Raider fame - involvement, that, after a plethora of mediocre console and pc adaptations of the Dark Knight, this one won't actually suck.

I've got most of my info from IGN, and so far it seems that there's only four villains slated for this break out/get the Joker back behind bars storyline, but hopefully this number will swell in due course.

Together with DCU online, it's looking like a very good time for the DK in video game format. That, combined with the big screen success of the awesome movie, seems to suggest something of a golden era at the moment. Let's hope the quality continues. Fingers crossed for the video game - us fans have been crying out for a decent one for ages (not including Batman Lego, of course, which I'm sure will be great if the other Traveller's Tales offerings are any gauge, but you just can't beat a dark and series adventure game with the Bat in it). Here's hoping it'll have shades of Lara Croft adventure with a bit of Max Payne grit thrown in for good measure. Long live the Knight!

40K Radio interview

I just want to say a huge thanks to Spencer Harding from 40K Radio. I had my interview with the internet-based station yesterday evening, and it was great.

Hopefully, I'll come across as semi-knowing what I'm talking about; what I can say for certain is that it was a very cool experience.

Spencer and I chatted on, and off, air for about an hour on all manner of topics. Don't worry, though, the interview was nice and pointy, focusing on my new and upcoming Warhammer 40,000 projects. I'm sure there are some scoops and insights in there (Spencer did very well to tease them out of my babbling, I think), and I'm very much looking forward to how it all turns out (they might even let me back to do more...).

I'm informed that the interview will be up on the 22nd of August as part of Episode 14 on the site. In the meantime, if you want to check out what else the guys at 40K Radio are up to, and maybe a little something about the team themselves then this is the address to go to:

www.40kradio.com

Once again, my thanks to Spencer. I'll blog again when the interview is definitely up and I've listened to it...

Assault on Black Reach: The Novel cover

Here's the cover image to the Ultramarines mini-book I've written for release in early September. As I'm sure you can see it perfectly emulates the Assault on Black Reach box cover, depicting Sicarius taking on the Ork Warlord Zanzag in dramatic fashion. There'll be some more detailed background/inside information about the novel on the Black Library website in due course.

For now... enjoy.

Signing at Games Day 2008

Good news, folks. I've managed to get a signing spot at UK Games Day 2008 held at the Birmingham NEC.

I'm going to be there all day anyway in my capacity as Black Library editor, but I'll also be available to sign copies of Assault on Black Reach: The Novel, Oathbreaker, Back from the Dead or indeed anything that I've written or been a part over the last few years.

It would be great to see some people down there, and even talk to you about upcoming projects like Salamanders or my next dwarf novel, Honourkeeper.

There's no specific signing time yet, though I will be at an information point all day (so, pretty much in the same place), so please feel free to rock up and talk to me, ask me to sign stuff or whatever.

UK Games Day is held at the Birmingham NEC on the 14th of September (a day after my birthday as it happens) and doors open at 10am. Come and see me at any point during the day!

Ultramarines and Assault on Black Reach

It looks like the cat is pretty much out of the bag on this now, so I might as well come out and say that the mini-book project I mentioned in a previous post about the Ultramarines is actually Assault on Black Reach: The Novel.

This seminal battle in the Ultramarines' glorious history pits the legendary Captain Sicarius of 2nd Company against the Ork Warlord Zanzag, as they fight for the fate of Black Reach. Expect to see other 'stars' of the Ultramarines in the novel, such as the Master Scout Tobias Telion and the mighty dreadnoughts, Agnathio and Ultracius. In fact, the entire 2nd Company of the Ultramarines is involved in the story, plus some battle-brothers from 1st and 10th in the Astartes task force that is sent to liberate the planet from the clutches of the greenskin scum infesting it.

I've recently finished writing the novel, which comes in at around 128 pages (but with a lower price point to match) and marks the first of several mini-book releases from Black Library. I am, of course, proud and honoured to be the first. The book has plenty of action and battles in it, as you might expect, but also has a twist or two and at its core a triumvirate of Ultramarines' sergeants, united in their devotion to the Chapter; but divided by opinion of their heroic captain. The story, in its few quiet moments, focuses on the relationship between these three sergeants: Scipio, Iulus and Praxor, and how their experiences of the fight on Black Reach changes them.

Hopefully then, as well as some great action, there'll be some thought provoking moments too. There's also a lot of stuff in there that fans might not have seen in a Space Marine novel before. There are definitely some new troop types given a run out (from the upcoming Codex: Space Marines) and the odd uniquely Space Marine 'thing' that'll add some extra background to the Emperor's finest.

Assault on Black Reach: The Novel is released on September 6th in all GW stores (UK and US for sure, with others to follow as I understand it) and will be available at UK Games Day 2008 on September 14th too.

All we hear is... radio dakka, dakka!

Exciting news (well, for me at least...). I've been asked to do an interview on 40K Radio. For those not in the know (and I wasn't until a few weeks ago), 40K Radio is an online radio station devoted to all things Warhammer 40,000. It's basically an internet-based radio program that takes the form of lots of cool interviews, 'articles', news, rumours and lots of other good stuff dedicated to 40K gaming and the 40K universe. It goes out twice a month, with shows that run for approximately an hour long and is hosted by two very amiable American (I think) chaps: Spencer Harding and Phil Johnson.

I am very honoured to have been asked to participate in the show to talk about two of my upcoming Warhammer 40,000 novel projects for the Black Library, one of which is the Salamanders short story and novel; the other is the Ultramarines mini-book based on Assault on Black Reach (more of which in the following post...). I'm due to chat to Spencer on Thursday evening GMT, but I'm told the interview will go out a few weeks after that (possibly a little longer). As soon as I get details about when the interview is up, I shall post on the blog so you can all listen to it.

Obviously, I am tremendously excited about all of this, and after a brief chat with Spencer today, I am really looking forward to it too. I won't say any more here, I'll let the interview speak for itself once it's online.

Oh, and by the way, you can find the guys at www.40kradio.com

If you're a 40K fan, I urge you to check it out - very cool indeed.

Battle damage

I really should learn that exercise is bad for you. Tell you why - I regularly do a 5km run down by the canal near Black Library Towers (it's a good way to keep fit, helps me clear my head and devote some much needed 'think time' to my projects). I figured, working at a desk, a bit of running could do no harm. How wrong I was...

Okay, so I'm on said run, yesterday in fact, and I have the misfortune to step on a bit of branch debris littering the canal path. Fairly innocuous, right? Wrong! My foot bent inwards and I stretched my ligaments pretty bad. I didn't feel much at first, but after I'd walked back several km (it happened at the end of my first lap, as luck with have it) it was hurting pretty bad. A couple of hours after that and I could barely walk on it.

I managed to drive my car (after finishing work late), got home and Louise suggested we go to A&E. This was an experience in itself. The nurses were all very nice and professional, but some of the clientele in there (i.e. the other patients) were just down right unnerving. I had an hour and a half wait, and when I finally got to the nurses station I was told I had sprained my ankle (i.e. ligament damage).

Luckily, it doesn't stop me writing, though I'm having a short break at the moment (for a few days), after finishing the Ultramarines novella/mini-book (more information/details on this soon, I promise). I'm currently (well, after finishing this post) with my foot up, well iced and playing away on Patapon for the PSP (and how awesome it is, too).

Next up, writing-wise, is the Salamander short story for the Heroes of the Space Marines anthology. I'm also going to devote some attention to a short crime story for my writing group and try and get chapter four to Wyrd Dreams down (thanks to all the Necromunda fans for their patience on this one).