Signing at Black Library Live!

The Black Library have recently announced a new event to add to the pantheon of conventions, signing tours and other gatherings of note for their authorial glitterati (okay, so that's going a little bit far).

Black Library Live! is, hopefully, the first of many events devoted to the novels and authors of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 fiction as published by the eponymous named house, under the auspice of tabletop games giant, Games Workshop.

For anyone who has ever attended one of Games Workshop's Games Days and Golden Demon events, this is akin to the novel version of that (although, the Black Library will be at the aforementioned events, too, of course). It's really a celebration of the authors and novels that make BLP so great and a HUGE 'thank you' to the legions of fans that have made them so successful over the last few years.

At Black Library Live! there promises to be a host of author talent, including the likes of Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill, James Swallow and Gav Thorpe.

You'll also get a chance to grill new BLP author Aaron Demski-Bowden.

Rounding off the talent list is my good self. I'll be there on the day, mainly in my capacity as an author to chat about Salamander, Fires of War (I am led to believe that Heroes of the Space Marines will be there to sign on the day, too) and Honourkeeper (which I'll be signing, an extract for which is now online and available through the Black Library website...).

The shape of the day comprises exclusive signings, Q+A sessions (where I will be putting my editor's hat on again, briefly), themed games and much more besides.

The event takes place at Warhammer World on the 11th of April, but tickets to it are limited and only available through the Black Library webstore and Games Workshop stores, so act soon or risk missing out.

Tickets are available to purchase from the 9th of February and even include a free novel into the price with a choice of either The Killing Ground (soft back), by Graham McNeill or Reiksguard, by Richard Williams.

For more details and various other gubbins, check out the Black Library website and go to the 'Latest News'.

Gotham Central

As anyone who knows me will attest, I'm a big Batman fan. Going into my local comic book shop, Page 45 in Nottingham, I was often enticed by the likes of Gotham Central. This was a book set in the Batman universe that dealt, almost exclusively, with the men and women of the Gotham City Police Department. The artwork was quite stylised, not as pretty as some, but worthy - all the same, it put me off a little as I tend to go for shiny over dour (a mistake I'm often regretting).

One afternoon, though, I bit the bullet and ponied up the cash for Book One: In the Line of Duty, a rather fetching hard cover graphic novel. Within the first few pages, I was hooked. Gotham PD were called out to a kidnapping case that had gone cold, and two of the detectives working the case were working after hours on a tip that could break it. The denouement of a scene in which the cops are hammering on the door of a crummy apartment in a rough end (rougher end? - It's all pretty bleak) of Gotham is none other than Mr Freeze appearing in said apartment and turning one of the detectives into a copcicle.


The guy is dead, no question - especially when Freeze callously shatters him all over the floor (imagine the CSI's rolling up to that when the parts had thawed out...), and makes his getaway with the cop in shock. What impressed me most about this opening was that it then when on to deal with his partners grief about the death of the detective. It showed a very convincing, working police department in a city populated by freaks in mask (including the vigilante who helped the cops put said freaks behind bars) and the realities of being a police (to use a GCPD term) in such a city.

It's Gotham Centrals police procedural side, amalgamated with the Batman mythos that makes it so appealing. I love the the US drama series Crime Scene Investigation, and read Crime novels voraciously, so with my love of the Bat, this was a perfect choice for me.

The stories are taught, edge of the seat stuff. There's depth - it feels like you're reading about real people. Batman surfaces now and again, but it's often just a shadow or a brief glimpse before he's gone, flying across the rooftops on his Bat-line. Essentially, Gotham Central deals with all the stuff that happens when Batman isn't around.


Regular cameos are made by Gotham's villains, aka the 'Rogues Gallery', and this is where the GCPD faces its biggest challenge. I've already mentioned Mr Freeze, but expect to see the Joker, Two-Face, Mad Hatter, Penguin and others involved in the complex and compelling story lines.

There is a lot of heart in these stories, often driven by emotion and the desire of a police force to protect a city under their own steam, without the assistance of a man in a mask. Corruption, of course, is one of the major themes and forms the basis for one of the most shocking and genuinely moving stories within the Gotham Central Pantheon.

In terms of the timeline, it takes place after Commissioner Gordon has retired and Maggie Sawyer (from Metropolis) is heading up the MCU (Major Crimes Unit). Harvey Bullock is no longer on the force, having been kicked off for a fairly serious indiscretion that is dealt with wonderfully in one of the later volumes (Unresolved Targets). Renee Montoya is still on the GCPD, along with Crispus Allen. There are a host of other GCPD characters, too, broken up into a First and Second Shift. Each book opens, effectively, with a squad roll call so readers can see at a glance who is in what shift and who partners who.

The book is written by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, who was also on the writing team for DCs seminal series 52 (another of my great favourites, that deals with a 'lost year' in the DC universe, post Final Crisis), and features the artistic and pencilling talents of Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano and Kano (apologies if I've missed anyone out).

Rucka is a real favourite of mine - he also wrote and adapted the novelisation of No Man's Land - so much so that I named a minor character after him in my Salamander short story Fires of War (see if you can seek him out...).

The series, though a critical success (winning the Eisner and Harvey Award), failed commercially, and so only ran for 40 issues or so. This is the greatest crime associated with the pages of Gotham Central, and this is a wonderful book that was even talked about as a potential TV series I have later learned (let's hope Warners sees sense and gives Rucka and co the greenlight to do it - personally, I'd love to have a crack at writing a few episodes...).

Most the of the issues were compiled within graphic novels, stretching to five books in total. I'd recommend, if you're thinking about taking a look, that you seek them out in this format rather than individual issues as they tend to read better that way (low grade paper stock that comics are often printed from doesn't lend itself too favourably to the muddy art style of the series).

As far as I know, there's only one hard back volume in print as of me writing this entry and that's In the Line of Duty. Check this out first, as it's a great introduction to the series. Be warned, though, that this book actually (and a little confusingly) combines books 1 & 2 of the soft back graphic novels (In the Line of Duty and Half a Life).

For the sake of clarity, here's the running order:

Book 1 - In the Line of Duty (hard back)
Book 2 - Half a Life (find this in the book one hard back)
Book 3 - Unresolved Targets
Book 4 - The Quick and the Dead
Book 5 - Dead Robin

Each book contains three to four separate cases, or stories, that are all linked by the Gotham Central meta-arc. There are about another six or so volumes that have yet to be compiled into a graphic novel, but are stand alone and don't interfere with the plot overarch. For the sake of completeness, these are issues #11, #16-18, #26-27 and #32. They are tricky to get hold off so I'd suggest trying to find them on an auction site.

I really can't sing the praises of Gotham Central enough. This is such a good series and one, if you're a fan of Batman or any police procedural dramas, that you should definitely check out.

Heroes of the Space Marines is moved forward

Anyone who read the Black Library news posts will be well aware of this, but for those who don't - my forthcoming short story Fires of War, as featured in Heroes of the Space Marines, will be released a whole two months early. So you're now looking at a May 2009 release date, rather than July.

This is great news for me, as it gets my first foray with the Salamanders out in the wide world just that little bit sooner. Looking forward to what folks think when it hits the shelves...

Salamander - halfway there!

As of writing this latest post, I am just over 50,000 words into Salamander, which is roughly the halfway point. Looking at what I've got left to tell in the story, I reckon this novel might run a bit over the 100,000 word mark, so my earlier celebration might be a little premature.

I seem to find myself writing exceedingly long chapters for this one. Not sure why - possibly, it's down to the complex character dynamics that I'm going for in this novel. Not only do I have to think about the Salamanders as a Chapter and their background, culture etc; I also want to establish a group of characters with some personality, motivations and reality.

To offset the fairly monstrous chapters sizes, I'm breaking them into two parts each. This is actually working rather well and is a technique I've seen used to good effect in several novels. The endings of sections (so far) are occurring quite naturally, which is enabling me to maintain a nice even pace. I pleased with the first 50,000 words; they're definitely shaping up as I wanted them to. I must admit though, it's not all bang-bang, kill-kill. I've taken a bit more of cerebral approach to the novel, in order to develop my cast of characters and establish some key subplots that will be born out later in this book and the two sequels that I'm planning to write.

I think one of the key things that's on my mind is Fires of War, the short story that features in Heroes of the Space Marines. There's actually a lot of useful material in here for someone reading Salamander and the events within it are referred to quite a bit. I must stress (again) that you don't need to have read this story to read Salamander, I'd just recommend it as it'll make the whole experience that bit more immersive. That's actually part of the challenge: to maintain the integrity of the short story but also provide enough background in the novel to reference it sufficiently.

I guess the way to look at it is: the characters in the novel are at a certain point in their development; they are in a certain 'place' emotionally and in terms of their relationships with other characters. Fires of War merely tells you how they got there in the first instance, as well as being a great story of course :-).

I'll be back with more updates as I have them.

Honourkeeper is printed!

I was very pleasantly surprised at work yesterday when two copies of the newly printed Honourkeeper arrived on my desk!

For those not in the know, this is my second dwarf novel (after Oathbreaker) and is a stand-alone story set just before the War of Vengeance and in and around the hold of Karak Ungor.



It's always a great thrill to see one of your books come back from the printers and with this one it was no different. It looks great, the cover has come out awesome and it's my biggest dwarf book to date at 416 pages long (oh, and there's even a small glossary in the back for all you hardcore fans and Khazalid nuts...).

These are only the initial printer's proof copies (though, they are exactly like the ones that appear in the shops), so you'll have to wait a few months before this is available to buy. April this year in fact. Hope you enjoy it!

A quick note about characters

Something that's just occurred to me that might be of interest to the reading public is how I cement characters in my mind. As well as trying to come up with someone that's interesting, with flaws desires, unique qualities etc, etc something that I've done for Salamander is try and based the image of my characters (face, build etc) around well-known actors, or, at the very least, use them as inspiration so that I can build a better mental picture of them in my mind.

When describing a scene with a certain character in it, their reactions to things, thoughts etc it can be extremely helpful to have a visual cue on hand just to get your brain going. For all of my Salamander characters (the main ones, at least), I have done a kind of casting call and set certain actors who I think look akin to how I imagine them (even if it's just based on an idea or a theme I have in mind) to certain characters.

Currently, I have them all arrayed on my desktop but I plan to blow them up, print them out and stick them to my notice board (or my door, if that proves to be full) with their names beneath and salient notes about their personality, history and weapons etc. So far, it has been a great way to help these characters come to life as I make the movie in my mind of the narrative I'm describing on the page.

And just as a little treat, here's one of the faces that is currently serving as inspiration (oddly, it's not an actor at all but rather another character that I felt evoked the right mood purely in terms of its visual - and I can't stress this enough - it's ALL about the visual and NOT the character or the characters the actors may have played. Incidentally, I am a big fan of the game this character came from and his classic visual style is just perfect). Faces are probably the most expressive part of the body, so that's what I've focused on in each case.

I'll not say who the character is that bears a resemblance to this one (facially), and if you haven't read the short story or the novel you won't know anyway. But, take a look at Fires of War once that's released in Heroes of the Space Marines and see if you can peg which one it inspired in my mind (oh, and ignore the face paint and the scar down the right side of the face. And remember to add jet-black skin and burning red eyes...).

Salamander - 30,000 words down and counting...

Just a quick update the progress of Salamander. As you can read, I am now over the 30,000 word mark.

Whenever I write a novel I always have these little milestones in word counts that I like to try and hit by a certain date; it could also be a certain number of words per day (usually 1,000 or 3-5,000 over the weekend). My goal for Salamander was 30,000+ by the time I go back to work on the 5th. Thankfully, I've hit that with some change too. I've still got a lot of work ahead of me as this is a 100,000 word novel (thought I suspect it will turn out longer, possibly around the 110-120,000 mark depending on how creative the production team can be with the typeset).

Chapter-wise, this puts almost at the end of chapter three (yes, they are long chapters but I'm breaking them up into parts so as to be more easily digestible - chapter three is just a 'part one' at the moment, but I'll go in and retroactively insert at least one more part. It's actually not that hard to do as the way I write tends to break down nicely into themes/scenes etc, so this is where I look for my break points, even subconsciously putting them in whilst I'm writing sometimes).

The end of this chapter will also herald the end of the involvement of a secondary group of characters I've been really enjoying writing about and developing. You'll have to read the novel to find out how all of that works out, though...

Got to say, I am really pleased with how it's going so far. I reckon this might be some of my best work to date, but I don't want to nix it, so let's leave it there.

More updates to follow...

Confessions of a Filofax

Okay, so I get a lot of banter about this at work but fact is: I still use a filofax. And no, it's not because I'm trapped in 1986 or anything, I just like having things written down and writing them down. I once used a PDA but it screwed up so many times and lost all my information, I was pretty much done with it.

Anyway, I digress... I've just been cycling through said filofax removing the old 2008 pages and putting in the 2009 insert. It's a little ritual I do each year, checking back over the dates, making sure I've got birthdays and anniversaries in etc, etc and in so doing sort of 're-lived' my 2008 in microcosm. It's actually really nice to review the last 365/6 days and a few things stuck out for me.

It was the year when Louise and I got Shakespeare, our awesome but mischievous little house rabbit (the little fella is probably snoozing downstairs right now, either that or he's got behind my TV and is currently destroying all the wires... thinking about it, I should just go check on him, one moment... Yep, still snoozing, laid out by the radiator).




I spent quite a bit in the capital in 2008, hopping on a train and meeting George (my uber-boss at BL) in London to go talk audio books. This was pretty exciting for me and it was great to see The Lightning Tower and The Dark King Horus Heresy audio hit the GW shelves before year end. So successful was it that Slayer of the Storm God and Heart of Rage are coming in 2009. It was a genuine thrill to take part in this; one, because I was at the forefront of something totally new for BL; and 2, because it was fascinating to go to a recording studio and see the actor and the whole creative process at work.

Woolaton Park near where I live was the site for my first 10K run (and only so far, something I plan to rectify in 2009). This was knackering, but I felt a great sense of achievement at the end of it and the memory of that lives on fondly.

A good friend of mine, Tim (who also did the run and several others, as it happens), headed off for sunnier climes and began his African odyssey. I salute him for going and going on such a fantastic journey, but you always miss your good buddies when they're not around.

Like any year, 2008 was one of anniversaries. Louise and I celebrated six years together and six in Nottingham, since we moved from Grimsby and I took up a position at White Dwarf (seems like a LONG time ago now). It also marked ten years since I sadly lost my father. An entire decade has passed and it barely seems like yesterday. I miss you dad.

On a lighter note, it was the year when I did my first interview for 40K Radio. What a great experience - my thanks to Spencer for that one (hope to chat to you again in 2009...).

Movies had a pretty good year in 2008. I'm a huge graphic novel/super heroes fan so to get Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk in the same year was pretty special. Eclipsing both, however, was the superb Dark Knight, possibly one of my favourite movies of all time. Chris Nolan you are a legend, sir.



A melange of other remembrances sprang up, too, as I was flicking through those dog-eared, daubed-on pages: the Fantasy Football league and the planned transfers and changes I wanted to make (I was a winner last season, but I currently trail in third place at the moment - I shall have to rectify that as well); an absolutely storming Kaiser Chiefs gig at the Nottingham Arena; I met Chris Wraight for the first time face-to-face (what a gent); and spoke to one of my literary idols Lee Child at a Waterstones signing - what a great experience, and one I shall never forget.

Anyway, I think that's probably enough procrastinating for now. I've given the blog a good battering this morning - it's about time I got on with some writing.

Salamander Chapter Three & New Year's Resolutions

A Happy New Year to one and all! I hope all your festivities went well and you saw the New Year in with style. I had a fairly quiet affair, with a few friends over, one or two beverages and a bit of Jools Holland's Hootenanny to count us all down. Good stuff.

Benefits of a quiet-ish New Year? No hang over, of course - bonus. It means I'm back at the keyboard (relatively) bright and early for the continuation of chapter three of Salamander. By way of a very brief preview, this chapter is titled 'Malevolence' and introduces a certain Space Marine Chapter that has had, let's say, a 'run in' with the Salamanders in the established history. As this story is actually set prior to the campaign when this altercation takes place I wanted to throw in some potential clues to explain and deepen the rift between them. All very cryptic, I know, but those blog readers who know the background will probably (hopefully) catch on.

It's actually quite interesting writing secondary/peripheral characters like this as in background terms there's not a whole lot written about them. This basically meant I had to come up with an identity for them, something that made them stand out but still rooted them firmly in the lore of Space Marines. In the end, my imagination was stirred by the circumstances the characters found themselves in and their motives. I was very pleased that it all happened kind of organically. They also serve as a wonderful foil for the Salamanders themselves who, up until this point, have only been viewed in isolation to give me a chance to establish a bit of character for them too.

Work beckons on Monday (the editorial day job), and I'm planning to have a fairly modest 30,000 words down by then. I've deliberately given myself a relatively easy/short target to hit as I find if you try to overreach yourself or set up a mountain to climb you inevitably won't do it - and that never feels good. As a writer, I'm buoyed along by my sense of achievement at the end of each writing day and if I thought I wasn't hitting my deadlines then that would affect my morale, I think. I always set a minimum of 2,000 words for a full day (again, very modest) as this might incorporate some reading and research too, or the odd spot of re-writing. I suppose it adheres to the old adage of 'under promise, over deliver' - if I manage to write more then I'm really pumped about it and it'll spur on the next day. It's a kind of weird psychological strategy, but I've found it works just fine for me.

So resolutions then, since it's the New Year and that's the somewhat erroneous title of this post. I'll stick to the writing ones I think, as that's directly relevant. I have two books released this year and a short story, so that's one in the bag already. With Honourkeeper in April and Salamander in September (plus the short in Heroes of the Space Marines in July), I have things pretty well covered. In terms of what I'm actually writing, I'd like to give myself a little more time for projects. Last year (and the first part of this incidentally, but I'm not counting that as it's a tail back from 2008) I found myself rushed on too many occasions when finishing novels/stories etc. This year I'm going to take the time I need, through a combination of getting synopses in earlier (and approved) and giving myself realistic deadlines to hit, so I'm not too pushed. A good writer has to be prolific, I think - well, if they want to be successful at least - but I want to do that whilst taking the time I need to develop and hone. Saying that, I'm pretty darn pleased with both Honourkeeper and Fires of War (and Salamander so far too) - I hope you feel the same.

Two books again would suit me just fine. I have a couple of things in the pipe, but need to firm some details up so I can't really disclose anything here. I'd also like to spread my wings a little, too. Something I started but didn't finish last year was Wyrd Dreams. Necromunda fans, I WILL finish this, I'm just having a hard time finding some time to do it. The plan is in place, I just need to write it. I think possibly a blitz and then posting the whole thing up as a PDF is the way to go. I also have a hankering to write some more mainstream crime fiction. I'm a huge fan of the genre (my favourite author at present is John Connolly - I've just finished Bad Men [excellent, and truly chilling in places] and am about halfway through Dark Hollow) and have, for some time, had a plan to write a full crime novel. I think given my BL commitments that might be stretching it a bit (remember what I was saying about 'under promise, over deliver...), so I going to write a couple of short stories instead and submit them to a couple of crime anthologies and see how I go. I actually started one last year (it sounds weird saying that on only the first day of the New Year) called Death by Seven Samurai (working title). I got about 5,000 words in (halfway, I reckon) and then Fires of War came along. So I hope to pick that up again (I still have all my notes safely enshrined in my moleskin), and write another crime story I've got buzzing around my head.

All in all, a great 2008 - Assault on Black Reach the Novel was released (my first foray into 40K); earlier in the year I had Oathbreaker, my first novel about dwarfs and my first novel since Back from the Dead. I'm very proud of Grudgelore, written together with Gav Thorpe, which was released alongside Oathbreaker; my website was born (soon to be undergoing a bit of a revamp - the remit: more stuff on it); Games Day UK was awesome for me as I actually got to sign something that wasn't just old White Dwarf magazines (though I do appreciate your support, Dwarfer fans), plus I got my first gift from a fan - a wonderful dwarf illustration that was blogged in September; and I had my first signing trip overseas to Holland. Phew! A busy old year in many respects. Why do I get the sneaking suspicion that 2009 will be even busier...

Onwards and upwards...