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...