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'.

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!

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...

Honourkeeper gets a cover!

First of all a little fanfare - this is the 100th post on NickKyme.com.

Woo-hoo!

Ahem... okay, so on to business. My apologies for leaving it so long until this post, but I have been neck-deep in Salamanders. More on that subject in a subsequent post (number 101, no less...).

Sorry to short change you a little again (especially after such a long absence), but this post is going to be quite short. Suffice it to say, I recently received the cover flat for my forthcoming dwarf novel, Honourkeeper, and thought I'd share it with you...



For those not in the know, cover flats are basically the front and back cover of a novel that's used for marketing and promotional purposes. I'm actually quite lucky with the cover flats I get, as I get to see and approve the text on the back of the them (the 'blurb' as it's known), before they go out to print. And, as my esteemed friend Mr Parker pointed out in a similar post to this one a few months ago, not all authors are afforded that luxury.

Anyway, enjoy an advance look at this. Hopefully, next time you see it it'll be wrapped around a book.

Honourkeeper is released in April 2009, by the way. Fans of Oathbreaker and Grudgelore (and even Grudgebearer, Gav Thorpe's dwarf novel), should check it out.