Salamander and Thunder from Fenris are in!

It's been a busy week for me this week, as I've been inputting the editorial changes to both Salamander and my forthcoming audio story Thunder from Fenris.

I am now very pleased to report that I've literally just finished the last of the edits for Salamander, and I'll be submitting this tomorrow morning for the next stage in the process. I'll probably (hopefully) not see it again until the proofreading stage, when I get a final check before it goes off to the printers. All exciting stuff.

As mentioned, I've also now completed the slight reworks needed on Thunder from Fenris, a brand new Space Wolf audio. At 10,000 words (ish), it was a bit easier of a beast to tame than Salamander, but a great and challenging project to work on all the same. I'm very much looking forward to hearing it acted out at the recording session in London on May 11th. It'll be weird, I'm sure, but also very cool.

I understand, Toby Longworth, who did some absoultely sterling work on James Swallow's excellent Heart of Rage (if you haven't already, go and get it - it's ace. That's if it's released yet...), so I can't wait to see what the actor will do with all those pseudo-Viking/Nordic characters. Skoll!

Next up, my editor has me working on the sequels to Salamander (books two and three in the Tome of Fire trilogy - tentatively titled Firedrake and Fireborn respectively). As I've been making copious notes on the next two books, and, as divulged at BL Live, already have the basic story arc down, this shouldn't be too arduous. I'm actually looking forward committing the character arcs to paper and sort of crystallising my note-appended thoughts in full.

Though these two novels won't be out for a long while, and I've got at least one other novel in between, it's good to establish the overall plotline early on and get it approved, so that when I'm ready to get stuck back in to the Salamanders again, I can do so without pause.

In fact, next on the list of actual writing is a short story called 'Hell Night' for Legends of the Space Marines, which features some of the heroes from Salamander and 'Fires of War'. Beyond that, I'm reluctant to speak of in any detail. Suffice it to say, there's another short and an Empire army novel.

Busy, busy, busy!

Salamander gets a new cover!

You heard it right, folks! After a bit of umming and ahhing by the BL powers that be, Salamander has a new cover.

This is not to detract from the great work that Wayne England did on the previous version - it was just that when it was scaled down, it didn't quite show off the art to its fullest potential.

Instead of losing the piece completely, it'll be used in a top secret project that I cannot speak about upon pain of excrutiation by the Emperor's Inquisition. Suffice it to say, it'll be cool.

Back to the new art - it's by a brand new artist never commissioned by BL before (though you will have seen his work on the Dawn of War II game, and, consquently, the novel by the fine chap that is Chris Roberson). He's called Cheoljoo Lee and is simply awesome!

Brothers of Prometheus, feast your eyes on this...

There's an even bigger, slightly more rendered, version available to view on the Black Library blog!

Oh, and here's the full jacket just for the sake of completeness...

Salamander is finished!

After a long, hard slog I finished the first draft of Salamander last night.

There's still a little honing and editing to do, plus incorporating any feedback/comments that my editor makes, but the words are in the bag and I am one relieved writer.

I was only saying to Louise last night that this has been the toughest book I've ever had to write - it also feels like the longest it terms of the time it's taken me to get it done. By the end, I like to think that everything came together very satisfyingly and sets things up for a sequel, which I'm already planning (my moleskine notebook is literally crammed with material on volumes two and three of what is going to be called 'The Tome of Fire' trilogy).

At this point, I just want to thank again everyone who has posted on the blog or spoken to me at conventions etc about the book, offering their advice, support and general good will - it is all very much appreciated. I don't think I good have gone on and written this book in the way I have if it weren't for all of you.

A special shout out must go to Brother Argos and Brother Pyriel, who were there with me right from the start as devoted and highly knowledgeable Salamander fans and gamers - you I want to impress most of all. You will both be honoured in the novel as characters within the Third Company.

Now, I just have to wait and see what the fan reaction will be to Fires of War, the Salamander short story/novella which features in Heroes of the Space Marines. I've heard some nice rumblings from the Games Workshop Design Studio about the story, so I'm hoping it'll go down well.

Salamander update: 90,000 words and counting...

I know some blog readers think this is a bit of a tease, me telling you 10,000 words by 10,000 how far along I am with Salamander, well... yeah, it is a bit.

It's actually really good for me too, as it helps give me the extra impetus I need to get over that finish line and complete the novel. Nearing the end of this, somewhat marathon-like novel, I can safely say it's probably the toughest book I've ever had to write. I've loved it, don't get me wrong, and am already looking forward to getting stuck into a sequel once I've had a bit of a break and tackled a couple of other projects, but it's been a real test of my writerly skills.

I think, I hope, that I've pulled it off.

Looking over the chapter breakdown/synopsis, I reckon there's about another 10-15,000 words in this yet as I'm well into the final act but still have a few reveals and a fairly hefty epilogue to get in. Not to mention the explosive denouement...

Finishing a novel, totally unlike starting one, is probably the hardest bit of the entire process. Yes, inevitably, in my experience at least, there's a moment half way through (ish) where a crisis point hits you and you're left questioning where the heck to go next and 'does all that stuff I wrote earlier actually work' and even 'it all needs a bit of a rewrite' - it's healthy; it just means you care.

And I care. I really do. People sometimes ask me how I came to write a book about the Salamanders Chapter (I've even had some folks saying that I'm brave to even tackle it). Honestly, I can't remember now. It had something to do with wanting to write a short story with Space Marines in it for Heroes of the Space Marines (the anthology with said story, Fires of War, is released in May by the way) and sort of spiralled from there.

I have to say, I've really taken the Salamanders to my heart. The more I read about them (and re-read), the more their noble spirit, humanity and earthiness shine through. Not all of the characters in my book are noble, though. There is one in particular who's pretty ignoble. Most are damaged in one way or another, but then part of the story deals with what happens to a Company that loses its inspirational captain. There's grief, anger, even retribution. Ultimately, brotherhood comes through in the end, but not all wounds are totally healed.

I wanted to give the story some emotional heart and not just play the Space Marines as fairly dull, uber-warriors that 'Hulk-smash' their way through every obstacle. Oh, don't get me wrong , there's some serious butt-kicking action in this tale but, I hope, there's some deeper content too.

The way I saw it, the Salamanders are in touch with their humanity, or at least they empathise with ordinary humans and recognise their role in protecting them from the evils of the galaxy. Expect plenty of trauma within and without the Company focused on in the novel and some heartbreak too.

I reckon that's probably enough for now. I do like a good blog in the morning; mixed in with a cup of coffee, it's what I need to get the creative juices flowing.

Okay, off to write the next few thousand words. Hoping to get finished in a couple of weeks, so fingers crossed and power on through! :-)

Tome of Fire - Salamander trilogy

As most who follow the blog will know, I'm currently in the process of writing my first full Warhammer 40,000 novel, Salamander.

Regulars will also know that this is but the first in a trilogy. Titles for the second and third books are sketchy at the moment (I'm toying with Firedrake for book two) but today we (as in me and BL) cemented the series title arc. After a bit of thought (I wasn't expecting to 'arc' it, so to speak), we settled on the Tome of Fire trilogy. This is because the ancient book (or books) penned by Vulkan of prophecies, portents and clues concerning his fire-born sons is at the heart of what the three books are about.

It's an exciting development for me as it really helps to generate some series focus and ensures that I never veer to far off this central tenet of the trilogy. It also means that I'm committed to two further books to end the series (or this installment of it, at least - never say never).

Hopefully, this official stamp of a trilogy will be good news to fans; I'm certainly excited at the prospect. In fairness, I'd always planned the narrative overarch for the Salamanders in three books, not one, but it's nice to get the official go ahead in spite of all that.