Morning folks, well it’s 2010 now and since it’s still January, I feel I can still wish you all a happy new year without it feeling too weird. The Christmas/New Year break always involves a fair bit of travelling for us, and though we had a great time over the holiday period, it was good to return home to familiar surroundings and get back to work. I’d reached a good way through The Chapter’s Due before downing tools, and, as always, it took a little bit of time to get back into it. But the book’s back underway nicely, and I’ve been writing some truly titanic battle scenes over the last few days that I think are shaping up in a nicely apocalyptic way. It’s been a real challenge to make this book as big as it needs to be without having it run away from me and become a ten-volume epic, but it’s staying (mostly) on track and it funnelling into a nice three-tiered climax I’m very pleased with, though the death toll is going to be something terrible and nasty for a couple of characters in particular.

Links

Over the holidays, I was sent a few links and did a few interviews I’d like to share with you. One is in French, so you’ll either need to be able to read French or have a handy Google translator to hand. With Dead Sky, Black Sun coming out in France, the lovely chaps at Bibliothèque Interdite invited me to say a few words to the French fans, so you’ll find the link to that here.

Continuing on the theme of Ultramarines, Luke over at Luke Reviews nominated Courage and Honour as one of his top fifteen books of 2009, which was fantastic, and he invited me to say a few words about the book, which you can read here.

And last, but by no means least, Team Preston reviewed A Thousand Sons, and you can read what they thought of it by clicking here, though you'll need to scroll down past a couple of books to get to it. Jeff was kind enough to send me the link, so thanks for that!

New Year, New Competition

I realise I’ve been lax with my blogging, so to make up for that, I decided to give away a few juicy bits and pieces that I have in my office and which you might like to get your mitts on. I’ll tell you what you have to do to win them in a moment, but first off, here’s what the lucky winners will receive…

First Prize – A signed hardback edition of the complete run of Fire & Honour comics, signed copies of all my Horus Heresy books to date (though, sadly, this won’t include A Thousand Sons, as I don’t have any copies of that to hand), and a signed, limited edition, poster for The Dark King/Lightning Tower chapbook.

Second Prize – A signed softback edition of the complete run of Defenders of Ultramar comics, and a signed Mechanicum poster.

Third Prize – A signed, limited edition, poster for the Imperial Munitorum manual, and a signed Heldenhammer poster.

Right, to win one of these bumper bundles, what I want from you lot is to put your thinking caps on and mash up Black Library book titles with a theme that sits close to my heart – heavy metal and rock n’ roll. I want to laugh, to cry, to be appalled at the punning... You might win bonus points if they’re my books, but they don’t have to be, any Black Library title is fair game. I’ll give you a couple of (admittedly terrible) mash ups to get you started, so how about ‘Manowarriors of Ultramar’ and ‘Mechanicum Animals’. Like I said, they’re the first ones that came to mind, but I’m sure you can do better… I’ll announce the winners sometime towards the end of February, so you’ve a good few weeks to have a ponder and see if you can think of ones better than what I’ve come up with – which shouldn’t be too hard! Post your entries in the comments section of this post.

Things going into my brain

Reading: With a little bairn in the house, my reading has taken a knock, but I’m gradually getting back to the printed word in a meaningful way. My mum got me a copy of The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes for Christmas, which I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into, as I think it’ll be great material for Horus Heresy books, with a real vibe for that 30K era of enlightenment. I just finished ‘Don’t split the party’, the latest of the collected stories concerning the Order of the Stick. If you haven’t seen this webcomic then I urge you to rectify that immediately. Go get the collected books (there’s only five previous ones…) and read them, laugh at them, and love them.

Music: Not much in the way of new music has drifted my way, though through my US connection, I’ve picked up a few new records I’m liking. The new Kittie album is getting a lot of play just now, which is surprising me, as I was never the biggest fan of all female bands. But this album’s got me exploring their back catalogue with a more open mind, and I’m liking what I’m hearing.

TV: Most of the TV shows I love are on hiatus just now, but will be coming back in the new year. Lost and 24 are starting soon, and who doesn’t love Jack Bauer doing his thing and kicking major terrorist butt? And the ending of Lost getting closer? My mouth’s watering just thinking about it…

TV over Christmas was more or less a non-event, with there being literally almost nothing to watch except repeats of old shows. Even Doctor Who was a bit of a confused mash of ideas that didn’t really gel coherently for me, though I did like the addition of the Time Lords and Gallifrey as the villains of the piece. Yet it all combined with such fervour and apocalyptic glee that it was hard not to reach the end without a big smile on my face. David Tennant’s last line almost caused a tear or two before he began to change, and I’m looking forward to seeing where Steven Moffat takes the series and what Matt Smith makes of the Doctor. I just hope folk give him the chance to grow into the role and don’t simply decry him as ‘not being as good as the last one…’ or somesuch. What do you think?

Games: This Christmas, I was lucky enough to receive a bunch of games for my 360, so I’ve been shooting bad guys in Modern Warfare 2, blowing up zombies in Left 4 Dead 2, and zapping my way through Ferelden in Dragon Age: Origins as a mage. I’ve enjoyed the quick fix of the shooters, but have been immersed in Dragon Age far too much to be healthy. As much as it’s about as generic a fantasy setting as it’s possible to make, it’s sucked me into its world and I actually care about my little party and the world they inhabit. I love the game, the sense of humour and the level of detail and richness that’s made it a compelling place to visit (far too often for far too long and far too late at night…) and swing a magic staff. It’s a great game and though I’ve played it for nearly twenty-seven hours, I’ve still only scratched the surface of it.

Though if there’s one niggle I have, it’s the end of level boss fights. Now I love a good boss battle, me, but please, for the love of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, when I’ve beaten it, let it stay beaten. You sweat blood, you swear at the unfairness of it all and wrestle with the buttons until you finally beat the daemon/zombie lord/alien king. You’ve won, triumphed against ultimate evil! Except you haven’t, and you watch with a sinking sense of cheated victory as the boss laughs maniacally before getting back on his damn feet again with a fully regenerated health bar in a new, sleeker, deadlier form.

And this can go on for several incarnations, while I’m burning up health pack or guzzling down healing potions like an addict. I understand the dramatic impact of a new threat arising or the bad guy’s sudden resurgence, but it just gets tiresome when you see it in game after game. I had the same thing with Silent Hill: Homecoming, with that bloody Doll Monster, Scarlett. And given the hellishly awkward controls for Silent Hill, defeating that thing FOUR times just got so impossible that I gave up on the game. So here’s my tip for Games Designers out there. Make end of level bosses Uber Hard, almost unkillable until you become the ninja master of the controller, but make it so that when you kill them, they bloody well stay dead! Okay, rant over.

Right, that’s enough for now. Get thinking about the competition and try not to let the greyness of January and February get you down. There’s lots to look forward to, so on that thought, I’ll say see you later,

Graham