I’ve just finished and printed out the first draft of my short story to go in the forthcoming Sabbat Worlds anthology, and I’m looking at it with a measure of trepidation. Not for the fear of paper cuts, but at the thought of his Imperious Majesty of Sir Dan of Abnett casting his towering gaze upon it. In my head, Dan is leaning forward from a throne of skulls, ready to tear into my story with authorial slashes of his Red Pen of Doom.

Actually, I’m sure he’s not, but I kind of want him to be. It’s a real privilege to be asked to write a story for this book, and keeping a stern-faced Dan in mind is a good thing, as it’s making me raise my game. As anyone who’s met Dan will attest, he’s a lovely chap, but thinking like that is going to make me lazy; all too easy to compromise on the agonising between this word or that word, this sentence structure or that plot point. Keeping daemonic Dan in mind is a good driver to make this story as good as it can be, so that’s the image I’m going to keep in mind as I read through it later today.

I had a bit of a health day yesterday, going to see a physiotherapist in the morning to see about my knackered shoulder (my own fault, I pressed on in the gym when I knew something wasn’t right…and then was all blokey about it. “Ah, it’ll be alright in a few weeks...I don’t need no doctor…”). So after getting a stern ticking off from the physio, I went and gave blood, which is something I’ve been doing since a mate convinced me to join him when I was at university in Glasgow. I’ve reached forty-seven donations now, and I always enjoy going…well, as much as you can enjoy someone jabbing you with a needle and draining a pint or so of your vital fluid. I always think it’s something folk should be queuing up to do, as you never know if you’re going to be the one needing it. So in today’s Public Service Announcement, I urge you all to go to your nearest donor centre and roll up your sleeve. It doesn’t take long and you get a free cup of tea and biscuit at the end of it all.

I’m continuing my whistle stop tour of A Thousand Sons signings tomorrow (27th Feb), so if you fancy getting any of your books signed or just having a good natter, come along to GW Liverpool between 10:30 – Noon, or GW Leeds between 3:30-5.00pm. Hope to see you there!

Also, I’ve not forgotten the competition I posted towards the end of January. I’ll be taking the Book Title/Heavy Metal mash up entries with me on the train to see which ones make me laugh the most, so I’ll post the results next week.

See you in Liverpool/Leeds tomorrow (or in Cardiff the following weekend – 6th March).