Morning folks,

Just a short blog entry today to remind you that this weekend coming, the 11th of April, is Black Library Live! at Warhammer World in Nottingham. I’ll be there, along with a host of other Black Library authors and editors to sign books, play games and chat with all and sundry who pop along to take part in the day. There’s a series of games being run during the day, and one of them is based on The Skull Harvest, the story I did for the Heroes of the Space Marines anthology. So if you fancy fighting duels to the death on New Badab, come along loaded for bear.

You’ll be able to pick up a free copy of the paperback edition of The Killing Ground, and if you come along to a room known as The Moot between 1:30 and 2pm, you’ll be able to listen to me reading from Courage and Honour, the new Ultramarines novel (if I can figure out what part I want to read). I believe you’ll also be able to buy copies of Courage and Honour if you like. Which is nice.

And then in the Rotunda between 2pm and 4pm, I’ll be signing books alongside Dan Abnett, which is always a hoot, so be sure to bring along plenty of books! That’s all I’m timetabled for, but I’ll be hanging around for the better part of the day, so I’m sure there’ll be plenty of opportunities to chat and swap war stories.

So that’s Black Library Live! Hope you can come along, as it’s shaping up to be an excellent day, with lots going on, plenty of authors travelling from far and wide, and a great variety of stuff to do. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of familiar faces, but let’s hope to see some new ones too, eh?

Work-wise: Empire is going well, and I’m just past the 70,000 word mark and still going strong. Enjoying this book a lot and looking forward to seeing how it all ends. I also had a meeting with Black Library’s Darius Hinks and Adrian Wood last week to talk about a new type of project I’ll tell you more about later. Suffice to say, we all went away really excited about it and it’s a book we can’t wait to get started on.

On the Hi-fi: I received a CD from Thomas Gurrath yesterday, the lead singer and driving force behind Debauchery, a metal band from Germany. Their stuff is very hard, very heavy, and not for the faint-hearted. I mention this, as a great deal of Thomas’s stuff is influenced and inspired by Games Workshop, and particularly Black Library imagery and themes – so expect dark, violent and bloody stuff! I’ve only had a chance to listen a couple of times so far, but it’s good stuff, heavy and operatic in its scale. If Death n’ Roll is your thing, check them out at www.debauchery.de

On the reading stand: I just finished Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box, which I enjoyed immensely. Matt Keefe pointed out to me that Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son, though there is a marked difference in style (the book is less than a thousand pages for a start…). Unlike a lot of ghost stories that unravel their story gradually to a big reveal, it lays its cards out pretty early and the haunting itself becomes the story – though there is a big reveal later on just for good measure. Joe Hill’s book is by turns funny, scary and inventive, and if you like your horror infused with some rock n’ roll humour then this is the book for you.

Okay, that’ll do it for now, so I’d better get back to work. I’ll have more to tell you next week, so talk to you then or, even better, see you at Black Library Live! this weekend.

Until then,

Graham.