Just a quick entry today. As if the graphic novel giveaway last month wasn’t enough, there’s now even more free things you can get your mitts on if you’re lucky. The good folk at Black Library have teamed up with Fantasy Book Critic website to organise a giveaway of four sets of signed copies of my latest Ultramarines novel, The Killing Ground, and Dan Abnett’s Titanicus. How good is that? You can find out how you might win one of these fantastic books by going to:

http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2008/10/giveaway-win-signed-copies-of-dan.html

And if that wasn’t enough, BL has also joined forces with Bookspot Central to arrange a giveaway of the full set of Horus Heresy novels to two lucky winners, everything from Horus Rising to Mechanicum. Find out how by visiting:

http://www.bookspotcentral.com/2008/10/contest-warhammer-40000-horus-heresy-all-9-books-2-sets/

Not bad, eh? Have a wander over to both those sites and see how you get on. There, aren’t I good to you?

Okay, now that the free stuff’s dealt with, I’ll answer a few more of your questions. Oh, and thanks for all the good wishes about the David Gemmell Legend Award. I’ll mobilise you all closer to the time…

Gildor: Uriel’s name was chosen because I read somewhere that Uriel was the name of the angel who was given the task of guarding the gates of the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve were chucked out. I liked that notion, imagining that ‘my’ Uriel, was the guardian of the Imperium, keeping it safe for when humanity was, one day, ready to inherit the Emperor’s grand dream. As to Ventris…I’ve no idea where I got that one from, though Alessio Cavatore told me once that it means ‘of the belly’ in Italian, Not sure what to make of that…

Xhalax: There was no fix, you simply had an entry that made me laugh, which is reason enough for a prize. And people have to learn that if you’re mean, then you don’t get books lent to you. Simple really. And I’ll see ye in London (on time, hopefully!). By the sound of things, you’ve got your prizes, so I hope you’re enjoying them, and be sure to let me know what you think of them.

Andy: Thankfully, I’m not chained in a basement, Misery-style, but I sometimes feel like it. I have a good-sized, three bedroom house, yet I choose to work in the smallest room in the house (no, not the toilet). Go figure…

Sam: Cheers and it’s nice to know folk are liking what I’m doing, though having looked at the names of the other entrants for the Gemmell Award…it’s some stiff competition. I have a copy of Nagash and Malekith on my ‘to read’ piles and once I finish Planet of the Warlord, I’ll be getting on to them. Funnily enough, Vince Rospond, BL’s man in the US mentioned Andrzej Sapkowski’s books when we hooked up for dinner the other night. Synchronicity at work methinks…I may have to pick them up today.

Bastiaan: Thanks for your kinds words and by the time you get to the end of The Killing Ground (the fourth in the series) I’ll have finished Courage and Honour, so there’ll be a new Ultramarines book for you to read. Hurrah! That’s incredibly flattering stuff you say and if my and the other authors’ work for the Black Library are a help in difficult times, then that’s great stuff and one of the best things anyone’s ever said to me about my books. Thank you.

In answer to your questions, I think it’s unlikely Solomon Demeter will appear again, unless there’s good reason to show him in an earlier scene that needs him there. I think it might be a bit gimmicky to have him show up in a cameo role that doesn’t need him, but, as with all things Heresy related, never say never…

As to Space Marines in Mechanicum… Originally, yeah, there was going to be a lot of Space Marine action, but as the story progressed, I realised that there shouldn’t be. It’s not their book and though there are a few bits with Space Marines in them, the Astartes aren’t front and centre. After all, it’s a book about the Martian civil war, not the fall of the Space Marines…

Right, that’s all for now, I’m off to work. Talk to you soon.

Graham.