It was Evan’s birthday on Tuesday the 24th, so we took him to Twycross Zoo for a trip out and it was a fantastic day. Little man loved the monkeys (perhaps recognising kindred spirits…) and enjoyed taking his first ride on a merry-go-round. Here’s a picture of the two of us at the elephant enclosure, where you can see he’s a chip off the old block – wearing a coat Anita bought him so he could look just like his daddy.

A year old now. I can hardly believe it. Seems like only yesterday I was announcing his birth on the blog, and at other times it feels like a lifetime ago. I guess it’s that weird time dilation effect that happens as you get older and proper, grown-up things start happening to you. Also, when he’s old enough to get into 40k, I’m pretty sure he’s going to be an Ork player. Every time he gets happy, he starts muttering, “Dakkadakkadakkkadakkadakka…”

Work, work, work…

Though I still can’t talk about Project X yet, there’s a few other things that have passed through my keyboard that I can talk about. Last week I finished a short story for the forthcoming Horus Heresy anthology, Age of Darkness. It’s called Rules of Engagement, and touches on a brand new story arc, as well detailing some unusual happenings involving a Legion close to my heart. Having finished that, I dived straight into a new audio drama for the Ultramarines, a story set during the events of The Chapter’s Due, but which stands apart from it as a stand-alone tale. It’s well underway, but I can’t wait to get to the real meat of the story, as it has lots of potential for gribbly strangeness at its heart. Then after that, at the beginning of September, I start Sons of Ellyrion, the long-awaited conclusion to the High Elf story begun in Defenders of Ulthuan.

Shiny new website

I’ve been working with a mate of mine to create a brand new website, with funky new graphics, different layout and a more up-to-date interface that will have all new features and content. The blog will stay the same, though it’ll be getting the updates it deserves (at least until the next crucial deadline looms…). As the website’s being put together in his spare time, it’s taking a little longer than you might expect, but the final effort will be well worth it. I’ll keep you posted on our progress.

A new skill

I own a jacket. That’s not a newsworthy item as such, but this jacket is very dear to me. It is the coolest jacket I’ve ever owned. Its fits like it was made just for me, making me instantly 50% cooler whenever I wear it. In fact, it's the jacket in the picture above. I’ve owned it for years, and those years are beginning to take their toll. There’s a tear over the right shoulder, one on the right arm, and one in the right hand pocket (which caused me to lose my car keys one rainy day…). It was getting to the stage where people were telling me to throw it out, but that was like asking me to discard an old friend just because he was looking a bit tatty. So I resolved to fix the problem, and decided to sew those rips closed myself. I mean, how hard could it be…? After watching two instructional videos on the web on the subject, I tackled the problem with needle and thread, and managed to do a pretty decent job of it (though threading the needle proved to be the hardest part of the process…). Well, I say decent, but what I really mean is that the rips are sealed with stitches that wouldn’t look out of place on the neck of Frankenstein’s monster. But the way I look at it is that they’re sealed and I can add ‘able to seal a tear with a blind stitch’ to my CV.

Everybody’s Reading

If you check out the Fantasyliterature.com website, you’ll find a piece I did for them as part of their ‘Why you should read…’ feature. Instead of picking someone conventional, or indeed a person who writes novels, you should head over there to hear what I have to say about the sublime work of Rich Burlew. Enjoy.

Reading

I’ve just finished Aaron’s The First Heretic, and all I’ll say is that when you have some of that hard-earned cash to hand, you should get yourself to your nearest BL webstore and purchase yourself a copy. It’s a cracking read, and is a sterling addition to the Horus Heresy range. Coming hot on the heels of my reading of Nemesis and Prospero Burns, I know I’ve got a lot of work to do in order to make sure my next Heresy book really takes flight. To that end I’ve been reading a comparative study of dreaming in the world’s religions to get some solid background research done, so I’ll let that percolate in your minds to figure out what it might be about. I’ll be telling you more about this later…

Till next time.