Well...

It was the David Gemmell Legend Awards on Friday, and, to cut a long story short, Empire won. It’s difficult to know exactly what to say here, since I don’t really remember much about the things I said on the stage after I was handed the mighty Snaga with my name engraved in it. Nick Kyme’s done a great blog post on the event, and since I don’t think I can improve on his write up, I’ll simply get on with a belated acceptance/thank you speech. Bear with me…

 

(And if you’re wondering about the title of this post, that rhyming phrase was about all I could say for about an hour after the win…)

 

David Gemmell was (and remains) a huge influence on me and my writing, and to have won an award that bears his name is one of the greatest thrills of my career. His work, with its powerful themes of heroism, nobility and the gritty ‘reality’ of fantastic fiction, was like nothing I’d read before, and I strive to carry on the traditions he established in his books. His powerful depictions of courage, honour and the unbending code of Druss, have inspired me through the years, and, as the dedication in Heldenhammer says, “To DG, you taught me all I know”. Says it all really…

 

So now I want to thank a few folk, without whose help, love and friendship I wouldn’t be writing this.

 

Firstly, thank you to everyone who bought, read and voted for Empire. It means more to me than you can know to have won this award, and without you, the fans, behind it, we couldn’t possibly have won. This just goes to prove how loyal, how devoted and how amazing the Black Library’s fans really are. Without your support, we’d have been left in the dust, but we came out on top and I now have a couple of axes to hang on my wall. But this win is as much for BL, the fans and tie-in fiction as a whole. Between us, we’ve been saying all along that there’s much to admire in the world of tie-in writing, a quality that belies the stigma that’s often attached to such works. We’ve debated the merits/difficulties/benefits in writing shared universe fiction elsewhere, so I won’t go into that right now, but I think this proves that we’re here and we’re here to stay.

 

Thanks are also due to Nick Kyme and Lindsey Priestley, for collaborating with me at the very beginning of the Sigmar books, working through the themes, tone and setting of the trilogy. Without that meeting, I don’t think the books would have turned out anything like as meaty as I feel they are. Their help at that stage and throughout the writing of the three (and counting) books has been invaluable. Everyone at BL deserves a mention, as they gave me the support and help I needed to make the leap from a full time job to become a freelancing buccaneer on the high seas of tie-in writing. Thank you all; you’re my great friends as well as my publisher.

 

My beautiful girlfriend Anita deserves special mention for going above and beyond the call of duty for putting up with my long hours, frequent incomprehensible monologues on Unberogens, magic hammers and Orcs. As my First Reader, she gave me a unique perspective on the books, pointing out flaws that only someone who knew nothing about the history of the Warhammer World would spot. You’re my inspiration and my soul-mate. And Evan, my gorgeous little boy, deserves thanks for providing the inspiration for a great deal of the thoughts and themes behind Empire and God King. Even though he’d rather eat the book that read it just now.

 

And last, but not least, I need to thank my mum and dad for providing me with various typewriters and computers over the years that allowed me to indulge my passion for writing. I also need to mention the fact that it’s all my mum’s fault that I became a writer. She took me to the Milgavie Bookshop when I was eleven and bought me a copy of Warlock of Firetop Mountain. That’s where it all started.

 

To all of you, love and thanks from the bottom of my heart. You don’t know what it means to have you with me along the way.

 

Cheers,

Graham

 

Right, here’s some pictures of axes!

My two new axes. The smaller of the two was one of five awarded to all the shortlisted authors, and upon receiving it I thought, 'Well, at least I get to take one axe away..."



A close up of the replica Snaga, complete with inscription. Pride of place on the wall, methinks...