As the more astute of you will have seen, it’s Black Library Live! this weekend (Saturday 13th Feb) which will see many of the BL’s authors and editors and artists descending from their motherships to talk and sign and generally swan about looking for free stuff this Saturday. If it’s even half as successful as last year’s event, it’ll be a great day, so if you haven’t bought a ticket yet, then…well, you’ll hear all about it from the lucky folk who did get to go.

We’re doing signings, chats and discussions, which I’m looking forward to immensely, as it involves a constantly underestimated part of the job. Talking to people. And, more importantly, listening to people. To hear what people are liking, not liking, want to see more of, never want to see again is incredibly useful, as it’s the feedback your monitor won’t tell you as your ploughing your words onto the screen.

So here's a handy PDF with all the times we're talking and signing.

BL Live 2010.jpg (263.86 KB)

Forums can supply a measure of this, but how much of that is screaming loners with more time on their hands than is strictly healthy and how much is genuinely useful feedback is hard to tell. And that cuts both ways, from the folk who think you need your fingers broken to the ones that think your deification is but days away. So getting to talk to people and hear what they have to say is one of my favourite parts of this job of writing. I love telling stories, but getting to talk to people about them is what makes it worthwhile.

Ultramarines series finale

I handed in The Chapter’s Due last week, and what a blast that was. As has become typical for me, it was a long book, but not so long as to be problematic, and I think it’s a great, big rollicking adventure story, that ties up a lot of the ongoing threads that have slowly been pulling together over the last few novels and short stories. It’s a book that formed itself on the way to the end, which wasn’t how I’d envisaged it at all. Along the way new characters rose to prominence, ones I’d expected and ones I hadn’t, so the cast is blooming nicely (apart from the ones who pay the Chapter’s due…).

So, with that book put to bed, it’s onto God King, the third book of the Sigmar trilogy, which I’ll be starting next week. I’ve got the plan for it sorted (which has some awesome bits I can’t wait to write in it) and it’s going to be a hell of a ride. The schedule gets pretty crammed after that, but for readers of Warhammer Fantasy novels, I have some good news.

Defenders of Ulthuan 2

For those of you who read Defenders of Ulthuan and who have been patiently waiting for its concluding part, I wanted to let you know that I’m starting work on it in September, so you’ll finally have the story continue. I know it’s been a long time coming, as a lot of bigger, rougher projects kept barging it out the way, but it’s finally forced itself to the front of the queue, so expect to see it in 2011. I know that seems like a long time away, but it’s better than it was going to be if we hadn’t given it line-cutting privileges.

Babel Clash and more frequent blogging

You might remember a little while ago, Dan Abnett and myself did a guest spot at the Borders Sci-Fi blog, Babel Clash. This was a great success, and we managed to set a new record for the number of folks who visited the site. Dan helmed much of our stewardship, but I was able to take over for a few days along the way to loose some of my own ramblings. It was fun to blog on a more regular basis, and taught us a lot about how people approach blogs and how to keep them coming back. Dan’s learned these lessons, though I seem to have taken a little longer to cotton on, though I’ll blame the pressing – nay, crushing – deadline for The Chapter’s Due for my non starting on the regular blogging. But with that book put to bed, and my schedule now returned to something approaching normality, I’ll begin with my more regular posting – in the short and often format. I promise.

Links

I recently participated in SF Signal’s Mind Meld feature, which asked the question: Which Horror/SF/Fantasy books are on your ‘to read’ pile? You can read the answer to that here.

A Thousand Sons was recently reviewed in The Lincolnshire Echo, and Mark Newton at BL sent me this PDF of it, so if my technical skills are up to the task, you should be able to download it by clicking on the link below…

Weekender050210.pdf (1.52 MB)

Signing

BL Live! kicks off what will be a bit of a signing tour for A Thousand Sons, so I’ll be updating the website each week with where I’m going to be. I’ll be at Games Workshop, Plaza, 120 Oxford Street, London, W1D 1LT on Saturday 20th of Feb between 12 and 2pm. Hope to see you there.