Afternoon folks, it’s not been that long since the last blog entry, but after yesterday’s visit to BL towers, I just had to write something. I ventured into the dark towers of BL with Dan Abnett and Jim Swallow to talk with Lindsey, Nick and Alan Merrett about what was next for the Horus Heresy. As always, it was a great fun natter, with us veering wildly along the road marked ‘Topic’ with several detours to ‘Tangent Village' and ‘Aside Town’. All of which was mighty fine fun and meant we came up with loads of very cool ideas for stories and mashed out the specifics and themes of what Dan and I plan to do next…which looks like one of the big, big events.

Much coolness was thrown back and forth, with ideas and new thoughts jostling together in new, exciting ways that got me straining at the bit to get busy on it…even though I’ve a bunch of novels to get written beforehand. Damn you, Schedule and your evil demands on my time! Suffice to say, the next project Dan and I are planning is gonna be big and if I were to mention someone with more than a superficial resemblance to Polyphemus, then I’d be saying too much…

All sorts of cool things came out of the meeting; not least of which was an idea that Jim might take on, which will be exciting if he does. Hell, I already promised him that if he didn’t do something with it, I’d fight Dan for it! It’s always fun having these brainstorming sessions, as there’s a lot of creative energy zinging about and when they collide the result’s normally something you’d never have expected or come to on your own. One of the many reasons I love coming into BL to chat to the guys there is that everyone has their own perception of an idea, and mine is always going to be different to theirs – often in very unexpected ways. When I gave BL the synopsis for Killing Ground, I went in and chatted with Nick and Lindsey about the story and in the course of the chat we came up with loads of cool ideas that weren’t in the original pitch or were new ways of looking at the story that I hadn’t considered. So whenever I’ve a book to do, I always like to go in and chat with them and see how they’ve interpreted the story and how we can work to make it even better.

So with ideas zipping about my head for my next Heresy project, even though the last one’s not yet out, I find myself sat in my usual teashop with a pot of English Breakfast and a white chocolate cookie (hey, I just gave blood, so I reckon I deserve one for being so brave!) working out the nuts and bolts for the next Uriel Ventris adventure. After the last two books of strangeness, this is going to be a balls-to-the-wall, all out action adventure story of Space Marines doing what Space Marines do better then anyone else. It’s been interesting going back to the Space Marine archetype and saying, ‘What is it about Space Marines that makes them so cool?’ I reckon it’s going to be a lot of fun to write, with lots of crowd-pleasing scenes and will, I hope, be a lot of fun to read. A return to family values if you like…so long as the family are seven-foot tall, gene-bulked super warriors…

And stay tuned for news of Games Day. After talking to Caroline at BL, it sounds like this is going to be a fantastic event, so I look forward to seeing you all there. And keep an eye out for the Mechanicum extract in the BL sampler, it’ll give you a taster of what’s to come when the book itself comes out. Oh, and we’re trying to get a signing sorted in London for the book’s release. No firm plans or dates yet, but we’re trying. I’ll let you know as soon as I know something.

On the hi-fi: Been listening to a lot of Scars on Broadway at the moment, which is very good, and I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new Slipknot album.

On the reading stand: I’ve just finished 3 Para and Making a Killing, two books set in the aftermath of the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq respectively. Both were excellent reads and filled me with admiration for the men and women who have to serve over there in harm’s way and frustration at the mistakes and awe-inspiring incompetence and naivety shown by the decision makers. I’ve just started the Peshawar Lancers, by S.M. Stirling, who writes a decent book, but who looks like someone you’d expect to have numbers under his picture.

Right, the sun is still shining, so if it hold over the weekend, I’ll be grilling meat and drinking beer in the back garden tomorrow. Hope it shines where you are.

Talk to ye soon.

Graham

Morning folks,

I’ve been busy over the last few weeks; finishing Mechanicum, writing a second four-part comic strip (of Astartes goodness) for Boom! and writing my story for the Tales of Heresy anthology. I had a great time doing all of them, but they were all very different beasts: a novel, a comic strip and a short story. It was a shift of mental gears to write each one, but I found it useful to work out some of those mental muscles that lie dormant when you’re going from novel to novel. Writing a novel is a big undertaking, with lots of words, lots of characters, lots of events and, crucially, lots of space…

When I write a novel, I know I have lots of give along the way in my word counts. Some scenes end up longer than I anticipated and some end up shorter, but that’s fine. I’ve found it’s never a good idea to expand or cut a scene just because it hasn’t matched up to what I thought it’s word count would be. The length it ends up is, generally, the right length, so even when I go over on certain bits, I know there’s going to be areas that’ll take up that slack. I’ve gotten better at estimating how long sections of a book are going to be or how many words a novel is going to take to get done, though it’s clearly an ongoing process, as I still seem to overrun. In a novel, you can allow characters and events to develop slowly (if that’s what you’re after), taking your time and not forcing the pace. Having said that, I much prefer to get things moving quickly and efficiently, driving the story onwards with a muscular plot and robust characters. The point is that with a novel, you’ve room to expand and contract or alter the pace as the story dictates. With a comic you don’t have that luxury.

When I plan a comic out, I distil. I write an outline for the entire story, always thinking where the episode breaks might occur, then take each episode and break it down into sections. Each of those sections gets a number of pages assigned to it until I’ve allocated all my available pages. I draw up a page planner, showing the single pages and double page spreads, and then scribble what’s going to happen on each page, so as to fit each section into the pages I’ve allocated. While I’m doing this, I’m looking at each page with an eye to where the big splash pages or full-on double page artwork needs to land for maximum visual impact. Comics are primarily a visual medium and you need to bear in mind how people look at these pages and design the story to serve that, making sure you prime the reader for the biggest visual impact. It’s a lot of fun planning out and writing a comic strip, but it does force me to be very disciplined when it comes to the number of words on the page and how they all fit together. Which is something I think will only be a benefit to me in terms of my longer work.

Short stories are another kettle of fish entirely, the restricted word count meaning you have to get in, tell your story, develop your characters, satisfy the reader’s expectations and then get the Hell out of Dodge very quickly. It can be tough when you’re used to word counts in the region of a hundred thousand, but it’s also very useful at focusing me on thinking what exactly is this story about – what’s the lead? When that’s figured out it becomes a lot easier to trim away the fat and leave the story lean and doing what it needs to do without either taking too long to get to the point or having to be massively compressed towards its ending. This discipline stood me in good stead with Mechanicum, when it came to its ending. As written in the synopsis, the novel was going to go massively over its word count, so I took a day and went back into what I’d written already and what the themes and ideas behind the story were. Once I’d reminded myself of that, I knew what parts of the ending to jettison and which parts to concentrate on. As things turned out, the ending wasn’t the one I’d originally planned, but the book is all the better for that.

So, just some thoughts on the three different forms of writing I’ve been doing recently. Not exhaustive by any means, but just some things that were burned into my brain again recently. After the humbling lesson of Mechanicum, I remembered the adage I’d taught myself (and then forgotten) that it’s never a bad thing to keep reminding myself of the things I’ve learned along the way. It’s easy to get overconfident, thinking that you have this writing lark down pat, but every now and again the manuscript will sit up and say, ‘No, I ain’t playing.’ At times like that, I need to refresh myself with what makes a good story, a good character and an interesting book for my readers (and me) to read. I think that any writer who thinks they know all there is to know is on a slippery slope, so I’m currently re-reading all the various Turkey City Lexicons, Writing 101’s I own to remind myself of the things I learned by doing all these years. I may be an Old Dog, but I can still relearn some New Tricks.

Right, onto some answers to previous posters questions:

Xhalax 1: Yeah, I’ve stopped arguing with folk on forums too, as most of the points I see are ones that are cans of worms just waiting to be opened. And getting into a petty argument would do me no favours, so I just don’t bother. And as to your cabinets and books not matching…I’m afraid I can’t help you there, and yeah, the paperback of The Killing Ground will be along next year, so you’ll probably be ready to read it by then. And sewing sheep…? Don’t let the RSPCA hear you say that!

Dju 1: Looking forward to seeing what the French for Mechanicum is… Shame you’re not around for Games Day this year, but I guess you have a good excuse ☺.

Ant: I did indeed have a bottle on standby, but didn’t crack it open until the following day, what with it being just after midnight when I typed the last few lines…

JP: Well, I suppose if you look at Pathfinder that way, maybe it’s okay, but we spent the entire movie laughing at how bad it was, so in one respect it fulfilled the qualifications of Movie Babylon by being entertainingly crap. And I think you hit the nail on the head with the anonymity thing. Trust me, if folk said some of the things they’ve said on the net to my face…

Xhalax 2: How very Homer. “Every time I learn something new, I forget something old!”

Hades Wench: Cheers for the congratulations, much appreciated. I saw the debate on the origins of the name ‘Phoenician’, but didn’t want to jump in, as it looked like you were all having lots of fun with coming up with your own ideas. Mostly it came from the idea of Fulgrim having his own sobriquet, similar to Horus. When I started thinking of one, a name based on the idea of the Phoenix rising from the flames seemed the most appropriate, given what had happened to his Legion in its early days. The more I researched into the legends of the Phoenix in different cultures and what the Phoenicians were known for, it became more and more appropriate. There are lots of similarities between Paradise Lost and the Horus Heresy, many of which are deliberate and many of which have come about by chance. For example, when I put Horus in the House of False Gods, I had him in there for nine days (nine being the number for Tzeentch, which I thought kind of appropriate) but which is also how long it took Lucifer to fall to Hell from Heaven according to Milton. Layers upon layers…

Gildor: Mostly, yeah, but see above for a fuller answer.

Xhalax 3: Haha! I was waiting for some fist-shakage once you got to the end of the story. My work here is done, and yes, greater ramifications ahoy!

Lord of Nonsensical Crap: Mark’s no relation to Dave Gibbons (as far as I know), but he’s a top artist, rocker and mate, so three good strikes in one. Glad you’re looking forward to Mechanicum, but don’t expect as much Chaos-weirdness as likely appeared in Ben’s book (though I haven’t read it), since this is the birth of the Dark Mechanicum, where they are first exposed to the power of the Primordial Annihilator. Chaos is creeping in here, it’s not yet fully taken over their forges and designs. Soon though…

Right, that’s that taken care of. I’m off to grab a bite to eat and then head off to the gym before getting the bus to the airport, where once again I’ll be visiting the paradise (lost) that is Glasgow. See ye on the other side.

Cheers,

Graham

Afternoon all…it’s a glorious day and the first draft of Mechanicum has been handed to the grasping claws of the BL’s editor servitors. It’s been a long road, but I finally got it done. I won’t bore you with the how and why of it took so long, but it’s done now and I’m very happy with it. It’s not quite the book I intended to write when I started out, but I think it’s all the better for that, as it took quite different directions along the way, none of which I expected. Which brings me neatly to one of the first things I want to talk about. Expectation.

Expectation can be a blessing and a curse for those of a creative bent. On the one hand, it generates excitement and interest in what you’re writing/recording/filming so that people rush out and buy it and (hopefully) enjoy it. It becomes a curse when the person who’s read your book, listened to your album or watched your film feels that it wasn’t what they expected. Now, does that mean your endeavour was wasted? Certainly not, just because something isn’t what a person expected doesn’t make it bad, it just makes it…unexpected. Remember the vast expectation every Star Wars fan had going into their first viewing of The Phantom Menace and how, two hours later, they all marched from the cinema ready to burn George Lucas? Well, frankly, there was no way any film was going to live up to our expectation after so long, but watch it again in the cold light of hindsight and you find lots to like about it. It’s still not a particularly good film by any stretch of the imagination, but, having seen all three prequels now, it kinda works in the context it was meant to.

To look at how expectation can be manipulated, just look at the poster and trailer for the movie ‘Reign of Fire’. I remember a crowd of us GW types frothing with excitement at the prospect of this film. Dragons! Attack Helicopters! Tank! Dragons battling Attack Helicopters above the skies of London as Mankind fights for survival against a malevolent Draconic foe! Now, if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know that’s not what it’s about at all… The war of the Dragons versus the Humans happens via newspaper headlines and a voiceover and the bulk of the movie is set in the aftermath of that war. Which, when you consider what we were expecting, is a hell of a letdown. We all left the cinema feeling slightly hoodwinked and thinking the film was terrible. Having seen it recently on the telly, I actually really enjoyed it. Again, not a film that was ever going to trouble the Oscars, but a pretty decent action movie. With Dragons.

In terms that mean anything to us BL fans, I think the same happened with the Horus Heresy novel, Descent of Angels. People bought and read that book with the expectation of it advancing the storyline and telling of the Dark Angels in the time of Horus’s betrayal. That wasn’t what they got and I remember reading posts deriding the book, which I thought a tad unfair to say the least, since most people’s criticism of the book was that it didn’t match a their expectations of what they thought it should have done. So, their expectations weren’t met, but does that mean that Descent of Angels is a bad book? Of course not. As the dust settles and those with the loudest voices go away, most people pick up the book and enjoy it, realising that it tells a piece of the Dark Angels history that needs to be told before the main event after the Heresy occurs. They also saw that the Horus Heresy isn’t just about always moving forward (though it needs to do that too), it’s about exploring the setting and telling tales of the people caught up in those momentous times.

On a personal level, I’m about to embark on a Heresy-era short story called The Last Church, which will see the light of day in the Tales of Heresy anthology. It certainly doesn’t advance the storyline and is takes place before the Great Crusade sets out from Terra. Having seen two-line précis for the other stories in the book, I wanted to do something different and unexpected so that when people read it they’d be surprised and have to perhaps shift a mental gear or two. I think it’s a good thing for readers and writers alike to challenge themselves by reading and writing things that are different from their usual fare. I’ve said before that it’s easy to mistake a rut for a groove, so every now and then we ought to break out of our comfort zone and do something that challenges us or takes us to places we weren’t expecting.

I think this applies to most things, be they books, movies, films, records…whatever. Too often we’re quick to criticise things when we haven’t heard, read or seen anything of them. It never ceases to amaze me how quick and eager some people are to assume that something’s going to be shit before it’s even been released (or in some cases, even made…). In the case of movies, Hollywood had previous when it comes to stuffing up what look like great ideas on paper (I’m looking at you Pathfinder! How hard could it be…? Indians versus Vikings, it should have been a slam-dunk, but oh how it disappointed…) but let’s not be so keen to deride things or to jump on the bandwagon of sneering.

I think a lot of it comes from the internet breeding a sense of inferiority in people, making them afraid to say they like something for fear of reprisals from the more frequent posters who look down on them and argue in largely pointless ways. It’s often seen as the done thing to criticise creative endeavours, because if someone hates Thing X, but you quite liked Thing X, you often find yourself thinking that maybe this person is cleverer than I am and knows more than I do, I’d better agree with him… Stop! Stop, I say! Stick to your guns, defend your point of view and don’t be too quick to abandon it, just because the person saying you’re wrong has a high post count. Just because some people post a lot on the net, this – contrary to their own deluded belief – does not give them some enlightened, god-like status, where everything they say comes loaded with gravitas and wisdom. One person’s post is just as valid as another’s and this assumption of status based on their post count is nonsense. Of course, none of this is meant to stop reasoned debate and constructive criticism, far from it, such things are the lifeblood of any creative type, but the keywords here are ‘reasoned’ and ‘constructive’. If a thing is bad, there’s nothing wrong with saying so, as long as you say why.

Anyway, enough of my rants on the net. I like the net and if everyone behaved with common decency and played nice then it would be a wonderful place, where ideas and constructive discussions were held, but we all know that’s not the case. I live in hope that one day folk will realise that there’s really no need to be unpleasant just because you can’t see the person you’re insulting. I’m an optimist, I know.

Right. On to Answers to Poster’s Questions:

Gildor: Thank you very much…it was a good finish line to cross. And, yeah, Mechanicum Momentum should have been a title of one of the sub-sections in the book…

Xhalax (1): So just read the Killing Ground, then it’ll stop tormenting you. Hope you liked the audio book and I agree, more of the same please. And, unabridged, definitely, why would anyone not want to read the full story in a book. It’d be like watching the highlights of a movie.

Alexander: Nice one, and I’m glad you enjoyed it. There will indeed be more, I’m already gearing up for the next book, which I aim to be starting in about a month.

Jeff: That’s great. Killing Ground was a book I started with the intention of doing something that would be unexpected and I’m glad you liked it (see the above post ☺) And who indeed says Space Marines are boring? I have a seven-foot tall, genetically engineered killing machine that would like a word…

Gav: Of course, I forgot the scented incense and the chant of awakening. I could have used your help when it came to invoking the spirit of the Omnissiah. Perhaps we should discuss ways of placating the now slumbering Machine Spirit over a pint soon.

Xhalax (2): At the moment, I don’t know of any signings for Mechanicum in London, but it would surprise me if we didn’t get something arranged. Stay tuned here and the BL site and I’ll make sure you’re the first to know of any such events. And I have a restraing order all ready to be signed should you turn up looking crazed (well, more crazed ☺).

Gix: The image on the original cover of Storm of Iron wasn’t drawn as anyone in particular, as it was done before I really got started on the book, but once I saw it, I knew he was a character just waiting to happen. Thus was born Forrix and if you see me in person, ask me how he got his name… As to Honsou, yeah, I think of him as dark haired, though he’s been through a fair bit in his time in print and he’s changed quite a bit since that description was written. He now has Pasanius’s arm, a bionic eye, a heavily scarred face and a daemon axe. I’ve never seen that picture before and know nothing of what Prophecy’s Peril is (anyone…?) so I’ll stick with my picture of what he looks like.

Sam and Xhalax (3): Your replies teaches me I should read other people’s responses before writing my own…

On the Reading Stand: Irvine Welsh’s new novel, Crime, which I was lucky enough to have signed by the great man in Bristol the other week. A priceless moment was listening to him do a reading of a coke-fuelled night in from the book in a busy bookstore and watching the staff cringe at some of the language as tutting pensioners and parents went by. But, honestly, what did they expect from an Irvine Welsh reading…

On the Hi-Fi: A mix these days, but I recently bought The Moldy Peaches CD, after hearing it played in the tea shop I sometimes work in. Great, lo-fi sound, some fantastic lyrics and a real sense of fun to it. Go get it now!

And with that, I’ll sign off. I’m off to get the bus to the airport to fly to Scotland for a week. With Mechanicum behind me, I’m off north for a change of scenery, a weekend away with the lads and to work on a new comic strip for Boom! I’ll leave you with links to a few of the covers for my first strip for Boom! and the cover of my first Starcraft novel: I, Mengsk. The cover was done by my good friend and all round top artist chap, Mark Gibbons. Hope you like them.

http://www.boom-studios.net/warhammer-40-000-fire-amp-honor-1-cover-a.html

http://www.boom-studios.net/warhammer-40-000-fire-amp-honor-1-cover-b.html

Talk to you when I get back from Scotland.

Cheers,

Graham

Dictionary.com defines momentum as either force or speed of movement; impetus, as of a physical object or course of events: The car gained momentum going downhill. Her career lost momentum after two unsuccessful films. It also describes it as a quantity expressing the motion of a body or system, equal to the product of the mass of a body and its velocity, and for a system equal to the vector sum of the products of mass and velocity of each particle in the system. Still with me…? ☺

When you’re writing a book, momentum is very important. Not in the sense of mass or velocity, but the impetus you gain once you get the story going and which keeps pushing you on to the end. That fact became very apparent to me over the last few months, when I lost momentum on one of the books I was writing. I’d begun well enough, I thought, with a strong synopsis and a raft of characters I felt were interesting and who would come alive as they were fleshed out on the page. I started well, with the words flowing naturally and at a decent enough pace, but then things started going rather less well.

From the beginning of March to the first week in May, I was busy every weekend, either doing signings around the UK, America and France, or else I had busy things planned, such as weddings in Denmark to attend or having drinking buddies down from Scotland. Don’t get me wrong, all these things were great fun and I had a ball at all of them, but they left me physically and mentally drained to the point where I was so utterly exhausted during the week that I could barely keep my eyes open during the day was sucked dry of any last reserves of creative juice. And the book suffered as a result. My word count dropped through the floor and I just couldn’t force the story onwards. It’s like a heavy object…once you get it moving, it acquires its own (you guessed it) momentum, and carries itself forward on its own to a degree. But once you stop it, oh man…getting it moving again is a real bitch of a job.

Added to all this, the fickle gods of all things electrical were conspiring against me as well, sending a diabolical cup of tea to destroy my keyboard, a power surge to blow out my power cable and obsolescence to fry my battery. All of which left me shaking my fist and cursing inanimate objects in the manner of Basil Fawlty and his mini. It felt like someone, somewhere didn’t want this book written. I was getting to the point where I was beginning to wonder if I could even get it finished, which is a horrible place to be, a place where you doubt your own abilities and question how you could have arrived there. I eventually realised I’d embarked upon a job that needed a lot of world-building and planning up front and which needed a lot more thought put in than I’d managed before a single keystroke was delivered.

With that realisation, I went back to first principles and built the world up in my head. I thought I knew it beforehand, after all…I’ve done a few novels in my time, I knew my way around this place didn’t I? Well, no as it turned out. It’s a point I’ve now seared onto my frontal lobes, that no matter how thoroughly I think I know a setting, it never hurts to go back and make sure I know it like the back of my hand. Better even. Drawing a map helped, as that’s always a good way for me to stimulate the creative juices, as did talking to Dan Abnett – a man for whom I’ve immense respect – who was kind enough to give me the benefit of his experience to kick-start the process again. In addition, Nik Abnett offered to read the first half of the book, which will be no end of useful. The very idea of Nik reading the book lit a fire under my arse to get back to work, so it’ll be in no small measure thanks to them that this book reaches the finish line. I’ve also been re-reading Dan’s Titanicus, which has been immensely helpful in getting things moving. We’d already talked about the cool links between the stories we were telling and seeing what Dan had done was a great motivator to get back in front of the keyboard. Trust me, I think you’re gonna like it.

So with my rediscovered mojo, a map and a self-administered slap to the face, I got back to work and, lo and behold, the words came, flowing as though they’d never been away. Armed with a new keyboard, power cable and battery, I’ve rediscovered the joy of a story unfolding the way I expected (and in ways I didn’t). And I’m getting that familiar excitement as things start falling into place and I get those little flashes of inspiration that tickle my hindbrain with those, ‘Ooooo, that’d be cool!’ moments. And the more I write, the more I’m thinking that this could very well be the best book I’ve done in terms of invention, surprises, revelations and characters. Time will tell, but I’m already getting a good feeling about it.

So, if there’s a lesson to be learned out of all this, it’s that you need to keep momentum on any writing project, but also that you time to recharge the batteries along the way. We need the pressure of work, but we also need time to de-stress, unwind and sometimes just do nothing… Simple advice that’s easy to say and easy to nod your head sagely upon hearing, but often hard to put into practice. I’ve read blogs, interviews and the like where authors talk about how difficult it is to get a novel done in a year and I laugh. I don’t think I could ever take that long on a book; it’d lose the inspiration that drove me and would, I think, come to feel like a chore, a millstone around my neck. No, as much as the short deadlines of Black Library books can sometimes feel insanely compressed, I’d much rather be writing while there’s a fire in my belly for the story and characters, getting them out onto the page while they’re fresh and vital. Having said that, you’d always like a few extra weeks for that absolutely, last-minute, final polish, but part of the writing process is knowing when to let go and send your pride and joy out into the world.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I’ll finish by saying that I’m going to be at Games Day Canada this weekend. If you’re in the vicinity of the Queen Elizabeth Building Exhibition Place, Toronto, Ontario, on Saturday June 21st between 9am and 4pm, then hopefully I’ll see you there. I'm going to be signing books and just generally chatting with anyone who drops by. I’m also told there’ll be copies of the new Uriel Ventris novel, The Killing Ground, available to buy, as well as some of the limited edition chapbooks with the Dark King and the Lightning Tower in it.

Talk to you soon.

Graham

Hey folks, been following your conversations on the relative merits of GTA IV and other games and having to restrain myself from purchasing them…as my already slowed workrate would drop to zero. I may indulge myself and get a copy of GTA IV once Mechanicum’s finished, but that could a while yet. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s proving to be a tough nut to crack, but I think I may have found the chink in its armour that’s going to allow me to wedge it open and scoop out to gooey juiciness inside…

As the subject of this post indicates, I’ve spent this last week in the south-west of England, Bristol to be precise, hoping that the change of scenery would do me some good in terms of breaking open Mechanicum, and also just because I could. I brought the laptop down, thinking that I’d be able to hook up to Bristol’s much vaunted free, city-wide wifi network, only to find that most of the places you’d actually want to sit and do some work are all dominated by networks that charge exorbitant rates to log on. As it turns out, it’s the smaller, non-chain pubs that offer the best coverage – something that, after reading No Logo by Naomi Klein, I’m very pleased with. So I’m sitting in the King’s Head pub, just down from Kingswood as I’m typing this and enjoying a pint of the Black Gold (sorry, just read Irvine Welsh’s ‘If you loved school, you’ll love work’ and the novella ‘The Kingdom of Fife’ has once again turned me into (more of) a foul-mouthed, patois-spouting Scotsman).

Over the last few months, I’ve had occasion to visit the south-west more than a few times and, never having had reason to do so before, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much I like it. The folk here are friendly and the city of Bristol itself is attractive, with a vibrant city-centre and some really nice surroundings. I’m not quite ready to move out of Nottingham just yet, but I think I could get to like the south-west in time. I’ll need to see if BL can get me down for a signing in a Bristol GW…I hear there’s one in Cribbs Causeway…

In other work news, I’m now finished the comic strip for Boom! and they seem mighty pleased with it, so I’m looking forward to seeing how that looks – and perhaps doing more work for them. Having said that, I’ve a few things I know are going to be snapping at my heels soon, work-wise, but the giant elephant in the room that is Mechanicum is looming over me like a dirty great looming thing. Next week…oh yes, next week the great white hunter is going to put that lurking pachyderm down with a silver bullet between the eyes, conservation be damned!

In signing news, I’m appearing in a couple of places on Black Library Day, which, if you haven’t seen the announcements on the BL site, is this Saturday…the 17th of May. I’ll be in Warhammer World between 12 noon and 1pm, then I’ll be motoring down to GW Nottingham in Friar Lane to sign books and chat between 1:30pm and 2:30pm (alongside the great Andy Hoare, I believe…). Hope to see you there.

On the reading stand: I’ve just finished ‘If you liked school, you’ll love work,’ a collection of short works by Irvine Welsh, which were typically skewed tales, which often led you to think you were being led to a very dark place, but then veered away at the last moment. Which was kind of odd, given Irvine Welsh’s previous books, but it was a change, so reason enough to do it I suppose. I’ve also just finished Eric Brown’s, ‘Kethani’, which was, as Mal Green described it to me, ‘a science-fiction novel about going down the pub.’ An interesting read about humankind’s first contact with aliens and the ‘gift’ they bring. Enjoyable and easy reading, though not a lot really happens that would be considered sci-fi as such…which I guess is kind of the point. Good stuff and I’d heartily recommend it.

Anyway, I’m off to cook dinner now, so talk to you soon.

Graham

It’s Tuesday and I have a day between travels to get finger to keyboard to let you know what’s been going on recently, so hang on…this one’s going to be a long one. When last I spoke to you, some friends were coming down from Glasgow and that proved to be as tiring and fun weekend as I’d hoped. I picked them up from the airport early on the Friday and the usual banter of the last twenty-odd years picked up right where we’d left it. A top weekend was had of Guitar Hero III, pool tourneys, visits to the pub and a Saturday night’s dancing in Rock City. And my horse won the Grand National (with a name like Comply or Die, I just had to put a bet on it.). Normally, it takes me a few days to recover from a weekend with the lads, but we all dodged a bullet on this one and came out the other side relatively intact.

With the lads gone, I got myself ready for the trip to Chicago and Adepticon 2008, though my foolproof plan of staying awake as long as possible the night before my 6am taxi (so I’d be tired and would therefore sleep on the plane – thus aiding my acclimatisation to US time) failed miserably, since all it meant was that I slept through my alarm and woke up five minutes before Phil Kelly and the taxi were due to pick me up. With a speed that would have done a cartoon character proud, I still made it in time and, though a little bleary-eyed, got down to the taxi in time. The trip over was fine (I watched No Country for Old Men and The Kite Runner – both of which I’d thoroughly recommend) and our first night was a gentle introduction to the US, with a nice steak and pleasant conversation with a few of the organisers. It was to be the last such quiet night…

The following day, Phil and I did a bit of electrical shopping before heading to the Field Museum, where there was an exhibit of Mythological Creatures. This was a great exhibit, with lots of cool monsters I knew and lots I didn’t. It was interesting to see the commonality between the monsters from all across the globe and made me wonder how they became so similar…were they all manifestations of universal fears – the dark, water, the unknown? – or were they simply tales transported around the globe by travellers. Or…were they in fact real…did these creatures exist? It was done really well and if you’re in Chicago or travelling there, I’d urge you to go see this exhibit before it goes. The Field Museum also has the largest, most complete T-Rex skeleton in existence (who goes by the name Sue) and thus Phil and I were in childish heaven as we explored the dinosaur section of the museum – which has some truly amazing skeletal remains of some of the best dinosaurs.

Later that night, after a nice Italian meal, Phil and I explored downtown Chicago, playing pool on the wonkiest table in the world, where – within three shots of the game opening – every ball was clustered on the left side of the table. A little later we were being led to a bar called Underground by a homeless guy named JP, which at the time was a bit of an adventure, but looking back, I feel bad that we were joking about with him and could then go on to a bar, while he was left out in the cold. For what it’s worth, we gave him a fair bit for showing us to a good venue. Wherever you are JP, I hope things are picking up for you.

And then Adepticon 2008 began. I was sharing a table with Vince Rospond, BL’s man in the US, and we had lots and lots of copies of Heldenhammer, which, I’m glad to say, sold like proverbial hotcakes. Despite the fact that 40K was the game of choice for many of the players at Adepticon, Heldenhammer did really well and through talking to the hundreds of folk who came by for a talk, Vince and I were able to convince more than a few that Fantasy might be worth a look. Many of the tables and miniatures on display at Adepticon were stunning, but I have to make special mention of Eric Hagen’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer themed Empire army. It was just great to look at and had some wonderful conversions – most notably a Willowesqe character model. I took a bunch of photos of this model and will try to get them online soon (along with sundry others…). Nice job, Eric, and it was good to talk to you over the weekend.

All through the day (and the two that followed) I was constantly blown away by the level of enthusiasm and sheer drive behind the US players and fans of the hobby. For three solid (and very long) days, the people who’d made the effort to come to Adepticon were unflagging in their determination to have a good time, meet new friends and immerse themselves in every aspect of the hobby. It was a joy to watch and kept me going when my energy levels began to flag. So, hats of to you if you were one of the many people I spoke to while I was in Chicago. Hank, Jeff, Bill and all the other organisers of Adepticon did an amazing job, and I can’t praise or thank them enough for all their efforts and hospitality over the weekend. And I also have to thank all the folk I met over there in the hours after each day’s gaming – the Colorado gamers, the guys from Warstore, Ogre, Jeff, Jason Buyaki of Gale Force Nice (see you next time at Andy Nelson’s), Chopper – who ran me to the mall and back – and everyone else who I’ve left off this list.

With the end of the weekend, I was shattered, but buoyed up by the fact that I’d had such a good time and had been treated like some kind of rock star. The trip back was spent mostly asleep, though I did stay awake long enough to watch Lions for Lambs, which is a thought-provoking movie I’d recommend you watch. The next few days are a bit of a blur, as I suffer from terrible jetlag on the journey east, but by the end of it I was climbing back onto another plane to go to Paris for Games Day France at the invitation of Mathieu Saintout of Bibliothèque Interdite. Myself and Dan Abnett were traveling to this event and, after last year, I knew it would be good fun.

Despite plane troubles, I got there in time and on the Saturday visited the Musée de L’armée to see Napoleon’s Tomb (so 40K it’s untrue…) and lots of suits of armour and weapons that were so outlandish they put the things written in the Warhammer world seem plain. That was great and after a nice dinner, we were ready to face the hordes of French gamers. Once again, the event was held in the Stade de France, a top venue, and this year there were close to five thousand folk at the event. It didn’t take long to see that it was much busier than last year, as Dan and I didn’t stop signing and chatting to people from the moment we started in the morning until the moment we left the venue. A great event, so thanks to Matt and Julien for your hospitality and continued friendship. It’s Julien’s wedding this weekend, so good luck on the day and best wishes to you and Sylvia.

So now I’m back, but my travels aren’t over just yet, as I travel to Copenhagen this Thursday for the wedding of my good friend, Joan Neilsen. I’ve been friends with Joan for many years and I’m over the moon that she’s getting married to such a great guy, so I’ll be kilted up in Denmark this weekend and not signing books for a change. And then after this weekend, I have May pretty much to myself, which will be a nice change of pace after the frantic running around of the last two months. And you never know, I might actually be able to get some work done…which would be nice, as my work rate has dropped off terribly with all these trips. I feel bad about that, but I guess something had to give, so I may try and take it slightly easier with the trips abroad for the foreseeable future, though knowing me, that’s likely to change…

Oh, and I picked up a copy of The Killing Ground yesterday as well from BL. And rather good it looks too, my first hardback book. Is it wrong to feel more pleased with a hardback book as opposed to a softback one? Though I’m proud of all my books, this one seems just that little bit more real, as though it’s now a proper book. Maybe in this case, bigger is better.

Right, I’m off to get the last bits and pieces for Copenhagen organised, so I’ll speak to you on the other side of that trip and let you know how it went.

On the reading stand: Since I’m three months behind with my Empire magazine, I’ve been catching up with that – though I’m also halfway through Naomi Klein’s No Logo, which is an excellent (and infuriating) read.

On the hi-fi: The German rockers of Debauchery have been kind enough to send me a copy of their newest album, Continue to Kill, which is harder and heavier than their last offering, with Thomas’s growling tones threatening to tear through the speakers. Check them out if you’re not squeamish, but be warned, it’s definitely not for the easily offended.

See you soon,

Graham

PS - Since I can't get this blog to post pictures in dimensions smaller than billboards, I've resorted to using Photobucket, so here's a few of the pictures I took while away (though by no means all of them...).Be warned, though, now that I have mastered this...expect to see more in the future...

http://s276.photobucket.com/albums/kk3/Vonvelten/Album 1/?albumview=slideshow

Hey folks, this is going to be a fairly long blog entry here, since this is probably the last time I’ll get to write for a while, as I’m going to be busy travelling around over the next month. There’s a lot I want to talk about here, and this may go on for some time, so make sure you have a drink and are sitting comfortably.

First off, I want to say thanks to the guys at the Glasgow, Sheffield and Meadowhall stores for really welcoming me and making the signings I did great fun. The Glasgow signing was especially good, which was gratifying as it’s my hometown. I spent two and a half hours signing, chatting and waxing lyrical about books, games and music, and then went out to celebrate my birthday with my pals from Glasgow. We revisited some old haunts from the days I lived there and ended up dancing the night away to the early hours.

The following weekend at Sheffield was also good, though a bit quieter than the Glasgow signing, though that might have been a factor of the rain, which didn’t let up for the entire day. Once the signings were done, I met up with my good mate, Matt Keefe (author of Outlander) and we spent the day chewing the fat and putting the world to rights, before catching the last train back to Nottingham.

In the meantime, I’ve been working on Mechanicum, the latest in the Horus Heresy series. It’s been slow going and is proving to be a hard book to break open – and I’ve not cracked it yet. My work rate is nowhere near what it normally is, and I’m not sure why that is, though it could have something to do with the complete newness of the setting and characters. There are no familiar tropes to fall back on, no easy metaphors to draw on and a landscape that’s never really been trod before. Also, I think I’m not getting a proper run-up to it, thanks to the things going on around it, which I find very important to pacing my work. I’m getting odd days here and there instead of full weeks, and that’s disrupting my flow. So I’m looking forward to May, when my weeks are empty of commitments, except getting on with the novel. Speaking of what I’m up to…

This weekend I have my pals from Glasgow down to stay with me for a weekend of drinking, poker, guitar hero and dancing. We only get together like this for a proper blow out once a year and that’s probably a good idea, since it takes us days to recover from partying so hard. My dad once told me there was too much talk of drinking etc on my blog and, looking back at it, I had to agree, but there’s no way round it when talking about what’s going on this weekend. So if you see a bunch of staggering Glasgow lads out in Nottingham this weekend…then it’s probably wise to give us a wide berth.

After this weekend, I’ll be heading to Chicago on Wednesday for Adepticon, so if you’re going to be in the Windy City between the 11th – 13th of April, then I’ll hope to see you there. I’m over with my mate Phil Kelly (Games Workshop’s Design Studio guest), so that promises to be interesting, as we always have fun when we head out in a foreign country. Let’s hope America is ready for us. It’ll be a busy three days, but it’ll be a chance to hook up with lots of old friends in the States, as well as an opportunity to meet lots of new ones.

Okay, so that’s the travel news dealt with, onto other subjects. Recently Gav Thorpe (mechanicalhamster.wordpress.com) and Matt Keefe (thestarchamber.wordpress.com) have posted lengthy discourses on tense, narrative styles and the like. I read them and digested them, thinking that I’d post my own thoughts on this subject, since much of what they were talking about touched on a project I have on my back burner at the moment. I’m about 40,000 words into the first of three books I want to write about the First Emperor of China, and pretty much all of Matt’s bugbears will crop up at one point or another in it – if they haven’t already. At first was a little disillusioning, but then I realised that, of course, that what Matt was saying about most such novels being ‘universally cack’ wasn’t fact but opinion. Both he and Gav then go on to talk about the relative merits of differing styles and techniques of narrative presentation, all of which is very interesting and you should read once you’ve finished this post. After reading their posts, I had a ponder on the subject and came to the conclusion that, as true and relevant as many of their points are, I didn’t much care. Are the Sharpe novels any less enjoyable for the fact they follow an invented character whose story weaves in and out of history instead of a big, important (and, more crucially, real) character? Not to me. I know this isn’t quite what Matt was talking about, as the Sharpe books aren’t books specifically about Wellington or Bonaparte, but I don’t think they’re any less interesting for that. Likewise, David Gemmell’s Troy trilogy includes well-known figures such as Achilles and Hektor, sometimes using them as point of view characters, and they’re cracking reads too.

Does this negate the value of the books as entertainment? Not in my opinion. After all, that’s all a lot of this is, opinion. Matt’s, mine, Gav’s, publishers or the book buying public. As Matt says, trends, fads or tastes are nigh impossible to predict and what might be considered ‘too risky’ or ‘unpopular’ to succeed often does. One of the books Matt talks about, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, I read and thoroughly enjoyed, but was that because of the narrative style Susanna Clarke had chosen or was it thanks to the engaging story and interesting characters? To be honest, it was a mix of all three (and if you haven’t read this book, go do so, you won’t regret it). Perhaps that undermines my point, perhaps not…all I know is I read it and enjoyed it. Does that make me an unsophisticated reader. No, because I can pick apart the reasons I enjoyed it on several levels if I wanted to, but really, I just want to pick up a book and enjoy reading it. It’s not rocket science. Sorry if this sounds like I’m dumbing down the skill inherent in structuring, planning and writing a great work of fiction, but I think it comes down to what Bender was told when he went flying through the depths of space after being fired from the Planet Express ship… ‘When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.’

I enjoy works of historical fiction, and frankly I don’t care whether the author can possibly get into the mindset of Julius Caesar, Achilles or Stalin(or whoever) thanks to the distance of time and sensibilities that separate them. All I care about is whether the book is any good, which might seem a trite or dismissive comment, but it’s really not. After all, isn’t the point of a book like that for the reader to enjoy it and be entertained? My friend, Ian and I have a semi-regular evening of watching crap movies, all of which, by any method of measurement, are dross, but also immensely entertaining. Most wouldn’t rate a single star from the Empire review team, but they give us an entertaining night and thus are worth the time we took to watch them. The same applies to books of historical fiction in my opinion.

With things like this, there’s a sometimes a tendency to over-analyse and attach significance (or lack of it) to something that’s intended as simple entertainment. Do Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe books or Conn Iggulden’s Emperor novels offer us any new perspectives on the Peninsular War or the inner psyche of Julius Caesar? No, but are they fun pieces of escapism where you might learn something of the period they’re set in. Yes, and just because they’re not the Iliad or some work of literature that’s acquired a weight of significance simply due to its age doesn’t render them worthless or pointless.

Okay, so my original plan of not really going into this at length has fallen by the wayside, but that’s often the way with things like this, you get on your soapbox and suddenly you’re over a thousand word deep and sinking fast. Enough’s enough. As I type this, I’ve Counting Crows’ new album on the stereo (very good) and The Big Bang Theory (hilarious for geeks like me) muted on Channel 4+1 (I watched it earlier on Channel 4…). I should be getting to bed to stock up on energy for the coming mayhem of the weekend, but since I know I’m not likely to get another chance to write before I head to Chicago, I want to get this finished before I head off.

Actually, now that I write that, I realise I’m pretty much done.

On the reading stand: I just finished ‘The Great Mortality – an intimate history of the Black Death’, which was an interesting read and has given me lots of ideas for some new Time of Legends stuff I want to run past Lindsey. I don’t want to start reading another book until I’m heading off on the plane to Chicago, and that’ll probably be either ‘No Logo’ by Naomi Klein or ‘If you liked school, you’ll love work’ by Irvine Welsh. Probably the latter, since I’ve just read two heavyweight non-fiction books back to back and I could do with a jolt of the caustic man from Leith’s sly wit.

On the hi-fi: Like I said earlier, it’s Counting Crows’ new record – Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings – which is very good; the usual mix of Adam Duritz’s poetic lyrics set to rocky tunes and mellow grooves. Also Serj Tankian’s latest solo record – Elect the Dead – which is pretty much what you’d expect from System of a Down’s frontman. It’s a nice mix of rock madness and some more laid back tunes, all of which have something interesting to say.

Right, that’s it for me tonight, so I’ll talk to you again when I get back from Chicago (hopefully in the two days I have in the UK before I fly of to Paris for Games Day France). I pick up the lads from Glasgow at the airport tomorrow morning at 9:30am, so if we run into you over the next few days, I’m sorry…

Talk to you soon.

Graham

Morning all,

First off, a big thanks to everyone who came along to GW Plaza and Forbidden Planet in London this weekend to get their copies of Heldenhammer and Legion signed. Dan and I had a great time and enjoyed chatting with you all, so good job all round. And Xhalax, your brother was there with his books, so I expect to hear from you soon about the ones he got for you. There were a lot of people wanting Heldenhammer and Legion signed, so I didn’t get a chance to have a long natter with Dan, but the bits and bobs we did talk about are all sounding exciting. When we’re over in Paris for Games Day France next month (or when he’s up in Nottingham to talk all things heresy) we’ll be sure to firm up some ideas that will please a lot of you I’m sure.

Anyway, I stayed in London that night, heading out for a very nice Indian meal then a few drinks. I’m not sure if there was something else going on in London that weekend or if everyone was away on holiday, but the city felt deserted… Every street seemed bereft of people and that night, the pubs we went into were practically empty. It wasn’t going to be a late night anyway, as I was anticipating an early rise the next day to go get tickets for the First Emperor’s Terracotta warrior exhibition. Having gone to the British Museum earlier on the Saturday afternoon (on the off chance they had tickets for that evening…no way!) the man on the desk told me that I’d need to be outside for about 7am to have any chance of getting a ticket for the day. Fair enough. A pain, but fair enough.

So, after dinner, we went for a drink in the Slug and Lettuce (a chain I’d normally avoid like the plague, but it at least had a couple of people in it…) and got charged £9 for two drinks, nothing fancy either, just spirits and a mixer. Naturally I enquired politely if these were doubles, only to be told – rather curtly – that no, they weren’t. After a lengthy tirade about these rip-off bastards, even for London, we moved on to another pub across the road, but seeing that there were only two guys in it who looked like Fred West’s more unstable brothers, we moved on to somewhere else. Somewhere else turned out to be an okay pub with reasonable prices. So, settling down with a drink just before 11pm, the lights flash for last orders and it’s time to go. At 11pm… Whatever happened to this much-vaunted 24-hour drinking? Not that I wanted to stay out, but even the tiniest, crappest pub in Nottingham stays open far later than that, and this is in London, the supposedly vibrant metropolis that never sleeps…? As my mate, Boney, would say (adopt heavy Leeds accent here): Rubbish! So much for the feared anarchy that would engulf our cities with all these raging drinkers filling themselves with looney juice in the pub all night. Anyway, like I said, I wasn’t planning on a late one, so it was probably for the best.

Next morning I got up at 6:15am and trudged to the British Museum in the drizzling rain and got there at about twenty to seven, to find a queue already formed. Not a bad one, I was about fifty folk from the front, but a queue nonetheless. Everyone else had umbrellas, woolly hats, North Face Everest survival gear, but not me. And the doors didn’t open until 8am. So I stood outside in the cold rain for an hour and a half to get my tickets, which actually was okay, since the folk I was standing with were fun to talk to and we had that very British ‘brothers in adversity’ thing going on as we waited for the doors to open. I got tickets for half eleven and so wandered back to the hotel to get a shower, have breakfast (full English, of course) and get packed for coming back to Nottingham.

The exhibition itself was awesome. And I mean that in the word’s proper meaning, not the debased use it’s fallen into, where a new pair of shoes is awesome. I’m pretty well read on the First Emperor and there wasn’t much of the text I didn’t already know, but then I wasn’t there for that, I was there to see the Terracotta lads themselves. And they didn’t disappoint. It was incredible to see them there, restored and staring out from their display from two thousand years ago. The size of them and the detail and the fact that people I’d connected with through my reading (and writing) were there in front of me was just incredible. I made sure I read every bit of text there, just to be sure I’d got everything, and didn’t want to leave at the end. I’m all booked up for trips away this year, but I think I may be following in my parent’s footsteps and visiting China next year to see the rest of the warriors in situ. So with one bit of culture for the day already under my belt, it was off to the Natural History Museum to see the Dinosaur exhibit, complete with huge skeletons (as you’d expect) and a giant, animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex. This was a great exhibit, accessible and with plenty of things to look at, touch and read. By now, it was getting close to home time and after a quick spin through the underground, I was once again on the train bound for Nottingham.

So that was the weekend. I had a great time in London, at the signings and on my cultural trips, so if I saw you there, either to talk to, sign your books or otherwise natter with, thanks for making it such a great weekend. Of course, I exempt the Slug and Lettuce from any thanks or good wishes.

Right, back to work for me. I’ll be in Glasgow next weekend (22nd of March) for my birthday and to (hopefully) see lots of you at Games Workshop on Union Street between 11am and 1pm. Bring your copies of Heldenhammer, Fulgrim or anything else of mine you fancy for a signing and a chat.

Take care and see you soon,

Graham