I’ve just finished and printed out the first draft of my short story to go in the forthcoming Sabbat Worlds anthology, and I’m looking at it with a measure of trepidation. Not for the fear of paper cuts, but at the thought of his Imperious Majesty of Sir Dan of Abnett casting his towering gaze upon it. In my head, Dan is leaning forward from a throne of skulls, ready to tear into my story with authorial slashes of his Red Pen of Doom.

 

Actually, I’m sure he’s not, but I kind of want him to be. It’s a real privilege to be asked to write a story for this book, and keeping a stern-faced Dan in mind is a good thing, as it’s making me raise my game. As anyone who’s met Dan will attest, he’s a lovely chap, but thinking like that is going to make me lazy; all too easy to compromise on the agonising between this word or that word, this sentence structure or that plot point. Keeping daemonic Dan in mind is a good driver to make this story as good as it can be, so that’s the image I’m going to keep in mind as I read through it later today.

 

I had a bit of a health day yesterday, going to see a physiotherapist in the morning to see about my knackered shoulder (my own fault, I pressed on in the gym when I knew something wasn’t right…and then was all blokey about it. “Ah, it’ll be alright in a few weeks...I don’t need no doctor…”). So after getting a stern ticking off from the physio, I went and gave blood, which is something I’ve been doing since a mate convinced me to join him when I was at university in Glasgow. I’ve reached forty-seven donations now, and I always enjoy going…well, as much as you can enjoy someone jabbing you with a needle and draining a pint or so of your vital fluid. I always think it’s something folk should be queuing up to do, as you never know if you’re going to be the one needing it. So in today’s Public Service Announcement, I urge you all to go to your nearest donor centre and roll up your sleeve. It doesn’t take long and you get a free cup of tea and biscuit at the end of it all.

 

I’m continuing my whistle stop tour of A Thousand Sons signings tomorrow (27th Feb), so if you fancy getting any of your books signed or just having a good natter, come along to GW Liverpool between 10:30 – Noon, or GW Leeds between 3:30-5.00pm. Hope to see you there!

 

Also, I’ve not forgotten the competition I posted towards the end of January. I’ll be taking the Book Title/Heavy Metal mash up entries with me on the train to see which ones make me laugh the most, so I’ll post the results next week.

See you in Liverpool/Leeds tomorrow (or in Cardiff the following weekend – 6th March).

 

Regrettably not a future project of mine, but news that this week A Thousand Sons is the Number 1 SF and Fantasy title, knocking Charlaine Harris off the top spot. And as much as I like Sookie Stackhouse, I'm chuffed to bits at this news. Thanks to everyone who went out and bought a copy, you ROCK!

And in case you're still wondering whether to get a copy, here's some lovely reviews that might change your mind.

My Favourite Books

Graeme's Fantasy Book Review

And in case you want more, here's an excerpt...

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist

Right, back to work on my Sabbat World's short story.

This is probably old news to the delvers of the interweb, but this was just forwarded to me the other day by pyroriffic, and I thought it was too good not to share.

Well, I went to London and had a great time with everyone who came to the signing at GW Plaza on Saturday. Together with artist extraordinaire, Neil Roberts, we faced the not so huddled masses and chatted and signed for nearly three hours without letup. Lots of people had lots and lots of Horus Heresy books, which Neil and I signed and talked about how covers and books interacted, how the words influenced the art and the art coloured the words. I usually see the covers long before I get the book finished (in many cases before I even get started on it) and it’s a great touchstone to have along the way, to have it tacked to my desk and a constant reminder of what I’m writing about, what it looks like and the dynamism I’m trying to create.

Christos Reid took some pictures of the day, and he was good enough to send them to me, so here's one of me talking to him about the short story, The Last Church, while Neil sketches out pictures to give to people beside posters of his work.

And here's one featuring myself and Neil, with lots of gaming going on in the background.

It was gratifying to sign lots of Heldenhammers and Empires too, and everyone seemed pretty stoked by the news that I was starting the third book, God King. There was a good smattering of Ultramarines books, and those folk were pleased and a little unsettled by the things I was telling them about The Chapter’s Due. If you’re around in Liverpool/Leeds next weekend, I might tell them again if you’re lucky.

 

We were also presented with a box of cookies and a pack of jam doughnuts, which was very nice, as I was feeling very sugar-deprived that day. We didn’t eat them over the course of the day, as I always feel it’s bad manners to greet someone who’s come to a signing by spraying them with a mouthful of jam and cookie chips. In the end, Neil took the doughnuts and I took the cookies (since there were more of them and I knew I’d have to share them with Anita on the train back to Nottingham).

 

Anyway, at the end of the signing, I had to shoot off to Forbidden Planet to sign some more books, but before I left, Mark, the store manager of Plaza, presented Neil and I with some amazing gifts. Neil was presented with a model diorama of Leman Russ and his wolves, and I was handed an amazing model of Magnus the Red, which you can see below.

"I think you'll agree I'm far more photogenic..."

"I'm ready for my close up..."

"Okay, Russ...come and have a go if you think you're hard enough..."

Pretty good, I think you’ll agree (though the desk in my office leaves something to be desired as a photo studio, so I apologise for the quality of the pictures…). I’m told the model was made by one of the Plaza regulars, a very talented chap named Tom Payne, and painted by Cornell Kozak (apologies if the spelling of either of those names is wrong, I wrote them down on the train while holding a squirming Evan in the other hand). So if you or anyone who knows them is reading this, be sure pass on my very sincere thanks. I was very touched and absurdly pleased to get this model. Nice work, guys. I wish I’d had my camera with me yesterday, as I’d have liked to take pictures of Neil’s model, but I reckon being awake since 4am had somewhat dulled my mind to the idea of bringing it.

Anyway, thanks again to everyone who came along, you made me feel very welcome and to hear people tell you that they like your stuff is fantastic, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and that I’m doing something right. Anyone who says they don’t get a kick out of that is a dirty liar. And cheers to Mark and his lads in the store for taking care of us all day with supplies of coffee and water. Until next time.

 

Right, see you in Liverpool or Leeds next weekend (and Cardiff the weekend after…).

 

Two entries in two days, aren’t you spoiled?

My good friend, Aaron, posted me a link to this piece of fan art on deviantart, and I liked it so much I thought I’d share it with you. It’s by an artist called Noldofinve, and is a representation of the building in which my story, 'The Last Church' takes place (you can find this story in Tales of Heresy). I had a dour, square-cut gothic kind of church in mind, but this perfectly captures the feeling and sense I wanted to convey; something small and isolated, with the shadow of the looming Imperium coming up in the background, ready to swallow it up. Nice work.

Here’s what the artist herself has to say:

“The entry for a fight in Warhammer fan-art LJ community “Cultic buildings of Warhammer 40 000 universe”. This is the illustration for G. McNeill’s story “The Last Church”. The story has just blown my mind. Not only because of the Emperor as a main character but because of the idea and philosophical contest. I saw not only the future Lord of the Mankind but also a bright character, who was not like an angel or somekind of good deity. That was not an icon from codexes. The conception - the Emperor has a long philosophic conversation with poor yet strong in his faith priest - is great. Though, I guess, not so original. The conversation of two men is great. And the final of the whole story is splendid. With the last church of Terra the old era dyed in flames. And, at the same time, those flames were a dawn of a new Era.”

Anyway, hope you like it. And Noldofinve, if you’re reading this. Thanks.

You can link to her gallery by clicking here.

Morning folks, just a quick note to say thanks to everyone who came along to Black Library Live! at the weekend. Looking at the pictures, I’m jealous of everyone who got to go to all the different panels and play in the themed games going on in Warhammer World. Stupidly, I didn’t bring my camera with me, so I don’t have funky pictures to show you how I spent my day, but if you were there you’ll know how you spent yours. There’s pictures over at Dan’s and Neil Roberts blogs, so if you weren’t able to get there, you’ll have a taster to entice you to next year’s event.

 

Thanks to everyone who came along to my Seer Council. You asked great questions and it came as something of a surprise to me to find I’m a rambler. Not in the walking though the wilderness in matching Barbour jackets and a dog in a tartan coat way, more a rambling, tangent-taking, point wandering from, looping journey around the point kind of way. So many times I got caught up in what I was saying I completely forgot the answer I was supposed to be giving. I guess quite a few of the questions I was asked could have been answered with a straight yes or no, but where’s the fun in hearing someone say that?

 

Afterwards it was straight into the Prospero discussion with Dan Abnett in the Rotunda, which I was expecting to be a moderately well attended discussion, but turned out to be a monstrously well attended discussion. Actually, the whole Rotunda was full and it was standing room only, which was fantastic. Again, we were asked some great questions, and I certainly took some top ideas away from the back and forth we had going on. Dan’s a great guy to have beside you on a panel, witty, energetic and someone with the innate ability to make ideas grow brighter when placed near him. Everyone’s questions made us think and forced us to properly articulate ideas we’d not given as much thought to before. For that reason alone it would have been worth doing! Lots of the questions centred on subjects we’d spoken about the day before at our latest Horus Heresy meeting, but which had to be given necessarily cryptic answers…

 

[On the subject of our latest Horus Heresy day, once again, it was a searing cauldron of white-hot ideas that I, of course, can’t tell you about yet. Suffice to say I came out of it with at least half a dozen great ideas burning a hole in my brain. We dived in to the themes of what’s going on with each other’s work and, to use the phrase of the day, the cross-pollination of ideas was phenomenal. From this meeting I now know what my next Heresy book is about, who’s in it and some of the revelations and twists that will happen. Not bad for an afternoon’s work. Kudos to everyone involved, as it was fun, inspiring and incredibly useful. I came away itching to get pen to paper almost instantly, though that was kind of hampered by immediately going out for dinner with the other authors present for Saturday’s extravaganza and then heading to a character-filled bar in the centre of Nottingham with Jim Swallow, Nick Kyme, Aaron Dembski-Bowden and his fiancée Katie.]

 

Then, with nary a breath, Dan and I headed to join Neil Roberts for our signing session, which went on solidly for several hours. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and thankfully my signing hand was well and truly limbered up for the day by spending all of Monday (and I do mean all of Monday) signing the inserts to go in the very limited, special edition hardback of Iron Warrior. What made a slightly surreal, but not unwelcome, change to a signing session was that it was all taking place to the laid back groove of the Walrus of Love himself, Barry White. Not Gladiator or Lord of the Rings, Barry White. It’s a change I heartily approve of.

 

Currently Reading: Just finished Double Eagle again, and thoroughly enjoyed it. More so this time around, as I think I missed lots of the cleverness first time. Also just finished reading the final manuscript of The Chapter’s Due, which was a long read, and an exhausting one – which, given the scale of what’s happening in the story, is no bad thing! I’m currently reading Jon McGregor’s If nobody speaks of remarkable things. Jon’s a founder member of the Nottingham Writers Society, and a very nice chap. I’ve met him a few times at the NWS, and he was kind enough to let me nip round to get him to sign his second novel for my mum for her Christmas. I’ve only read the first few chapters of If nobody…, but already the lyricism of his words is just blowing me away. It’s written as a novel, but reads as poetry and has so many wonderful turns of phrase that it’s taking all my willpower not to try and wholeheartedly lift them for my own work.

 

Currently Watching: Enjoying Being Human just now, a show that’s in its second season and had done that rare thing of expanding its mythos, while staying true to what made it great in the first place. 24 is entertaining me with its bonkers, over the top, storylines, and Annie Wersching is doing a great job of portraying how broken Renee Walker really is. Jack’s being Jack, which is exactly what I want. Also watching Caprica, which I want to be great, though I’m not loving it so far. I like how we’re seeing how a lot of what we saw in Battlestar Galactica evolved, but I think there’s a real danger of them trying to be ‘dark and adult’ so much that they forget that BSG could also be very funny too. There’s room for some great storylines in Caprica, and I just hope they don’t make it too depressing, that there’s also some entertainment going to be worked into the meatier drama.

 

Right, I’m off to work now. I have God King to write. To give you a taster, here’s Nick Kyme’s reaction to the synopsis: KICKS ASS!

 

Just a quick reminder that I’m in London this weekend (20th Feb) at GW Plaza in Oxford St, so do come along if you’re in the area. The weekend after on the 27th of Feb, I’ll be all over the place in a whistle-stop tour of Liverpool and Leeds. I’ll be at GW Liverpool (13b Central Shopping Centre, Ranelagh Street) at 10:30am until I have to rush to the train station to travel to GW Leeds (38A Lands Lane, Leeds, LS1 6LB) where I’ll be signing from 3:30pm.

 

See you along the way…

 

Ps – Just to reiterate to anyone who’s asking, I’ll be working on the concluding part of Defenders of Ulthuan later this year (around August/September), so expect some great High/Dark Elf action sometime around the middle 2011.

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.

Hey folks,

Just to let you know tha the current God-Emperor Dan Abnett is the latest guest blogger on Bablel Clash, the BORDERS sci-fi blog. I'm currently serving as Robin to his Batman, Goose to his Maverick, in adding my ha'penny of thoughts to the current topic, which is "Writing in Someone Else's Universe". We're  having a high old time on this, and have been having a cracking good natter back and forth via e-mail. You'll see that appear sometime soon.

Babel Clash can be found at http://bordersblog.com/scifi

Come along and join in the debate. We're here for some time time, so try the veal and remember to tip your waitress.

Graham