It’s been a while. In my defence, I was left unsupervised.
In July (for the UK) and September (for the US) the second novel of The God-King Chronicles hit the shelves, following on from THE BLACK COAST in February (or March, if you were in the US, due to an unforeseen delay the precise details of which I still don’t know, but for which I’m blaming American badgers). Yes, THE SPLINTER KING is now out in the world, and picked up this lovely starred review from Publisher’s Weekly in the process! I’m quite proud of that, since it means that my last four novels have all nabbed starred reviews from PW. Minus the Black Library novels, of course, since they don’t tend to get the same sort of recognition. And speaking of Black Library novels…
ALPHARIUS: HEAD OF THE HYDRA came out in January in Limited Edition, with the audiobook, ebook and regular hardback following later in the year, so those are all available now. This summer also saw the release (finally) of the BRUTAL KUNNIN paperback, so those of you who like your ork fiction a little more squidgy were able to indulge along with everyone else. However, it’s been a quiet year otherwise for Warhammer 40,000 fiction from me. But that may change.
I obviously can’t talk much about forthcoming Black Library releases: I’m contractually not allowed to, and Games Workshop takes that sort of thing quite seriously. However, I can tell you to keep your eyes peeled as the year draws to a close, because there will be something of mine making an appearance before too much longer. As for next year, as my somewhat loose understanding of the publication timetable stands, there should be no fewer than three Black Library novels coming out from yours truly! Although that’s subject to change depending on how their timetable plays out, and of course I can give absolutely no clues, hints or notions as to what factions, individuals, subjects, or even time periods are covered. Still, I’ve had a lot of fun writing them (I’m still in the process of finishing up the last one, as it happens), and I hope you’ll enjoy them.
Possibly even more exciting from my point of view is the fact that THE GODBREAKER, the final part of The God-King Chronicles, should be with you all next summer. The copy-edits for this are next on my list of things to do after I finish the current Black Library novel, and then that’s my epic fantasy trilogy done! There’s a possibility I’ll go back to the world in the future, but there are other things I’m working on in the meantime.
One thing I have begun to dabble in is some artwork related to my novels, which you can find at my Merch page if you so desire.
CONVENTIONS
A couple of weeks ago I went back to a convention for the first time in two years. FantasyCon 2021 took place in the Jurys Inn hotel in Birmingham, and while it was a little bizarre at first to be Back, Around Groups Of Other People, Indoors, I quickly got over it. Most people wore masks indoors, which was very good to see, and it was great to meet up with my various friends and acquaintances whom I have missed. There were some excellent panels (shout out to ‘Damage’ for probably being the most interesting, as three medical professionals discussed how to realistically portray physical and emotional injury when writing characters), and I also made my now-customary appearance on Dungeons & Disorderly (this year it was ‘Mall of Cthulu’, and I played an advertising executive called Steve Greenback who had the ability to persuade people to do things. I also ended up holding a mop that made me speak like a cow).
Coming up, we have MCM in London! I will be attending on Sunday 24th October, and will be moderating a panel on Fantasy! There’s an absolutely stellar line-up on this panel, although I don’t know if I’m allowed to say who’s there, but take my word when I tell you that there are best-sellers and award-winners and I’m going to be totally out of my depth, but I’m working on the basis that they’re more scared of me than I am of them. Unless that’s spiders.