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- Hello!
- Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah
- Son of a Pitch
- Q&A - Gender Pronouns
- Blog Round-Up - Photo Request!
- Upcoming Events
- Submissions Alert - Tor.Com
- Unbound - The Dice Men
- Hard Drive Hot List (or, My Current Projects)
- Bi-Monthly Competition
Hello!
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of personal commitments, so it's just a quick intro this month. I've started writing Our Martyred Lady, a four-episode audio series, and that will be delivered to Black Library soon. I'm then on to my first installment in a new Age of Sigmar series. This will be my return to the New World since writing Wrathspring back in 2015. I'm looking forward to getting into the expanded lore and adding a few embellishments of my own.
As you will have read in last month's newsletter, the first part of 2018 has been a cavalcade of projects.
Despite my being a freelancer for several years now, the fear of not being able to pay the bills still looms large, and I find it very difficult to turn down work - particularly when it's really fun and something I'd love to get involved with.
The last few months however have been so busy, I haven't enjoyed the biggest benefit of being freelance - choosing your own hours.
So my New Year's resolution (I know it's late, but I don't really do New Year's resolutions, so it doesn't count anyway) is to stick to my planned workload, and not take on "just one more quick project". Hopefully those companies wishing to work with me will understand I need a bit more notice.
So here's hoping the rest of 2018 will be less frantic.
Gav
Imperator - Wrath of the Omnissiah
It was the Adeptus Titanicus game that really got me into Games Workshop, so being able to write a full Titan novel has brought me full circle.
Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah is available now in hardback, eBook, MP3, and a swanky special edition that is limited to just 1,000 copies (fewer than 400 copies left).
"Holy warbringer of the Legio Metalica, the Imperator Titan Casus Belli has routed armies and levelled cities over ten thousand years of service in the name of the Machine God. As war engulfs the Dark Imperium this mechanical god of battle arrives to destroy the renegade armies and tech-priests of Nicomedua.At the head of a battlegroup of Titans, Imperial Knights and skitarii, Casus Belli must defeat tainted war engines, Traitor Legionnaires and armies of cultists. While apocalyptic battles rage across the planet, a no less deadly battle unfolds within the Titan itself, as Magos Exasus, leader of the Casus Belli’s Tech-guard, must find and defeat the enemy within before their insidious plans come to fruition."
ABOUT THE LIMITED EDITION
- 304-page hardback, individually signed by me!
- Introduction and bonus short story 'By Your Command'
- Red vinyl cover with gold foil
- Rounded and ribbed spine
- Red and black head and tail bands and marker ribbons
- Unique printed artwork on page edges
- Includes a page of the original cover art
- Limited to 1,000 copies
Son of a Pitch
To help those submitting to Black Library's open submissions window, I wrote a blog outlining the differences between a pitch and a synopsis, something that can be confusing for a novice writer. The blog is a write up of the workshop I delivered at EdgeLit in Derby last year.
"A ‘synopsis’ is a summary of your story or novel, while a ‘pitch’ is a very condensed version, to sell the story not to explain it. Either or both will be used for different reasons and at different times."
A huge congratulations to everyone who submitted to Black Library - you've got further than so many people who want to write. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you all - do let me know how you've got on (and apologies to those who asked for help and are still awaiting a reply, I know it's too late now, I just haven't had time for non-deadline-related tasks.
I'll be running another workshop at this year's EdgeLit, dealing with the subject of setting the atmosphere for a scene. See the events list below for date and so forth.
Newsletter Q&A
Stephen asked: I'm currently reading an eBbook version of Imperator. I'm trying to understand the use of several words. In the passage below, I don't understand the use of ve, verself and vis. Is this intentional or a publishing error?
"Exasas coiled about verself as ve entered the central void. Armoured plates slid into position even as cerebral connectors and motive detectors pierced the sockets that studded vis smaller form"
Thanks for getting in touch.As Exasas does not identify as male or female I used a set of genderless pronouns for the Magos - ve, vis and ver. There is not a single set of English gender-neutral pronouns preferred over the others, but I chose these as the ones with no gender bias but hopefully still recognisable.I found this website very useful genderneutralpronoun.wordpress.com.
If you want to ask a question, just reply to the newsletter and I'll get back to you as soon as my schedule allows.
Blog Round-Up
OK, it looks like I'm going to need a stock image of some tumbleweed to represent my recent blog content.
If you have taken a decent photo of some tumbleweed, and don't mind me using it, please send it to me by reply email. Obviously I'll credit the image to you.
And yes, I'm being serious (we don't get a lot of tumbleweed in Nottingham)!
Upcoming Events
If you are coming to any of these events, do come and say hello.
! Submissions Alert !
Tor.Com have announced that they will begin a two-week open submissions window on May 1st.
They are looking for novellas of between 20,000 and 40,000 words, in both science fiction and fantasy genres. But don't worry if you're not quite ready to submit, they will be reopening their slush-pile in July 2018 (so you no longer have the excuse that it's too soon, and you can't get your story finished in time).
Dice Men: Games Workshop 1975 to 1985
Not a Kickstarter this month, but a similar set-up via Unbound, the publishing-specific crowdfunding site. Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson are names that every Games Workshop fan should know (and if you don't, you definitely need to back this project!) as it is in a large part due to them that we have this great hobby.
"They're living off canned food and takeaways with all their meagre earnings going into the fledgling mail order business. The business grows, and in 1977 they make the decision to open their own shop. It was going to be a proper games shop, as opposed to the small room at the back of an estate agents they had been working out of. It was a damp day in April 1978 and the shop was about to open up for the first time. But would they get any customers? They had no idea whether anyone would turn up at all but when they opened that door on the first day they found..."
The project is for a 300+ page A4 hardback book, fully illustrated, charting the founding years of Games Workshop from 1975-1985. This project needs to get more love than it has so far (I'll be backing it as soon as I've finished this newsletter), so please take a look, and share details of the project on any relevant Facebook groups (etc) that you belong to. I checked with Ian yesterday, and the project is definitely still live, so you can ignore the end date references on the site.
One of the most common questions I get asked is "What are you working on?", so here's my (sorry, sometimes cryptic) list of works in progress, plus future releases.
Hard Drive Hot List
- Frontier Worlds - Hostile Takeover (Snowbooks)
- Strontium Dog (Warlord Games)
- Big Stompy Robots (Original Game)
- Sword In Ritual Splendor (Original Fiction)
- Our Martyred Lady (Black Library)
- Wild Rider (Black Library)
- Awful Orphanage (Workhouse Games)
- Carnevale (TT Combat)
- Very Exciting But I Can't Tell You! (Black Library)
Bi-Monthly Competition
All subscribers to my mailing list are entered into the bi-monthly draw to win a personalised, signed copy of one of my books. The April winner will receive a copy of Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah.
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