PLR PETITION

Sign now!

LINKS

My Space Page

The Write Fantastic

The Write Fantastic
Live Journal

Note to aspiring writers:
It’s always good to hear from you, and I’m more than happy to answer your questions about the craft of writing and the publishing business if I can. What I can’t do is undertake to read/critique your manuscript. Nor can I help you find a publisher or agent. Sorry, but if I said yes to the many requests I get I’d spend all my time reading your work and never doing my own. The best advice I can offer if you want to be a writer is … write. A lot. And read copiously too, to learn from the way others do it.
Good luck!

JUNE 2008

ORCS: BLOOD NIGHT

Here’s an advance cover for the German edition of Orcs: Bad Blood Volume Two, which is due from Heyne in January 2009. (It’s a rather grainy repro - I’ll post a clearer copy when I have one.) In the UK the book’s working title is Army of Shadows (to be published by Gollancz); the German title, Die Orks: Blutnacht, translates as The Orcs: Blood Night. The German edition of volume one, Die Orcs: Blutrache (Blood Revenge) was published by Heyne in December 2007.

Go to The Orcs Domain

ORCS FRENCH EDITIONS

I made a small error in last month’s update in saying that my French publisher, Bragelonne, would be issuing the first Orcs trilogy in mass-market paperback as individual volumes. In fact, it’s an omnibus edition that’s due in mmpb, publication date 22nd August. This is going to be in Bragelonne’s new imprint, Milady. (If you know anything about Alexandre Dumas you’ll understand the significance of the names Bragelonne and Milady.)

Bragelonne will also be publishing the first volume in the Orcs: Bad Blood trilogy, as Revanche des Orcs 1: Armes Destruction Magique. I’ll announce the publication date when known.

AMERICAN ORCS

There are going to be some interesting marketing and promotion initiatives when the Orcs: First Blood trilogy omnibus is published in the US by Orbit on 8th September.

These include “You’ve got ORC!” 3-D customisable e-cards, a dedicated website and Facebook page, and a You Tube video. More on all this nearer the launch.

Go to The Orcs Domain

PROLAPSE 11

Back in February I mentioned that I had a piece about the history of the London science fiction specialist bookshops upcoming in Peter Weston’s magazine Prolapse. It’s now appeared, in issue 11/May 2008. Prolapse’s print edition has a limited run, but you can download a pdf version, along with many other genre fanzines, at Bill Burn’s invaluable e-fanzines site. I’m not sure if Prolapse 11 is available there just yet, but it’ll no doubt be added soon. Bill’s site is well worth a visit in any event.

TROLLS & LEGENDES 2009

I’m delighted to report that I’ve again been invited to attend the Trolls & Legendes festival in Mons, Belgium next Easter (10th-12th April 2009). I was there for the last festival, in 2007 (it’s every other year) and thoroughly enjoyed this very well attended and efficiently run European convention. Popular fantasy artist Brian Froud will be a guest of honour in 2009, with many others to be announced. I’ll keep you up to speed on this.

OK, SO WE’LL TALK

I asked last month if visitors to this site would like to see the addition of a forum. There have been enough positive responses that I’m thinking of going ahead with it in the next couple of months. Watch this space.

MAY 2008

ORCS GO GRAPHIC

As I mentioned in the February news update, there’s going to be an orcs graphic novel, and I’m very pleased to announce that the publisher is First Second, one of the most innovative and resourceful companies in the US graphics field. The project’s just got underway, so it’s too soon to give many details; the artist is still to be chosen and we don’t have a publication date yet. But I can say that I’m in the process of writing a totally new story - this isn’t going to be an adaptation of my existing or future orcs novels, though it will feature characters and settings from the initial trilogy, Orcs: First Blood. I’m really excited about this venture, and the prospect of working with First Second’s team of thorough-going professionals. I’ll be posting more news about the graphic novel, along with artwork samples, as we progress.

Go to The Orcs Domain

ORCS STOMP THROUGH FRANCE

My French publisher, Bragelonne, has now secured the rights to publish the Orcs: First Blood trilogy in mass-market paperback editions, dates tba. Bragelonne, France’s premier fantasy and sf publisher, has already issued the trilogy in trade paperback (large format) editions and as a handsome omnibus. They’re also gearing up to issue sequel trilogy Orcs: Bad Blood, and I’ll post publication dates here when I know them.

Go to The Orcs Domain

YET ANOTHER GUEST FOR GAMESFEST 3

This year’s Gamesfest gathering, noted in previous news updates, and at which I’ll be appearing, has added another guest of honour. James Swallow is a very prolific writer of novels, tie-ins, short stories and videogames. His credits include stories in the Warhammer 40,000 and Blood Angels series, Judge Dredd novels Eclipse and Whiteout, and the novelisation of The Butterfly Effect.
Gamesfest’s other confirmed guests so far are Dan Abnett, Mark Chadbourn, Juliet E. McKenna, Graham McNeil, Deborah Miller and David J. Rodger.
Described as “A convention to showcase the best in role-playing, wargaming, boardgaming and science fiction/fantasy literature”, the one day event takes place on Saturday 4th October 2008, from 10am to 7pm. The venue is Victoria Hall, Akeman Street, Tring, Hertfordshire, and full details can be found here.

DO YOU WANT TO TALK?

As time goes on I intend adding more departments and functions to this website, and one idea is the inclusion of a message board. It’s always good to hear from readers, and some sort of forum seems a neat way to respond to questions, answer queries about my work and generally interact with people. But what do you think? Is a message board something you’d like to see here? If you have an opinion you can let me know via the contact button over there on the left-hand side.

APRIL 2008

ORCS INVADE AMERICA

I’m pleased to report that my initial orcs trilogy, Orcs: First Blood, and follow-up trilogy Orcs: Bad Blood, will be published in the US by Orbit. This cover, which I love, is for the omnibus edition of the first trilogy, due out in September. The book’s going to have a number of extras, including orcs short story ‘The Taking’ and a new interview with me. Some very interesting pre-publication promotions are planned, and I’ll post details a bit nearer the launch. Orcs: Bad Bloodwill be published as individual volumes in the States, dates tba.

Book One of Orcs: Bad Blood, Weapons of Magical Destruction, is scheduled for UK publication by Gollancz this October, and I’ll be putting a sample chapter here soon.

Go to The Orcs Domain

GAMESFEST 3 UPDATE

I mentioned in the February and March news round-ups that I’m one of the guests of honour at this year’s Gamesfest, along with Graham McNeil and Mark Chadbourn. Now four additional GoHs have been added.

Juliet E. McKenna and Deborah J. Miller are two of my fellow Write Fantastic members. Juliet’s debut novel, the first in her Tales of Einarinn series, was published in 1999. She’s currently working on a new trilogy, and volume one, Straws in the Wind, will be published in the UK and the US by Solaris in Spring 2009. Deborah (aka Miller Lau) was shortlisted for the 1993 Ian St James Award with her story ‘Dinosaur’. Her first novel, Talisker, was published by Simon & Schuster’s Earthlight imprint in 1999.

Dan Abnett is well known for his work in comics, having written for titles as diverse as the Mr Men and the X-Men. His popular Gaunt’s Ghosts and Inquisitor Eisenhorn series are published by Games Workshop’s Black Library imprint.

David J. Rodger lists influences as various as H.P. Lovecraft, William Gibson and Robert Ludlam. David’s first novel, God Seed, is a cyber-thriller; and he’s created a role-playing game entitled Yellow Dawn.

Gamesfest 3 is on Saturday 4th October
from 10am to 7pm.
The venue is
Victoria Hall
Akeman Street
Tring,
Hertfordshire.

More details here.

DEEPER DEPTHS

Murky Depths issue 3 is out now. It contains the concluding part of my short story ‘SPOIL’, and an interview with me. Other contributors include Richard Calder, Luke Cooper, Steve Pirie and Pike Stephenson. Murky Depths has a website here, and a MySpace page.

OOPS! DEPARTMENT: PLR PETITION

In last month’s update I carried an item about the PLR petition to 10 Downing Street that’s currently running. In the item I referred to petition originator John Malam as being a Society of Authors official. John has been in touch to point out, “Much as I'd like to be an SoA official, I'm not - just a writer like yourself (who happens to be an SoA member).” I’m happy to correct this error, which was in the mailing I based the item on. John goes on to say, “There are about 8000 active government petitions at present, and the PLR one is around number 60 in the 'league table’.” The petition, which is backed by the SoA, protests at a proposed cut in the funding of Public Lending Right, the scheme whereby British authors receive a modest fee when their books are borrowed from public libraries. Over 3000 people have signed so far. You can add your signature here.

March 2008

DREAMTIME TRILOGY KINDLE EDITIONS

My Dreamtime trilogy, the US editions (from Eos) of the series published in the UK as the Quicksilver trilogy, is now available for download to Kindle, Amazon.com’s wireless reading device. At the moment, Amazon is making the Kindle service available only to its America customers, but I understand that the device can be bought by readers in other countries and made to work if they have the necessary technical expertise. The Kindle has been hailed as a breakthrough in the field of portable reading devices, although its launch has not been without some controversy. It’ll be interesting to see how well it’s taken up.

LORD OF THE TRINGS

The third annual Gamesfest day, mentioned in the February news round-up, and at which I’ll be appearing, has added two other guests of honour.
My fellow Write Fantastic member Mark Chadbourn is a fantasy, horror and sf author with eleven novels and one non-fiction book to his credit. Six of his novels have been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Society’s Best Novel Award; and he has won BFS awards in both the Short Story and Novella categories. Mark is also a television scriptwriter.
Graham McNeil is one of Games Workshop’s leading game developers and an author. His many titles include volumes in the popular Warhammer 40K and Warhammer Fantasy series.

Further guests will be announced soon.
Gamesfest 3 takes place on Saturday 4th October between 10am and 7pm.
Venue: Victoria Hall, Akeman Street, Tring, Hertfordshire. Details here.

FAUST AMONG EQUALS

Eternal Vigilance, the impressive website of horror author Gabrielle Faust, is running a series of short interviews with writers under the heading 5 Questions, 5 Authors (everybody’s asked the same five questions). It was my turn in February, and you can read the interview here (you’ll need to scroll down the page).

ORCS OMNIBUS REPRINTS AGAIN

The UK omnibus edition of my Orcs: First Blood trilogy, published by Gollancz in August 2004, has now gone into its tenth printing.

SUPPORT PUBLIC LENDING RIGHT

The funding for PLR, the system whereby British authors receive a small fee for books borrowed from public libraries, is under threat of reduction.

John Malam, an official with the Scottish branch of The Society of Authors, has organised a petition to be presented to 10 Downing Street protesting the proposed cuts. In part, John’s petition reads:

“A reduction in PLR funding will adversely affect the earnings of thousands of UK authors and illustrators. Many are self-employed, and in an industry as unpredictable as publishing, the annual PLR payment is a highly valued and reliable contribution to earnings. The Government is urged to retain the current funding level (2007/08) for PLR for each of the next three years. There should be no reduction in funding.”

At time of writing the petition has attracted almost 3000 signatures. You can add your support here

February 2008

Welcome to my revamped website

I’ve finally got round to updating the site, and Here Be Dragons, the folk who maintain it for me, have given the whole thing a thorough overhaul. The Biography, Bibliography, Orcs Domain, Gothique & Stardock and Links sections have been brought up to date and expanded. There are also new sections for my Quicksilver and Nightshade trilogies; a Gallery featuring covers, artwork and photographs, and a section where you can read
Sample Chapters of my work. I’ll be updating the site on a regular basis from now on.

I now have a MySpace page, and there’s a permanent link to it over there on the right. Just below are links for the MySpace and Live Journal pages of The Write Fantastic. TWF is a collective of authors whose mission is to introduce fantasy fiction to readers who have never tried the genre, and to show those who have drifted away the breadth and depth in current fantasy writing. The Write Fantastic consists of Sarah Ash, Chaz Brenchley,
Mark Chadbourn, Juliet E. McKenna, Deborah J. Miller, Jessica Rydill and myself. We offer a range of resources to libraries, literary festivals, reader's circles, writers' groups, bookshops and conventions, where we talk on our lives as writers, on fantasy and science fiction in general, and on specific topics. We also come together as panels for question and answer sessions, give readings and conduct workshops on creative writing, both in genre and in general. You can find out more at the official website.

Here’s some news …

ALL THINGS ORCISH

The first volume of my new orcs trilogy, Orcs Bad Blood, entitled Weapons of Magical Destruction, will be published in the UK by Gollancz in October. I hope to be posting a sample chapter from the new book here soon. The second volume has the working title Army of Shadows. I haven’t decided on a title for volume three yet.

Weapons of Magical Destruction has already been published in Germany - as Die Orks: Blutrache - by Heyne. It spent six weeks in the national bestseller list in Germany following its publication last December, and is currently reprinting. Dutch, French and Italian editions of the Orcs: Bad Blood trilogy have been confirmed - and I’m delighted to report that the American rights to both trilogies have now been sold. I’ll be announcing more details about all these editions soon.

I’m also pleased to report that there’s going to be an orcs graphic novel. I can’t say a lot about it at the moment, except that it’s going to be published by one of America’s most innovative graphic novel publishing companies. It’ll be an original story, not an adaptation of the existing novels, but will feature the characters and themes established in the trilogies. Watch this space.

Meanwhile, the initial orcs trilogy, Orcs: First Blood, rolls on. There have recently been omnibus editions from both my French publishers, Bragelonne, and in Dutch from Luitingh-Sijthoff; and the books are now published in China by the Orient Publishing Centre.

Go to The Orcs Domain

THE QUICKSILVER TRILOGY

The Diamond Isle (published in the UK as Quicksilver Twilight) has appeared in mass-market paperback in the States from Eos; and as Le Crépuscule du Vif-Argent from Bragelonne in France. Both are very handsome editions, with covers by Jon Sullivan and Didier Graffet respectively.

Go to Quicksilver Trilogy section

THIS ‘N’ THAT

Murky Depths magazine “The quarterly Anthology of Graphically Dark Speculative Fiction” is a new entrant to the UK genre scene, containing both prose fiction and stories in strip form. My short story SPOIL runs as a two part serial in issues 2 and 3, December 2007/February 2008. Other contributors include Richard Calder, Willie Meikle, Luke Cooper and Sarah Wagner.

I also have a piece upcoming in Prolapse magazine, Peter Weston’s fascinating ongoing history of the UK’s science fiction community. My contribution is one of several charting the birth and development of British sf specialist shops, and I think it’s due to run in the next issue, number 10, which is due out soon. Prolapse can be downloaded in pdf format, for free, from Bill Burns’ extremely useful eFanzines site, where a wide range of other ‘zines are available.

I recently granted an interview to Buecherwahn, a Swiss, German language website devoted to fantasy. The interview, which is quite lengthy, was conducted by Pascal Scherrer. You can read it here in German, or in its original English version in the Biography section.

PERSONAL APPEARANCES

Art & Phil Festival

On Friday 29th February I’ll be taking part in a panel discussion entitled Fantasy World Building, along with fellow Write Fantastic members Chaz Brenchley and Deborah J. Miller, as part of the Lit & Phil's "A Sense of Place" season. The panel will be chaired by Dr Gail-Nina Anderson, and it starts at 7pm. Admission is free.

The Literary & Philosophical Society, situated in Newcastle upon Tyne, is the largest independent library outside London.
Venue:
The Lit & Phil
23 Westgate Road
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 1SE
Tel: 0191 232 0192
Email: library@litandphil.org.uk

Gamesfest 3

“A convention to showcase the best of role-playing, wargaming , boardgaming and science fiction/fantasy literature in a one day event.”

I’ve agreed to be one of the guests of honour at Gamesfest, which takes place on Saturday 4th October 2008 between 10am and 7pm.
Venue:
Victoria Hall
Akeman Street
Tring
Hertfordshire
More details here.

Web Site by