LINKS

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!

MAY 2013

EDGE-LIT 2

I mentioned back in the March update that, along with authors Mike Carey and Tricia Sullivan, I’m a Guest of Honour at Edge-Lit 2, to be held on Saturday 13th July at the Quad, Derby.

The organisers have now announced the full list of guest speakers: Adam Christopher, Tom Fletcher, Andrew Hook, Suzanne MacLeod, Gary McMahon, Lou Morgan, Emma Newman, Gaie Sebold, Gavin Smith, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Gav Thorpe, Niki Valentine, Freda Warrington, Conrad Williams and Jennifer Williams.

Venue: Quad, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby DE1 3AS. Website here. The event runs from 11am to midnight, and tickets cost £25, which includes access to all events.
Edge-Lit 2 also has a Facebook page.

DAVID GEMMELL AWARDS FOR FANTASY 2013

Here’s a press release recently sent out by the Gemmell Awards committee. Please note that, as stated, the awards ceremony is an open, free event, but does not confer admittance to World Fantasy Convention. You have to be a paid, registered member of the convention to attend that, and memberships have now closed, having reached their limit. Though if you do want to attend the con you might be able to pick up an unwanted ticket from someone unable to attend. It’s worth checking WFC’s Facebook page in this respect, here: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/164901946886664/.

An update from the Gemmell Awards committee

First, a piece of news. We regret to announce that due to health issues Deborah Miller has had to relinquish her role as Awards Administrator. The David Gemmell Awards for Fantasy quite simply wouldn’t exist if it hadn’t been for Deborah’s drive and determination. Liaising with publishers, assembling nominations and overseeing the voting process - all of which Deborah handled with consummate efficiency - made her the most valuable member of our team. We’re immensely grateful for all the hard work she’s put in.

The good news is that although Deborah will no longer be undertaking these tasks she isn’t so much quitting as stepping back from the minutiae of organising the awards. She’ll still be on hand as an adviser, and to generally keep the rest of us in line. The position of Awards Administrator has passed to Christine Harrison, which she’s carrying out in addition to her function as Treasurer. Christine can be contacted via DGLA@live.co.uk.

It’s our intention to get the committee back up to strength, and we hope to be announcing the appointment of new members in due course. None of this affects the awards. Nominations are now being gathered, and once the longlists have been compiled we’ll be announcing the date for the first round of voting.

However, we should remind you that we have a change of venue and date for this year’s ceremony. It’s going to take place at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton (31st Oct-3rd Nov). We are, in fact, the convention’s opening item, on the evening of Thursday 31st October - a fitting way to mark the awards’ fifth anniversary.

Hopefully most of you will already have registered for WFC. But if you just want to be at our awards ceremony, entrance is free and all are welcome - the only restriction being the capacity of the hall (which is quite large). But please note that only the awards ceremony is free to all; to attend the rest of WFC you have to be a paid member of the convention.

You can find out more about the Gemmell Awards at WFC 2013 here:http://www.wfc2013.org/prog-gemmellawards01.html

We expect the awards ceremony to return to its usual date (June) and venue, London’s Magic Circle HQ, in 2014.

We’ll keep you informed of progress. Look out for future updates and be prepared to vote for the 2013 Gemmell Awards!

Stan Nicholls
Chair

The Gemmell Awards website is here.

APRIL 2013

Last year, my wife Anne and I were guests at the first Les Féeries Du Bocage festival in Voulx (Seine-et-Marne), France.

It was a great gathering in a lovely rural setting, with an impressive group of writers and artists present. I said then that I hoped the festival would become an annual event, and I’m pleased to report that it’s going to be repeated this year on 1st and 2nd June, and we’re delighted that we’ve again been invited to participate. (If you go into the news archive of this site and scroll down to June 2012 you can see photos of last year’s festival.)

Les Féeries Du Bocage’s website, to which guests are still being added, is here.

TWENTY YEARS AGO: THE LEGEND GRAPHIC NOVEL

Time flies. October of this year sees the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the graphic novel version of the late David Gemmell’s Legend.

I adapted the book and Chris Baker (the artist known as Fangorn) did a splendid job of illustrating it. Sadly, the graphic novel’s long out of print. We’d love to see it available again, but so far no publisher has been found to take it on.

Next year sees the twentieth anniversary of the second Gemmell graphic novel we adapted, Wolf In Shadow, which is also OP.

Here’s a sample page from Legend:

MARCH 2013

UK OMNIBUS OF ORCS:
BAD BLOOD TRILOGY SET FOR OCTOBER RELEASE

Readers have been asking if there’s going to be an omnibus edition of my second Orcs trilogy, and if so, when. I’m pleased to report that Gollancz will be publishing the Bad Blood omnibus in the UK on 10th October, and it’ll retail for £9.99. No cover available yet, but I’ll post it here when it turns up.

At some point there’s also going to be an ebook package of all six Orcs novels, retailing for the price of five. No date yet; details when known.

FRENCH TRANSLATION OF ORCS SHORT STORY ‘THE TAKING’ AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

My French publisher, Bragelonne, is making a number of sf and fantasy shorts available as mini ebooks at €0.99 each.

The selection includes my Orcs story ‘The Taking’ (‘La Relève’), which was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award in 2001.

It can be downloaded here.

NIGHTSHADE: FRENCH SPECIAL EDITION

As I mentioned in last month’s update, Bragelonne is also going to publish a French language omnibus edition of my Nightshade Chronicles trilogy, and I now have a date - 21st June.

The ten special editions by various authors released on that date all celebrate the tenth anniversary of their original publication by Bragelonne.

The illustration above, by Didier Graffet, is a detail from the original French edition of Volume One, The Book of Shadows.

The entry for the special omnibus edition on Amazon France is here.

ORCS GRAPHIC NOVEL SLIDESHOW

If you haven’t caught up with Orcs: Forged For War, the graphic novel written by me and illustrated by Joe Flood (First Second Books), you might like to take a look at this slideshow of sample pages.

PERSONAL APPEARANCES

Along with authors Mike Carey and Tricia Sullivan, I’m Guest of Honour at Edge-Lit 2, to be held on Saturday 13th July at the Quad, Derby.
From the organisers: “Following the success of 2012's inaugural event, Edge-Lit 2 presents another superb day of science-fiction, fantasy and horror writing. With an incredible selection of panels, readings and workshops to choose from, all for one ticket price, there's bound to be something for any fan, reader or writer of genre fiction. Whether you want to find out more about the world of publishing, learn tips and tricks from masters of the craft or just find out more about the fascinating range of books and writers out there, Edge-Lit 2 is the day out for you!”
Venue: Quad, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby DE1 3AS.
Website here.

Nine Worlds Geekfest is a very ambitious multi-themed convention to be held 9th-11th August at the Heathrow hotel complex. In the words of the organisers, “Nine Worlds is a residential con celebrating all aspects of geek culture. Gaming, film, cosplay, anime, literature, and partying!” Uniquely, the event’s being funded through crowd-sourcing via Kickstarter; and all proceeds from Nine Worlds go to support English PEN, the world's oldest human rights organisation. I’ve long wondered why the UK hasn’t been able to stage large gatherings like Holland's Elf Fantasy Fair and Castlefest, Belgium's Trolls & Legendes, France's Utopiales or the US’s Dragon*Con and Comicon. Nine Worlds Geekfest is an attempt to do just that.

My wife Anne Gay and myself are part of the literary strand, along with (at time of writing) Ben Aaronovitch, Paul Cornell, Cory Doctrow, Jaine Fenn, Marion Gibson, Stephen Hunt, Anthony Joseph, Roz Kaveney, Kate Madison, Kim Newman, Charles Stross, Tricia Sullivan, James Swallow and Edmund Weiner. More guests are due to be added. Nine Worlds Geekfest’s website is here.

2013’s GEMMELL AWARDS FOR FANTASY

A reminder that the fifth annual David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy ceremony is going to take place at this year’s World Fantasy Convention in Brighton (31st Oct-3rd Nov). We’re the opening item, in fact, on the Thursday evening (31st).

Naturally we’d like everyone to attend the convention, but if you just want to be at our awards ceremony entrance is free - the only restriction being the capacity of the hall (which is quite large). But please note that only the awards ceremony is free to all; if you want to attend the rest of WFC you have to be a paid member of the convention, and WFC’s policy is to restrict the number of attendees. So now might be a good time to think about registering.

We expect the awards to return to their usual venue, London’s Magic Circle HQ, in 2014.

Details of the Gemmell Awards ceremony at WFC are here.

FEBRUARY 2013

FRENCH SPECIAL EDITION OF NIGHTSHADE TRILOGY ON WAY

Back in 2010 my French publisher, Bragelonne, celebrated its tenth anniversary by publishing special limited editions of ten titles from its first decade. The books were released in a promotion called “10 years, 10 titles, 10 Euros”. They included a single volume edition of my Orcs: First Blood trilogy, as here:

Bragelonne are going to repeat the exercise later this year with ten different titles, including an omnibus edition of my Nightshade Chronicles trilogy, The Book of Shadows, Shadow of the Sorcerer and A Gathering of Shadows. I don’t know what the other books will be, except for David Gemmell’s Echoes of the Great Song and In the Realm of the Wolf. These special editions have limited print-runs and won’t be reprinted, so for French readers they’re potentially collectors’ items. I don’t have a publication date yet, but will post it here once I know.

Here are the covers of the individual Bragelonne editions by Didier Graffet:

And there has been a previous French omnibus edition, again with a cover by Didier:

TWO LOSSES

Sad to note that Gerry Anderson died on 26th December. He was, of course, the producer of iconic TV puppet shows Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and a number of others. He was 83.

I had the privilege of working on his authorised biography, published in 1996:

The book itself was touched by tragedy. Its original author, Simon Archer, a young local radio reporter and huge Anderson fan, was killed in a car crash, leaving an incomplete manuscript and a mass of notes. I was invited to finish the book, and while I was writing it my mother died. So Gerry’s passing has evoked some fairly potent memories.

We lost another enormously influential personality in Charles Chilton, the writer and radio producer who died on 2nd January this year at the grand old age of 95.

He was famous as the writer/producer of the classic BBC radio series Journey Into Space, which was massively popular in the 1950s, and was later responsible for the 1980s series Space Force. He also produced seminal humour series The Goons, wrote for classic UK comic Eagle and created the hit musical Oh, What A Lovely War! That’s quite an impressive track record. I regret never having met him.

JANUARY 2013

A NEW YEAR

… and a brief summary of some events from 2012:

February

My graphic novel Orcs: Forged For War, illustrated by Joe Flood and published in the US by First Second Books, was named Best Comic Book of the Year in the 2011 Geek Life Awards.

March

The French edition of Forged For War was published by Editions Gallimard. (Pan Macmillan publish the book in the UK.)

April

The American edition of Inferno, the last volume in the Orcs: Bad Blood trilogy was published by Orbit.

As with their previous editions of the first and second trilogies, Orbit came up with a great cover.

May

The shortlists for 2012’s David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy (of which I’m Chair) were published. The three categories are the Legend Award (best novel), the Morningstar Award (best debut) and the Ravenheart Award (best cover art).

June

The Gemmell Awards ceremony took place at London’s Magic Circle headquarters. Patrick Rothfuss’ The Wise Man’s Fear (Gollancz) won the Legend Award; Helen Lowe’s The Heir of Night (Orbit) took the Morningstar, and Raymond Swanland the Ravenheart for his cover for William King’s Blood of Aenarion (Black Library).

My wife Anne and I were guests at Les Féeries Du Bocage festival in à Voulx (Seine-et-Marne) France on 2nd and 3rd June. It was a really enjoyable gathering, one of the friendliest we’ve attended, in the company of lovely, gifted people in a beautiful setting. This was the first time the festival had been staged, and I’m pleased to report that it’s going to be run again in June of this year (2013).

July

Original anthology Horizon was published in the Netherlands by independent publisher Uitgeverij Macc. It contains stories by Jeff Carlson, Uschi Zietsch, Theo Barkel, Tais Teng, Jaap Boekestein, Nando Harmsen, Peter van Oosterum, Pieter Feddema and Nico de Braeckeleer; and I wrote the introduction.

August

A German language audiobook of my Orcs: First Blood trilogy was published.
Unabridged and running for 30 hours, it’s read by Erik Schaffler. Audible offer it as a download. It’s also available from I-tunes and other outlets. You can listen to a sample here.

My Dutch publisher, Luitingh-Sijthoff, released an omnibus edition of the Orcs: Bad Blood trilogy.

The book was launched at Castlefest, held 2nd-4th August in Lisse, Holland. 25,000+ people attended to celebrate all aspects of fantasy, and a large proportion turned up in some kind of costume, many very imaginative. The weekend was one of the most sociable, good humoured gatherings we’ve attended. All kudos to the organisers for a superbly planned, smooth-running, child-friendly event.

September

The mass-market paperback edition of Inferno was published in the UK by Gollancz.

November

The French edition of Inferno, with a fine cover by
Didier Graffet, was published by Bragelonne.

And Heyne published the German omnibus edition of the
Bad Blood trilogy:

2013 - AS FOR THIS YEAR …

I was recently tagged to contribute to The Next Big Thing, a kind of round robin interview with authors where the same set of questions are asked. You can read my answers on author/independent publisher Andy Remic’s blog (scroll down).

On 3rd December Bragelonne made available as an e-book the French edition of Weapons of Magical Destruction, the first volume of the Orcs: Bad Blood trilogy, and it costs only E0.99. Details here.

I can’t say anything at the moment about novels I hope to be writing this year. I’ll post any news on this front once I know. But I can say that I’m working on a short story collection due to be launched at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, 31st October-3rd November. The collection’s going to be a mixture of reprint and new stories, and something like a third of the book consists of never before published Orcs fiction. More on this as the year progresses.

And a reminder that, for this year only, 2013’s Gemmell Awards ceremony is the opening event at World Fantasy Con. Details here.

All previous news updates can be found in the news archive

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