Here is another background piece I did back when I was writing Farseer. There is actually a Rogue Trader character in Fist of Demetrius so this may still be relevant. Once again, everything here is very old and none of it was ever part of the official 40K background save where it appears in Farseer. An extract from the basic training lectures of Brother Guillame, Fabricator Scriptorum, Inquisition Library, Stalynheim. Reference: Light of Knowledge Clearance Level: Tertius Unauthorised Viewing May Result In Termination of Library Privileges and Life. Praise the Emperor. Brothers, our lesson today deals with those individuals variously known as merchant adventurers, free voyagers or more colloquially Rogue Traders. Most of us have heard … [Read more...]
Kormak: Stealer of Flesh Released
Just wanted to announce that Stealer of Flesh, the first Kormak novel-- well, a collection of linked novelettes really, has been released. In a blatant effort to promote sales, the Kormak short story Guardian of the Dawn will be free until midnight Thursday as well. STEALER OF FLESH To the world at large, he is a mercenary and assassin, a brutal killer with a deadly blade. In reality Kormak is a Guardian, one of a near-extinct order sworn to protect humanity from the servants of the gathering darkness. The Ghul are the Stealers of Flesh, an ancient race of demons who possess the bodies of humans to work great evil. Now one of them has been freed from its ancient prison using Kormak’s own Dwarf-forged sword and the Guardian must pursue … [Read more...]
The Casebook of Jack Brodie Part Two
My Victorian detective novel The Inquiry Agent featuring former Bow Street Runner Jack Brodie continues to ride high in the Amazon charts and here as promised is the second extract from its sequel, The Distressed Lady. Mr George LazarusThe chambers of Mr George Lazarus were, in every way, what I expected to find and a little bit more. So was the man. The room was sumptuously furnished, the desk even larger than the clerk’s outside. The chairs were leather bound. Paintings depicting scenes of fox-hunting and horse-riding were on the walls . Mr George Lazarus stood with his back to me, looking out the window which gave him a fine view of an inner garden courtyard. He was dressed in the finest broadcloth. He had a high collar and a cravat … [Read more...]
The Casebook of Jack Brodie
Much to my surprise my Victorian detective novel, The Inquiry Agent, has reached the top 10 in the Kindle Historical Mysteries and British Detective categories on Amazon.com. It was in fact very briefly number 1 in both and is, as of the time of writing, in the Top 100 Mysteries. I would like to do something to encourage you all to rush out and buy a copy (or at least give you some idea of the style) but unfortunately the terms of Amazon's Kindle Select program forbid me from reprinting any of it here. I am therefor going to post a couple of extracts from its sequel, The Distressed Lady, one of my many works in progress. For those of you who don't know anything about my alternative career as a mystery writer, don't worry, so far you have … [Read more...]
Drinking With Wolves
For those of you considering having a beer with the Wolves of Space, a dire warning. Leo, one of the Imperial Guard heroes of Fist of Demetrius, has had some experience in this field. Extracted from the first draft of Fist of Demetrius “Kill me now,” I said. The room seemed to be whirling around as if someone had placed a gravitic rotator under my bed. It felt as if one of the Adeptus Astartes was banging on my head with a Thunder Hammer. My throat felt raw. My stomach churned as if I had the Brontovan Trots. “You saw Space Wolves,” said Anton. The skinny bastard was practically dancing with excitement. “You drank with Space Wolves.” “You pointed a shotgun at Space Wolves,” said Ivan, the light reflecting brilliantly on … [Read more...]
Wolfblades: Yet Another Blast From The Past
In honour of Macharius's recent encounter with the Wolves of Space I have decided to reprint yet another old post of mine from the Trollslayer.net website. (And yes, I admit it, because I am feeling lazy.) Once again, I would like to thank Jimmy Carmine for pointing me in the direction of the archive.org and allowing me to retrieve this post from oblivion. Once again, I would just like to make it clear that none of this stuff is an official part of the background save where it actually appears in the Space Wolf novels and has not been superceded by new developments. I would also like to state that it is entirely possible, indeed extremely likely, that Macharius will encounter some Wolfblades in The Fist of Demetrius. Wolfblades An … [Read more...]
Another Blast From The Past
Here are some more mad ramblings from the recently rediscovered files of Wilhelm of Praag, strangely still relevant to the Tyrion and Teclis Trilogy. (I would like to thank Jimmy Carmine for pointing me in the direction of archive.org in the comments to the previous Blast From the Past). I should point out that this comes from my old website, was written over 10 years ago and was never part of the official background anyway. Still bearing all that in mind, let us proceed! The Paths of the Old Ones Some Speculations on their nature by Wilhelm of Praag. Recently there fell into my hands some of the texts translated from old Elvish into the common tongue of men, by the Elvish mage, Tasirion of Turmir, before his unfortunate demise at the … [Read more...]
Ten Thousand
On Saturday evening, some time between 10 pm and 11 pm, I sold my 10,000th e-book. That may not seem much in the grand scheme of things but if you consider the fact that my e-books are essentially put together by my wife and myself in our living room and have been on sale for roughly eight months, you can see why I consider this an achievement. For those of you interested in the actual breakdown of numbers, they were (as of 11:20 pm on the 10th of March): Death's Angels: 3607 The Serpent Tower: 1845 The Queen's Assassin: 1625 Shadowblood: 1418 The Inquiry Agent: 680 Sky Pirates: 84 Assorted Short Stories: 741 As you can see the vast majority of sales (8495) have been in my Terrarch series. Since December I have been averaging well … [Read more...]
A Blast From The Past
So that's Black Library Live been and gone and it was a lot of fun. I even managed to pick up a copy of Slaves To Darkness, one of the very first projects I ever worked on at Games Workshop back in the day. It contains the very first encounter of the Emperor and Horus ever written as far as I know (written by me too!), and Adrian Smith's excellent black and white picture in which I modelled for the Warmaster. I very much enjoyed doing the Warhammer panel with Gav Thorpe, Sarah Cawkwell and Josh Reynolds and it brought a whole lot of ideas bubbling to the surface of my mind, particularly about elves and dwarves. It reminded me that I had actually written posts on the subject for my old Trollslayer.net site. I checked back and it seems … [Read more...]
