Looking Forward In 2014

I’ve been somewhat remiss in updating this blog over the past few months. That’s down to a number of factors — a deadline crunch on Fall of Macharius, the fact that I am looking after my toddler two days a week while my lovely wife returns to work and some complications brought on by changes to the type and dosage of my diabetes medication. All of this has meant time and energy have been in short supply and the blog has suffered accordingly. Things have settled down a bit now and I have been giving some thought as to what needs to be done to get this site shipshape. 

Over the past few years the site here has simply grown organically. I have made things up as I went along, adding pages here as a new book was released, writing a blog post there as the fancy took me. Recently it occurred to me that things around here could benefit from a bit of organisation.

I want to add sections for each of my books and series with proper introductions and a list of titles and articles all set out in a logical order. I want to give over a section of standing pages to all of my Black Library work and to my Kormak and Terrarch series. I want to break out the section on indie publishing for those people who are interested. In practise this simply means altering the headers and menus at the top of this page, adding a new introductory page and moving on. The main problem is finding the time.

I’ve a been making a list topics I want to write about as well. I want to write Author’s Notes for all of my Black Library work as well as articles on subjects that keep coming up again and again at conventions and Weekenders such as Grey Seer Thanquol and my secret Skaven heritage. I want to keep writing about technology that interests me and reviewing software and hardware as I use it. I also really want to write more about gaming and do a few more reviews. Recently I have been getting very much into the Old School Renaissance and back to my gamer roots. There are a few essays I have been planning absolutely forever such as Magic and Military Fantasy and The Influence of Gaming on Modern Fantasy Fiction. Hopefully I will get round to writing them this year. 

I’d also like to make this blog more interactive, which brings me to the point of this post. If there’s anything you would particularly like me to tackle in upcoming months, let me know in the comments below or by email and I’ll give it a bash.

7 Replies to “Looking Forward In 2014”

  1. Good to see you back posting – I hope that means that the medication and the deadlines are easing off, though I think you’ll be coping with the wee yin for another, oh, 25 years or so.

    Something that’s interesting me is the world of Kormak, or rather the world building. You’ve been dropping in new races and locations and history in each book, and I wonder how much you’re working to an established history, and how much you’re going by feel. I can imagine that keeping the continuity straight must grow exponentially more difficult with each book – is that true?

    I guess my interest in this goes back to all of those future histories of my past, and the frankly scary legacy of Tolkien.

    1. That’s a very timely question, Michael, as I am currently wrestling with this very issue as I revise Kormak 6: Ocean of Fear. The problem is compounded because I have stumbled into creating not just a single fantasy world but a universe/mythology. In OoF there is a crossover with the Terrarch Chronicles in the shape of the Quan, last seen giving Rik a very hard time in The Queen’s Assassin.

      I have been using Scrivener to create a bible for the series and Aeon Timeline to keep the chronology straight. Writing about this is, at least, material for one future blog post! Thanks 🙂

  2. If it’s not too hazy by now: I was very much looking forwards to your post on the David Gemmell awards, and was a bit disappointed when Nurgle saw fit to strike you down instead.

Leave a Reply



^