I have once again been struck down by Nurgle who has visited upon me yet another of his plagues. Overwhelmed by wheezing, sniffling and feverishness I decided to let the Writing Fantasy Heroes contest run another day. I have risen from my sickbed and with the aid of the D&D random die roller, chosen a winner. All of the entries were excellent and I'd like to thank everybody who took part. And now, without further ado, I fumble with the envelope while the orchestra performs a drum roll, and then I reveal that the winner is Damon Richard. Congratulations, sir! … [Read more...]
Jonathan Green On Indie Publishing
December 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment
In a long standing Xmas tradition for this blog, which I have just made up, we have another guest post today. This time from Jonathan Green. Jon is the genre-spanning author of more than 40 books ranging from Warhammer novels to works set in the universes of Dr Who and Star Wars. He is the creator of the Pax Brittania steampunk series for Abaddon books. He's also well known for his work on the Fighting Fantasy series of gamebooks. I've been meeting with Jon most enjoyably (for me at least) at Black Library functions for many years and we've talked about this and that. Recently he made the mistake of asking me about e-books and indie publishing and I responded with my usual torrent of incoherent enthusiasm on the subject. Apparently my … [Read more...]
Bones of The Old Ones Contest
November 23, 2012 by 2 Comments
Goodreads is hosting a giveaway of Howard Andrew Jones' new book, The Bones of the Old Ones, the sequel to his masterful Arabian Night's sword and sorcery adventure, The Desert of Souls; a book I liked so much I blurbed it. The three winners will each receive a signed hardback copy of The Bones of the Old Ones as well as The Desert of Souls. Head over to Goodreads and sign up. Winners will be announced on December 19th. … [Read more...]
Stealer of Flesh Released In Czech
November 13, 2012 by 6 Comments
Here is the cover for the Czech edition of Stealer of Flesh now on sale throughout the Republic. My thanks to the good people at Polaris for the release. (And thanks to Radka for the photo.) … [Read more...]
The Queen’s Assassin
September 16, 2011 by 7 Comments
When I was about nine years old a group of local lads threw me into the deepest part of the Marine Lake, a huge man-made pool made by damming off an area of the harbour with a massive concrete breakwater. I had not yet learned to swim. It was sunny. The sky was blue. My mouth was filling up with salty water. I was trying to shout for help while flailing around in water too deep to stand in. It washed over my eyes and blurred my vision. The concrete ledge was covered with broken barnacles that ripped my hands bloody as I tried to pull myself up. The kids who had thrown me in watched me scrabbling away and laughed. They did not realise I was drowning in front of their eyes. Eventually, after what seemed like ages to me, but which could only … [Read more...]
The Serpent Tower
August 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment
The Serpent Tower is an impregnable fortress built by an ancient, pre-human race, bristling with terrifying, magical weapons, watched over by unsleeping, sorcerous sentinels. It has never fallen to siege. Now it is the lair of the sinister sorcerer Lord Ilmarec who holds Princess Kathea, rightful heir to the throne of Kharadrea in his lustful clutches. In order to save his own life, Rik must penetrate the ancient secrets of the Tower and rescue the Princess from her uncle. And all the while he is pursued by an undead horror born from the vilest necromancy, created with the sole purpose of killing him before he can come into his birthright by a deadly conspiracy that plans to rule the world. Yes, it’s that old, old story, rescuing a … [Read more...]
Weekend Reading
June 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment
At the weekend I downloaded Tarzan At The Earth's Core onto my Kindle and sat outside in the sun and read it in a few hours. This was a book I loved when I was fifteen. It involves Tarzan joining an expedition to the hollow world at the Earth's core, the dinosaur haunted setting of Burroughs Pellucidar novels to rescue David Innes from the clutches of the Korsars. It's an odd book which features a lot of running around, cliff-hanger endings and prehistoric monsters. It ends abruptly as if Burroughs had reached his contractual word count for the project and just shut the whole thing down. There is no real structure, very little characterisation and the writing is clumsy. And still, I not only finished the book, I enjoyed it, even though I … [Read more...]
