Author’s Notes: Weaver of Shadow
Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilisation is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph. That quote, as you probably well know, comes from Robert E. Howard. More specifically it comes from his 1935 story Beyond the Black River, one of my two all-time favourite Conan tales. (It’s a toss up with Red Nails. I can’t choose between them.) Beyond the Black River illustrates Howard’s theme all too well. It’s a tale of violence along the border between the civilised land of Aquilonia and the Pictish Wilderness. It was written late in Howard’s Read more…
Back!
My apologies — six weeks have passed without a post, which is my longest period of radio silence since I started this blog. In my defence I will say I have both been busy and on holiday. I was travelling in Asia– Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia to be specific. My original plan was to write about my trip as it happened. If you follow this blog you’ll have noticed how successful that was. I blame this on the fact that I was having a good time and to the fact that I quite frankly prefer wandering around interesting, exotic Read more…
Author’s Notes: Defiler of Tombs
I started work on Defiler of Tombs almost seven years ago, back in 2006. I really wanted to write a novel about Kormak, the monster-hunting hero of The Guardian of the Dawn but I was trying to fit it into the template that would be acceptable to a conventional fantasy publisher. I’ve written about what a struggle that was elsewhere, but to recap, I was trying to fit a lean, taut sword and sorcery tale into an oversized vessel, to make it longer than it was meant to be. It could not to be done (by me at least) and Read more…
Black Library Weekender: the Report
So I am finally recovered enough to report on the Black Library Weekender. I had a fantastic time and would just like to say a big thank you to everyone, fans, fellow authors and Black Library staff who made it such a pleasure. The hotel was very pleasant and, I was surprised to discover, not too far from the neighbourhood in which I used to live when I worked for GW in Nottingham. En route from the airport I passed my old chip shop and local pub as well as the corner shop where I used to buy my newspapers. Read more…
Writing A Bible
I started working on a bible this week. Don’t worry — I have no plans either to found my own religion or to re-translate the Good Book. I am creating a story bible for my Kormak novels. I am talking about a grand compendium of information, not unlike the sort of thing you might find in a Warhammer army book or a roleplaying game, detailing everything a writer might need to know about the setting, basically the thing that the people who make TV series have for their writers to refer to. This is the sort of information that when Read more…
Gamesday Italia and Other Stuff
Just a quick note to say I am getting ready for Gamesday Italia in Modena. I am really looking forward to this. Also for all you writers out there, a book recommendation; 2K to 10K: Writing Faster, Writing Better. This is one of the shortest and best books about writing I have read, and certainly the best book about writing I have read this year. It’s by Rachel Aaron, of How To Write 10,000 words in a Day fame and it covers not only how to increase your word count, but how to edit efficiently and well, and probably the Read more…
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