The Next Big Thing: What Happened Next...

So last week, I talked about Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow as being The Next Big Thing (well from me at least). At the end of the post I tagged various other authors to answer the same questions I did this week - and some of them have!

Click the following links to find out what they had to say:

Cavan Scott

Joshua Reynolds

Sarah Cawkwell

Tie-in Thursday: Duel of the Fates (the sing-along version)

Seeing as how Tuesday was Steampunk day, Thursday is the new Tie-in Fiction day (for this week anyway).



Thanks to Sarah Cawkwell for this. I think what makes it so funny is John Williams' serious expression throughout.

Counting Words

Today we have various authors on the thorny subject of word counts.

First up there's Nicola Vincent-Abnett.

Then there's William King.

Next it's Sarah Cawkwell.

And lastly, Josh Reynolds.

For those of you who may be interested, during a recent school visit a child asked me how many words I'd written.

Now this is only a rough estimate, but in terms of published words I reckon I'm past the 2 million mark now. That's quite a lot, isn't it? Not as much as the likes of Dan Abnett and Graham McNeill, but not a bad start, I think you'll agree. ;-)

The Best of Hammer and Bolter is on its way

For the first time in a physical format - and 640 pages long at that! - the Keepers of the Black Library are proud to present the best stories from the first twelve issues of Hammer and Bolter magazine.

The Table of Contents is as follows:

The Strange Demise of Titus Endor – Dan Abnett
A Place of Quiet Assembly – John Brunner
Primary Instinct – Sarah Cawkwell
Questing Knight – Anthony Reynolds
The Dark Path – Gav Thorpe
Exhumed – Steve Parker
The Rat Catcher’s Tale – Richard Ford
The Long Games at Carcharias – Rob Sanders
Virtue’s Reward – Darius Hinks
Charandis – Ben McCallum
Waiting Death – Steve Lyons
The Barbed Wire Cat – Robert Earl
Hunted – John French
The Iron Within – Rob Sanders
Feast of Horrors – Chris Wraight
Action and Consequence – Sarah Cawkwell
Tower of Blood – Tony Ballantyne
The First Duty – Josh Reynolds
Grail Knight – Anthony Reynolds
Manbane – Andy Hoare
The Last Remembrancer – John French
Flesh – Chris Wraight
Cause and Effect – Sarah Cawkwell
Marshlight – C. L. Werner
Commander Shadow – Braden Campbell
The Arkunasha War – Andy Chambers
Sir Dagobert’s Last Battle – Jonathan Green
Survivor – Steve Parker
The Last Charge – Andy Hoare
We Are One – John French
Mountain Eater – Andy Smillie
The Carrion Anthem – David Annandale
The Gods Demand – Josh Reynolds
Shadow Knight – Aaron Dembski-Bowden
Aenarion – Gav Thorpe
Bitter End – Sarah Cawkwell

I think you'll agree that's quite a lot of stories (including a fair few by Black Library rising star Sarah Cawkwell). You may also have happened to notice that one of the stories amongst that little lot is the Warhammer tale Sir Dagobert’s Last Battle, written by Yours Truly.

The Best of Hammer and Bolter: Volume 1 will be available to buy from this July, but if you can't wait that long to read Sir Dagobert’s Last Battle (assuming you've not read it already, of course) then you can download it here, along with the rest of Hammer and Bolter issue 9.

Yes, it's time for another Writers Round-up!

And today we have Scott K Andrews on the doubts that occasionally beset any writer...

Veteran comics pro Gordon Rennie tells us what not to do when it comes to comic writing...

Black Library scribe Sarah Cawkwell writes about the joy of deadlines...

And finally there's William King on the subject of inspiration...

Until next time...

The Dead and The Gildar Rift

Did you see what I did there? Did you?*

Anyway, just finished reading The Dead by David Gatward** which means I can now start reading The Gildar Rift by Sarah Cawkell.***

* If you didn't, click here.

** I would love to see a video game of this book. The boss level unique deaths would be (to coin a phrase) awesome!

*** Better than that, it's signed by the author - in pink!

Sarah Cawkwell on Time Management

It's time for another in my occasional pieces of other writers and their experiences of writing for a living. So, head over to The Founding Fields website to check out Sarah Cawkwell's issues with time management.

JG in Hammer & Bolter Issue 9

I'm very pleased to be able to announce that my brand new Warhammer short story Sir Dagobert's Last Battle has been scheduled to appear in Hammer & Bolter Issue #9. And I'm in very good company too, for not only are there stories by m'colleagues Sarah Cawkwell and Steve Parker in this issue, there's also a brand new short from ex-Warmaster of All Things 40K Andy Chambers.

You can pre-order your copy of Hammer & Bolter #9 here.

And while we're on the subject of the Black Library, if you've not read Gordon Rennie's Zavant before you owe it to yourself to order the new PoD version that's out this month - along with a totally awesome new cover.

Here's the link to the PoD edition of Zavant.

Victories of the Space Marines - another review

This time from Three Color Minimum...

Next up is But Dust in the Wind. An Imperial Fists story. This story didn't really seem to go with the book title. But Necrons fighting anyone, even the Emperor's Finest usually doesn't go well. Not bad at all.

'This story didn't really seem to go with the book title...' Ahhh, well there you see you haven't understood the nature of the victory... But enough of my whinging. If you've not read it yet why not download But Dust in the Wind from here?

Congrats to Rob Sanders for winning the coveted Best Story in the Anthology Award and Sarah Cawkwell for all the love Primary Instincts has been getting - and deservedly so, I might add.

Victories of the Space Marines - first review

Thanks to fellow scribe Sarah Cawkwell (who pointed me in the right direction) I've seen the first review of Victories of the Space Marines which includes my latest Warhammer 40K short story But Dust in the Wind.

Here's what Bane of Kings, over at The Founding Fields, had to say about my contribution:

But Dust in the Wind by Jonathan Green

An Imperial Fists Story

Right, we’re coming to the end of this anthology, and we have a third short focusing on the first founding chapters, this time the Imperial Fists, and written by Jonathan Green, whose work includes The Armageddon Omnibus, A Print on Demand collection of Black Templar Novels.

Having not read anything by Jonathan Green in the past apart from a good short story in Legends of the Space Marines, I was pleased to see a new take on the Imperial Fists as I did not, if I am being honest, enjoy Sons of Dorn by Chris Roberson. Now, as Jonathan Green had written about the Black Templars in the past, I was wondering what his take would be on the fists would be.

I must say, that I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it’s good to see that the Necrons are getting more love nowadays, as they are the main enemy that the Imperial Fists have to face.

Now, whereas Black Dawn lacked the epic battles, But Dust in the Wind makes up for it with epic encounters between the Imperial Fists and the Necrons, and comes complete with a tragic conclusion. Despite there being little character development in this short, I felt that I enjoyed it nonetheless, and this has defiantly made me interested in picking up The Armageddon Omnibus.

Rating: 7.5/10

Not sure if he meant 'defiantly' there at the end or 'definitely'. Anyway, it's interesting to hear that Bane preferred my take on the Imperial Fists to Chris Roberson's.

Remember, you can pre-order Victories of the Space Marines here.