Short Story Saturday: In the grim darkness of the future there are only eBooks

I was slightly surprised to open an email from Games Workshop yesterday to discover, under the Black Library banner, the cover of my second Warhammer novel Magestorm staring back at me. It's a story from the World-That-Was and it was first published 16 years ago, in 2004.

As it turned out, the reason for the appearance of this title is that in this time of lockdown, like many publishers, Black Library are promoting their digital products, and Magestorm is one of the eBooks you can download direct from www.BlackLibrary.com. There are several short stories of mine also available as eBook downloads, including two that feature the ancient alien Necrons; my most recent Warhammer 40K story Journey of the Magi, and But Dust in the Wind, first published in 2010.

So why not click the image above and check out what's on offer?

The future's dark. The future's grim...

Warhammer Wednesday: Surviving Self-Isolation

If you are self-isolating, and a Warhammer/40K fan looking for something to read, why not download one of these eBooks?

Warhammer 40,000

          

Warhammer

     

Black Library Friday

Seeing as how it's Black Friday, and the Black Library still have several of my stories on sale, as either eBooks or Print on Demand titles, why not pop along to their website and buy one?

          

Warhammer Wednesday: Still available to buy

I've not had anything out with the Black Library for quite a while, but three of my novels are still available to buy in eBook format.

So if Space Marines are your thing, why not check out Iron Hands? Or if you prefer your action to be old school and Old World, you can download both Magestorm (awesome wizard on wizard action) and The Dead and the Damned (my first novel).

Warhammer Wednesday: Review Round-up

Here's a round-up of various reviews of my contributions to the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 universes...

Sir Dagobert's Last Battle
"Jonathan Green's Bretonnian story was particularly impressive, exploring the fanatacism and exploitative nature of faith in the Old World in a very entertaining fashion."

The Dead and the Damned
"Now it is true this book has the feel of several short stories put together, but I felt they were nicely woven together, and played off each other well. It gives you a feel for the numerous adventures a band of sell swords would find themselves in. The characters actually had a way of growing on you... I really did like the adventures the band of mercenaries found themselves in, and I am looking forward to Jonathan Green's next book about this stalwart band."

Magestorm
"This was the first BL book that I read and it blew my mind, easily one of the best. Although old and possibly outdated it is easily one of my fave five and one that should be read!"

Magestorm - available again

I am very pleased to be able to announce that Magestorm - my second Warhammer novel - has been made available again by Black Library in a shiny new zeroes and ones format.

The story was linked to the Storm of Chaos event back in the summer of 2004 and even earned me a credit in the Storm of Chaos campaign book*. It also featured cover art by the inestimable Adrian Smith.

The new eBook edition comes with an equally shiny and new blurb...

Lord Archaon's dark hordes of Chaos are rampaging across the Old World and all good men of the Empire must heed the call to fight against the encroaching evil. Standing to the fore is fire wizard, Gerhart Brennend – a loner whose mysterious past is drenched in tragedy. As the Storm of Chaos approaches the Imperial city of Wolfenburg, a desperate battle looms and blood will be spilled like never before! Wolfenburg must not fall!

You can buy the eBook of Magestorm here from Black Library.

Also available now is the eBook edition of Swords of the Empire which just so happens to features my hard to find Badenov's Band short story The Nagenhof Bell. You can buy Swords of the Empire here.


* Thanks, Gav!

Exciting news from Games Workshop

Well it is if you're me.

First up there's the Chaos Hellcannon available in Finecast.

The reason this is exciting is because I wrote about the creation of one such daemon-possessed weapon in my 2004 Warhammer novel Magestorm. In fact I believe my story may have featured the very first appearance of a Hellcannon in fiction (just as Sir Dagobert's Last Battle features the first appearance of a Arachnarok Spider in Warhammer fiction).

Secondly, on Saturday 7 April, a brand new Games Workshop Hobby Centre is opening in Chiswick. I have a feeling that I could end up dropping into this particular store every once in a while.

You can follow the new Games Workshop Chiswick here, on Facebook. Meanwhile, you can buy my Storm of Chaos-inspired Warhammer novel Magestorm here.

On keeping surprises a surprise

I was listening to Steven Moffat talk on Doctor Who Confidential about the importance of keeping the surprises in Doctor Who a secret, something he's striven very hard to do (unlike the producers of soap operas who trail major plot developments weeks in advance through the media). It's obviously no mean thing to achieve when you're producing something on the scale of one of the Beeb's top-rated dramas, but it can prove a challenge for us jobbing writers too.

These days I often get to write the blurbs for my novels myself, or at least the first version thereof. Writing blurbs is a challenge in and of itself but at least I retain control over what's revealed and what isn't. You want to dangle enough carrots to get readers to want to part with their cash to read the book in the first place but you don't want to reveal the final twist that comes right at the end.

However, in the past, I didn't write my own blurbs and this resulted in one of the biggest cock-ups, in terms of revealing the ending, I've ever had. Magestorm was my third novel for the Black Library, written to tie into the Storm of Chaos campaign as well as Dan Abnett's Riders of the Dead. That proved a challenge in itself, but I also had to base it on the War Cry CCG, including various characters from that game in my novel.

I have to confess, it's not my best work, but the blurb on the back of the book certainly didn't help when readers actually read the book because it gave away a major plot reveal that only came in the penultimate chapter (or thereabouts). And now it's happened again.

Sir Dagobert's Last Battle will be available to read as part of Hammer & Bolter Issue 9. It's full of twists and turns and (hopefully) unexpected reveals - except that one of them has already been given away in the single sentence that's promoting it on the Black Library website. So, if you're planning on reading my latest Warhammer short story, by all means follow this link and click the pre-order button, but please don't read the write up of the story as you do so.