Tie-in Tuesday: Inferno! is back!

In the June of 1997, issue #210 of White Dwarf magazine was published and contained within was a strange pull-out called Inferno! "Issue Zero". It was a teaser for a forthcoming bi-monthly short story magazine, being put out by a new branch of Games Workshop, the Black Library. One of the stories contained within the taster copy of Inferno! was The Hounds of Winter, by Your Truly.

Skip forward 21 years and Inferno! is coming back this week, in the form of a short story anthology, and to celebrate Black Library are making the early issues of the original Inferno! available again through their Print on Demand service. Which means that you can get your hands on hard-to-get-hold-of short stories of mine, including the ever-popular Salvation - a story of Ultramarines, Tyranids and humanity that appeared in Inferno! #1 - and the first ever Nathan Creed Necromunda story Bad Spirits, which appeared in issue #3, not to mention the Kislevite mercenaries versus vampires slug-fest that is Dark Heart, in issue #5.

To find out more, simply follow this link. But don't hang around - this offer is only available for one month!

And in case you're wondering, I wrote a total of 13 short stories for the original incarnation of Inferno! - five Torben Badenov stories, five Nathan Creed stories, two Space Marines stories, and one Warhammer fire wizard story - along with various comic strips and other pieces.

Warhammer Wednesday: The Magos

I must admit, I am slightly confused as to why Black Library is celebrating 20 years since its founding this year, in 2018, when its 20th anniversary was actually last year*. But no matter the reason, on Saturday 24th February, Games Workshop and Warhammer stores around the world will be holding a celebration of all things Black Library.

As well as being a celebration of 20 years(?) of fantastic adrenaline-fuelled fiction from the worlds of Warhammer, the brand new Inquisitor Eisenhorn novel, The Magos is being released on 24th February 2018. Games Workshop and Warhammer stores will have a host of special merchandise to commemorate this special occasion, including an exclusive resin Citadel miniature of Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn, based on the classic Clint Langley** artwork depicting the Inquisitor in his younger days.

I hope to be able to drop into the London Warhammer store on the day but I have another commitment on the 24th February, but more about that later.

In other news, this week is National Storytelling Week. I'm trying to tell a new story of my own at the moment, but it's proving a little tricky to fit in around everything else I have to do. But there's a deadline looming and that's usually all the motivation you need.

* And I should know, seeing as how the first piece of fiction published by the Black Library was my Warhammer short story, the Badenov's Band tale The Hounds of Winter.

** Clint Langley produced the cover art for my very first novel, the Badenov's Band adventure The Dead and the Damned.

Celebrating 15 years of Black Library

Black Library celebrates its 15th birthday this week* and for the next 15 days is releasing 15 brand new eShorts.

But did you know, the very first published BL short story was my very own The Hounds of Winter? And did you know the very first Warhammer 40K short story published by BL was my very own Salvation? Well, you do now.

Black Library and I go right back to the beginning so it was nice to receive a package from BL this morning. Here it is...

And here's what it contained...

That's right - it's various novels, short stories and even a comic strip of mine that are back in print thanks to BL's Direct Exclusives line. And it just so happens that my next BL book is going to be released as one of those Direct Exclusives, but more on that soon... hopefully.

But for now, short stories for the price of a bar of chocolate**? What are you waiting for?


* What a year 2012 is for anniversaries! 200 years of Dickens, 35 years of 2000AD, 30 years of Fighting Fantasy, 25 years of Warhammer 40,000, 20 years of Jonathan Green Author, 15 years of Black Library... and the world's supposed to end too!

** Or less, if you like really expensive chocolate.

My short stories #2: The Hounds of Winter

Here's one from the archives (a.k.a. my old blog Unnatural History) presented here to mark Black Library's 15th birthday this week...

Having written a short science fiction story for Issue #1 of the brand new ‘Inferno!’ magazine, published by the fledgling Black Library, the editors asked me to pitch them a fantasy Warhammer tale. It was for the promotional Issue Zero, which was to appear inside an upcoming copy of the Games Workshop hobby magazine White Dwarf. The pitch was taken up and ‘The Hounds of Winter’ ended up seeing print before ‘Salvation’.

It was something of a ghost story (inspired, amazingly enough, by the title of a song from the album ‘Mercury Falling’ by Sting) with the Kislevite mercenary Torben Badenov and his band re-enacting an ancient battle against the forces of Chaos. It was later re-printed in the anthology ‘Realm of Chaos’ (2000).

When I was writing the story, I considered it to be a one off. It’s amazing, when I think about it now, but at the time I didn’t think about the future prospects of the characters I’d created. As it turned out, Badenov and his band were to appear in ‘Inferno!’ magazine on a further four occasions and were the stars of my first full-blown novel.

But more about that another time...

I is for Inferno!

For those of you who don't know, Inferno! was a bi-monthly magazine published from 1997 to 2004 by Games Workshop's publishing division, Black Library. It was launched with a teaser Issue Zero appearing as a section in the Games Workshop hobby magazine White Dwarf. Issue #1 of the actual magazine was launched shortly afterwards with Games Workshop staffer Andy Jones in the role of Editor, with Marc Gascoigne acting as Assisstant Editor (although he was later to rise to the heady heights of Publisher).

The magazine soon settled into a standard format of two fantasy and two science fiction stories per issue (although there were the occasional specials which focused on one setting in particular, such as the Gaunt's Ghosts Daniverse), but included other features such as standalone artwork, comics, cutaway diagrams, battle maps, and mocked-up dossiers, etc. With the exception of one early comic series, Inferno! published individual, complete stories, not serials. That was to become the preserve of Warhammer Monthly.

Of course, being a Games Workshop product, Inferno! only presented fiction, artwork, and comics set in the fictional universes of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, including stories specific to the Necromunda, Battlefleet Gothic, Gorkamorka and Mordheim game settings.

Now, you may not know this, but I was involved in some of the early meetings about Inferno!, only at the time it was being referred to as Carnage! I was writing colour text for the Warhammer Armies books and 40K Codexes at the time - this was back when GW HQ was in the shadow of Nottingham Castle and not some Fourth Reich Imperial Complex a mile down the road. Anyway, I remember having a chat with Andy Jones - which was interrupted by a tannoy announcement telling everyone to clean up their desks! (The things you remember!) - and he was up for having me on board, and asked me to pitch him some ideas.

Bill King was on board for the first issue (having written extensively for GW in the past and even worked in their design studio for a while) as was artist David Pugh. The story idea I had which was commissioned was about an Ultramarine and a Tyranid Carnifex (the old-fashioned version with no discernible head, four scything arms and which spat plasma, or something). It was called Salvation, and quite a lot of people liked it.

Having put together the first couple of issues, the Inferno! editorial team set about producing the promotional Issue Zero for White Dwarf and asked me to write them a short story. This time I chose (or was asked, I can't rightly recall) to write a fantasy story. So the first piece of short fiction to appear in Issue Zero - and the first published piece of Inferno! fiction ever - was my Warhammer short story The Hounds of Winter. It unleashed Torben Badenov's band of mercenaries upon the Warhammer world and eventually became part of my first novel

(although it's really a short story collection) The Dead and the Damned.

I eventually wrote a total of thirteen short stories for Inferno!, featuring such characters as Badenov's Band, the Necromundan underhive bounty hunter Nathan Creed, the Black Templars of the Solemnus Crusade, and the pyromancer Gerhart Brenned. The last of these stories, The Hanging Tree, appeared in Issue #42. Inferno! was cancelled four issues later, apparently so that the editorial team could focus on producing novels (although BL was also setting up the Solaris imprint at the time), and I for one mourned its passing. I had plenty more stories to pitch and was sorry that I now wouldn't get the opportunity to write them.

And then at last September's Games Day 2010, Hammer & Bolter was launched by Black Library's nascent digital department. Hammer & Bolter isn't the same beast as Inferno! (there's no comic strip or art, for a start, and it is currently running a new chapter of a serialised novel with every issue) but it does include short fiction - and two weeks ago, I received my first commission for it.

I'm writing the story at the moment. I can tell you that it's a Warhammer tale, currently titled Sir Dagobert's Last Battle, but at this stage I can't tell you when it's going to be released. But I have to say that I'm loving writing a new tale set within the Warhammer world - a story that I first thought of seven years ago, just as the cancellation of Inferno! was announced...

The only time one of my stories featured on the cover of Warhammer Monthly

For those of you who are interested, here's a list of my complete contribution to Inferno! which includes collaborations with the brilliant artist Ralph Horsley and a number of comic strips:

The Hounds of Winter – Warhammer fantasy short story – Inferno! # 0, given away with White Dwarf magazine (1997) – re-printed in the anthology Realm of Chaos (2000), and (in a revised form) in The Dead and the Damned (2002)

Salvation – Warhammer 40,000 science fiction story – Inferno! #1 (1997) – re-printed in the anthologies Into the Maelstrom (1999) and Let the Galaxy Burn (2006)

The Siege of Gisoreux – Warhammer fantasy colour text – Inferno! #1 (1997)

The Doom of Kazad Grund – Warhammer fantasy colour text – Inferno! #2 (1997) – re-printed in the role-playing games supplement Dwarfs: Stone and Steel (2002, Hogshead Publishing)

Bad Spirits – Warhammer 40,000 science fiction short story – Inferno! Magazine #3 (1997) – re-printed in the anthology Status: Deadzone (2000)

Dark Heart – Warhammer fantasy short story – Inferno! Magazine #5 (1998) – re-printed in the anthology Realm of Chaos (2000), and (in a revised form) in The Dead and the Damned (2002)

The Plague Pit – Warhammer fantasy short story – Inferno! #20 (2000) – re-printed in the anthology Lords of Valour (2001), and (in a revised form) in The Dead and the Damned (2002)

Mama’s Boys – Warhammer 40,000 science fiction short story – Inferno! #21 (2000)

Boyz in the Hive – Warhammer 40,000 science fiction short story – Inferno! #23 (2001)

Firestarter! – Warhammer 40,000 science fiction short story – Inferno! #26 (2001) – re-printed in the anthology Crucible of War (2003)

The Nagenhof Bell – Warhammer fantasy short story – Inferno! #27 (2001) – re-printed in the anthology Swords of the Empire (2004)

The Executioner’s Tale – Warhammer fantasy comic strip – Inferno! #28 (2002) – re-printed in the graphic novels Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat Volume 2 (2003) and The Complete Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat (2005)

Bad Medicine – Warhammer 40,000 science fiction short story – Inferno! #29 (2002)

The Miner’s Tale – Warhammer fantasy comic strip – Inferno! #32 (2002) – re-printed in the graphic novels Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat Volume 2 (2003) and The Complete Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat (2005)

Mark of the Beast – Warhammer fantasy short story – Inferno! #34 (2003) – re-printed in the anthology Way of the Dead (2003)

Sanctuary – Warhammer 40,000 science fiction short story – Inferno! #38 (2003), and in The Armageddon Omnibus (2011)

The Hanging Tree – Warhammer fantasy short story – Inferno! #42 (2004) – re-printed in the anthology Tales from the Old World (2007)