I may be slightly late to the party on this one*, but I become aware that Games Workshop have released a new Defiler deamon engine for Warhammer 40,000.
Seeing this reminded me that there is a scene in my Warhammer 40K novel Iron Hands where Iron Father Gdolkin goes up against a Chaos Defiler. Iron Hands is available to buy as an eBook from Black Library, and here's an extract to give you a taster...
The monstrosity rose up before Iron-Father Gdolkin and his battlebrethren like some obscene amalgam of machine and unholy warp entity, a crab-like creature in form, all pistoning claw-limbs, studded with snagging barbs and cruel spikes. Mounted upon this clanking undercarriage was a baroquely forged gun-turret tank-body in which was contained the malevolent entity whose presence leaked from the rusted war engine like acid, tainting the very air around it with vileness. The main gargoylemouthed cannon of the monstrous construct was ably supported by the reaping gun of an autocannon of archaic design. A robotic arm flexed and stretched like living steel, culminating in a mass of mechadendrite tentacles, writhing with an unnatural life of their own.
Above the thorax portion of this oil- and slime-dripping creation of Chaos, a daemonic visage, formed of rust-discoloured steel, stared down on the Space Marines, as if they were nothing more than insects, baleful witchfires burning behind its eye-slits. A ragged plague standard fluttered in the steady wind blowing over the battlefield above the trench line bearing the unmistakable insignia of the Plague God and the name of the blasphemy: Ebolus. It stung Gdolkin's remaining biological eye to look upon it and he could see glyphs of the Lord of Decay forming in the rusty scars covering the metal of the machine. Each joint was emblazoned with the eight-pointed star of the Fell Powers.
Gdolkin shivered involuntarily. The whole horrific fusion of machine and Chaos-spawned daemon drew a toxic miasma of noxious fumes with it, more polluting than the industry-ruined atmosphere of Fornax Orbis Majoris. It clung to the construct like a second skin, and made the air feel greasy. Sooty exhaust turrets coughed yet more foulness into the air from the impossible engine, pounding its pistons inside the machine beast like the beating of some daemonic metal heart.
'Ferrus be with me.' Gdolkin muttered, feeling the power source of his axe thrumming in his right hand...
To continue reading the story, click here to buy Iron Hands from the Black Library today.
* As in about six weeks late!
Today I received my latest royalty statement from Games Workshop. It may be a while since I last wrote for Black Library but I still get a few pounds and pence in royalties each year from sales of my novels and short stories, thanks to the prevalence of eBooks.
I thought it might be interesting to share the best-selling titles, based on earnings. So, here we go...
1) Iron Hands
2) The Relic - published in the Warhammer 40,000 anthology Legends of the Space Marines.
5) Paradise - published in the Necromunda anthology Uprising.
I was recently interviewed by Jordan Sorcery about my work for Fighting Fantasy and the Black Library, and the video went live yesterday. And you can watch it here...
It was nice to be given the opportunity to talk about things people don't often ask me out, such as my involvement with Games Workshop and the early days of the Black Library. However, having watched the interview back, I must apologise for the number of times I use the word 'fun' during the course of our conversation.
Jordan Sorcery has been putting out some fantastic content on his YouTube channel and has interviewed the likes of Sir Ian Livingstone, Rick Priestley, Alessio Cavatore, Gav Thorpe and Andy Chambers, to name but a few. You will also find an interactive history of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks on there.
Monday saw the release of Krakenbane's Curse, a new Age of Sigmar short story by Yours Truly.
A few of the short stories I have written for Black Library over the years are available as digital eShorts and three of the six novels I have written set within the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 universes as eBooks. Why not check out one of them today?
A week ago, I was in the thick of things at Day 2 of the UK Games Expo. It's an event that I look forward to all year and now that it's over for another year, I can't believe it's already been a week since I was at the NEC with my ACE Gamebooks.
Talking of which, the books were very well received. RONIN 47 proved popular, although some of my regular readers chose not to pick up a copy because it's science fiction rather than fantasy, and Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland did well, as it always does. On top of that, I sold out of NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!, Beowulf Beastslayer, and Dracula: Curse of the Vampire (again).
One of the things I love about the UK Games Expo is the number of friends I catch up with from all over the country, and all areas of my life. A couple of my university friends still live nearby and stopped by my stand to say hello, as did Twitch streamers Ken Boyter and Julian Sparrow.
And then there are the usual suspects, such as Rene Batsford, Ed Fortune, Kev Abbotts, PJ Montgomery, Neil Roberts, Jamie Fry, George Mann, James Wallis, Justin-Lee Morrison, Jonathan Hicks, and all the Kickstarter backers who stop by and say hello. I also talked business with Holmgard Press and Aconyte Books, which was nice.
On the Saturday night I went to the live readthrough of Sir Ian Livingstone's City of Thieves, during which Olly Mc guided John Robertson through Port Blacksand until he met a grisly end at the hands of Zanbar Bone. Wearing bunny ears. Zanbar Bone, not John Robertson.
Another highlight was the Heorot RPG photoshoot with the reenactors of The Vikings UK, as was the 'Write Like a Pro' workshop I did with Darren Pearce on the Sunday morning.
However, a huge thank you must go to Scott Lewis and Claire Byard, who helped out on my stand again this year and kept me entertained on Saturday night, drinking cocktails and playtesting card games.
If you've never been, you should check out the UK Games Expo because there is something there for everyone, no matter their age. And I hope to be there again next year, but I'm going to need to pull my finger out if I want to have another ACE Gamebook for sale at the event.
Ideally this would have been posted on Warhammer Wednesday, but the news only dropped five hours ago (as of writing). If you've not seen the reveal from Games Workshop yet, the big new - HUGE news, in fact - is that the Lion has returned!
Now that Christmas is over and we are approaching Twelfth Night, it seemed like the perfect time to plug my Warhammer 40,000 short story Journey of the Magi, in which three wise men follow a star...
On an artificial world far from the light of any sun, three sorcerers of the Thousand Sons emerge from a portal. Together, this trio will face ancient horrors – but the prize that awaits them is worth any danger. Long have these three sought the Godstar, piecing together its location from scattered scraps of knowledge. The immortal guardians of the place sleep, but it is not undefended, and the children of Prospero will pay a heavy price for that which they seek as they delve deep into the ancient mysteries of the necrons.
You can buy Journey of the Magi here, and you can read more about the story here.
This Saturday, 8th October 2022, is Warhammer Day, and is focused on celebrating 35 years of the tabletop miniatures game Warhammer 40,000.
To mark this occasion, Games Workshop is releasing a new Emperor's Champion miniature/diorama. Although it's entitled Bayard’s Revenge, the model of an Emperor’s Champion triumphing over a mighty Ork Nob, reminded by of my Warhammer 40K novel Crusade for Armageddon, which just happens to features an Emperor's Champion of the Black Templars Chapter triumphing over multiple Ork Nobs.
Although Crusade for Armageddon is no longer in print, and not available as an eBook either, my popular short story The Relic, that features many of the same characters from that particular novel, is available in both Legends of the Space Marines and War for Armageddon: The Omnibus.
In reading order they are:
Sanctuary - a short story which first appeared Issue #38 of Inferno! magazine.
Crusade for Armageddon - the first in a planned trilogy, that follows the brothers of the Solemnus Crusade as they seek revenge against an Ork Warboss on the war-torn planet of Armageddon. It also features Steel Legionnaries and the crew of a Titan.
Conquest of Armageddon - espionage, timey-whimey shennanigans, Chaos Marines, more Orks, and a Kroot. What more could you ask for, excepte perhaps for the trilogy to have been finished?
The Relic - set after the events of the two novels. As it says on the Black Library website, "Dreadnought Brother Jarold leads warriors from the Black Templars Chapter in battle against the greenskins in the frozen Dead Lands. Following a distress beacon, they find another Dreadnought in the ice, buried for half a century. When the orks attack en masse, the two Dreadnoughts make a last stand against the bestial invaders."
The Armageddon Ominbus - my Black Templars stories were combined into this short-lived print-on-demand title, which now goes for upwards of £90 on eBay. Shame I've only got the one copy myself.
War for Armageddon: The Omnibus - The Relic is also available in this new omnibus that features of work of various other BL authors as well, with stories all set during the Third War for Armageddon.
Click on the images below if you would like to buy of of these titles.
* I don't think the High Marshal was a thing when I started writing Black Templar stories for the Black Library.
Last week I alerted you to the old Warhammer short stories of mine that are still available to download as eBooks from the Black Library. This week it's the turn of my ever-popular Warhammer 40K tales.
All of the stories feature Space Marines of one kind or another. But Dust in the Wind has Imperial Fists facing off against Necrons, The Relic features Black Templars battling Orks, and Journey of the Magi sees Thousand Sons* versus more Necrons**.
So, if you haven't tried one of my Warhammer 40,000 stories before, why not check out one of these today?
* Yes, I know they're technically Chaos Space Marines.
** I just can't get enough of those undead robots!
