Big in Singapore

Here's a great picture of Night of the Necromancer, along with various other of my Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, on sale at the Prologue bookstore in Singapore!

Star Wars The Clone Wars - The Way of the Warrior

The news is out! The Penguin Group is embarking on its second venture with print on demand publisher Penwizard. Following the success of Peppa Pig: Go to Playgroup last year, the two firms will add to the personalised portfolio with Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Penguin has published Clone Wars in traditional book formats since its launch in 2008, but this new agreement will allow it to offer Star Wars fans a completely unique book.

Visitors to www.penwizard.co.uk/clonewars can enter the universe by selecting and customising a Jedi Knight or Sith avatar. The book can be personalised by choosing facial features, along with hair style and colour to create a likeness. A name is included, along with an optional personal message on the inside front page.

"We're really excited to be working on this project with Penguin and Penwizard," said Carol Roeder, director of publishing at Lucasfilm. "This is a unique product and one that will give fans the opportunity to truly feel part of the Star Wars universe."

Oh, and I wrote the book. ;-)

Night of the Necromancer - another great review

Night of the Necromancer is still doing well on the book sales charts and another great review has been posted on Amazon...

Another great addition to the Fighting Fantasy series. Like Howl of the Werewolf, this is a very well-structured gamebook. The various ghostly abilities that the reader's (deceased) character can gain provide for interesting possibilities. And it goes without saying that undead beasties abound in this macabre tale - many of them depicted in Martin McKenna's brilliant artwork.

Top stuff.

Abaddon's Pax Britannia Podcast

On Thursday I headed over to Oxford, specifically to the Abaddon Books dungeon, to record next month's (or maybe it was this month's) Abaddon/Solaris podcast. This time the focus is on the Pax Britannia line, so I found myself answering various questions about the genesis of the series and my thoughts about steampunk in general.

Al Ewing was also there, as the only other author to have contributed to the Pax Britannia line to date. Al, Jon Oliver (Abaddon's editor-in-chief) and I had a great time recording the interview (and adding a couple of Jackanory-style extract readings); I only hope there was enough usable material to create something that can be posted on iTunes.

Al Ewing - fellow Abaddon author and creator of El Sombra

M.C. and Abaddon Overlord Jon Oliver

We certainly managed to fill the interrogation chamber with our 'Geek miasma' (as Jon O put it) and it was great to hear about Al's plans for El Sombra, Doc Thunder and the world of Pax Britannia.

Al and I and the whole of the Abaddon editorial team were then released - blinking, into the light - to take some sustenance and discuss the future of PB - which included mention of heat rays, Andy Warhol and howling commandos. It was great to catch up with Jon, Jenni and David and a discussion with Al (whilst giving him a lift to the station) about dinosaurs and King Arthur gave my creative gears the kick they needed for another future project.

Where the magic happens... Jenni, Jon and David mastermind the Abaddon/Solaris takeover of the publishing world

As you can see, much important thinking took place on Thursday

The latest Pax Britannia novel Blood Royal is out now, while Al's Gods of Manhattan is out in July. To get an idea of just how good this book is, you should read editor Jenni's blog-spurge here, on the Abaddon news page.

McNeill takes the Snaga

A belated post but a very necessary one...

In cast you haven't heard, Graham McNeill has won the coveted David Gemmell Legend Award for his Warhammer Legends novel Empire.

Congratulations, Graham!

You can read more about his success on the BL blog here, on Graham's weblog here and on editor Nick Kyme's blog here.

Writing for the Black Library

Have you ever fancied yourself as a Black Library author? Well if you have, and in the past you've despaired that the only way to get noticed was via the annual short story competition, then you should follow this link now.

Black Library are currently looking for new writers to join the hallowed ranks of our best-selling Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 authors. The 2010 submissions window closes on 31 July 2010. Writers whose work they consider fit for publication will be contacted within 8 weeks of the window closing. Rejected submissions will not receive a response.

So, what are you waiting for?

Meanwhile, Warhammer author Chris Wraight has posted about his experiences of writing for the Black Library here, and how to go about getting a commission in the first place here.

The The Impotence of Proofreading