More Space Marine action

Space Marine

BL at Games Day UK, okay?

This Sunday (26 September) Games Day UK is taking place at the Birmingham NEC. I'll be there (as a fan as well as to chat to the BL editors and authors) and if you're planning on coming along yourself, check out this visitors' map (taking careful notes of the Black Library Digitial bit - cool!).


Maybe see you there?

Rob Sanders

I first met Rob Sanders a couple of years ago now at Games Day. (Don't know what Games Day is? Then click here.) The first story of his I read was Cold Light of Day which appeared in Inferno! magazine #40 - and very good it was too.

Well Rob's now a fully-fledged novelist. His first novel, Redemption Corps is available now, and he's busy at work on his second. And he has his own blog (of course). To find out more, follow this link.

Games Day 2009

It's tomorrow, Sunday 27 September. I'll be there, celebrating the fact that I've just finished the first draft of Night of the Necromancer. Will you?

Space Marine

WARNING! Engage Warhammer 40K geek mode...

How. Cool. Is. This?

Black Library Live!

Tomorrow, Black Library Live! will be taking place at Warhammer World (at Games Workshop's HQ) in Nottingham. The great and the good of the Black Library will be there to sign books, talk about upcoming projects, read extracts from books and take part in themed battles.

If you haven't already got a ticket you can still get one on the day (I think they're £10). It runs from about 10.30am until 5.00pm, so if you're in the area, why not pop along?

I won't be there. Much as I would like to be, other... commitments... prevent me. It was the same a few years ago. I was invited to take part in Black Library Day when Inferno! magazine was still being published and Necromundan Underhive Bounty Hunter Nathan Creed was something of a big thing in certain circles. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it and apparently missed a stonker. I went the following year and chatted to Gav Thorpe but didn't see much front line action.

Anyway, here's wishing everyone well for tomorrow and if you do manage to get there yourself, why not stop by later and post how you got on here?

Until next time...

Meet the artist!

Tony Hough (artist on book Knights of Doom and Bloodbones) is holding an exhibition of his work called FRAGMENTS - The Art of Tony Hough at The Gateway Gallery, The Hat Factory Arts Centre in Luton, from Wednesday 18 February until Thursday 26 February.



This is a rare opportunity to see the dark fantasy art of a legendary Fighting Fantasy and Games Workshop artist. To find out more, click on the link above.

Dan Abnett interviewed at Subrosa

If you're a fan of Dan Abnett's work, especially for Games Workshop - like me - then you should check at Polish website Subrosa's interview with the man himself. Click here to find out more for yourself.

You can also keep up to date with Dan's current projects and appearances via his own blog which you can link to from here.

Adrian Smith's Warriors of Chaos

The November issue of Games Workshop's White Dwarf magazine is out now and features the new Warriors of Chaos army book artwork on its cover. It's another brilliant piece by uber-talented artist Adrian Smith, who some of you may remember painted two of my Black Library novel covers (Magestorm and Iron Hands).

Inside you'll find more of his amazing artwork for the project (tasters of which you can see here). I only hope that there's more to come inside the army book itself.

If you want to view more of Adrian's astonishing art online, then click here.

Dawn of War II - say 'Hello!' to the Tyranids

Back in July I let you know about the Warhammer 40,000 computer game Dawn of War II. Well, the full trailer for the game has now been released.

I saw it for myself back in September at Games Day, but you can now watch it at IGN Video. The general response to the twist that follows the dying Eldar's enigmatic words was along the lines of '**** me! Cool! ****** brilliant!'

Anyway, you get the idea. Go check it out for yourself and prepare to be enthralled!

Games Day 2008

Doesn't time fly? It doesn't seem like 12 months have passed since I put up an early post on this blog about Games Day 2007, and here I am about to commence with my write-up of Games Day 2008...

So, anyway, to get to the point... Yesterday I headed up to Birmingham for a couple of hours to immerse myself in all things Warhammer and Warhammer 40K, catch up with old friends, make a few new ones and even talk a bit of business.

Games Day was bigger than ever, now occupying the NEC's Hall One, as well as the Arena and Pavilion. There were the usual participation games, pre-release models, opportunities to find out more about how Games Workshop's games are created, brand new computer games to test run, and, of course, the latest Black Library products available a good month or more before they'll be out on your local high street.

It was in the BL's signing area that I spent most of my time. BL's top authors - Dan Abnett and Graham McNeill - had their own signing tables with queues that had to be seen to be believed. They were there all day as well, with only a few minutes off for lunch for good behaviour.

But how was it for me? Well I caught up with BL editors Lindsey Priestley and Nick Kyme, talked Doctor Who with top scribe (and all round ace bloke) James Swallow, waved nonchalantly at Graham McNeill, didn't even attempt to chat to Dan Abnett, but instead spoke to his wife and editor Nik Vincent about grammar and style (and our respective kids), got excited about all things steampunk with BL head honcho George Mann, reminisced about the good ol' days with Paul Sawyer (one time White Dwarf editor and now of Warlord Games), got up to speed with what artist extraordinaire Karl Kopinski is doing now and met Rob Clark - who recognised me from my blog and with whom I discussed both the past, and the possible future, of Fighting Fantasy.

So, all in all, a good day.

And to end, here are some snaps from the day...

James Swallow - good times!

The must-see GD 08 centrepiece modelling masterpiece - the Dwarf port of Barak Varr

A life-size Blood Ravens Rhino APC!

Karl Kopinski - talented artist and all round top bloke

Dan Abnett - a very busy man

Books and where to store them

Two and a half years ago my family and I moved into a decent-sized four-bedroom terraced house, with loft conversion, and we couldn't get over how much space we had.

Two and a half years later, due to circumstances beyond my control, I'm having to clear out some of my much cherished library that has been added to, considerably, in that time.

Part of the problem is that having been writing for Games Workshop in one form or another for nearly 14 years, I've collected a fair few novels, background books and game rules, all of which have to be kept somewhere. Until recently they took up most of one bookcase but it's time for that to change.

So it was that I came to spend most of yesterday and today sorting out the books stored in my 'office'. What you see here is just one shelf of one bookcase that contained spare copies of my various publications. There was another, which also included foreign editions.


What you see below are two crates worth of Games Workshop materials that I've sorted out that - much as it pains me to do so - I have to get rid of. However, there's still 2-3 times as much as this again that I'm keeping!

Being a writer and, before that, a reader, I love books, the look of them and the smell of them as much as the actual reading of them. And you never know when something might prove useful, as has been evidenced by the year I've had with such a diverse range of projects on the go. But sometimes life and practical necessities get in the way, so ebay here I come.

That said, I have another idea for how to shift some of the processed trees that I've still got on my hands, for the time being, but for more on that you're going to have to watch this space...