The Eightfold Path and Chris Fairbank

Yesterday, a new short Horus Heresy audio drama I wrote was released - The Eightfold Path. It features everyone's favourite blood-drenched berserker, Khârn, before he became 'the Betrayer' (and before he became the utter, utter psychopath we all know and love.)

It was great to once again write about Khârn - I really enjoy writing about him. He's such an iconic character, and he's been so well written by ADB, that it's a real honour to step into his blood-drenched shoes. This one was a little different from Chosen of Khorne, set as it is during the Horus Heresy. It takes place just after the end of Betrayer, and shows a small glimpse into how the XII Legion, and specifically Khârn, are dealing with the ending of that (freakin' rad) novel.

Once again, Khârn is read by the brilliant Chris Fairbank. Chris also voiced Kharn in Chosen of Khorne, as well as in Butcher's Nails and Christian's Trials of Azreal. The Germanic accent that Chris gave him is really chilling - I can't read any of Khârn's dialogue now without hearing that voice.

For those of you don't instantly recognise the name Chris Fairbank (shame on you), I guarantee you already know him. He was in Tim Burton's first Batman film (the guy at the start: "What are you?"), was in Alien 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (which I haven't actually seen) and The 5th Element (" as well lots of TV (such as Auf Wiedersehen, Pet) and games (he's a voice actor in Fable 2 and the Killzone games), among many, many other credits. Check out his page on IMDB.

Seriously, he's like a proper, grown-up actor. And he's been reading words that I've written. And they've like, recorded them and everything. Yes, I'm geeking out a little about that.  

Entering the Black Library

So, I've been in the UK now for almost two weeks now. It's been great catching up with old friends and family - even if it started off rather poorly with Australia losing the Ashes on the day I arrived in London. Hopefully that was just a coincidence. Stupid bloody game. It feels a little odd being back in Nottingham. It's been seven years since I was living here and was working in the Design Studio. Much has changed (trams, friends' situations, my own attitudes to some things, etc) yet lots of remains much the same (friendships, chavs, the weather, etc). The best thing about being back is definitely seeing old mates and meeting the new little people many of them have spawned in the last half a dozen years. It's wonderful, though all very grown up.

On Friday I ventured in to Games Workshop HQ (where I impressed by the Rhino in the carpark) and met up with my editor, Laurie Goulding. I've been working with Laurie for the last couple of years now, but never actually met him face to face, so it was great to finally sit down and chat with him. It was also great to see random old friends and colleagues passing by (although this did make our meeting much longer than intended - but Laurie was a good sport about that, thankfully).

SO... I've had a number of people asking me, either in person, on Facebook or on Twitter, about what I'll be working on next, and what I have coming out in the foreseeable future. This is what Laurie and I spent much of our time chatting about, but unfortunately there's not a whole hell of lot that I can actual tell to you lovely people, sadly. I'd love to spill the beans and tell you all about what Laurie and I were plotting, but, well, I'm not allowed to. What I can say (or at least, I hope I can and will not have a kill-team smashing the door in within minutes of my clicking 'publish') is this:

• While I do intend to come back and write more 40K Word Bearers at some point - Vox Dominus really does leave things on a bit of a cliff-hanger, so needs a follow-up - it's not gonna happen in the foreseeable near future. To be honest, I'm keen to write some other things for BL before coming back to Marduk.
• Horus Heresy - yes, I'd love to do more writing for the Heresy. I really enjoyed writing Dark Heart (the Word Bearers short-story I penned for 'Mark of Calth'), and while I can't say much, but some more Heresy work IS on the cards. Nothing as grand as a full novel, mind, but something that I reckon is pretty neat. It's a little daunting to think about writing for the Horus Heresy series, but it's very, very exciting.
• People have been really complimentary about my audio drama, Chosen of Khorne. I'd love to write more Kharn, as I've really taken a liking to the psychotic nut-bag. I've been pestering Laurie about getting to write more about Kharn - I will keep everyone posted about any developments there.
• I'm working on pulling a new novel synopsis together, and all going well, am looking to get started on this new book in the next couple of months. It's a 40K book. It's got lots of Chaos in it. It's not a follow-up to my Word Bearers work. More will be revealed when I get the green-light to speak more about it.

That's all a bit vague, I know. Sorry 'bout that, but I can't really say much more at the moment. Right, I seem to have gone off rambling much more than I'd intended when I started this blog, so I'm gonna sign off now. Cheers all, and I hope everyone survived their Monday and has a good week.

Games Day US 2013

The last two and half weeks have been pretty crazy. I've been in Chicago, Memphis, California, Colorado and back to Chicago, and this evening I am flying out to the UK, which will be the first time I've been back there since 2006. Crazy! I've also been doing quite a bit of writing, having handed over a few short projects to BL, finished up working through the rules for Twelve Elements of War, and been doing some work on synopsises for two novels that I hope to start work on later in the year. So... Games Day US 2013 in Memphis, which was held a couple of weeks ago. It really was an awful lot of fun. Exhausting, but fun.

The weekend started well when I met someone on the plane from Chicago who was heading to Games Day - a friendly bloke called Jeff Durham. Jeff was kind enough to drive me from the airport to the hotel, and helped out with a number of other things over the weekend - so thank you Jeff, you are a star.

Games Day kicked off the night before Games Day really (Games Day eve), with the GW folks hosting a BBQ at their Memphis HQ for ticket holders and guests. I headed over there with author Mike Lee. I'd not met Mike before, and it was great to hang out. If you ever get a chance to chat with him, ask him about the time he almost died at the hands (or rather, hooves) of an angry warhorse. Yikes.

The BBQ was fun, and it was great to catch up with folk I used to work with in the Design Studio, chat with Dan and Mike, as well as the BL and GW staff, and meet some of the people who were coming to Games Day. After the BBQ I headed downtown to Beale Street, a pedestrian-only street filled with blues bars, street performers and seemingly everyone in Memphis) and met up with my good mate Dave Taylor. Beers were drunk, and later in the night we caught up with the other BL folk. Good times.

This was my first ever Games Day US, and I was really looking forward to it. Writing can be such an isolating past time that it's always great to go to things like Games Days and meet people who are genuinely passionate about what you've written. They are always both exhausting and energising for me. Exhausting simply because being 'on' all day, chatting to folks is surprisingly tiring, and energising because they always re-excite me about what I get to do simply through the sheer weight of enthusiasm that the fans exude. I'm getting paid to make up stories about Space Marines at the end of the day, and that's pretty damn cool.

I Talked lots about Word Bearers and World Eaters (was really pleased that people seemed to *really* like 'Chosen of Khorne'), as well as about future projects that are in the works (including HH, which I'll talk about in a future post...).

All in all, it was a brilliant day. We signed lots of books, ran seminars, and chatted to heaps of people (and Dan's line, as ever, was an impressive monster). I met loads of wonderful people who said nice things about my books. Everyone was really friendly and enthusiastic. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to say hello, you really made me feel very welcome and made the day very enjoyable. Thanks also to Desi and the US GW folks for hosting a great event, and to Claudia, Ead and the folks at BL for making sure us authors were fed and watered.

I also got a chance to look at the Golden Demon entries, which I usually don't get a chance to do, which was really cool. Some freaking amazing entries and winners.

The traditional post-Games Day drink turned into an epic night out, which was heaps of fun, though left me feeling a little worse for wear the next day. There were drinks, there were blues bars, there was karaoke, there were bizarre moments, and there was a lot of laughter. The term of the day was 'lobe stench', though I cannot really remember why, now. A highlight was swapping ghost stories/bigfoot stories with Dan and Mike. My skin was crawling for days.

As I said, I'm now getting packed up to head to the UK - and I'll be around in the UK for long enough to go to UK Games Day in late September. Hopefully it will be just as much fun as US Games Day!

My new Horus Heresy short story

Dark Heart, the Horus Heresy story that I wrote for the forthcoming anthology Mark of Calth is now available to download here.

The story is set during the Word Bearers' attack on Calth, and is designed to tie in with Dan Abnett's awesome Know No Fear. It features a certain young Word Bearer called Marduk  taking part in the attack on the Zetsun Verid Yard - and the subsequent counter-attack against the Word Bearers led by the big man in blue himself...

I've also written a short blog about writing this story for the Black Library site - check it out.