Monday, April 30, 2012

Where I'm Going, Where I've Been

Hello, and welcome to Clockwork Rockets, my own little corner of the blogosphere. I'll be using this page to keep folks posted on upcoming book and game releases, author appearances, my works in progress, and observations on writing and the writing life, such as it is. I'll be updating the blog at least once a week; hopefully more, but I don't want to commit to that just yet. Convention season is upon us, which means Janet and I will be on the road quite a bit this year, so things are bound to get a bit hectic.

So, what have I been up to lately? Ironically, not much. After finishing Nagash Immortal, the final volume in the epic Time of Legends series about the Warhammer world's greatest (and most evil) necromancer, I realized that I'd pretty well run out of steam. By that point - June of last year - I'd been writing professionally for fourteen and a half years, more or less non-stop. I'd worked on two dozen or so role-playing projects, a half-dozen video games, and written short stories, novellas, and ten big novels. In other words, I was wrung out. I needed a little time off to recharge. So I had a long chat with my editor, the very great and patient Nick Kyme, and he encouraged me to have a good lie down, read some books, and generally do anything but write for a few months, until the words started to flow again.


I took his advice. I started sleeping eight hours a night again. I stopped living on pots of coffee. I read some good books, and I read some hilariously bad books. I played a few video games (Red Dead Redemption, Bioshock 2 and Modern Warfare 3. Then I got Skyrim for Christmas and it ate what was left of my soul.) I spent a couple of months in Jackson, Mississippi working on a TV show for the History Channel.

Slowly but surely, the wheels started to turn again. When last I talked to Nick, he told me to put together a wish list of projects I'd like to work on for Black Library. By January, I'd come up with five or six ideas, some conceived as stand-alone novels, some as series, and I let Nick choose the one he liked best. I'll start on the book in mid to late May. It's a Warhammer 40K novel, and it's about one of my favorite Space Marine chapters. That's about all I can say for now. Watch this space for teasers in the months to come.


There are other projects afoot as well, that I look forward to sharing in the near future. I've just about finished work on an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) for Ubisoft that ties into the soon-to-be-released Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. It's been an awesome, challenging (and at times hair-raising) project, and I'm excited to see how the game plays out (hint: there will be amazing prizes for the winner).


I'll also be publishing my first e-book this summer. More on that later as well. Stay tuned!