|
|
Authorised - Bill's Monthly
Column
August 2002
Jetlagged
Hello again. I’m just back from Chicago
Gamesday, which was great fun, although I am now paying the price in
horrible jetlag. It truly is an amazing thing that a man can go from
Prague to Chicago and back for the weekend, but I don’t think it was
something that nature intended. So my apologies if this column is even
less coherent than usual- my mind is still somewhere out over the
Atlantic trying frantically to catch up with my body.
As for the convention itself, the hall was
full and the Black Library stand well attended. I did not have time to
see nearly as much as I would have liked since I spent most of the day
signing books, talking with fans, discussing future plans and doing a
reading from Giantslayer. (Chapter 3 to be precise). I did wander around
for a bit and was, as usual, blown away by the standard of the displays
and figures. Particularly impressive was a giant model of Mount Doom
from Lord of the Rings, and a dwarven airship that resembled a sailing
ship with a dirigible atop it. Well done those modellers!
Gotrek & Felix
As mentioned above I did a
reading from Giantslayer, the upcoming novel set in Albion and featuring
among other things Teclis, the High Elf mage, a visit to Albion and the
return of some old foes. Also featured will be one of the most powerful,
and almost certainly biggest artefacts of the fabled Old Ones. Marco had
a mock up of the book cover. The painting is by Geoff Taylor, and
features our heroes and Teclis facing off against a horde of orcs - very
nice it is too.
Other news is that some time
next year, all of the books will be re-released with covers by Mr
Taylor, a development which pleases me no end since he’s one of my
favourite GW cover artists.
Space Wolves
It was a pleasure meeting so
many fans of Ragnar at Gamesday, even if I did have to keep ducking the
chainswords of those people who disliked the cliffhanger ending of Grey
Hunter. There’s a lesson there I suppose- I wont be doing cliffhangers
again in a hurry.
I also talked a lot about
future plans for Ragnar both with fans and with Marc Gascoigne, Dark
Overlord of the Black Library. A lot of folk asked me when will
the next Space Wolf book be released? Just in case you are wondering
(and even if you aren’t)- it looks like I will be working on it after
I finish Giantslayer and Farseer 2 which means it will be in the stores
late 2003 at the earliest.
By far the most common
question though was what is going to happen to Ragnar now? It looks like
he will be sent to Earth to serve for a time with House Belisarius, the
Navigator House with which the Wolves have a warriors-for-Navigators
trade pact. That means he will most likely be bound for planet Earth in
the next book because that’s where Belisarius has its main estates.
Anyone interested in finding out a bit more about House Belisarius might
want to take a look at Farseer, because one of the major characters in
the book is a Belisarius Navigator. (And, yes, you’re right, there is
no cheap ploy I will not stoop to in order to promote sales.)
Anyway, I'd just like to
finish up by saying a huge thank you to everyone who helped make
Chicago such a memorable event. It was fun, folks but next time I'm
going to insist that chainswords are checked at the door!
Right, that’s it for this
month- time for me to go and do some Giantslaying.
All the best,
Bill
[ Top ]
[ Un-Authorised ]
|
|
