Authorised - Bill's Monthly Column

March 2003

Welcome

It’s been some months now since my last column and it's been a busy, busy time. I did some travelling, moved flats, finished Giantslayer, wrote a novella and a comic strip and am now halfway through Wolfblade. Oh and I bought a Palm Tungsten on which I am writing (not typing) this column. More on this later.

Giantslayer

Giantslayer is most likely back from the printers and ready to ship as you read this. It was a fun book to write with plenty of negative chemistry between Gotrek and the elf mage Teclis and a whole new arena or two to explore.  It’s partially set in the Paths of the Old Ones, an extra-dimensional daemon infested labyrinth built by the ancient masters of the Warhammer world and partially among the tribes of Albion. It also features what is possibly the most brutal battle of Gotrek's long and inglorious career.  

Inferno! Special

The novella and comic strip were written for the upcoming Inferno! special featuring Gotrek and Felix. The novella Redhand's Legacy features our heroes’ first sea voyage and naval battle, explains the true reason why dwarves hate the ocean and it takes the lads to a monster haunted island off the coasts of Araby. The comic strip details an encounter with the Skaven on an experimental warpstone powered, rocket propelled cable car system. It’s been some years since I last wrote a comic strip and I had a blast doing it.

Wolfblade

The new Ragnar novel marches along a pace and takes our young Space Wolf into exile among the Navigator houses on the ancient, very decadent and very holy world of Terra, capital of the Imperium. For this book I have been provided with all the secrets of Earth by the Lords of the Adeptus Scriptorum back on the sacred soil of Nottingham. Before anyone asks if I can send them a copy of the tome, please be aware that for your own safety I cannot do so. Anyone below clearance secundus who reads it must be terminated with extreme prejudice by the Inquisition. So it’s for your own good…  

New Toys

What can I say about the Palm Tungsten-finally PDAs are fulfilling their promise. The bright screen and Documents to Go allow me to edit my stuff anywhere. I can play MP3s on it. With a program called Dropbook and a few raids on Project Gutenberg, I can create my own library of ebooks and store about 150 of them on a  64meg SD card. I finally managed to read Mark Twain's Around The Equator and replace my long lost copy of the Uncommercial Traveler. I have Xenophon’s Anabasis waiting to go. For someone who lives in a country where English language books are expensive and hard to come by this is a boon. Oh, and the Tungsten also allows me to keep track of appointments, deadlines and do spreadsheets. I am very taken with it as you can probably tell. I give it 5 axes from a possible 5.

Till next time,

Bill

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