Tag Archives: David Guymer

Writing For Traveller – David Guymer Guest Post

Hello and welcome to this Track of Words, where today I’m pleased to welcome back the always-excellent David Guymer with a fantastic guest post talking about something of a new venture for him! Chances are you’re familiar with David’s writing from his many Black Library stories, or his great work with Aconyte Books, but now he’s venturing into new SF territory with a series of short stories set in the world of Mongoose Publishing’s Traveller. Whether you’re a long-time Traveller fan or this is the first you’ve heard of it, David’s got you covered with this guest post – so read on to find out how this new venture came to be, and what you can expect from this new short story series, Sindal Sunrise.

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5 Age Of Sigmar Books That Deserve Sequels (But Probably Won’t Get Them)

For a while now Black Library’s Age of Sigmar range has been focused very much on individual books rather than trilogies or sequels*, but with the announcement of Richard Strachan’s Temple of Silence – the follow-up to Hallowed Ground – it looks like maybe, maybe, that might be changing. This got me thinking about which other AoS novels deserve the sequel treatment, so I’ve picked out five books that I personally loved, and which have been crying out for sequels. Most of these books have been out for quite a few years already, so chances are the window for sequels is long gone, but that doesn’t mean we as readers should stop talking about them, and asking BL for more!

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Like Warhammer? Try This: Aconyte Books

I know a lot of Track of Words readers are big Black Library fans, but what if – like me – you’re keen to look beyond the boundaries of Warhammer and find new fantasy and science fiction worlds to explore? It can be tricky to know where to start, and with so many SFF books published each year choosing a new book or series can sometimes feel a bit intimidating. The answer, I think, is to try something by an author you’re already familiar with – so think of your favourite Black Library authors, and look for some of their non-BL stories! Not every BL author writes for other publishers, but plenty of them do, so you’ve got a ready-made list of writers whose work will give you great entry points to the wider world of SFF.

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Writing For Black Library – Open Submissions January 2023 Part 3: Writing Samples

Hello and welcome to the third and final instalment of my January 2023 edition of Writing For Black Library here on Track of Words – in this part our nine brilliant Black Library authors are discussing the tricky task of planning out short stories and putting together writing samples. If you haven’t already, I’d recommend checking out the previous two articles first: part one, in which we discussed writing 100-word story pitches, and part two, which was all about what makes a great Space Marine story. If you’ve already read both of those, read on to find out what advice and recommendations our authors have for writing short stories in general.

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Writing For Black Library – Open Submissions January 2023 Part 2: Space Marines

Welcome to the second in my three-part series of Writing For Black Library articles released to coincide with BL’s January 2023 Open Submissions window. For these articles I spoke to nine Black Library authors who kindly agreed to share their advice and ideas regarding three topics: pitch summaries, Space Marine stories, and generally writing short stories and samples. In Part 1 we covered writing pitches – if you haven’t already, definitely check that out – while for this second part the focus is on Space Marines. Specifically, I asked each of the authors this question: “What would you say makes a great Space Marine story?”

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Writing for Black Library – Open Submissions January 2023 Part 1: Pitching

Every year or two, Black Library announces an Open Submissions Window – a short period of time during which anyone can pitch a short story to the BL editorial team. Towards the end of 2022 BL announced that its next open subs window will begin in January 2023, with a specific theme of stories exploring Space Marine successor Chapters. In previous years I’ve put together articles and interviews full of advice from Black Library authors on how to pitch and write short stories, but it’s been a while since I’ve done that so now seems like a good time to do another one. Or, to be precise, another three! If you’re interested in writing for BL in general, and submitting to this open subs window in particular, I think you’ll find a lot of interest in these articles.

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Short and Sweet – December 2022

Hello and welcome to the third instalment of Short and Sweet, my ongoing series of short review roundups. I’m using these roundups to gather together a few brief thoughts on books that I’ve been reading recently but haven’t been able to write full reviews for, concentrating as always on my usual SFF fare. If you’re a Black Library reader, it’s worth pointing out that this is where you’re likely to find most of my BL content in future! In this instalment I’m going to talk about a pair of Black Library books – an Age of Sigmar novel (sort of) and a 40k short story anthology – and a science fiction novella that’s a sequel to something I read and loved in 2019. I could have included more books in this roundup, but I’m going to try and stick to three each time as a nice balanced amount to write about (and for each one I’ve included buy-now links – I’ll receive a small affilliate fee for anything ordered via these links).

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RAPID FIRE: David Guymer Talks Grombrindal

Hello and welcome to this Rapid Fire interview here on Track of Words, where I’m very happy to be joined by Black Library author David Guymer to talk about his fantastic Age of Sigmar novel Grombrindal: Chronicles of the Wanderer. Released in October 2023 in audiobook, ebook and hardback (if you’re lucky enough to find one) editions, this is an unusual book in that it actually contains six short stories and a (short) novel, all exploring one of the most famous characters in Warhammer history. I loved it, so I was keen to talk to David about how this book came about, what the writing process was like, and (because I’m mean like that) whether David has a favourite from among these tales of Grombrindal.

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The Patriot List – David Guymer

Part of the Marvel: Untold range from Aconyte Books, David Guymer’s The Patriot List turns the tables on the usual Marvel norms and tells a tale of villains pretending to be heroes, featuring the Dark Avengers under the leadership of the brilliant but troubled Norman Osborn. In the wake of a Skrull invasion and the failure of SHIELD, Osborn is now in control of a new team of Avengers, which sees – unbeknown to the general public – hand-picked (and, unsurprisingly, difficult to manage) super-villains masquerading as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Despite the incredible power he wields, Osborn isn’t exactly the most stable of characters, and when a list detailing potential replacements for his faux-Avengers is stolen from under his nose, his response is somewhat less than subtle.

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A Few Thoughts On The Successors – Black Library Anthology

A collection of 13 short stories from 10 different authors, Black Library’s Warhammer 40,000 anthology The Successors looks beyond the usual First Founding Chapters of Space Marines and sets out to explore some of the Chapters who haven’t been seen as often in 40k fiction. It does actually feature some Chapters who have had plenty of their own stories before (Crimson Fists, Flesh Tearers, Soul Drinkers), but the majority of the stories focus on Chapters from the semi-familiar (Angels Penitent, Black Dragons, Carcharadons, Emperor’s Spears, Mortifactors) to the new or much more obscure (Consecrators, Iron Lords, Wolfspear). There’s even a rare Exorcists story, and most – although not all – of the stories take place in the ‘current’, post-Great Rift era of 40k.

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