Category Archives: Interviews

Tim van Lipzig Talks The Horus Heresy Omnibus Project

“The Horus Heresy book series is truly epic, but its massive number of stories can be overwhelming to traverse.” This is the opening sentence on a fascinating new website called ‘The Horus Heresy Omnibus Project’, and rarely have truer words been written. I read most of the 60+ Heresy books as and when each one was published, but for readers new to the series I can only imagine how daunting it must feel to try and understand what to read and in which order. That’s where unofficial, fan-driven resources come in though, and in my opinion they don’t come any better than the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project, written by Tim van Lipzig, who’s kindly agreed to tell us more about this great new site.

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RAPID FIRE: Dan Abnett Talks The End and the Death Volume 1

Hello and welcome to this Rapid Fire author interview, where I’m delighted to be joined by the brilliant Dan Abnett to discuss The End and the Death Volume 1, the first instalment of the final Siege of Terra novel from Black Library. It’s been a long time coming – Horus Rising, the first Horus Heresy novel, was published in 2006, then the Siege of Terra opened with The Solar War in 2019. Book 8 of the Siege is actually going to be multiple volumes, beginning with this one, but the end is almost upon us, so I felt like I really ought to speak to Dan about this momentous novel. Whether you’ve read it already or you’re looking forward to making a start, I’m sure you’re as excited as I am about the end of the Siege.

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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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SFF Community Spotlight: Sarah Deeming from The British Fantasy Society

Hello and welcome to Track of Words for this SFF Community Spotlight interview, where I’m thrilled to be chatting to Sarah Deeming, Reviews Editor for the British Fantasy Society! In this ongoing series of interviews I’m celebrating and promoting the work of the bloggers and reviewers who put so much time and effort into making the science fiction and fantasy book community such a great place, and I was really keen to talk to Sarah as both a reviewer herself and the person in charge of reviews at the BFS. If you’re not already following the BFS reviews, head over to the website and check it out – there’s loads of good stuff there.

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Author Spotlight: David Goodman

Hello and welcome to this Track of Words Author Spotlight interview, where today I’m joined by the brilliant David Goodman to talk about Clarkesworld-published short stories, turning cool concepts into full, engaging stories, the different challenges of writing short fiction and novels, the realities of submitting novels, and loads more! I’ve read and loved both of Dave’s short stories in Clarkesworld Magazine, and I was hugely impressed by their depth of world building, great (and unusual) characters and smart themes, and how they remained very human and relatable despite their sci-fi nature. I can’t wait to read more of Dave’s writing, and I jumped at the chance to chat to him for what turned out to be an in-depth and (I think) incredibly interesting interview!

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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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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Mike Shackle Talks The Last War

Hello and welcome to this Author Interview here on Track of Words, where today I’m welcoming the brilliant Mike Shackle back to the site to talk about his epic, dark fantasy trilogy The Last War. With the third volume – Until the Last – having been released in 2022 the trilogy is now complete, so it seems like a good opportunity to chat to Mike and look back at the whole thing now that it’s done and dusted. If you haven’t started this great trilogy then this is the perfect introduction as Mike starts off by giving an overview of what to expect, before talking about his experience of writing and publishing these books over the last few crazy years.

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Author Spotlight: S.A. Tholin (SPSFC 2021 Winner)

Hello and welcome to this Author Spotlight interview here on Track of Words, where today I’m thrilled to be joined by the fantastic S.A. Tholin, author of the brilliant Primaterre series of science fiction novels, and recent winner of the first-ever Self-published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC)! I’ve been a fan of Sofie’s writing for a while now, and I loved Iron Truth, her novel that won the SPSFC, so it’s long past time that we chatted for an interview. In this Author Spotlight we talked about her Primaterre series and what readers can expect from its blend of science fiction and horror, the realities of life as a self-published author, the impact of winning the SPSFC, and loads more. So kick back and enjoy the interview, then make sure you check out Iron Truth and the Primaterre series!

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