RAPID FIRE: Mike Brooks Talks Brutal Kunnin’

Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new releases. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

For this interview I spoke to the prolific Mike Brooks about his new Warhammer 40,000 novel Brutal Kunnin’ – the first ever Black Library novel to be written from an ork’s perspective! It’s available to pre-order as of Saturday 12th September, so if you’ve ever wondered what it’s really like inside an ork’s head while he’s getting stuck into a good fight…now’s the time to find out!

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Notes From Small Planets – Nate Crowley

If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if you crossed a travel guide with a load of well-trodden sci-fi/fantasy tropes and the wild imagination of a born storyteller…it turns out you’d get Nate Crowley’s Notes From Small Planets! Spanning eight fictional worlds, from the high fantasy Mittelvelde to the hard sci-fi SPACE¹ and so much more in between, it’s both a loving homage to and merciless satire of the highs and lows of genre fiction. Coming from a writer capable of work as dazzlingly diverse as revolutionary zombie novel The Death and Life of Schneider Wrack and alternative gaming history 100 Best Video Games (That Never Existed) it’s exactly as bonkers and brilliant as you’d imagine.

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Writing for Black Library – Pitching Warhammer Horror (Part One)

With the Black Library Open Submissions window themed around Warhammer Horror this year, I asked over a dozen fantastic authors for their thoughts on what makes a great horror short story, and their advice on writing and pitching a Warhammer Horror story to Black Library. I’ve already published the results of one conversation in my article Writing For Black Library – Alec Worley Talks Pitching Warhammer Horror, and I’ve gathered together the thoughts of the remaining authors to give you as broad a range of opinions, ideas and advice as possible to help you plan your submission this year. There’s way too much for just a single article, so I’ve split things into two parts, of which this is the first!

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QUICK REVIEW: Watch The Flank – Thomas Parrott

Thomas Parrott’s first story published via his Curious Fictions page, Watch The Flank introduces his The Sundering War setting with a punchy, action-packed military science fantasy tale of giant warmachines and aetheric energy. Cocooned within the huge frame of her Stormcaller giganphract, Bond-Pilot Leyna Raskin roams ahead of her regiment as they make for the safety of Fort Rigour. What started off as a tedious, dull posting, however, quickly becomes a frantic struggle for survival as Leyna finds herself facing off against a mysterious enemy every bit as massive and powerful as her own phract.

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RAPID FIRE: Dale Lucas Talks Realm-Lords

Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new releases. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

For this interview I spoke to fantasy author Dale Lucas about his new Age of Sigmar novel Realm-Lords, which is his debut Black Library novel and the first ever story to feature the Lumineth Realm-lords! It’s available to pre-order as of Saturday 5th September, so if you’re interested in finding out a bit more about this aelven debut ahead of its release then read on…

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Monthly Highlights – August 2020

2020 continues to fly by despite the craziness still taking place, so it’s time once again for my latest Monthly Highlights article. While August was another slightly slower month for me in terms of the number of books I read (compared to a couple of months ago, at least), it’s been a really busy few weeks on Track of Words with reviews and author interviews, so I hope you’ve been enjoying the content. I’ve also continued to shift back towards a place where I’m mostly choosing books that I’m planning on reviewing – after a few months of finding it tough to get in the headspace for writing reviews, I feel like the words are flowing a bit better at the moment!

As usual I’ve tried to keep things as succinct as possible, and I’ve linked out to reviews where they’re available. Without further ado, however, let’s get straight on (in the order in which I read them) with August’s books…

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EDITOR INTERVIEW: Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells Talks Tales From The Crucible

Welcome to this Track of Words Editor Interview, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors (and editors) talking about their new releases. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

In this instalment I spoke to Aconyte Books’ editor Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells about the new KeyForge short story anthology Tales from the Crucible, which is due to be released as an ebook on the 1st September, with a US paperback edition released the same day and the UK paperback edition due on the 1st October. Whether you’re already familiar with KeyForge or you’re just looking for some cool new sci-fi short stories, there should be plenty for you to enjoy in this excellent anthology, so without further ado let’s get straight to it…

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Josh Reynolds Talks Wrath of N’Kai

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new releases. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

In this instalment I spoke to the ever-prolific Josh Reynolds about his new book Wrath of N’Kai, the first Arkham Horror novel to be published by Aconyte Books. It’s due to be released as an ebook on the 1st September, with a US paperback edition released the same day and the UK paperback edition due on the 1st October. If you like a good occult detective story with a strong sense of 1920’s pulpy noir, this should be right up your street!

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Dredge Runners – Alec Worley

Alec Worley kicks off the audio side of Black Library’s Warhammer Crime imprint with Dredge Runners, an hour-long audio drama which introduces the pairing of ratling Baggit and ogryn Clodde in a brilliant tale of dirty dealings, rampant corruption and abhuman prejudice. Facing the ire of vicious crime lord Tabidiah Kruger after a deal gone awry, Baggit and Clodde find themselves tasked with digging up dirt on the (supposedly) squeaky-clean sanctioner Savriel Sabbriatti. Putting their unusual combination of skills to good use, the pair uncover secrets that might see them richly rewarded if only they can find a way out from between two such dangerous enemies, and overlook a few moral objections while they’re at it.

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Writing for Black Library – Alec Worley Talks Pitching Warhammer Horror

Welcome to this instalment of Writing for Black Library, in which the fantastic Alec Worley offers some amazing advice, ideas and suggestions for writing and pitching Warhammer Horror stories. The 2020 Black Library Open Submissions window is opening in October (for just two weeks) and this time around it’s focusing specifically on Warhammer Horror. I thought it might be interesting to ask Alec about not just writing horror stories but also the difficult job of pitching them to editors, so this interview covers quite a wide range of topics which I hope will be of use to anyone planning on submitting a story. There’s really no better time to tap into the considerable experience of an industry pro like Alec!

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