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No prizes, but I invite you all to guess what kind of critter that handsome little fellow is.

This blog is over a year old now. It was remiss of me, perhaps, but I let that first anniversary pass with nary a word. As you probably know already, I’m not a habitual blogger, but I try. My aim is to maintain it as a way of giving my readers a point of contact with me. Sure, I should definitely blog more than I do… but, unless you’re interested in my bodybuilding/martial arts training, or my fierce opinions on animal rights and the like, there’s not all that much to tell you. I love films and games and books, but I don’t talk about them much. I rarely read reviews. You should always form your own opinions about stuff. You hardly need mine.

Wait, you cry. What about Black Library related news? Surely you want to yap about your books, Steve? Well, don’t you?

Er, sort of, but I’m under a pesky thing called an Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). All Black Library writers sign one. It’s the main reason I’m fairly quiet regarding my writing. I’m never really sure what I can get away with telling you. Added to that, it seems cruel to tease you all with snippets of info up to a year before a book actually comes out in the shops.

So, I’ll just keep ambling along, I guess, trying to find things worthy of comment here and there. Seeing as the blog is mainly for my BL readers, I try not to politicise it. If there’s something fairly non-volatile that you’d like my opinion on, of course, just say so, and I’ll see about making it the subject of a future post.

In the meantime, here’s a bit of BL news.

I had a Skype call with my editor, Nick Kyme, last night, during which we sent a few files back and forward. It struck us both just how great Skype is. Living as far as I do from the Black Library offices, Nick and I depend on Skype for most of our spoken comms. The fact that he can pop an image or document across to me while we’re chatting is really useful, too. Last night, he sent across a mock-up of the cover to the novel I’ll be writing after Rynn’s World.

Khekking hell, it’s great! Massive credit to Darius Hinks for knocking up something special. I can’t wait for you guys to see it. It’s a perfect fit for the kind of story I’m planning to tell. Blam! That’s me getting shot in the face by a bolter! That’s what it felt like.

Nick and I talked about a number of other things, too, one of which was my short story for next year’s Fear the Alien anthology. I’m looking forward to writing it. I haven’t tackled a short since Headhunted and I think it will be a great change of pace. Novels are bloody monstrous as times. I’m one of those writers that hates the actual process of writing. I cannot seem to keep by backside in my chair. I think there are a lot of us like that. Without a novel to write, you’d be hard pressed to find me doing housework. Give me a deadline, however, and the house will be bloody spotless while I try to avoid doing anything even remotely related to my job.

Human psychology is a strange and terrible thing. There’s a great quote by the brilliant Peter Benchley (author of Jaws, etc.). I’m paraphrasing very loosely, but its something like: a man can do any amount of work with ease so long as it’s not the work he’s supposed to be doing.

Spot on, sir.

Watching: The Young Ones (season 2) when I get a second.
Listening to: Various tracks by Switchfoot
Reading: Rynn’s World by me!
Today’s link: Click to Give