>If any of you have read the comments attached to my first blog post, ‘The First Shot’, you’ll know that my editor, Nick Kyme, let the cat out of the bag as far as the topic of my next story goes. I’ve been asked to write a short story for the 2009 Warhammer 40,000 anthology Heroes of the Space Marines.

Anyone who frequents the Black Library website or forums will already know that a number of story slots were opened to aspiring new writers via a kind of competition. In fact, it was this very process that led to my joining the Black Library’s stable about two years ago. I wrote a Dark Angels story that was published in Tales from the Dark Millennium (see my Fiction page for details). The rest, as they say, is history.

Now, there aren’t all that many publishers who give new writers this kind of chance, so I heartily recommend anyone who genuinely thinks they’ve got what it takes to give BL’s short story competitions a shot. Even if you don’t get published, the experience of working to a deadline will strengthen your writing skills immeasurably.

Anyway, I’m digressing. Back to Heroes of the Space Marines. As Nick mentioned in his comment, I’ve been commissioned to write a short story about those most elite xenos-hunters, the Deathwatch.

I’m looking forward to this one a lot. The Deathwatch are pretty rich in background and possibilities and, in fact, received quite a bit of coverage via the novels of C. S. Goto. But C. S. and I are very different writers, and I fully intend to put my own spin on things. For me, the most exciting thing about the Deathwatch is not their particular expertise or the variety of alien races they are called on to fight against, but the fact that they are drawn from so many diverse chapters. Some of the Space Marines forced to work together might have very different methods and attitudes. It’s natural to expect a lot of friction.

So, there you have it. That’s what I’m working on now. And after that…

Well, I’ll tell you about it another time.