Much Needed Update

Arite. So it’s been quite a while since I did one of these.

But if you’ve been keeping track, and I know a hell of a lot of people have been, you know that I’ve been super busy reading, reading, and more reading since I got back from GDUK2011.

And it’s been a great ride so far. All the books I’ve read so far are just fantastic. I am currently in the middle of several novels as it were, mostly due to not being able to sit down and get through any of them properly. I am nearly done with Rob Sanders’ Atlas Infernal, which is an Inquisitor Czevak novel. Somewhere in the middle of Gav Thorpe’s Time of Legends: Sundering novel Shadow King. And just about in the beginning of Matt Farrer’s Shira Calpurnia: Enforcer omnibus.

So three different novels, at varying stages of reading.

Also, I am towards the end of Warcraft: Beyond the Dark Portal, the sequel to Warcraft: Tides of Darkness which I have already reviewed here. These novels are making me damned nostalgic about World of Warcraft, the former especially so, but sadly I cannot get back to the game as of yet.

There have been several things that have made the months of September, October and November (so far) truly spectacular. The first is that Commissar Ploss, who runs The Founding Fields has invited me to join his site as a book reviewer.

I accepted of course.

Since I have already finished both of Aaron’s Night Lords novels and am close to finishing another two novels, I have ample ammunition to throw at you folks with my reviews there. I will be joining the likes of Bane of Kings and Lord of the Night, two really great guys I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with about various things.

Note to Lord of the Night: I still hate you for having already read Gav’s Deliverance Lost. Damn you! 🙂 I have to wait till BLL2012, GRRRRR.

So yeah, look forward to that.

Also, I have been fortunate enough to have had Black Library’s Facebook page and their twitter feed mention me twice now. They linked my Battle of the Fang review earlier in October and then recently just a couple days, they linked my The Gildar Rift review. Here is what happened to the blog when they linked TGR.

See anything particularly noteworthy there? This is very much e-preening but hey, it makes me feel proud. I’d also like to point that the previous record was 137 views in a single day, and that was when I posted the TGR review itself.

What do I take away from this? Well, it would be that Sarah has, without a doubt, proven to be an author in “anticipated demand” by the BL fans. It is mind-blowingly crazy. I’ve read at least 3 other reviews for her book and we all have the same opinion: This one is a monster to beat. She has done a great job. Early feedback in her own words has been quite positive and it is very nice to see her receive such great response. Particularly as I have really liked all three of her Silver Skulls short stories.

And if her latest blog post is any indication, she just might be working on another one.

Also, if you fine folks remember, I submitted two short story ideas (summaries more like) to BL Editor Laurie Goulding at Games Day. Satisfactorily, and surprisingly even to myself who didn’t expect anything less, they liked one of my ideas and asked me to pitch them the full idea. I sent the full pitch for the short story Redemption to Laurie on the 17th.

Fingers crossed for hearing that they would like me to submit the full short story. This was perhaps the greatest highlight of the year for me since Games Day.

I also managed to post up another chapter of my 40k future fanfic Sons of Corax at the forum so be sure to check it out. A new Act has started in the story and I am currently working on the next chapter which has things at a particularly bloody stage. With tons of action and nuance too and some throwbacks to some of the best ideas I’ve seen from some of the BL authors recently. Stay tuned.

This is now November. And that means…. NaNoWriMo. For those of you who don’t know what that is, that is that National Novel Writing Month. You have the entire month of November to bang out a 50k word novel. I have taken on this project and I am currently busy working on an original fantasy novel called Raven and Blood. It borrows a fair bit of stuff from various other fantasy settings, most notably from Raymond E. Feist’s Midkemian novels, Dragonlance, Warcraft, and Warhammer Fantasy.

Its a very challenging project for sure since the aim is word count rather than quality. But so far I have managed to keep the quality (for a first draft anyway since that is what this is) at just about at par so I am not too worried about this. Day 3 has ended and I am not at almost 5600 words. According to the project site, at the rate I am going, I am likely to finish 4 days in advance. A long weekend is now upon me so I expect to do even more solid progress on this.

Which is good news of course. I shall post up my thoughts and ideas about NaNo once the month ends and share with you all some of the challenges I faced and how they were brutally demolished for the greater good.

In the meantime, if you are also NaNoWriMo-ing, then add me as shadowhawk on the site.

In case you are not aware, which is very very surprising, the Bolthole recently moved servers and has a brand new look and some new features too. So be sure to check out the forum soon. The boards are much more smoother in organization and there is less clutter. You can also select different style themes now!

The mod team, which includes yours truly, is also working on rolling out a blog for the forum. That should be going up soon!

We also have a twitter feed @BLBolthole so be sure to be tweeting us!

I also recently bought an iPad so its been a lot of fun reading some comics and books on it, not to mention procrastinating like hell with Angry Birds and Bunny Shooter. God save me!

And that’s really it for now. November is going to be a hellish month!