I don’t have covers for either of these yet, but will post them here once they turn up.

PERSONAL APPEARANCE

Talking of Italy, I’m happy to announce that I’ll be one of the guests of honour at 2014’s Pandino Fantasy Books Festival in Milan on 25th May. 

More details to follow.  The festival’s website is here.

OCTOBER 2013

DAVID GEMMELL AWARDS AT
WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION

Time/date: 8pm, Thursday 31st October

Venue: Hilton Metropole Hotel, King’s Road, Brighton BN1 2FU

Admission is free and all are welcome, the only limit being the capacity of the hall (but it’s a big hall).  You don’t have to be a paid member of World Fantasy Con to attend the awards’ ceremony.  But admission to the awards does not confer the right to enter the convention proper if you are not a registered, badge-wearing WFC attendee.

The David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy, decided by an open vote, consist of the Legend Award (best novel), the Morningstar Award (best debut) and the Ravenheart Award (best cover art).  Scroll down to last month’s update for the shortlists. 

The awards website is here.

You can find out more about the Gemmell Awards at WFC here

LEGENDS LAUNCHES AT WFC

Here it is - the finished wraparound cover of Legends, the anthology of specially written stories published to benefit the David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy -

- and the contents list:

Introduction - Stan Nicholls
Or So Legend Has It - James Barclay
A Blade to the Heart - Gaie Sebold
Return to Arden Falls - Ian Whates
The Drake Lords of Kyla - Storm Constantine
A Tower of Arkrondurl - Tanith Lee
Who Walks With Death - Jonathan Green
Skipping Town - Joe Abercrombie
Land of the Eagle - Juliet E McKenna
All Hail to the Oak - Anne Nicholls
Swords and Circle - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Fairyland - Jan Siegel
Mountain Tea - Sandra Unerman
The League of Resolve - Stan Nicholls

Edited by Ian Whates and published by Newcon Press, the book is going to be launched at World Fantasy Convention in Brighton (31st Oct-3rd Nov) to tie-in with this year’s awards ceremony.  Ten of the contributors, plus cover artist Dominic Harman, will be present to sign copies.
Legends will be available as a paperback, a limited, signed hardcover, and an ebook.  NewCon Press’ website is here.

ALSO LAUNCHING AT WORLD FANTASY CON

Shake Me To Wake Me - The Best Short Fiction of Stan Nicholls is also being published (by NewCon Press) to coincide with WFC. 

There will be paperback, a limited, signed hardback, and ebook editions.  The contents -

Introduction: Sleeping With The Writer
Softies
Picking Up The Tab
SPOIL
Throwing A Wobbly
We Are For The Dark
Three Whimsies:
1) Falling in Love
2) If You Can’t Do It With The Lights On You Shouldn’t Be Doing It At All
3) Good Brown, Charlie Grief
Polly Put The Mockers On
Juice
The Gripes of Wrath

ANOTHER OCTOBER RELEASE

The second orcs trilogy, Orcs: Bad Blood, consisting of Weapons of Magical Destruction, Army of Shadows and Inferno, is published as an omnibus edition in the UK by Gollancz on 10th October.

UPCOMING NEW LOOK FOR ORCS IN GERMANY

The German omnibus edition of the first orcs trilogy in paperback is going to have a new cover early next year.  Piper Verlag issue this version on 17th February 2014.

INTERVIEW

Back in June I reported on being one of the guests at splendid French fantasy festival Les Fééries du Bocage, and mentioned that Parisian radio station L’autre monde had interviewed me during the event.  Now that interview, and interviews with many of the other participants, is available (in English and French) here.

TWO ANNIVERSARIES

Time flies department.  This month sees the twentieth anniversaries of two books I’m particularly proud of.

Wordsmiths of Wonder: Fifty Interviews With Writers of the Fantastic (Orbit, October 1993).   The sad thing is realising how many of the interviewees are no longer with us.

And to end where we began this month, here’s the cover of the graphic novel version of David Gemmell’s Legend, which I adapted and
Chris (Fangorn) Baker so ably illustrated.  (Random House Legend imprint, October 1993.)

SEPTEMBER 2013

THE DAVID GEMMELL AWARDS FOR FANTASY 2013

The shortlists for this year’s Gemmell Awards were announced at Nine Worlds Geekfest on 11th August, and here they are:

Legend Award
(Best novel)
Joe Abercrombie: Red Country  (Gollancz)
Jay Kristoff: Stormdancer  (Pan Macmillan UK)
Mark Lawrence: King of Thorns  (HarperCollins/Voyager)
Helen Lowe: The Gathering of the Lost  (Orbit)
Brent Weeks: The Blinding Knife  (Orbit) 

Morningstar Award
(Best debut)
Saladin Ahmed: Throne of the Crescent Moon  (Gollancz and DAW)
Miles Cameron: The Red Knight  (Gollancz)
John Gwynne: Malice  (Pan Macmillan UK)
Aidan Harte: Irenicon  (Jo Fletcher Books)
Jay Kristoff: Stormdancer  (Pan Macmillan UK)

Ravenheart Award 
(Best cover art)
Didier Graffet and Dave Senior, for Red Country by Joe Abercrombie  (Gollancz)
Dominic Harman, for Legion of Shadow by Michael J. Ward  (Gollancz)
Clint Langley, for Besieged by Rowenna Cory Daniells  (Solaris)
Silas Manhood, for The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks  (Orbit)
Colin Thomas, for Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff  (Pan Macmillan UK) 
Stephen Youll, for The Black Mausoleum by Stephen Deas  (Gollancz) 

We had a three-way tie for the Ravenheart, which is why there are six contenders rather than the usual five.

Voting on the shortlists is open until midnight, 30th September.

You can vote here.

The awards ceremony takes place at 8pm, Thursday 31st October at World Fantasy Convention in Brighton.

Admission to the awards ceremony is free and open to all, but you have to be a registered, paid member of WFC to attend the convention itself. 

Details here.

GEMMELL AWARDS BENEFIT ANTHOLOGY PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER

Legends is an anthology of all new stories, edited by Ian Whates and published by Newcon Press. 

It will be launched in conjunction with this year’s Gemmell Awards ceremony on 31st October.  Proceeds go to supporting the awards.

The list of contributors hasn’t been released yet, but it’s impressive.  I’ll post the contents here next month.

Cover art: Dominic Harman 

THE COMPLETE ORCS

Available for the first time: both orcs trilogies (plus a short story) bundled together as an ebook from Gollancz, and at a good price.
Details here.

COMING IN OCTOBER

Gollancz: 10th October

“The Best Short Fiction of Stan Nicholls”. Newcon Press: 31st October

POW-WOW LITFEST 2013

A reminder that I’m one of the guests at this year’s PowWow Litfest, which takes place on Sunday 15th September (between 12-7pm).

Venue: Prince of Wales, 118 Alcester Road, Moseley, B13 8EE.

The other guests are: Mark Edwards, Suzi Feay, Adam Foulds, M John Harrison, Danuta Kean and Lucy Luck.

Details here.

AUGUST 2013

OMNIBUS OF SECOND ORCS TRILOGY

Here’s the cover:

The collected Orcs: Bad Blood trilogy, containing Weapons of Magical Destruction, Army of Shadows and Inferno, runs to 832 pages.  Published at £9.99 by Gollancz on 10th October.

PERSONAL APPEARANCES

A run-down of forthcoming events where I’ll be appearing:

9th-11th August, Heathrow. 

The shortlists for this year’s David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy are going to be announced at 6.45pm on Sunday 11th August at Nine Worlds Geekfest.  The awards ceremony itself takes place at World Fantasy Convention in Brighton (see below).

17th August - Writing Fantasy Fiction - a workshop12.30-4pm

“In the setting which inspired Tolkien, we will look at the importance of world building, the fine line between genre expectation and cliché, and how fantasy fiction relates to and comments on the real world. 

With guest speaker Stan Nicholls, award winning, million-selling author of the Orcs series.” 

Website here.

15th September - Pow-Wow Litfest 2013

“On Sunday 15th September we’ll be presenting our usual mix of inspiring, informative talks and discussions on all matters literary, in the garden of Birmingham’s friendliest pub.  This year our fabulous line-up includes:

• Adam Foulds, multi-award winner and one of Granta’s Best Young  

• British Novelists 2013

• M John Harrison, legendary writer of speculative fiction

• Suzi Feay, influential book reviewer and literary prize judge

• Danuta Kean, publishing analyst and cultural commentator

• Stan Nicholls, award winning, million-selling author of the Orcs 

• series

• Mark Edwards, bestselling self-published crime writer

• Lucy Luck, literary agent”

21st September 11am to 10pm

“Andromeda One is a one-day SF, fantasy and horror convention taking place at the Custard Factory in Birmingham.  It brings together a host of science-fiction, fantasy and horror writers and publishers for a day loaded with book launches, kaffeeklatches, panels, signings, writing and publishing workshops and much more.

“Guests of honour include Paul Cornell and Jaine Fenn.

“Plus sessions with an impressive range of speakers: Chris Amies, Jacey Bedford, Misa Buckley (SFR) Mike Chinn, Theresa Derwin, Jan Edwards (Alchemy Press & Editor/Writer) Janet Edwards SF Writer, Simon Marshall-Jones of Spectral Press, Adrian Middleton, Stan Nicholls & Anne Gay/Nicholls, Mark West and Ian Whates.”

Website here.

31st October - 3rd November

The David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy ceremony is the opening event, on the evening of Thursday 31st October. 

Details here.

JULY 2013

COMING IN OCTOBER

This splendid cover, by Ben Baldwin, is for a short story collection from NewCon Press to be launched at this year’s World Fantasy Convention (31st October-3rd November, Brighton).  I’ll post a list of the contents nearer the event.  It’s not the only book I have out in October, and they’ll be news of other projects in the coming months.

Talking of World Fantasy Con, a quick reminder that this year’s David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy are going to be staged at the event (on the evening of Thursday 31st October).  Details here.

And as I write this, towards the end of June, the longlists of nominations for the 2013 awards are about to go online.  The categories are: Legend Award (best novel), Morningstar Award (best debut) and Ravenheart Award (best book cover art). 

Find out more, and vote, on the official website.

While we’re on the subject of reminders, here’s a nudge about Edge-Lit 2, to be held in Derby on Saturday 13th July, at which I’m a guest of honour along with Tricia Sullivan and Mike Carey.  A host of other great writers are going to be there too.  You can check the details here.

At 3.15 the day before (Friday 12th) I’ll be interviewed on BBC Radio Derby’s Andy Potter afternoon show, along with Edge-Lit 2 organiser Alex Davis. 

Les Féeries Du Bocage

This year’s Les Feeries Du Bocage, held in the beautiful setting of Voulx (Seine-et-Marne), France, on 1st and 2nd June, was as enchanting and as much fun as last year’s inaugural event. 

Thanks to the hard work of the organisers and the many volunteers, this festival looks like becoming an essential annual event.

I took a lot of photos.  Here are just a few.

JUNE 2013

DEBORAH J. MILLER

I’m very sad to report that Deborah Miller, author and principal founder of the David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy, passed away on 6th May. 

Deborah had been battling breast cancer for some years, and went into remission several times.  The condition recently surfaced again, and she fought it with her usual resolve, but treatment proved ineffective.  She passed peacefully, with her husband, Bill, at her side.  Deborah faced her illness with courage and good humour.  As well as Bill, she leaves a daughter, Tiffany. 

Deborah wrote under both her own name and as Miller Lau.  As Lau, her first novel was Talisker, published in 2001, the same year her breast cancer was diagnosed.  That book began the Last Clansman series that continued with Dark Thane and Lore Bringer.  As Deborah Miller her novels included Swarmthief’s Dance and Swarmthief’s Treason.   

Her fiction and the Gemmell Awards will stand as permanent memorials to an exceptional person, an indomitable spirit and a good friend. 

This year’s Gemmell Awards ceremony, to be held at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, will be dedicated to Deborah’s memory. 

With Deborah at the first SFX Weekender

NIGHTSHADE OMNIBUS: SPECIAL FRENCH EDITION

I mentioned back in February and March that my French publisher, Bragelonne, will be publishing an omnibus edition of my Nightshade Chronicles trilogy - as part of their “10 years, 10 titles, 10 euros” series - on 21st June. 

I now have the cover:

I’ll take this opportunity to remind French readers that my orcs short story ‘The Taking’ is still available as a download.  Here’s a revamped cover for it:

Bragelonne also produced a French ebook edition of my first orcs omnibus.  But it was only available for the month of May, so I’m probably being a bit sadistic mentioning it.  However I make no apology for reproducing the excellent cover, by Didier Graffet:

PERSONAL APPEARANCE

Another reminder:

Website here

WORKSHOP

Writing Fantasy Fiction: 17th August, 12.30-4pm, Sarehole Mill.

“In a setting which inspired Tolkien, we will look at the importance of world building, the fine line between genre expectation and cliché, and how fantasy fiction relates to and comments on the real world.  With guest speaker Stan Nicholls, award winning, million-selling author of the Orcs series.”
Details here

Sarehole Mill

MAY 2013

 EDGE-LIT 2

I mentioned back in the March update that, along with authors Mike Carey and Tricia Sullivan, I’m a Guest of Honour at Edge-Lit 2, to be held on Saturday 13th July at the Quad, Derby. 

The organisers have now announced the full list of guest speakers:  Adam Christopher, Tom Fletcher, Andrew Hook, Suzanne MacLeod, Gary McMahon, Lou Morgan, Emma Newman, Gaie Sebold, Gavin Smith, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Gav Thorpe, Niki Valentine, Freda Warrington, Conrad Williams and Jennifer Williams.

Venue: Quad, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby DE1 3AS.  Website here.  The event runs from 11am to midnight, and tickets cost £25, which includes access to all events.
Edge-Lit 2 also has a Facebook page.

 DAVID GEMMELL AWARDS FOR FANTASY 2013

Here’s a press release recently sent out by the Gemmell Awards committee.  Please note that, as stated, the awards ceremony is an open, free event, but does not confer admittance to World Fantasy Convention.  You have to be a paid, registered member of the convention to attend that, and memberships have now closed, having reached their limit.  Though if you do want to attend the con you might be able to pick up an unwanted ticket from someone unable to attend.  It’s worth checking WFC’s Facebook page in this respect, here: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/164901946886664/.

An update from the Gemmell Awards committee

First, a piece of news.  We regret to announce that due to health issues Deborah Miller has had to relinquish her role as Awards Administrator.  The David Gemmell Awards for Fantasy quite simply wouldn’t exist if it hadn’t been for Deborah’s drive and determination.  Liaising with publishers, assembling nominations and overseeing the voting process - all of which Deborah handled with consummate efficiency - made her the most valuable member of our team.  We’re immensely grateful for all the hard work she’s put in. 

The good news is that although Deborah will no longer be undertaking these tasks she isn’t so much quitting as stepping back from the minutiae of organising the awards.  She’ll still be on hand as an adviser, and to generally keep the rest of us in line.  The position of Awards Administrator has passed to Christine Harrison, which she’s carrying out in addition to her function as Treasurer.  Christine can be contacted via DGLA@live.co.uk. 

It’s our intention to get the committee back up to strength, and we hope to be announcing the appointment of new members in due course.   None of this affects the awards.  Nominations are now being gathered, and once the longlists have been compiled we’ll be announcing the date for the first round of voting.

However, we should remind you that we have a change of venue and date for this year’s ceremony.  It’s going to take place at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton (31st Oct-3rd Nov).  We are, in fact, the convention’s opening item, on the evening of Thursday 31st October - a fitting way to mark the awards’ fifth anniversary.

Hopefully most of you will already have registered for WFC.  But if you just want to be at our awards ceremony, entrance is free and all are welcome - the only restriction being the capacity of the hall (which is quite large).  But please note that only the awards ceremony is free to all; to attend the rest of WFC you have to be a paid member of the convention. 

You can find out more about the Gemmell Awards at WFC 2013 here:http://www.wfc2013.org/prog-gemmellawards01.html

We expect the awards ceremony to return to its usual date (June) and venue, London’s Magic Circle HQ, in 2014.

We’ll keep you informed of progress.  Look out for future updates and be prepared to vote for the 2013 Gemmell Awards!

Stan Nicholls
Chair

The Gemmell Awards website is here.

APRIL 2013

Last year, my wife Anne and I were guests at the first Les Féeries Du Bocage festival in Voulx (Seine-et-Marne), France. 

It was a great gathering in a lovely rural setting, with an impressive group of writers and artists present.  I said then that I hoped the festival would become an annual event, and I’m pleased to report that it’s going to be repeated this year on 1st and 2nd June, and we’re delighted that we’ve again been invited to participate.  (If you go into the news archive of this site and scroll down to June 2012 you can see photos of last year’s festival.)

Les Féeries Du Bocage’s website, to which guests are still being added, is here.

TWENTY YEARS AGO: THE LEGEND GRAPHIC NOVEL

Time flies.  October of this year sees the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the graphic novel version of the late David Gemmell’s Legend. 

I adapted the book and Chris Baker (the artist known as Fangorn) did a splendid job of illustrating it.  Sadly, the graphic novel’s long out of print.  We’d love to see it available again, but so far no publisher has been found to take it on.

Next year sees the twentieth anniversary of the second Gemmell graphic novel we adapted, Wolf In Shadow, which is also OP.

Here’s a sample page from Legend:

MARCH 2013

UK OMNIBUS OF ORCS:
BAD BLOOD TRILOGY SET FOR OCTOBER RELEASE

Readers have been asking if there’s going to be an omnibus edition of my second Orcs trilogy, and if so, when.  I’m pleased to report that Gollancz will be publishing the Bad Blood omnibus in the UK on 10th October, and it’ll retail for £9.99.  No cover available yet, but I’ll post it here when it turns up.

At some point there’s also going to be an ebook package of all six Orcs novels, retailing for the price of five.  No date yet; details when known.

FRENCH TRANSLATION OF ORCS SHORT STORY ‘THE TAKING’ AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

My French publisher, Bragelonne, is making a number of sf and fantasy shorts available as mini ebooks at €0.99 each. 

The selection includes my Orcs story ‘The Taking’ (‘La Relève’), which was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award in 2001. 

It can be downloaded here.

NIGHTSHADE: FRENCH SPECIAL EDITION

As I mentioned in last month’s update, Bragelonne is also going to publish a French language omnibus edition of my Nightshade Chronicles trilogy, and I now have a date - 21st June. 

The ten special editions by various authors released on that date all celebrate the tenth anniversary of their original publication by Bragelonne.

The illustration above, by Didier Graffet, is a detail from the original French edition of Volume One, The Book of Shadows. 

The entry for the special omnibus edition on Amazon France is here.

ORCS GRAPHIC NOVEL SLIDESHOW

If you haven’t caught up with Orcs: Forged For War, the graphic novel written by me and illustrated by Joe Flood (First Second Books), you might like to take a look at this slideshow of sample pages.

PERSONAL APPEARANCES

Along with authors Mike Carey and Tricia Sullivan, I’m Guest of Honour at Edge-Lit 2, to be held on Saturday 13th July at the Quad, Derby. 
From the organisers: “Following the success of 2012's inaugural event, Edge-Lit 2 presents another superb day of science-fiction, fantasy and horror writing.  With an incredible selection of panels, readings and workshops to choose from, all for one ticket price, there's bound to be something for any fan, reader or writer of genre fiction.  Whether you want to find out more about the world of publishing, learn tips and tricks from masters of the craft or just find out more about the fascinating range of books and writers out there, Edge-Lit 2 is the day out for you!”
Venue: Quad, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby DE1 3AS. 
Website here.

Nine Worlds Geekfest is a very ambitious multi-themed convention to be held 9th-11th August at the Heathrow hotel complex.  In the words of the organisers, “Nine Worlds is a residential con celebrating all aspects of geek culture. Gaming, film, cosplay, anime, literature, and partying!”  Uniquely, the event’s being funded through crowd-sourcing via Kickstarter; and all proceeds from Nine Worlds go to support English PEN, the world's oldest human rights organisation. I’ve long wondered why the UK hasn’t been able to stage large gatherings like Holland's Elf Fantasy Fair and Castlefest, Belgium's Trolls & Legendes, France's Utopiales or the US’s Dragon*Con and Comicon.  Nine Worlds Geekfest is an attempt to do just that.

My wife Anne Gay and myself are part of the literary strand, along with (at time of writing) Ben Aaronovitch, Paul Cornell, Cory Doctrow, Jaine Fenn, Marion Gibson, Stephen Hunt, Anthony Joseph, Roz Kaveney, Kate Madison, Kim Newman, Charles Stross, Tricia Sullivan, James Swallow and Edmund Weiner.  More guests are due to be added.  Nine Worlds Geekfest’s website is here.

2013’s GEMMELL AWARDS FOR FANTASY

A reminder that the fifth annual David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy ceremony is going to take place at this year’s World Fantasy Convention in Brighton (31st Oct-3rd Nov).  We’re the opening item, in fact, on the Thursday evening (31st).

Naturally we’d like everyone to attend the convention, but if you just want to be at our awards ceremony entrance is free - the only restriction being the capacity of the hall (which is quite large).  But please note that only the awards ceremony is free to all; if you want to attend the rest of WFC you have to be a paid member of the convention, and WFC’s policy is to restrict the number of attendees.  So now might be a good time to think about registering.

We expect the awards to return to their usual venue, London’s Magic Circle HQ, in 2014. 

Details of the Gemmell Awards ceremony at WFC are here.

FEBRUARY 2013

FRENCH SPECIAL EDITION OF NIGHTSHADE TRILOGY ON WAY

Back in 2010 my French publisher, Bragelonne, celebrated its tenth anniversary by publishing special limited editions of ten titles from its first decade.  The books were released in a promotion called “10 years, 10 titles, 10 Euros”.  They included a single volume edition of my Orcs: First Blood trilogy, as here: 

Bragelonne are going to repeat the exercise later this year with ten different titles, including an omnibus edition of my Nightshade Chronicles trilogy, The Book of Shadows, Shadow of the Sorcerer and A Gathering of Shadows.  I don’t know what the other books will be, except for David Gemmell’s Echoes of the Great Song and In the Realm of the Wolf.   These special editions have limited print-runs and won’t be reprinted, so for French readers they’re potentially collectors’ items.  I don’t have a publication date yet, but will post it here once I know.

Here are the covers of the individual Bragelonne editions by Didier Graffet:

And there has been a previous French omnibus edition, again with a cover by Didier:

TWO LOSSES

Sad to note that Gerry Anderson died on 26th December.  He was, of course, the producer of iconic TV puppet shows Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and a number of others.  He was 83.

I had the privilege of working on his authorised biography, published in 1996: 

The book itself was touched by tragedy.  Its original author, Simon Archer, a young local radio reporter and huge Anderson fan, was killed in a car crash, leaving an incomplete manuscript and a mass of notes.  I was invited to finish the book, and while I was writing it my mother died.  So Gerry’s passing has evoked some fairly potent memories.

We lost another enormously influential personality in Charles Chilton, the writer and radio producer who died on 2nd January this year at the grand old age of 95.

He was famous as the writer/producer of the classic BBC radio series Journey Into Space, which was massively popular in the 1950s, and was later responsible for the 1980s series Space Force.  He also produced seminal humour series The Goons, wrote for classic UK comic Eagle and created the hit musical Oh, What A Lovely War!  That’s quite an impressive track record.  I regret never having met him. 

JANUARY 2013

A NEW YEAR

… and a brief summary of some events from 2012:

February

My graphic novel Orcs: Forged For War, illustrated by Joe Flood and published in the US by First Second Books, was named Best Comic Book of the Year in the 2011 Geek Life Awards.

March

The French edition of Forged For War was published by Editions Gallimard.  (Pan Macmillan publish the book in the UK.) 

April

The American edition of Inferno, the last volume in the Orcs: Bad Blood trilogy was published by Orbit. 

As with their previous editions of the first and second trilogies, Orbit came up with a great cover.

May

The shortlists for 2012’s David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy (of which I’m Chair) were published.  The three categories are the Legend Award (best novel), the Morningstar Award (best debut) and the Ravenheart Award (best cover art).

June

The Gemmell Awards ceremony took place at London’s Magic Circle headquarters.  Patrick Rothfuss’ The Wise Man’s Fear (Gollancz) won the Legend Award; Helen Lowe’s The Heir of Night (Orbit) took the Morningstar, and Raymond Swanland the Ravenheart for his cover for William King’s Blood of Aenarion (Black Library). 

My wife Anne and I were guests at Les Féeries Du Bocage festival in à Voulx (Seine-et-Marne) France on 2nd and 3rd June.  It was a really enjoyable gathering, one of the friendliest we’ve attended, in the company of lovely, gifted people in a beautiful setting.  This was the first time the festival had been staged, and I’m pleased to report that it’s going to be run again in June of this year (2013). 

July

Original anthology Horizon was published in the Netherlands by independent publisher Uitgeverij Macc.  It contains stories by Jeff Carlson, Uschi Zietsch, Theo Barkel, Tais Teng, Jaap Boekestein, Nando Harmsen, Peter van Oosterum, Pieter Feddema and Nico de Braeckeleer; and I wrote the introduction.

August

A German language audiobook of my Orcs: First Blood trilogy was published. 
Unabridged and running for 30 hours, it’s read by Erik Schaffler.  Audible offer it as a download.  It’s also available from I-tunes and other outlets.  You can listen to a sample here. 

My Dutch publisher, Luitingh-Sijthoff, released an omnibus edition of the Orcs: Bad Blood trilogy.

The book was launched at Castlefest, held 2nd-4th August in Lisse, Holland.  25,000+ people attended to celebrate all aspects of fantasy, and a large proportion turned up in some kind of costume, many very imaginative.  The weekend was one of the most sociable, good humoured gatherings we’ve attended.  All kudos to the organisers for a superbly planned, smooth-running, child-friendly event. 

September

The mass-market paperback edition of Inferno was published in the UK by Gollancz.

November

The French edition of Inferno, with a fine cover by
Didier Graffet, was published by Bragelonne.

And Heyne published the German omnibus edition of the
Bad Blood trilogy:

2013 - AS FOR THIS YEAR …

I was recently tagged to contribute to The Next Big Thing, a kind of round robin interview with authors where the same set of questions are asked.  You can read my answers on author/independent publisher Andy Remic’s blog (scroll down).

On 3rd December Bragelonne made available as an e-book the French edition of Weapons of Magical Destruction, the first volume of the Orcs: Bad Blood trilogy, and it costs only E0.99.  Details here.

I can’t say anything at the moment about novels I hope to be writing this year.  I’ll post any news on this front once I know.  But I can say that I’m working on a short story collection due to be launched at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, 31st October-3rd November.  The collection’s going to be a mixture of reprint and new stories, and something like a third of the book consists of never before published Orcs fiction.  More on this as the year progresses.

And a reminder that, for this year only, 2013’s Gemmell Awards ceremony is the opening event at World Fantasy Con.  Details here.