David Guymer's Blog - Posts Tagged "gemmell-award"
“Be quiet-still man-things. Queek Headtaker is speaking…”
“Are you sitting comfortably slave-meat? No? Good. This will teach stupid man-things to not have tails, Queek thinks.
‘With your small and inferior brains you are probably wondering why the mighty Queek has claimed this blog for the Under-Empire. Those of you most clever might wonder also what this has to do with you. Yes-yes, Queek sees questions on you like flies, flies that tell lies, buzz buzz buzz to blind rats’ ears. Well do not doubt-fear little man-things, Queek will not be killing you today. Not unless you are… disobedient.
“See this skull here? This idiot-meat was disobedient. He thought he could keep his blog from Queek. Hah! Who has no head now? Not Queek. No-no, Queek has many and they whisper to him, yes-yes they do. They tell him that the legendary Queek has come to the attention of those that bestow prizes on worthy heads. And who is more worthy than Queek Headtaker, he who dances in ash and feasts on his unworthy foes? It is surely only the treachery of Queek’s rivals that he has not attracted such covetous notice before now. Queek laughs at their petty scheming. He has no rivals! He can smell the musk of their rightful terror even from this rat-infested warren.
“Unfair to his inferior adversaries, perhaps, but Queek must crush them and take their heads all the same - and this is where you come in lucky man-things. In order to claim the prize rightfully his for his most magnificent of deeds he needs man-things like you to… “vote”… for him by hurry-scurrying to this place (http://gemmellaward.ning.com/page/mor...) and joining Queek’s numberless legions. Not for Queek’s slave-meat getting blown up by warpfire throwers or gassed by wicked tinker-rats. You do not believe? How back-stabbing and untrusting you furless man-things must be. No wonder you tremble. Read this scratch-scrawl of Queek’s slaughter of dwarf-things and green-things and other-things too unimportant for Queek to remember their feeble names.
“Read-read!
“See? Queek’s slave-meat almost always get-cut-stabbed. A much more exciting way to make Queek’s greatness just little bit greater, yes-yes? Does that not make guts slither with hunger-lust? Go now slave-meat. Vote Queek Headtaker - he will remember the smell of you, and should you again cross his burrow once he is crowned the most murderous warlord in all of Skavendom he will maybe not eat you.
“Unless he is hungry.
“He cannot be scourge of the dwarf-things hungry.”
‘With your small and inferior brains you are probably wondering why the mighty Queek has claimed this blog for the Under-Empire. Those of you most clever might wonder also what this has to do with you. Yes-yes, Queek sees questions on you like flies, flies that tell lies, buzz buzz buzz to blind rats’ ears. Well do not doubt-fear little man-things, Queek will not be killing you today. Not unless you are… disobedient.
“See this skull here? This idiot-meat was disobedient. He thought he could keep his blog from Queek. Hah! Who has no head now? Not Queek. No-no, Queek has many and they whisper to him, yes-yes they do. They tell him that the legendary Queek has come to the attention of those that bestow prizes on worthy heads. And who is more worthy than Queek Headtaker, he who dances in ash and feasts on his unworthy foes? It is surely only the treachery of Queek’s rivals that he has not attracted such covetous notice before now. Queek laughs at their petty scheming. He has no rivals! He can smell the musk of their rightful terror even from this rat-infested warren.
“Unfair to his inferior adversaries, perhaps, but Queek must crush them and take their heads all the same - and this is where you come in lucky man-things. In order to claim the prize rightfully his for his most magnificent of deeds he needs man-things like you to… “vote”… for him by hurry-scurrying to this place (http://gemmellaward.ning.com/page/mor...) and joining Queek’s numberless legions. Not for Queek’s slave-meat getting blown up by warpfire throwers or gassed by wicked tinker-rats. You do not believe? How back-stabbing and untrusting you furless man-things must be. No wonder you tremble. Read this scratch-scrawl of Queek’s slaughter of dwarf-things and green-things and other-things too unimportant for Queek to remember their feeble names.
“Read-read!
“See? Queek’s slave-meat almost always get-cut-stabbed. A much more exciting way to make Queek’s greatness just little bit greater, yes-yes? Does that not make guts slither with hunger-lust? Go now slave-meat. Vote Queek Headtaker - he will remember the smell of you, and should you again cross his burrow once he is crowned the most murderous warlord in all of Skavendom he will maybe not eat you.
“Unless he is hungry.
“He cannot be scourge of the dwarf-things hungry.”
Fantasycon - Scarborough
Next weekend (September 23rd - 25th, I'll be taking the short drive from my East Yorkshire homelands to Fantasycon by the Sea in Scarborough. As the website explains: "Fantasycon comes to Scarborough. Celebrating the fantastic, the horrific and the awe inspiring in literature, image and film. Every year Fantasycon offers readers and writers the opportunity to come together to discover, learn and discuss fantastic fiction in all its forms. Three days of panels, talks, workshops and socialising. Bringing together the best in writing, publishing and reading. Fantasycon prides itself on its friendly members. Every year we welcome hundreds of first timers. But you are only a first timer once. Come along, meet like minded people and get the opportunity to network in the bar."There are more writers, publishers, and agents in attending than I can pretend to know, including, as guest of honour, one of my all time favourite authors, Scott Lynch. The hotel is probably filling up fast but there are still tickets available.
Finalist for the David Gemmell Legend Award
I've made it something of a rolling New Year's resolution to attend more of this kind of event, speak to people, put my name and face out there, but I've been too busy (edit: lazy) and socially awkward to get myself down to Nineworlds or Edgelit this year or last. This time out though I have the excuse of having to represent my novel, Gotrek & Felix: Slayer, in the David Gemmell Legend Award. The awards ceremony is on the Saturday night and is free entry even for people not attending the rest of Fantasycon. Scarborough's along way from anywhere, but if you're around you should come. There's a bar.
Other than that, I'm still going to be kept pretty busy:
Saturday 24th
10:30-12:30 - A signing at GW: Scarborough with my fellow Black Library attendees, Guy Haley, Gav Thorpe, and Laurie Goulding
19:00-21:00 - The Gemmell Awards Ceremony
Sunday 25th
11:00-12:00 - An Extended reading with Black Library, Gav, Guy, Laurie and I will be giving readings and doing a brief Q&A on our current works in progress. So keep your twitter feeds updated for some tasty reveals!
14:00-15:00 - A Little's Enough, a seminar on what makes a great short story
I'm also bringing my 2 1/2 year old daughter, Rosie, along, in the hope of influencing her reading tastes early. And my girlfriend too, in the vain hope of convincing her that I have a real job. Anyone that sees us, please help me out by demonstrating how popular and in demand I am!
See you in a week!
Fantasycon 2016
It's been a while since I last wrote something for my blog. I've been pretty busy the last couple months, finishing up on my current (month overdue...) novel, EYE OF MEDUSA, and, of course, the Fantasycon weekend just passed.
I'm happy to say that as of yesterday Eye of Medusa is consigned to Laurie Goulding's inbox, and I'm finally free to turn a little love this way.
I've been itching to put down a few words on Fantasycon. It's the first big event of this sort that I've been to, despite promising myself to go to at least two a year for several years, and I took the plunge at the deep, carnivore-infested end by getting myself involved in numerous events throughout the weekend.
This is what editors are for
Alongside my cooler and more grizzled Black Library battle-brothers Gav Thorpe, Guy Haley, and Laurie Goulding I participated in the first live reading I've ever done. Unless you count reading Peepo! to my daughter, which really wasn't as great preparation as I thought it was.
I read the first scene from Eye of the Medusa, which was doubly nerve-wracking as my editor, Laurie, sat right there next to me, hadn't even seen it himself. It went ok, considering, but nothing exposes waffle and filler like reading your work out to an audience. Much chopping and scribbling out was carried out later that evening!
Gav Thorpe, Guy Haley, me, and Laurie Goulding
This is clearly what writing groups are for, and if the one I'm nominally a member of didn't meet on a day when I have parenting duty then I might actually start attending. Maybe I should set up my own?
Any Howden-based writers out there?
I also learned a lot from my fellow readers to take with me for next time, Guy, Laurie and Gav (Reading fromShadowsword, Slaughter at Giant's Coffin, and Corax, respectively) all used brilliant action-packed scenes. It didn't take me long after the session to realise which scene I SHOULD have used.
The Michael Bay of the short story
I also took part in my first ever panel, titled A Little's Enough, discussing the art of short story writing.
Emma Cosh, Lynda Clark, George Sandison (Chair), Ruth Booth, and me
Now I've written a lot of short stories, I know how to write a short story, but it's fair to say that I've never given great thought to the exact mechanisms of the process. It was a bit of culture shock then to find myself sat alongside three incredibly articulate, literate, and broadly read women (all women, as if to properly hammer home my neanderthal thinking) talking about stories I didn't know by writers I'd never heard of who do clever things like tell stories from the point of view of the protagonist's favourite hat. And then there was me, at the end, trying to decide whether bronze really is better than stone and thinking, I write about people that stuff happens to, preferably with a car chase and an explosion.
Let's say I grew into it. I started to find my groove after about fifteen minutes. I mean I do make a living from this, I can't be THAT bad at it.
Let's also say that I learned a lot, and I'll definitely be tuning into Emma's Storylogical podcast. She was dazzlingly insightful, and you could tell that she has a real enthusiasm for talking about short stories.
How many people can say they've lost the Gemmell Award twice?
Obviously the main event for me, and the only reason I was there at all despite that promise I was talking about earlier, was the Gemmell Award ceremony on the Saturday night.
I was the only Legend finalist present for the night, but I got to meet three of the Morningstar finalists, Peter Newman, Stephen Aryan and Lucy Hounsom. They were all lovely people and Lucy gets extra credit for driving all the way from the south-west coast to Scarborough and for coming dressed as Daenerys Targaryen. It's no surprise that these sort of awards matter so much more to the debutants that the Morningstar was set up to celebrate (I did consider attending as Felix Jaeger, briefly, but bottled it...). The Legend, alas, went to Mark Lawrence and The Liar's Key, which also took the Ravenheart for best cover, and which I will now forever remember alongside Brian McClellan and Promise of Blood who took the Morningstar overHeadtaker in 2014.
Being great books doesn't make it ok!
But it wasn't all bad
So I was a bit disappointed that night, I'm very proud of Gotrek & Felix: Slayer and Black Library did everything they could have done to mobilise the vote. But, I met Black Library newcomer Justin Hill for the first, Laurie and I had a good chat about upcoming projects and, bolstered by free wine, I managed to exchange a handful of awkward words with one of my absolute favourite authors, Scott Lynch.
Why are successful authors so charismatic in person? Tell me this!
But the highlight of the weekend for me was a chance meeting with Marie O'Regan, who I hadn't realised was going to be there beforehand. I've written before about how I took a correspondence writing course with Writers' News before I got published, for which Marie was my mentor, and sold my first story to Black Library shortly after. I've wanted to thank her for a long time and finally got the chance, which completely erased any Gemmell Award disappointment from my mind when I went to bed that night. As I said to her, I already knew most of what she told me, but I needed someone else to say it, and I doubt I'd be where I am now without her.
In Summary
Exhausting. I caught a horrible cold. It was good to get back to writing my book and be reminded of my place in the Great Author Hierarchy.
But I'll definitely do it again.
Nineworlds perhaps? EdgeLit? Or maybe Novacon, Birmingham?
I'm happy to say that as of yesterday Eye of Medusa is consigned to Laurie Goulding's inbox, and I'm finally free to turn a little love this way.
I've been itching to put down a few words on Fantasycon. It's the first big event of this sort that I've been to, despite promising myself to go to at least two a year for several years, and I took the plunge at the deep, carnivore-infested end by getting myself involved in numerous events throughout the weekend.
This is what editors are for
Alongside my cooler and more grizzled Black Library battle-brothers Gav Thorpe, Guy Haley, and Laurie Goulding I participated in the first live reading I've ever done. Unless you count reading Peepo! to my daughter, which really wasn't as great preparation as I thought it was.
I read the first scene from Eye of the Medusa, which was doubly nerve-wracking as my editor, Laurie, sat right there next to me, hadn't even seen it himself. It went ok, considering, but nothing exposes waffle and filler like reading your work out to an audience. Much chopping and scribbling out was carried out later that evening!
Gav Thorpe, Guy Haley, me, and Laurie Goulding
This is clearly what writing groups are for, and if the one I'm nominally a member of didn't meet on a day when I have parenting duty then I might actually start attending. Maybe I should set up my own?
Any Howden-based writers out there?
I also learned a lot from my fellow readers to take with me for next time, Guy, Laurie and Gav (Reading fromShadowsword, Slaughter at Giant's Coffin, and Corax, respectively) all used brilliant action-packed scenes. It didn't take me long after the session to realise which scene I SHOULD have used.
The Michael Bay of the short story
I also took part in my first ever panel, titled A Little's Enough, discussing the art of short story writing.
Emma Cosh, Lynda Clark, George Sandison (Chair), Ruth Booth, and me
Now I've written a lot of short stories, I know how to write a short story, but it's fair to say that I've never given great thought to the exact mechanisms of the process. It was a bit of culture shock then to find myself sat alongside three incredibly articulate, literate, and broadly read women (all women, as if to properly hammer home my neanderthal thinking) talking about stories I didn't know by writers I'd never heard of who do clever things like tell stories from the point of view of the protagonist's favourite hat. And then there was me, at the end, trying to decide whether bronze really is better than stone and thinking, I write about people that stuff happens to, preferably with a car chase and an explosion.
Let's say I grew into it. I started to find my groove after about fifteen minutes. I mean I do make a living from this, I can't be THAT bad at it.
Let's also say that I learned a lot, and I'll definitely be tuning into Emma's Storylogical podcast. She was dazzlingly insightful, and you could tell that she has a real enthusiasm for talking about short stories.
How many people can say they've lost the Gemmell Award twice?
Obviously the main event for me, and the only reason I was there at all despite that promise I was talking about earlier, was the Gemmell Award ceremony on the Saturday night.
I was the only Legend finalist present for the night, but I got to meet three of the Morningstar finalists, Peter Newman, Stephen Aryan and Lucy Hounsom. They were all lovely people and Lucy gets extra credit for driving all the way from the south-west coast to Scarborough and for coming dressed as Daenerys Targaryen. It's no surprise that these sort of awards matter so much more to the debutants that the Morningstar was set up to celebrate (I did consider attending as Felix Jaeger, briefly, but bottled it...). The Legend, alas, went to Mark Lawrence and The Liar's Key, which also took the Ravenheart for best cover, and which I will now forever remember alongside Brian McClellan and Promise of Blood who took the Morningstar overHeadtaker in 2014.
Being great books doesn't make it ok!
But it wasn't all bad
So I was a bit disappointed that night, I'm very proud of Gotrek & Felix: Slayer and Black Library did everything they could have done to mobilise the vote. But, I met Black Library newcomer Justin Hill for the first, Laurie and I had a good chat about upcoming projects and, bolstered by free wine, I managed to exchange a handful of awkward words with one of my absolute favourite authors, Scott Lynch.
Why are successful authors so charismatic in person? Tell me this!
But the highlight of the weekend for me was a chance meeting with Marie O'Regan, who I hadn't realised was going to be there beforehand. I've written before about how I took a correspondence writing course with Writers' News before I got published, for which Marie was my mentor, and sold my first story to Black Library shortly after. I've wanted to thank her for a long time and finally got the chance, which completely erased any Gemmell Award disappointment from my mind when I went to bed that night. As I said to her, I already knew most of what she told me, but I needed someone else to say it, and I doubt I'd be where I am now without her.
In Summary
Exhausting. I caught a horrible cold. It was good to get back to writing my book and be reminded of my place in the Great Author Hierarchy.
But I'll definitely do it again.
Nineworlds perhaps? EdgeLit? Or maybe Novacon, Birmingham?
