I’m sat watching the movie Capote, a pretty intense and emotional account of the infamous murder of a Kansas family and based upon the work on non-fiction by the eponymous leadin the film, In Cold Blood.
It occurred to me as I sat watching the biopic of a part of Truman Capote’s life, specifically his involvement in the case and story of the murdered Kansas family, but specifically his bond with one of the killers, I thought it was time I put myself to task with my own, much more meagre by Capote’s great standards, writing.
So, here I am. As an aside, I plan to return to Capote and my experiences of this film and the novel, which I read as part of an A-level college text some fourteen years ago.
But that’s for later – to Prometheus.
It was a tough task, but I have finished the first draft of ‘Prometheus Requiem’. I completed it in the BL office at 6pm on Friday night. It was a cold night, rainy and dark – it echoed my mood, but the isolation and the desolation I felt helped me reach the finale of the piece.
It was a bit over, as these things sometimes are – a slightly fat 14,000 words (approx.), instead of the commissioned 12,000, but I think that’ll fly. Ahead of deadline, too; now there’s a bonus. So, with that in mind, I’ll leave it for a few days, get some objectivity and read through the thing again, cutting, tweaking and editing until I’m ready to let it go.
The story will feature in Fear the Alien, the next 40K anthology released by Black Library. It’ll be amongst some other great stories, so I’m hopeful it’ll stand out as one of the best.
For chronology fans, it’s set between Salamander and the forthcoming Firedrake. Tsu’gan is the main character, though Praetor also gets a lot of ’screen time’. Set aboard a space hulk, I hope it has a claustrophobic feel. Maybe it conveys some of the bleakness of my surroundings, too.
For me, it represents an achievement getting this done. The relief I felt as the final keyboard strokes fell with a weary sought of joy was quite odd, really quite odd.
Now I move on, as everyone must. The next project is ‘The Burning’. This you will have heard nothing about. It’s a story that will feature in the Bl Live chapbook. It’s Salamanders, as I continue to build my mini-opus of shorts and novels. The chronology fits between the first two novels, but this time focuses on Dak’ir. I’ll reveal no more than that. The story currently resides in my head and on some Post-It notes, so there’s not that much more to say anyway. It’s a different tone, though – I think you’ll like it.
Previews catalogues (at least the latest version – I think it’s red with the cover of the excellent – and I know it’s excellent, I read it yesterday - Helsreach on it) are heading into GW stores soon, possibly before the end of December. Look out for this if you’re a Salamander fan as there’s an extract of ‘Hell Night’ in it from Legends of the Space Marines.
In other news, I’ve seen the cover to Firedrake. It’s stunning. It’s really, really stunning. I am honoured and privileged to get such good covers to my books. You’ll see it soon. I’ll post the art here just as soon as it appears on the BL website.
That’s all for now.
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Nick Kyme is an editor and author who originally hails from Grimsby, a small town on the east coast of England.