Nick Kyme

Seems like that little Space Wolf story I did is causing quite a stir amongst the masses.

Thunder from Fenris is audio drama, my first as it happens, starring a trio of Thunder Wolf Cavalry on the hunt for one of their fallen brethren against the background of an ice world succumbed to a zombie plague – grr, braaaiiiins…

I’m not sure, but I think when I was pitching this piece (not something I’d planned but that came to me none-the-less and no one else was going to do it), I knew I had the ingredients of something cool. Generally, a good rule of thumb is that if you’re excited about it then other people will be excited about it too. It had all the good stuff I like, certainly: zombies, Vikings in space, monstrous cybernetically-altered super wolves and snow. How could it lose?

Well, despite the fact it wasn’t released to the trade (a huge shame and a missed opportunity in my opinion, but I don’t make the rules about that), Thunder from Fenris has been doing the rounds and garnering some pretty damn favourable reviews wherever it goes.

The latest comes from Mass Movement Magazine, a hugely flattering piece that sings the audio’s praises, my story and Toby Longworth’s expert skills at delivering it so well.

It was also featured on the highly prestigious SF Signal blog, here. Admittedly, the reviewer did get the story a little wrong in the review, but high praise was foisted upon my Wolves yet again.

The one enduring, and perhaps contentious, piece of feedback I get from it whenever I speak to anyone about Thunder from Fenris is the voice we used for Thorgard. Before you ask, yes it was meant to sound a bit like a Scandinavian Arnie. Love it, hate it or just find it plain bonkers, it’s one of those things that’ll always be memorable. I thought it sounded great and it always raises a cheeky little smile on my face.

Getting hold of the audio is proving a bit of a challenge for some people, especially with the Black Library website still down (yes, I know, it’s been like that for ages – be patient people! ). Well, here’s a link to Games Workshop’s website where you can buy the action-packed Thunder from Fenris quite easily. And it’s free shipping in January for orders over a tenner, so get your butts over there, bag Thunder from Fenris and treat yourself to Salamander, too, if already haven’t. Shameless plugging I know, but I’m feeling slightlyreckless today.

Tell you what, too, it’s kinda weird discussing and seeing reviews for a thing you wrote months and months ago. I’m currently embroiled in all things Firedrake at the moment, the sequel to Salamader that is gathering more and more momentum on a daily basis (more on the progress on that later), but it’s nice to go back and remember some of what will become my back catalogue material.

Hokey dokey, back to the keyboard for some fiery Salamander action!

Not as dodgy a post as it sounds. Just found this rather short, but rather nice review of Thunder from Fenris on Kantor Base blogspot.

The audio book was released in November (though was pre-released late September as part of the Games Day 2009 festivities) and it seems folks are starting to pick it up, listen and blog about it. Ta very much.

On the subject of audios, Fireborn is actually being recorded tomorrow (very exciting) and no doubt I’ll hear some rushes from the performance in the coming days.

Stay tuned for more updates as I get ‘em.

Work-wise, it was a fairly quiet day yesterday. I’m trying to take some sage advice (thanks, Sam) and taking a little more time off at the weekends. My Saturday pretty much amounted to an eye test at the opticians (for which I had to buy some new glasses – well lenses, but I bought the glasses anyway – not cheap), swiftly followed by meeting Louise in Nottingham city and heading over to the cinema to watch Terminator Salvation (see the review/verdict in the blog post immediately prior to this one). After gorging myself on a pick n’ mix (must be a throw back to my childhood or something, as I nearly always buy pick n’ mix when I go to the cinema), I headed home to watch the England game (lacklustre, but a good result) and vegged out for the rest of the evening.

Today, however, will be a different story. It’s raining and the clouds are stormy – perfect creative weather for me. I plan to write a couple more blog posts and then my main tasks will be finish listening to Thunder from Fenris and write up my feedback notes (after an audio comes in, we usually sit down and go through it, checking for anything that doesn’t quite work from an FX and music point of view). I’m on my second listening right now (the first was just to get it in my head; the second’s where the detail comes in), and it’s sounding great with just a few tweaks needed. I’m sure Chris and George will have their own thoughts on it when they do their review.

Second job today is finish my synopsis for Grimblades. This is my first fantasy book since Honourkeeper and is part of the Empire army series so ably launched by Richard William’s Reiksguard. I’m esteemed company here, as I’ll be joining authors Chris Wraight, who’s novel Iron Company is book two in the series, and Mitchel Scanlon, who has Call to Arms taking up the third slot. No pressure then.

I’ve started in on the story, which really just had some bones and a vague concept, and am fleshing out both narrative and characters. I’m really enjoying getting back to fantasy and tackling the Empire, which I’ve yet to do in a novel (I’ve written several short stories involving Kislev and the Knights of Morr, so I have some experience writing human characters). Of course, I’ll also be getting my beloved dwarfs in there in some small way (no pun intended). All the work is going down in my moleskine and as stream of conscious-type rattlings on my keyboard below the text I’ve already got for the synopsis. I find it really helpful to work in this way and plot in some detail, only to pare it down for my editor and refer to the detail notes later when I’m actually writing.

Third job, if I can get around to it, is writing the synopsis for Fireborn, the last in the Salamander Tome of Fire trilogy. I’m about halfway through this and will present to Chris either tomorrow or midweek. Fingers crossed it passes muster – if it does, I’ll have something to shout about in the next blog post for sure.

Well, that’s about all I’ll be able to cram in today. Honestly, if I get all of that done I’ll be very pleased indeed.