The cat’s out of the bag, so here we go: I’ve written a Lelith Hesperax novel!
That’s the absolutely wonderful special edition cover, courtesy of Warhammer Community. This obviously comes hard on the heels of the Drukhari being the antagonists in DA BIG DAKKA, so that was a fairly Commorragh-heavy bit of writing time which, honestly, I’m glad to have finished. Getting yourself into the headspace of an alien species is always an interesting challenge, and writing both novels was fun, but with the Drukhari it’s also rather… unpleasant.
Look out for further details about the release date: I don’t even know when it is myself, yet, and even if I did, I couldn’t tell you before Games Workshop have announced it!
EASTERCON
I should also mention the fact that I went to Eastercon 2024 and, unlike last year, I didn’t catch Covid, so that’s definitely a plus! It’s also the first convention I’ve been to that was actually in a convention centre and not in a hotel, which was a change, and not an awful one: the hotel was a thirty-second walk away, and it meant things were laid out better in a purpose-built setting. I think the only real downside was the more limited refreshment options, including hot food which, judging by various accounts I received, was considered to be compelling evidence for the absence of a kind and loving god. However, there were many restaurants and eateries within a minute or so’s walk, so I avoided that particular fate (sadly I could not do my usual tactic of loading up on a hotel breakfast to see me through most of the day, as the Telford International Hotel’s offering was what I dubbed a ‘North Sea breakfast’ – not quite English, not quite Continental, a bit cold and disappointing).
It was great to see people and catch up, and it’s always nice when people you know win awards (Adrian Tchaikovsky won yet another, but Emily Inkpen got her first for Best Audio Drama for The Dex Legacy, which has been going from strength to strength). I attended sessions ranging from talks on how to identify what wounds a skeleton had suffered, and the economics of empire, to panels about writing a locked-room mystery in space, or the history of robes and official garments.
I won’t (barring very unexpected developments) be at WorldCon in the summer, but I will be at FantasyCon in Chester in the autumn. I’d definitely recommend these sorts of conventions for anyone looking to seriously get into writing: you can pick up all sorts of tips and learn fascinating things you’d never have thought about, as well as meeting other authors, agents, editors, and all the other people who make the writing world go round. I’m not saying that publishing is a case of “who you know” rather than “what you know”, because it’s not, but we are social animals at heart, and a bit of “who you know” certainly helps…
Good Afternoon,
I just picked up a copy of “Lelith Hesperax” and it’s thoroughly enjoyable. While I do fully understand that writing about a violent and sadistic people like the Drukhari must have been quite challenging, I believe you’ve done a brilliant job and still managed to create a readership-based connection with your protagonist. Whether this is because Lelith herself is more interested in personal achievement and retaining mastery as the galaxy’s greatest combatant over simple cruelty for the sake of cruelty, I am not sure. It has inspired me to invest in assembling a Drukhari army for tabletop shenanigans – I don’t want to ramble on, but I wanted you to know that your novel was a great read and has inspired my imagination to add an element of role-playing and character depth to my soon-to-be tournament ready team.
Well done!
I think my last comment disappeared – but I really enjoyed reading Leilith Hesperax and think you did a great job writing about villains whose moral compass is…well…non-existent. I genuinely cared about what happened to Leilith despite the fact she is only fractionally better than your average Drukhari on a morale level.
It didn’t disappear – I was just slow to approve it (I have to approve comments otherwise it just gets drowned in spam). Thank you very much for your kind words, they are much appreciated! And yes, it was something of a challenge, but I enjoyed trying to reframe things to explore why the drukhari are the way they are, and how a society like theirs can survive for 10,000 or more years despite being ostensibly extremely broken…