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…