Aug 262011
 

Sabbat Worlds is out in paperback October 2011, priced £7.99. 

 

How was the writing of the Ultramarines movie script? Did you have any prior scriptwriting experience? No, although working in comics for twenty plus years helped a little with visual storytelling. I was asked to write the film because of my success as a Warhammer 40k author. It was a very interesting and involving process. Other movie projects are now growing out of it, actually.

Can you reveal anything about the plot of the film? Not a lot at this stage, because we’re all sworn to secrecy. It’s about Ultramarines, obviously, though other Space Marines turn up. My best suggestion is that you go to www.Ultramarines.com, and register. All information is released there, and if you’re registered, they send it right to you as soon as it’s announced, so you don’t have to keep checking back.

With Sabbat Worlds you’ve allowed lots of great authors to go wild with your characters/setting from the Gaunts Ghosts series. Was this a tricky project to get together? Not really. It was very enjoyable. I got sick at the end of last year (I developed epilepsy out of nowhere), and that pushed a few deadlines back. As there suddenly wasn’t going to be a new Gaunt novel this autumn, we decided to get folks together for a jam. I didn’t want people writing about the Ghosts themselves (I’ve written a new Ghosts novella for the book), but I wanted my fellow writers to explore other aspects of the Sabbat Campaign. So Graham touches on the Double Eagle continuity, Aaron visits Balhaut before the Gaunt series began, Sandy goes back to Verghast etc. It was very exciting to see what people came back with. I think it’s a splendid collection.

Prospero Burns is finally out. How do you feel about it? I’m very proud of it. I think people will get a kick out of it. It’s quite ambitious in scope and reveals things about the events culminating in Prospero that put a very different spin on things from Graham’s excellent A Thousand Sons. That was the whole idea, of course, to present the other side. Readers may see the Wolves in a whole new light – I know that after Graham’s book, the Thousand Sons got a lot of sympathy and the Wolves were cast as the knuckle-headed villains.

What advice would you give any prospective writers out there who want to write for the Black Library? Write yourself into a frenzy, then try submitting. If you submit, FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION. Don’t be crazy and decide you know better. There are regular submission windows when BL is open for stories (check their website, www.blacklibrary.com). There’s also Hammer and Bolter, a new online fiction magazine that is a little like a digital version of the old Inferno in that it offers an audition platform for new writers.

Andy Jamieson, Editor

To read the Geekzine review of Sabbat Worlds, click here.

Please note: This interview was originally published in issue 7 of the Edinburgh Geekzine, released in Spring 2011.

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