Bloodforged Contest!
To celebrate the upcoming release of the second Ulrika book, Bloodforged, I have decided to hold a double contest. Here’s how it works. I am looking for the best Ulrika artwork and best Ulrika miniature conversion, and I will be giving out cool prizes to the winners and runners up in both categories.

Both art and miniatures should represent Ulrika, armed and dangerous, as described in Bloodborn or Bloodforged and shown on the covers. There should be no nudity or excessive violence (this is a family show) but the rest is at your discretion.

The contest will run from now until Monday, May 30th 2011, and I will announce the winners a week later on Monday, June 6th, which is right between the US and UK Bloodforged release dates.

I reserve the right to post all entries, whether winners or losers, on my blog, but make no guarantees that I will show any of them. Enter at your own risk.

Here are the details for each contest:

Art Contest
The medium can be anything you want, pen, pencil, paint, digital, even sculpture or photography. It can be a pin-up, portrait, action scene, comic story, etc. Whatever you want, as long as it features Ulrika. Please DO NOT send original works. Send jpgs of the work to my gmail address and make sure they’re not too big. 700×450 pixels is about right. The decision of the judges (me) is final.

Miniature Contest
The medium is a standard 28mm miniature figure, converted and painted to look like Ulrika. If you want to go nuts and make a diorama, be my guest, but a single figure will be fine. As with the art contest, DO NOT send the actual miniatures. Send jpgs of the finished pieces to my gmail address and make sure they’re not too big. 700×450 pixels is about right. The decision of the judges (me) is final.

Prizes
Prizes for both contests are as follows:

First Prize is a signed copy of Bloodforged PLUS a print of the Bloodforged cover art signed by me and the artist, Winona Nelson.

Two runners up will each receive a signed copy of Bloodforged.

There you go. Any questions, send an e-mail. Good luck and get started. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

And no, Winona, you can’t enter….

Rob Sanders wrote:Re: Alpharius March 10

Hi Alpharius (the World’s Biggest Alpha Legion fan)

In terms of the Alpharius /Omegon novella, there’s not that much I can tell you. Sworn Black Library secrecy (the Alpha Legion kind, of course) prevents me from divulging such details this early on. The information you have was hot off the press – off Christian’s lips in fact – and I had the glorious facts only an hour or two before you.
In the interest of putting your mind at rest - that the Alpha Legion is in good hands – I can tell you several of my intentions.

Whatever I do with the Alpha Legion, I will ensure that the Black Library maestro Dan Abnett is consulted. I’m playing in his sandbox here to a certain extent and I am eager that a textual unity exists in the handling of the Legion/Primarch(s) between authors. This is all the more important because I intend to get into some new fluff territory with the Alphas. They are a Legion associated with secrecy and it only seems appropriate that the reader get some seriously juicy new stuff. Of course, this all depends on Black Library sanctioning such material.
In summary:

I intend to build on the excellent character / narrative foundation introduced in ‘Legion’.
I intend to give the reader something special and new to justify a HH Alpha Legion outing.
I intend to do justice to a Legion that I love also.

Hope that helps, Alpharius. Sorry I can’t give you more. In the meantime, you could check out The Long Games at Carcharias in 'Victories of the Space Marines'. I've got a feeling you might like it.

Cheers
Rob

Necroagogo wrote:So, what's the feelings on 'Garro: Legion of One'? How did people feel about the dun-dun-duuuh ending?

Toby's voice characterisations become ever more irritating but he can still narrate a ggod exposition

Greetings from the Black Library



Next week, the Horus Heresy evolves. Don't miss out on this momentous occasion, make sure you visit BlackLibrary.com on Friday 15th of April.

See you then

The Black Library Team

Alpharius wrote:Well, April 15th is my oldest daughter's birthday - so it better be something cool!

Red - no hints/ideas as to what it may be?

I mean, you are our Man On The Inside for BL stuff - what's up?

Alpharius wrote:No, she isn't - for which, I am sure, she'll be eternally grateful!

BrookM wrote:Finally finished Savage Scars, which was okay, had a good deal of Tau slaughter and fit in well with the established background of the Damocles Crusade. I do hope we'll be getting more Arcadius novels, as there are still some unresolved matters to tend to.

reds8n wrote:
I hope to %$^& and back it's not anything like a move to hardback or anything daft.

BrookM wrote:Yeah, you're on first name base with all of them, you gotta know!

Promethean Sun will be on sale from 9am (UK local time) tomorrow.

EXCLUSIVE ONLINE TRAILER! Before the Heresy set the galaxy aflame, the Legions of the Emperor conquered the galaxy during the two hundred years of the Great Crusade. In this all-new limited edition novella, Vulkan of the Salamanders, Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands, and Mortarion of the Death Guard work together to free a feral backwater world from the tyranny of the ancient eldar. BL author Nick Kyme turns his expertise on the Salamanders Space Marines to the Horus Heresy series, in the first hardback novella available only from the BlackLibrary.com website. Strictly limited to just 3000 copies worldwide, pre-orders begin on Friday April 15th - don't miss out! Original artwork by Neil Roberts. Thanks to Relic Entertainment and THQ.

Alpharius wrote:

And no idea about The Long Games at Carcharias story in VICTORIES OF THE SPACE MARINES, but I guess I'm going to go pick that up now!

Which First Founding Chapter gets the least love? It used to be the White Scars, possibly, but now they’ve got their very own novel, Savage Scars, by the very talented Andy Hoare. And although the Imperial Fists don’t seem to get a huge amount of attention, there’s recently been Chris Roberson’s Sons of Dorn. The Salamanders, Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Ultramarines, Dark Angels and Raven Guard have all had books recently, whether standalone or as part of the Space Marine Battle/Horus Heresy range.

So who’s missing? That’s right: the poor old Iron Hands. These guys haven’t had a book written about them for a long time (2004, as far as I can see, with Jonathan Green’s Iron Hands). On the surface, I can see why this is. The Sons of Ferrus aren’t obviously appealing. They don’t talk a lot, they kill plenty of people on their own side, they have this weird body-hate thing going on, and their paint scheme is, frankly, dull.

But scratch the surface, and there’s plenty to like. The more I read about them, the more I warm to them. Psychologically, they’re about the most interesting of all the First Founding Chapters. The trauma of the Heresy, combined with long-term gene-seed issues, has made them very odd bunnies indeed. And what’s more, they choose to be the way they are, believing that any lessening of commitment to their extreme ideas of flesh-removal and bionic augmentation is somehow weakness.


So they’re rather tragic, flawed heroes, just like Space Marines ought to be. In addition, they have access to all sorts of crazy Adeptus Mechanicus toys, and they spend their shore-leave in gigantic moving fortresses, churning their way across the grim plains of Medusa while sawing more bits of themselves off. They may not be the most flamboyant warriors in the Imperium, but they’re properly scary guys. If you see what they’re prepared to do to themselves, it doesn’t take much imagination to guess what they do to people they really don’t like.

So Iron Hands are great. I liked them so much that I bought the company wrote a story about them, and it’s out in next month’s Hammer and Bolter. If you know any Iron Hands players who are feeling a bit neglected, I hope that this cheers them up a bit. And, the fates willing, I’ll be writing more about them in the future too.

As for other stuff, I’m currently up to my armpits in Luthor Huss. He’s another interesting chap, psychologically speaking – the more I write about him, the more that’s becoming obvious. Aside from the pleasure of telling his particular story, it’s nice to be back in the Empire. There’s something comforting about all that grime, horror and superstition. This latest book will be a little different from the ‘Swords’ books: Huss works and lives on the margins of the Empire, and the forgotten, pox-ridden masses are his concern. Expect to see a slightly darker story this time around, as there are some very creepy things lurking under the branches in the Drakwald, some very creepy things indeed…

Finally, don’t forget Salute this weekend. I’ll be there, along with Aaron Dembski-Bowden and James Swallow. So that’s a chance to chat about the awesome Blood Reaver, the magnificent Hammer and Anvil, and of course Battle of the Fang. I’ll be around from about 10am (possibly slightly later, depending on trains) until about 3pm. See you there!