# BL Author Blogging



## Rob Sanders (May 21, 2014)

Thought it might be good to have a place to keep up to date with author blogs. On the other hand, I am biased...


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## Rob Sanders (May 21, 2014)

I'll update as I go and hopefully other authors will do the same. Website news, updates and features are easy to miss on blogs unless you are directly connected to them. To play catch up, here are a few of mine from the last couple of weeks that proved very popular. Plenty of 40K games and features. : )


Want to Play? Horus Heresy: Angels of Death
http://rob-sanders.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/want-to-play-horus-heresy-angels-of.html

"Without a doubt, one of the finest fantasy novels this reviewer has ever read" 
http://rob-sanders.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/without-doubt-one-of-finest-fantasy.html

Most Wanted: 40K Bad Guys
http://rob-sanders.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/most-wanted-40k-bad-guys.html

There is Only War - Comic Strip Short
http://rob-sanders.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/there-is-only-war-comic-strip-short.html

Which Traitor Primarch Are You?
http://rob-sanders.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/horus-heresy-weekender-and-which.html

Warhammer 40K Galaxy Map... Sort of
http://rob-sanders.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/warhammer-40k-galaxy-map-sort-of.html


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## LokiDeathclaw (Jun 19, 2013)

Hahaha "Which Traitor Primarch are you?" is pretty funny........happy with who I ended up being: Mortarion


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## Rob Sanders (May 21, 2014)

I'll have to blog one day about the results. : ) Who was the most popular Traitor Primarch in terms of outcome?


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## Nordicus (May 3, 2013)

Konrad Curze here - That is a pretty awesome test. Well done man!


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## Hachiko (Jan 26, 2011)

Perturabo it is!

"Iron within, iron without!"


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## Angel of Blood (Aug 18, 2010)

Alpharius Omegon. For the Emperor.


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

I got Perturabo, about right, harbour a lot of bitterness and resentment.


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## Brobaddon (Jul 14, 2012)

Lorgar! I don't mind, he was always one of my favorite primarchs.


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## Nacho libre (Feb 23, 2013)

LordOftheNight said:


> Lorgar! I don't mind, he was always one of my favorite primarchs.


Virtual fist bump my friend.:grin:


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## Rob Sanders (May 21, 2014)

It was originally a relief to find people getting a range of Traitor Primarchs. I thought through some mathematical glitch everyone might get the same one! Hi LordOftheNight. I put up your insightful review of Archaon: Everchosen on the blog. I sent you a message originally through the Bolt Hole. I also see I have questions to answer for you in the Ask the Author section. : )


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## theurge33 (Apr 4, 2012)

Fulgrim....I have always been pretty perfect


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## Rob Sanders (May 21, 2014)

@theurge33 : D Perfection!


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## Rob Sanders (May 21, 2014)

I've gone and done it again. THERE IS ONLY WAR - 'MY BAD' comic strip.
http://rob-sanders.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/there-is-only-war-comic-strip-short-my.html


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## Phoebus (Apr 17, 2010)

Just got done with _Legion of the Damned._

I can only think of three things about this book that left me wanting for something different (or more):

1. A different cover and title. I actually really like how the Legion was used, but I felt it was a shame that it took attention away from what the novel was really about - the Excoriators, and the conflict of what it means to be one of the Adeptus Astartes.

More importantly, I fell in the trap of buying into negative publicity that arose because many readers felt this wasn't really a Legion of the Damned novel. I don't know why; I did give _Prospero Burns_ a shot (and enjoyed it), after all... but there it is. I waited two years to give this book a shot, and it blew me away.

2. I wanted Kersh to call out Skase and Ishmael at the end of the honour duel. You know, something like telling Skase to come get his blade, but then reminding him that he got disarmed and that _his_ blade is on the ground; and then turning to Ishmael and telling that honourless cur to come pull his sword out of Kersh's guts if he wants it back.

3. I wanted a little more of the Pilgrim. Kersh's ride out of Obsequa City was amazing, but I was hoping for a bit of that intensity to have gone into Kersh and Skase's desperate stand against the Cholercaust's leader.

Other than that... I loved this book. Kudos!


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## Rob Sanders (May 21, 2014)

Hi Phoebus,

3.) Agreed - might be good to see more of the Pilgrim.

2.) That's actually a pretty good scene you've written there. *grabs notebook*

1.) Titles, ah titles. Fist thing to know about titles is that the author is not the only one with a hand in the titles. Authors can't actually call books whatever they want and there are other interested parties who push for one thing or another. In the end I settled on 'Legion of the Damned' because it could be interpreted as a metaphor. There are, in fact, three 'damned' legions in the novel. The Legion of the Damned (of course), the Excoriators (they seem almost cursed with bad fortune) and the World Eaters, who are damned to serve the Blood God. In that way the title covered virtually everything in the book rather than one element. After all, the Legion of the Damned can't really turn up at the beginning of the story. That's not the way they work as a phenomenon. 

Hope that addresses your cool points. Cheers for reading. Glad you enjoyed the novel. : )


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## Rob Sanders (May 21, 2014)

Play 'Cleanse and Burn' Space Hulk strategy game with the Crimson Consuls at Rob Sanders Speculative Fiction. http://rob-sanders.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/play-cleanse-and-burn-space-hulk_4154.html


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## Hachiko (Jan 26, 2011)

Rob Sanders said:


> 1.) Titles, ah titles. Fist thing to know about titles is that the author is not the only one with a hand in the titles. Authors can't actually call books whatever they want and there are other interested parties who push for one thing or another.


I've always wondered how much outside influence/pressure goes into the naming of some of these books. I had assumed you chose LoTD as the title due to the simple, yet significant, threefold meaning of it (which you mentioned). But to cite another example, when I was reading Peter Fehervari's excellent Fire Caste, I kept thinking that there was no way that that was the original intended title (further disservice was done to that book by it being marketed as a Tau novel, when in fact it was a cerebral Imperial Guard outing).

I truly laud The Black Library for seeking writers who are, well, writers, and not just auteurs of bolter porn. But in the end, they have miniatures to sell, and they want to steer the readers into the GW shoppes to buy them.




> After all, the Legion of the Damned can't really turn up at the beginning of the story. That's not the way they work as a phenomenon.


I think the people that feel misled or shortchanged by the title/cover lose sight of the essence of the Legion. Yes, a Fire Hawks/Legion "then and now" book would be great, but how can you flesh out a story around them as they are now to satisfy a chronicle of the Certus Minor/Cholercaust event? Let's face it; the Legion looks damn cool, but they make for piss-poor protagonists...









Spoiler alert: that ain't Laurence Olivier under there.

And that's the thing; the Legion as they are are a bastard, masturbatory amalgamation of all things teenage boys find cool; cloaked in black, festooned with skulls and flames, skeletal parts showing through cracked armor, and, oh of course, unkillable, like playing Doom on god mode.

Thinking that you are going to get 400 pages of these death dealers dealing death simply because the title names them and they are on the cover is kind of puerile (and would make a boring book).

I think Sanders gets all the more credit for realizing that since the ghosts can't carry the story part of the book, he should make a sort of "living equivalent" of the Legion. And that's why the Excoriators work so well. 

As I mentioned in my review of LoTD, look at the contrasts between the Kersh and his spectral watcher:

Black armor (death)/White armor (life)
Armor forever damaged in death/Damage to armor preserved through life
The watcher's burning red eye that sees into the world of the living/Kersh's dead steel eye that sees into the world of the dead
One immortal/one just impossible to kill...

In the end, I can't tell someone what they should feel satisfies them or leaves them wanting more. From what I've seen, though, not too many who actually do read it can complain about the merits of the writing. And that's because it's a damn good book. 

Plus, maybe being a lifelong Godzilla fan makes me more tolerant of things like this. For every Godzilla movie, his name is usually in the title, his image hogs the poster, and yet, you only get about 15 minutes of Big-G action after an hour and a half of Japanese people talking (none of them as cool as the Excoriators either). So yeah, I can deal with the Legion only being there for the last hurrah. It's all good.


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## Rob Sanders (May 21, 2014)

I don't think I can put it better than Hachiko, so I won't paraphrase. Good points, sir. : ) Great review (http://hachisnaxreads.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/looking-back-at-legion-of-damned.html ) and great picture. Where did the picture come from?


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## Hachiko (Jan 26, 2011)

Rob Sanders said:


> Where did the picture come from?


I just grabbed it from the Warhammer 40K wiki. I thought maybe it was one of Sullivan's concept pieces for your book cover.


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## Rob Sanders (May 21, 2014)

Cool. I'll try and find it. : )


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Hachiko said:


> the Legion looks damn cool, but they make for piss-poor protagonists...


Yeah, when I read the LotD collection of shorts, the one that didn't sit right was the one in which they appear to be fighting alongside a SM chapter for a protracted period, and at the end 

recruit the captain against his will.
 That just didn't wash with the idea of them appearing out of the mist at the 11th hour, saving the day, and pissing off just as quickly and silently.

While I was one of those that initially whined about being deceived by the title, similar to Prospero Burns, on rereading (Helsreach is the only other SMB novel I have deemed worthy of a reread) it definitely came good for me. I do want to see more of Kersh.


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## Hachiko (Jan 26, 2011)

Rob Sanders said:


> Cool. I'll try and find it. : )


http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Legion_of_the_Damned

and also

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/374854368955497028/


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## Hachiko (Jan 26, 2011)

Khorne's Fist said:


> Yeah, when I read the LotD collection of shorts, the one that didn't sit right was the one in which they appear to be fighting alongside a SM chapter for a protracted period, and at the end
> 
> recruit the captain against his will.
> That just didn't wash with the idea of them appearing out of the mist at the 11th hour, saving the day, and pissing off just as quickly and silently.


Good Lord, which of the six shorts did that happen in?

I really wanted to read those shorts, but abstained being as though I know there is no way they could come close to the standards set in LotD (the book). Especially with names like Kyme, Goulding, and Dunn (although he is getting better) attached. Reynolds and Annandale might do a decent yarn. 

Speaking of Kersh & Co., have you read the short story _Bastions_ in the Angels of Death Collection? It features the Excoriators (although sadly no Kersh), and it is pretty damn awesome.


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## Phoebus (Apr 17, 2010)

Ultimately, marketing a novel has to be a tricky thing - double so when it is set in a "shared universe" like Warhammer 40k. As such, I agree with the main thrust of your argument. Unless the novel in question was about how the Legion of the Damned went from "normal Chapter" to "deathless revenants", I would not expect an entire novel to be about then, no. It wasn't the title that steered me away, though. I was an art major before I became a career military guy, and I think the cover - more than anything else - led me to buy into the complaints I read re: the book being advertised about one thing, but being about another. Don't get me wrong, the cover itself looked amazing, but the absence of Kersh and the World Eaters probably reinforced that unfortunate meme in the back of my cranium.

Ultimately, though, we're just shooting the shit. I don't pretend that you have full control over the marketing and decoration of your novels, and I'm certainly not trying to assign blame. 

*Side note:* the sample chapter alone they put on the website was just right. I bought the novel on its strength alone. I don't know how other readers felt, but I thought it was just right for setting the tone of the novel and letting you know who your protagonist was going to be. I mention this because I bought this novel two weeks ago - again, on the strength of the sample - and, looking at the website now... the sample is gone. And the two pages under the Space Marine Battles shortcut don't include the novel.

I'd shoot a friendly message off to the website folks, Rob. I can't imagine I'm the only person who happily found out about this novel entirely the wrong way!


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## Rob Sanders (May 21, 2014)

- Phoebus, thanks for drawing my attention to that and how you came across it. Took your advice. Looking into it now. Thanks again. : )

-New blog entry - Check it out. 'Excoriators!'

http://rob-sanders.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/excoriators.html


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