Adeptus Ridiculous - Interview with Black Library writer Mike Brooks: Brutal Kunnin', Drukhari, Warhammer & More

Episode Date: November 13, 2024

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculousMike Brooks is the author of The God-King Chronicles epic fantasy series, beginning with THE BLACK COAST; the Keiko series of grimy space-opera novels, DARK RUN, DARK SKY and DARK DEEDS; and various works for Games Workshop’s Black Library imprint, including  BRUTAL KUNNIN and ALPHARIUS: HEAD OF THE HYDRA. He was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, and moved to Nottingham to go to university when he was eighteen, where he still lives with his wife, cats, and snakes. He worked in the homelessness sector for fifteen years before going full-time as an author, plays guitar and sings in a punk band, and DJs wherever anyone will tolerate him. He is queer, and partially deaf (no, that occurred naturally, and a long time before the punk band)Support the show

This podcast, my name is D.K. Diamante's. His name is Bricky, and we have a very special guest, Mike Brooks today. But before we get into all that, if you enjoy today's episode and you want to maybe, I don't know, support the podcast, head over to patreon.com slash Adeptus Ridiculous where you can get access to the Discord, bloopers if they happen. $15 tier, get you access to all of our posters in crispy digital HD form, which, by the way, Bricky, we have new posters today. so I hope you're ready for that. But you can follow us and you can start a free trial on the page rent as well, but it will require a credit card number.

We have dual posters today. Bricky, how do you feel about that? So, I mean, I'm just hoping that you decided specifically to, you know, not pick two posters that would embarrass us in front of esteemed author Mike Brooks currently listening to our conversation right now.

However, I apparently, shy states that there are... How do you feel about these new posters? It's pretty fucking good. Right? All right. Okay. Okay.

Fine. All right. It's extremely on brand as well. You go. Nothing embarrassing about them. No. Bricky, if we wanted to get, oh, I don't know, physical versions of these things, Where, oh, where would we go?

You know, you could go check out Orchidate.com and all the amazing merchandise down in the description and snag yourself one of the brand new posters, the brutal but cunning and the cunning but brutal. Shy, this was a fantastic choice. Brickie's favorite posters ever. Very, very good. Also, the book club currently, I am about halfway through false gods. So that's next step. Oh, oh, okay. This is poignant.

They just, um, they just are dealing with Davins' Moon. It's a very good sequence. Okay. I, I, I am like just about done with false gods. So I am anxious to see where you, how you feel about the rest of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, really? Because so far, it's, it's pretty damn, pretty gas.

Oh, yeah. It stays gas. Oh, does it? Would you say without getting tuned into it? Would you say like to More Than Horse Rising or not quite? I would say maybe a little more. Really? Mm-hmm.

Okay. All right. We'll get there when we get there then. Man, that Arabist dude is an asshole. Ah. Anyway, not to talk about other books written by other authors and the presence of another author as well. Today, joining us on the podcast is Mike Brooks. Thanks for coming by, man.

No problem at all. And just to clarify, I am aware that I'm aware that I'm. other books exist written by other people? Well, I mean, it depends. I mean, how deep do you get into your writing, you know? I mean, I object to that fact, but I'm aware. I object to other authors. Everyone should be reading mine, but I guess that's fine that they exist.

I mean, in fairness, we have read quite a few, uh, quite a few of his books. This is a fact. Just a couple. Just a couple. One or two, you know, um, but yeah, Mike, genuinely, uh, I know, a full time author and everything. despite, you know, it being a job you clearly enjoy quite a bit, uh, it is definitely obviously taxing in terms of time and stuff.

So being on here with us, I really, really appreciate. Thank you. Oh, thank you for inviting me. Um, so we had a, you know, a couple of questions and various things that we wanted to ask, but, uh, despite all of that major kind of stuff, I wanted to ask you very importantly about, uh, one specific thing. Uh, a while ago, you made a fantastic tweet. about Lilith Hesperax failing a 7-inch charge with a re-roll.

I'd like to ask how that game went after that point. I killed everything. Well, what actually happened was I failed the 7-inch re-rollable charge with Loveth and her witches against my mates corn berserkers. He then shot his Chaos Vindicator into the unit, killing all the witches but one, and charged his corn berserkers in. However, because she was still leading the unit, Lelith still had fights first, so I did her once in a battle buffy

attacks thing and wiped them all out. Ah, the 12 attacks with the anti-aventry two up and just the sheer mulch coming from that. That's lovely. That's a very, that's a very lillif thing to do. Just going to say,

that's kind of what she do, isn't it? She kind of turns on the gas. Okay, that's fantastic thing. The battle ended when his last model standing was a badden, and I killed a badden with three dark lances to the face from a ravager, which was also quite funny. But honestly, ravages with dark lances, usual MVP in a dark elder, sorry, a jukari game.

Curiosity, did you run any scourges per chance? Yes, I did. I oh no no they they they did okay in that game they survived fairly well okay I played I played against World E to see up a week and they died in all of them died in the first term interesting okay because I uh I've fought quite a bit of Jukari and the scourges always get me because of that that damn jump shoot jump makes them so hard to take down so they're always hiding and then it's four dark glances to your face with a pain token and then rinse and repeat they're nasty

poor, I call him Abadon, I'm sorry, he can, he can never catch a break, can he? I think he's, poor guy. I think he's caught a few breaks, actually. I think he's caught, like, at least 13 separate breaks so far. Or did he catch one break with 12? Oh, no, no, no, actually, they say, like, each thing is. He made Katie catch a break. Oh, he, he, I mean, you know, you start off, I mean, for me, you know, you start off.

I mean, for me, you know, you start off. as a as a true imperial when you get into Warhammer and then I'm like, oof, chaos is pretty cool, not going to lie. Anyway, regardless of all that kind of stuff, we had a couple, you know, general kind of questions and stuff, you know, because obviously there's a wide variety of books in Warhammer. And they range pretty substantially, not just in topic, but in theming and genre.

And, but also you have as well, done a large amount of your own personal like sci-fi novels and stuff like that. So I guess the real first question is like how long have you been doing this for? How long have you been like writing either professionally or just kind of as like a hobby? Well, I've been writing since I was a kid. It's just I didn't work out how to finish a novel until about 2010. Yeah, I because I sort of I'd start things and get about three chapters in and then just lose my way and stop as is tradition. I think it was about 2008. I was sort of bouncing back and fall between three projects I had on the go and I said, oh yeah, I'm trying to do too many things at once

and that's why I'm not finishing any of them and then I went, okay, what I'm going to do is I'm going to pick one of these and I'm going to say either I finished this novel, concentrating on that one alone or I admit that actually I was just making excuses and I can't finish a novel. So I finished the novel and it was very long and probably not very good.

but I finished the novel in beginning of 2010 I'm oh right that's how you do I meant just sort of kept writing novels and finishing them since that I think it's about 2013 I got my first actual short story published for actual money which was only about

20 quid but you know it was what it was yeah got novel contract signed in 2014 first novel came out 2015 and then it's just been upwards from there

I hate to be this guy but when I hear that I'm just like dang okay 2015 not too long ago and then I realize it's about a decade and it kind of I had to say it I had to do it I have to do it

I apologize I like I like referring to the year 2000 as turn of a century to inflict maximum psychic damage on people my own age I was I could do like born last millennia is pretty good too.

Yeah. There's a lot of, there's a lot of good options from there. Um, I, I fully, uh, appreciate and embrace the get a few chapters in and then, and then you gotta let it peter out because I feel the exact same way with half of my armies that I run. Um, I was just like, oh man, I painted up like these two squads of, uh, chaos terminaries. This is great.

I can't wait to paint the other 1,500 points. And then I just, hmm. And the next thing you know, they're battle ready for an RTT. And that's the, the, the, the. far this they'll ever get, unless it's something I particularly really care for. Yeah, you know, I wanted to ask on the back of, like, when you got, like, started writing, was that just, like, a hobby for you? Or is that something that, like, during schooling, you were like, oh, yeah, this is, like, what I'm going to do. And, like, I don't know, in university,

you maybe, like, pursued a major in it, or was it just always, like, on the side until you were, like, oh, this is how you finished book in 2010. So, funny story. Probably not that funny. Anyway, you never know. So when I was, I don't know, first year of sick form in the UK, which is, I was 17, I guess, 16, 17, had a careers thing. And so I answered all these questions about what I thought I was good at. And so they were trying to direct you to, oh, maybe you want to do this university course or whatever. And I got, I distinctly remember getting back sort of the writer.

up from the person I'd had it with. And I remember the sentence of, you're, you know, you're good at writing, you're good at written English. It's like, you would like to be an author, but you acknowledge that this is not a realistic career choice. Which just shows it's 16 year old meaning. Fuck all. Yeah.

It would not ambitious enough. No, so what I thought I was going to do, I thought I was going to be a journalist, because that involves writing and seemed like a slightly more realistic career choice. Went to university, did a degree in community. studies. Don't ask me what it was. I've still got no idea. I mean, it was a lot of different things all vaguely bundled together under one heading so they can go, yeah, that's definitely a course. That's a legitimate qualification. Oh, yeah. Totally. It's a degree. Hey, we got out of college, yeah, you know.

Yeah, we got elements of like psychology and linguistics and a bunch of a bunch of whole sources stuff. I did one module on like popular horror and stuff. It was quite interesting. There was a creative writing module. One, I did that. So yeah, but then I saw I was intending to do a postgraduate in something more closely related journalism. They had to get on to the postgraduate, ended up working in a pub,

then when it started working for a homelessness charity. Yeah, and then sort of, you know, a number of years later kind of got into writing as a sort of hobby that I then started putting myself out there for and eventually got lucky. I'm sorry, I'm getting flashbacks to literally myself 10 years ago. And arguably almost any other content creator I know of, of here's what I was originally going to do. Here's how it didn't work out. Here's this cool thing I decided to try for fun.

And now it's my job. It's just like it's such a cycle. I wanted to do firefighting myself and then when I was in EMT I was making YouTube video to pass the time and next thing you know League of Legends popular game if you ever heard of it

helped a lot with that I ironically I have literally a creative writing degree and I just never used it I got out of college had to take care of my grandparents didn't really have much time

to do writing on the side fell into YouTube, here we are. It's a, it really is the cycle, isn't it? It moves from there. I guess that's kind of, okay, I'm sorry, this is one of the questions, not one of the questions, but I have to ask, what's the name of the cat?

What? The cat, your cat, on your shoulder, the cat. What? Oh, the name is, what? Oh, the name is what? No, I, I have no idea what you talking about. You have a, in your picture on Discord

there is a cat. Oh my, right. Okay. No, you're gonna have to give me a lot more context than that. I thought you were hitting me with a 20-first type thing. On a meter, profile picture of it I set about four years ago. Oh, my. I couldn't see the picture.

I was like, what is he talking about? I was like, Mike, I'm right there with you. Who? What cat? What cat? Is there? Where's the picture of the cat? What is going on right now? I just, I saw the cat? I want to know the That cat is called Nimbus. Nimbus. Nimbus.

Okay, okay. Sick. She's growing white and makes her sound like thunder clouds when she's moving around. Oh, seriously, this cat is tiny, but she appears that she's, she doesn't know how to cat. Like, stealth is not a thing. She just stamps everywhere. She makes as much noise moving around this house as a human does. Now, granted, this house is 100 years old and the floorboards are a bit creaky, but still.

Actually, got a little FIFO-Fum kind of thing going on. Yeah, no, it should not be possible. Ah, okay, okay, perfect. Listen, I had to ask. I apologize that it was sent out towards the side. Everybody was completely taken aback by what's the name of the cat? What cat? What cat, a cat in a book?

The cat I went to university with what's, where's the context here? I mean, I could ask you about the name of the name of. you have Raines cat, but I don't even remember that name of that cats. Damn little weird psychic cat. Well, okay. So, yeah, no, I'm, I'm blanked. Speaking of, not speaking of cats. I do have to ask because obviously over here in the States, things are, like, Warhammer has become, especially recently, like way more popular.

It was really on its way there after COVID or during, I suppose. And then as of recently, you know, with the, with the, huge popularity of Space Marine, too. It's been just like catapulted an additional degree. Oh, yeah. But I know over in like the UK and stuff, it's been pretty relatively known and prevalent for quite a while. How long have you like been into the hobby, so to speak? About 30 years. Oh, okay. Yeah, no, I started sort of beginning of second ed. I, there was a guy. I'd just gone up into high school. That is for years. 11 to 16 for the international audience.

Sorry, when I say years 11 to 16, 11 to 16 years old. Anyway, right, can I go back to clarifications earlier? What was I talking about? Yes, I've just gone into high school, met a bloke in my class who had heard of it, and he told me about it, and it turned out that there was a Games Workshop store in the top floor of Debenhams, which used to be a department store here in the UK. Um, I think it's bankrupt now in, in my hometown of Ipswich. And so you go upstairs and you walk through the lingerie department and they're tucked in a little corner.

Um, and so I went there and they, oh, this looks interesting, with me about 12 years old or whatever. Um, and decided our light here and wanted to got involved. And so, yeah, got this, got the second edition box set with the, uh, in the Monopo space marines and the goffs and the incredibly spiky hat at Gretchen. So does that mean you started off? You started off as orcs then in a sense, like from the beginning? Well, yeah, I had an orc army in a space reunion army and I sort of, because that came in the box and I sort of painted them both up and I guess sort of went with orcs, started to go with orcs more so. Actually, me is saying that that's, that was when I started in 40K. I know

I think I played Blood Bowl before then I think I played second edition Blood Bowl with the three part styrofoam pitch when my mate's dad had that so I played that and I'd also played Space Crusade at one point oh man okay yeah we're going back a little bit

yeah but yeah no 40K I started in 93-94 Okay Well yeah that is a Shai makes a great question here What was your When you painted up your space marines What did you paint them up as?

Well I think I think I tried a few different ones To sort of work out And I I think the first ones Most of the first ones I think ended up as ultramarines That's fair

I did get I did get some space wolves. Okay, better, better. Because they seem quite fun. Yeah, I think most of the first ones end up as ultramarines, as I recall. Oh, they were the poster boys. That's fair. Like, because you said you were what, like 12 or something at the time?

Yeah, I was 12. Like, of course you're going to go for like the ultra reans. They're the guys on the box. They're like the poster boys of Warhammer. Like, that's fair. That's fair. I am very happy. Nobody is going to judge you for ultramarines.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. He lied as he breathed. I don't know what you're talking about. I would I would never insult a 12-year-old. You'd be like, I like ultramarines. That's beyond even me. Is that your impression of a 12-year-old Mike Brooks, D.K.? Oh, that's the best I got, man.

No, no, but obviously ultramarines were a big one there. Space wolves are, I don't know. I mean, some of those space wolf miniatures are quite old. And I remember, I mean, obviously, they've all gotten a little bit of an up-up-tick sense way back when. but those old, those old golf ones and the spikey-headed Gretchen was this was back when they were on the square bases, right?

No, no. This was all round bases. Oh, don't, okay. Because I remember, because they had a lot of the old square bases, like the really old Magnus and Mortarian alike. That may have been even before that. I'm not sure.

It's some time. Well, regardless, I mean, pulling back in the second edition, obviously, it's an old time. Did you, um, wait, so it was a, you said it was a Bubba department store, like, like upper floor? It was, uh, more, it was a, it was a department store, but they had like little, um, uh, what's the word franchises. Uh, so there was a, there was a games workshop franchise little, little store. I like around the edge and then there was a, uh, uh, computer games store, just like sort of in,

in a different section of the floor of the shop. Gotcha. Okay. So it's a little game store of that nature. Did you, did you play it? Yeah. Did you play it much when you were a kid or was it merely just kind of a hobbying?

Oh, God, no, yeah. No. Successfully managed to badge of mud mates into playing it, collecting it and played it a lot. As good friends do,

right? I want to play this, so you're playing it too. Times just don't change, do they? If I, if I, if I, if I get you some of this for Christmas, maybe you'll get interested. Here's a, the self-serving Christmas present. I love it. Yeah. Hey, I'm, I'm, they, they enjoyed it. Yeah. No, no, absolutely. I mean, it's, it's one of those things that once you get like a little, once you get like a little, once you get like the first taste, you get your first, you, you know, you get your first, like, triple six is or something. It hits this little dopamine center in your brain. Then you're like, oh, well, what if I, if I, if I swapped out these tank.

Bustas for something else. And then the thought process just keeps going back and forth and back and forth. So it's cool. So I know you said earlier you were playing what, Dracari? Is that your go-to army now? Or? I mean, I've got, well, I've got my absolutely ancient bad moons who are made up of various models since about 1993, slash 90. Well, actually, I think it was some older ones because, you know, there was some of the old metal stuff still knocking around in the shops of them earlier. I've got like, uh, got the old metal shock attack gun and stuff in there. So anyway, so the bad moons are like collected over 30 years or so. Uh, then I, I did a, a snake bite army during lockdown, uh, in the pandemic. Um, which is like rustic snake bites. So there's a lot of conversion with it's so.

Things like the battle wagon is an arachno rock spider, but with like a howder made of half a rhino or something on the top. I use some of the seraphon dinosaur monsters as trucks and Boondackas nass wagons or whatever. Oh, you are. I really, I really like the killer cans, which are killer can bodies, but with Rock Gugoth arms and legs just sticking out of the side. So, yeah, so I've got my rustic snake bites, um, I did in lockdown. And then I've got the Trucari, um, which I started. I, a few years ago, I honestly couldn't tell you time is a flat circle.

No, I mean, a few years ago, I mean, we all deleted about two years from our collective consciousness anyway, so. Yeah, so sometime within the last 10 to two years. So actually that's, I was about to say. I mean, I don't mean to glaze you right now, to use a zoomer term, but, you know, very often, when we read your orc novels, we kind of get the same impression that you kind of, you get orcs, which is a thing that not, not, no, it's a little hard sometimes to really understand orcs as a concept as opposed to just the football hooligans. And hearing about your heavily kit-bashed bad moons army is very, snake by army. Snake by Army, sorry. Sorry, the original ones were Bad Moons, by bad.

It's just, it's very on brand and as expected. Because every, I mean, I've played many orcs, but, you know, sometimes you get people who just play regular orcs, but then sometimes they roll up and it's, they've converted like an RC car into a, a, a stompa or something like that. And it's always just the craziest shit. But that's a good point. Shai asked is because Bad Moons were your first ever thing. Is that why you made UfTuck? bad moons or is that unrelated?

Uh, first of all, point of order is Uftak. Oftat. Oh. If it was in my head anyway, if it was Uftak, it would be O O-O-F-T. No, it's, it's, this does seem to be very much sort of a British-American pronunciation split, but at least in my head it's Uftak. Anyway, moving on. The audio, the audio narrator is throwing us off then because they pronounce it's

Uftak. Oh, do that? Because I say, I don't, because I don't listen to audiobooks. I don't listen to my own books. either. I don't know. I've been talking very good things

about the writers but no, I don't listen to my own audiobooks because I can't concentrate on

just audio-only stuff. Yeah, yeah, I decided that there were the bad moons, I mean, other than Nas Drake

who appears who disappeared, the bad moons didn't really have anybody, any sort of real notable characters because you got

obviously Gazgoal for the goffs and oh the the storm boy what's his bloody name

oh um leader of the Vulture squadron yeah the guy with the hat um not Snickrot

he's a commander yeah anyway but you got him as well you got snick rot for the blood axe uh blood axes

you've got Zogro Watsnogger for the snake bites um Mad dot Grotsnick for the death skulls I think

and back in the day you had why I stack a gut smack for the evil sons but no strikes disappeared so bad moons didn't really seem to have any notable characters so I thought well I'll make him a bad moon and particularly since I'd ended up painting up quite a bit of my oaks as bad moons

um partly it was because it fitted in with my army and because any time that I needed a name for an ork in any of my game so you know like Star Blitz or a war boss or anything after that Black Hawk was the name

of that character. So, well, if I'm writing an or book novel, I'll make him the main character. All right. That makes sense. Great.

No, no, it's good. We've all grown to really enjoy him. I actually have the model all built up. Not paying it quite yet, obviously, because I'm bad at that, but all built up and everything

on the side. And it's a pretty good, pretty good faithful model there. I like him a lot. You got princess and everything and the huge gun and the snaz armor

Scott it's yeah no I'm I'm really happy with the model looks fantastic we've we've all been uh princess

oh princess that the the the mispronunciation of preincepts to princesses is in my opinion quite the highlight um

believe they let me get I can't believe they let me get away with that I was I put it in a novel we think they're never gonna let me call a squig princess

and they blood did it's It's fantastic. It's completely on brand as far as I'm concerned. And they've actually been making a lot more of the models based on the Black Library books as of recently. And I've been quite, quite happy with it.

As an Imperial Guard and Simp, the Gonsk Ghost models are incredible. So I'm very happy with how that's been working out. But they also had that new sisters one. They just popped out recently, which is really cool. Yes, whose name completely escapes me.

I have not read that book yet. but this is actually a question that I'm very, very curious about because it's one of those ones that I've always considered to be a really difficult challenge, which is specifically, how does it feel to adapt Warhammer for writing? Because you've written your own sci-fi novels in the past that are unrelated to Warhammer. But obviously Warhammer has very set rules. And in my opinion, a bit of a difficult, it's difficult to have a lot of leeway in characters. You know, when every human is like a religious zealot, you know, it's kind of hard to find like a way to mixture that and have a little bit of dynamic kind of nature of them. So how do you find the best way is to kind of adapt for the setting? And what challenges does it kind of come with?

I think it's a two, it's a double-edged sword, really, of, uh, of, uh, the challenges of writing, I guess there are any intellectual properties like Warhammer compared to writing for your own stuff. Because on the one hand, you are more boxed in because there are certain things that I can't do

that if I try to do, the editors would tell me, no, this doesn't work. It doesn't work for our setting. You can't have that. You've generally got to fit things within the established parameters. You can make some stuff up, but there's a lot of stuff you can't make, you've got to go. This has to fit broadly into the recognized characters, not recognized characteristics of the pre-existing setting.

Whereas if I'm writing my own stuff, I can make everything up from scratch. But the advantage is that so much to world building has already been done for you. So when I work, so I wrote a. my first books were a science fiction trilogy called the Kiko series. And I wanted my ships to be able to fly faster than light because I wanted there to be people to be moving around between stars. So we had a broader scope to play in. But I was trying to think of some way that felt satisfactory to me to do that. And I looked through various, because I didn't want it just to be like sort of Star Wars.

Hyperdrive, go. Non-scientific bullshit. it. And I came up of something called the Alsubio Drive, which is about sort of warping space time, so it compresses it in front of a ship and expands it behind it. So you theoretically can go fast and light without breaking laws of relativity. And I looked it up and it said, oh yeah, NASA are looking into this. And it's like, oh, if NASA are looking into it, I'm prepared to just say, okay, well, maybe in 500 years they worked it out. I'll use that. That sounds, it's like Alcibo drive, yeah. It's like vaguely plausible.

It's not being completely discounted. So, okay, well, I'll use that. Whereas in, for 40K, how do they fly faster than light? They fly through hell. Literally. It doesn't have to make sense. It doesn't have to make sense to me. That's the established thing in the setting. And I just have to use it. I don't have to make up any of the weapons. I don't have to make up like the factions and stuff.

It's all done. And because, yeah, because I've been playing it for 30 years. years is very much sit down plug and play um off off i just go so although there are some challenges around some constraints in the setting as as an author that is definitely made up for by the fact that so much of the hard work would i would normally be sitting down and doing coming up with a setting coming up with the background coming up with all this stuff i don't have to do because it's already there i just have to fill in a few bits that maybe aren't quite there and maybe the thing that I'm writing is exploring one of those so let's explore corners.

And so, but I've got the broad basis and I just need to fill in a few of the details that maybe we haven't seen yet. Interesting. That is super interesting. Yeah, because like, yeah, a lot of the hard work, like you said, is like trying to, like, actually make a plausible world with, like, plausible stuff. And 40K already has that all established. Yeah, I...

Partly, partly they already have it established, and partly it's not plausible. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's like, yeah, it's like, yeah, this is... I mean, the 40K universe is absolutely nonsense. Yeah. It's... But it's, but that doesn't matter because that's...

It's established in the Canada of like, this is how it is. You know, if someone came down and came up with the modern 40-day universe from scratch as... as a setting for like just, just like a novel series or something rather than what it is, which is the background to a wargaming system,

which has then been developed out of that. Because there's various weird, weird things and, like, potential inconsistencies and stuff that comes from that. Because it's originally a wargaming background.

It's not a sort of, a brick-by-brick built everything entirely logical, um, setting for a fiction series. So yeah, some things is because, I don't know, Rick Priestley in 1988 went, yeah, we'll do that. That sounds like.

And it didn't really make a great deal of sense, but everyone's just run with it since. And that's absolutely fine because that's how it works. And sometimes there is a thing of you sit down and you go, oh, hang on, this actually does not. How am I going to make this rational when I'm trying to write a novel, which is challenging and also sometimes fun. the challenge of making things work when it's not been designed to work in this way

because it's just been designed to work as background for a war game. But yes, it's not necessarily a fully functioning well, but it doesn't matter because everyone just accepts this is how it is. That's actually particularly interesting too, because I feel like there's a lot of aspects of the narrative and lore that kind of get, the things that, I mean, maybe we could have known this before prior, but obviously me and D.K. We've only

been doing this podcast for a bit. And before that, you know, we knew about as much lore as any other person did, which is you read a book about your favorite faction, got really into your favorite faction, and didn't know much more past that. But for example, like, you know, orcs are a relatively

straightforward faction out of the entirety of 40K, but I remember when we knocked back to the big DACA, specifically, the There's the scene where the homunculi and stuff kind of juiced up. Um, Uftak. Is that how you pronounce it?

Uftak. Uftak, yeah. Uftat, yeah, juiced him up. And he became really, really smart in the jail cell. And that was something that none of us actually really knew could happen. You know, like we knew like orcs get smarter when they're bigger, but we didn't realize that it could be, uh, they can get bigger in a sense that is, um, uh, superficial. Artificial. Yeah.

Yeah. Artificial. Uh, artificially becomes strong. in that way as well. And that also works with their concept, uh, which was really fascinating type of thing to look at there because it opens up a lot of really curious future concepts there. I actually, we actually had a viewer, um, a comment something on the lines of they wanted to

find a way to do that with their own kind of like custom clan that rated like an imperial medical world and just got a whole bunch of stims. And, and then the, the entire or clan. It got really smart because they're always just juice to the gills. And they all have like, they all look like Fabius Bile with a bunch of needles sticking out and everything. And it's a really, really, really neat concept. Yeah. Yeah.

And that was also one of the things that shy mentioned earlier is that, yeah, we didn't, like, we knew plenty about Drucari as a concept. But we didn't know enough about like the general culture and Kamara. And a lot of that in the big DACA was very, like, helpful to understand. We we often giggle about They're at the arena They got like some human on the on the slab And it's like oh piece of meat for you And they slice out a piece of their thigh

It's just really just really over the top Just a chart chituary board or something yeah It's really funny though in like this horrible horrible way But it doesn't you know As you said it doesn't really have to like be It's taken so seriously Even though it's so farcical It's great

But I'm actually a little bit curious do you have any like when it comes to all the world is already set and done the usual type of thing there is there anything that you run into difficulties when it comes to making characters specifically in your books uh i don't think so really i mean it's a boring answer but um it's not anything i can remember encountering really but i where i've tried to do something and then you know, I've had feedback from the editors of like, oh, this doesn't this isn't really right for characters.

Apart from, like, right when I was starting out, and I did a short story which originally featured Space Marines, and it's like, you know, space marines can't do this because this is not, this is not how we have them work. But I don't really write Space Marines. I write humans, which of various sorts

which can be they all exist within a setting of the Imperium so yeah no they all view the emperors as as God and whatnot unless they're chaos cultists but they're still humans they've got the

the range of human behaviors orcs I mean you can have an orc do most things because orcs are weird and impulsive and they follow their own desires and they might get massively interested in a very specific thing so you can have an or being interested in things

or having a specific way of doing things if that's what fits the plot I guess the challenge with the jukari was about this is a society that is absolutely awful and is known to be absolutely awful And it was just a case of how do I make intercharacter relationships work here? Because this, you know, Camara has been going for 10,000 years or something. So it's obviously working somehow on some level. You know, it hasn't just completely fallen apart.

So there must be something functional within this massively dysfunctional place that allows them to not just knife each other all the time. And so that was an interesting thing of trying to work out how, how you could have Drukari managing to coexist whilst still being self-scenters

backstabbing bastards um but it's a fun dynamic to create honestly how do you how do you make a society and pure

like in not quite anarchy but close to yeah you're going to have trust in the distrust honor among the themes yeah it's a

exactly that it's a case of like interest that align for now. You know, you make yourself important or valuable to other people, other Dukari, so that you know, you can be fairly certain that your interest align for now, and you're well aware that that might change at some point, and then you'll have to watch out for them.

But at the moment, you're like, we'll gang up to stab this one, or prevent them from stabbing us. And it's like it's a culture of coexistence outborn out of self-interest. So I do have to ask this because I'm very, very curious as well. Okay, so I'm not sure if you read many of your compatriots Warhammer books as well, or if you mainly read like non-Warhammer stuff or a little bit of both. I am a little bit curious if you have a particular favorite book from both slash either, because I have my own personal favorite book in, you know, from an outside of a Warhammer perspective

because I read a way too much Stephen King growing up. but I also have my favorite Warhammer book because naturally as a lore podcast and everything like that so I'm curious what your picks might be in that that is I mean I I find it absolutely impossible to say this is my favorite something

pretty much so I I can certainly say things that I like things that I enjoy I did think Echoes of Eternity I had Echos of Eternity down as

certainly one of the best books of the year, but it came out, I remember saying that. I thought Echos of Eternity was really good. Is that the defensive attorney gate with Sanguineas? Yeah. A buddy of mine is a huge

Blood Angels fan. He was just gushing about that book recently. Yeah. He was so into it. No, I mean, Aaron's great. His writing is fantastic. Agreed. I've not yet read a book by Aaron, but I have not thought it was brilliant. Did you read the Nightlord books? Yep, yep. I think of them.

I read those. Read those as partially his research for doing a heroine novel, because he turns up in those. Oh, yeah, he does, doesn't he? Right, right, right, right, right. Yeah, he's like a secondary character in those. Oh, yeah. Those are my favorite 40K books at the Night Lord trilogy. Absolutely. No, I do really like the Nightnaud trilogy as well. I mean, but, yeah, I like other stuff that are not written by Aaron. But I do remember thinking of Echoes of Eternity was one of the best novels that I'd read that year, like just period, not just 40K novels, but just novels in general.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, I thought it was absolutely fantastic. It was massive, massively evocative. I mean, in terms of non-4-K stuff, I mean, there's so many. One of the things is becoming an author, and I guess also being an author in more general sci-fi and fantasy circles as well as just 40K, is I go to conventions and stuff and I meet other authors and then I become friends with other authors, and then my friends release books, and then I read, then I had to get all my friends' books and read them because they're my friends, and also they sound really cool.

and so I just have this massive list of stuff that I've read that's all great I think I'm just going to list some stuff that you now No please go ahead This is all about you buddy, like list them It's actually series Burning Kingdom series I think it's about to be completed with the third novel

in the trilogy That's great C.L. Clark's Magic of a Lost trilogy which is sort of not exactly Flintlock fantasy but I think there are definitely guns involved as I recall I think there's guns, yes, yeah, definitely guns involved. Sort of colonial

fighting back against colonialism, fantasy that's been something that's been great in the last couple of years yeah there's too much There's too much to pick out, really. I could literally list a whole bunch of great things I've read recently just by people I know personally, let alone anyone else.

Which is a fantastic condition to be in. Yeah, having too much good stuff to read because you know too many good authors. That's not a bad problem to have. Yeah. This is solidified my want to go read Occasive fraternity now. Book club just got changed, completely changed. Well, you know, I mean, like, when I was a kid, my mom would always be like, hey, you got to go ahead and continue to read all of these kinds of books because she grew up reading all kinds of books. And in doing so, I read a ton of Stephen King stuff growing up.

So I got really, really into like character writing the most part, obviously because, you know, a lot of Stephen King books are some kind of human condition thing wrapped in a, it's like paranormal of some kind, you know. Shining is about like, you know, domestic abuse and it is coming of age, etc. I have not read The Dark Tower yet shy. That was, I know, I know, I know, I know, I mainly read all the horror stuff from way back when, like Pet Cemetery, Coojo, Christine, so on. But it's on, it's on the list, I know. But it's always kind of fun because it's one of the reasons why I actually find GW stuff to be so interesting. is because most of the time, you know, you read like, how do I say this? Sometimes you get like a fantasy world or something of the nature.

And the books are like good, but they're not quite at the echelon of like some top sellers. But it's crazy to want to read like 40K books and have them be as good if not better than just, you know, general novels and bestsellers of that year. It's pretty, it's pretty impressive. And I think it's something that a lot of 40K fans, there's just Warmer fans of fans in general don't realize. is how good novels are and how much that can really get you into stuff. I mean, I can name many people who have read one good book and now they're three grand in dead building a brand new army doing this,

pinning it up their own thing. I was going to say only three grand, huh? That's, depends on the arm. So they just dip their toe into the hobby, huh? Depends on the army, you know? I got my night lords from the trilogy.

And then, you know, I got some people who read Watchers of the Throne, got into custodies. It's always one. You know, I was, I was just trying to think, now that you mention it, like, what other, like, hobby franchise has, like, as prolific of a library for their lore as, like, Warhammer does? Star Wars does pretty well, doesn't it? They do, they don't do bad, but, like, I mean, we have a literal black library. There is a book that comes out like almost every every month.

It is a lot. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. Like, there's so much. Yeah, I mean, in terms of output, I don't think there's any other sort of franchise that has that level of output. Mm-hmm. They really move. And the quality is generally like solid to fantastic. Yeah.

It is impressive. Here's a personal, more personal question. Which of your books did you enjoy to write the most? We can do Warhammer, non-Warhammed. if you'd like. But I am curious because there's two parts of this. There's often the one you enjoyed writing the most. Like,

it was just the most fun. And then there's the one that you believe, that you believe was like your best work. Because I've made like videos that I think are my best work, but they suck to make. And then I've made ones that are really fun and they're okay. You know, so. I think that the most,

the most fun novel to write was almost certainly brutal cunning. Yeah, that makes sense. Because that was where. I just went, oh right, you actually want me to write a novel about orcs. Brilliant. So that was just great far. I mean, writing orcs in general is just great fun because, like I said, I've been playing them for 30 years and I kind of, I think, I've described it as my brain goes into its sort of Pratchit mode.

I kind of channel roughly Terry Pratchett-esque vibes when I'm doing orcs. It's like it's all because it's all about the slightly weird logic stuff. It kind of makes sense for half a second. Then you actually think about it and it doesn't make sense, but the orcs don't take that half second. It's like they just go, oh, here's a concept that sounds vaguely plausible. And we're just going to run with that as though it's true.

And so that, orcs are great fun to write. I think Brutal Cunning was probably the most fun to write. In terms of novel, I think, it's my best. I would probably, it's kind of a series in general is the one that I'm the most proud of, but I think the first of my epic fantasy trilogy, the Black Coast, which was shortlisted for best novel at the 2022 British Fantasy Award, so it seemed that some people agreed with me. Let's go.

Yeah. I'm really, because that was sort of the bones of that fantasy series was something that I've had knocking around in my head since the mid-90s. So it was really great to finally get down and get that out. And I'm just really pleased with how it came out. It's sort of, it's an epic fantasy series that, well, I kind of wrote it originally as a backlash against a Breck. vote in this country. I wanted to write about cultures that clashed, but with people who wanted to get past that and, and, um, actually find ways to learn from each other and live in harmony. But plot twist, it's not that easy because other shit is happening. Um, so, but yeah, I, I liked, I like that book and that series and the things that I've done there. I think I did some, I had some fun working with the language stuff there to try and differentiate. between the cultures because one of the cultures I decided doesn't have first person pronouns.

They don't use I, they don't use me. They refer to themselves in the third person all the time, which if you're not careful, can make them sound a little bit like the rock. But it's not that they don't use the name. They basically refer to themselves as this man or this woman or this lord. And how you do that

shows how you perceive yourself in relation to someone else as well because if you call yourself this law, then you were saying, yeah, I am this member of nobility. If you refer to yourself as this servant, then you're identifying yourself as a servant of the person that you're talking to. And so that's kind of how I wanted to get. This is how their society works.

It's very much structured around your place in the society. So even the way you talk about yourself is related to your position in their society. Whereas one of the other cultures has much more standard in English, and so that doesn't happen. And which kind of fits the sort of device. between there's another culture which has got like um five different genders and that's covered with um uh i signify that in the text with diacritics over the vowels and stuff like me and you and i so it's like so you for one of the genders it's a certain sort of diacritic over the vowel and another

gender it's another one so you can read it and it's so it's still saying i and me and you but it's kind of identifying it as a tonal language on paper uh which is a great way i I thought it was a great way of having this thing they were like, this is something that you can pay attention to if you're bothered, but you don't have to learn lots of different words for I and me and you and the different genders

because they're just using those words. So I had a great deal. That was also a lot of fun coming up with that sort of stuff, but that's a series I'm probably most proud of. Also, they were bloody massive, like twice as long as a standard black library book, each one of them. Oh.

See, a little more girthy, yeah. Yeah, oh, no, they are, they are full on door stores. That's fine. I mean, that's its own, like, I mean, it's actually funny you mentioned all that kind of individualized stuff because we, when we were just were talking about the difference in making a world with those kinds of things versus having it all laid out for you, it kind of makes a little bit

of, it shows the disparity, right? Yeah. The, uh, and as shy was making, statement there earlier. Yeah, often we recommend Brutal Cunning as the first kind of main orc book. It's very, very orky. And we have often referenced the ending with Captain Badrück. It's a very funny ending. So we're really happy with how it turned out.

Well, it makes sense, though, because, yeah, I guess you mentioned earlier the getting, quote unquote, getting away with calling the Squig Princess. A sign that you're a little surprised. by, there's a lot of moments like that in that book. We joke in the Big Dhaka sometimes about the, the boffin with his wheel and his key or keeping the wheel when he has to

hover around. It's good. Just in case. Yeah, just in case. That came from so Gorka Morka in the 90s. You familiar with Gorka Morka? No, actually not. I mean, we're familiar with Gork and Mork, but I'm not.

Okay. so Gorka Morker was an ork skirmish game in the 90s. It's kind of like we did Necremander, and that was, that had some following, and they went, okay, we'll do one with Ork. So Gorkamorker was a skirmish game with orks. Getting into there, so you had some orks, and you had their trucks,

and you drove around, and you could upgrade your orx because it's a skirmish game like a decommander, or you could do things to heal injuries. And if your orc had leg injury, then you could send into the pain boy, and he might come back with a gyro-stabilized monor wheel, which meant that he now moved faster.

And so it was like, oh yeah, no, that's a good. I think that may have been a war gear card in for Orks in second edition as well, gyro-stabilized monor wheel, gave you an increased movement range. No, I mean, I started in seventh, so, yeah. Yeah, that's, ah, newbies. I know, I know. So I think that, again, this idea of orc on a, on a motorized singular wheel is something that's been kind of in the back of my head since the 90s. So like, yeah, I'm going to put the boffin on a wheel.

But boffin on a wheel and then baffin on a stabilizer, but keeping the wheel. Yeah. Can I just say hearing someone called Bricky a newbie makes me feel like a little newborn baby? I was about to say I got my first I got my first miniatures about 12 years ago

I was like Oh great nice This century This century Wow I'm old enough to remember I'm old enough to remember When dark elder

I weren't even a thing Damn That's a good point I'm old enough to remember When Vecron's turned up On the front of the white dwarf It's like here's a Here's a metal man

with a gun. It's like, oh. Hey, I remember. I remember. Hang on. If he's metal, if he's made of metal, do I have to paint him? Hey. Yeah, you have to make it shiny or gray. You just put it on a base and let's go. Oh, wait, no, that's right. Those were the old metal models. That's right. Just paint their ice green, right? Yeah, yep, job done. Um, yeah, what we talk about? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, goork and work and stuff. Yeah, so yeah, I put a buffing on a gyro-stabilized monor monow wheel because that's been around for God knows how long. That's, that's, that's, that's so funny. My buddy would play Necron's way back when I first started and he, uh, I mean, he had a couple of the metal models, but he mainly had those, um, uh, goss flares that had the giant like, like green tube pipe that would that would stick out of them, which for to me felt ancient, but I know that might be a, we might all be dating ourselves a little bit here. Nah. Nah. It's wild to me that seventh edition was like 12 years ago. Though great today. I mean, I first, uh, I first got exposed to war. hammer by going to a PC shack and playing

Dawn of War with some buddies of mine. I don't know if you were ever a big video game person, Mike. Did you ever play any of those old games? No, I don't think I've only going to workshop related video game I've ever played has been Blood Bowl 2. Oh, interesting. Just never much of a gamer in general?

No, a huge amount. Like, I've got a couple of games that I just play. but no I don't I don't think I was really much of a computer gamer it's like the time when stuff like that was coming out sure sure

it depends like you know Warhammer has had a couple of games from way back when but like the oldest one I can think of well maybe not the oldest one but I remember Dawn of War is about 20 years but after that I mean there may be a couple of really small computer games but nothing particular which is pretty crazy seeing like Space Marine 2's popularity and how that's all come about.

Well, actually, speaking of games, tabletop. I mean, recently, I mean, obviously you had that game you played against your buddies' world eaters. Do you play much of the tabletop or it's kind of here and there? 40K is pretty here and there because mainly, most of my table took playing is Nacromunda. We, well, I, along with a friend of mine, we sort of take turns running a Nacromander a campaign for I assume it's about 15 or 16 other

people now it's getting quite large and that so we'll sort of run that for like three months or so at a time then have a bit of a break and then go back and do another campaign have a bit of a break and back and do another campaign so I kind of play 40K when I'm not playing Necremunda I guess interesting have you seen the new

model that got revealed today for Necromeda the Delac army team work yeah this Yeah, yeah, I saw that one on Twitter today too. Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, to be fair, in the background of it underneath the Discord, I can just see is the My Necromunda Group's Facebook group, where I have posted a picture of that model and tagged our resident Delac player. Just saying, I'm watching you. I know you're going to get this.

I mean, I got to be honest, like Necromunda has been eating good lately with like the body horror they've been doing for a lot of their miniatures. but particularly this one threw my mind immediately back to the worst the movie that scarred me as a child as bad as it did and that was 2005's King Kong with Jack Black that movie scarred you?

The worms. The worm. The bug part man. The bug part fucked me up. This immediately reminds me of that thing. It's awful. Yeah, someone needs to give him a hand. I think he has a hand.

I think he's losing it's hell this this I'm sorry I'm just thinking of the opening of Baldur's Gate 3 with like like Gail is like kind of get a hang you like high five his hand coming out of the worm not what I meant

I know but it's pretty good um yeah it looks all the a lot of Necramonda stuff is is really really fun which house do you play uh most of them at different times okay

you have a favorite Like that. Which one do you play? Yes. Pretty much it. I've not played Van Saar yet. I've done the other five clan houses. And I've also played as outcasts.

And something else weird, I think. I can't remember. Which house is the lady with the really big dress? She's got a model. probably Escher or a lady with a really big dress I think that sounds like yeah, I think she's a

she's a bounty hunter. Ah, damn, okay. There my mind then. I don't know very much about Necromunda personally. They always come out with some new minisers here and there and my mind immediately goes to kit bashing.

But then recently they had some like mouse strain like GSC stuff and some really weird new things. They actually did, oh, yeah, Dalac had a bounty hunter. It's that due with the, with the Assassin's Creed knife blade on his arm. They, master, oh, Master of Whispers, that's what it was. I think they actually, maybe it was Necromunday. It may have been Horace heresy.

But it's, um, it's like one of the new assassins. That was the Assassin-orm Kingmaker book. It's like the cyber hacking one. I forget the name. Yes, so do I. It's like, it's like just on the edge of my brain, but I can't. Remember, that wouldn't have, that wouldn't have been Necromander. That would have been Horacea. To be fair, to be fair, I think the important thing to remember is that every model is a necromander model is just some of them are mislabeled.

It's the dryness, man. It takes me always like a half second to register. I'm completely serious. Hey, hey, anything from all across the Games Workshop range turns up in our campaigns as a necrombondo model, just like kit bash to hell. It's great. I mean, my last, my last gang was Cordor, and that was made up of some bits, some cordor bits, some stuff from Scions of the Flame from War Cry. and some stuff from the Corvus Watt's names also from War Cry, probably. Because Cordor have this thing where they've got like sheenbirds as their pets.

And so I wanted a bunch of people with like bird masks. And then the signs of the flame are all on fire and Cordor and particularly redemptionists like fire. So I just mashed the whole lot up into a gang with. elements of all three and then used to um fusil major on ogre war

bloke um but just took the fusel major off and may have add into a stick shambler for them um yeah no you can just you just kit bash the hell out of everything or put it on a necromaner table and it will look it looks fine

I mean I feel like the or community is in good hands Kipash the hell out of damn everything is a very orc-related concept I mean Yeah, everything is an orc model that has not yet been looted, right? Yeah. I mean, I'll never, you know,

I'll never forget the, the deodorant stick kilocans. It's a classic, you know? The, what? So I made an old kilocan out of like a, like a finished deodorant stick. They hit it with some primer and, uh, paying a face on it and then bada bing

okay I missed the looted rules I've got a I've got a looted leman rust demolisher in my old box from back when you could actually just take up a vehicles and say it's got an orc crew now but that was again that was like second head stuff

I mean possibly since then I kind of stopped playing at about third edition and came back in eighth oh yeah I always I always thought the funny orc thing was um it pops up on Twitter every now and then it's an orc that has like a cardboard cut out of a space marine in front of him to convince everyone that he's a space marine or there is a space marine in front of him. Yeah, the command. Have you seen the,

have you seen the second edition cardboard dreadnought? No. I have not. Okay, so the in, in the, in the second edition box set, you had 40 Gretchen, 20 goffs and a cardboard dreadnought. It's just a flab of the cardboard with a dreadnought picture on it because it was like, well, we're not going to give you a dreadnought in the starter box

because we're still making dreadnoughts have the metal. There you go. Sky's just put it up. No, brickies put it. There you go. They both this.

We got it. Right. Okay. So, but what people, people who've been able to get their hands on the cardboard dreadnought these have now started running them in games

as dreadnorts, but like modelled with various grots behind the, behind the cardboard. like working the engine that makes it walk forward so it looks like it's a dreadnought to the enemy but it actually just grops behind it do it all Wizard of Ozzy.

Oh, I think I found it. I think this is the post. Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah, nice. I've actually seen one of them on the table at Warhammer World in person, which is amazing. Oh, I know. I really wish I still have my second edition Carp or Dreadnol,

but I think it must have thrown it away at some point thinking, well, I'm not using this now. I didn't notice the, uh, the plasma hole and the, the, the grot completely vaporized from the angles of it. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing stuff. It's amazing stuff.

That's great. That's incredible. Orc players. Orc players are the best. There's always something weird. I mean, yeah, shy posted her. She had her looted bane blade up top there. Yeah.

No, that was cracking. Yeah. There's always like, there's always something to break apart. Um, actually, I got to find him. We have a, I have a buddy of mine. He goes by the name of billion dollar clown farm. Uh, sorry. Wow.

I know. What a username. I know. He's, uh, he's a local guy. And he is a just a hardcore orc guy. He goes, he goes absolutely insane. Uh, but some of his kit bashes are just absolutely wild. Um, I need to find, I need to find it because he has posted.

did, or he made a, um, a little video of it for an apoc game that I played with him. Um, uh, but it's just this giant, gigantic circular orc. Whoa. Ball. It's absolutely incredible. Um, the dude is such a knack. He's, he's, he's, I mean, every, every group has that painter who just kind of shows up with the craziest thing you've ever seen in your life.

Shows up and shows off. Yeah. Well, I, you know, I live next to Blizzard Entertainment and, you know, a ton of game devs play 40K. And we got this, one of the guys who was one of the head concept artists on Diablo got into Warhammer. And he wanted to get into Tyrannids. And so he showed up to like an RTT with his first ever army of Tyrannids. And it's just like, was triple as good as any of my armies ever could think about being. He had all of these like airbrush blending and dry brush tick.

I just kind of looked at it and felt so depressed. And then you stomped his ass in game to show him who's really boss, right? I didn't get a chance to play him. But it's just like some people just have that knack. And when they put it into the right kit bashing opportunities, you can make some real damn art. I also just have. So I live in Nottingham. So I know a variety of people who work at games, work.

It will have worked at games workshops. So, yeah, when you're playing in campaigns or stuff against people, people who used to be painters for heavy metal. Oh, just like, professionally. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, one of the people who place in our Neckermuda campaign, she paints you for every metal for years. On the other hand, it takes me about as long to do a complete gang for Neckermander as it takes her to do one person's leg. So that's the trade-off. There's a time thing to it all, isn't it?

Yeah. Yeah. But that's the monkey, part, right? People who are that good at painting will never be satisfied with just like getting it done okay. Everything is a... Yeah, whereas, you know, I'm colorblind, so I was like mixing, what the suck? It is some contrast paint. Yeah. I'm just, I put that on, I'm going to assume that looks fine, because I can't tell. Contrast paint is a godsend. Yeah, it's right up there with null oil. Yeah, yeah.

Liquid talents. Makes my stuff actually look vaguely competent for the first time. in 13 years. Contrast paint and no-no. I'm like, wow, I'm a professional painter now. Contrast paint goes through an airbrush real well, too. It's super easy to get that, like, glaze on. It's lovely, even though airbrushing is terrifying. Yeah, no, that's way above my skill set.

I, I challenge that statement. Only because I was, challenge thoroughly ignored. One of our friends who also do a podcast, the Poor Hammer podcast, they made a whole video on air rushing and the general ease of use of this step, which you actually get into it. And so I said, you know, I was like, you know what?

Damn it. All right, fine. I'll give you a benefit of the doubt. And I definitely get the feeling of like, God damn it, why didn't I do this earlier? But anyway, I know we're moving in for a little over. an hour here and normally we stick between around an hour timeframe. So did want to ask two kind of somewhat similar questions before we round the whole thing out. First, and they kind of go

together. The first one is what advice would you give someone else who wants to write? And the other one would be if you can give your younger self any kind of writing advice. So kind of similar questions, but two different audiences. I mean, the younger self one is pretty easy because I'm really happy with where I ended up. So I think he's good. That's fantastic. You give your younger self any new advice and it's like, oh no, the timeline is shifting and I didn't become an author. Yeah, no.

I have absolutely no problems with where I've ended up. And when I've ended up, because, you know, I was in a fairly high-stressed job for about 15 years, like working for a homelessness charity and stuff. But I think I had an important, you know, I started that when I was 22. I think that had an important development on who I am as a person. So I don't want to go back to it, but I'm glad I did it.

So that's fine. And, you know, I'm very happy with where I am. In terms of advice for other people, that is, I have to say, such a wide question that, because there is no piece of advice. that is universal.

A lot of different things work differently for different people. Some people say that you shouldn't edit while you write. I personally couldn't do that because I can't write the next bit unless I know that I'm happy with this bit because otherwise, when I come back and start rewriting stuff,

it's going to go, I feel like it's going to get like an exponential thing of what, okay, well, I need to change this here, but if I change this here, then this next bit doesn't work because now that's different. And then the next bit doesn't, is even less work because

these, now there's more bits that haven't changed. So I edit, kind of edit as I go through. Other people say absolutely they couldn't do that at all. You know, there's, there is no piece of writing advice that works for everybody. You even get to speak people, oh, you've got to write every day. No, you fucking don't. Because some people don't have the time. They don't have the mental bandwidth to write every day.

and there's no point shaming people by saying, oh, you're not writing every day, you're not a writer. It's like, that's bullshit. The only, the only thing I think you can probably say is don't be, don't be shy about putting yourself out there if you want to get record. I mean, if you were writing for yourself, great. And if you're fine with that, absolutely fine.

And absolutely no problem with that. if you're looking to get recognition or money or whatever then don't be shy to put yourself out of there and I guess also be aware that although this is not how it should work this is how the world does work which is

that networking is sadly very important the example that I was given these circumstances is quite a few years ago now I was at an event in London and I was talking to a couple of editors who knew who I was because I was friends with one of the authors that they were publishing. And they knew that I was an author.

And so they're showing me this pamphlet that they've got. They're both female, which is relevant in a moment. They're showing me this pamphlet. It's like, oh, here are the authors who are publishing next year. And so they're showing me this pamphlet. And we look through them in one of them, this suddenly just occurs to her while she's there having had a glass of wine or something. Looks sitting and goes, we don't seem to be publishing any women.

Or they're like sort of their releases for the next year, eight releases. They're all male. We don't seem to be publishing any women. She turns around to my friend who's standing next to me and says, do you write at all? Like, this is the commissioning editor for a fairly substantial sci-fi and fantasy publishing house. Just asking someone whether they write because they happen to be standing next to someone that she knows is an author. And what my friend said was, well, no, I write children's comic, but I write an illustrator. children's comic books.

If my friend had said, yes, I've just finished an epic fantasy novel, this editor would probably have said, well, here's my email, send it over and I'll take a look. And that's not a lot for...

And that's not an offer of a contract for publishing, but that is, people would kill for that sort of opportunity. Yeah. And it's just because my friend was stood next to someone that these people knew

was an author at this event. That's how it works. You can get through. I mean, the two major breakthroughs of my career, getting an agent and then getting to work for Games Workshop, or sorry, getting to write as a freelancer for Games Workshop. I don't work for Games Workshop. Important clarification, legal distinction. Both of those have come in part because of people that I knew. Like, that same author who I was friends with is the one who put me in touch with a person who became my agent,

as thanks for me giving him feedback on my novels that eventually got hit his agent and then got him a book deal. I got to write the Games Workshop because I made a joke about a friend of a friend, who is now a friend, who works for Games Workshop because I live in Nottingham. I was playing games at Warhammer World. If you live in Nottingham and you're in your alternative music community, then you know people who work at Warhammer. That's just how it works. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, playing games with a friend of a friend as making a joke of it. Oh, you know, they don't want some randomer writing stories about orcs going around a galaxy blowing stuff up, do they? And this guy who worked at Games Workshop looked to me and said, well,

you're not a randomer, you're a published science fiction author, I'll ask. And it turned out that they did. And that was there? And they were actually like, yeah, we do. What are you talking about? It wasn't just like that. It was a case of, okay, well, no, here's a short story outline.

Let's see what you can do. But that was the thing that opened the door. You've got, don't be shy about putting yourself out there. Don't be pushy. Don't be pushing. But don't be scared to show your work because, and be aware that there is so much luck involved. It's a case of does what you've got end up in front of the right person at the right time? If it doesn't, then you may not get anywhere.

And that's not necessarily a reflection on the quality of your work. It's just, you weren't. lucky that time. You got to keep going and be aware that meeting people in person can have outsize impacts on the opportunities that you get. And that's not the way that it should be, but it's the way that it is. I get that. I often,

I mean, obviously, I feel like there's a lot of similarities that role with that when it comes to, you know, the online content creation world. Yeah. I always feel like whenever I tell people I say it's a lot like playing D&D and you're rolling a D20 check. You know, you just keep rolling it over and over and over again. And, you know, at the end of the day, there is a chance involved. But, you know, you can always up a little bit, give yourself advantage, add to your role if you're, make a good thumbnail, really do well in your video. Like, you know, once once that luck arrives, you need to make sure that your your shit's good, obviously.

Yeah. but you know closed mouth don't get fed as they say oh yo you're hitting us with that profound shit hey you never you never heard that one you always have never heard that one

you always have the dad isms okay no that's that's a new one on me but oh yeah close mouth from a different country oh that's true I mean my um I got a buddy of mine who grew up in Atlanta and his his dad was always like scared money don't make none I was also

I've heard that one Yeah I've heard that one Um Well yeah no I mean I get it more than anything I feel like And I imagine you'd agree

Just consistency helps Especially You know Oh massively yeah Keep keep doing it Get a little better each time And then when it hits it hits Also

Hit deadlines People like Oh yeah Don't turn your shit in late Yeah for sure For sure Absolutely Um

I feel like I do my best work when I have a deadline, honestly. Or at least I get way more work done when I need to. A little bit of pressure. A little bit of a fire under your ass helps a bit. How do you make diamonds? How? With pressure.

Because on the cold. I've never heard that one before. All right. We're all old. Great. Good to know. Hey, hey, hey, you got your ears lowered. I swear to God.

Hey, that's your isom. That's my granddadism. I'm afraid I'm probably going to have to skiddle because I need to sort out some stuff before band practice tomorrow evening. What do you play? I'm the guitarist and other vocalist. Hell yeah, do it? Do you want to shout out your band name? Sure.

We're called Interplanetary Trash Talk. Nice. That's fantastic. Yeah, you can find our stuff on Band Camp and our latest single Best Lay Plans just got released and that's on like streaming stuff like Spotify and Apple Music and everything. So yeah, if you want a bit of of a punk band with a guy who writes for Warhammer

in it, then yeah, you can check us out. Just got a just typed it into YouTube and got a 10 year old video at the Cookie Club Nottingham. You kept in your own video You kept the Mohawk for Yeah you kept the mohawk for the last 10 years Hell yeah dude That's when we were still a four piece before Emma came in on vocals

Oh damn well anyway Mike hey really really do appreciate you taking the time to come on and chat with us It was an absolute blast Really appreciate the insight especially I know you know we'll definitely continue to be reading A lot of your work we all enjoy it quite a bit. Thank you very much.

Yeah. And, you know, good luck with practice. Excited to see what you're right next. And hope you have a great rest of your time. Wait, before you go, Mike, where can they find you also? Let's not forget that. Anywhere on social media that exists, pretty much, I am Mike Brooks 668. Perfect.

That's hell yeah. Excellent. Thank you again. To all of our listeners, thank you so much for stopping by. listen to their episode of Adeptus Ridiculous Podcasts. Check out the books from Mike as well as the social and the band. Head it all up and we will see you all next week. Toodles.

Ha ha ha.