I am Very Lucky

This is a big day for me, one of perhaps a handful of times in my life I just KNOW I'm never going to forget. Today, my story "Path to Glory," went live on the Black Library site. For those of you who don't know, The Black Library is the fiction arm of the hugely popular Warhammer franchise. 

I tried to think of things to say. Like, how I can't remember a time where Warhammer wasn't a part of my life. How some of my earliest memories are of playing Heroquest and Battle Masters with my father and brother. How I used to rake leaves and mow lawns to save up enough for unit boxes. How the faintest whiff of glue and primer still brings back fond memories (like all young idiots, I primed in a poorly ventilated area, so it might just be the fumes talking). How I reveled in stories of Eisenhorn, and Gotrek, and Horus, and Malus Darkblade, and Gaunt's Ghosts, and the Blackhearts, and on, and on, and on.

I tried to think of a way to say how surprised and honored I was when Charlotte Llewellyn-Wells (the submissions editor for Black Library) reached out to me to see if I'd be interested in writing something for Age of Sigmar. I've been publishing stories for over a decade (and writing for much longer), but I never, never thought for a moment that I'd have the chance to see something published by the Black Library. The first story I ever wrote was for Inferno! magazine. It was a juvenile sword and sorcery piece about a dwarf thief trying to steal art from an eccentric wizard. I never mustered the courage to send it in, but neither did I forget it.

I tried to think of a way to tell you all how much this means to me. How surreal it still feels. I've played everything from Warhammer Quest, to Blood Bowl, to GorkaMorka, to Chaos Gate. Thanks to the Black Library I've stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Imperial Guard on a hundred wartorn worlds, I've delved into the sewers of Talabheim with Felix and Gotrek, I've slipped through the misty woods with Gaunt's Ghosts. I can't quite believe now I have the chance to pass that along. 

I tried to think of a thousand things to say, but all that came, again and again, was: Thank you.

Thank the Black Library for so much fine fiction. Thank Warhammer for giving me uncountable hours of joy. Thank Charlotte and the other Black Library folks for taking a chance on me. And, most of all, thank you for reading. I can't tell you how much it means to me.