Remember that one thing I wrote that I couldn’t talk about? :)

http://privateerpress.com/content/privateer-press-announces-skull-island-expeditions-digital-publishing

Yep. Last year I wrote a novella for Privateer Press set in the world of Hordes. It is called Instruments of War and I had a great time writing it. I haven’t been able to talk about it much because Privateer Press hadn’t made their official announcement yet. One day I posted on Facebook about how I was writing about a fantasy race that was so hard they made the Klingons look like hippies. This is that story.

As most of you know, I love to paint miniatures and I love wargames and RPGs. I’ve been playing Warmachine for a year now and I’ve painted a pile of them. (as can be seen on my Sunday afternoon nerd hobbies posts). I’ve got a big Skorne army and a huge Mercenaries army. They’ve got a big world, fun game setting, and some great groups of characters to work with. I even had Trip Jones make a comment about playing Warmachine during Monster Hunter Legion, because I’m as big a geek as Trip is. 🙂

I’d been posting on the PP forum, mostly to put up pictures of my minis to get feedback from much better painters. One day there was a post about how the players wished there were Warmachine novels, but some of the posters didn’t understand just how challenging it was to actually create a series of IP related novels. So I chimed in, introduced myself and what I did for a living (got to establish that street cred). Turned out that some of the folks at PP were already fans of mine and they were happy to find out I was a fan of theirs. Next thing I know, I’m writing a novella about one of my favorite characters and telling their origin story.

Don’t worry, this will not cut into the speedy writing of future MHI/Grimnoir/D6/other things. The PP stories are shorter, and as a writer there is a huge time difference between writing in somebody else’s world instead of having to do all the extra work of creating your own. And since I’m already a complete geek for this game setting, it wasn’t like the homework part is a challenge. Here, Larry, read more game books. Oh no. My job is soooo hard. 🙂

So I will let you guys know when this is available. I’m pretty pleased with it, and you don’t have to be familiar with the setting to enjoy a story of sheer badassitude.

The Drowning Empire, Episode 2: Letter from Moto Subotai
Swords of Exodus cover by Kurt Miller

18 thoughts on “Remember that one thing I wrote that I couldn’t talk about? :)”

  1. I KNEW IT!

    …ahem.

    But seriously, I was connecting dots in my head, and getting a bit suspicious that this was what you were talking about. Though I guess there aren’t too many people who are on the PP forums and frequent the gun blogs, so maybe I had a head start.

    Looking forward to it!

  2. Hmm… Professional writer, particularly skilled at writing battle scenes on large and small scales, plays WarMachine and Hordes, who is working on a secret project involving their publisher. The publisher’s website mentions forthcoming novellas but names no names.

    What could it mean?

    Well, now we know. We shall watch your career with great interest!

  3. Too cool. What a coincidence that I just found your blog this week, noticed you were a Warmachine fan and then saw on the PP announcement that you were going to be one of the writers. So I came to the blog to see if you’d said anything about it. Too cool. Any chance you’ll be at Lock and Load this year?

    1. I’m trying to see if I can squeeze it in. I’ve got a bunch of cons to go to this year. I’d like to try WM Weekend too.

  4. Just to sound stupid, what are the PP forums. My old painting lists have died so I’d like something new.

    1. Privateer Press, the company who owns the IP for the Iron Kingdoms universe which is the setting for the games Warmachine, Hordes, and the Iron Kingdoms RPG.

  5. This is the news I was hoping to see since you started alluding to a hush-hush project about the same time that PP announced a new line of novellas.

    Can you give us any information on who the main character is going to be?

    Do you know yet when this will be available? This site says Spring 2013, but I was more curious if you knew where in the release schedule you were.

  6. Hordes, bah!!! It’s Khador or it’s worthless! Come on Larry, you could almost model for The Butcher!

    Write for Orsus and/or Karchev. The only Stryker stuff I want to see us either him being dragged behind Karchev to smooth out the road or him crying to his therapist.

    Seriously, Stryker could have been one of their best story lines. Sadly they completely screwed it up. Heaven forbid the goody goody hero of the pansy nation go dark and stay that way. No, they need unambiguous good because they couldn’t have their readers dealing with shades of gray or a nice guy doing bad things…

    1. I should specify that while I’m writing that and this comment, I’m on hold with tech support for a malfunctioning piece of hardware for my IT job. It’s just the jealousy talking. 😉

  7. *sigh* I envy you nerds to play with, Larry, I really do. Writing in another’s universe *is* fun – the rules are the rules and you’re not responsible for figuring out WHY they’re the rules!

  8. Larry what are your future plans for this? Are you even allowed to talk about them? I would especially like to see you write Khador novels.. I was a little disappointed to look through them and see a faction I don’t play with your name on it… I’ll still read it though.

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