Thursday, December 24, 2009

To hear air-brakes in the snow

It’s Christmas Eve already, and Nik’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Nik!) and the snow is beginning to retreat, though that didn’t stop a large truck breaking down on the main road outside in the middle of last night and keeping me awake by farting its air brakes every couple of minutes. Also on a downside today is the news that Dan O’Bannon is no longer with us. Amongst his contributions to the genre, not the least being his creative influence on Alien, one of the absolute highlights for me remains Dark Star, the student film he made with John Carpenter that went on to become a successful indie feature. It was a real team effort: O’Bannon worked as a scripter, editor and actor on the movie. If the name Dark Star means nothing to you, give yourself a Christmas Present and find a copy to watch. I remember seeing it for the first time around Christmas when I was, well, a kid. It had a lasting effect. My god, I just this second realised where I got the ‘to camera’ diary room pieces in Guardians of the Galaxy from.
Anyway, it is, nevertheless, Christmas, and we should think happy thoughts. As I lay in bed listening to the music of the air brakes, I thought about all the cool ideas I didn’t get around to using this year: the magical catering supply company called Witchkraft Services; the title “Horrorscope” (Andy and I ended up calling it something else, as readers will discover next year); a character called Drew Morgue (actually, that’s a lie, as he ended up sneaking back in somewhere else); the fact that an on-line identity of nonspecific gender may be referred to as s/h/it; and the phrase “like the galaxy, he had a western spiral arm”, which I just can’t seem to sneak in anywhere.
There were many others, and some are too juicy not to be reserved for later use. Thanks for reading this year, and thanks for all your generous support and encouragement. Please accept my apologies for anything that’s run late - normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
For some festive fun, frolics and chuckles, may I recommend you head over to Comic Geek Speak and listen to the podcast interview Andy Lanning and I did about our Marvel work (amongst other things); It’s over here: http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/episodes/comic_geek_speak-971.php We were in an especially silly mood. I believe Cor has already expressed an interest in catching up with the comic stuff, so I’ll just say that Marvel has issued both Nova and the Guardians of the Galaxy in numbered trade paperback collections.
I can also very much recommend a trip over to http://www.paulcornell.com/ where Mr C has been running his splendid 12 blogs of Christmas. Yes, I do turn up in the mix at once point, but that’s not why I’m recommending it. There are all sorts of diversions and entertainments, plus people such as Russell T. Davies and Stephan Moffat talking about Christmases and New Years, past and present. 
Right, half seven, time for the day to begin. There’s a cup of tea to make and birthday presents to be removed from hiding.
If I don’t see you before, Happy Christmas, everyone.
 

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Christmas Mr. A and Happy Birthday Nik (and the Merry Christmas/Post Birthday celebrations that will be tomorrow.)

YAY to the season!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Phillip said...

Merry Christmas and a Happy new year!

Reading Titanicus at the moment and loving it, I was going to write a review on my blog but considering that I have no objectivity when it comes to your work I thought that a review that was entirely "Everything Abnett writes is awesome awesome awesome!!!" would be less than inspiring to the more discerning reader and would likely begin a fanboy chant that would break the internets.

Forgotmytea said...

Merry Christmas to you too, hope you have a good one! =) I'll (finally!) be reading Blood Pact tomorrow - my girlfriend's bought it for me for Christmas, so I've been forced to hold off reading it for too long. It's been a trial, but it'll be worth it =)

Anonymous said...

Here's to future Years of inspiring literature from the very talented Dan Abnett!

Unknown said...

Wow, Dan! That is quite an epic post!

Happy Birthday to Nik, and I hope you both have a wonderful Christmas and New Years!

Will Wright said...

Merry Christmas to you guys,happy new year too.
I can relate to the trucks,same thing happens to my house at times.
They even smashed my picket fence trying to do a 3 point turn.
Then they took off before I could see them proper.

Matthew Churchill said...

Happy Christmas one and all*!

M

*ie. the clones.

James said...

Happy Christmas & Happy Birthday Nik. I look forward to all the new books coming next year. Also any chance of the Space Wolf comics? The first one is still totally amazing.

Big said...

Im such a buffoon.............

Alan said...

Dark Star............

"and I moved upon the darkness and said let there be light....."

I will now have to dig out my VHS copy of this under $10,000 dollar budget movie and laugh myself silly.

Merry 'mas to you and your's, be well, be happy, enjoy all aspect's of life.

Jack Badelaire said...

Like Phillip, I also picked up Titanicus. Great book, and a surprisingly quick read. It motivated me to get myself an early Christmas present; I picked up the Eisenhorn omnibus and I'm re-reading it now (it was loaned to me by a friend a while back, but I didn't own a copy myself).

Here's hoping for another good year for you and yours. I'm looking forward to the next Ghosts omnibus (it comes out right around my birthday).

Happy holidays.

Jeff said...

Well done on the old school Corchorans and pom-pom socks. Brilliant prezie. Cheers!

Anonymous said...

As we say in Argentina: I Wish to you and your family a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year!!

It´s time to have a good time, share some gifts and eat a succulent dinner :D

Best wishes!

Marcelo A. Touza Varela
Buenos Aires - Argentina

frieslander said...

Merry Christmas Abnett clan, and happy birthday Nik. Hope it's been a good year for all concerned. A new decade dawns, let it turn out well.
David

Rob Rath said...

Merry Christmas to all you bloggers & foot-sloggers. (You count double with those awesome paratrooper boots, Nik, Happy Birthday.)

Dan- Tell the girls the breaks are Santa making a power turn. They're probably too too old for that, but who knows. I'm 25 and I still track Santa on NORAD.

Gingers-

Spamming the porn spammers with Black Library links? Terrible idea.

Do you really want to see the resulting fanfiction?

Oh yeah, I went there.

Hurrah for the Hussar said...

Happy Christmas Mr D, many happy returns

Reading Blood Pact as its snowy, fitting :)

Christopher Meyer said...

Merry Christmas, Mr. Abnett :) You continue to inspire me :)

HiWayRobry said...

I would also like to add my holiday wishes to you and yours. Funny, I too just picked up Titanicus and will get to it shortly. It's a stand-alone novel, is it not?
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Dan, Nik and family and all you faithful bloggers!!

(P.S. Just bought myself the new Mudvayne. It rocks!)

Jose said...

Merry Christmas Mr Abnett. I wish you the best for you and your family.
I am a fan from Spain, and i want to say you: "thanks for the best cosmic comicbook that i ever read!"
Why don´t use Century? I love this character for your comicbooks in Force Works! Please...
And Happy New Year!!!

lordy said...

Merry Christmas all, and Happy Birthday Nik.

Shane said...

Wow. In following several themes, I'd like to say Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, and a generally pleasant time of the holidays to you and yours.

I too just finished Titanicus, and dare to hold out hope that it is not a stand alone novel (though the story does quite well on its own).

I suspect my wife bought me a copy of Blood Pact for Christmas, so I ought to be reading that soonish.

Thanks for all of the excellent reads this year, Mr. Abnett.

Anonymous said...

Thank you mister Abnett! Your Blood Pact is magnificent! But it could be much better with chaos space marines! Damn i dont feel the real threat from chaos - they are clumsy @people@! Except that - it was wonderfull read!
I really hope that your next book in the serie would contain big scenic battles with all military arsenal - infantry, tanks, artillery, planes, loxatl - and chaos space marines!!!!!
Cant wait for it

Chris H said...

Mr Abnett, I've have been for the last 2 years and still am reading through, again and again, your Gaunt's Ghosts books. Thank you for the escape from reality I've always needed in the form of that First and Only, its amazing how much inspiration can be brought from a laptop or keyboard. I hope you have had a very merry christmas in the snow and that you continue to write for black library. Please, please, please for the love of god, continue writing for black library
Chris H. age 16
Queensland, Australia

Dukeleto said...

Wow epilepsy eh? That's not good, altho I suppose it could've been a lot worse, and you're in some pretty illustrious company!

Very excited about Ultramarines, now I know you've written it. Never that interested in the smurfs before, but one of the great things about you is your ability to make any characters interesting. Even smurfs!

I'm working on migrating the small but growing Deviantart club dedicated to your books and characters, http://the-sabbat-worlds.deviantart.com/gallery/?7133785 to their more powerful Groups service. This was advertised as easy and painless, and it really isn't, but once I figure out how it works, I'm sure it'll be a big improvement.

Happy new year all.

Big said...

Happy New year to you guys!

Alex said...

Mr Abnett I was wondering If you are aware of the fact that a facebook account has been set up in your name with a following of roughly 2,500 fans. The reason I am mentioning this is that A: The accounts profile picture is of a man who looks absolutely nothing like you and is the first hit to appear on google images when your name is typed in and B: all the posts on said profile are identical to that of this very blog and therefore easy to copy and paste. If the profile is in fact you and not an imposter then I am sorry for wasting your time.

big said...

I love the snow.Its a tribal thing i think.Its sets of a fire in my blood.I swear that if you listen hard enough you can hear Wolves howling in the distance, it gives me the strength to train so bloody hard for the Fire Service.
Someone is actually gonna pay me to carry an Axe and rescue people?!?! mind you i can see why after all i am a fine figure of a man and a pillar of my new community. Who better to pull your ass out of a fire other than me!

sredni vashtar said...

sundry belated seasonalisms to everyone and happy birthdays to Nik, following my return from the Land of No Internet (New York. which, i'm aware, is not itself in all technicality the Land of No Internet; but does harbour the Apartment of Bugger, Forgot to Pack My Laptop, where i've been living for the past month).

big said...

happy new year Sredni!

sredni vashtar said...

thanks Big... and "Anonymous" (if that is, in fact, your real name)