My name is Tim Sweeney and I’m a writer.
It actually feels kind of weird saying that, as I think it’s the first time I’ve described myself as a “writer”, as opposed to someone who writes.
Up until recently, when asked the old ‘so what do you do?’ chestnut at a party, I’d typically just inform them that I was a contractor for whichever company I was working for at the time, and that I did some freelance article/critical/fictional/erotical/what-have-you-ical writing on the side.
One of my old lecturers told me he knew he’d made it as a writer when he started introducing himself as such. I don’t consider myself to have made it, exactly, but I feel I'm on the way, and that the word describes who I am about as well as (and with a great deal more efficiency) than ‘weeeeeeell, um, I, um, contract for the NSW Government, but um, my real passion is writing…oh you know, Fantasy and Science-Fiction and stuff…umm yeah.’
Rambling introduction filled with sudden self-discovery aside; let’s get on with the show!
This blog is going to be a (hopefully) regular feature talking about my walking down the path of madness in an attempt to become an author who gets his works published by an actual publishing house that pays actual money. Furthermore (and hence the terrible, terrible blog name), I’ve decided that the best way to approach this goal, while simultaneously honing my craft, is to aim specifically at getting published by the Black Library.
For those who don’t know, the Black Library is the publishing house run by Games Workshop, purveyors of all things Warhammer and Warhammer-related. I’ve always had a love for the 40K universe, going back to first being introduced to Second Edition as a rampaging 8 year old. I’ve never been a huge lover of the game itself, but I always enjoyed building and painting the models, and I have spent many years immersing myself in the gooey ocean of chaotic pus that is the Warhammer 40,000 lore.
When I was still working as a freelance something-something writer, my lovely fiancée began to encourage me to start working on fiction again, something I had largely abandoned since high school. After much balking, I eventually did, knocking out a trilogy of (rather terrible) short stories about my homebrew Space Marine Chapter. These were surprisingly well received by the gents over at the Bolter and Chainsword forums, and this encouraged me to keep practicing, eventually knocking out a few more 40K stories.
I keep getting asked ‘why not just make up your own stuff?’ (as well as many a ‘hurr durr licensed fiction sucks!’ comment, but I just ignore those). I initially wrote that ‘the answer to that question is simple’ here…but it’s actually not.
Part of it has to do with ease of use; I have a great deal of working knowledge of the universe, and research is easy to do. Plus I absolutely love the setting, and it has a huge scope to play around in, letting you encompass everything from a space war encompassing multiple races fighting across whole star systems, through to the tale of an individual gang member trying to survive in the depths of a hive city, and everything in between, and all without the pain of world-building in the traditional sense.
I also have developed a huge respect for a bunch of the authors writing for the Black Library, who have almost single-handedly proven that even fiction based off a niche game universe can still be well-written and thought provoking. Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Night Lords novels, for example, are an absolute inspiration, both due to the stories themselves, as well as his craft and sheer awesomeness (seriously, his blog alone is better than 98% of the content on the internet, my own included).
The Black Library is one of very few publishing houses that solicit unpublished, un-agented writers, via their yearly (sometimes bi-yearly) open submission windows. Several members of the Black Library Bolthole forums (which I frequent) are now published authors thanks to these windows, and it is so incredibly encouraging to know there are people out there that actually like the publishing process, rather than just doing it because it’s their jobs. Even if I never make it, I still really appreciate the way they do things.
Finally, there’s the success. It’s actually quite amusing to have people scoff at the idea of writing licensed fiction for a table-top wargame…until you tell them that several of the books published in the setting have been New York Times best-sellers. It may sound a little mercenary (I hope it doesn’t actually, as I think I’ve expressed my love of 40K enough above), but getting published by such a company in that sort of manner (even without the NYT bestseller status) is basically an instant gateway to other publishing houses, cutting out a great deal of the bullshit that makes life so very difficult as an author with new work.
So that’s enough of that for now. Tune in next time to find out where I am at with achieving the dream, and just what it has taken to advance into the insanity that is attempting to make writing stories a paying career.
In Gaming News:
To keep this even mildly on-topic with the purpose of our wonderful Giant Bomb, here’s what I’m doing in games!
Just bought a sweet 24” LED to go along with the new PC I’m building next week. I couldn’t wait, however, and wound up hooking it up to the current computer.
Surprisingly, Deus Ex: HR runs pretty much perfectly still…it’s just a shame that I find it impossible to play it for more than ten minutes at a time at the moment, as I am so goddamn burnt out on hacking and tranquilising the same four models over and over again while Jensen does his best Batman impression. Game is pretty good, but damn rough around the edges.
Been mucking around a great deal with the Binding of Isaac, which is great fun overall and a pretty terrific distraction to have going on my second monitor while I try and get some writing done.
Finally, TF2 runs like garbage on the new big monitor, but I don’t care too much as I mainly play Spy and the frames jerking around doesn’t hurt me too badly. Trying to snipe was a bust, however, which was disappointing after I just renamed my Machina the ‘JC Dentowned’, with the description: 'Login: NSF001 Password: SMASHTHESTATE'. Childish? Yes. Amusing? For me, at least.
Meanwhile, I’ve been thrashing out some Horde mode with the missus in Gears 3, where we keep getting smashed by about Wave 20. Great fun though, and I really like the addition of the Tower Defence element.
Berserkers are fucked. Seriously.
Final Word:
Planning a wedding is surprisingly difficult. Working for the government is incredibly different to working in the private sector.
Contact Me:
If you’re at all interested in me, my plight, my writing, or my stunning good looks (ha!), feel free to get in touch with me via:
Tim the Corsair on Steam or XBLA
@TSPSweeney on Twitter
Or just send me a PM.
Hope this was interesting to somebody,
Tim ‘the Corsair’ Sweeney
