The online book community can be a great place, but it can also feel daunting sometimes, with unwritten rules you might feel like you ought to follow, regular (and often baffling) platform changes, a huge amount of noise going on all the time (so many people and conversations to follow and keep track of), and the constant temptation to judge yourself against others. Whether you’re a reader, writer, reviewer or combination thereof, it can be easy to get lost amongst everything that’s going on and feel uncomfortable, unhappy, or even burned out. There are few, if any, hard and fast rules or easy answers for how to make the most of the community, but one thing I’ve learned from running Track of Words for nearly a decade is the importance of curating your spaces.
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Spotlight On Justin Hill’s Original Fiction
You might be familiar with Justin Hill for his Black Library fiction (written as Justin D. Hill), but outside of the worlds of Warhammer he has a considerable backlog of original work too, all exploring various aspects of contemporary and historical fiction. His seven books cover all manner of periods and locations from 11th century England to 20th century Eritrea, and characters from Viking kings to Chinese poets. As part of an ongoing series of guest posts in which I invite authors onto the site to tell us about their original fiction, Justin is here to talk a little bit about each of his novels, what inspired each of them, and what went into their writing. The stories behind these books are fascinating, featuring rapid evacuations, overseas volunteering, meeting the descendents of royalty and more, so settle in to add some books to your TBR list!
Continue readingMonthly Roundup – May 2023
Hello and welcome to May’s Monthly Roundup post here on Track of Words. After a couple of months in which I really struggled for motivation and headspace, and therefore didn’t have a lot to talk about in my roundups, I’m pleased to report that May went pretty well, and has definitely felt like an uptick all around. As always I’ve put together a quick recap of everything I posted this month, and then this time around I’ve also written a quick reading update, some thoughts on several book events I recently attended – including Comic Con, and the brilliant Black Crow Blogger Brunch – and some cool book news and recommendations.
Continue readingWorking With Reviewers
Every book blogger and reviewer I know wants to read and talk about as many books as possible, but the simple truth is that we all have far too many books we want to read, and nothing like enough time in which to read them all. If you’re an author then, how do you get your book into the hands of reviewers who have the interest, motivation and time to be able to read your book and write about it? That’s what I want to tackle with this article. I obviously can’t speak for all reviewers, but I can offer some suggestions based on my own experiences, which I think will stand you in good stead for encouraging reviewers to want to read your book.
Continue readingSpotlight On Danie Ware’s Original Fiction
Regular Track of Words readers will probably be familiar with SFF author Danie Ware from her excellent IP fiction, but like many writers Danie also has a rich catalogue of original fiction with novels published by Titan Books and Fox Spirit Books, and short stories in all sorts of anthologies (there’s even a short story of Danie’s available to read for free right here on Track of Words!). As part of an ongoing series of ‘Spotlight On…’ author guest posts, I’ve invited Danie onto the site to tell us more about her original fiction, and in particular which books she recommends as starting points. So settle in, and get ready for some new books to hit your TBR list!
Continue readingSpotlight On Guy Haley’s Original Fiction
As journalist, critic, editor and author, Guy Haley has been involved in SFF publishing for well over 20 years, in that time writing over 50 novels and novellas, as well as countless short stories. You might be familiar with Guy’s work in the worlds of Warhammer, but over the years he’s written plenty of original fiction too – seven novels and two novellas for publishers including Angry Robot, Solaris and Tordotcom. After a long hiatus he’s recently returned to writing his own material – his most recent was the short story The Cure, published in Grimdark magazine in April (I thought it was great, and reviewed it here).
Continue readingMonthly Roundup – April 2023
Hello and welcome to the April 2023 Monthly Roundup on Track of Words. After talking quite a lot in the last instalment about how slow March was for me (particularly in terms of writing) I was hoping I’d have more to talk about this time around. As it happens though, April has in fact been even slower, not least because I’ve spent more than half of the month unwell. I do have a few pieces to talk about from what I posted in April so I’ll go through those as usual, and talk a little about the month’s reading, but once again I’ll keep things quite short overall.
Continue readingMonthly Roundup – March 2023
Hello and welcome to my Monthly Roundup for March 2023 here on Track of Words. It’s been a slow month for me personally, and this post you’re reading is only the sixth thing I’ve published in all of March – not since April 2022 have I posted so few times in a month. I’ll talk a little bit later on about why I think things have been so slow, but in short I simply haven’t had the energy, headspace or motivation for working on the site over the last few weeks. Or at least, to get things actually finished. I do have a few pieces in various states of completion so hopefully I’ll have more to talk about in April. I’m still struggling for motivation even as I write this though, so I think I’ll keep things pretty short for this instalment.
Continue readingMonthly Roundup – February 2023
Welcome to my Track of Words Monthly Roundup post for February 2023. I hope February has treated you well – it’s been a little quieter for me than January was, but still pretty good overall. For this roundup I’ll do my usual recap of the last few weeks’ posts, after which I’ll continue with the style of article I adopted last month – talking very briefly about how I got on with my reading before concentrating mostly on interesting goings-on in the world of SFF. I enjoyed putting last month’s roundup together, and I hope it was interesting – do let me know what you think!
Continue readingLike Warhammer? Try This: Aconyte Books
I know a lot of Track of Words readers are big Black Library fans, but what if – like me – you’re keen to look beyond the boundaries of Warhammer and find new fantasy and science fiction worlds to explore? It can be tricky to know where to start, and with so many SFF books published each year choosing a new book or series can sometimes feel a bit intimidating. The answer, I think, is to try something by an author you’re already familiar with – so think of your favourite Black Library authors, and look for some of their non-BL stories! Not every BL author writes for other publishers, but plenty of them do, so you’ve got a ready-made list of writers whose work will give you great entry points to the wider world of SFF.
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