The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

No, I haven't gone mad and started to think that December follows August, it's just that September is my favourite month of the year.

It always was my favourite month growing up as it meant going back to school (yes, I liked school - but I much preferred sixth form and uni) but it now has the extra razzle dazzle that it's my daughter's birth month too. This September is shaping up to be the best ever though.

The action kicks off on the 5th when Hive of the Dead is unleashed on the world. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about that in the coming weeks... There will be copies on sale at Games Day and I'll be doing a signing in Warhammer World on 10th September. I'm sure it'll be a case of '...and puppet show' as the mighty Graham McNeill will be signing copies of The Outcast Dead at the same time but anybody who buys one of the 20 copies of HotD on sale on the day will be rewarded with a small free gift that will aid you greatly in playing through the book.

As excited as I am by the release of my first gamebook there are other pop culture items I can't wait to get my hands on in September. A mere four days after Hive of the Dead is unleashed, there's a pretty big video game release, one that allows you to kill stuff with a variety of exotic weapons. That's right - Dead Island is coming out! And if that wasn't a good enough reason for me to invest in a PS3, hot on its heels comes the long-awaited blu-ray release of the greatest movie ever made. That's right, Point Break will finally be available in full HD glory. My movie insiders assure me that the only reason Bigelow won the Oscar for The Hurt Locker is to make up for the fact that she was criminally overlooked for Point Break. OK, so my movie insider works at my local Blockbuster but it makes perfect sense to me!

Later on in the month comes the release of the first set in the next Magic block - Innistrad - and as if it being horror themed wasn't enough to float my boat, the mechanics and cards spoiled so far have raised my anticipation levels to 11. As I said to the Boy Lyon earlier, the only way I could be more excited about this set is if they printed it on bacon!

It's not all shiny and bright in September though. I've been a DC fanboy for years, almost to the total exclusion of titles from other publishers, but, in an effort to reclaim market share from Marvel, their Distinguished Competition have seen fit to reboot their universe and restart all DCU titles with fresh first issues. Many see this as a jumping-on point but I see it as a jumping-off point. The reboot itself was bad enough but retconning the JSA so they weren't the first superhero team and taking Barbara Gordon out of the wheelchair WHILE STILL KEEPING THE KILLING JOKE AS PART OF THE CONTINUITY is at best insulting, at worst offensive. The most galling thing about it is that I've really enjoyed the Flashpoint series and associated mini-series but its legacy will be shaping the universe I've been so faithful to for so long into something I no longer feel comfortable with.

But, in the spirit of September being THE BEST month, what are you looking forward to this (next) month?

July update

Just a quicky as blog posting is apparently anathema to me.

Hive of the Dead is currently at the proofreading stage and, as the vast majority of feedback relates to the complexity of the rules, it now looks likely that the BL Gamebooks will come with both a basic and advanced set of rules. Proposals have been accepted for the third and fourth gamebooks and an announcement should be forthcoming shortly after HOTD's release.

In other news, I've just had my first audio drama accepted so you can all look forward to some aural Dark Angels - along with a special guest - goodness about a year from now. I've also made some progress on the 'other' project and it's now just a case of getting the plot that's bouncing around in my head onto the page. Don't expect any more info than that for a loooong time though...

And I may have settled on my Standard deck for Nationals. Really need to get in a lot of M12 drafting once it launches online which gives me the perfect excuse for not updating the blog for the next few weeks!

Hello, Interwebs! Pleased to be meeting you!

So the .blogspot bit in the address bar above should be a big ass clue that this is a blog. What you may not know is that this is the online home for C.Z. Dunn and the place where I'll be documenting the process of writing Hive of the Dead, my debut full-length book. Well, at least where I get more than just an editor credit ;->

Along with my agonising over adjectives, noodling with nouns and arsing around with adverbs, I'll also dip into my own personal zombie history and share some of my formative undead experiences with you.

So load your shotguns and aim only for the head, it's going to be wild!