[JamesGilmer]

Hi everyone!

My name is James (call me Jim) Gilmer and in addition to my dayjob I've been a writer in some capacity for a long time. I'm a Graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop of 2000 that was held for six weeks at Michigan State University, the same university where I recieved my English degree before working as a technical writer, a newspaper stringer, and a zine writer as a favour to friends as well as ghost writing a few things for people who wanted help with everything from memoirs to taking stabs at fiction.

Amoong my classmates at Clarion 2000 were my good friend and "mum" Karen Traviss and Chris (The Toronto Kid) Evans who has a wonder military fantasy series out at the moment called THE IRON ELVES as well as working as an editor.

My first pro fiction sale was to the webzine Ideomancer and more sales soon followed with my fiction and non-fiction appearing in books like MOTA 3:Courage (for which I was invited to WisCon to read a couple years in a row), and my essay "Does God Limp?" recieved wonderful reviews when it appeared in Benbella/Smartpop's HOUSE UNAUTHORIZED collection.

I put writing to the side for a few years while I recieved my radiology degree and worked at a Level 1 Trauma and Surgical hospital and even sold a few short pieces and flash fiction before I moved to California and got a nice clinic job that's a bit less stressful and affords me much more writing time (bless my wife for being so understanding, and my room mate Shea Standefer, who is a wonderful Star Wars artist for the Topps card sets).

The short story "Unity" in the upcoming (end of the month!) antho FEAR THE ALIEN is my first foray into Work for hire franchise fiction and the experience has been awesome on every level in large part thanks to editor Christian Dunn.

I'd also like to thank Karen Traviss, my classmate at the Clarion writer's group, an amazing friend who I jokingly call "Mum" and she calls me her "American son". She's a wonderful writer who has gone on to an amazing career first with her own Wess'har Wars six novel series, Star Wars' REPUBLIC COMMANDO novels, the GEARS OF WAR novels and now the third game which she's writing, and an upcoming HALO trilogy...plus things I'm sure I forgot.

I'll be starting up a writing blog that's specifically geared towards my experiences getting started as a writer, Clarion, and working for Black Library (sorry, no juicy secrets as I don't know any), and any news that comes up as I plug along on various projects.

I'll post the web addy once I get that up.

So...hello, and I hope those who pick up FEAR THE ALIEN enjoy it as I'm honoured to share a ToC with the writers in that book. It's rather u

Best,

James (Jim) Gilmer

 

[Lord of the Night]

Welcome to the Heresy, from the Lord of the Night.

Nice to see that we are attracting more authors to the site, and I look forward to some more 40k work from you. I very much enjoyed Unity, and I hope to see more Tau stories in the future, they are underwritten in favour of Orks and Chaos too often.

And your classmate was Karen Traviss?!, she is one of my favourite authors, I love her Republic Commando and Gears of War novels, and I can't wait to see how Gears of War 3 will turn out with her on the team, and she supports the Save Carmine movement .

 

[Bindi Baji]

welcome to the forum jim!

 

[JamesGilmer]

Welcome to the Heresy, from the Lord of the Night.

Nice to see that we are attracting more authors to the site, and I look forward to some more 40k work from you. I very much enjoyed Unity, and I hope to see more Tau stories in the future, they are underwritten in favour of Orks and Chaos too often.

And your classmate was Karen Traviss?!, she is one of my favourite authors, I love her Republic Commando and Gears of War novels, and I can't wait to see how Gears of War 3 will turn out with her on the team, and she supports the Save Carmine movement .

Yup, Karen and I have been friends since Clarion and if you pick up most any of her books and look at the acknowledgement page you'll see a familiar name:grin:

They HAVE to Save Carmine, man! I think he deserves to live at this point...one ray of hope in what looks to be a story that is not quite as bleak as a grim future where there is only WAR! Still, it's pretty bleak, might as well let one dude make it.

Then they can release a DLC and kill him in that :biggrin:

 

[alexos]

*inhales loudly and obnoxiously*

A BL WRITOR!!!!

:shok:

Your a god to me........

Okay, grovelling aside. Are you posting that writing blog here, or is there an external site? I really want to gain some insight into the BL.

 

[Doelago]

Good... Now we have a writer from Black Library here... Good...

 

[JamesGilmer]

*inhales loudly and obnoxiously*

A BL WRITOR!!!!

:shok:

Your a god to me........

Okay, grovelling aside. Are you posting that writing blog here, or is there an external site? I really want to gain some insight into the BL.

My writing blog is either going to be tied to a website of mine, or if the website is going to take a bit, I'm going to throw it up on blogger or wordpress or something.

I'm utterly exhausted after having put out 20K words in the last two weeks on a massive project outline and it's my wedding anniversary this weekend, so I'm taking a bit of time off to get my sanity back and enjoy life before I do the blog.

The blog will start before FEAR THE ALIEN drops, and I'll most likely also put up any old stories of mine that are creator owned and have rights reverted back to me up on the blog as well, just to show you how far I've come since Clarion 2000.

As far as insight into BL...well, as with all writers I sign what is called a Non-Disclosure Agreement, so I'm afraid I can't spill the mysteries of the WH40K universe even if I knew them, but I can talk about the process I use when writing and what my experience (not universal, no single writer's is) has been, and I can answer question to a limited degree.

And no groveling...one of the great things about working in a shared universe is the shared enjoyment, which means being down on the floor, not up in the balcony section.

 

[Katie Drake]

Good... Now we have a writer from Black Library here... Good...

Haha, actually Aaron Dembski-Bowden (did I spell that right? ) is a member here on Heresy, so Jim here isn't our first.

The blog will start before FEAR THE ALIEN drops, and I'll most likely also put up any old stories of mine that are creator owned and have rights reverted back to me up on the blog as well, just to show you how far I've come since Clarion 2000.

As far as insight into BL...well, as with all writers I sign what is called a Non-Disclosure Agreement, so I'm afraid I can't spill the mysteries of the WH40K universe even if I knew them, but I can talk about the process I use when writing and what my experience (not universal, no single writer's is) has been, and I can answer question to a limited degree.

Haha, well darn. What good are ya?

Welcome to Heresy Mr. Gilmer. Looking forward to seeing your stuff in Fear the Alien (as personally I've thought that the xenos races in the 41st millenium needed more "screen time" as it were for quite a while)! Hope you enjoy your stay.

 

[Bindi Baji]

Haha, actually Aaron Dembski-Bowden (did I spell that right? ) is a member here on Heresy, so Jim here isn't our first.

I am pretty sure there is another on here(well at least one anyway),
although he doesn't offer his name, but then he didn't used to on BL forums either

 

[Lord of the Night]

Yup, Karen and I have been friends since Clarion and if you pick up most any of her books and look at the acknowledgement page you'll see a familiar name:grin:

They HAVE to Save Carmine, man! I think he deserves to live at this point...one ray of hope in what looks to be a story that is not quite as bleak as a grim future where there is only WAR! Still, it's pretty bleak, might as well let one dude make it.

Then they can release a DLC and kill him in that :biggrin:

Ah yes. I picked up my copy of Order 66 and sure enough your name is there. 'Jim Gilmer, for unwavering and unstilting support, even when I get really really tedious.'

Agreed. Clay Carmine is too cool to die. In a series like Gears of War you get attached to the characters and dont want any of them to die.

Haha, actually Aaron Dembski-Bowden (did I spell that right? ) is a member here on Heresy, so Jim here isn't our first.

We actually also have Chris Wraight as a member.

 

[Baron Spikey]

Welcome Mr Gilmer, I look forwards to reading your fiction- I thoroughly enjoyed both Aaron's and Chris' so here's hoping your stuff keeps to the trend of the good BL authors joining Heresy...

Again welcome and if there's anyway for us to help you (purchasing your books is one idea:biggrin then we're ready and eager.

 

[5tonsledge]

write about chaos dont write about the space marines there is way too many SM books

 

[Bindi Baji]

write about chaos dont write about the space marines there is way too many SM books

I for one cannot wait to read a novel seen from the perspective of a chaos spawn :biggrin:

 

[JamesGilmer]

write about chaos dont write about the space marines there is way too many SM books

You know, while I have loved all the various books in WH40K I have read (and by no means have a read them all), and I love Space Marines and they are the bread and butter of WH40k and the most iconic image in the universe...it's a MASSIVE universe, and my favourite novels have been ones that tend to show that like Sandy Mitchell's SCOURAGE THE HERETIC and the new ENFORCER omnibus and so on.

The sad thing is that FEAR THE ALIEN will probably not get as much recognition or heat because it doesn't have an SM on the cover (although, yes, there are plenty of Space Marines inside), so all I can say is to vote with your wallet and if companies see things like FEAR THE ALIEN, whose remit was to focus on the aliens, or other books that focus on smaller and lesser known aspects of the universe...if they do just as well as those Space Marine anthos and Space Marine books you'll see more chances taken with stories and with content and see more from alien POV's, and from POV's from people, aliens, and creatures other than the Space Marines.

However, the Space Marines are WARHAMMER 40K in the same way Jedi are STAR WARS...but, as writers like Karen Traviss, Aaron Allston, Mike Stakepole have shown in that universe, the soldiers and pilots can carry their own books too.

 

[5tonsledge]

im not saying i dont like SM novels and i loved Graham Mcneills ultramarine books but you know what else he made good dollar bill signs was Storm of Iron. i read that book twice and i have to say absolutly loved the book, so thats why i ask for more chaos not just because im a chaos player but because i want some variety. Plus i love Sinister plots.

 

[5tonsledge]

I for one cannot wait to read a novel seen from the perspective of a chaos spawn :biggrin:

lol that would be an interesting book cant what to read what its thinking.... probably something along these lines.
"--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------....Kill." yep interesting.

 

[Baron Spikey]

Holy shit! I just realised I'm actually reading a book by Karen Traviss...

 

[alexos]

I can't wait for a book to come out that focusses on the alien! I think that GW should try and shift their attentions to other races, both in 40k and fantasy.

As for the BL insight thing, I wanted to know about your experience with what the BL is like when a book is accepted, do they give you a deadline, or is it more like "get chapter 4 in by friday"?

 

[JamesGilmer]

I can't wait for a book to come out that focusses on the alien! I think that GW should try and shift their attentions to other races, both in 40k and fantasy.

As for the BL insight thing, I wanted to know about your experience with what the BL is like when a book is accepted, do they give you a deadline, or is it more like "get chapter 4 in by friday"?

Good question, and this is one of the things I'm going to tackle when I throw a blog up on the intertubes, and the simple answer is that once the outline is approved you get a contract with the due date on it.

Now, my very, very limited experience is that, depending on what you're doing, they may use what I call "stage payments", which means that on acceptance of the outline you get a percentage of the total, on turning in first draft you get another, and then on the last pass draft that goes to the printers you get the final payment (please don't ask my about payments, I've never talked about money since I got my first job at ten years old and I don't now).

With a short story it's usually just final acceptance that you get your payment.

 

[Commissar Ploss]

Glad to have you with us Jim. We've chatted in another thread so i'll keep the welcome short. Welcome to Heresy mate.

CP