Josh Reynolds no longer works for BL

[theSpirea]

They way I see it, he didn't particularly enjoy writing about SM, and as Xisor mentioned, maybe these books were his best selling stuff. He was constantly asked to write them. It feels he wasn't given the freedom to choose what he wanted to write simply because it wouldn't sell as well as his SM novels.

 

I wish they treated him as Fehervari. Let him write what he enjoys, he already has much bigger established fan base than Peter, so I don't see any issue there.

 

I don't think it was "an impulsive decision". He started expressing frustration already when he was working on The End Times series.

 

Maybe it simply came down to having a job you enjoy but pays less or a well-paid job you don't enjoy.

[DarkChaplain]

To be fair, Peter seems to have been struggling in similar ways to Josh before, and from what I gather, might have been discouraged so much that he might have stopped writing - if it hadn't been for the actual readership reception, to which I count the Russian community that loves him. His novella Fire & Ice, for example, also was left unpublished for a long long time, until it was just dropped into the Tau Empire Legends of the Dark Millennium anthology with no actual fanfare.

He's kind of snuck a few things here and there past the editors too, I believe, which would resonate with his fans, but were missed by the more superficial reading of the editing staff. Vanguard in particular was commissioned as an AdMech tie-in short, and he broke the commissioned wordcount in favor of writing his story (which still was subject to editorial shenanigans anyway). For folks who've read Fire Caste, Vanguard is more than the sum of its parts.

 

It's only been fairly recently, with the success of Requiem Infernal running up to release, I'd argue, that things seem to have loosened up around Peter at last. He's probably still shackled in many ways, but to me it sounds more like he ended up getting real lucky with his editorial persons lately (which he seems thankful about iirc re: interviews). He's got a bunch of rejected pitches as well, and I am super-eager to finally see the Brotherhood of a Thousand at some point, if they let him.

 

The big difference between Josh and Peter is probably that Peter's passion is in writing weird fiction in 40k, whereas Josh was more passionate about WHFB/AoS, which is noticeably harder to get commissioned - we all see what a trickle it has been with novels there, and most of them are faction tie-ins nowadays - while 40k as a brand is already a safe bet for baseline sales. Josh has made it clear before that he treats commissions more like the mercenary work that they are, and that it's important to take up a lot of work to keep food on the table. It's clear how burnout and fatigue would set in when you start feeling like you have to take on those safe commissions to support your family, and doing the stuff you actually feel invested in on a personal level on the side, in your off-hours, then also getting unlucky with marketing over and over, or other publishers folding without putting your third book for them into print...

Peter, last I heard, was still employed elsewhere, with writing not being his main source of income. So in a way, he can "afford" (as much as I dislike the term) to not take up jobs he doesn't feel like writing, because he still has a reasonably stable source of income. But those commissions were Josh's source of stable income.

 

It's also important to remember that during the End Times shenanigans, he was pulled off the Time of Legends trilogy he was writing to do the first tie-in novel (which went far and beyond the brief in terms of doing justice to the setting) and then got to finish it off (again wrapping off countless threads and characters that the studio(!) forgot about in their big lorebooks(!!)). Then when just posting on social media answering questions about open plotlines and fluff, by way of his headcanon, he got chastized for it by GW's legal department, because WHFB was dead and they basically tried to shut up about it.

Not a source of positive feelings, to not only have the setting you were writing tie-in books for being nuked, having to clean up the fallout because the company you were writing for didn't do their homework properly and just wanted to get it over with asap, and then being shut down on talking about it with people - like you - who missed that world dearly.

 

There are so many instances throughout his time writing for BL / GW that'd have made me boil over and quit, I'm honestly amazed that he's stuck around as long as he did - which shows just how much passion he actually did have for his writing in those settings, and how much he clung to hope to get some of his pitches accepted.

[byrd9999]

I enjoy Josh Reynolds' BL books and I hope there is some way for them to work together in the future.

 

It doesn't seem like a messy divorce, just that Josh got burned out amid the frustrating limitations of writing IP-tie-in fiction and stepped off the treadmill.

[Knockagh]

Peter, rather sensibly stays off social media. Which I guarantee you GW are very happy about.

[Cleanse And Purify]

Peter, rather sensibly stays off social media. Which I guarantee you GW are very happy about.

While I think we should all throw social media in the trash and forget about it (he said on a form of social media!), is there any particular reason Fehervari should be more hesitant to enjoy it's bitter fruits than the rest of us?

 

I have read some of the Russian interviews with him and he seems a rather likable and normal sort, all things considered.

[Knockagh]

 

Peter, rather sensibly stays off social media. Which I guarantee you GW are very happy about.

While I think we should all throw social media in the trash and forget about it (he said on a form of social media!), is there any particular reason Fehervari should be more hesitant to enjoy it's bitter fruits than the rest of us?

 

I have read some of the Russian interviews with him and he seems a rather likable and normal sort, all things considered.

He does indeed seem very normal and all round interesting fella. BL authors and Twitter is a bad combo I think. I’ve been on and off twitter for years (currently off) and I’m pretty fed up getting political and moral lecturers from my favourite fiction authors. These guys work for a company that sells plastic figures at probably 1000% mark up and only a few years ago proudly boasted about their addicted fan base. I’m not overly worried about that tbh as it’s my choice to buy it but I’m not that keen on listening to their rants. I’m just glad PF keeps his brain writing brilliantly twisted fiction and off social media, it’s makes him more likeable!

[DarkChaplain]

I remember unfollowing a bunch of BL authors when they moved to the US to work for Riot (more than a few of those) and their Twitter feeds became very much about American politics, despite them being very recent immigrants. You wouldn't have been able to tell, though, with how entrenched they got pretty much immediately...

 

Twitter ain't a place I would sob after if it burned down and disappeared. Fun fact: It looks like Goodreads is decoupling from Twitter, at least as far as login and share functionality goes. Either that's down to the Twitter API becoming hot garbage to work with, or it's a deliberate choice to move away from that site.

[DarkChaplain]

I didn't want to name names, but... yes. That one in particular - and I know he's a lovely chap. But that was one of the most annoying examples when I still checked up on Twitter (mainly for BL business).

Sadly, these days it seems like the whole Twitter Warrior angle is more important for some than actually writing their books... Looking at you, Lynch...

 

The moment a creative person with published/upcoming work mixes their work talk with socially divisive topics or politics in general on their social media channels, I quickly lose interest in wanting to engage with both them and their work. Sharing their thoughts is, of course, their right, but often it'd be better not to do it in this manner, on these mediums. Or better yet, let their views inspire their work to create relevant commentary without it being totally on the nose.

 

I'm honestly surprised that GW hasn't done more to distance themselves from their authors' social media ramblings. It's kind of why I'm torn on what happened with Thomas Parrott (although there's more than the obvious going on there for sure).

[StrangerOrders]

By my token its more to do with how you articulate an opinion than what your opinion is. Worldviews are malleable things but I generally think there is more worth in two contrasting but well-articulated views than two compatible but highly simplistic/aggressive views. 

 

Twitter is geared towards the latter more than the former I find.

 

I do find that I oftentimes find myself agreeing with a viewpoint but being so revolted by the execution of the presenter that I find myself questioning a point I had previously agreed with.

 

To take the example of Reynolds' work actually, I think he is actually an interesting case.

 

He tackles the extremely controversial angle of 'female space marine' through characters like Igori and Savona of the Ruptured Skein. But rather than a declaration of fiat, poor execution and using a litany of moronic insults, he actually makes both (but mostly Savona) heavily impacted by and dwell in how that circumstance affects their interactions with the rest of the setting.

 

Moreso, he does it from the viewpoint of someone who radiates a deep understanding of the setting. 

 

Now, they are not female space marines and I am in the camp that has extreme distaste for such a concept (but as with all concepts, substantial hard work and no retcons can win me to that side) but I believe he presents a much more interesting discourse on the subject than... some folks.

 

I suppose the TLDR here is that I would rather side with an articulated opinion of a New Man I disagree with than the gibbering of a heavily-armed vatborn I might agree with. 

 

....I feel like I have done the noble Vatborn a grave disservice by comparing their proud people to Twitter.

[Brother Tyler]

It appears that we've exhausted the discussion about Josh Reynolds no longer working for Black Library.