Did Laurie Goulding leave and then return to BL?

[b1soul]

Remember the 2017 Track of Words interview which includes...

 

LG: It’s hard to know what I should and shouldn’t say to you, actually, off the record or on it. I should point out first that I loved my time at Games Workshop, and the decision to leave after six years was something I agonised over for a long while beforehand.

 

ToW: I asked Laurie one final question…”Now that you’ve left Black Library, out of the stuff that’s coming up soon what are you most excited about?”

 

Is Laurie back with BL? Seems to have happened under the radar.

[Fire Golem]

I knew he left, I’ve not seen anything about him returning?

[mc warhammer]

what makes you say he's back?

[b1soul]

I might be mistaken.

 

Lexicanum mentions him in the present tense and I believe the Last Council was published end of 2018 though he left by early 2017.

 

Is he still freelancing for BL?

[Marshal Rohr]

Nope still out in LA doing stuff for a video game

[cheywood]

He’s still with Riot. He’s just got time to write the occasional short story for BL. McNeill’s in the same boat.

[DukeLeto69]

He’s still with Riot. He’s just got time to write the occasional short story for BL. McNeill’s in the same boat.

And Ian St Martin.

[cheywood]

 

He’s still with Riot. He’s just got time to write the occasional short story for BL. McNeill’s in the same boat.

And Ian St Martin.

And Anthony Reynolds. I’m picturing them all strapped into beds while Kathy Bates demands they produce more League of Legends character bios.

[DarkChaplain]

I might be mistaken.

 

Lexicanum mentions him in the present tense and I believe the Last Council was published end of 2018 though he left by early 2017.

 

Is he still freelancing for BL?

 

Lexicanum is also insanely outdated and barely even *has* articles on various authors, let alone their works.

 

Also keep in mind that release schedules can differ drastically from when the work was actually commissioned or written. Some works lie in BL's drawers for years, including stuff Josh Reynolds wrote (like a couple of WHFB stories that later appeared in the new Inferno! anthologies), and Fehervari's Fire and Ice was waiting for a long time too, with the inclusion in Legends of the Dark Millennium: Tau Empire coming unexpectedly.

 

Short stories are reasonably low investment for BL. They can commission and never release, if they so choose, without really feeling a hit to their finances anyway. Especially with the Horus Heresy, they knew there'd be a Terra-focused anthology before we ever knew anything about Heralds of the Siege, and they also knew they'd have to commission stuff for the advent calendars. Heck, they gave the job to write Sanguinius' Primarchs novel to James Swallow *years* before it'll ever see the light of day - to the point where he didn't even have an idea, let alone a pitch, for it.

 

And now we look at one short story that the previous series main editor wrote, for a project he had mapped out a fair bit into the future (by publishing schedule). There ain't no magic about it.

 

 

 

 

 

He’s still with Riot. He’s just got time to write the occasional short story for BL. McNeill’s in the same boat.

And Ian St Martin.

And Anthony Reynolds. I’m picturing them all strapped into beds while Kathy Bates demands they produce more League of Legends character bios.

 

 

Riot has been poaching basically half their writing staff from BL at this point. It's a pity, considering I have nothing but contempt for that company, their IPs or their overlords.

Edited May 17, 2020 by DarkChaplain

[b1soul]

I think since moving to Riot, McNeill has written Crimson King, Master of Prospero, and Sons of the Selena...so that's some significant output on the side.

 

Looks like Laurie is kinda in the same boat, but with less output?

[DukeLeto69]

I think since moving to Riot, McNeill has written Crimson King, Master of Prospero, and Sons of the Selena...so that's some significant output on the side.

 

Looks like Laurie is kinda in the same boat, but with less output?

Well McNeill was primarily a freelance writer (after stopping his codex work at GW) whereas Laurie was a BL editor so his writing was always on the side hence lower output back then. Now they both freelance writers in the side!

[Sandlemad]

Different roles in Riot, I guess? McNeill is a senior writer while Golding is in a senior editorial role that doesn't seem dissimilar to his BL so maybe that has ramifications for how much time they have for freelancing? Combined with McNeill having a longer history freelancing.

[Bobss]

It seems obvious to me McNeill would've had the opportunity to write a full-length Siege of Terra novel... if he didn't have to constantly fly in to the UK for the meetings. So instead he seems to be writing a bunch of novellas that finish off his own plot threats (the Eye of Terror gang, Magnus' at Terra... Arik Taranis...?). This is only a guess, but it seems to fit

 

As for Goulding I have no idea. I took a break from Black Library between 2013 and 2018, and from what I can tell author-fan communication in that time became quite nasty, so I don't really care either