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Meet the Reverend

/ Barry Nugent / Leave a comment

It’s become a bit of a mantra now but whenever anyone finishes reading Fallen Heroes the novel my first question is ‘Who was your favorite character?’ This questions springs from the fact that the book deals with several main characters and it’s nice to know who readers were rooting for. I don’t know if I should be worried that the majority of those who read the book picked the Reverend as their fave character.

Now I don’t want to say too much about the character other than he really is not the sort of man you want to be on the wrong side of. Originally the Reverend was the result of conversation over a few drinks with a friend of mine (yep pete that’s you) who came up with the genesis of the character. At first to me he just sounded like a typical religious zealot turned killer and felt a little stereotyped. As I sat down to flesh out the character I decided to take him on a much more emotionally journey in the book.  I was always wanted the core of the Reverend to be that of an ordinary man who saw the world ‘differently’ after what he had been through. He had locked within him a side to his character that was capable of extreme violence a side he had kept it under lock and key from his early teenage years. It is something that the spin off Comic featuring the Reverend will explore more of.

When it came to describing the Reverend in the book I left his description purposely vague. Of course that may be fine when you’re asking people to use their imagination to fill in the blanks but not really that much help when asking an artist to draw the character in the novel adaptation.

Personally I think Steve’s done an amazing job on his final character sketch as I never a clear idea in my head what the Reverend would look like it. The things we did work on was what I did know.

  • He wouldn’t be some muscle-bound nutjob
  • He wouldn’t be too good-looking, this shouldn’t be a man who turned heads.
  • We wouldn’t really stand out from the crowd.
  • He always had a haunted look to him

This is what Steve came up with. You will see more of the Reverend in issue 2 and in the spin off The Reverend: Wrath of God, which is in development at the moment.

Update on the Sequel to Fallen Heroes

/ Barry Nugent / 2 Comments

Most of last year was spent with me telling people that ‘Book 2 was on the way’ but it was a hard year for me writing wise as I had so many other things going on and to be honest had written myself into a bit of a corner with the story.

Towards the end of last year I’m started to get my head around things. I’ve told myself and now I’m telling you that I plan to have the sequel to Fallen Heroes out before the end of this year or die in the attempt (ok maybe not die). Hopefully it’s not been too long that people who enjoyed the first book won’t be after my blood. So hold tight Courtney book 2 is on  the way mate!

I don’t think I had been prepared for how bloody hard I was going to find it picking up the story threads from book 1 and laying down the story threads for the third and final book. As well as all that there was the small matter of trying to tell a story that I hope people will find entertaining. In the end I think telling myself to stop procrastinating, stop making excuses and just finish the thing has helped. I also think seeing the energy and passion of the guys working on the Fallen Heroes comic has really given me a boost to get back to these characters that I love and this story.

I can confirm that book 2 will be called Forgotten Warriors. Now I’ve had some comments from people wishing the title was a little more different from the many titles out there. A few more wishing I had stuck with my working title Perdition’s Shroud. All I can say is I wanted to pick titles for the trilogy that reflected the core of the story I’m telling and hopefully will work on a number of levels. Perdition’s Shroud just felt like a title I had quite frankly pulled out of my ass and had no relationship to the story. Forgotten Warriors is very relevant to the core of this story as it will focus a lot more on the sidekicks/secondary characters from Fallen Heroes and let’s face it Fallen Sidekicks would have been a crap title.

I’ve promised myself with the dawn of the new year I would crack on with this and that’s still the plan. I have very rough first draft that still needs a lot of work doing on it before I let my test readers loose to tear it apart. Hopefully thought that’s something I can get underway soon.

Junbobkim, the artist who did the awesome cover for Fallen Heroes will be back again doing the cover for Forgotten Warriors.

I would like to think that I’ve now learnt a lot more about the marketing/self publishing side of things so hopefully I’ll be able to handle that side of things a lot better this time around.

Anyway for those of you who read Fallen Heroes I’ve stuck a short synopsis of Forgotten Warriors. Please do not read if you’ve not read Fallen Heroes as there are some huge spoilers.

You have been warned.

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Fallen Heroes gets it second Five Star Waterstone’s review!

/ Barry Nugent / Leave a comment

During  March I did my second Official Waterstone’s signing this time at Milton Keynes. The signing went really well and there’s now a nice display behind the counter of the book (photos coming soon).

Anyway the manager of the store  was great on the day and very supportive. After reading the book he gave it a five star recommendation on the Waterstones website with the following write-up.

I loved reading this book, particularly for its clever plot that subtly draws all factors together for a big bang effect. It reads like a TV series, with cliff hangers at the end of most chapters, and larger than life characters with big egos and quick wits. The book as a whole draws on many popular culture references & influences, and is easily compared to ‘Sin City’, ‘The Da Vinci Code’, ‘Heroes’ or ‘Buffy’ – there really is something for everyone and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone that enjoys reading or watching Sci-Fi/Fantasy.

Waterstone’s

Fallen Heroes at the Bristol Comic Expo 2009

/ Barry Nugent / Leave a comment

Between May 9th -10th I will be attending the Bristol Comic Expo 2009 to help promote the upcoming Fallen Heroes graphic novel adaptation from Insomnia Publications.

The adaptation is starting to gather steam. I have been chatting this the writer of the adaptation Martin Conaghan and things are on the move.

I will be selling/signing special copies  which include deleted scenes from the book and my reasons as to why they were removed as well as a brief look at Book 2 – Perdition’s Shroud. I’ll also be chatting to whoever will listen about the book and the adaptation.