ok well i managed to see said dan abnett today, i got a lift up with my little brother who was really just there to buy a basilisk (but more on that on a later date)
let me start by saying that the man has a heart of gold, seriously, he has a strange aura of calm that seems to radiate, hes in control simply by being there, but he doesnt dominate... its the strangest thing ever... maybe its his funky beard
i did manage to get some books signed, my brother got a signature on our copy of the founding omnibus (caching! here we come ebay!)
i also think that santa has managed to find a copy of blookback thats been signed for me too

and as is customary for an imperial guardsman i presented my copy of the departmento munitorum's handbook to be signed by a senior officer (it was either that or get my face blown off by a commisar's bolt pistol)
as for the questions, i asked about the darkblade series because i loved those books too and he wants to work on some more!
Although he admits that there are problems when it comes too working with Mike Lee (its nothing personal he just lives on the other side of a big bit of water called the pacific!) he says that he is working to get their timetables in sinc to free up time to write another series of five books, the first of which is being started next year and shipped out (hopefully) the year after
as for brotherhood of the snake, he says that he is working on a sequel novel for some time soon...
he mentioned he was doing another inquisitor trilogy to go with Eisenhorn and Ravenor and i think he said something about it being Eisenhorn Vs Ravenor...
I also asked if he preffered Sci Fi or Fantasy and the answer was:
Sci Fi, but he admitted that every now and then he gets a craving for fantasy, he tangented to mention that he is getting his fix right now by writing his next contribution too the Horus Heresy novels. Apparently he is resposible for the Space Wolves Vs Thousand Sons novel and has said that there is so much magic and great big nasty melee weapons that it may as well be a fantasy title.
I asked him to expand a bit more on the space wolves and he said simply that the Space Wolves were a hard army to write, they work well on tabletop because of their strong theme but he had a hard time characterising them. When I asked if he had made a race of space vikings he said that he kind of had, but not exactly.
The were simply alien warriors that did the whole "mead drinking contests in a long house then went out the next day with a big axe and a beard to kill things".
He also revealed that the Gaunt's Ghosts novels weren't as a deliberate as many people thought. They origionated as a series of short stories which Black Library wanted turned into a first novel. Dan said no, he wanted to do the actual founding part of the legion then use the short stories as a second novel.
I left shortly before he did and realised that I had gained a valuable insight into the novel writing mind of one of the greatest writers working in the Black Library today. If he shows up in your town I would suggest you show up too because he is a realy nice guy who you really should try and see and maybe even have a chat with him. He is as blue collar as it gets, working hard to fire out 3 novels a year and really enjoys his work.