Author Interview: Jake Ozga of Black Library & Ex Profundis

   

    Hey everyone, today I've got another interview, this time with Jake Ozga; not only does he write Warhammer Horror for Black Library, he is also an accomplished hobbyist, having pioneered the Dark Age of Sigmar genre on his website, Ex Profundis. I reached out to Jake to learn more about both his writing process and how he goes about converting and painting his miniatures.

 How did you decide that you wanted to write for Black Library?

    A few years back I started writing short stories on my blog to go alongside the miniatures I was making. I enjoy writing and it feels like another part of the hobby to me: creating background stories for the various converted characters I would create. Eventually, I tried the open submissions a few times, but I never felt very comfortable attempting to copy the house style and writing about Space Marines. When the Warhammer Horror imprint launched, I felt like this was exactly what I was interested in, and fortunately one of the editors at Black Library - who had seen my open submission as well as the stories on my blog - agreed.

Was there a specific element or theme of the setting that you wanted to capture that perhaps hadn't been covered much before?

    When Age of Sigmar was released I thought it had lots of potential but I wanted to do something darker with it - I wanted to try to write Age of Sigmar stories as dark as anything from the Old World.

    Warhammer is synonymous with horror, it's always been an integral part of the setting, but that doesn't mean that there are many Warhammer horror stories. I hadn't really written much before this but I love horror and I've been a Warhammer fan since I was a kid. I wanted to combine elements and ideas from my favourite horror fiction with Warhammer and try to create something quite unique.

Can you briefly talk me through your writing process? Do you make notes first? Any quirky tips and tricks? How long do you take? etc.

    I'm still learning how to do all this. I thought I would be able to wing it but it turns out writing for me involves a lot of planning. I make notes on my phone whenever they occur to me - often this will be over the course of a few months because I think ideas need time to render down from a mess of themes and concepts into something more concrete. On my phone, I have fragments of dozens of stories: rough ideas or bits of dialogue. My notes sync to my computer which is useful for moving things around and expanding on ideas and then I can copy them straight into my story. Sometimes scenes will come to me almost complete, but then they may end up moving from one story to another. 

    I do my best thinking when there are no distractions, such as when walking the dog or late at night and I have so many ideas in dreams or in the shower so it's essential to be able to quickly take notes. Organising notes is another matter: I haven't figured that out yet. As for the rest of it, I think with horror you need a good ending, and the rest of the plot comes from that. Invent a character that the reader can care about and have an ending that matters to that character and the rest should hopefully follow. Horror is all about empathy: if the reader doesn't care about your characters then anything that happens to them is inconsequential. Horror is a pretty vague concept and I think this is why it is so divisive: people have specific ideas of what horror needs to include for them. 

Was there a specific element or theme of the setting that you wanted to capture that perhaps hadn't been covered much before?

    I have read a lot of Black Library stories and none are exactly what I look for when reading outside of Warhammer, where I read a lot of horror and weird fiction. Horror is omnipresent in Warhammer of course, but that doesn't mean that all the fiction is horror fiction - the tone is usually not one of horror: where horror often becomes introspective and quiet when confronted with daemons, Warhammer usually goes loud. So I think for me, the goal is to try and communicate this tone of weird horror, cosmic horror, Lovecraftian horror - whatever you want to call it. 


    What does it mean to be a regular person living in such times, confronted by such things? Usually means something pretty terrible happens. Usually, no one shows up to save you.

Why do you write about Age of Sigmar rather than the other settings? What about it compels you and excites you artistically?

    When Age of Sigmar was released it focussed on the stuff I thought of as the mythology of the Mortal Realms. Epic battles and events that were almost as if they were legends as opposed to the gritty realism we had in the Old World. I think that put a lot of people off AoS, but for me, it was the perfect way to introduce the setting. However, I wanted to tell my own stories - not stories that ignored the mythology, or stories that were essentially Old World stories - but stories from the dark corners of the Mortal Realms where ordinary people try to survive in the aftermath of the Chaos Apocalypse and the actions of warring gods, and things like Stormcast Eternals are only seen at a distance, if at all. This is what inspired the Dark Age of Sigmar (AoS28) as a hobby project, and a lot of my writing stemmed from that. 

What have you learnt from writing for Black Library? Do you have any tips for budding authors, Black Library or otherwise?

    I think the most important thing is to read a lot and read outside of Warhammer too. Identify authors who do things you like and want to emulate - this could be in terms of how they write prose, or how they make characters interesting or how they structure stories - and learn to recognise how that is different from authors you enjoy reading but who are not a good fit for you, perhaps because it is too different from what you want to do. An example - I love Shirley Jackson: I love how she communicates her own anxieties and vulnerabilities through her characters and that is something I knew I wanted to do myself. Equally, I love Laird Barron's writing, but his tough, uncompromising characters feel so far removed from my own experiences that if I tried to emulate that I think it would feel fake. You don't have to only write what you know, but I think it can be useful to realise you don't need to write what you aren't.

    My experience with Black Library is that they want to encourage unique voices and I am sure I was rejected a few times during open submissions because I attempted to emulate a sort of Black Library house style - heroic Space Marines doing badass things - rather than try to write in my own style.

You’re quite well known for your distinct style of miniature painting and pioneering the AoS28 genre. So how did you get into miniature painting & what was the first miniature you painted?

    I think either a Heroquest orc or the RTB01 Space Marine set. One of my earliest armies was Space Wolves, but when I was a kid I just collected everything. I find it very easy to get caught up in ideas for a new project and so be distracted from my old ones.

How did you get into painting miniatures in your distinct style?

    I started to play Necromunda with some friends. Painting smaller projects like this is a great excuse to experiment a bit. After a while of posting my models on the forum Dakkadakka, John Blanche asked if I would like to play a game with him and have some models featured in White Dwarf - this was what really made me push myself with painting I think. But my style comes from two things mainly - first, I try to make my models realistic and this meant borrowing techniques from scale/military modellers, and second: I'm quite lazy with painting and I prefer going for drama and contrast rather than doing things like edge highlighting.

Could you talk me briefly through your process of making and painting a miniature from start to finish? Any tips or tricks you use to make the process smoother? Do you paint them separately from the base, varnish them etc? How long do you take?

    I start with a few parts that I stick together with black tack. If you haven't tried black tack before, it's like a much stronger version of blu tack and it lets you really figure out the pose - which is the most important part of a conversion I think. I like quite static poses as a rule, but you want to try and convey things like weight and presence - a lot of what I know about posing I learned from comic books. I don't generally like very dynamic poses or cluttered models so often my process starts with removing the things I dislike. 

    When I assemble larger or more complex models I put a bit of greenstuff in the joints. The greenstuff will give you a slightly flexible hold while you get your pose right. Once it is set, I usually snap the joint off, add superglue and then put it back. This is much easier than trying to glue resin to resin and makes things like Forgeworld dreadnoughts or knights much easier to pose and assemble. It also works well for attaching the head - I always attach the head last to make sure the angle is just right.

    These days I glue the model to the base and paint it all in one part, but I mostly paint armies and it is easier to assemble and paint an army in one go: it's just better for consistency, and with an airbrush, it makes sense to work this way. If I didn't have an airbrush I would use coloured spray paint, and if there was no spray paint in the colour I wanted, I would think of a new scheme. No way I would paint an army with a brush. I try to minimise time spent with a brush on all my projects. 

    Another favourite product is Vallejo red oxide paste. I use this to add texture to almost everything. You can also use it to cover up rough areas in your conversion.

    Most recently I have painted 16 tanks for my Chaos Renegades 40k army. I love painting tanks. It's about as far removed from painting individual figures for AoS28 as you can get, but I love to be able to be messy, to try weathering techniques and to experiment.

What is your favourite GW model and what models would you like to see them make next?

    My favourite models are possibly the Gal Vorbak from Forgeworld. I have bought these several times for conversions, and they form the basis for my Age of Sigmar Chaos Chosen. To me, they look exactly like what Chaos should be. I would like to see more Chaos in this style. The GW Greater Possessed for 40k was pretty close. 

Who are some of your biggest inspirations, both for your writing and your miniatures?

    I don't know about inspiration. I am always told my miniatures look like they are inspired by Dark Souls but I've never played those games. I don't like difficult things. I think we were just inspired by the same ideas: maybe the manga Berserk for one, and maybe artists like Adrian Smith. I think Adrian has a similar, strong vision of what Warhammer should look and feel like to my own. I also take inspiration from people like Beksinski who has such a strong and uncompromising style. I try not to draw too much inspiration from other hobbyists - although there are obviously so many amazing creators out there - for instance Monstroys always blows my mind.

    For writing... I have a lot of authors I really admire: Shirley Jackson, Laird Barron, Cormac McCarthy, Alan Moore, Angela Carter, Grant Morrison, Thomas Ligotti. I could go on and on. You can take inspiration from all sorts of genres when it comes to writing: I guess in general I love beautiful poetic prose and mindfuckery.

    Aaron Dembski-Bowden is a huge inspiration as well, of course--his was the writing that really made an impression on me when I started reading Black Library.

What other passions and hobbies do you have outside of wargaming and writing? To what extent do these influence your work?

    Wargaming and writing take up enough of my time, I don't particularly need any other passions or hobbies. I watch a lot of TV and films, particularly horror films. Oh and I read a lot of comics. I like to go on long walks in the country with my mad little dog.

What are your favourite works you’ve made so far, both with miniatures and in your writing, and what would you like to explore next in these mediums?

    There is something uniquely satisfying about completing a full Warhammer army. I think my Age of Sigmar Slaves to Darkness army is the one I am most pleased with - they are extensively converted and they look pretty striking, so I'd really like to make them into a full army. I want to add mammoths, war altars and other such Adrian Smith style things. I've never actually played Age of Sigmar. 


    I am probably most satisfied with my short story Skull Throne. I think I pretty much hate everything I write as a default until other people say they like it and then I can relax. Skull Throne has had the most praise I think. Up next I probably have to try a novel, it's a daunting prospect.

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    Thanks for reading! And thanks to Jake for taking part. You can find Jake at @Ex_Profundis on Twitter and @exprofundis on Instagram. You can also purhcase his amazing short story, Skull Throne, here.