"The modern master of the gamebook format" (Rob Sanders)... "Can do dark very well" (Jonathan Oliver)... "Green gets mileage out of his monsters" (SFX Magazine)... "It takes a firm editorial hand and a keen understanding of the tone of each piece to make a collection this diverse work, and Green makes it look effortless" (Starburst Magazine)... "A charming blend of camp creatures, humour, and genuine horror" (Set the Tape)
It's three years since I attended Alice's Day in Oxford as a guest of the Lewis Carroll Society.
Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland was the first ACE Gamebook, written before ACE Gamebooks were even thing, and it is still a popular seller. It regularly sells out at the UK Games Expo, and did so again this year. And even though it was first published in the UK almost seven years ago, new foreign language editions keep appearing.
If you've yet to experience my gamification of Lewis Carroll's seminal children's book, you can pick up a copy here. Just remember... we're all mad here!
Today is 1st July, which means it's the perfect time to download the PDF of Christmas in July, the summer season supplement for 'TWAS - The Roleplaying Game Before Christmas. It introduces new monsters to the game as well as four new Player Characters that can all be used with more conventional games of the 'TWAS RPG.
I learned this morning that 30 June is Asteroid Day. It is held on the anniversary of the Tunguska event in 1908, when an asteroid leveled 2,150 square kilometres of forest in Siberia.
WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!
I remember reading a Primeval tie-in novel by Dan Abnett, called Extinction Event (2009), which had dinosaurs entering our world through an Anomaly at the site of the Tunguska event. A similar idea, that of a massive explosion causing cracks in time, also featured in the Doctor Who episode The Fires of Pompei (2008).
This was a concept I played with when I wrote NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! Without giving too much away, the reason there are dinosaurs running around Neverland is because the Chicxulub asteroid that casued the extinction level event that wiped out those ancient beasts also caused fractures in time. These fractures rippled across time, meaning that Captain Hook and his pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy and the sinking of the Titanic survivor Wendy Darling, as well as dinosaurs, mammoth, and sabretooth tigers, can all visit the island at the same time.
Available now from Gallimard Jeunesse is a new edition of the French translation of my fourth Fighting Fantasy gamebook Bloodbones.
What makes Le Pirate de l'au-delà different from the original English edition - apart from the fact it's in French - is that it features bonus content focused on the setting of the adventure. On top of that, it also features cover art by the awesome Paul Mafayon.
So, if you're a fan or a Francophile, follow this link to pick up some fantastic pirate booty now!
It was great to catch up with people again after three years, and special thanks must go to my friend Scott who helped look after my stand*, meaning I could actually get a look around and see all** that the Expo had to offer.
Scott - on brand as ever!
Highlights of the weekend included signing a first edition of my first book Spellbreaker, which was published 29 years ago this month, meeting GTG Vicki in person, Olly Mc and John Robertson's playthrough of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, cocktails and Japanese food on the Saturday evening, and being interviewed by OnTabletop at the Thursday press preview, which you can watch here...
You will find me at Stand 2-T10 from Friday 3rd - Sunday 5th June, sandwiched between Ace Brushes and Atlantis Miniatures. So if you're coming along, do stop by and say hello.