FIghting Fantazine #2 - out now!

Rather late with this news, but I've very pleased to say that the second issue of Fighting Fantazine (the Fighting Fantasy fanzine) is out now and includes the second half of the comprehensive interview the editorial team carried out with me.

As well as reading about how I first got into writing Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, you can also indulge yourself with the frankly incredible Shrine of the Salamander original FF adventure, there are reviews and news of forthcoming titles and an article on FF maps, which includes a couple of mine! And it's all wrapped up in a superb Natalie Roberts (a.k.a Nat the Rat) cover.

The guys have done a fantastic job, once again, and you can download it here for yourself.

Abaddon & Solaris Books podcast

The first Abaddon & Solaris Books podcast has been released and can be downloaded from iTunes. Simply click on your iTunes browser and search for Abaddon or Solaris.

Listen to editor-in-chief Jonathan Oliver and desk editor David Moore talk about all things genre in fiction, including Jon's first novel, The Call of Kerberos. Oh, and Pax Britannia gets a mention too.

And dig those tribal rhythms!

So what are you still doing here reading this? Check it out now!

Logo a-gogo

The Black Library (Games Workshop's publishing imprint) has a new suitably warhammer-y logo. To find out more, follow this link.

Crisis on Coruscant - out today!

Yes, it feels like it's been a long time coming, but finally my Star War The Clone Wars Decide Your Destiny adventure Crisis on Coruscant is released today.

The Galactic Senate is under attack! As Padawan to Jedi Master Shaak Ti, your mission is to rescue Chancellor Palpatine, then find out who is responsible for the plot. Your adventure will take you from the depths of the underlevels on Coruscant, to the Great Mesra Plateau and Jabba the Hutt’s Palace on Tatooine. Will you prove yourself worthy of your Jedi training or turn to the dark side when the going gets tough?

Not only can you now buy the book, you can also enjoy the online content created especially for it - including the totally brilliant lightsaber duel game seen here:


Jump in and out of cyberspace to continue the experience online with exclusive content, amazing animated scenes and games!





















If you would like to immerse yourself in the world of Star War The Clone Wars Decide Your Destiny adventures, click here. To buy the book, click here.

And may the force be with you.

Can you tell what it is yet?

I've finally got Wordle to work on my computer and as a result have had a bit of a splurge this afternoon creating word clouds of some of my recent projects.

But can you tell which stories or books the following represent?

Pax Britannia is just great

Not my words, but the words of Pablo Cheesecake, who says other very nice things about the Pax Britannia books - and Evolution Expects in particular - here!

Interview de Jonathan Green

French speakers may be interested to know that the recent interview I did for the guys over the Channel at Bibliotheque Interdite is now up on their website.


Just follow this link to read it, but don't ask where they got the photo from...

Words of Wisdom

'A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.' - G. K. Chesterton

My next novel's out this April, so fingers crossed...

Night of the Necromancer - competition winner

I've got a bit of a treat for all you Fighting Fantasy fans out there, desperate to see some more of Martin McKenna's frankly astounding artwork for the forthcoming Night of the Necromancer.

Today I can reveal, for the first time, Martin's portrait of NOTN competition winner Nicki Gray, alongside the posed photograph she sent in to Wizard Towers. (In case you don't know what I'm talking about, click here, and pop back again in a minute.)

But anyway, on with the good stuff...

Martin McKenna's finished illustration


Nicki's winning shot


Nicki's frankly astonishing FF collection

Seeing the photo and the finished illustration together you can see how fine a portraitist Martin really is.


As it happens, I'm proof-reading the typeset manuscript at the moment and, without wanting to sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet, I'm getting excited about it all over again.

As to who the other figures in the picture are... you'll just have to wait until April to find out!

Until next time...

Busy, busy, busy

Well I now know what I'll be writing for the next three months. Actually, I have a pretty good idea of what I'll be writing for the next six. And I'm getting a handle on what will need to be written during the six months after that.

Yes, it's back to work with a vengeance this week after spending the last ten days or so developing an original project, which I will hopefully have some more news about later in the year. But for the time being it's on with the commissioned work.

By the end of March I need to have written somewhere in the area of 160,000 words. That's 160,000 words in twelve weeks, which means I'll be writing roughly one university dissertation per week. Or, to put it another way, I need to write two books and three short stories in three months (in case anyone's keeping count)... Wish me luck.

But while I'm busy with that lot, you can look forward to a fair few JG publications over the next few months. January sees the release of my Star Wars Decide Your Destiny adventure Crisis on Coruscant and the French language edition of Crusade for Armageddon. Then in April there's the re-release of Bloodbones (in the latest FF edition), the publication of Night of the Necromancer, and Blood Royal will see the light of day at long last as well. And then two months after that, it's time for Dark Side.

That little lot should keep you going for the foreseeable...

Creating a buzz

It would appear that with five books in the series in print already and another three due over the next 12 months or so, Pax Britannia is starting to create something of a buzz.

The books have received consistently good reviews from the SF press and was even voted Unnatural History SFcrowsnest's 16th most popular book of the year!

And now one senor Pablo Cheesecake has even list the forthcoming Blood Royal and Dark Side as two of the publications he is most looking forward to this year.

If you're inspired, intrigued or simply incredulous about Ulysses Quicksilver's adventures and the world of Pax Britannia why not drop me a line. You never know, you could end up with a cameo in a forthcoming adventure, rather like Michelle Powell.

Anyway, here's to 2010 (or 1998, as it is in the World of Pax Britannia)!

Gamebook Adventures - Orlandes revealed

The guys at Tin Man Games have just finished adding the final touches to the map of Orlandes, the fantastical location for their upcoming Gamebook Adventures titles.


An Assassin in Orlandes begins in Orlandes City, situated to the East of the country, while The Siege of the Necromancer is based on the West coast of Orlandes in the township of Myr, where a mysterious dark presence has the Emery Lands in the grip of fear.

To see the map in greater detail, click here.

Night of the Necromancer - competition winner

From the official Fighting Fantasy gamebooks Facebook page:

Huge congratulations to Nicki Gray for winning the Night of the Necromancer competition! She will now have her image included in one of the illustrations for the next brilliant brand-new Fighting Fantasy, due out in April. Full announcement due on the website shortly!

I would just like to say, "Well done, Nicki" and to add that Martin McKenna, the book's illustrator, has done a superb job of your portrait.

Look out for more news about Night of the Necromancer soon!

Public Lending Right loans - 2008/2009

I came back from a few days away yesterday to be greeted by a very pleasant surprise - my Public Lending Right statement for the year July 2008 to June 2009.

Once a year I, like other registered authors, receive a statement from the kind people at PLR (Public Lending Right) informing me how many people have borrowed my books from libraries over the past year. For each loan I earn a few pence which, at the end of the day, add up to a fair few pounds (now that I've established a bit of a back catalogue of publications).

The idea behind the PLR is to reimburse authors for what are effectively lost earnings, as a result of people borrowing books rather than buying them. There is a limit to how much an author can receive from the PLR (it's £6600 if you're interested) so that the likes of Terry Pratchett and J K Rowling don't wipe out the total fund.

Just like the year before, July 2008 - June 2009 saw an increase in the number of my books being borrowed, because I've continued to have more books published. However, one book more than any other made a huge difference to my loans and hence my earnings, bringing in more than my total PLR earnings for last year all by itself!

For those of you who may be interested, here are my top ten most borrowed books for July 2008 - June 2009 (with last year's placing in brackets):

1. (2) The Horror of Howling Hill (Mar 08)
2. (1) Howl of the Werewolf (Sep 07)
3. (6) Spellbreaker (Jun 07)
4. (9) Unnatural History (Feb 07)
5. (10) Leviathan Rising (Mar 08)
6. (5) Curse of the Mummy (Apr 07)
7. (3) Bloodbones (Sep 06)
8. (2) Human Nature (Jan 09)
9. (-) What is Myrrh Anyway? (Oct 08)
10. (7) Iron Hands (Aug 04)

10,576 loans last year alone!

Happy New Year

'Nuff said... ;-)