Happy Birthday, Deathtrap Dungeon!

As Ian Livingstone revealed today on his Twitter feed...

You'll find plenty on Deathtrap Dungeon in the forthcoming YOU ARE THE HERO, and not just about the book either...

Thought for the Day

"Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any."

~ Orson Scott Card

Hear me speak!

On Tuesday I spent a very pleasant evening in the company of Simon 'Spindles' Potthast, Brendan 'Nerd Vs World' Gylee, and Ady 'Chocolatier' Wilce, for the recording of Episode 29 of the aforementioned Nerd Vs World.

We spent our time eating chocolate and retro sweets, whilst talking about everything from '80s kids' cartoons to YOU ARE THE HERO, and the podcast went live yesterday. You can listen to it here.

And then today another interview I did - this time at the Sci-Fi Weekender, and conducted by Jonathan Hicks, the Farsight Blogger - went live. You can listen to that one here.

Thanks to Jonathan and the guys from Nerd vs World for talking to me, and I wouldn't be surprised if in a year's time there'll be another Nerd vs World blog post...

(From left to right, and back to front)

Spindles, Nerd Vs World, The Chocolatier and Kaiju Killer.

Happy Birthday, Mr Shakespeare!

Today is St George's Day, World Book Night, and William Shakespeare's 450th birthday!

Having studied various Shakespeare plays throughout my school years the Bard's work inevitably ended up influencing my own creative endeavours, none more so than my Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.

It all began with the first proposal I sent to Puffin Books, Outlaws of Kaan. Even though that adventure was not meant to be, elements of it were recycled in everything from Spellbreaker and Knights of Doom, right through to Night of the Necromancer.

The more obvious Shakespearean influences in my gamebooks include the witches from Spellbreaker (obviously Macbeth), Belgaroth and his fiend-like queen from Knights of Doom (also Macbeth), Balinac and Erasmus's Cell on Bone Island in Bloodbones (The Tempest), as well as Valsinore Castle and a certain ghost in Night of the Necromancer (Hamlet).

Balinac, by Tony Hough.

There are others, some of which are more obscure than others. For example the Spirit Beast on Bone Island in Bloodbones is based on the invisible monster in '50s sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet, which was itself based on The Tempest, the invisible monster being that particular movie's take on Prospero's slave Caliban.

Belgaroth the Sorcerer, by Tony Hough.

Thought for the Day

"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master."

~ Ernest Hemingway

Tie-in Tuesday - Judge Dredd: One-Way Ticket

It's been a while since I posted a Tie-in Tuesday blog-post, but today I can excitedly reveal that...

I've written another Judge Dredd story!

You see that? 'Part One'. That's right - One-Way Ticket is a two-parter! You can read the opening paragraphs of the story by clicking on the image above.

One-Way Ticket has been published in Judge Dredd Megazine #347, which when out to subscribers at the weekend, and should be hitting your favourite comic book store (and the Internet) later this week.

I know I shouldn't be as excited about this as I am, but I am. So there. And best of all, 'Part Two' will be out next month! So I'll see you then...

Thought for the Day

"If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it."

~ Tennessee Williams

Gamebook Friday: YOU ARE THE HERO at the Sci-Fi Weekender

Over a week ago now, I was in North Wales for the Sci-Fi Weekender 5. I was there really with my Steampunk hat on, but over the course of the weekend a number of people came up to me and introduced themselves as backers of YOU ARE THE HERO (which was nice).

It also just so happened that a couple of the people I interviewed for the book were there - namely film-maker Martin Gooch and Seas of Blood cover artist Rodney Matthews. (You can find out more about the Weekender here.)

 Martin Gooch, Archimedes the Steampunk Parrot, and Jonathan Green at the Sci-Fi Weekender 5.

 Seas of Blood cover artist Rodney Matthews.

In other news, the final manuscript of the book has come in at 98,625 words, although Ian Livingstone is still keen it should hit the 100,000 mark... which might just happen once all the photo tags are in...

Thought for the Day

"Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries knows nothing about grapes."

~ Paracelsus

JG at the Sci-Fi Weekender 5

I can't quite believe that a week ago today, the Sci-Fi Weekender was already over for another year. I had been looking forward to the event for a long time and then it was all over for me in somewhere around 48 hours. But what an intense 48 hours it was!

This time the Sci-Fi Weekender was a family affair, with the rest of Family Green accompanying me to furthest ends of the Earth to geek out for a solid two days with like-minded individuals. It began with an epic six-hour drive to the Hafan y Môr Holiday Park just outside Pwllheli on the Llyn Peninsula.

The Ends of the Earth.

Having arrived late Thursday night I had to be up early Friday morning to get set up for the onslaught of fans who would stop by my stand during the course of the weekend. And from there on in it was a blur of meeting people, selling and signing books, moderating panels (one of which was crashed by an Alien Xenomorph), partaking in interviews, eating pizza, and ending each evening relaxing at the bar with friends both old and new.

Highlights of the weekend included meeting Royd Tolkien, having people accuse me of being a very bad man for making them stay up until 4 in the morning reading The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus, having other people tell me how much they loved my stories (Thanks, Amy!), seeing a life-sized Night Lords Chaos Space Marine win the Cosplay competition (Aaron Dembski-Bowden would have been proud), and taking part in the panel show Just A Minute with my fellow authors Gareth L Powell (a worthy winner), Steve Lockley and David Tallerman.

J R R Tolkien's grandson meets Albert Green's grandson at the Sci-Fi Weekender 5.

David Tallerman and I having to concentrate far too hard during Just A Minute.

It was during Robert Rankin's introduction to Just A Minute that the author of far-fetched fiction christened me his "Evil Steampunk Nemesis" which is a badge I shall wear with pride, and a role I played up to during the show, even being booed by the audience at one point (much to my children's distress), proving that Panto is alive and well and living in an off-season holiday camp in North Wales!

To sum up, here's a slideshow of just some of things that happened over the course of the Weekender, and here's to the Sci-Fi Weekender 6 in 2015!

Steampunk Thursday: Alice on Mars - The Movie!

At the Sci-Fi Weekender 5, last weekend, film-maker Martin Gooch and author of far-fetched fiction Robert Rankin launched the Alice on Mars movie!

For the launch, Martin had prepared a teaser trailer, which you can watch by following this link. He also launched an Indigogo project to help get the film funded. If you would like to contribute (or even be in the film!) then click this link and check it out.

Film-maker Martin Gooch and Steampunk Parrot Wrangler Jonathan Green

at the Sci-Fi Weekender 5.