Happy Halloween!

Tonight, people up and down the country will be donning their Halloween costumes - turning themselves into witches, vampires, werewolves, mummies, demons, and zombies - for the duration of the dark celebrations.

If you're planning on staying in tonight, hopefully avoiding the trick or treaters, and you're looking for a creepy story to curl up with before the witching hour, you might want to try one of these...

Spellbreaker (1993)

Witches and demons abound in my first published Fighting Fantasy adventure.

Curse of the Mummy (1995)

My third FF adventure, heavily-inspired by Mummy movies from right across the cinematic era.

The Dead and the Damned (2002)

My first Warhammer novel, which features all manner of daemons, not to mention the shambling ranks of the undead.

Necromancer (2005)

The tale of one man's fall from grace and the corrupting power of necromancy.

Bloodbones (2006)

More zombie pirates and voodoo curses than you can shake a cutlass at.

Howl of the Werewolf (2007)

In my fifth FF adventure, you must stopped yourself turning into a werewolf before the next full moon by hunting down and killing the Arch-Lycanthrope.

Human Nature (2008) and Evolution Expects (2009)

A couple of body horror classics from my Pax Britannia steampunk series of novels.

Night of the Necromancer (2010)

Death is not the end... Murdered on your way home, you rise from the dead to avenge your own murder.

Blood Royal (2010) and Anno Frankenstein (2011)

Two more Pax Britannia novels, inspired by classic horror movies of yesteryear.

Shadows Over Sylvania (2013)

YOU are a vampire in my one and only Warhammer gamebook, which remains one of the best I have ever written, and probably the hardest to get hold of too.

Game Over (2015)

A collection of techno-chillers, ghost stories inspired by classic video games, edited by Yours Truly.

The Serpent's Egg (2017)

A dark tale of the Cthulhu Mythos, inspired by the legend of the Lambton Worm.

And coming in 2020...

Join the ACE Gamebooks Facebook group to be kept up to date with developments...

Warhammer Wednesday: Inferno! Volume 4

Inferno! Volume 4 is published tomorrow, on 31st October.

Volume 4 is the biggest yet and contains 12 tales in total, include my own Thousand Sons story, Journey of the Magi.

Thought for the Day

“Books help to form us. If you cut me open, you will find volume after volume, page after page, the contents of every one I have ever read, somehow transmuted and transformed into me. Alice in Wonderland. The Magic Faraway Tree. The Hound of the Baskervilles. The Book of Job. Bleak House. Wuthering Heights. The Complete Poems of W H Auden. The Tale of Mr Tod. Howard''s End. What a strange person I must be. But if the books I have read have helped to form me, then probably nobody else who ever lived has read exactly the same books, all the same books and only the same books as me. So just as my genes and the soul within me make me uniquely me, so I am the unique sum of the books I have read. I am my literary DNA.”

~ Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black

Gamebook Friday: Alice's Nightmare in Brazil

Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland is already available in English, Czech and German, French and Argentinian editions are on their way, and so is a Brazilian Portuguese language edition.

The new, manga-style cover art is by Giovana Basílio, winner of the Silent Manga Awards, an international illustration contest.

Alice no País dos Pesadelos will be published by Brazilian gamebook publisher Jambô Editora, who already have a loyal following thanks to having published numerous Fighting Fantasy gamebooks in Brazil, including translations of my own FF books Bloodbones and Howl of the Werewolf.

In other news, this weekend is Spiel, the Essen games fair. The German publishers of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland are there, at Stand L103 in Hall 6, where they are selling copies of Alice im Düsterland. So if you're there, do stop by and say, "Guten tag."

Thought for the Day

"Give me a good book or a laptop, and sit me on a hilltop overlooking the Caribbean, and I'll show you what Heaven feels like."

~ Jerry Beller

Fighting Fantasy Legends - now funding on Kickstarter!

Not that it needs any help from me, but just in case you weren't already aware, the Fighting Fantasy Legends Kickstarter by Atlantis Miniatures is rapidly approaching the £30,000 mark on, having achieved 243% of its original funding goal!

This means that a host of new miniatures have been unlocked, including a pair of Skeleton Warriors, Klash the Chaos Warrior (from The Port of Peril), and new sculpt of the Quag-Shugguth (from the same book), Baron Sukumvit, Lord Carnuss and Lord Azzur, and two of the assassins from Assassins of Allanisa.

Also, on Sunday 20th October at 2:00pm BST, GeekGirlBookWorm will be hosting a paint-a-long of the new Lord Azzur miniature on Twitch. Not only will she be giving the miniature away, once it's painted, but she will also be giving away a signed copy of Ian Livingstone's newest Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Assassins of Allansia!

The Fighting Fantasy Legends Kickstarter campaign still has the best part of three weeks left to run, but don't delay - pledge today!

Warhammer Wednesday: Old Inferno! Reprints

The Black Library are offering reprints of some of the original Inferno! magazines, which some of my short stories first appeared in.

On offer this time around are issues 16-25, but if you want to order one you'd better hurry - they're only available for the next two weeks.

The stories of mine, from the turn of the millennium, that you'll find in the issues are one Badenov's Band tale, called The Plague Pit, and a pair of Nathan Creed Necromunda stories - Mama's Boys and Boyz in the Hive.

And don't forget, as reported last week, Inferno! Volume 4 is published at the end of the month, and includes a brand new Warhammer 40,000 story by me called Journey of the Magi.

Thought for the Day

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

~ Anton Chekhov

The Con+2 Convention

ConPlus is an annual online 24-hour tabletop RPG convention which is raising funds for renowned charity The Butterfly Project. This year's convention, Con+2, will take place on 11th October - 13th October 2019 (UTC time).

340 Prizes from 57 sponsors across the world of gaming are all being given away for free to Con+2 attendees. To win prizes all you have to do is tune in to their 24-hour World's Biggest RPG Prize Giveaway stream on YouTube and take part in the chat. You will be able to find the stream hosted here.

The livestream begins on Saturday, 12th October, at midday UTC (1:00pm in the UK, 2:00pm in Europe, 8:00am East Coast America, and 5:00am on the West Coast), although all times are approximate and subject to change.

I have donated a couple of ACE Gamebooks to the cause, and they are going to be up for grabs at 19:00 UTC on Saturday.

Gamebook Friday: Beowulf Beastslayer first reviews

I'm delighted to report that since going on general release on Monday, Beowulf Beastslayer has already garnered some great reviews on Amazon.

"Monsters are monstrous, the very forces of nature are glorious and powerful, and every kenning and coinage ring with the weight of authenticity. If more fantasy writing were this committed, I genuinely believe fantasy itself would be a more respected genre."

"For me the most unique part is the use of language. I tried to read Beowulf as a student far too many years ago, and haven’t a great knowledge of it... However, Jonathan writes in a style that perfectly seems to echo the original."

"Green's writing is on form as ever."

If you've read Beowulf Beastslayer, please consider posting a brief review on Amazon.

It's also great to see people being inspired by the models Otherworld Miniatures produced for the Kickstarter, which has led to articles appearing on Because of Dragons and Beasts of War. Which is nice.

Because of Dragons has some ideas for using the figures with your favourite RPG system. Which reminds me, I really must get around to writing this one day...

Steampunk Thursday: Dark Side

This week is World Space Week and the theme for 2019 is 'The Moon: Gateway to the Stars'. Much of my sixth Pax Britannia novel Dark Side, published back in 2011, takes place on the Moon.

Start A New Life on The Moon

Ulysses Quicksilver visits the British lunar colonies, searching for his missing brother, Barty, believed to be on the run from gambling debts on Earth. The clues lead our detective and his faithful butler into the path of unsolved murders, battling robots, shady millionaires and stolen uncanny inventions. Used to working inside the law, Ulysses is stalled when his pursuit puts him on the wrong side of the Luna Prime Police Force.

But why is Ulysses' ex-fiancée Emilia also in the colonies? Who is the strange eye-patched man following Ulysses? And what is really happening in a secret base on the dark side of the moon? Used to meeting every adventure with a devil-may-care attitude and a snappy one-liner, Ulysses will be forever changed by the revelations he discovers on this most deadly of trips.

The Kindle edition of Pax Britannia: Dark Side is available to buy here. The book is also available as part of The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus: Volume 2.

Warhammer Wednesday: Inferno! Volume 4

So this arrived in the post today...

I have a long history with Inferno! - I had a short story published in Issue Zero as well as pieces in Issues #1, #2 and #3, all of which came out 22 years ago, in 1997 - but this is the first time I've had a story published in its modern, paperback anthology format. And it's nice that the editors have included an introduction to both myself and my story*.

Journey of the Magi is another of my sort-of-Christmas-themed stories, but what I am most proud about is that it is my first Thousand Sons story, and yet the word 'Chaos' doesn't appear in it once. It also features one of the races I have returned to again and again over the years - the Necrons.

Inferno! Volume 4 is a hefty beast - the biggest yet - and contains 12 stories in total, which include George Mann's Inferno! debut, and a tale by Guy Haley, who contributed to the Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu anthology that I put together.

Inferno! Volume 4 goes on general release on 31st October 2019.

 Inferno! Volume 4 alongside the other anthologies I've been published in this year.

* Even if they have got the year wrong. ;-)

Beowulf Beastslayer - Publication Day!

Hwaet! Beowulf Beastslayer is published today by Snowbooks.

A brand new adventure gamebook by Jonathan Green, based on the ancient epic. A tale of heroes... A tale of monsters... A legend reborn. 

King Hrothgar's great golden mead-hall, Heorot, lies under a curse; after sunset, the mirth-hating night-stalker Grendel comes to the hall to maim and murder! None are capable of killing the monster, though many have tried, until one day Beowulf and his company of Geatish warriors cross the sail-road and land on Danish shores...

The Old English poem Beowulf is a story that has fascinated people throughout the ages inspiring the likes of J. R. R. Tolkien, Seamus Heaney and Neil Gaiman. Beowulf Beastslayer is a brand new take on the Anglo-Saxon epic, re-imagining the events described in the poem as an adventure gamebook.

Will you follow the course of events as laid down by the scops and skalds of old, or will you choose a different path and forge your own legend?

Beowulf Beastslayer is illustrated by none other than Russ Nicholson, who provided the internal artwork for the Fighting Fantasy gamebook The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (among others), which set me on the path to becoming an author, and features a cover quote by none other than BBC Four's Dr Janina Ramirez.

As backers of the original Kickstarter will already know, Paul Muller sculpted Grendel and Beowulf in three dimensions, using Russ Nicholson's interpretations of the characters as his guide, and the miniatures were produced by Otherworld Miniatures. Well, here they are, painted by the very talented Andy Taylor.

Grendel and Beowulf, sculpted by Paul Muller, produced by Otherworld Miniatures, and painted by Andy Taylor.

If you would like to buy a pair of miniatures, simply click the button below, having selected whereabouts in the world you would like them sent.

Beowulf and Grendel miniatures

UK signed for £29.00 GBP Europe signed for £34.00 GBP Rest of World signed for £35.00 GBP

And if you have read the book, please post a review on Amazon.

Thought for the Day

"How to write a novel:
Select several letters from the alphabet. Arrange into a word. Repeat the process 100,000 times."

~ David Barnett, author

Gamebook Friday: Alice Updates

I have some (hopefully) exciting news for French fans of my work - Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland is going to be published in French next year, by Alkonost Editions, as Alice au Pays des Cauchemars, and featuring Kev Crossley's awesome artwork on the cover once again.

In other Alice-related news, long time readers of this blog will know that this summer I visited Oxford for Alice's Day and gave a lecture on Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, at the invitation of the Lewis Carroll Society.

As a result of this, there is a write up of my talk in the latest issue of Bandersnatch - The Newsletter of The Lewis Carroll Society, and a review of the book in the Lewis Carroll Review.

I have to say, the review is one of the most curious I have read, and only gets curiouser as it goes on. For one thing, it needed a good copy-edit and proofread before going to print, but for another it goes into great deal about what's in the book - revealing spoiler after spoiler - but doesn't actually give an opinion on whether a prospective reader should purchase the book or not.

However, I did like these parts of it:

"Alice is reborn as a Victorian Lara Croft."

"As a self-confessed fan of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, The Citadel of Chaos, City of Thieves et al back in the day... it's clear Alice's Nightmare is a good deal grittier than these. Even when you were fighting Orcs or killer vampires in Firetop Mountain, there was nothing cute to destroy."

"There are overtones of Carroll's gallows sense of humour and frequent death jokes... The goriness is definitely inventive..."

You can pick up a copy of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland here.

Steampunk Thursday: Scarlet Traces on the 2000 AD Thrill-Cast

The latest 2000AD Thrill-Cast focuses on the new Scarlet Traces anthology. It consists of an hour-long discussion between Scarlet Traces co-creator and anthology editor Ian Edginton, writer Maura McHugh, Rebellion commissioning editor David Moore join, and 2000 AD publicity droid Molch-R, about the world of Scarlet Traces, the legacy of H G Wells' original novel, imperialism and speculative fiction, and moving from comics into prose.

It's an interesting listen, but when the spectre of steampunk rears its ugly, cog-adorned head, it's clear that people have a problem with steampunk, to the point where Pax Britannia, Rebellion's own steampunk novel series, doesn't even get a passing mention.

You can purchase Scarlet Traces: A War of the Worlds Anthology, which includes my story Wonderful Things, here.