Gamebook Friday: Review of the Year - 2023

2023 has been a busy year, for various reasons, in no small part because we moved house - again! - although hopefully we are now settled for the foreseeable. Another reason is because we got a dog.

His name is Conker and he's a one year-old Cavapoo.

I have never owned a dog before and wasn't particularly keen on getting one. However, my son found an apt meme online that goes along the lines of, 'There is no love like that between a grumpy, middle-aged man and the pet he said he didn't want.'

Therefore, this year will probably go down in my memory as the Year of the Dog, but in terms of writing, it has definitely been the Year of Aconyte Books. I started 2023 by writing my first Marvel gamebook for Aconyte - Moon Knight: Age of Anubis - and I've ended it putting the finishing touches to my first Arkham Horror gamebook, The Darkness Over Arkham.

I have only actually had two books published in the UK this year - the aforementioned Moon Knight: Age of Anubis and the second ACE Gamebooks Roleplay RPG Heorot - but I've actually written five. However, eight different overseas editions of my ACE Gamebooks have been published this year and three of my Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.

Sadly, this year, we lost Russ Nicholson, whose illustrations for The Warlock of Firetop Mountain helped set me on the path to becoming a gamebook author, and with whom I am immensely proud to have collaborated on the fourth ACE Gamebook Beowulf Beastslayer.

Russ's illustrations also appear in the Heorot RPG.

In 2023 I attended the UK Games Expo and Dragonmeet, as usual, and a couple of events local to me here in Taunton. I will certainly be attending the UK Games Expo again in 2024 but also hope to visit some other events outside of the UK.

I have plenty of writing plans for 2024 as well, including launching the Kickstarter campaign for the next ACE Gamebook, Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come.

But first, I need to put several projects to bed, not least of which is YOU ARE THE HERO: An Interactive History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks. YOU ARE THE HERO will be published later this year, as will Magic Realms: The Art of Fighting Fantasy.

And we also have Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 to look forward to in 2024.

Before I go, if you haven't signed up to my author newsletter, you can do so here, and I'll see you again in the New Year!