Gamebook Friday: Curse of the Mummy is 25 years old this year!

My third Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Curse of the Mummy, will be 25 years old later this year*. I was recently reminded of this fact when Family Green visited the Tutankhamun exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London. (Tickets are still available.)

It must be the fourth time I've seen artefacts from King Tut's tomb - twice in situ in Egypt, and once before in the UK - and I even wrote my university thesis on Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egyptian Art. So you won't be surprised to learn that Curse of the Mummy isn't the only thing I've written that was inspired by the wonders of Ancient Egypt.

Egyptian death and the afterlife: mummies (Rooms 62-3)** appeared in The Book of the Dead, published by Jurassic London in 2013.

Then there was Worthless Remains, a Ulysses Quicksilver Pax Britannia story that was published in Clockwork Cairo: Steampunk Tales of Egypt. (There was also a Spring-Heeled Jack story called Favoured Son that was never actually written but which had a strong Egyptian theme.)

Wonderful Things came out last year in Scarlet Traces: A War of the Worlds Anthology, and even featured Howard Carter as the protagonist!

Of course, any Warhammer 40,000 story about the Necrons - like as But Dust in the Wind - comes with an automatic Ancient Egyptian hit, but in my most recent such tale, Journey of the Magi, is a double whammy, since a trio of Thousand Sons' sorcerers are the protagonists.

I also have an idea for a Egyptian-themed Scrooge & Marley (Deceased) story, and the ACE Gamebook I will be writing next is another cursed tome - Dracula - Curse of the Vampire - which will be illustrated by Martin McKenna, who also happened to illustrate Curse of the Mummy!

* This is going to be a regular thing now, since I've been published every year since 1993. There was a hiatus from 1998-2001, when I didn't have any books published, but in that time I still had short stories and magazine articles come out in the name.

** Which has to be the weirdest title I've ever used for a published story.

Gamebook Friday: Spellbreaker's 25th Anniversary

This June marks 25 years since my first ever book was published, the Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebook Spellbreaker.

I have many strong memories of the preceding year, during which I wrote the adventure, saw the illustrations coming in, proofed the typeset pages, and the first time I was presented with a copy by commissioning editor Richard Scrivener at Penguin Books' offices in London. I also remember seeing it on the bookshelf in WHSmith in Leamington Spa, and the subsequent parking ticket I received because I got distracted reading my own book in the shop!

Of course, Spellbreaker marking its silver jubilee also means that it's a quarter of century since I became a published author, and I've been published every year since*. The book I am currently writing - NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! - will be my 72nd published book**.

However, six weeks from today***, I will be at the UK Games Expo, selling copies of my ACE Gamebooks - Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland and The Wicked Wizard of Oz - as well as my history of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, YOU ARE THE HERO.

Anyone who buys a book from me at the event will be entered into a prize draw to mark 25 years since the publication of Spellbreaker. I'm not sure what the prize will be yet, but whatever it is, you've got to be in it to win it!

Maybe I'll see you at the UK Games Expo. :-)

* Even if, during a fallow period in the late Ninties to early Noughties, it was only in the form of magazine articles and short stories, written for Games Workshop, rather than actual books.

** Thank the Lord for Moshi Monsters!

*** And not six years, as I originally typed!

ACE Gamebooks at the UK Games Expo 2018

A week ago I was getting ready for the Chatham Dockyard Festival of Steam and Transport, but eight weeks from today I shall be in the thick of things at UK Games Expo 2018.

After last year's debacle*, you'll be pleased to hear that I will be transporting copies of The Wicked Wizard of Oz, as well as reprints of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, there myself. I will also have YOU ARE THE HERO Parts 1 and 2 for sale, and I'm even toying with the idea of printing up some chapbook editions of Scrooge and Man (Deceased): The Haunted Man to take with me.

Plans of the trading halls have now been made public and, as you can see, I will be in Hall 2, close to the entrance to Hall 1 and The Playtest Zone, and not too far from Guest of Honour Ian Livingstone's table either.

June 2018 also happens to mark 25 years since my very first book, Spellbreaker, was published. I would like to do something special to mark the occasion, possibly linked to the UK Games Expo, but I'm still trying to decide what.

Anyway, watch this space for further news on that, and maybe I'll see you at the Expo in June. :-)

* Which was entirely the fault of the delivery company TNT, who failed to deliver in any shape or form.