The Legacy of Firetop Mountain... and the SFX Fantasy Special

Colour me happy. Very happy. Delighted, in fact.

And the reason? Because the SFX Special Edition Fantasy: The Ultimate Celebration is released today, featuring twelve pages of Fighting Fantasy goodness - Count them! Twelve! - written by Yours Truly.

The Legacy of Firetop Mountain is an article about the 30 year history of Fighting Fantasy and a well-deserved celebration of the classic gamebook series that set many of us in the business today on the path to fame and fortune - or at least publication and the occasional guest appearance at the SFX Weekender.

As well as being filled with pictures of the covers of my various gamebooks, there's all sorts of other great stuff in there too, including Guy Haley's piece of fantasy world-building, Mike Molcher's interview with Pat Mills about the comic strip Slaine, and pages of Black Library Warhammer art and a book round-up too.

So if you don't already subscribe to the SFX Specials, get yourself down to your local newsagents today and pick up a copy. (You'll even find three free gifts included inside!)

Thanks to editor Jes Bickham for making my words look so damn fine and to all those who contributed to the article, but especially Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.

Oh, and let me know what you think of my article by clicking on 'Comments' at the bottom of this post.

Journal of the Spider-Queen

Yes, loyal followers, you read that right. Spider-Queen, not Spider God.

For those of you who follow this blog because of my connection to the Fighting Fantasy phenomenon, you may well already recognise the image on the front of this jotter journal.

That's right - it's Aranaea the Spider-Queen from my sixth Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebook Howl of the Werewolf, as illustrated by Martin McKenna. Martin has made a number of his illustrations available as prints in various formats - including the Big Bad Wolf from the cover of the book - through Cafepress.

Checking out Martin's (at long last) updated blog, I'm always amazed to discover in how many different places the Werewolf painting turns up. I mean, I know it's a generic werewolf, but that painting was specifically created for a book which I wrote. I've seen it reproduced on magazine covers, gig posters for Heavy Metal bands, and now it's surfaced once again, only this time etched into human flesh. Yes, that's right, someone's had it turned into a tattoo!

I used to be a werewolf, but I'm alright noooooooow!

Bet that smarts.

Warhammer: Civil War

One for the Warhammer fans today.

I was intrigued to open the latest issue of White Dwarf magazine (#385) and find Part One of a new Warhammer expansion contained within - an expansion called Civil War, and written by Jervis Johnson.

The reason I was so surprised was because back in the year 2000 an article appeared in White Dwarf #244 entitled 'Civil War!' by Yours Truly.

Along with the main article there was published an example Civil War scenario involving the Skaven, called 'Warpstone'. And that original scenario still exists online here.

(Hm... Wonder if I'll be getting a writer's credit on the new expansion.)

JG in the OE Link

A while ago I was asked if I would write a piece for the magazine that is sent out annually to ex-members of my old school King Edward's in Bath. This I duly did and it's now out in print.

The piece is called Making Fantasy a Reality and in it I talk about my experiences as a writer and how I came to be doing what I'm now doing.

If you're not an Old Edwardian yourself, you can find a PDF copy of the magazine here.

(The gentleman on the right of the picture above also happens to be my old Headmaster, Dr John Wroughton, who is a published author himself.)