Gamebook Friday: What is a typical JG adventure?

I may be picking up my skald's harp and singing a new story into being next year, so this Gamebook Friday I have one simple question to ask you.

What would you expect from a typical Jonathan Green gamebook adventure?

Answers on a postcard or in the comments below, please.

World Animal Day

Today, 4th October, is World Animal Day, so it seems appropriate that I am writing a story about the Beast of Bodmin Moor whilst also plotting the Lion's next encounter in The Wicked Wizard of Oz.

Animals have featured to a greater or lesser extent in many of my books and stories but among the most notable must be...

Sonic the Hedgehog Adventure Gamebooks

Howl of the Werewolf

Pax Britannia: Unnatural History

Pax Britannia: Leviathan Rising

Temple of the Spider God

Terrible Lizards

Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow

SHARKPUNK

Night of the Kraken

And there are still more animal-themed stories to come...

Gamebook Friday: 16 and counting...

The first book I ever had published was a gamebook, and my current project is also a gamebook. But, you may be wondering, how many are there in between?

Well here is a comprehensive list of all the gamebooks I've written* to date, by series.


Fighting Fantasy
 

Spellbreaker (1993)
Knights of Doom (1994)
Curse of the Mummy (1995)
Bloodbones (2006)
Howl of the Werewolf (2007)
Stormslayer (2009)
Night of the Necromancer (2010)

Sonic the Hedgehog

Theme Park Panic (1995)
Stormin' Sonic (1996)

Doctor Who













The Horror of Howling Hill (2008)

Star Wars The Clone Wars













Crisis on Coruscant (2010)

Gamebook Adventures

Temple of the Spider God (2011)
Codename: Crusader (TBA)

Warlock's Bounty

Revenge of the Sorcerer (2012)

Path to Victory

Herald of Oblivion (2012)
Shadows Over Sylvania (2013)



* Or am in the process of writing.

Tie-in Tuesday: Stormin' Sonic

Back in the day, Marc Gascoigne and I collaborated on a couple of adventure gamebooks featuring the hyperactive blue hedgehog known as Sonic.

Bizarrely, despite the fact that the second of these books - Stormin' Sonic - has been out of print for years* it has recently received a brand new review courtesy of Lone Tiger Gamebook Reviews. Here's a taster:

One interesting thought I had about this book and all gamebooks based on a tie in to an existing product is how much of it is dictated by the product's existing rules and story.  For example, did Jonathan and Marc have to make Robotnik the enemy, include characters from the game and base the game rules on rules from the computer game?  And do such things change a gamebook for the better or for the worse?  I would like to hear peoples' thoughts on this.


You can read the rest of the review here, although it's not as glowing a write-up as this one:

This Sonic adventure book is of brilliant quality and although it is not written by the writers of the game it follows the general ideas of the games incredibly well.


* It was originally published in 1996.

New Forum Added

If you're a regular follower of this blog, or new to the site today, I know what you're probably thinking right about now, and that is, "Where can I chat with other like-minded individuals about the works of author Jonathan Green?"

Well, have no fear, for you can now visit the official Jonathan Green, Author forum by clicking on this link (or the one in the sidebar to the right).

As well as discussing everything from Sonic the Hedgehog in Theme Park Panic to the latest Pax Britannia release, over on the forum you'll also find news on event appearances and book signings. There will also be exclusive competitions for forum members from time to time, so why not register today? It only takes a minute and doesn't cost a thing.

Maybe I'll see you over there some time soon.

How to write an adventure gamebook - Part 1

A number of people have shown an interest lately in how I go about writing an adventure gamebook. Having written eleven gamebooks to date - seven Fighting Fantasy, two Sonic the Hedgehogs, one Doctor Who and one Star Wars (with another couple of gamebook projects in the pipeline) - I feel at least semi-qualified to talk about this topic and offer a little advice to the budding gamebook writer.

I'm going to break this into a number of topics and start with something which others have asked in generally about my writing, and that's where I get my ideas from. So, welcome to Gamebook Writing 101. Class is in session...

The Idea

I send a SAE to a PO Box in Bristol and by return of post... I'm kidding, but the number of times I've been asked that question, I've been tempted to use that reply.

Ideas can come from anywhere, images, film, passing phrases, other books I've read... anywhere. I liked J K Rowling's response when asked where do you get your ideas from. She said something along the lines of, 'What, you mean you don't have ideas?'

The inspiration for my first ever gamebook Spellbreaker came from the cover to the first Advanced Fighting Fantasy rulebook Dungeoneer. That gave me the final big bad of the book and an obsession with Brother Cadfael mysteries at the time did the rest. Knights of Doom was inspired by Macbeth, Curse of the Mummy by a trip to Egypt. With Bloodbones I wanted to focus on a group who had only been used in passing in other books - pirates! The same was true of Howl of the Werewolf, where I turned a classic B-movie baddie into the main character of a gamebook. Stormslayer was in part generated by current concerns about climate change but also making another underused aspect of the FF milieu (elementals this time) the central theme. Night of the Necromancer, my most recent FF adventure, was again partly inspired by the works of the immortal bard (Hamlet as well as Macbeth this time) and partly I wanted to take the concept behind Howl of the Werewolf one step further.

Having settled on the idea (and often with a working title in mind) I set about making screeds of notes, brainstorming the topic to see what ideas I can come up with, and doing a fair bit of research. This ranges from flicking through the FF source books, Out of the Pit and Titan: The Fighting Fantasy World, to reading up on the subject in other sources and possibly watching the odd DVD too. As I make more and more notes I start to settle on a structure for the adventure as well as ideas for specific encounters and an overall story. I develop ideas for new monsters and any new rules the adventure may need, and I start to make a lot of maps. These vary in complexity from sketch spider diagrams, to pictorial maps with notes written all over them. The making of the map - which is of the adventure more than it is of any particular place - helps crystallise the structure of the adventure in my mind and goes through several iterations.

However, things aren't set in stone at this point. I have a rough idea of how many paragraphs each section/encounter will take up in the final adventure but during the writing of the book itself this can change quite dramatically, forcing a detailing re-structuring of some sections. (But that's for another post).

So, with the idea worked out and with my maps and pages of notes to hand, I set about writing the proposal. But more about that next time...

Coming soon: Part 2 - The Proposal

Happy World Book Day 2009!

In case you didn't already know, today is World Book Day. So, seeing as how I now make a living from my books, I thought I would let everyone know about the different sorts of books I write and present something of a back catalogue for your perusal.

Pax Britannia

I am currently writing a series of steampunk science fiction action/adventure novels for Abaddon Books, featuring dandy hero of the British Empire, Ulysses Quicksilver. There are currently three books in the series - Unnatural History, Leviathan Rising, Human Nature - with a fourth, Evolution Expects, published in May, and with more to come after that. To find out more about the world of Pax Britannia click here.

Fighting Fantasy

To date I have had five Fighting Fantasy gamebooks published. They are Spellbreaker, Knights of Doom, Curse of the Mummy, Bloodbones and Howl of the Werewolf.

Doctor Who

So far I have written a Doctor Who: Decide Your Destiny interactive adventure gamebook entitled The Horror of Howling Hill and have contributed to the 2010 Official Doctor Who Annual (published this August).

Sonic the Hedgehog

I have also c0-written two Sonic the Hedgehog adventure gamebooks, Theme Park Panic and Stormin' Sonic.

Warhammer

I have written three fantasy novels set within Games Workshop's Warhammer world. They are The Dead and the Damned, Magestorm and Necromancer.

Warhammer 40,000

I have also written three science fiction novels set within Games Workshop's far future medieval universe of Warhammer 40,000. There are two books about the Black Templars and the Armageddon Campaign - Crusade for Armageddon and Conquest of Armageddon - and a stand-alone adventure entitled Iron Hands.

Non-fiction

I have written a number of non-fiction books as well. The most recent of these are Match Wits with the Kids, Go, Go Crazy for those Bones and What is Myrrh Anyway? Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

As well as books I have also had published various novellas, short stories, comic strips and magazine articles.

I also go school visits and library talks. If you would like me to come into your school or local library to talk about any of my books or the writing process in general, please email me at paxbritannia@hotmail.co.uk.

21 and counting...

Back in 1992 I was commissioned to write my first book, a Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebook entitled Spellbreaker. Last week I finished writing my twenty-first book, a steampunk science fiction horror thriller called Human Nature.

In between I have written everything from Sonic the Hedgehog and Doctor Who books for children to factual books for adults. The entire list reads something like this.

1. Spellbreaker (1993)
2. Knights of Doom (1994)
3. Curse of the Mummy (1995)
4. Theme Park Panic (1995)
5. Stormin' Sonic (1996)
6. Go Gos Are Go Go! (1997)
7. The Dead and the Damned (2002)
8. Crusade for Armageddon (2003)
9. Magestorm (2004)
10. Iron Hands (2004)
11. Necromancer (2005)
12. Conquest of Armageddon (2005)
13. Bloodbones (2006)
14. Unnatural History (2007)
15. Howl of the Werewolf (2007)
16. Leviathan Rising (2008)
17. The Horror of Howling Hill (2008)
18. Match Wits with the Kids: A Little Learning for All the Family (2008)
19. Go, Go Crazy For Those Bones (2008)
20. What is Myrrh Anyway? (2008)
21. Human Nature (2008)

Next up is...

22. Evolution Expects (2009)

... and there are more to come after that.

JG's Back Catalogue: Sonic the Hedgehog

In 1995 I was living in Nottingham and giving the life of a freelance writer a go. At that time I had mainly written Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and it was through this work that I had met Marc Gascoigne. Through our mutual contacts at Puffin Books we were commissioned to write two Sonic the Hedgehog gamebooks back to back.

Although the project was almost cancelled at one point, in the end both Theme Park Panic and Stormin' Sonicsaw print, and very well received they were too.