What are the chances?

In the same week, these two Vitruvian images appeared, both from different departments within Rebellion and purely by chance, unconnected in any other way whatsoever!

Simon Parr's Vitruvian Frankenstein from the forthcoming Anno Frankenstein

The cover of 2000AD Prog 1727

What are the chances?

As they say, great minds think alike!*

* And fools rarely differ.

Pax Britannia: Masques and Lies

I have to tell you about a brand new original Pax Britannia short story by David Moore that's been produced exclusively for Pornokitsch's V Days of Rome.

Masques and Lies is a cracking read and builds on what both Al Ewing and I have already established in the Pax Britannia setting and may lead on to more like it... who knows?

Anywhere, check it out here and enjoy. This one's on David!

Anno Frankenstein

Just to give you a taste of what's coming, here's the Wordle word cloud of Anno Frankenstein.

Genre for Japan - bidding now closed

Genre for Japan is now over - and has raised over eleven thousand pounds! This is a fantastic result, and Jenni Hill, Amanda Rutter, Lou Morgan, Rosemary Jane Smith and Alasdair Stuart should feel justly proud of themselves.

The lots from the Pax Britannia team (made up of Al Ewing, Pye Parr and myself) raised £440.00! So congratulations to friends of this blog Steven Dean, James Newton and Matt Zitron - and to everyone else who placed a bid.

Meanwhile, Abaddon's editorial team (Jon Oliver, David Moore and the awesome Jenni Hill) managed to raise £660.00 between them. (Being minions of the Angel of the Bottomless Pit, I'm surprised they didn't raise £666!)

For my sins, I now need to work out how I'm going to fit the name Matt Zitron into my latest Pax Britannia adventure Time's Arrow!

So, until next time...

C is for Christmas

I know, I know... It's only 4 April and here I am talking about Christmas. But this time two years ago I was writing my festive non-fiction book What is Myrrh Anyway? Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas for Icon books.

I have to admit, it was strange listening to Christmas carols in the spring and boring people with facts about Santa Claus at supper parties, but due to the nature of publishing, that was when my book for the festive season had to be written.

I had actually conceived the basic idea for the book years before, at first envisioning it as a Dorling Kindersley-style large format book full of beautiful colour photographs, but that was not to be. Instead I ended up with this.

Which later became this (which was closer to my original vision) when the American published Skyhorse Publishing bought the US rights to the book:

And each year now I find myself updating my TheChrismologist.com blog with fun festive facts and figures, and revealing a little more about the origins, traditions and eccentricities of Christmas along the way.

B is for Baddies

Over the years, purely by chance, a number of the villains from my various books have had names starting with the letter B.

First there was Belgaroth, the undead Chaos Knight Lord and Big Bad, from my second Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebook Knights of Doom (which was written in 1994 and published in 1995). I was interested to find this entry about him here.

Then there was Bloodbones, the eponymous villain from my fourth FF gamebook - although Bloodbones was only his nickname (written in 1996, re-written in 2005 and finally published in 2006).

And then, in 2009, Balthasar Sturm, evil elementalist, came on the scene in my sixth FF adventure Stormslayer, and who bizarrely has his own Facebook page!

What is this thing with the letter B? I have no idea...

A is for Abaddon Books

I first contacted Abaddon Books about writing for them back in October 2005. Now, more than five years on, I'm about to have my seventh novel published with them and am starting out on writing the eighth.

The series I created for Abaddon was the steampunk Pax Britannia series. Since then others have written for the series, most notably 2000AD luminary Al Ewing, but the adventures of dandy and agent of the crown Ulysses Quicksilver are my baby.

The first three novels (Unnatural History, Leviathan Rising and Human Nature) have now been collected together in The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus (Vol.1), but there are also another three titles already available (Evolution Expects, Blood Royal and Dark Side) with Anno Frankenstein, Ulysses' seventh adventure, coming this May.

Action and Adventure in a New Age of Steam!
Join Ulysses Quicksilver - dandy, adventurer and agent of the crown - as he battles the enemies of the Empire in this collection of rip-roaring steampunk adventures. This action-packed tome brings you three sensational tales...

Unnatural History
Queen Victoria is celebrating the 160th year of her reign, but all is not well at the heart of the empire. An eminent professor of evolutionary biology goes missing. A catastrophic Overground rail-crash unleashes the dinosaurs of London Zoo. Is this the work of crazed revolutionaries, or are more sinister forces at work? For Ulysses the game if afoot!

Leviathan Rising

It's all aboard the Neptune, the latest in submersible cruise-liners, for a jolly ocean jaunt. But what starts out as a holiday quickly turns into a voyage of terror for Ulysses and his companions. A brutal murder is committed and then an act of sabotage plunges the Neptune into the abyssal depths. There a deadly secret awaits them, as the Leviathan strikes!

Human Nature

The Whitby Mermaid is stolen from Cruickshank's Cabinet of Curiosities and Ulysses Quicksilver is soon on the case. What does the theft have to do with the mysterious House of Monkeys? And what of the enigmatic criminal known as Magpie? Ulysses' investigation takes him to Whitby, where something sinister lurks on the moors, carefully choosing its victim!