Gamebook Friday: It was 24 years ago today...

For some reason, I have 23rd June stuck in my head as the date my first ever gamebook (and my first ever book, for that matter) was published. I may be wrong, but that's how I remember it.

I had been commissioned the July before* and wrote the book over the summer of 1992. I used my advance to buy an Amstrad word processor so that I could type up the manuscript from my hand-written version!

I also have vivid memories of visiting the Puffin offices in London and meeting commissioning editor Richard Scrivener, who gave me my first copy of Spellbreaker**. I also remember visiting WHSmith in Leamington Spa, around the 23rd June, and seeing the book on the shelf in a shop for the first time. I lost track of time as I perused the shop copy and ending up getting a parking ticket!

And now, today, 24 years later, the covers for the brand new edition of the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks have been revealed. I wonder if Spellbreaker will end up joining them...

* So it will soon be the 25th anniversary of that momentous event in my life.

** Unfortunately I later lent that particular copy to someone and never got it back - something I still regret doing to this day...