Review of the Year - 2017

It's that time of year again when I like to look back over the achievements of the last twelve months, before looking forward to what the next year has in store writing-wise.

I only had four books come out in 2016*, but I made up for that this year, with a grand total of fourteen titles that I was associated with in some way being released throughout 2017. (And that doesn't include the three German Edition Pax Britannia eBooks released in May**.)

They include one re-issue, three short story anthologies that I have short stories in, Hacking the Curriculum, to which I contributed a chapter about using interactive fiction in the classroom, two colouring books based on my ACE Gamebooks, one new gamebook, the second volume in my history of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, a Doctor Who tie-in title, a Minecraft tie-in title, a graphic novel that compiles the four-part comic mini-series I edited, and two titles I have self-published.

At the start of the year I launched the SHARKPUNK 2 Kickstarter, which unfortunately gained no traction at all. However, the next two Kickstarters - YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 and NEVERLAND - did fund, fortunately! YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 funded on 1st April and the finished book was delivered to me on 1st September, just in time for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2!

As well as organising Fighting Fantasy Fest 2, and the world's first Fighting Fantasy pub quiz, I attended far more events than last year, including the Steampunk Author Showcase at the Essex Book Festival, the Freeway Fighter signing at Forbidden Planet, the UK Games Expo 2017, the Steampunk Essextraordianaire III, Dragondaze, GamesFest, ArmadaCon, and Dragonmeet. (I also received a very warm welcome when I visited the Barnes and Noble store in New York back in April, but that's another story!)

There are a number of projects I've worked on this year that won't see print until 2018. One of those jobs was working on a brand-new Fighting Fantasy gamebook with Charlie Higson, of all people, which was nice.

Another highlight of the year was meeting Iain McCaig at FFF2, who greeted me like an old friend, even thought it was the first time we had even spoken!

As one year comes to an end, I already have plenty of work lined up for 2018, including a couple of short stories, NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!, and hopefully some more Scrooge and Marley (Deceased).

But of all the amazing memories I have from this year, what will I remember most from 2017? 2013 was the Year of Moshi Monsters, 2014 was the Year of YOU ARE THE HERO, 2015 was the Year of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, and 2016 was the Year of  Robin of Sherwood. However, I think I will always remember 2017 as the Year of The Wicked Wizard of Oz.

Thank you for reading my books and supporting my Kickstarters in 2017, and here's to 2018. And talking of 2018, German gamebook fans have this to look forward to...

* And one of them was a re-issue.

** Or the new edition of YOU ARE THE HERO Part 1 that was released to accompany the YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 Kickstarter, or the Print on Demand reprint of Status: Deadzone available now from Black Library.