'TWAS - The Krampus Night Before Christmas concludes on Kickstarter today!

Don't get left out in the cold! Today is your last chance to back 'TWAS - The Krampus Night Before Christmas, written by Yours Truly and illustrated by my sometime partner-in-crime Tony Hough.

You have until 7:00pm GMT to place your pledge, so don't delay! Winter is already here!

Thought for the Day

"My husband said he would rather be invited to a train-wreck than a New York literary cocktail party."

~ Mary Lee Settle, American writer

Gamebook Friday: The Burns Night Before Christmas

'TWAS - The Krampus Night Before Christmas has less than one week left to run on Kickstarter and is currently 105% funded. If you've been considering pledging your support, but haven't yet, you have until 1:00pm on Thursday 31st January.

Of course, tonight is also Burns Night, so it's time for the obligatory plug for my non-fiction book Scottish Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Scotland the Brave.

Today I find myself wondering if there's enough material in Robert Burns' poems to create an ACE Gamebook inspired by them. I mean, if Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby can write a graphic novel based on the source material, why not?

Warhammer Wednesday: Funko Pop! Space Marines

The news broke on the Warhammer Community website Monday that Games Workshop and Funko have joined forces to bring the world the first Warhammer 40,000 Funko Pop! figures. And which characters have they chosen for the first tranche of releases? Why, the four iconic Chapters Space Marines...

Ultramarines

Space Wolves

Dark Angels

Blood Angels

I probably found the news more exciting than a man of my age should, but the thing is, I am a big fan of Funko Pops. I am such a fan that I had to make a rule for myself long ago, so that I wouldn't fill my flat with the things: I will only buy a figure if I have written for the character.

It is for this reason that I own Funko Pops of Judge Dredd, the Twelfth Doctor, Alice, the Cheshire Cat, Krampus, Cthulhu, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Leonardo, and Frankentstein's Creature*. (I could also have figures of the Tenth Doctor and Eleventh Doctor, the other Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and even their van, Jabba the Hutt and the Rancor Beast, but have managed to resist so far.)

When the Space Marine Funko Pops are released, according to my rule, three will be eligible for purchase because my first Warhammer 40,000 short story Salvation featured an Ultramarine, and I wrote the colour text for the old Angels of Death Codex, which included both the Dark Angels and Blood Angels Chapters. So now I just need to write a story about a Space Wolf...

* I would also love to have a Funko Pop! of a Flying Monkey, but they go for over £200 on eBay.

Thought for the Day

“One sheds one's sickness in books - repeats and presents again one's emotions, to be master of them.”

~ D. H. Lawrence

Gamebook Friday: 'Twas the Good News Before the Weekend

I bring you glad tidings of great joy! 'TWAS - The Krampus Night Before Christmas has reached its funding goal on Kickstarter.

Of course, it's not too late to join the fun yourself, as there are still two weeks left to run and plenty of rewards on offer, including...

'TWAS two weeks ago today...

...that 'TWAS - The Krampus Night Before Christmas launched on Kickstarter. And as of today, a new reward tier has been added.

If you select the Secret Santa reward, as well as securing a slot as an official play-tester, along with all the other goodies you'll receive, you will also get a bonus book by Yours Truly. It might be a copy of Christmas Explained: Robins, Kings and Brussel Sprouts, or it could be a copy of another ACE Gamebook.

If you pledge at the Secret Santa level and receive a book you've already got, you could always give it to someone else as a Christmas present. After all, it will be signed.

Thought for the Day

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman Statesman (106-43 BC)

Gamebook Friday: Herald of Christmas

I started the day by discovering that I have appeared in somebody's dissertation because of my work on adventure gamebooks. Moving on...

Randomly, a new review of my Warhammer 40,000 gamebook* Herald of Oblivion appeared online yesterday, and very pleasing reading it made too.

"The story and linking narrative is written really well, and I found it easy to become immersed in the game, and visualize the carnage that the Imperial Fists had walked into."

You can read the complete review here.

In other gamebook news, 'TWAS - The Krampus Night Before Christmas is (as of writing) 85% funded on Kickstarter with 19 days still left to run.

If you've not checked out my latest ACE Gamebook Kickstarter yet, please do so here, perhaps pledge your support, and help spread the word to all and sundry.

* The Tin Man Games app version.

Thought for the Day

Gamebook Friday: Gamebook Goals

As it's a New Year*, I thought it timely to review my gamebook goals for the year ahead.

First of all, I intend to continue to grow and develop my ACE Gamebooks series. With that goal in mind, I have launched a Kickstarter to fund production of the fifth title in the series, 'TWAS - The Krampus Night Before Christmas. As of writing, the Kickstarter is already 54% funded after three days, and there are four play-testers slots still available.

I'm also busy giving NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! a final proofread, and editing Beowulf Beastslayer. There are more foreign language editions of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland in the works, and at least one foreign language edition of The Wicked Wizard of Oz on the way. I have more ACE Gamebooks planned after 'TWAS, but one gamebook project** at a time is quite enough.

I now have eight hardbacks of YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 left to sell, two having been snapped up already, so if you didn't get one for Christmas, or you have some Christmas money burning a hole in your pocket, you know what to do.

I received a lovely Christmas box from my German publisher Mantikore-Verlag, containing chocolates, cakes, apple gin, Alice in Düsterland prosecco, and a signed gamebook by superstar German author Jens Schumacher, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the Frankfurt Book Fair last year.

Of course, the one piece of interactive fiction that everyone is talking about at the moment is Charlie Brooker's Bandersnatch, but I'm afraid I can't comment on it as I haven't seen it yet. Too busy writing my own gamebooks, you see?

And before I forget, you can read an interview with me here, at the Legacy of Kreya.

* 2019 already?!?

** Or rather three!

'TWAS - The Krampus Night Before Christmas, is now live on Kickstarter!

'TWAS - The Krampus Night Before Christmas is a brand new adventure gamebook (a multi-path book, very much in the style of Choose Your Own Adventure or Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks), inspired by the poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas, by Clement Clarke Moore. And the Kickstarter to fund it is now live!

'TWAS - The Krampus Night Before Christmas is a darkly festive fantasy adventure in which YOU, the reader, must battle the anti-Santa Krampus to save Father Christmas, and the festive season itself. Along the way you will take part in a dramatic sleigh ride and encounter various mythological Yuletide entities, before finally battling your way through Santa's workshop at the North Pole - if you make it that far!

From sentient snowmen to lethal toys, this gamebook has it all, and the icing on the cake is Tony Hough's fantastically dark artwork. Rewards on offer to backers include signed hardbacks, ARU game rolls, custom dice and playing cards, and a Stuffed Stocking reward, limited to 100 backers, which includes rewards worth over £100 for only £80.

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...

And then the clock strikes thirteen and you wake to hear a thud downstairs. Investigating, you discover that your home has been invaded by two red-cloaked, and bearded, strangers.

Before you know what is happening, Krampus the Christmas Devil has abducted Santa Claus, and it's up to you to save Saint Nick before Christmas Day dawns and the cruel, birch-wielding, goat-leggéd one usurps his position and takes his place forever.

He knows if you've been good or bad, so be good for goodness sake...

There's a sackful of add-ons as well, everything from custom dice and playing cards to ARU dice trays and game rolls.

To check out the rewards, or pledge to support the Kickstarter, simply follow this link.