Gamebook Friday: Curse of the Mummy is 25 years old this year!

My third Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Curse of the Mummy, will be 25 years old later this year*. I was recently reminded of this fact when Family Green visited the Tutankhamun exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London. (Tickets are still available.)

It must be the fourth time I've seen artefacts from King Tut's tomb - twice in situ in Egypt, and once before in the UK - and I even wrote my university thesis on Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egyptian Art. So you won't be surprised to learn that Curse of the Mummy isn't the only thing I've written that was inspired by the wonders of Ancient Egypt.

Egyptian death and the afterlife: mummies (Rooms 62-3)** appeared in The Book of the Dead, published by Jurassic London in 2013.

Then there was Worthless Remains, a Ulysses Quicksilver Pax Britannia story that was published in Clockwork Cairo: Steampunk Tales of Egypt. (There was also a Spring-Heeled Jack story called Favoured Son that was never actually written but which had a strong Egyptian theme.)

Wonderful Things came out last year in Scarlet Traces: A War of the Worlds Anthology, and even featured Howard Carter as the protagonist!

Of course, any Warhammer 40,000 story about the Necrons - like as But Dust in the Wind - comes with an automatic Ancient Egyptian hit, but in my most recent such tale, Journey of the Magi, is a double whammy, since a trio of Thousand Sons' sorcerers are the protagonists.

I also have an idea for a Egyptian-themed Scrooge & Marley (Deceased) story, and the ACE Gamebook I will be writing next is another cursed tome - Dracula - Curse of the Vampire - which will be illustrated by Martin McKenna, who also happened to illustrate Curse of the Mummy!

* This is going to be a regular thing now, since I've been published every year since 1993. There was a hiatus from 1998-2001, when I didn't have any books published, but in that time I still had short stories and magazine articles come out in the name.

** Which has to be the weirdest title I've ever used for a published story.

Happy Halloween!

Tonight, people up and down the country will be donning their Halloween costumes - turning themselves into witches, vampires, werewolves, mummies, demons, and zombies - for the duration of the dark celebrations.

If you're planning on staying in tonight, hopefully avoiding the trick or treaters, and you're looking for a creepy story to curl up with before the witching hour, you might want to try one of these...

Spellbreaker (1993)

Witches and demons abound in my first published Fighting Fantasy adventure.

Curse of the Mummy (1995)

My third FF adventure, heavily-inspired by Mummy movies from right across the cinematic era.

The Dead and the Damned (2002)

My first Warhammer novel, which features all manner of daemons, not to mention the shambling ranks of the undead.

Necromancer (2005)

The tale of one man's fall from grace and the corrupting power of necromancy.

Bloodbones (2006)

More zombie pirates and voodoo curses than you can shake a cutlass at.

Howl of the Werewolf (2007)

In my fifth FF adventure, you must stopped yourself turning into a werewolf before the next full moon by hunting down and killing the Arch-Lycanthrope.

Human Nature (2008) and Evolution Expects (2009)

A couple of body horror classics from my Pax Britannia steampunk series of novels.

Night of the Necromancer (2010)

Death is not the end... Murdered on your way home, you rise from the dead to avenge your own murder.

Blood Royal (2010) and Anno Frankenstein (2011)

Two more Pax Britannia novels, inspired by classic horror movies of yesteryear.

Shadows Over Sylvania (2013)

YOU are a vampire in my one and only Warhammer gamebook, which remains one of the best I have ever written, and probably the hardest to get hold of too.

Game Over (2015)

A collection of techno-chillers, ghost stories inspired by classic video games, edited by Yours Truly.

The Serpent's Egg (2017)

A dark tale of the Cthulhu Mythos, inspired by the legend of the Lambton Worm.

And coming in 2020...

Join the ACE Gamebooks Facebook group to be kept up to date with developments...

Steampunk Thursday: Clockwork Cairo

I recently received my author copy of Clockwork Cairo, the anthology of Egyptian-themed steampunk short stories that features my Pax Britannia story Worthless Remains, and a hefty beast it is too!

You can pick up your copy of Clockwork Cairo here. And once you've read it, why not post a review on Amazon?

Steampunk Thursday: Pax Britannia - Worthless Remains

Having marked the 10th anniversary of the Pax Britannia series on this blog yesterday, today I am delighted to announce that Ulysses Quicksilver returns for a one-off short story in Matthew Bright's Clockwork Cairo - an anthology of steampunk stories with an Egyptian connection - later this year.

One of the great things about the anthology is that each story comes with its own piece of artwork, and here's the title page illustration for my own story Worthless Remains.

Clockwork Cairo will be published in May by Twopenny Books.

Gamebook Friday: The Seventh Plague

After seeing the recent images of snowfall in Egypt (the first time such a thing has happened in 100 years) I couldn't help wondering if a certain Mummy's Curse had come in effect.

It's certainly given me plenty of ideas for a sequel (should such a thing ever happen). In the mean time you can pick up a copy of the original adventure here.

The Book of the Dead - released today!

That's right, The Book of the Dead is out now!

This first ever volume of original mummy stories, published by Jurassic London in partnership with the Egypt Exploration Society, The Book of the Dead contains 19 new tales of mummies, mayhem, revenge, romance, pharaohs, cats and candy!

"Ramesses on the Frontier" by Paul Cornell
"Escape from the Mummy's Tomb" by Jesse Bullington
"Old Souls" by David Thomas Moore
"Her Heartbeat, An Echo" by Lou Morgan
"Mysterium Tremendum" by Molly Tanzer
"Tollund" by Adam Roberts
"The Curious Case of the Werewolf that Wasn't, The Mummy that Was and the Cat in the Jar" by Gail Carriger
"The Cats of Beni Hasan" by Jenni Hill
"Cerulean Memories" by Maurice Broaddus
"Inner Goddess" by Michael West
"The Roof of the World" by Sarah Newton
"Henry" by Glen Mehn
"The Dedication of Sweetheart Abbey" by David Bryher
"All is Dust" by Den Patrick
"Bit-U-Men" by Maria Dahvana Headley
"Egyptian death and the afterlife: mummies (Rooms 62-3)" by Jonathan Green 
"Akhenaten Goes to Paris" by Louis Greenberg
"The Thing of Wrath" by Roger Luckhurst
"Three Memories of Death" by Will Hill

The anthology is illustrated by Garen Ewing and introduced by John J. Johnston, Vice Chair of the Egypt Exploration Society, and you can pick up your copy here.

The official launch of The Book of the Dead is taking place this evening (Tuesday 29 October) at the Phoenix Artist Club (off Tottenham Court Road, on Phoenix Street), so maybe I'll see you there...

Short Story Saturday: The Book of the Dead

The Book of the Dead is the next anthology to come from Pandemonium Fiction, due to be published this October. Amongst its TOC is a short story by Yours Truly, with one of the weirdest titles I've ever given to a tale...

Egyptian death and the afterlife: mummies (Rooms 62-3)

But don't let the title put you offer. After all, here's what my editor Jared Shurin had to say about it: "This is a lovely story." Yes, you read that right. Lovely.

I'm not known for my 'lovely' stories, so maybe you should check out my tale of a mummy, eternal love and the curse of immortality.

And while we're on the subject of Mummies and their curses, check out the mystery of the moving Egyptian statuette.

No, not this Mummy.