The 12 Days of Christmas - Day 10: Scrooge and Marley (Deceased)

Happy Solstice Day!

First published three years ago, in 2017, the premise of Scrooge and Marley (Deceased): The Haunted Man was that Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghost of of Jacob Marley work together to solve mysteries of an occult nature within the Victorian world of Charles Dickens' books.

The intention was to write more stories set within this world, and even a gamebook, but the adventures of this pair of occult detectives didn't take off in the way that I had hoped.

I did publish another story, Murder in the Cathedral, and have plotted out four more, but when or if they appear, we will have to wait and see...

     

“I come this night to ask for your help, Ebenezer,” the ghost said.

Scrooge and Marley (Deceased): The Haunted Man

A year on from the events of A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge finds himself visited once again by the ghost of his late business partner, Jacob Marley, who brings with him a new proposition. Just as Marley helped Scrooge to avoid the cruel fate that the last of the Three Spirits foretold, Marley wants Scrooge to help him reduce his time in Purgatory.

And so begins an epic adventure that will see the former friends face off against all manner of phantasms, freaks and fiends, with just one thing at stake… Everything!

      

Scrooge and Marley (Deceased): Murder in the Cathedral

Ebenezer Scrooge and his ghost-hunting partner Jacob Marley (already a ghost himself) visit the cathedral city of Cloisterham in order to investigate the disappearance of a young man... A certain Mr Edwin Drood.

      

Short Story Saturday: Scrooge and Marley (Deceased)

Yesterday was Charles Dickens' 208th birthday, which is a good enough excuse for me to remind you that I have written two stories inspired by Ebenezer Scrooge and his late business partner Jacob Marley, from A Christmas Carol.

You might want to check them out, seeing as how you can read them for free via Kindle Unlimited.

Scrooge and Marley (Deceased): The Haunted Man
A year on from the events of A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge finds himself visited once again by the ghost of his late business partner, Jacob Marley, who brings with him a new proposition. Just as Marley helped Scrooge to avoid the cruel fate that the last of the Three Spirits foretold, Marley wants Scrooge to help him reduce his time in Purgatory.

And so begins an epic adventure that will see the former friends face off against all manner of phantasms, freaks and fiends, with just one thing at stake… Everything!

      

Scrooge and Marley (Deceased): Murder in the Cathedral

Ebenezer Scrooge and his ghost-hunting partner Jacob Marley (already a ghost himself) visit the cathedral city of Cloisterham in order to investigate the disappearance of a young man... A certain Mr Edwin Drood.

      

Scrooge and Marley (Deceased)

Today is Charles Dickens' 207th birthday, so it seems like an appropriate time to remind you that I have written two stories, riffing off one of the author's most famous creations - A Christmas Carol.

“I come this night to ask for your help, Ebenezer,” the ghost said.

A year on from the events of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge finds himself visited once again by the ghost of his late business partner, Jacob Marley, who brings with him a new proposition. Just as Marley helped Scrooge to avoid the cruel fate that the last of the Three Spirits foretold, Marley wants Scrooge to help him reduce his time in Purgatory.

And so begins an epic adventure that will see the former friends face off against all manner of phantasms, freaks and fiends, with only one thing at stake… Everything!

"An entertaining, well-written sequel to 'A Christmas Carol' with plenty of fun twists."
Fantasy Book Review

      

“The layers of the dead lie deep here,” the ghost said.

Ebenezer Scrooge and his ghost-hunting partner Jacob Marley (already a ghost himself) visit the cathedral city of Cloisterham in order to investigate the disappearance of a young man... A certain Mr Edwin Drood.

The second book in the new series by award-winning author Jonathan Green.

     

Review of the Year - 2018

For the last few years, towards the end of the year, I have posted a review... of my year. And this year is no different. What is different, however, is how few books and stories I've had published in 2018, despite being very busy on the writing front.

In 2015, I had nine books published. In 2016 it was four, plus a video game. In 2017, it was an astonishing fourteen!

This year, I haven't actually had a single book of my own published. Instead, I've had short stories appear in two different collections, I self-published another Scrooge and Marley (Deceased) e-short, Murder in the Cathedral, and the Audible edition of SHARKPUNK - the shark-themed short story anthology I edited - came out.

However, the German language edition of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland - Alice im Düsterland - was released, to great acclaim, and 2018 also saw the publication of Charlie Higson's first Fighting Fantasy gamebook, The Gates of Death, which I also helped with.

2018 was also the year that marked the 25th anniversary of my first published book, Spellbreaker, and therefore that of my career as a published author.

A good six months of the year was spent writing NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!, which is now the longest gamebook I have ever written*, but I also completed the first draft of Beowulf Beastslayer in a more acceptable four months.

I have a few more short stories due to come out next year, and I would like to continue the adventures of the occult detectives Scrooge and Marley, but by next Christmas I hope to have published another three books, and written another three.

I also spent a fair amount of time travelling to, and taking part in, events this year, including Bath Comic-Con in March, the Festival of Steam and Transport, and the Publishing Innovation Conference in April, the UK Games Expo in June, Alice's Day in Oxford in July, the Bath Children's Literature Festival in September, Frankfurt Book Fair in October, and Dragonmeet in December.

Of course next year will see me attending more of the same, but also Fighting Fantasy Fest 3, on Saturday 31st August 2019.

2018 has definitely been the Year of ACE Gamebooks. It would have been the Year of NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!, if the book had actually been published this year as planned, but instead it is coming out in the spring. As well as writing Beowulf Beastslayer, I have also started work on the fifth title in the ACE Gamebooks series, 'TWAS - The Krampus Night Before Christmas.

The Kickstarter to fund production of the book launches on Tuesday 1st January 2019.

* And will probably hold that title for a long time to come!