Happy Asteroid Day!

I learned this morning that 30 June is Asteroid Day. It is held on the anniversary of the Tunguska event in 1908, when an asteroid leveled 2,150 square kilometres of forest in Siberia.

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

I remember reading a Primeval tie-in novel by Dan Abnett, called Extinction Event (2009), which had dinosaurs entering our world through an Anomaly at the site of the Tunguska event. A similar idea, that of a massive explosion causing cracks in time, also featured in the Doctor Who episode The Fires of Pompei (2008).

This was a concept I played with when I wrote NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! Without giving too much away, the reason there are dinosaurs running around Neverland is because the Chicxulub asteroid that casued the extinction level event that wiped out those ancient beasts also caused fractures in time. These fractures rippled across time, meaning that Captain Hook and his pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy and the sinking of the Titanic survivor Wendy Darling, as well as dinosaurs, mammoth, and sabretooth tigers, can all visit the island at the same time.

So, to mark Asteroid Day. why not pick up a copy of NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! or leave a review of the gamebook on Amazon? After all, every little helps!

NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!

J. M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan and Wendy, was born 161 years ago yesterday. And it was that particular book that I decided to give an ACE Gamebooks' makeover for the third title in the ever-growing series*. 

I find it hard to believe that NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! was published two years ago (on 1st June) but it remains one of the ACE Gamebooks of which I am most proud.

If you've never sampled its delights before, don't be put off my the fact that it's inspired by Peter Pan. It's also inspired by Sir Conan Doyle's The Lost World and movies like King Kong and Jurassic Park. Let's put it this way - it certainly isn't twee in any way.

On the 15th April, 1912, during her maiden voyage, the RMS Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg. 1,503 people died, including passengers and crew. But 706 people survived, among them Wendy Darling and her dog Nana...

Separated from the rest of her family, Wendy's lifeboat is washed up on the shore of a mysterious island – a place lost in time – home to creatures long thought extinct, a forgotten tribe, and a boy who can never grow up. But the notorious pirate Captain James Hook and his crew have also found their way to Neverland, and the island is angry...

*     *     *     *     *

In NEVERLAND – Here Be Monsters!, YOU decide which route to take, which perils to risk, and which of the island’s strange, prehistoric denizens to fight. Play as shipwreck survivor Wendy Darling, automaton avenger Peter Pan, heroic hunter Tiger Lily, or plundering pirate Captain James Hook. But be warned – whether you succeed in your quest or meet a dire end will be down to the choices YOU make.

Will you manage to escape from Neverland?

You can watch Dennis Chang's in-depth critique of the adventure below, and you can even pick up the PDF version from DriveThruRPG.

* ACE Gamebooks #7 is coming to Kickstarter soon, so watch this space!

NEVERLAND - Here Be Colouring Books!

Coming soon from Snowbooks...

Email emma@snowbooks.com for your exclusive first printing copy!

NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! launches today!

At times it's felt like it's been almost 65 million years in the making, but at long last, my latest ACE Gamebook NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!, is published today!

On the 15^th April, 1912, during her maiden voyage, the RMS Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg. 1,503 people died, including passengers and crew. But 706 people survived, among them Wendy Darling and her dog Nana...

Separated from the rest of her family, Wendy's lifeboat is washed up on the shore of a mysterious island – a place lost in time – home to creatures long thought extinct, a forgotten tribe, and a boy who can never grow up.

But the notorious pirate Captain James Hook and his crew have also found their way to Neverland, and the island is angry...

In NEVERLAND – Here Be Monsters! YOU decide which route to take, which perils to risk, and which of the island’s strange, prehistoric denizens to fight. Play as shipwreck survivor Wendy Darling, automaton avenger Peter Pan, heroic hunter Tiger Lily, or plundering pirate Captain James Hook. But be warned – whether you succeed in your quest or meet a dire end will be down to the choices YOU make.

Will you manage to escape from Neverland?

You will be able to pick up a signed copy of NEVERLAND – Here Be Monsters! at Stand 2-640, from Yours Truly, complete with a collectible bookmark.

So maybe I'll see you there...

Happy Birthday, J. M. Barrie!

J. M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan and Wendy, was born 159 years ago today. More recently, of course, I was inspired to re-imagine his characters and their story as an adventure gamebook, in which the island of Neverland is populated by more monstrous reptiles other than just one giant crocodile.

NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! goes on general release on Saturday 1st June and you can pre-order your copy here.

Read A Book Day 2018

Today is National Read A Book Day, but why read a book when you could play a book?

So far there are two ACE Gamebooks in print, with a third coming soon. Classics of children's literature re-imagined as more mature, darker gamebooks. And you can find them here.

      

Last Chance for Late Pledges

If you missed the Kickstarter for my latest ACE Gamebook NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! you can still put in a Late Pledge*, but only until this Friday, 7th September 2018.

If you need any persuading, here's what the play-testers have been saying about the adventure:

"Be prepared for a rip roaring swashbuckling two-fisted pulp republic cliffhanger treat with NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! The most fun parts of Hook, Jurassic Park and Raiders Of The Lost Ark, blended into one death defying package!"

"Those of you who haven't been able to sample this yet, I can say you're in for a real treat! There are some really fun rules and memorable encounters throughout, and I can safely say this is my favourite of the ACE Gamebooks so far (High praise indeed, for the first two are fab)."

"Absolutely loving it so far. Some nice mechanics thrown in there. Very atmospheric."

Here's what you need to do if you would like to make a Late Pledge to the Kickstarter:

1. Look through the list of reward levels below and select the one you would like.
2. Look through the list of add-ons and decide if you would like to add any of these to your pledge.
3. Add the cost of any add-ons to the cost of the reward level you have selected, finally adding the correct postage for your country, to calculate the total amount you will need to pay.
4. Email info@jonathangreenauthor.com, making the title of your email 'NEVERLAND Late Pledge' and listing the reward and add-ons you have selected, along with the amount of money you will need to pay, including postage. I will then get back to you with details of how to make your payment via PayPal.

Please note - you can find out more about precisely what comes with each reward level by visiting the NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! project page here.

 (No postage required)

 (No postage required)

 (No postage required)

 (Post and packing: UK £6 - European Union £16 - Rest of World £22)

  (Post and packing: UK £6 - European Union £16 - Rest of World £22)

   (Post and packing: UK £6 - European Union £17 - Rest of World £24)

   (Post and packing: Free in the UK or if included with another reward - European Union £6 - Rest of World £8)

    (Post and packing: Free in the UK or if included with another reward - European Union £6 - Rest of World £8)

    (Post and packing: Free in the UK or if included with another reward - European Union £6 - Rest of World £8)

    (Post and packing: Free in the UK or if included with another reward - European Union £6 - Rest of World £8)

Gamebook Friday: All Quiet on the Blogging Front

If you are a regular visitor to this blog, you will have noticed that things have been a little quiet over the last month or so. That's because it's been the school summer holidays and I've either been away, or I've had my head down trying to get NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! finished.

Speaking of NEVERLAND, the play-testers and proofreaders will be sending me their feedback this week, which I will then use to produce the final final version of the text to send to the publisher. And artist Kev Crossley is busy preparing the images for the book. Here are a couple of up-to-date sketches that he's working up into full-blown pen and ink illustrations.

Since sending out the play-test copy of the adventure to all interested parties I haven't been idle. In fact I've already started work on my next gamebook project, which you can find out more about here.

Normal blog service will resume soon, once I've managed to clear the spiderwebs and the tumbleweed away... and once the kids are back at school!

Lost

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the legendary literary phenomenon Sherlock Holmes, died 88 years ago today. The reason I mention this is because he also wrote The Lost World, in which Professor George Challenger and his companions discover dinosaurs (and other supposedly extinct creatures) alive and well on top of a mesa in the Amazon basin of South America.

I have spent the last few weeks editing NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! And while it is clearing inspired by J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, the gamebook is as much influenced by Conan Doyle's The Lost World. During the course of the adventure, you can explore much of the Skull Island-esque Neverland, which has called for me producing a map of the place.

Just like the adventure itself, there's still a fair bit to do before it's finished, but I've really enjoyed indulging my inner cartographer again after so many years.

To get an idea of what it is like on an island lost in time, inhabited by all manner of prehistoric beasts that want to kill you (or kill you and eat you), you can now play through Tiger Lily's introduction to the adventure, which also contains another Conan Doyle reference, by downloading the extract here.

Gamebook Friday: Tiger Lily, Heroic Hunter

As I said on Facebook at the weekend, the character who has undergone the biggest reinvention in NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! is Tiger Lily.

In the adventure, she is a heroic hunter, aspiring to join the warrior cadre of the Accala tribe. She rides a Sabretooth called Fang, and is deadly with her spear and tomahawk.

She's also the only starting character who can take on dinosaurs, and you can read her opening to the adventure by clicking on the image below.

Enjoy!

Gamebook Friday: Wendy Darling, Shipwreck Survivor

I am well into editing NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! now and thought you might like to have a sneak peek at one of the four different openings of the adventure - that of shipwreck survivor Wendy Darling.

Click on the first page of the extract below, and you will be taken to a web-page where you can download the first 16 sections of the adventure. Please note that these are obviously not muddled up yet, and haven't been proof-read either, but the extract should give you an idea of what to expect when the entire adventure is finished and fully edited.

Enjoy!

Click the image above to download the extract.

Gamebook Friday: ACE Gamebooks at the UK Games Expo

Last weekend, I spent a very rewarding three days at the UK Games Expo.

I first attended the convention when it was held at the Clarendon Suites in Edgbaston, and its incredible to consider what Tony Hyams and Richard Denning have achieved, when you think that this year the Expo took over both Hall 1 and Hall 2 of the NEC as well as the Hilton hotel.

I was based in Hall 2, along with Ian Livingstone, and I had a fine array of Snowbooks-published books to sell, including my YOU ARE THE HERO histories and the ACE Gamebooks Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland and The Wicked Wizard of Oz.

I had a great time meeting Facebook friends, Kickstarter backers, and John Robertson of The Dark Room fame. I even caught up with an old university friend who I'd not seen in 22 years, as well as fellow author and editor George Mann and ace artist, and former collaborator, Ralph Horsley.

The Wicked Wizard of Oz was very well received, and plenty of people were still keen to pick up a copy of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland as well.

The UK Games Expo is one of my favourite conventions and I'll already looking forward to next year's event, as well as planning what I'm going to take with me, which will definitely include NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!

Tie-in Tuesday: Dinosaur Day

According to Twitter, today is Dinosaur Day. My working days are filled with dinosaurs at the moment, as I'm nearing the end of writing the first draft of NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!

But of course it's not the first book I've written that features the terrible lizards. There's Terrible Lizards for one. There are also dinosaurs in the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Bloodbones, and the Pax Britannia novels Unnatural History and Leviathan Rising.

Like many 5 and 6 year-olds, I was obsessed by dinosaurs. I would spend hours tracing the dinosaurs in the colouring book I had, and I loved films like The Land That Time Forgot, Valley of the Gwangi, and One Million Years BC, shown on TV during the afternoon at weekends. When I was a little older, by father and I would make Airfix kits of dinosaurs together, and I have very fond memories of travelling up to London on the train with him, specifically to visit The Natural History Museum and its dinosaur collection. I even remember an English lesson, early on in Secondary School, in which we studied an extract from Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder, focusing on the arrival of a T-Rex.

All of this clearly had an impact on my growing up, and I still have a passion and fascination for prehistoric life today. Last year family Green visited New York and I dragged everyone to the American Museum of Natural History, just so that I could see the dinosaur exhibits, which did not disappoint! And because it had an impact on me growing up, it has also impacted upon my writing.

But I have never explored dinosaur life in so much detail as I have in NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! For a start, the book includes over 30 different dinosaurs, marine reptiles, flying reptiles and other prehistoric creatures. But one of the fun things about writing the book has been coming up with new names for dinosaurs, because most of the characters in the story wouldn't have known what the nascent fossil hunters had called these primeval beasts.

I'm keen for the book to be finished and out there in readers' hands for various reasons, but one of them is to see if people can work out which dinosaur is which. Maybe I'll reveal the answers next Dinosaur Day.

Gamebook Friday: Temple of the Spider God on SALE now!

Over the last few months, I have been writing an adventure set on a remote, tropical island. But a few years ago I wrote an entirely different adventure that reaches its climax on a remote, tropical island.

So, while you're waiting for NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! to see print later this year, why not pick up a copy of Temple of the Spider God? And there really is no better time to do so than now, since it is one of the titles included in Tin Man Games' Humble Bundle Spring Sale.

To find out more, simply click this link. And watch out for the spiders!

Gamebook Friday: Fighting Fantasy Classics

After a number of months in development, Tin Man Games have finally released the much anticipated Fighting Fantasy Classics, which is now available to download from the App Store.

Fighting Fantasy Classics is a brand new library app for iOS that will also be released on Android and PC/Mac very soon. The app will ultimately collect together many of your favourite Fighting Fantasy gamebooks from the 1980s until now!

The app is free to download and the Tin Man has very generously included the app of my pirate-themed adventure Bloodbones for FREE.

Other FF game apps, such as The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, The Citadel of Chaos, City of Thieves, The Forest of Doom, Caverns of the Snow Witch, and Island of the Lizard King, are available to buy for just $1.99USD for a limited time!

There are plenty more releases to look forward to as well, including Deathtrap Dungeon, Freeway Fighter, Sword of the Samurai, Trial of Champions, Temple of Terror, and many more. Tin Man Games will also be re-releasing House of Hell, Starship Traveller, Appointment with F.E.A.R. and Blood of the Zombies in this new/old format!

To find out more, simply follow this link to the Tin Man Games blog.



Talking of pirate-themed gamebooks, I am currently writing a certain Captain James Hook's introductory scenes for my third ACE Gamebook, NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!

Gamebook Friday: Holding out for a Heroine

In honour of International Women's Day yesterday, today's Gamebook Friday post focuses on my ACE Gamebooks, which all feature strong female protagonists.

In Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, there is, of course, the indefatigable Alice, who you guide through a warped Wonderland.

The Wicked Wizard of Oz tells the story of stormy Dorothy Gale's return to Oz and the incredible transformation that she undergoes while she is there.

And then there is NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!, which I am currently in the process of writing, and which features not one but two heroines, the Lara Croft-esque shipwreck survivor Wendy Darling, and the Sabretooth-riding heroic hunter Tiger Lily.



NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! will be published later this year, while Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland and The Wicked Wizard of Oz are both available now.

World Book Day 2018

As you no doubt are already aware* today is World Book Day. So, in typical form, I would encourage you to purchase one of my books today, especially...

Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghost of Jacob Marley are back, as they become embroiled in an occult murder mystery. The perfect read for a wintry day!

Become Dorothy Gale, the Scarecrow, Tin Man, or Lion and return to the marvellous Land of Oz to take on the Wicked Wizard of Oz himself! A thrilling adventure gamebook in which YOU decide the course of the story.

The second volume in the history of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks series. A worldwide hit, and you can buy your own signed copy direct from the author here!

But more than that, I would ask you to write a review for a book that you've enjoyed (including any of mine you might have read) as the number of reviews a book receives on Amazon (for example) has a direct impact on that book's future sales.

Thank you and have a great day. I, for one, will be starting Dan Abnett's latest Gaunt's Ghosts novel The Warmaster, and hopefully writing a few more sections of NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!

* Especially if you have primary school age children.