Alice's Day 2022

It's three years since I attended Alice's Day in Oxford as a guest of the Lewis Carroll Society.

Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland was the first ACE Gamebook, written before ACE Gamebooks were even thing, and it is still a popular seller. It regularly sells out at the UK Games Expo, and did so again this year. And even though it was first published in the UK almost seven years ago, new foreign language editions keep appearing.

If you've yet to experience my gamification of Lewis Carroll's seminal children's book, you can pick up a copy here. Just remember... we're all mad here!

Gamebook Friday: Alice's Nightmare in Italy

Next week I was supposed to be attending PLAY: The Games Festival, held in the Italian city of Modena. The Italian language version of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland was due to launch at the event, and I was going to be signing copies of the book.

As things stand, PLAY has been postponed until the end of May, but I really can't say for certain at this time whether (a) the event will still go ahead, or (b) whether I'll be there.

However, in anticipation of the launch of L'Incubo di Alice nel Paese Delle Meraviglie, I was interviewed for Librograme's Land Magazine. You can read the interview, if you can read Italian, here.

I was also supposed to be giving a talk to The Lewis Carroll Society in London this evening, but, unsurprisingly, it has been cancelled.

In other gamebook-related news, Dracula - Curse of the Vampire now has just four days left to run on Kickstarter and has already passed Stretch Goal #1. Can we reach Stretch Goal #2 before Tuesday lunchtime? If everyone keeps spreading the word, I am sure we can!

I must have been subconsciously influenced by the Coronavirus Pandemic, as there are four places in the adventure where you can pick up infectious diseases!

Gamebook Friday: Alice Updates

I have some (hopefully) exciting news for French fans of my work - Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland is going to be published in French next year, by Alkonost Editions, as Alice au Pays des Cauchemars, and featuring Kev Crossley's awesome artwork on the cover once again.

In other Alice-related news, long time readers of this blog will know that this summer I visited Oxford for Alice's Day and gave a lecture on Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, at the invitation of the Lewis Carroll Society.

As a result of this, there is a write up of my talk in the latest issue of Bandersnatch - The Newsletter of The Lewis Carroll Society, and a review of the book in the Lewis Carroll Review.

I have to say, the review is one of the most curious I have read, and only gets curiouser as it goes on. For one thing, it needed a good copy-edit and proofread before going to print, but for another it goes into great deal about what's in the book - revealing spoiler after spoiler - but doesn't actually give an opinion on whether a prospective reader should purchase the book or not.

However, I did like these parts of it:

"Alice is reborn as a Victorian Lara Croft."

"As a self-confessed fan of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, The Citadel of Chaos, City of Thieves et al back in the day... it's clear Alice's Nightmare is a good deal grittier than these. Even when you were fighting Orcs or killer vampires in Firetop Mountain, there was nothing cute to destroy."

"There are overtones of Carroll's gallows sense of humour and frequent death jokes... The goriness is definitely inventive..."

You can pick up a copy of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland here.

Gamebook Friday: Alice's Day 2018

Last Saturday, I visited Oxford to join in with the Alice's Day celebrations.

For anyone who doesn't already know, Alice's Day commemorates and celebrates the first time Lewis Carroll told the tale that would eventually become that classic of children's literature, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Museums, shops and libraries all over the city hold workshops, host lectures, and arrange unique displays, in a joint venture organised by The Story Museum and The Lewis Carroll Society.

I was intrigued to see what went on during Alice's Day, and also to see if my own take on Carroll's classic might have a place within future events. So you can imagine my delight when I visited Alice's Shop to find that they already had Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland in stock!

I dutifully signed the copies they had there, and posed for photos with the staff, before heading off to Christ Church College, where Lewis Carroll taught mathematics, in the guise of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

You can see more photos from my Alice's Day in Oxford here, and you can pick up a copy of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland here.