Short Story Saturday: World War Cthulhu

World War Cthulhu: The Fiction Anthology is now available through DriveThruRPG. Now only that but it's been marked down by 20% for the duration of this weekend!

As the shadows of war gather over Europe something is stirring within the darkness; something far older than humankind. Those with evil intent will seek to harness these terrible powers, while those fighting to turn the tide of war will find themselves up against far more than bullets and bombs. In forgotten R’lyeh, Cthulhu stirs as the mighty armies of the Third Reich march.

Critically-lauded editor Jonathan Oliver (The End of The Line, House of Fear, Magic) has collected together fourteen original tales of the Mythos including work by James Lovegrove, Weston Ochse, Rebecca Levene, Robin D. Laws, Simon Bestwick, Gaie Sebold, T.P. Pike, Sarah Newton, Greg Stolze, Paul Finch, John Llewellyn Probert, Jonathan Green, Archie Black and World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar.

The World War: The Cthulhu Fiction Anthology is an ebook download, featuring ePub, mobi and prc formats.

Cthulhu Thursday: Happy Birthday, Mr Lovecraft!

Today is - or rather, would have been - H P Lovecraft's 130th birthday. The impact his work made on the horror and science fiction genres cannot be underestimated, and his Cthulhu mythos has inspired writers and artists all over the world.

I have written a number of stories that reference the Cthulhu mythos, and I have move ideas I would like to develop in the pipeline. I also edited an anthology of Cthulhu short stories that merged Lovecraft's creations with the Bard of Stratford's plays. There are even elements of the mythos in my ACE Gamebook NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!

So why not check one of them out today?

Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu

An anthologie of fine stories inspir’d by the Bard of Stratford and the Lovecraftian Mythos

Imagine if it had been William Shakespeare, England’s greatest playwright, who had discovered the truth about the Great Old Ones and the cosmic entity we know as Cthulhu, rather than the American horror writer H P Lovecraft.

Imagine if Stratford’s favourite son had been the one to learn of the dangers of seeking after forbidden knowledge and of the war waged between the Elder Gods in the Outer Darkness, and had passed on that message, to those with eyes to see it, through his plays and poetry. Welcome to the world of Shakespearean Cthulhu!

To mark the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, Snowbooks proudly presents fifteen stories of eldritch horror that blend the Bard’s most famous plays with Lovecraft’s most terrifying creations. But before you dip into this curséd tome, be warned – that way madness lies...

The Serpent's Egg

A Dark Tale of the Cthulhu Mythos

“When oblivion comes, it is forever, as endless as the slumber of those beings that lie buried beneath the roots of the world, dreaming in darkness.”

A writer’s research into the legend of the Lambton Worm takes a horrifying twist when he uncovers the true origin of the story: a legend that stirs, knowing the time for its rebirth is near…

NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!

An ACE Gamebook

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?

The Scottish Patient

As featured in the World War Cthulhu anthology

As the shadows of war gather over Europe something is stirring within the darkness; something far older than humankind. Those with evil intent will seek to harness these terrible powers, while those fighting to turn the tide of war will find themselves up against far more than bullets and bombs. In forgotten R’lyeh, Cthulhu stirs as the mighty armies of the Third Reich march.

Short Story Saturday: To Cut A Long Story Short

May is Short Story Month, and this year, for the first time, I have compiled a list of all the short stories I have had published over the years. As the month draws to a close, I thought I would share some of the insights I have gleaned from the process.

First of all, I have not included the colour text I have written for Games Workshop - including Codexes, Army Books, and even Epic 40,000 - or the same that I wrote for Hogshead's Realms of Sorcery. Although these could be considered short stories, they were more pieces of flash fiction, and so for the purposes of this record, I am considering The Hounds of Winter (from Inferno! Issue Zero) to be my first published story, even though the first one I actually wrote for the Black Library was the Ultramarines story Salvation.

In the 22 years since The Hounds of Winter was published, I have written 58 short stories, of which three have yet to see print, and am currently writing my 59th. They can be roughly divided into different periods as well.

For the first 10 years I pretty much only wrote stories for the Black Library. Then I started writing short stories set within my steampunk world of Pax Britannia, which continued for the next 10 years. However, it was also during this period that I began to expand my range of stories and where they were published.

Having worked for Abaddon Books, writing the Pax Britannia series, editior Jonathan Oliver commissioned me to write a ghost story for the horror anthology House of Fear. I was also asked to write tie-in fiction for World War Cthulhu and the video games, Nazi Zombie Army.

From 2010 to 2013, during a period of particular turmoil in my life, I wrote some of my more unusual experimental stories, such as telling stories backwards, and one which was written entirely as an exchange on Twitter. Some worked better than others.

In 2014 I wrote the first of four Judge Dredd short stories. By now I was regularly being invited to write short stories for various anthologies, and continue to receive one or two such invitations a year. In this period I have written stories featuring Sherlock Holmes, inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and set within the same universe as H G Wells' The War of the Worlds. These last two stories are both due to be published this September.

However, more recently, I have started writing stories for a setting I have not visited for some years, and the first of these is due to be published in October. So watch this space...

And two years ago I started self-publishing some of my short fiction as eBooks, most notably my sequel to Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, entitled Scrooge and Marley (Deceased): The Haunted Man.

Happy Birthday, H P Lovecraft!

H P Lovecraft, creator of the Cthulhu Mythos, was born on 20 August 1890. He has inspired hundreds of writers since, including Yours Truly.

To date I have written two Cthulhu Mythos stories, The Scottish Patient* (which appears in the World War Cthulhu fiction anthology) and The Serpent's Egg (a novella first published as part of Dreaming in Darkness).

20 August was also my father's birthday, and he was another great inspiration to me and supported my early writing career whole-heartedly.

So here's to both of them - H P Lovecraft and my Dad!




* The Scottish Patient received a special mention in this review of World War Cthulhu: "What makes the volume particularly interesting is the way the authors blend history and mythos. One might expect stories of perfidious Nazis performing obscene occult rituals to call forth the Lovecraftian unnameables and enlist their effort in defeating the Allies. And they are there, as in John Llewellyn Prober’s ghastly “The Death House.” But Oliver—and Cthulhu—does not play favorites. Almost as intriguing and certainly as uncomfortable are those in which the Allies succumb to temptation…and themselves seek the services of darkness. Jonathan Green’s “The Scottish Patient,” set in a dream-like England, explores this possibility."

Short Story Saturday: World War Cthulhu review

World War Cthulhu - the anthology of Mythos stories set at the time of the Second World War - has received a glowing review over at Hellnotes.com, with Yours Truly getting a special mention.

Jonathan Oliver has taken an obvious but welcome step in combining these two sources in World War Cthulhu, evocative (and often provocative) Lovecraftian tales set amid the authentic horrors of World War II. With stories by Jonathan Green, Weston Ochse, Simon Bestwick, Sarah Newton, James Lovegrove, and nine other highly effective storytellers, the anthology never falters regardless of the frequent shifts in landscape, mood, and theme. Every one of the stories works, and works well...

One might expect stories of perfidious Nazis performing obscene occult rituals to call forth the Lovecraftian unnameables and enlist their effort in defeating the Allies. And they are there, as in John Llewellyn Prober’s ghastly “The Death House.” But Oliver—and Cthulhu—does not play favourites. Almost as intriguing and certainly as uncomfortable are those in which the Allies succumb to temptation…and themselves seek the services of darkness. Jonathan Green’s “The Scottish Patient,” set in a dream-like England, explores this possibility. 

You can pick up your copy of World War Cthulhu, featuring my story The Scottish Patient, here.

And don't forget, The Scottish Patient is a sort of prequel to my novella The Serpent's Egg, which is one of the four stories that make up Dreaming in Darkness.

Recent Anthology Releases, or "You're getting about a bit just lately, Mr Green."

As a writery friend of mine commented on my Facebook page recently, in regard to an update about another anthology I was in, "You're getting about a bit just lately, Mr Green."

And he's not wrong. In the last month or two there has been a suddenly flurry of releases featuring my work. The thing is though, the work involved has been spread out over the last two years and, in some cases, even longer than that. That's just the nature of publishing.

But to keep you in the loop, here is the list of those recent anthology releases featuring Yours Truly.

Anthology - Legends: Stories in Honour of David Gemmell
Editor - Ian Whates
Publisher - Newcon Press
Story - Who Walks With Death

Anthology - The Book of the Dead
Editor - Jared Shurin
Publisher - Jurassic London
Story - Egyptian death and the afterlife: mummies (Rooms 62-3)

Anthology - World War Cthulhu
Editor - Jonathan Oliver
Publisher - Cubicle 7 Entertainment
Story - The Scottish Patient

Anthology - Space Marines
Editor - Christian Dunn
Publisher - Black Library
Stories - The Relic, But Dust in the Wind

Anthology - Ghosts of the Asylum
Editor - Jim Snee
Publisher - The Last Line
Story - Signs and Portents

Anthology - There is Only War
Editor - Christian Dunn
Publisher - Black Library
Story - The Relic

Short Story Saturday: World War Cthulhu and Dreaming in Darkness

Yesterday (8 November) was Bram Stoker's birthday. Stoker's most infamous creation is surely the vampire count Dracula, but amongst his other works is The Lair of the White Worm which takes its inspiration from the Legend of the Lambton Worm.

Vampires have cropped up one or two times in my own work (Shadows Over Sylvania and Blood Royal to name but two), but the Legend of the Lambton Worm has directly influenced my work in print four times so far.

First there was the Wodewitch's Devilworm in my first published book Spellbreaker. Then there was the Pax Britannia novella Conqueror Worm. More recently the legend inspired my new novella The Serpent's Egg that appears in Dreaming in Darkness. And now there's The Scottish Patient, published recently in World War Cthulhu by Cubicle 7 Entertainment.

Interestingly, for readers of Dreaming in Darkness, The Scottish Patient is a sort-of-prequel to The Serpent's Egg. Although it's come out second, it was actually written more than a year before The Serpent's Egg.

Edited by British Fantasy Society Award winner Jonathan Oliver, World War Cthulhu contains short stories by such luminaries as James Lovegrove, Weston Ochse, Rebecca Levene, Robin D. Laws, Simon Bestwick, Gaie Sebold, T.P. Pike, Sarah Newton, Greg Stolze, Paul Finch, John Llewellyn Probert, Yours Truly, Archie Black and World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar.

As the shadows of war gather over Europe something is stirring within the darkness; something far older than humankind. Those with evil intent will seek to harness these terrible powers, while those fighting to turn the tide of war will find themselves up against far more than bullets and bombs. In forgotten R’lyeh, Cthulhu stirs as the mighty armies of the Third Reich march.

You can download World War Cthulhu as an ebook here.

And while we're on the subject of Dreaming in Darkness here's another awesome review.