Gamebook Friday: YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 has 24 hours to go on Kickstarter!

YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 has only 24 hours to go on Kickstarter and is creeping ever closer to the stretch goal whereby all softbacks that people have pledged to receive automatically become hardbacks!

Backers who have pledged to receive physical copies of the book will already be getting two bonus art prints and an MP3 download of Fighting Fantasy-inspired music, but if the next stretch goal is reached they will also receive a full-colour print of Leo Hartas's map of Allansia.

A new art add-on has also been announced. Add £120 to any other pledge (or select the Golden Fleece reward by itself) and you could be the proud owner of a canvas art print of Chris Achilleos's cover art for YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2.

So if you've been holding out, hoping that  YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 would be published as a hardback, don't delay - back the Kickstarter today!

Steampunk Thursday: Through the Looking-Glass and the Horrors Alice Found There

So these arrived today...

I'm sure you'll agree that Kev Crossley and Snowbooks have done a fantastic job with the book. Here's one of the pictures to be coloured in the book...

And here's what makes this colouring book unlike any other - guidance from the artist himself with regards to how you should go about colouring the images.

You can purchase Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland Colouring Book Two: Through the Looking-Glass and the Horrors Alice Found There here, if you're in the UK, and here, if you're in the US.

Enjoy!

YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 is into its final 48 hours on Kickstarter!

The YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 Kickstarter finishes at 1:00pm BST on Saturday 1st April 2017 - no joke!

If you enjoyed the original YOU ARE THE HERO then you will definitely enjoy this follow-up, which contains all new material - 12 chapters' worth!

As well as the usual signed book rewards and the like, everyone who backs to receive a physical copy of YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 will also receive a full-colour A4 art print of Chris Achilleos's brand-new cover art for the book and another of John Blanche's classic painting of Kharé - Cityport of Traps from Steve Jackson's Sorcery! series.

And if we hit £22,000 on the Kickstarter, everyone who backs at the £10 Golem reward level or above will also receive an MP3 download of music inspired by Fighting Fantasy, by the likes of Groan, Isle of Avalon, and Jaldaboath!

But the big one is the £25,000 stretch goal. If we achieve that, then all of the softbacks of YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 that people have pledged to receive will become hardbacks!

So what are you waiting for? If you haven't already, pledge your support today (after all, it's pay day tomorrow), and whether you're a new backer or not, keeping spreading the word.

Thank you for joining me on this journey and may your STAMINA never fail!

Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks set to return and YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 will chronicle it all!

Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks are re-launching this summer with Scholastic, the largest children's publisher in the world, in time for the series' 35th anniversary!

In August 2017, Scholastic UK will publish The Port of Peril, the new gamebook by Ian Livingstone, along with five classic titles, including The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. A further tranche of titles will publish in spring 2018.

YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 will chronicle the story of the move to a new publisher and the development of Ian Livingstone's first new gamebook in five years, so make sure you don't miss out - back the Kickstarter today!

Thought for the Day

"Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all."

~ Winston Churchill

The Steampunk Author Showcase at the Essex Book Festival

I had a great day at the Essex Book Festival on Saturday, spending the day in the company of fellow authors Toby Frost and Raven Dane, having been invited to be part of the event by Mr Paul Adams of The League of Essextraordinary Gentlemen.

Authors Jonathan Green, Raven Dane and Toby Frost.

We ended the day with a talk about our influences as authors before taking questions from the audience, and ended up offering advice to aspiring writers about their work.

Preparing for the Steampunk Author Showcase.

So thank you to everyone who came to the talk, that you to everyone who bought a book, and thank you to Paul, Jo and Rachel for organising the event. Here's to the next one!

Gamebook Friday: YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 needs YOU!

YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2 has just one week left to run on Kickstarter. Although it was funded within a day we are still striving to unlock various stretch goals, the last of which is to turn all of the softbacks people have pledged to receive into hardbacks.

If you've been thinking about backing the project please do so today and then share that fact with all your friends and encourage them to do the same. What we need, to unlock those remaining stretch goals, isn't necessarily for existing backers to pledge more money but for more backers to join us for this 35th anniversary celebration of the world's most popular gamebook series.

In other news, this week I sent the completed manuscript of The Wicked Wizard of Oz to the publisher to be laid out. All I'm waiting on now is for the people who backed that particular project to complete their surveys so I can include their names in the Acknowledgements.

I often find that when I am finishing one book ideas for the next start to form, and I've been capturing elements of the creative process that has set my synapses firing for my next project here.

Also, apparently. ten weeks today UK Games Expo 2017 kicks off. I shall be there launching The Wicked Wizard of Oz, so let's hope the backers get their names to me soon. ;-)

Not final artwork