Gamebook Friday: FREE Beowulf Beastslayer Teaching Resources

One thing is certain as the Coronavirus crisis deepens; we are most definitely living in interesting times.

If you are a student who has been sent home from school and you have been studying Beowulf in English, or if you are a teacher looking to support your students' work on the Anglo-Saxon epic poem while they are remote learning, my teaching resources, based on the gamebook Beowulf Beastslayer, are now FREE to download from the TES website.

Click the image above to download the Beowulf Beastslayer Teacher's Pack.

In other gamebook-related news, the Kickstarter I am currently running to fund production of my 6th ACE Gamebook, Dracula - Curse of the Vampire, is already two-thirds done, with just 10 days left to go.

Currently we are working towards the first Stretch Goal, which will pay for more of Martin McKenna's amazing artwork for the book. So if you haven't backed it yet, please consider doing so and let all your friends know about it too.

Warhammer Wednesday: Surviving Self-Isolation

If you are self-isolating, and a Warhammer/40K fan looking for something to read, why not download one of these eBooks?

Warhammer 40,000

          

Warhammer

     

Thought for the Day

"People ask why I became a writer, and it's because I once went to a travelling carnival and this guy called Mr Electrico knighted me with a flaming sword and yelled, 'Live forever!' and when I woke up the next day I was a writer."

~ David M Barnett, author

Shakespeare Sunday: Happy Deathday, Mr Lovecraft!

Today is the 83rd anniversary of H P Lovecraft's death, in 1937. This event coincides with the world generally shutting down because of COVID-19.

I have seen much mention, on social media, of the fact that, whilst he was in quarantine during a time of plague, England's foremost playwright wrote not just Macbeth but also King Lear.

Lovecraft-corrupted versions of both these tales appear in the anthology Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu. In The Terrors of the Earth, Pat Kelleher gives us his squamous take on The Tragedy of King Lear, while noted Scottish author Graham McNeill, re-imagines the Scottish Play for a modern, genre audience, with his tale, Something Wicked This Way Comes.

So in case you find yourself in lockdown due to the Coronavirus, why not make sure you have a copy of Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu to hand, just in case.

Gamebook Friday: Alice's Nightmare in France

Alice au Pays des Cauchemars, the French language edition of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, is now available to buy from Éditions Alkonost. So if you are a French fan of ACE Gamebooks, or a hardcore collector of interactive fiction titles, then visit Alkonost's online store and grab yourself a copy.

In other ACE Gamebooks-related news, Dracula - Curse of the Vampire has funded on Kickstarter, and is heading inexorably towards Stretch Goal #1, which will pay for more of Martin McKenna's phenomenal artwork.

So, if you haven't backed the Kickstarter yet, you know what to do, and if you have, please keep spreading the word. Thank you.

Thought for the Day

"There's a direct link between those who dismiss fiction as 'not real' and those who think mental illness is 'all in our head'. Thoughts; feelings; memories; dreams; the subconscious; depression; the imagination. All these are real. All these determine the way we live our lives."

~ Joanne Harris

Holding Out For A Heroine

ACE Gamebooks re-imagine classics of literature, including the protagonists of those stories.

There's Alice from Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland...

Dorothy Gale, from The Wicked Wizard of Oz...

And Wendy Darling, the shipwreck survivor, from NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!

I am currently doing the same thing with Mina Murray, who is one of the characters you can play as in Dracula - Curse of the Vampire, which is currently 92% funded on Kickstarter.