Jonathan Green's Blog, page 125

Shakespeare Sunday: Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu - 24 hours to go!

It's been a long journey, but it's almost at an end. Click the image below to find out more.

Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu - 36 hours to go!

With just a day and a half left to run on the Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu Kickstarter , now's the time to add a little something extra to your pledge.

Maybe a set of  Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu  postcards, or a caricature by Nicole Wykes...



Maybe a set of  Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu  art prints...


Maybe a portrait of yourself in a suitably  Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu  setting and situation...


Maybe an exclusive  Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu  T-shirt...


But whatever you decide to do, make sure that you tell everyone you know to back the  Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu  Kickstarter  too.

Thank you.

Short Story Saturday: Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu roster of writers

You may have heard me mention Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu , my next anthology as editor, on this blog occasionally over the last month or so.

You may even have visited the Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu Kickstarter page yourself and perhaps even watched the video listing the names of so of those involved.

But maybe you'd also like to know what the writers on the roster are working on for the anthology. Well here are a few hints...

Michael Carroll gives us his take on Romeo and Juliet .

Jonathan Oliver revisits the start-crossed lovers but in a very different, modern context.

Josh Reynolds, Guy Haley and John Reppion give us a trio of tales that feature the Bard himself.

Ian Edginton and James Lovegrove, both inspired by the same legendary stage direction, take things in two very different directions.

C L Werner takes on Henry V and the cosmic horrors of the Cthulhu-verse.

Adrian Tchaikovsky revisits Hamlet in Something Rotten .

Andrew Lane tackles Shakespeare's most famous Roman play, Julius Caesar .

Adrian Chamberlin brings out the horror in the Tragedy of Richard III .

Pat Kelleher brings his exacting scholar's eye to King Lear .

And Scottish writer Graham McNeill reinterprets Shakespeare's infamous Scottish Play.

As well as all that, we also have Jan Siegel, Danie Ware and Nimue Brown bringing us Shakespearean Cthulhoid poetry, and there are even more stories yet to be announced!

So what are you waiting for? If you haven't backed the project on Kickstarter already, now is the time to do so!

Why Steampunks should back the Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu Kickstarter

There are just three days left to run for the Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu Kickstarter, but why should fans of Steampunk stories (such as my Pax Britannia novels) back the project?

Well, how about because the anthology will feature brand new short stories by  SHARKPUNK  contributors, Royal Occultist writer Josh Reynolds and Young Sherlock Holmes scribe Andrew Lane?

And don't forget, everyone who backers the Kickstarter will receive a bonus short story digital download.

So don't delay, and back the Kickstarter today!

Steampunk Thursday: Jonathan Green interviewed over at SFFWorld

Well the title of the post says it all really. I have been interviewed over at SFFWorld about  The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus Vol. 2  and my other current projects.

You can read the full interview here.

Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu - 5 days to go!

There are just five days left to run for the Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu Kickstarter, but why should you back the project (if you haven't done so already)?

Well, how about because the anthology will feature over a dozen brand new short stories by the likes of NYT best-selling authors James Lovegrove and Graham McNeill? Or because it will feature brand new poetry by Jan Siegel and Danie Ware?

Some of the stories have already been written, including Adrain 'Shadows of the Apt' Tchaikovsky's Something Rotten, which involves a very dark re-telling of Hamlet, and A Madness Most Discreet, a Lovecraftian re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet by 2000AD's Michael Carroll.

And don't forget, everyone who backers the Kickstarter will receive a bonus short story digital download.*

So don't delay, and back the Kickstarter today!


* And if that's not enough, you could also bag yourself a Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu T-shirt.

Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu - 1 week to go!

The Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu Kickstarter campaign concludes one week today, at 1.00pm GMT on Monday 1st February 2016. And that means there's just one day left to add your social media muscle to the Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu Thunderclap campaign.

So don't delay - get your pledges in today! And add your voice to the unholy choir that will be broadcasting news of the Great One's coming to the world.

Thought for the Day

Margaret Atwood’s Ten Rules for Writing Fiction1. Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can’t sharpen it on the plane, because you can’t take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils.2. If both pencils break, you can do a rough sharpening job with a nail file of the metal or glass type. 3. Take something to write on. Paper is good. In a pinch, pieces of wood or your arm will do. 4. If you’re using a computer, always safeguard new text with a ­memory stick. 5. Do back exercises. Pain is distracting. 6. Hold the reader’s attention. (This is likely to work better if you can hold your own.) But you don’t know who the reader is, so it’s like shooting fish with a slingshot in the dark. What fascinates A will bore the pants off B. 7. You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a grip on reality. This latter means: there’s no free lunch. Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but ­essentially you’re on your own. ­Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.8. You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You’ve been backstage. You’ve seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be someone with whom you have a ­romantic relationship, unless you want to break up. 9. Don’t sit down in the middle of the woods. If you’re lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.10. Prayer might work. Or reading ­something else. Or a constant visualization of the holy grail that is the finished, published version of your resplendent book.

Short Story Saturday: Why it is vitally important you lend your social media support to the Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu Thunderclap campaign.

What is Thunderclap? Thunderclap is the first crowd-speaking platform that helps people be heard by saying something together.

How does it work?If you reach your supporter goal (we need 100), Thunderclap will blast out a timed Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr post from all your supporters, creating a wave of attention.

Who's using it?From passionate individuals with a message to share, to organizations such as The White House, Levis and the United Nations.

It won't cost you a thing - all you have to do it let Thunderclap link to your Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr account, which will then post a one-time message to your account on January 27 at 12:00PM EST - but it could make all the difference as to whether the genre mash-up anthology of the year funds or not.

The thing is, Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu is currently funded, but until the Kickstarter ends at 1.00pm GMT on February 1 people can still pull out. If one of our higher level backers pulls out, the project will no longer fund. So, as you can imagine, the next week could potentially be a very stressful time for me and everyone who is contributing to the Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu anthology.

So what we need is to spread word of the project to other potential interested parties, and the best way to do this is via Thunderclap . And with your support that could be in the region of 200,000 people! Even if only 0.1% of those people reached go on to back the project, that would still be another 200 backers (more than there are already backing the Kickstarter at the time of writing this update).

As well as giving the Kickstarter a much-needed boost to help it cross the finish line in eight days' time, if it raises enough money the book will be illustrated throughout, so by supporting the Thunderclap campaign, even if you've already supported the Kickstarter, you could help ensure that the anthology is the best book we can produce.

So don't delay - sign up to the Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu Thunderclap campaign today! And while you're at it, why not add an exclusive Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu T-shirt to you backer pledge?


Talking of social media support, Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland could do with some more reviews on Amazon. ;-)

Thank you.


Several years after the events of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Alice finds herself back in Wonderland and called upon to save the world of playing cards and talking animals from the increasingly deranged Queen of Hearts. But all is not as it first appears in the fluctuating dream world and soon Alice is battling to save herself from the nightmare that is rapidly overtaking the realm. 

In Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, YOU decide which route Alice should take, which perils to risk, and which of Wonderland's strange denizens to fight. But be warned - whether Alice succeeds in her quest or meets a dire end as the nightmare escalates will be down to the choices YOU make. Are you ready to go back down the rabbit-hole?

Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu and the 2000AD Thrillcast

If you're a fan of 2000AD (like me) then you really should be listening to the monthly podcast, or rather, Thrill-cast.


This month PR droid Molch-R interviews not only GAME OVER contributor Michael Carroll, but also Stickleback-creator Ian Edginton. And what's even better than that is that both Mike and Ian are writing stories for the forthcoming Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu anthology.

So, if you're a fan of their comics work, you really should back the Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu Kickstarter and check out their utterly awesome prose as well.