Jonathan Green's Blog, page 35

Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland LIVE - Part 6!

This evening, from 7:00pm GMT on Facebook, Ken Boyter of The Bottled Imp Fellowship will be continuing his live readthrough of the original ACE Gamebook, Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland.

If you have yet to pick up a copy of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, you can do so here.

Bardsung: Legend of the Ancient Forge

I am delighted to be able to announce that I am one of the guest writers on the new board game Bardsung: Legend of the Ancient Forge, from Steamforged Games, that is currently funding on Kickstarter.

Here's the newsflash that appeared on an update this week:

I will be writing a standalone adventure for the game, which includes gamebook mechanics, as well as those of a board game and tabletop wargame.

Anyone who is already aware of my work will know that I have an abiding love of steampunk, golems, things with too many tentacles, and Scandinavian/British folklore. I also enjoy a good mystery, so I plan on my adventure containing elements of all of these.

There are daily updates and unlocks on the Kickstarter campaign page, and I have been particularly excited by those revealing new monsters that will be appearing in the core box, as well as the Lost Levels expansion.

I hope to use elements of these in the story I want to tell, and already have a number of ideas jotted down in my planner. 

So, if you've not checked out the Kickstarter campaign page already, why not do so today, and pledge your support?

Happy Birthday, Bram Stoker!

8th November is Bram Stoker's birthday, which means that he would have been 173 years old today, were he still alive.

This time last year I started writing my ACE Gamebook adaptation of Stoker's most famous novel, Dracula, and twelve months on I am still working on it. There are various reasons why it remains unfinished, not least of which is the global pandemic we are still in the grip of. But last weekend I learned the very sad news that Martin McKenna, who was supposed to be illustrating Dracula - Curse of the Vampire, died at the beginning of September.

I still intend to finish the adventure, having already written almost 800 sections, but I am taking some time to mull over what to do about the book's illustrations. However, late pledges to the project are still open and you can pledge your support here.

Gamebook Friday: What is a typical JG adventure?

I may be picking up my skald's harp and singing a new story into being next year, so this Gamebook Friday I have one simple question to ask you.

What would you expect from a typical Jonathan Green gamebook adventure?

Answers on a postcard or in the comments below, please.

Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland LIVE - Part 5!

This evening, from 7:00pm GMT on Facebook, Ken Boyter of The Bottled Imp Fellowship will be continuing his live readthrough of the original ACE Gamebook, Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland.

If you have yet to pick up a copy of  Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland , you can do so  here .

Martin McKenna (1969-2020)

It was with great sadness that I learned this weekend that Martin McKenna had passed away at the beginning of September. He was just 51.

Martin was an incredible artist, his illustrations for the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks some of the most realistic of all. They also dripped atmosphere, with their fine pen and ink details and sinister gothic air.

I first encountered Martin's work via Fighting Fantasy but I soon discovered that his art peppered numerous Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay products as well, and it was with genuine pleasure that I pored over his immaculate vignettes and character portraits.

His illustrations really helped bring the grimdark corners of Warhammer's Old World to life, as they did Fighting Fantasy's own Old World.

Naturally, when I started writing my own FF gamebooks, it was Martin I requested to illustrate the adventures, but it didn't happen until Curse of the Mummy*, my third FF title. Unfortunately, the illustrations weren't quite what I had been hoping for and Martin later admitted himself that they had been rather rushed. In contrast, the cover painting he produced for Curse of the Mummy** was astonishing.

The digitally retouched cover for Curse of the Mummy that Martin McKenna produced in 2007.

However, when Wizard Books started publishing new titles, I got the chance to work with Martin again. We were clearly inspired by the same source material, and the illustrations he produced for Howl of the Werewolf and Night of the Necromancer are some of my favourites.

The cover for Howl of the Werewolf, by Martin McKenna.



The Werebear, Water Wyrd, Van Richten the Vampire Hunter, Serpensa the Serpent Woman, Werebat, and Count Varcolac***, from Howl of the Werewolf.


The Sea Demon, Grave Golem, Dread Knights, Wraith Queen, Hellfire Golem, and Shadow King, from Night of the Necromancer.
He also painted the stunning cover for my zombie-pirate adventure  Bloodbones , which ened up being animated for Tin Man Games' digital edition.
The cover for Bloodbones, by Martin McKenna.
When I wrote YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks , I knew there was only one artist who could produce the wraparound image I desired for the book.
The cover for YOU ARE THE HERO, by Martin McKenna.

And we were due to collaborate again on my new ACE Gamebook, Dracula - Curse of the Vampire, but sadly that is not to be now.

We never actually met and we didn't even speak on the phone, but I had huge respect for Martin and his work, and I think if we had met we would have got on very well.

However, my greatest regret is that is seems Martin did not have the same confidence in his own abilities as everyone who ever enjoyed any of his immaculate illustrations. I only hope that he had some inkling of the pleasure he brought to all those whose lives he touched through his art.

In memory ofMartin McKenna1969-2020

Martin's close friends have set up a JustGiving page to raise money, to help disadvantaged children gain access to the arts, in Martin's memory. If you feel able to give something, no more what, follow this link.

* The upside of this was that I got to work with Alan Langford and Tony Hough instead, and Tony and I have a new RPG coming out this Christmas.

** His first FF cover!

*** Martin based Count Varcolac's face on his own.

Gamebook Friday: Dracula - Curse of the Vampire

It's that time of year when people's minds turn to the subject of freaks and fools, and geeks and ghouls... and probably vampires too.

The sixth ACE Gamebook, Dracula - Curse of the Vampire, will be out next year, and you can still place a late pledge to the Kickstarter here.

Short Story Saturday: The Big Audiobook Giveaway!

Long time readers of this blog will know that I have self-published an eNovella called The Serpent's Egg - A Dark Tale of the Cthulhu Mythos. Well the audiobook, narrated by Mark Rice-Oxley, is now available from Audible. But better than that, I have some promo codes for the audiobook to giveaway. That's over two hours of listening pleasure for absolutely no money whatsoever!

With Halloween season upon us, you might want to download another audiobook of mine - The Doll's House , narrated by Lesley Dessalles. I have some free promo codes for this one as well.

If you would like a promo code for either audiobook, please email me at info@jonathangreenauthor.com, but please bear in mind that The Serpent's Egg in particular is most definitely 18-rated!

Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland LIVE - Part 4!

 This evening, from 7:00pm BST on Facebook, Ken Boyter of The Bottled Imp Fellowship will be continuing his live readthrough of the original ACE Gamebook, Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland.

If you have yet to pick up a copy of  Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland , you can do so  here .

Short Story Saturday: The Serpent's Egg - the audiobook!

I have been wanting to share this particular piece of news with you since April! And thereby hangs a tale...

When the world went into lockdown I had an idea; I would use ACX to produce audiobooks of some of my stories, which people would then download by the score and listen to while they were off work and trapped at home, providing myself with another income stream. The trouble is, every other writer on the planet had the same idea and, unbeknownst to me, ACX reduced their workforce quite dramatically.

Meanwhile, I put The Serpent's Egg out to tender, listened to audition samples, and finally chose Mark Rice-Oxley to be the voice actor who would record the Lovecraftian novella for me. This he promptly did, and a fantastic job he did of it too. However, the approval process, which I was expecting to take a month at most, ended up taking much longer than expected...

After three months, ACX rejected the audiobook, claiming that there were all sorts of things wrong with it - which there weren't - and so Mark re-submitted it to me and I re-submitted it to ACX for approval.

Fast forward another three months and ACX finally approved The Serpent's Egg audiobook for sale this morning. It only took six months(!), and in that time Lesley Dessalles ' recording of The Doll's House was approved straightaway (after only another three months), but I am delighted that you can now download it and listen to it yourself.

To find out more, click on the audiobook cover below.