Jonathan Green's Blog, page 86
November 23, 2017
Happy 54th Birthday, Doctor Who!
It's crazy to think that since the epic 50th anniversary
The Day of the Doctor
event four years have passed, during which time I have had not only the
Doctor Who: Time Lord Quiz Quest
published but also my second Doctor Who Choose the Future gamebook,
Night of the Kraken
.*
And the most recent Doctor Who-related release that I have contributed to is Doctor Who: 100 Illustrated Adventures , which makes the perfect Christmas gift for the Doctor Who fan(s) in your family.
* Not to mention Terrible Lizards being published as a standalone story.
And the most recent Doctor Who-related release that I have contributed to is Doctor Who: 100 Illustrated Adventures , which makes the perfect Christmas gift for the Doctor Who fan(s) in your family.
* Not to mention Terrible Lizards being published as a standalone story.
November 20, 2017
Thought for the Day
"I am extremely lucky but colleagues of mine who 20 years ago would have been able to earn a living from writing and selling enough to libraries can't do that any more."~ Philip Pullman, speaking in 2017
November 18, 2017
Christmas Explained - Robins, Kings and Brussel Sprouts
What could make a better gift, this Christmas, than my fact-filled, fun-filled
Christmas Explained: Robins, Kings and Brussel Sprouts
?The Good Book Guide described my book on the history and origins of Christmas as being, "As welcome as a warm glass of mulled wine on a wintry night, Green's guide to Christmas enhances the pleasures of the festive season, offering a witty cornucopia of Christmas facts and folklore."
It would make the ideal gift for a trivia fan, an elderly relative, or for your works Secret Santa. And what could be better than having is signed and personalised by the author too?
For only £10* I will send you a signed and personalised copy of Christmas Explained: Robins, Kings and Brussel Sprouts , via Royal Mail second class, tracked and signed for to boot, to make sure it reaches you safely.
The book is in a hardback format and comes with a gold ribbon bookmark too, so don't delay, drop me a line today via info@jonathangreenauthor.com today!
* This price covers postage and packing within the UK.
November 17, 2017
Gamebook Friday: NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters!
The
NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! Kickstarter
comes to an end two weeks tomorrow, which means that it's already half way through its run.
That means we have just a fortnight left in which to raise the last 22% (as of writing). To help us achieve our goal I have made two more rewards available; one is a CLOTH MAP Add-on and the other is a cut-down version of the PLUNDERING PIRATE Reward, which runs for as long as Amazon's BLACK FRIDAY sale does. You can find out more here.
With just two weeks to go, I would urge everyone - especially everyone who loves gamebooks - to keep sharing the project with all and sundry and join the NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! Facebook group , even if you don't intend on backing it yourself, as I still have people contacting me to said they would have backed my first Kickstarter, which I launched five years ago, if they had heard about it.
Rest assured that any and all help in spreading the word is very much appreciated.
Hopefully, next Gamebook Friday I'll be able to report that the project has funded and that we're well on our way towards the first stretch goal.
Fingers crossed!
That means we have just a fortnight left in which to raise the last 22% (as of writing). To help us achieve our goal I have made two more rewards available; one is a CLOTH MAP Add-on and the other is a cut-down version of the PLUNDERING PIRATE Reward, which runs for as long as Amazon's BLACK FRIDAY sale does. You can find out more here.
With just two weeks to go, I would urge everyone - especially everyone who loves gamebooks - to keep sharing the project with all and sundry and join the NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! Facebook group , even if you don't intend on backing it yourself, as I still have people contacting me to said they would have backed my first Kickstarter, which I launched five years ago, if they had heard about it.
Rest assured that any and all help in spreading the word is very much appreciated.
Hopefully, next Gamebook Friday I'll be able to report that the project has funded and that we're well on our way towards the first stretch goal.
Fingers crossed!
November 15, 2017
Warhammer Wednesday: Tales From the Underhive
In case you've been living under a boulder in the sump beneath Hive Primus, you may not have heard that the classic skirmish game Necromunda has been resurrected and reimagined by Games Workshop, and is now available for pre-order as
Necromunda: Underhive
.
As well as bringing the game back from the dead, Games Workshop - or at least its publishing arm, the Black Library - is also bringing back the Necromunda fiction range, some of it available for a limited time as Print on Demand. This includes the short story anthology Status: Deadzone , which features the very first Nathan Creed short story Bad Spirits .
A digital version of Status: Deadzone also comes as part of the Tales from the Underhive eBundle*, and can be purchased here.
* Which makes the rather bold claim of being, 'all the Necromunda prose fiction Black Library has produced, all in one place and at one great price', even though it only contains one of my five Creed stories.
As well as bringing the game back from the dead, Games Workshop - or at least its publishing arm, the Black Library - is also bringing back the Necromunda fiction range, some of it available for a limited time as Print on Demand. This includes the short story anthology Status: Deadzone , which features the very first Nathan Creed short story Bad Spirits .
A digital version of Status: Deadzone also comes as part of the Tales from the Underhive eBundle*, and can be purchased here.
* Which makes the rather bold claim of being, 'all the Necromunda prose fiction Black Library has produced, all in one place and at one great price', even though it only contains one of my five Creed stories.
November 14, 2017
The Serpent's Egg: A Dark Tale of the Cthulhu Mythos
Today marks the start of
Abertoir: The International Horror Festival of Wales
and so today seems like the perfect time to let you know that my Cthulhu Mythos novella
The Serpent's Egg
is now available as an eBook from Kindle Direct Publishing, and marks the first publication in a new venture I'm calling
Green Man Books
.
“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…
A chilling tale of the Cthulhu Mythos, written by award-winning author Jonathan Green.
"Can do dark very well" ~ award-winning editor Jonathan Oliver
"Green gets mileage out of his monsters" ~ SFX Magazine
A warning to my younger readers: this one's not for you and definitely comes 18-rated!
“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…
A chilling tale of the Cthulhu Mythos, written by award-winning author Jonathan Green.
"Can do dark very well" ~ award-winning editor Jonathan Oliver
"Green gets mileage out of his monsters" ~ SFX Magazine
A warning to my younger readers: this one's not for you and definitely comes 18-rated!
November 13, 2017
Thought for the Day
"What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work."
~ Stephen King
~ Stephen King
November 11, 2017
Short Story Saturday: Tales of the Lost Isles
Available now, from Osprey Games, is the
Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago
short story anthology
Tales of the Lost Isles
.
Feathered dinosaurs - they're all the rage!
I'm very pleased with how my own contribution,
A Nice Little Nest Egg
, turned out; the writing of it was rather reminiscent of writing the tales of Torben Badenov and his Kislevite mercenaries for Inferno! magazine twenty or so years ago.
And talking of Games Workshop and the Black Library, it's interesting how many of my fellow contributors to the anthology also have a history with the company, including Matthew Ward, Ben Counter, Mark A. Latham, and last, but most definitely not least, Gav Thorpe!
You can pick up your copy of Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago: Tales of the Lost Isles here, and don't forget to post a review once you've read it.
Feathered dinosaurs - they're all the rage!
I'm very pleased with how my own contribution,
A Nice Little Nest Egg
, turned out; the writing of it was rather reminiscent of writing the tales of Torben Badenov and his Kislevite mercenaries for Inferno! magazine twenty or so years ago.And talking of Games Workshop and the Black Library, it's interesting how many of my fellow contributors to the anthology also have a history with the company, including Matthew Ward, Ben Counter, Mark A. Latham, and last, but most definitely not least, Gav Thorpe!
You can pick up your copy of Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago: Tales of the Lost Isles here, and don't forget to post a review once you've read it.
November 9, 2017
Steampunk Thursday: ArmadaCon 2017
Last weekend I was a guest at the 29th ArmadaCon down in Plymouth. It was a convention I had been invited to in the past but one I had been unable to actually attend until this year.
Raring to go at ArmadaCon 2017.
ArmadaCon is only a small convention, but it is incredibly friendly, and in no time at all I was made to feel very welcome. It was also great to catch up with old friends - like Andrew Lane, Helen Stirling, Frances Hardinge, and David Wake - and to make new ones - like Mark Poles of The Shop on the Borderlands , and RB Watkinson.
Mark Poles stocking up on signed stock for The Shop on the Borderlands.
Over the course of the weekend I gave a talk about writing adventure gamebooks, and another one about my Pax Britannia steampunk novels. I also took part in an author's panel on the Sunday afternoon. But the highlight of the weekend, for me, had to be Circle of Spears ' live reading of my Fighting Fantasy gamebook Night of the Necromancer . I will never look at that particular book in quite the same way again.
Mark Norman, Tracey Norman and Sam Burns of Circle of Spears attempt to keep a straight face during the Night of the Necromancer read-through... and fail!
So all that there remains for me to do now is to thank Gary, Julie, Chris, Dave the Tech Gnome, and the rest of the crew, as well as everyone who attended my talks and the Fighting Fantasy read-through. And if you're a author looking for a welcoming audience, I can wholeheartedly recommend ArmadaCon.
My memento from my time at ArmadaCon.
You can see more photographs from the weekend here .
Raring to go at ArmadaCon 2017.ArmadaCon is only a small convention, but it is incredibly friendly, and in no time at all I was made to feel very welcome. It was also great to catch up with old friends - like Andrew Lane, Helen Stirling, Frances Hardinge, and David Wake - and to make new ones - like Mark Poles of The Shop on the Borderlands , and RB Watkinson.
Mark Poles stocking up on signed stock for The Shop on the Borderlands.Over the course of the weekend I gave a talk about writing adventure gamebooks, and another one about my Pax Britannia steampunk novels. I also took part in an author's panel on the Sunday afternoon. But the highlight of the weekend, for me, had to be Circle of Spears ' live reading of my Fighting Fantasy gamebook Night of the Necromancer . I will never look at that particular book in quite the same way again.
Mark Norman, Tracey Norman and Sam Burns of Circle of Spears attempt to keep a straight face during the Night of the Necromancer read-through... and fail!So all that there remains for me to do now is to thank Gary, Julie, Chris, Dave the Tech Gnome, and the rest of the crew, as well as everyone who attended my talks and the Fighting Fantasy read-through. And if you're a author looking for a welcoming audience, I can wholeheartedly recommend ArmadaCon.
My memento from my time at ArmadaCon.You can see more photographs from the weekend here .
Gamebook Friday: NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! one week in
The NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! Kickstarter has now been running for a week, and in that time it has achieved 70% of its initial funding target and a few column inches in the genre press, such as this piece on SciFind.com and this one on
Gamebook News
.However, there is still a long way to go if the book is to be the fully illustrated beast we all want it to be, so keep spreading the word and encourage people to join the NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! Facebook group - the more who do, the greater the rewards will be for those people who back the project.
Which level will you back at?
