Saturday 30 November 2013

Happy St Andrew's Day!

That's right, it's the day Scots all over the world celebrate the life of the patron saint of Scotland. And you could celebrate too by picking up a copy of my very own Scottish Miscellany here.

Of course, as it's St Andrew's Day, that means that tomorrow is Stir-up Sunday, when people traditionally make their Christmas puddings. To find out more about this and other customs, pick up a copy of my Christmas Miscellany here.


Friday 29 November 2013

Black Gamebook Friday: Temple of the Spider God

Today is 29 November, which means that it's Black Friday - the day retailers knock a load of cash off their stuff to encourage you to buy it. Well Tin Man Games have done just that with their Gamebook Adventures, including my own Temple of the Spider God.

Check out this link, and grab it while you can for the Android or iDevice of your choice, at a bargain price!

Sunday 24 November 2013

Saturday 23 November 2013

The Day of the Doctor is at hand!







Short Story Saturday: There is Only War

There is Only War must surely be the largest book the Black Library has ever published. 992 pages long, weighing over half a kilo, and containing 41 short stories, it is (according to the BL website), "written by the cream of Black Library’s talent", which means I'm in there. ;-)

My Black Templars story The Relic gets another reprint thanks to There is Only War, which also contains stories by the likes of Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill, Rob Sanders and C L Werner. To find out more about the book, follow this link.

If you'd like to own this mighty tome, you can pick up a copy here. If eBooks are more your thing, you can download The Relic by itself here.

Thursday 21 November 2013

Steampunk Thursday: The Leviathan Rises

As fans of my Pax Britannia books will already know, Steampunk hero Ulysses Quicksilver encountered the legendary Kraken in Leviathan Rising. But now Professor Mark McMenamin is proposing that the Kraken isn't a legend after all.

To read more about the professor's startling claims, click this link.


Tuesday 19 November 2013

Tie-in Tuesday: The Day of the Doctor is coming

As if you didn't know already. But in case you didn't, watch the minisode prequel to The Day of the Doctor (a.k.a. The Night of the Doctor) and then the rather intriguing interview with Tenth(?) Doctor David Tennant below...



Monday 18 November 2013

Thought for the Day

"Out of exactly fifty submissions this year (short fiction, novellas and novels), I have sold twenty-eight, had eleven rejected and withdrawn one, to date. Which proves nothing if not the old adage that quantity has a quality all its own."

~ Josh Reynolds. Freelance Writer. Good at it.

Sunday 17 November 2013

Saturday 16 November 2013

Short Story Saturday: The Book of the Dead

To help promote Jurassic London's The Book of the Dead - which features my story Egyptian death and the afterlife: mummies (Rooms 62-3) - I wrote a piece on the enduring appeal of Mummies for the The Speculative Scotsman, which you can read here.

You can pick up The Book of the Dead (edited by Jared Shurin) here.


Friday 15 November 2013

Gamebook Friday: Tin Man Games Sale!

Tin Man Games have got another sale on, with the price of many of their Gamebook Adventures slashed by 50% - including Temple of the Spider God!

To find out more, follow this link.

Gamebook Friday: Beyond the Pit - Advanced Fighting Fantasy

Out of the Pit was one of the best Monster Manuals ever produced, packed full of 250 weird and wonderful monsters from the world of Fighting Fantasy.

But there are so many more monsters on Titan that never made it into that book that Graham Bottley of Arion Games has launched a campaign to release 250 more in Beyond the Pit. Full descriptions, artwork and statistics for Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2nd Edition will make this a great book for that RPG, fans of Fighting Fantasy in general but also any GM looking for inspiration for their own fantasy campaign.


I for one will be intrigued to see how many of my own creations make it into the book. If you're interested too, you can pledge your support to the Beyond the Pit Kickstarter here.


Thursday 14 November 2013

Steampunk Thursday: The Godfathers of Steampunk

Apologies for the lack of appropriate Steampunk attire in this photograph, but I think you'll agree that being in the company of the Godfathers of Steampunk more than makes up for it. ;-)

Tim Powers, Jonathan Green, James P Blaylock and K W Jeter at World FantasyCon 2013.

Wednesday 13 November 2013

Warhammer Wednesday*: The Novels That Never Were

Considering all the books I've written, there's a fair few I haven't written too. I don't mean the Bible, the Complete Works of Shakespeare and the Yellow Pages - I'm talking about the books that at one stage or another I was supposed to write but which, in the end, never came to be. And most of these were supposed to be set in the worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000.

Many of these made it to full synopsis stage and submission (and in some cases second synopsis stage), or, failing that, rough summaries at the end of other proposals. However, for one reason or another, you will never** get to read...

Bounty Hunter - my Necromunda-set Nathan Creed novel.

Legacy of the Damned - the follow-up to The Dead and the Damned (and various other stories besides).

Champions of Armageddon - the conclusion to the Black Templars Solemnus Crusade trilogy set at the time of the Third Armageddon War.

Corpse Taker - the second in the Books of the Dead series (and it was intended to be a series) that began with Necromancer.

Iron Hands: Ex Machina - the sequel to the recently digitised Iron Hands.

Indomitable - my Empire Army novel about the crew of a Steam Tank.

Across the Desert of the Dead - a Khemri-set Path to Victory gamebook, not unlike Shadows Over Sylvania.

Dreadnought - another Warhammer 40,000 gamebook akin to Herald of Oblivion.


* The 13th of November. Spooky and, as they say, unlucky for some.

** Or it is, at best, very unlikely...

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Tie-in Tuesday: Moshi Monsters Moshipedia

The Moshi Monsters Moshipedia is out now!


In other news, the countdown has begun for the release of a certain movie tie-in cinemas up and down the country on 5 December 2013...


Monday 11 November 2013

Thought for the Day

"He was between stories, and he felt despicable.”

~ Raymond Carver, American short story writer and poet

Sunday 10 November 2013

Recent Anthology Releases, or "You're getting about a bit just lately, Mr Green."

As a writery friend of mine commented on my Facebook page recently, in regard to an update about another anthology I was in, "You're getting about a bit just lately, Mr Green."

And he's not wrong. In the last month or two there has been a suddenly flurry of releases featuring my work. The thing is though, the work involved has been spread out over the last two years and, in some cases, even longer than that. That's just the nature of publishing.

But to keep you in the loop, here is the list of those recent anthology releases featuring Yours Truly.

Anthology - Legends: Stories in Honour of David Gemmell
Editor - Ian Whates
Publisher - Newcon Press
Story - Who Walks With Death

Anthology - The Book of the Dead
Editor - Jared Shurin
Publisher - Jurassic London
Story - Egyptian death and the afterlife: mummies (Rooms 62-3)

Anthology - World War Cthulhu
Editor - Jonathan Oliver
Publisher - Cubicle 7 Entertainment
Story - The Scottish Patient

Anthology - Space Marines
Editor - Christian Dunn
Publisher - Black Library
Stories - The Relic, But Dust in the Wind

Anthology - Ghosts of the Asylum
Editor - Jim Snee
Publisher - The Last Line
Story - Signs and Portents

Anthology - There is Only War
Editor - Christian Dunn
Publisher - Black Library
Story - The Relic

Saturday 9 November 2013

This is Horror Awards 2013

On the subject of Dreaming in Darkness and The Serpent's Egg, both (I believe) are eligible for the This is Horror Awards 2013, in the following categories:

Dreaming in Darkness - Anthology of the Year

The Serpent's Egg - Short Fiction of the Year

You may only nominate two items per category, but of course you'll only be nominating one in each category, won't you? (If you do nominate more than two This Is Horror will only recognise your first two nominations.)

You may nominate in as many categories as you like but all nominations must be emailed to awards@thisishorror.co.uk with the subject line ‘This Is Horror Award Nominations 2013′ by 12:01am GMT on 14 November 2013.

So what are you waiting for? Get nominating! ;-)

Short Story Saturday: World War Cthulhu and Dreaming in Darkness

Yesterday (8 November) was Bram Stoker's birthday. Stoker's most infamous creation is surely the vampire count Dracula, but amongst his other works is The Lair of the White Worm which takes its inspiration from the Legend of the Lambton Worm.

Vampires have cropped up one or two times in my own work (Shadows Over Sylvania and Blood Royal to name but two), but the Legend of the Lambton Worm has directly influenced my work in print four times so far.

First there was the Wodewitch's Devilworm in my first published book Spellbreaker. Then there was the Pax Britannia novella Conqueror Worm. More recently the legend inspired my new novella The Serpent's Egg that appears in Dreaming in Darkness. And now there's The Scottish Patient, published recently in World War Cthulhu by Cubicle 7 Entertainment.

Interestingly, for readers of Dreaming in Darkness, The Scottish Patient is a sort-of-prequel to The Serpent's Egg. Although it's come out second, it was actually written more than a year before The Serpent's Egg.

Edited by British Fantasy Society Award winner Jonathan Oliver, World War Cthulhu contains short stories by such luminaries as James Lovegrove, Weston Ochse, Rebecca Levene, Robin D. Laws, Simon Bestwick, Gaie Sebold, T.P. Pike, Sarah Newton, Greg Stolze, Paul Finch, John Llewellyn Probert, Yours Truly, Archie Black and World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar.

As the shadows of war gather over Europe something is stirring within the darkness; something far older than humankind. Those with evil intent will seek to harness these terrible powers, while those fighting to turn the tide of war will find themselves up against far more than bullets and bombs. In forgotten R’lyeh, Cthulhu stirs as the mighty armies of the Third Reich march.

You can download World War Cthulhu as an ebook here.

And while we're on the subject of Dreaming in Darkness here's another awesome review.

Friday 8 November 2013

Gamebook Friday: Le Maître des Tempêtes

Rather conveniently (seeing as how it's Gamebook Friday) the French edition of Stormslayer - Le Maître des Tempêtes (or Master of Storms) - is published today by Gallimard Jeunesse.


If you are of the French persuasion, or are just a collector of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, you can pick up your copy here.

Thursday 7 November 2013

Steampunk Thursday: Unnatural History der Deutsch Ausgabe

So these arrived today...


In case you're not up to speed, this is the German edition of my first Steampunk novel Pax Britannia: Unnatural History, and doesn't it look smart?


















In other news, the reviews continue to roll in from Germany. Now I'm no linguist, but 96% is good, right?


Monday 4 November 2013

Thought for the Day

"Often... I go through periods of not writing. When this happens I feel a pressure inside my skull. Something inside me won't let me rest for long. It wants me to write. It needs me to create. I don't know what that thing inside me is. Perhaps it's best I never find out."

~ Gary McMahon, horror writer

Thought for the Day

"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge."

~ Albert Einstein
 
 
So here's something fantastical for you...
 
 

Saturday 2 November 2013

YOU ARE THE HERO at World FantasyCon 2013

I'm currently beside the seaside in Brighton for World FantasyCon, and I'm not the only FF alumnus who's down here either. One-time consultant editor on the series Marc Gascoigne was spotted in the bar last night, as was original commissioning editor Geraldine Cooke.

Geraldine met up with Mike Bryan, the man who first sold The Warlock of Firetop Mountain to bookshops.

Mike Bryan and Geraldine Cooke

Original editor of TWOFM Philippa Dickinson was at the 'Terry Pratchett in Conversation' panel.

Philippa Dickinson and Yours Truly

And the art show features work by two FF artists - Les Edwards and Terry Oakes!

The Brain Slayer (from Out of the Pit) and Terry Oakes

(Don't worry though, I'll get back to polishing the manuscript after the weekend.)

Friday 1 November 2013

Gamebook Friday: The Way of the Tiger

The Way of the Tiger New Collector's Edition Kickstarter ends today at 9:00pm.

The project has already achieved almost four times its original funding target, so this is definitely going to happen, and you still have twelve hours (from when this post goes live) to be part of something special.

Creators Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson recently spoke to SFX and SciFiNow Magazine about the revival of their classic '80s gamebook series.

To find out more about the Kickstarter and to pledge your support (before it's too late and you miss out) follow this link.