YOU ARE THE HERO, the UK Games Expo Awards 2015, Pod Your Own Adventure, and Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland

In case you haven't heard, I took YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, to the UK Games Expo last weekend... and it only received an Honourable Mention in the UK Games Expo Awards 2015!

On the Saturday evening of the Expo I also recorded an episode of Pod Your Own Adventure, during which I played through Bloodbones with host Robin, and died four times before we gave up having only got about halfway through the adventure.

Now this will doubtless cause many people much amusement, and some may whisper comments like "Karma" and "Hoist by his own petard". But in my defence, Bloodbones was my 6th book and my 53rd book was published yesterday, and I can't even remember details of books I wrote two years ago, never mind twenty years ago.

And before I go, I just wanted to draw your attention to this. If you're a fan of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Steampunk, horror, or gamebooks (or even all of the above), then please consider joining the Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland Facebook group, which will be the first step leading to the launch of a new Kickstarter, and getting a brand new gamebook published, in this the 150th year since the publication of Lewis Carroll's seminal children's portal fantasy.

Thank you.

YOU ARE THE HERO - 'A cultural roadmap of an '80s childhood'

That's what Jes Bickham, current editor of White Dwarf magazine and the man who commissioned my original History of Fighting Fantasy piece for an SFX Fantasy special back in 2012 says, more or less. Here's Jes in his own words:

"I read You Are The Hero over Christmas and what a treat it was... Not only was the book an absorbing account of a phenomenon, it also acted as a strange cultural roadmap for my childhood/adolescence - like you, I grew up with GW and now I find myself editing my favourite magazine from when I was 13! Lovely stuff, and very well done sir."

If you haven't got hold of a copy yourself yet, you can acquire a strictly limited edition signed hardback here.

* * * * *

In other gamebook-related news, Bloodbones the App appears to be going down a storm and has certainly created some buzz online, such as here, and here (even if Pocket Gamer don't actually know who wrote it).

The Tin Man himself has this to say about his company's latest release:

"Jonathan Green has become the modern standard bearer for Fighting Fantasy, having recently written You Are The Hero, a history of the series. I’m really thrilled to have one of Jon’s titles as part of our FF library and Bloodbones is truly an epic adventure – one of our biggest yet!"

Illustrator Tony Hough gets a mention too:

"Veteran fantasy and science-fiction artist, Tony Hough, has also returned to add some colour to his original black and white artwork, which can still be viewed by playing in an added retro mode."

Reviews have already appeared on 148apps and Playboard, with the latter saying:

"This one is from Tin Man Games. Almost all of their gamebooks were awesome and this one is even better - fantastic story and just so much fun!"

Don't forget you can download Bloodbones for the smartphone of your choice via the portal here.

YOU ARE THE HERO in Fighting Fantazine #14

Issue #14 of the hugely popular and highly professionally put together Fighting Fantasy fanzine Fighting Fantazine is now available for download - for FREE!

I have been particularly looking forward to this issue, because not one, not two, but three of my projects feature within its 104 pages!

First up is Bloodbones, or more specifically, Tin Man Games' adaptation of my fourth Fighting Fantasy adventure which was on hiatus for ten years until it was finally published by Wizard Books nine years ago*.

Bloodbones gets bigged up.

Second up is a report on Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014, written by Andrew Jones...

It's nice to see some pictures from the Fest from the other side of the table.

...and third is another glowing review of YOU ARE THE HERO, this time by Stuart Lloyd.

According to Stuart's review, if you're reading this you should also own a copy of YOU ARE THE HERO. 

The issue also includes a brand new Lone Wolf adventure this time, and an in depth interview with Marc Gascoigne, who was consultant editor on the series when I started writing for Fighting Fantasy... almost 23 years ago**!

Congratulations to Editor Alex Ballingall and the team, for another fantastic issue, and you can download your FREE copy by clicking this link.



* Crikey! Has it really been that long?

** It's actually nearer 25 years*** since I first started pitching ideas to Marc.

*** That's a quarter of a century!

YOU ARE THE HERO at Christmas

One of the joys that Christmas brought this time was people posting pictures of the copies of YOU ARE THE HERO they received for Christmas on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, along with kind words in many cases. Here are just a few of them...

"Christmas just got better! Many thanks to Jonathan Green, Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone!"

"Guy Francis Haley and Jonathan Green - Santa brought me some fine reading. Happy Christmas everyone!"

"Thank you Father Christmas! @jonathangreen - I think I have the best bookmark too courtesy of @ian_livingstone!"

"How did Santa know?! #dungeonsanddragons #starwars #fightingfantasy #DnD5 #books #xmas"

"Now this is what I call a present!! Great book Jonathan! Thanks!"

Christmas also brought a new 5-star review, bringing the current total to 34.

"I can honestly say this is a magnificent book and will take any fan of the original books on a warm fuzzy trip down memory lane."

In other news, Bloodbones the App is now available to Android users*, and as of writing this blog post, four people have already rated it 5 stars!

* The iOS version is coming soon.

Fighting Fantasy Fest - Featuring artist Tony Hough

There are now just 9 days left for you to purchase your ticket for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014, so best buy yours before it's too late.

One of our artist guests at the event is Tony Hough, who has been illustrating Fighting Fantasy gamebooks since 1991, including two of my own gamebooks - Knights of Doom and Bloodbones. He has also contributed brand new filler pictures to YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, which is launching at Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014.

Come along on the day, and not only could you get Tony to sign YOU ARE THE HERO for you, you might also be able to buy an original piece of FF art from his portfolio. Now that would be some collector's item!

Tony's art features a number of times in YOU ARE THE HERO, just as does the work of Les Edwards - the man who painted both different versions of the UK cover of Caverns of the Snow Witch - and so does the artwork of the artists responsible for the internals black and white illustrations on Caverns, Edward Crosby and Gary Ward.