YOU ARE THE HERO at Redemption '15

Today (Friday 20 February) sees Redemption '15, the Multimedia Science Fiction Convention kick off at the Britannia Hotel in Coventry. The event runs until Sunday 22 February.

I shall be there this year as Guest of Honour, along with Archimedes the Steampunk Parrot and YOU ARE THE HERO.

The event programme is now available and I will be taking part in the following panels during the course of the weekend:

Friday 20 February
5.00pm - Meet the Guests (panel)
8.00pm - Opening Ceremony
10.00pm - It's sh!t but we like it (panel)

Saturday 21 February
12.00pm - How to Write an Adventure Gamebook (workshop)
4.00pm - Has Steampunk Had Its Day? (panel)
I may also be taking part in...
8.00pm - Mark Gatiss Appreciation Society (panel)

Sunday 22 February
11.00am - Guest Talk
12.30pm - Signing Autographs
4.00pm - Closing Ceremony

I will be selling my books - Pax Britannia and YOU ARE THE HERO mainly - over the course of the weekend, so maybe I'll see you there...

Fighting Fantasy Fest and other forthcoming events

I shall be attending various different events over the next month or so.

On Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 August, I shall be appearing as part of the Steampunk strand at the Nine Worlds Geekfest in London.

On Friday 15 August, I shall be appearing on a couple of panels at Loncon3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, which is also being held in London (funnily enough).

And then on Sunday 7 September I shall be appearing at, signing books at, launching YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, and generally running Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014, the world's first dedicated Fighting Fantasy convention. You can buy your tickets for the event here.

Steam Golems, Stormslayers and Sunday the Seventh of September

As a result of being tagged in a recent post on the British Steampunk Community Facebook page, I discovered Mini Art Studio's Steampunk miniatures, amongst which I found this Security Golem...

After reminding me that I need to write a piece for SFX magazine about Ted Hughes' The Iron Man, the miniature made me think of my own Steam Golem from Stormslayer...

Stephen Player, the artist who illustrated Stormslayer, teaches an illustration class and has used the art brief for the book with his students. As a result, every once in a while new interpretations of his original illustrations appear online, usually over on DeviantArt, such as these...

The last of these images is by the artist Emerson Tung. Emerson also created an alternative image of the Eye of the Storm (the giant fish-shaped brass flying machine) from the book, which appears in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks.

And of course YOU ARE THE HERO is going to have its official launch at FIGHTING FANTASY FEST 2014 on Sunday 7 September. Buy your ticket now and become a part of Fighting Fantasy history yourself.