Fighting Fantasy on Only Connect

In case you missed it, last week's edition of the BBC2 quiz Only Connect featured a question about Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.

The episode is still available to watch on BBC iPlayer and for this choice morsel you want to watch from about 15 minutes in. Or you can watch it here.

Congratulations to Matt Beatson for getting the answer right after only one clue, but that didn't stop me cringing at his description of the plot of The Citadel of Chaos.

YOU ARE THE HERO makes the shortlist for the British Fantasy Awards 2015!

Having spent the day exploring the land of the Vikings, I was delighted to return to the Information Age this evening to discover that YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks has made the shortlist for the British Fantasy Awards 2015.

It's also great to see how FF artist Les Edwards make the shortlist for Best Artist.

In other news, the guys at Starburst Magazine have uploaded an interview I did with them about Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, as well as the podcast I recorded with Ed Fortune, Adrian Tchaikovksy, Producer Al and an audience of... half a dozen, at Edge-Lit 4, and Alex Davis (the organiser of Edge-Lit) also has a guest post on his blog from me today.

And last of all, Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland now has less than £1,000 to raise to achieve funding.

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 at the UK Games Expo 2015

At the weekend I attended the UK Games Expo. It was the first time I had attended since it moved from central Birmingham to the NEC Metropole and a very impressive venue it was too. Graham Bottley of Arion Games kindly let me share his table, so Fighting Fantasy was well represented at the expo, with his Advanced Fighting Fantasy books on sale alongside some of the few remaining hardbacks of YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks.

Graham Bottley and Simon Strafford on the Arion Games stand.

Despite being stuck behind a table for most of the weekend (and so not getting to see much else that was going on) I had a great time, with people stopping by to pick up YOU ARE THE HERO (some of whom had seen it mentioned in the programme), backers of the original Kickstarter stopping by to get their copies signed or to pass on their very kind comments about the book, and old friends turning up just to say hello (people like Jim Swallow, James Wallis, and Matt Elliott). On Saturday night I recorded a podcast for Pod Your Own Adventure (but more on that another time), and then on Sunday afternoon this happened...

 The now officially 'award-winning'

YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks.

The 10th UK Games Expo was a fantastic event, excellently organised and brilliantly run, and that's thanks to Tony Hyams, Richard Denning, John Dodd, and a host of others, so a big thank you to all concerned who helped make this run in such a smooth and relaxed way. And here's to the UK Games Expo 2016. (I might have something new to promote games-wise by then.)

YOU ARE THE HERO at the UK Games Expo

On Saturday and Sunday (30th and 31st May) I shall be attending the UK Games Expo at the NEC Metropole hotel outside Birmingham. I'll be sharing a table with Graham Bottley of Arion Games (table P41 in the Palace Suite) and I will have the last few boxes of hardbacks of the limited first edition print run of YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks with me. So, if you've not yet picked up a copy, you know where to come.

YOU ARE THE HERO at the MCM Expo, London

I will be at the Excel Centre in London again this weekend, attending the MCM Expo and will have some of the few remaining hardback copies of YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks for sale.

If you're a fan of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, the gamebook genre in general, or just great fantasy art, and you've not yet picked up a copy of YOU ARE THE HERO, you should really make the most of the opportunity to pick up one of the increasingly rare first edition copies of the book and get it signed while you're at it.

YOU ARE THE HERO at the UK Games Expo

Surfacing again after a couple of weeks of intense SHARKPUNK promotion, I just wanted to let you know that I shall be attending the UK Games Expo this year, on Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st May 2015, and I shall be bringing the last few boxes of the YOU ARE THE HERO hardback with me.

YOU ARE THE HERO was nominated in the UK Games Expo Awards best RPG supplement category. However because you can't actually play YOU ARE THE HERO it is not eligible for the award. That said, the judging panel are considering giving the book an honourable mention, so watch this space...

In other news, PJ Montgomery and Gavin Mitchell have released a new page of artwork from Steve Jackson's The Trolltooth Wars, featuring a couple of characters who will be very familiar to fans of Citadel of Chaos...

Artwork by Gavin Mitchell

... which also just so happens to have been the inspiration behind a song written by a friend of mine and his band Groan.

(I can see a couple of new chapters are going to be needed for the 40th anniversary edition of YOU ARE THE HERO.)