Vote Pax Britannia for Steampunk book of the year!

Steampunk.com has launched its search for the 'Steampunk Book of 2010'. All that you have to do to nominate a book (or books) is leave their names, one per line, in a comment on this post at Steampunk.com. But what to nominate...?

Well, technically four Pax Britannia books (all of which qualify) were published in 2010 - Blood Royal, Al Ewing's Gods of Manhattan, Dark Side and The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus. But, according to the rules of the competition, technically any Pax Britannia book so far published would qualify.

So, if anyone feels like sharing the love for the alternate steampunk universe of Pax Britannia, go for it! And just let me know here.

I Write Like...

Well, not me, apparently.

I went to this website and entered the text of my latest Pax Britannia novel Blood Royal and was told that...

I write like
Mario Puzo

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

However, when I entered the text of Night of the Necromancer, I received this response...

I write like
James Joyce

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

When I entered the text of my most recent non-fiction book Scottish Miscellany, I got this...

I write like
James Joyce

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

... again, but my short story White Rabbit (which appears in Blood Royal) produced this...

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Now how cool is that?

Bizarrely, the text for my next Black Library Warhammer 40K short story resulted in this...

I write like
P. G. Wodehouse

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Who'd've thought it?

The less said about my last published 40K short The Relic, the better...

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Abaddon Books' Pax Britannia Podcast

On Thursday I headed over to Oxford, specifically to the Abaddon Books dungeon, to record next month's (or maybe it was this month's) Abaddon/Solaris podcast. This time the focus is on the Pax Britannia line, so I found myself answering various questions about the genesis of the series and my thoughts about steampunk in general.

Al Ewing was also there, as the only other author to have contributed to the Pax Britannia line to date. Al, Jon Oliver (Abaddon's editor-in-chief) and I had a great time recording the interview (and adding a couple of Jackanory-style extract readings); I only hope there was enough usable material to create something that can be posted on iTunes.

Al Ewing - Abaddon's Mr Sex
(don't ask)

M.C. and Abaddon Overlord Jon Oliver

We certainly managed to fill the interrogation chamber with our 'Geek miasma' (as Jon O put it) and it was great to hear about Al's plans for El Sombra, Doc Thunder and the world of Pax Britannia.

Al and I and the whole of the Abaddon editorial team were then released - blinking, into the light - to take some sustenance and discuss the future of PB - which included mention of heat rays, Andy Warhol and howling commandos. It was great to catch up with Jon, Jenni and David and a discussion with Al (whilst giving him a lift to the station) about dinosaurs and King Arthur gave my creative gears the kick they needed for another future project.

Where the magic happens... Jenni, Jon and David mastermind the Abaddon/Solaris takeover of the publishing world

As you can see, much important thinking took place on Thursday

The latest Pax Britannia novel Blood Royal is out now, while Al's Gods of Manhattan is out in July. To get an idea of just how good this book is, you should read editor Jenni's blog-spurge here, on the Abaddon news page.

Blood Royal is here!

Blood will out!

Magna Britannia reels from the events that saw some of its citizens mutated into hideous insect hybrids. The streets are awash with rumours of a twisted new religion created from the destruction surrounding St Paul's Cathedral. In Europe, the spectre of war rears its ugly head, a war fought by unnatural beings. In the centre of the chaos, hero of the Empire, Ulysses Quicksilver, must maintain his calm, while madness reigns and he fights to protect civilisation itself. From the insect-haunted streets of a shattered London, to the cold snowy wastes of Russia, Ulysses finds himself on an adventure into the heart of a dark and bloody empire.

Get your copy here!

Pax Britannia - Blood Royal

It's here, at long last! And here's the fantastic ad from the back of the current issue of 2000AD to prove it.


You can get hold of your copy of Pax Britannia: Blood Royal right here. So, what are you waiting for?

Blood Royal - reviewers needed

Now I know that although Blood Royal isn't on official release yet some of you lucky people have got a copy already, and have possibly even read it as well. Well, if that's the case, I would be eternally grateful if you would pop a review up on Amazon (or your preferred web store). As they say, every little helps...

Creating a buzz

It would appear that with five books in the series in print already and another three due over the next 12 months or so, Pax Britannia is starting to create something of a buzz.

The books have received consistently good reviews from the SF press and was even voted Unnatural History SFcrowsnest's 16th most popular book of the year!

And now one senor Pablo Cheesecake has even list the forthcoming Blood Royal and Dark Side as two of the publications he is most looking forward to this year.

If you're inspired, intrigued or simply incredulous about Ulysses Quicksilver's adventures and the world of Pax Britannia why not drop me a line. You never know, you could end up with a cameo in a forthcoming adventure, rather like Michelle Powell.

Anyway, here's to 2010 (or 1998, as it is in the World of Pax Britannia)!

Alice in Wonderland

Like many people, I suspect, I felt that I knew the story of Alice in Wonderland even though I had never actually read Lewis Carroll's children's classic. And because of that I decided I wanted to write a story that drew heavily from both Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking-Glass. But first of all I decided that I had to read the originals before putting pen to paper myself (or rather fingers to keyboard).


Anyway, the upshot of all this is that today I started work on White Rabbit, a short story that's due to be printed in the back of Pax Britannia: Blood Royal. Now Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is due on 5 March 2010 and Blood Royal won't be published until April 2010, so it will be interesting to see how the two compare.


But just to get your senses in a state of surreal excitement, in preparation for next Spring, here's the trailer for the movie.

A tidy desk...

... is a sign of a sick mind, as the humorous postcard used to have it. But what it actually means is that I'm ready to start a new project. I have tidied away my notes from writing Blood Royal but what shall I start on next?


A Pax Britannian novella entitled White Rabbit? A new Black Library short story? A new Fighting Fantasy gamebook? Another novel? Something I haven't even mentioned anywhere yet...?

You'll just have to wait and see... ;-)

Here's to 2010

Due to Blood Royal being delayed, I now have four new books coming out in 2010 - and that's just for starters!

First off I have Crisis on Coruscant, my Star Wars The Clone Wars Decide Your Destiny adventure gamebook, which will be released on 28 January.

Then in April there's Night of the Necromancer, my new Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebook (released on 1 April - no, this isn't an April Fool's joke!), followed by Blood Royal, the fifth Ulysses Quicksilver Pax Britannia steampunk adventure later the same month.

And then, after only a few short weeks, Dark Side, the next UQ PB adventure is due out on 16 June.

And that little lot only takes me up to the summer!

So, see you in 2010!

Pax Britannia - prepare for a new story arc

For various reasons (including Abaddon Books getting a new book distributor and possibly also because I just finished the final version of the manuscript today), the next Ulysses Quicksilver Pax Britannia adventure, Blood Royal, will not now appear in the shops until April 2010, but I think you'll find it's going to have been worth the wait.



For one thing, it kicks off a new story arc for the dandy detective which will continue to be developed in next June's Dark Side, in which Quicksilver takes a trip to the Moon - steampunk style! But before then there's vampires, werewolves and clockwork killers to enjoy in Blood Royal, so why not reserve your copy now?

The British Fantasy Society's review of Evolution Expects

Just stumbled across this... a very pleasing review of my latest Pax Britannia novel Evolution Expects. (Should help spur me on with writing the next chapter of Blood Royal.)


PAX BRITANNIA: EVOLUTION EXPECTS
By Jonathan Green
Published by Abaddon Books, £6.99
Reviewed by Paul W. Smith

The latest in the alternative Earth Pax Britannia series, Evolution Expects takes us into a London where the population is under threat of a startling metamorphosis, a giant robot and masked vigilante, giving Jonathan Green further opportunity to expand on the futuristic vision of Britain the series has built up to date. We’re entering a world where the British Empire is still going strong with Queen Victoria on the throne for 150 years, retaining the rusting remnants of the industrial age alongside technical advancements. This is an Empire that’s increasingly stagnating and Londinium Maximum remains under an almost permanent toxic smog. Heroes and villains lurk amongst its vermin-infested streets.

Evolution Expects reintroduces Ulysses Quicksilver the dandified detective who’s is learning to cope with his newly transplanted ape’s arm, and Thomas Sanctuary, who’s now taken on the role of a masked jet-propelled vigilante dubbed Spring-Heel Jack. Their paths cross as they investigate the mysterious sighting of the Golem from Jewish myth and the shocking transformations that have befallen inmates in the Bedlam asylum, ordinary people that are now more insect than human. However, it becomes a race against time to solve the mystery before Prime Minister Devlin Valentine launches the Jupiter Station as an attempt to increase his popularity by cleaning up the city’s atmosphere. But already they have their hands full with gang warfare in the East End, and the alleged sighting of an old enemy, masterminding his latest scheme for domination.

This is a thoughtfully inventive tale where Jonathan Green relishes mixing Victorian Gothic with Sci-Fi adventure. His Londinium is a city which bears some semblance to our own reality but where scientific progress runs parallel with the over-extended trappings of the Victorian age. Giant robots and flying heroes co-exist alongside the opium gangs of Limehouse and the lunatics of Bedlam. There are nods to H.G. Wells and Conan Doyle, as well as to Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Bryan Talbot’s Luther Arkwright. Liberally sprinkled with dramatic set pieces and colourfully eccentric characters, Evolution Expects proves to be an entertaining read, with its own in-built rewards for readers of the whole Pax Britannia series to date, producing what amounts to an ongoing TV series in book form.

This volume also includes the satisfying short novella "Conqueror Worm". Set in 1797, it features the female secret agent, Cassandra Tyrrell, who rescues Sir George Sackville from highwaymen only to become embroiled in his family’s legend of the deadly Lambton Worm.

The Wolfman

How good does this look?

Okay, so it looks like an American Werewolf in Victorian London, but that sounds like a great combination as far as I'm concerned.


And look out for some more Victorian-inspired Werewolf action in the forthcoming Pax Britannia: Blood Royal from Abaddon Books.

An update

We're over half way through 2009 now (where did the time go?) so I thought it an appropriate moment to give you an update on what you can see in print from me between now and Christmas.

First up there's Evolution Expects, my fourth Pax Britannia novel featuring dandy adventurer and agent of the crown, Ulysses Quicksilver. More steampunk action than you can shake a sword-cane at.


Then, in August, there's the timely release of The Official Doctor Who Annual 2010. I've contributed about a third of this and I'm excited to see how many puzzles and factual write-ups have turned out.


Demons: A Clash of Steel Anthology - this should also be out in August and features an original short story by myself entitled The Pact.


Stormslayer, my sixth Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebook, hits the shelves in September and it would be an understatement to say that I'm looking forward to how this one is received by the established fans and new readers alike.


The American edition of last year's Christmas offering What is Myrrh Anyway? is out around October/November time. It's being published by Skyhorse Publishing and it's called Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas. I've set up a new blog to accompany its release which you can access here.


And then, just in time for Christmas (if I pull my finger out) is Blood Royal, the fifth UQ PB adventure and the start of a new four-book story arc. You're not going to want to miss this one.

And then in the new year... well, let's just say, there's plenty more where that came from...

Immortalised in print

Long time readers of this blog will already know that Michelle Powell won a competition last year to appear as a character within the pages of Ulysses Quicksilver's most recent adventure, Human Nature.

You can catch her cameo appearance in Chapter One, when Miss Michelle Powell - velocipede driver and budding amateur engineer - visits consulting detective Gabriel Wraith.

Michelle kindly sent me some photos of herself* holding her signed personalised copy of the book, as you can see here.













If you missed out yourself last time, you may be interested to know that I am currently considering running a similar competition this time tied to Ulysses Quicksilver's fifth exciting outing, entitled Blood Royal. So watch this space for more details!

* Apologies to Michelle for the lateness of me posting this. My excuse is that I've been caught up with writing the follow-up to Human Nature, Evolution Expects.

Abaddon website revamp

Abaddon Books have revamped their website, and very cool it's looking too. (I like the post-it notes in particular.) And that means they've also updated the list of books they'll be publishing before the end of the year.


The sharp-eyed among you will notice that at the end of the list of forthcoming titles is a title called Pax Britannia: Blood Royal, which is the first sneaky peek of my fifth - yes, fifth! - Ulysses Quicksilver adventure.

Now, I must see about getting my author biog updated...