We have a winner! - update

It's been almost a fortnight since I announced a winner had been randomly selected to receive nearly a kilo's worth of books, signed by myself, just for joining my forum.

The winner was duly notified by email but I am still haven't heard back from them, nearly two weeks later. I'm going to give the original winner until Monday 7 March to get back to me and if they don't, then I'll be picking a new winner.

So, all you forum members, watch this space...

Forum giveaway

How would you like to own these four books, all signed by the author - for nothing?

Well, it's easy. All you have to do is register as a member of my new forum here and when we hit 50 members, I'll put everyone's names into a hat and pull out one winner.

That winner will then receive a copy of Howl of the Werewolf, the new edition of Curse of the Mummy, Pax Britannia: Dark Side and the Warhammer 40K short story anthology Victories of the Space Marines, which contains my Imperial Fists' story But Dust in the Wind. And I'll sign them all too.

So what are you waiting for? Don't delay, sign up today!

Howl of the Werewolf - the Fighting Fantasy fans favourite gamebook!

The long-awaited Fighting Fantazine #5 is here and includes a fantastic cover by Natalie Gingerboom, an interview with one of my favourite (and most under-used FF artists) John Sibbick, the massive amateur adventure Bones of the Banished, news of the revised Advanced Fighting Fantasy range, and the readers' poll to find out the most popular Fighting Fantasy gamebook.

It's that last part that I'd particularly like to draw your attention to here.

Seventy different gamebooks feature in the readers' poll and mine are ranked as follows:

45= - Curse of the Mummy

31= - Knights of Doom

31= - Night of the Necromancer

30 - Spellbreaker

23= - Bloodbones

23= - Stormslayer

1 - Howl of the Werewolf

Yes, you read that right - Howl of the Werewolf topped the survey with an overall score of 84.6% (Plot 85.8%, Gameplay 82.5%, Atmosphere 88.3%, Illustrations 81.7%). I have to say that I am utterly thrilled (needless to say) but should also mention that without Martin McKenna's fantastic illustrations, I doubt Howl would have placed so high, so thank you to him.

It must have been a mammoth task collating all of the votes and working out the rankings so I would also like to extend my thanks to Alexander Ballingall and his team over on the Fighting Fantazine for all their hard work.

You can download Fighting Fantazine #5 from here, and, best of all, it's free!

Howl of the Werewolf is back!

Secondly, Howl of the Werewolf's been out for about a week in the new Wizard edition. This contains the Fighting Fantasy adventure you know and love along with three pre-generated playable characters (Johann Ironarm, Wolfrick of Pritzbad and Sabine Greypelt) and a preview of Trial of Champions.

Howl of the Werewolf and Victories of the Space Marines

I'm very pleased to reveal the cover for the new edition of Howl of the Werewolf, coming next month from Wizard Books.

As with the other titles in the new FF format, Howl of the Werewolf includes three pre-generated characters. So prepare to meet Johann Ironarm, Wolfrik of Pritzbad and Sabine

Greypelt this September.

And while we're at it, here's the cover for the Black Library's Victories of the Space Marines...

'Featuring a brand new Grey Knights story by Ben Counter, plus James Swallow, Gav Thorpe, C. L. Werner and more...'

... and the 'more' includes a contribution from me, about a squad of Imperial Fists answering a distress call from an isolated ice-locked world. Victories of the Space Marines will be published April 2011.

How to write an adventure gamebook - Part 2

So, here it is, at long last, the second in an ongoing series of articles regarding the writing of adventure gamebooks...

The Proposal

Having spent a long time brainstorming a gamebook, once I'm happy with the overall plot and structure, I set about writing the proposal itself.

Basically, a proposal is a sales pitch. It has to explain clearly and concisely everything about your book and is often the thing that will lead to the book being (or not being) commissioned. As a result, you don't want to miss anything out - especially not the dramatic denouement you've spent ages working out. Leaving that out is sure to see your proposal being rejected outright. But I digress...

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When I write a proposal for an adventure gamebook I start with a paragraph giving an overview of the book - what it's about, what makes it different to others, the cool conceit that is going to make people want to pick up and play it, etc.

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I then describe the structure of the book. My gamebooks have often had three, four, or even five act structures. For example [WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!] Stormslayer is a classic three-act adventure. Act 1 involves actually finding out what your quest is. Act 2 has you tracking down the various artefacts you need to beat the bad guy, and Act 3 is the climatic battle aboard the villain's base of operations.

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If relevant (and with Fighting Fantasy adventures, it usually is) I then go on to explain any new rules that the adventure has (such as the POISON score in Curse of the Mummy, or the CHANGE score in Howl of the Werewolf) with a brief description of how they will work within the context of the adventure itself.

Next up is new monsters. These a vital in FF adventures. This paragraph usually takes the form of a simple list. With FF adventures I will also point out monsters that I'm using from Out of the Pit that haven't seen print in any of the official books yet.

Now I finally get to the plot synopsis itself. Because of the very nature of gamebooks, as well as describing what happens if you follow the correct path through the book, I also outline what happens on side quests and wild goose chases. I break the synopsis into clearly defined areas. For example in Night of the Necromancer [WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!] the first part of the adventure takes place out in the wilds, it then transfers to a castle and various places within the castle. Each of these major areas (or even set-piece scenes) was a new paragraph in the original plot synopsis. And of course, at the end I reveal the climactic twist or dramatic encounter that ends the adventure.

It is whilst writing the proposal that I often finalise certain areas of the adventure within my own mind but that's not to say that everything is set in stone at this point - far from it.

However, for the time being, what has to happen next is for me to forward the proposal to my editor and wait for them to give me the go ahead to write the book. And that's the topic I'll be dealing with next time...

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Coming soon: Part 3 - Writing the Adventure

Howl of the Werewolf

Later this year, Howl of the Werewolf (arguably my most popular Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebook to date) is being re-released in the new larger FF format and I have the opportunity to put right any errors that may have crept in the first time round.

I am already aware of one, which will be quite easy to fix, but this is where you come in. Are there any errors that you are aware of and think I might have missed? If you do know of any, please reply to this post and I shall be eternally grateful.

Howl of the Werewolf

I discovered this today...


It's a piece entitled 'Howl of the Werewolf' and is by the obviously very talented Paul Mudie. I just find myself wondering whether it was inspired by my fifth Fighting Fantasy adventure Howl of the Werewolf which is being re-released later this year.

If you know, or if you're Paul, please drop me a line by replying to this post.

Howl of the Werewolf - the movie!

So, I've just been to see Howl of the Werewolf... sorry, The Wolfman... and a very fine film it was too. 142 minutes of gruesome skin-changing fun - exactly what you want from a movie released in time for Valentine's weekend.

The Wolfman is old school horror, a classic jump out of skin shocker, enhanced by modern special effects although, pleasingly, prosthetics and make-up are just as important as the CGI elements in the film. Anthony Hopkins sleep walks through his part, but Bernicio Del Toro is perfectly cast as the eponymous monster of the title. Emily Blunt does what she has to (which isn't very much) but Hugo Weaving, as disgraced Ripper-hunter Inspector Aberline, is great fun to watch - especially in the scene in the village tavern.


The setting is late 19th century (1891 to be precise) and everything is suitably grim, rundown, gloomy, smoky and gothic. There are creepy mansions, foggy London streets, rugged moorland studded with standing stones and brooding skies. Danny Elfman's score evokes the music of Bram Stoker's Dracula and Sleepy Hollow. There are plenty of OTT bloody deaths to get your teeth into, and Joe Johnston (the director) doesn't waste any time in getting the blood pumping with a drama attack on a gypsy camp and doesn't linger on the weeks between full moons either. Oh, and parts of it were filmed at Castle Combe in Wiltshire and others at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.


Half way through The Wolfman briefly turns into An American Werewolf in Victorian London, and there's even a nod to the Piccadilly Circus scene from John Landau's classic, but it's an exciting sequence with a hilarious lead-in set within Lambeth Asylum.


But when you consider the subject matter of the film and the plot (particularly in the last reel) I couldn't help feeling that I was watching Howl of the Werewolf committed to celluloid - which was kinda cool, in it's own way. (Oh, and talking of Howl of the Werewolf I am reliably informed that it will be re-released later in the year as one the new format Fighting Fantasy books, which'll be cool too.)



So, to sum up, if you're into werewolves, Bernicio Del Toro or things that go bump in the night generally, then The Wolfman is for yoooooouuuu!

Howl of the Werewolf

You can buy Howl of the Werewolf here.

"Howl of the Werewolf is an excellent book... Some of the Fighting Fantasy books have been so difficult as to be impossible to win. This one is not one of them. Complex, large and full of adventures, with excellent art, Howl of the Werewolf is a good way to have a good time away from a computer."

Howl of the Werewolf

Tomorrow, Stormslayer is released upon an unsuspecting public. It is the first brand new Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebook since Howl of the Werewolf was published in September 2007.

In case you've forgotten how much fun that last adventure was, or you've yet to experience its pleasures (and pains), I've put together a movie-style trailer for the book.

Enjoy.

Jenny Greenteeth surfaces on the SFX site?

I stumbled across this the other day. It's taken from the SFX Magazine website and a feature on sci-fi and fantasy tattoos.


Stephen Adey of Penzance says, "I had this done a few weeks ago... It is sort of a homage to The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Ray Harryhausen's Kraken from Clash of the Titans."

Now the reason it caught my eye is because it looks suspiciously like this...


... which was one of the images that inspired my own take on the folkloric Jenny Greenteeth that appeared as the Water-Wyrd in Howl of the Werewolf.

It made me wonder whether any of the images inspired by my books have been turned into body art? If you know of any, drop me a line and send me a picture.

Martin McKenna's new website

Martin McKenna, incredibly talented artist and erstwhile collaborator of mine, has given his website a major overhaul and you can see it here.

Having had a quick look through Martin's news (both old and new), it's amazing to see how many times some of the images from various books of mine have cropped up elsewhere, everything from magazine articles to books on digital painting.

Take for example the cover to Howl of the Werewolf. As far as I can see, the seminal image of the werewolf howling at the moon has been re-used in a Chinese magazine, to promote a Heavy Metal event in Madrid and as part of an exhibition in Denmark.

You learn something new every day...

The Great Fighting Fantasy Book Ranking

Over at the http://www.fightingfantasygamebooks.com/ forum, regular poster Zagor has ranked all 67* Fighting Fantasy gamebooks according to his personal preferences.

It's certainly provoked a lot of discussion and some of my contributions to the series have fared better than others. However, I'm pleased to say that Howl of the Werewolf made it to the heady heights of number 12 in Zagor's list.

#12 - Howl of the Werewolf by Jonathan Green

In my mind, Jon's best gamebook (sorry Theme Park Panic fans), Howl of the Werewolf has some great horror moments and plenty of interesting characters and encounters. It also has some excellent extra rules as you become more powerful through your lycanthropy. With many paths through the book, it's very replayable too, though perhaps a minor complaint is some paths are alot longer than others. It's looking like this might be the last FF at present but at least the series will finish on a high.

I don't agree with all of the rankings of course, because it's all based on personal preference, but kudos to Zagor for tackling such a monumental task and for playing every single FF gamebook, and then writing an erudite review of each and every one.

Maybe in the future we'll see how other people rank the books in the series. But for now, if you would like to check Zagor's ratings out for yourself, click here.

* '67? Are you sure?' I hear you cry. Let me explain. Puffin Books published 59 normal FF gamebooks, the 4 that formed the Sorcery! epic and the 2-player Clash of the Princes. Wizard Books have since released 3 original titles. Hence 67 in total.

Behind the Scenes: Howl of the Werewolf - the Werebat

WARNING - SPOILERS! WARNING - SPOILERS!

Okay? Got that?

WARNING - SPOILERS!

Sure?

Well, on your head be it...

In the Tower of Maun, in the cursed land of Lupravia, the hero of Howl of the Werewolf is likely to run into a Werebat. I was thrilled with Martin McKenna's rendition of this particular monster which I have reproduced for you here.



Of course, in a book about were-creatures, I was looking to include all sorts of variations on a familiar theme. Bats and vampires go together like toast and butter, so a werebat seemed like a suitable addition to the storyline.

While I was imaging this particular scene, I inevitably found the image of Dracula as bat-monster from Bram Stoker's Dracula coming to the fore in my mind. However, there was also another influence - that of the Man-Bat from Batman.

In the DC Universe, Dr. Kirk Langstrom is a scientist specializing in the study of bats. He develops an extract which is intended to give humans the bat's sonar sense and tests the formula on himself - of course - because he is becoming deaf. While it works, it has a horrific side-effect, transforming him into a hideous humanoid bat-like monster.


In case you were wondering, the Man-Bat's latest incarnation appears in the next Lego Batman: The Video Game.

Behind the Scenes: Howl of the Werewolf - The Malice

WARNING - SPOILERS!

If you've not read Howl of the Werewolf yet - or you haven't finished it - and you intend to, stop reading now!

You have been warned!

WARNING - SPOILERS!

During your exploration of the land of Lupravia you can happen upon some mysterious ruins where, in the past, an unroly rite was enacted. This event, and its consequences, were so appalling that they have left an indelible mark on the place. The longer you spent exploring the ruins, the greater your chance of meeting the Malice!

The Malice was inspired, in part, by the Malus, a malevolent alien entity from the Fifth Doctor Who story The Awakening. I certainly had the creature's distinctive gargoyle face in mind when I wrote that particular passage of the book.

In this particular Fifth Doctor adventure, the Malus (Latin for 'bad', in case you didn't know) was responsible for creating a time link between the year of 1984 and the events from the English Civil War.

As well as inspiring the Malice's ultimate malign form, another image of the Malus from The Awakening also appears in the book (although it was not illustrated separately), with the stone imps that you can encounter in the ruins - the Grinnygogs. And for anyone who was a child during the early 1980s, yes, I was also thinking of The Witches and the Grinnygog when I wrote this. Now that is a show I would like to see again!

Behind the Scenes: Howl of the Werewolf - The Glass Knight

One of the 'creatures' you can fall foul of during the course of Howl of the Werewolf is the Glass Knight. Animated by evil magic, the image of a warrior from a stained glass window comes to life and battles you, attempting to chop you into little pieces with its razor-sharp glass sword.

The idea of the Glass Knight was one that I had been hoping to use in a gamebook for quite some time, but I cannot claim that it was an original one. The encounter was wholly inspired by a memorable scene from the 1985 cinematic feature Young Sherlock Holmes.

During the course of the movie, an old priest is hit by a poisoned dart shot from a blowpipe. As a result, hallucinates that he is being menaced by a stained glass knight. Considering the film was made over 20 years ago, the effects are, on the whole, excellent, especially the creation of the knight which took Industrial, Light and Magic artists four months to create. It was brought to life through computer animation, helped along by John Lasseter of a little known company, at the time, called Pixar.

If you've not seen the film before, it's worth tracking down for a look. It's better than you might have been led to believe. And if you have seen the film, you'll know that already, in which case, perhaps it's time you revisited that particular moment of escapism from your childhood.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

I found a more recent review of Howl of the Werewolf online the other day. Over to R Paterson of Hertfordshire:

When I was younger I loved the Fighting Fantasy books, so it was a shame that they were out of print for most of the Noughties. Now reprints of the originals are available along with some new tomes, this one among them. And what a thrill it was that the central theme was werewolves, creatures that have always scared me even though I love them to bits.

In this book a lot of the normal FF rules apply; you use skill, stamina and luck scores to determine how you fare in various situations and in combat with other people or various creatures. Other factors determine how you fare too, and not just possessions you pick up. You can also pick up certain codewords through being in specific situations or gaining facets of knowledge. This can affect what route you take further on through the book. There is also the fact you are carrying the eponymous curse and your Change score determines how lycanthropic you are. How this affects things is quite complex, but pick up the book and you'll see!

Most of the action takes place in a land called Lupravia, which is much like the Transylvannia of Universal and Hammer horror movies, with a fantastical spin on it. There are other werewolves there, along with other were-creatures, vampires, ghosts, mutated versions of various animals and magical creatures. You will certainly have some fun spotting nods to various other stories; The Wolfman, Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Hound of the Baskervilles. Take particular routes and there are even times you might be tempted to think of Van Helsing, or Metz's Judderman commercial!

Punctuating the text are brilliant illustrations, as always. Some of them are bound to bring shudders - the illustration for paragraph 172 is positively stomach-churning. Going back to references, the illustration for paragraph 442 will give Dr Who fans a laugh.

What's best about this book is that you can complete your quest successfully (as I have) and then play the quest all over again and find a whole new route to take. A must for any gaming or horror nuts.

Amazon had the book ranked at 26,264. I wonder how many sales that equates to...

Behind the Scenes: Howl of the Werewolf - The Water Wyrd

I can't really give today's 'Behind the Scenes' too much of a context, otherwise it would rather give the game away for anyone who is still to read Howl of the Werewolf, so I'm just going to tell you about my inspiration for the encounter.

BUT BE WARNED, the following would still count as a SPOILER in my book.

Got that?

Still want to read more?

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Well, you have been warned...

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For anyone who has encountered the slippery, fish-eyed old Water Wyrd and the Daughters of the Drowned in Howl of the Werewolf, one source of inspiration may be pretty clear - Jenny Greenteeth. For those not already in the know, Jenny Greenteeth is a character from English folklore. She was essentially a river hag, and would pull children, or even the elderly into rivers and quiet pools to drown them, before consuming their flesh.

She was often described as green-skinned, with long, unkempt hair, and sharp pike-like teeth. She was known as Jinny Greenteeth in Lancashire, whereas in Cheshire and Shropshire she was called Ginny Greenteeth, Wicked Jenny, or even Peg o' Nell.

In reality, if you like, she was the folkloric personification of a very real danger for people who couldn't swim. The name Jenny Greenteeth is also sometimes used to describe pond weed or duckweed, which can form a continuous mat over the surface of a small body of water, making it misleading and potentially treacherous, especially to unwary children.

However, there was another source of inspiration behind the encounter as it appears in Howl of the Werewolf, especially in relation to the eeriely alluring Daughters of the Drowned. It was an episode of Jim Henson's The Storyteller (starring John Hurt), first broadcast in the late 80s, called Fearnot. In this story, a young man goes on an expedition to explore the source of fear, accompanied by a devious tinker. The young man overcomes various obstacles without learning what fear is, and one of these is a run-in with a Terrible Thing that lives at the bottom of a still, green pool along with the Sisters of the Deep.

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Coincidentally, at about the time that I was writing Howl of the Werewolf, the character of Jenny Greenteeth appeared in the 2000AD comic strip London Falling, by Si Spurrier and Lee Garbett (as seen in the illustration below).

Behind the Scenes: Howl of the Werewolf - The Abbey of the Black Monks

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! GOT THAT?

If you are yet to read Howl of the Werewolf (or yet to complete it) you might not want to read this post just yet. I'm not going to give anything major away, just a few small surprises.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Wandering through the wild land of Lupravia, the hero of Howl of the Werewolf comes upon the Abbey of the Black Monks, high up in the craggy uplands to the east of the country. They may choose to stay there for the night, simply seeking shelter or possibly hoping to find a cure for the curse that is afflicting them. However, if they do they soon discover the terrible truth about the Black Monks themselves.

The Black Monks have been corrupted by their even more grossly corrupted Abbot and are now half-human, half-insect monstrosities, intent on devouring our hero. There are things that resemble bipedal cockroaches, preying mantises and all manner of nasties lurking in the dungeons beneath the Abbey.

The inspirations behind the Abbey and its mutated brethren are pretty obvious, when you think about it. Apart from tying into the whole idea of various individuals having been corrupted and changed in different ways in the past, the mutation of the monks drew on such sources as films The Fly and Mimic.

The Abbey itself was based on the Italian monastery that forms the backdrop to the medieval murder mystery that is The Name of the Rose, with its hidden labyrinthine passageways. It is interesting to note that the exterior of the monastery seen in the film was constructed on a hilltop outside Rome, and was the biggest exterior set built in Europe since Cleopatra, whilst the interiors were shot at Eberbach Abbey in Germany.

This was one of those sections of the book that grew in the telling and, in part, forced the finished adventure to 515 paragraphs rather than the standard 400. By having the hero able to properly explore the dungeons the Abbey became more than just another passing encounter. In fact I had to cut some scenes from this part of the book because otherwise it was just going to be too long. So, it was farewell to the inquisitor's torture chamber, the branding iron-wielding poltergeist and the interrogation by the ghost of the vengeful inquisitor himself.

I really enjoyed writing this part of the book, which was also inspired by an entirely different idea I had for another gamebook long ago, and yet which might have pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable for a children's book.

Now that reminds me of another story, but that will have to wait until another post.