Pax Britannia at the MCM Expo - Let them eat cake!

I spent this last weekend at the MCM Expo (held at London's Excel Centre) as a guest of the Victorian Steampunk Society. I had a fantastic time, chatted to all sorts of people about steampunk, Pax Britannia and ebooks, and saw everything from the DeLorean from Back to the Future to multiple Doctors of various regenerations, not to mention genders. There was tea, there were biscuits, there was cake.

I have to say that genre fans are a wonderful bunch of people, but steampunks are a particularly charming and welcoming lot - and they get to wear the best outfits! So a big shout to Herr Doktor, Miss Emily Ladybird, Jack Union, Ben, Peter, Michelle, Alan, Leanna, Willoughby, Esther, Frances and of course my good friend Vincent.

But enough of me gabbing on... Check out my vlog, ideally with a cup of tea in one hand and a cake in the other.

Pax Britannia at the MCM Expo - 18 hours to go

I'm now counting down the hours until the MCM Expo where I shall be promoting my Pax Britannia books (as well as Temple of the Spider God if anyone's interested).

I've turned the flat into a veritable cottage industry, producing cakes as if I'm working in some kind of Victorian factory. Let me tell you, I'm glad I'm a writer and not a baker! Anyway, if you buy a book tomorrow or on Sunday, you can have a cake for free - until they run out that is!

Edible cupcake toppers produced (at very short notice and a very high standard) by Cake Topper Designs

As I mentioned the other day, I shall also have a small number of flash drives to sell which come pre-loaded with my last three Pax Britannia novels - Blood Royal, Dark Side and Anno Frankenstein - and the first part of Time's Arrow, Red-Handed.

If you'd like one, just come and find me in the Steampunk village at the sign of the French terrorist.

Pax Britannia at the MCM Expo - 1 day to go

Seeing as how it's effectively Halloween weekend when the MCM Expo is on, I thought it might be nice to offer buyers of my books a free ghoulish cake. I have to say this idea was inspired by* Arfon Jones and his personalised cupcakes, so I ordered myself some edible Pax Britannia logos** and this evening set about creating my new culinary masterpieces.

Now it seemed like a good idea at the time... but removing very thin icing from a backing sheet proved trickier than I anticipated. However, ten minutes in the freezer later and things went swimmingly.

Here are my first couple of efforts. The one on the left is blackcurrant and apple flavour, the one on the right choc 'n' blood orange.

So, two down... only another one hundred and eighteen to go...

* Or completely ripped off from...

** As designed by ace cover artist and designer Simon Parr, whose cover art to Time's Arrow Part 2 - Black Swan, will be previewed over the weekend too.

Pax Britannia at the MCM Expo - 3 days to go

As I posted the other day, I shall be at the London Comic Con MCM Expo (held at Excel London) this coming weekend - Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 October. I will be attending as part of the steampunk contingent and promoting my Pax Britannia books. And today I have a rather exciting announcement to make...

I will have a limited number of memory sticks for sale, each one loaded with my three most recent Pax Britannia titles - Blood Royal, Dark Side, Anno Frankenstein - and Red-Handed, part one of my new novel Time's Arrow.

These all come in Kindle readable files and standard epub files. There are also two free short story ebooks, Eric Brown’s Blue Portal and Juliet McKenna’s The Wizard’s Coming. So there's plenty of content and on top of that you'll have a new memory stick with most of its 1 gig of memory still free!

So, if ebooks are your thing, why not drop by my table this weekend and pick up a memory stick loaded with more than a quarter of a million of Pax Britannia goodness and two bonus stories to boot?

Pax Britannia at the MCM Expo

Just a quick update to let you know that I'll be at the London Comic Con MCM Expo (held at Excel London) on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 October. I will be attending as part of the steampunk contingent and promoting my Pax Britannia books, naturally.

So if you're going along, why not stop by the steampunk area, pick up the latest PB title and help yourself to a little treat at the same time? Want to know more? Then keep an eye on this blog over the coming days or pop along to the MCM Expo this weekend?

Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow - Red-Handed

The Ether is all a buzz at the moment with talk of Time's Arrow, Abaddon Books' bold publishing experiment.

Here's what some people have been saying about it, and Red-Handed, the first part of the book that's available for download now!

As a long time fan of the 'Pax Britannia' series I was looking forward to 'Time's Arrow' anyway; with Green at the helm as always the tone shouldn't be affected at all but it will be interesting to see where the readers take the story. ~ Graeme's Fantasy Book Review

Once again Jonathan Green has written something that is, most importantly, great fun to read. From character names that will raise a smile to knowingly reverential nods to classical literature it is always a delight to see just what is going to happen next. I always come away from a Pax Britannia novel feeling thoroughly entertained. ~ The Eloquent Page

It's tough to review this first installment of the new Pax Britannia book fairly, since it is only the first third of the story. On top of that, not only do I, as a reader, not know where the story is going next, neither does the author... While this story very much seems to follow on from a cliffhanger in the previous book, I felt I had enough information to still enjoy it. Plus, once that cliffhanger was wrapped up, the new story was completely fresh and accessible... What I ended up with was a fast-paced, science fiction, steampunk action-adventure, with some cute nods to genuine Victorian science fiction. The interactive part of the story was fun, and it's really got me looking forward to the next installment... ~ Amazon.com

Time's Arrow - Who Lives? Who Dies? YOU Decide!

Big news on Abaddon Books re-vamped website today...

Red-Handed - part one of Ulysses Quicksilver's eighth adventure, Time's Arrow - is available for download here. And not only that, but the voting site has gone live too.

And the first review is already up on The Eloquent Page, as well. Here's a highlight:

Once again Jonathan Green has written something that is, most importantly, great fun to read. From character names that will raise a smile to knowingly reverential nods to classical literature it is always a delight to see just what is going to happen next. I always come away from a Pax Britannia novel feeling thoroughly entertained.

And here's another:

As eReaders are only going to continue to grow in popularity (I’ll be getting my hands on a Kindle Fire as soon as is humanly possible) it is great to see that publishers, like Abaddon Books, are taking these developments in technology into account when producing content. Kudos to Mr Green for his writing and the team at Abaddon for their tech wizardry. You all continue to do Mr U. Quicksilver Esq proud.

So, what are you waiting for? Buy Red-Handed for the eReader of your choice now! Then, once you've read it vote for how you want the story to continue here.

Oh, and inspired by this MAJOR PUBLISHING EVENT and Abaddon's spring (or should that be 'autumn'?) clean, I've given my own blog a bit of a makeover.

Out with the old...

Time's Arrow, Anno Frankenstein and House of Fear

Just a couple of things for you this autumnal Monday morning...

First up, the first part of my new Ulysses Quicksilver Pax Britannia novel Time's Arrow is available for download now. If you've not heard, this is officially A Big Deal. You can find out more here.

Secondly, another great review of Anno Frankenstein has gone up on Amazon. Here's a highlight:

Green keeps the action setpieces coming thick and fast, and the motley assortment of villains, being Nazis, are eminently hissable. Together with the refreshing new setting, which I suspect the author will be returning to, this is possibly the best Pax novel yet.

You can read the review in its entirety here.

And last of all, but by no means least, there's another great review of House of Fear, the horror anthology just out from Solaris Books that includes my short story The Doll's House.

More conventional (but no less effective) tales are provided by Jonathan Green and Paul Meloy, both Villanova and the Doll's House are disturbing, and each builds to a powerful conclusion.

You can read the rest of the review here.

Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow - Red-Handed is here!

Ulysses Quicksilver: agent of the throne, dandy and hero. Heart-broken, battered, mutilated and shot, he’s been driven backwards and forwards in time... but appearing in the middle of a crime scene is never the best way to start your visit to Paris...

Time’s Arrow offers the reader a unique opportunity – to decide the course of this latest Pax Britannia adventure!

In the tradition of Charles Dickens himself, Abaddon Books will be publishing Time’s Arrow in three ebook instalments. At the end of parts one (‘Red-Handed’) and two (‘Black Swan’) readers will be able to vote on how the adventure progresses via the Abaddon Books website at www.abaddonbooks.com. The entire text will then be published in a paperback edition in 2012.

Don’t miss out on the chance to become a part of publishing history. Pre-order Pax Britannia: Time’s Arrow today!

Ada Lovelace Day

Today is Ada Lovelace Day. Its intention, to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths by encouraging people around the world to talk about the women whose work they admire.

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) was an English writer and mathematician, widely held to have been the first computer programmer. And I have noted her influence within the world of Pax Britannia, having called computer programmes Lovelace algorithms.

She has inspired other steampunk authors as well, noticeably Ian Edginton in his Stickleback stories.

Click on the link to find out more about Ada Lovelace Day.