Thursday 22 December 2016

Pax Britannia - New Reviews!

Even though the first Pax Britannia novel was published almost ten years ago, some people are still coming to the series for the first time. And when it's someone who enjoys the stories they devour the lot pretty quickly, thanks to the wonder of eBooks.

One such reader is Bob Marlowe who has recently posted reviews of all the Pax Britannia books - Al Ewing's as well as mine - and here's what he has to say about them.

Unnatural History
"A readable style which flows along nicely with enjoyable characters... Very enjoyable evocation of a pulp style and there are plenty more to come. A recommended read."

Leviathan Rising
"Here we have a cocktail of Agatha Christie, Titanic, The Poseidon Adventure, the X-Files and dear old Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and with Green's enjoyable pulpy style, it's a good read."

Human Nature
"The story itself is quite simple but well structured (things in the prologue that seem irrelevant are revisited later) and the good pulpy style of Green makes for a well paced roller coaster."

Evolution Expects
"As ever, a cocktail of monsters, steam punk and nods to well know characters & stories etc. including this time a Bond like board meeting scene, a character named Brundle after the 1987 version of The Fly and a bit of Talons of Weng Chiang amongst others... This series shows no signs of letting up, both novel and novella are a well-paced read, guaranteed to liven up any journey to work."

Blood Royal
"The writing is of the usual high standard with a monster infested St Paul's Cathedral especially well described... I love this series -and am sad I've less than halfway to go to the end."

Dark Side
"I had the feeling Jonathan Green had as much fun writing this as I had reading it. There's the usual tributes to films, book et al that he's enjoyed , the First men in the Moon and Voyage dans la Lune and every chapter takes its name from a film e.g. The First Men in the Moon, Sphere... These stories will never be on the Booker Prize shortlist but the Booker winners I've read were never this much fun!"

Anno Frankenstein
"Naturally this is a blockbuster mix that we have come to expect of monsters and set pieces and does not disappoint, Green handling all the ingredients with his usual skill."

Time's Arrow
"The influences here are Edgar Allen Poe's Murder in the Rue Morgue, The Island of Dr Moreau and The Phantom of the Opera, characters names including Moreau and Leroux. The new characters work well and the story races along at Green's usual pace."

If you're yet to sample the delights of the Pax Britannia steampunk universe, you can buy the books and eBooks here.

Sunday 2 October 2016

The Wicked Wizard of Oz has 18 hours to go!

There are just 18 hours remaining for The Wicked Wizard of Oz on Kickstarter.

As of writing, the project has funded, but only just. And with one day left to go, some more DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE level rewards have been released (listed as DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE AGAIN).

So why not check out the project and the rewards and pledge your support, before it's too late?


Monday 26 September 2016

The Wicked Wizard of Oz ends one week today!

At 1.00pm GMT one week from today, The Wicked Wizard of Oz reaches the end of its run, on Monday 3rd Oztober.

Will it fund? Who knows. What I do know is that currently over £200 needs to be pledged every day until the end of the Kickstarter's run otherwise it most definitely won't happen.

So if you think a grimdark gamebook inspired by L. Frank Baum's children's classic could be your thing, or if you know of someone else you would enjoy it, then check out the Kickstarter project page and spread the word!

Thank you.


Wednesday 21 September 2016

Happy Birthday, Mr Wells!

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the British Father of Science Fiction, Herbert George Wells. Wells is, of course, most well known, in the modern era, for his novels The Time Machine (1895) and The War of the Worlds (1898).

Wells' original stories have been adapted time and time again, and have inspired countless other tales, including my own. I have an idea for a spin-off from The War of the Worlds that I would like to start work on in the next year or two, but The Time Machine has already massively influenced an already published work of mine - or should I say works?

What started off as a fun idea for a one-off short story expanding the world of Pax Britannia, back in 2008, ended up becoming the core element of trio of Ulysses Quicksilver novels - Dark Side (2010), Anno Frankenstein (2011) and Time's Arrow (2012). I hadn't realised just how much The Time Machine had influenced Anno Frakenstein in particular until I re-watched the 2002 movie version recently, as I introduced it to my children for the first time.

My Wellsian celebrations will continue today with Jeff Wayne's musical version of The War of the Worlds on today's playlist, and possibly a viewing of the 2005 movie adaptation later this evening.

If you happen to be the Woking area today, watch the skies!

Thursday 8 September 2016

The Wicked Wizard of Oz is halfway there!

The Wicked Wizard of Oz has been running for 5 days now and is 53% funded on Kickstarter.

If you know of anyone who might enjoy a choose your path-style adventure gamebook inspired by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, with dieselpunk stylings, let them know about it, because Kickstarters only succeed when people help to spread the word.

Here endeth today's lesson. Thank you.

Saturday 3 September 2016

The Wicked Wizard of Oz is now live on Kickstarter!

The Wicked Wizard of Oz Kickstarter is now live on Kickstarter!



The Wicked Wizard of Oz is a nightmarish solo-RPG gamebook inspired by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, but with a dark Dieselpunk twist. The book is written by Jonathan Green and illustrated by Kev Crossley, the team behind Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland.

 
Play as Dorothy...

The Scarecrow... 

The Tin Woodman...

And the Lion...

Or even play as the Wicked Witch of the West herself!


So check out the rewards, tell all your friends about the project, and pledge your support today.

Friday 2 September 2016

The Wicked Wizard of Oz

At 1.00pm tomorrow (Saturday 3rd September) The Wicked Wizard of Oz launches on Kickstarter.

There are a number of rewards that are limited in number, which offer gamebook fans some rather special opportunities.




Thursday 1 September 2016

Steampunk goes Dieselpunk!

In two days' time, THE WICKED WIZARD OF OZ launches on Kickstarter.

In THE WICKED WIZARD OF OZ you step into Dorothy’s silver shoes and become the hero of the story, taking on the role of either Dorothy Gale herself, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, or the Lion. You decide which path to take, which risks to brave, and even which of the strange inhabitants of Oz, you will meet along the way, to engage in battle.

Success is by no means certain and you may well fail to complete the adventure at your first attempt. However, with experience, skill, and maybe even a little luck, each new attempt should bring you closer to your ultimate goal.

THE WICKED WIZARD OF OZ will be illustrated by Kev Crossley, a very talented artist already known to fans of ALICE'S NIGHTMARE IN WONDERLAND, who is moving away from Alice's Steampunk aesthetic to more of a Dieselpunk look for this book.



Dorothy Gale reimagined by Kev Crossley
Dorothy Gale reimagined by Kev Crossley
Kev's character designs and penmanship are remarkable, and we are very lucky - and thrilled! - to have him joining us on our journey to the Marvellous Land of Oz! Just check out these sketches for the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and the Lion.

In addition, the first 20 people who pledge to receive a physical copy of the THE WICKED WIZARD OF OZ at the DOROTHY reward level or above (so not including the WIZARD orSCRAPS level rewards, unless they are selected as add-ons) will receive a pair of Emerald City-style, green-tinted, Dieselpunk goggles!
They're what everyone's wearing in the Emerald City these days!

They're what everyone's wearing in the Emerald City these days!
So put 1.00pm on Saturday 3rd September in your diary, and maybe I'll see you, somewhere over the rainbow...

Friday 26 August 2016

Asylum Steampunk Festival 2016

Despite having given attendees a sneak preview of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland at the Asylum last year, I'm afraid that I'm not actually attending the event this year. (It seems that every event this year clashes with some other commitment.) However, if you are there, there are a number of literary-themed events that you should check out.

HOW NOT TO WRITE A STEAMPUNK NOVEL
WHEN: 27th August 2016 @ 11:00 am – 11:45 am
WHERE: Cathedral Centre
Join Steampunk author, Rob Harkess, as he shares his experiences to educate and inform those who wish to undertake this perilous enterprise.

TELOS PUBLISHING – MEET AND MERCH
WHEN: 27th August 2016 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
WHERE: Castle
Thanks to the lovely team at Telos Publishing, Asylum goers will be able to purchase some of their titles at very special Festival rates. Joining them are Sam Stone, bestselling and award-winning author of the Vampire Gene series, the Kat Lightfoot Steampunk adventure series and the Jinx Chronicles alien invasion Series. Also attending will be Raven Dane, another award-winning author and popular Asylum speaker. Top DOCTOR WHO historian and author David J Howe will also be on hand with copies of several factual tomes associated with the series. So come along and browse some great titles, chat to the people to publish, edit, write and create the books, and pick up some bargains!

STEAM IS MY MIDDLE NAME
WHEN: 27th August 2016 @ 1:30 pm – 2:00 pm
WHERE: Assembly Rooms
Join the quizmaster for some frantic buzzer action, as our Steampunk authors and members of the audience take on the ultimate fun quiz on Steampunk writings. One to watch, or possibly take part in if you can drag yourself away from the latest Steampunk tome. (I wonder if Pax Britannia will feature in any of the questions?)

A HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE FROM GRAVITY NULLIFICATION TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE MODERN WAR (1843-1911)
WHEN: 27th August 2016 @ 3:30 pm – 4:15 pm
WHERE: Cathedral Centre
Steampunk author, Steve Turnbull, takes you on a journey through the alternate history of his Steampunk worlds. Discover something new and let your imagination take a holiday on someone else’s planet.

I’M SORRY, I HAVEN’T A STEAMPUNK
WHEN: 28th August 2016 @ 12:15 pm – 1:00 pm
WHERE: Assembly Rooms
Time for a round of Mornington Crescent, but we’ll be using the 1905 Rules! Join our panel of Steampunk authors, as they try to work out if they can be as funny as a bunch of comedians.

STEAMPUNK INSPIRATION
WHEN: 28th August 2016 @ 1:00 pm – 1:45 pm
WHERE: Cathedral Centre
Take it where you can get it and make it your own. This thoughtful and informative session will look at where the inspiration comes from and where it can take you. Literature, comics, TV, Literature, comics, TV, games and film, all have crossover and “mash-up” opportunities, so how do you take your Steampunk?

HOW TO BUILD A STEAMPUNK NATION
WHEN: 28th August 2016 @ 3:00 pm – 3:45 pm
WHERE: Cathedral Centre
No, we are not planning a revolution, but whether you are creating a backstory or writing a novel, creating your own steampunk nation is a fun exercise, and a much better time-waster than the Internet!

SAM STONE AND GUESTS
WHEN: 28th August 2016 @ 4:00 pm – 4:45 pm
WHERE: Cathedral Centre
Join author Sam Stone, as she brings together a panel of Steampunk authors to talk about the creation process, how to get published and what projects they are currently working on that might be your next big summer read.

Interestingly, this year there is also a discussion about Dieselpunk, which is one of the influences on The Wicked Wizard of Oz...

MORE ANACHRONISTIC HISTORY – FORWARD UNTO DIESELPUNK
WHEN: 27th August 2016 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
WHERE: Assembly Rooms
Steampunks love to explore and discover new things and with proliferation of time travel and other temporal experimentation they will eventually either by design or accident find themselves viewing something that is not quite steampunk but oddly familiar and very intriguing. Come along and find out more as the Major lifts the veil and peers at the world of dieselpunk.

And don't forget to visit the Telos Publishing stand and Steampunk Authors' stand at the Steampunk Market.

Thursday 4 August 2016

The Wicked Wizard of Oz

This autumn I am going to be running a Kickstarter to fund production of a new gamebook, similar in style to Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, but this time inspired by the work of L. Frank Baum.

Play as Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, or the Lion, as you undertaken a new adventure set within the mysterious land of Oz.

To make sure that you don't miss out on the Early Bird Backer rewards, please join the new The Wicked Wizard of Oz Facebook group, and start spreading the word.

The Wicked Wizard of Oz Kickstarter will launch on Saturday 1st October 2016.

Wednesday 3 August 2016

Happy Anniversary Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland!

Kickstarter kindly emailed me today to let me know that a year ago Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland funded, thanks to you! And what a year it's been!
Working with Kev Crossley for the first time, creating the first in what I hope will become a new series of gamebooks, printer delays, books shipped from Eastern Europe the day before the launch, a unique deck of playing cards created by Saskia Powys, a colouring book that's been phenomenally successful in the United States, and an awards nomination. And then today I was sent these bookmark mock-ups, created by a gamebooks fan!


Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland has received 31 5-star reviews on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com, but there's always room for more. ;-)
And what was I working on today, a year on from Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland funding? Why, only the second in the series!
The Kickstarter for The Wicked Wizard of Oz will launch on Saturday 1st October 2016 - or should that be Oztober?

Thursday 14 July 2016

Happy Bastille Day!

Happy Bastille Day, to all my French readers - and there are a few, thanks to my Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, and some of my Warhammer novels, having been translated into French.

As it's Bastille Day, and as it's Steampunk Thursday, it seems only right to plug the eighth Ulysses Quicksilver adventure to date, Time's Arrow. The whole story takes place in France - Paris to be precise - and even features a steampunk King Kong.

According to one reviewer, "the wonderful spark of Jonathan Green's writing still shines through and you have to love his wonderful use of tried and tested tropes in a way that just sings like a melody when in his hands."

You can pick up a copy for yourself here.

Thursday 23 June 2016

Alice's Nightmare in Poland

Now available in Poland -

Koszmar Alicji w Krainie Czarów!


Which, in case you don't speak Polish yourself (like me) means Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland.


And check out some of the awesome artwork Polish fans of the colouring book phenomenon have produced!





If you have any coloured Alice's Nightmare images you'd like to share, please email me via info@jonathangreenauthor.com.

Friday 17 June 2016

1816: Anno Frankenstein

Two hundred years ago today, on 17th June 1816, whilst staying on the shores of Lake Geneva during the Year Without A Summer, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley began writing the ghost story that would become the gothic horror/early SF novel, Frankenstein.

On Monday this week, I was fortunate enough to be attend a lecture given by Professor Sir Christopher Frayling at the Science Museum in London. Entitled 'Frankenstein – From Literature to Myth to Bogeyman of Science', Sir Christopher's lecture detailed the circumstances surrounding the creation of the Shelley's infamous story, its influences, and its legacy, separating that which is Shelley's from that which is Hollywood's. (For example, did you know that Shelley makes no reference in the novel to how Frankenstein actually brings the Creature to life?)

Sir Christopher also highlighted one throwaway line from the novel which could well explain why the Creature is eight feet tall, and has given me an idea for a new short story.

The lecture, which featured extracts from Sir Christopher's TV documentary 'Nightmare: The Birth of Horror' as well as the nightmare fuel that are the automata of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, along with references to Fritz Lang's Metropolis, was followed by a round table discussion with the anatomist and top BBC presenter Professor Alice Roberts, the lead curator of the Science Museum's forthcoming Robots exhibition Ben Russell, and the journalist, film critic, and fiction writer, Kim Newman.

Kim Newman, Professor Alice Roberts, and Professor Sir Christopher Frayling.

The panel also threw up some fascinating ideas and story hooks, and we learned that if Frankenstein were to attempt to create a living being today, it would be 3D printed as a collagen framework which would then being colonised by stem cells, with a tiny computer taking the place of an organic brain.

However, as fascinating as the evening was, the highlight for me came at the end when both Professor Sir Christopher Frayling and Professor Alice Roberts, graciously accepted copies of my Pax Britannia novel Anno Frankenstein - my own sort-of-sequel to Shelley's original masterpiece*, which even prompted the following mention on Twitter:


Now, just imagine what a cover quote from Sir Christopher Frayling or Professor Alice Roberts would do for sales of the novel...



* Except that I wasn't 18 when I wrote my novel!

Thursday 16 June 2016

TivLitFest 2016

Last weekend I was one of the authors invited to take part in the second Tiverton Literacy Festival - a.k.a. TivLitFest.


The event began for me on the Saturday with the Book Fair, during the course of which I ran into the Hatter, which was rather appropriate considering I was selling Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, as well as my Pax Britannia books.


While at the Book Fair I also met up with the Circle of Spears crew, who will be producing the audiobook version of SHARKPUNK.


In the evening, I attended a talk given by authors Jenny Kane and Laura Wilkinson about the different ways to get published


And then on the Sunday, I gave a talk about my own work, specifically writing tie-in fiction and adventure gamebooks, an event which also closed this year's TivLitFest.





A huge thank you to all of the organisers, specifically Jenny Kane, Kerstin Muggeridge and Sue Griggs, as well as Naomi De Vries, for inviting me, for making me feel so welcome, and for the kind gift as well. And of course an equally huge thank you to everyone who came along to my talk or bought one of my books during the course of the weekend.


Kerstin, Yours Truly, Jenny and Sue.

Saturday 23 April 2016

Happy St George's Day!

Once upon a time, a French publisher showed an interest in publishing the Pax Britannia series in translation. However, what put them off in the end was the fact that they were so British*.

I would go so far as to say that the series is quintessentially English, so to celebrate St George's Day, why not pick up a Pax Britannia omnibus today?


* Not that this stopped German publisher Luzifer-Verlag.


Thursday 21 April 2016

Long to reign over us...

Today marks another milestone achieved by our beloved monarch Queen Elizabeth II. Not only is she the longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom ever, she is also 90 years-old today.

Of course, in the world of Pax Britannia, in 1998 (which is as far as we've got so far in that alternate reality) Queen Victoria is still on the throne. If you've not caught up on all the adventures in print so far, you could do a lot worse than pick up the two ominbuses currently in print.


I sometimes wonder if anyone famous has read any of my books, someone in the royal family, perhaps, who enjoys my alternate steampunk universe. So, just in case someone does...

Happy Birthday, your Majesty!

God save the Queen!


Thursday 14 April 2016

National Gardening Week

This week is National Gardening Week, and do you know what? There are plenty of garden scenes to colour in the #1 best-selling Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland Colouring Book - inspired by the Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland adventure gamebook - including...

 The Caterpillar's Court...


And 'Rose'.

Pick up your copy today!