Steampunking Pax Britannia

It's been a long time since this website had a face-lift. I've been using Blogger's picture window template on my main author website for a while now and felt it was time for this blog to go the same way.

The background wallpaper, if you're wondering, doesn't show Spring-Heeled Jack and the Limehouse Golem (although we can dream, can't we?) but in fact a Steampunk'd Batman.

International Steampunk Day 2013!

14 June is International Steampunk Day (and not H G Wells' birthday, as previously reported).

And it just so happens that tomorrow is the start of Steampunk Doncaster*. In the lead up to the UK's newest Steampunk event, I wrote a guest post for Craig Hallam's blog**.

If you are going to Steampunk Doncaster, maybe I'll see you there...

* Anybody'd think they'd planned it that way.

** Craig Hallam is the organiser of the Litarium element of Steampunk Doncaster.

Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath - Competition Time!

A while ago I threatened to run some sort of competition or other if (or more accurately when) I ended up with both 1,000 followers on Twitter and 1,000 friends on Facebook.

Well that magic number was exceeded a while ago now (as of writing I have 1,018 followers on Twitter and 1,030 Facebook friends) so I thought it was about time I made good on my promise.

Your Part of the Bargain

I want you to do all you can to promote the Kickstarter project I am currently running with the artist Tom Brown and publisher Ian Whates, Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath. I don't care how you do it - blog posts, social media campaigns, YouTube videos, get in mentioned in the press, on the radio, on TV! - just do whatever you can to get word out to the masses about this exciting adventure in publishing!

You have until the end of the month (11:59pm on Sunday 31 March) to enter - in other words ten days - and email me a link to whatever it is you've produced at info@jonathangreenauthor.com.

Be imaginative, be creative, be prolific, be persistent! But whatever you do, to be eligible for the big prize, you must let me know about it.

Our Part of the Bargain

The three of us (Jon, Tom and Ian) will decide who has mounted the most effective campaign and, as long as the project funds on 13 April, you will be invited to the grand London launch as our guest, with all that that entails (book, goodie bag, drinks reception, etc.) but without having to stump up £100 for the privilege yourself. (You must arrange and pay for your travel to London.)

And that's it!

So check out the Clemency Slaughter Kickstarter page, Facebook page, and blog, get thinking, and good luck!

Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath

Today - 13th March 2013 - marks the beginning of the Big Push for the Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath Kickstarter.

Artist Tom Brown, publisher Ian Whates, and myself, want to bring you the tale of Miss Clemency Slaughter, her ill-fated family, and the legacy of Lord Daedalus Drummond D'Eath that awaits whoever is lucky (or unlucky) enough to inherit in the end. But we can only accomplish this task with your support, via Kickstarter.

We have a host of wonderful rewards on offer, including original artwork, invitations to a launch party, signed books, and bespoke jewellery. Bids start at only £2 and there's even going to be a digital version of this macabre picture book, as long as we achieve our funding goal of £7,500.

So now it's up to you. Please 'Like' our Facebook page, pledge your support via the Kickstarter page, and then tell all your friends via the medium of social media - and not just today, but every day! That's how we'll draw in the new backers we'll need to make this project happen.

We have until 1.00pm (1300 hours) on the 13th April to achieve our goal, or Clemency Slaughter and the Legacy of D'Eath may never see the light of day at all...

The YOU ARE THE HERO Kickstarter - The Aftermath

I feel strange today. Slightly bereft. My email inbox is missing those 'New Backer Alert!' messages.

That's right, today I'm on the come down from running my first ever Kickstarter project.

YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks - achieved funding at 3.02pm GMT yesterday, Sunday 6 January. It had been a crazy, stressful month, during which it felt like I did very little other than promote and run my Kickstarter. And it probably felt like that for a lot of other people too. But at the end of the day, the project funded. All I have to do now is write the book!

Thank you to YOU if you pledged your support, or retweeted my messages, or blogged about the project, mentioned it on message boards, interviewed me, allowed me to guest post on your blog...

I learnt a lot from the experience - not all of it good* - and made new friend and contacts - which is always good!

• The project ended up with 449 backers overall who pledged, on average, £47.71 - which was just under the VAMPIRE pledge level of £50.

• Almost a third of the money raised came directly through people checking out Kickstarter.

• A total of 2,278 people watched the Kickstarter video, which means that in the end, just under 20% of those people actually backed the project. (1,289 people also 'Liked' the project on Facebook.)

• The three most profitable days (in decreasing order) were Day 1 (£1,971**), Day 3 (£1,579) and Day 25 (£1,536).

• As predicted, the most popular pledge level was TROLL (£25 for a copy of the book) and second was CYCLOPS (£30 for a copy of the book but with a dedication in the acknowledgements),

• 44 people backed at the MINOTAUR level (£100 for a copy of the book signed by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, as well as myself, and various other accessories).

• A total of 10 fans will be interviewed for the book and five of them will be going for lunch with Steve, Ian and myself.

So what will happens now? Well after I've had a little lie down, I need to arrange further interviews and then get back to collating information for the book.

If you pledged but forgot to add post and packing, you can now do so via the Paypal button at the top of the sidebar on the right of the YOU ARE THE HERO blog here.

One question remains... Would I do it again?

Yes, I would!

In fact, I'm already planning my next Kickstarter, and have ideas for one or two I'd like to run after that. But don't worry, I'm going to leave you all in peace for a month or so... Well, a couple of weeks at least. ;-)

* I've never been accused of spamming before but I've made up for it now. More than once, too, unfortunately!

** Bizarrely (and entirely coincidentally I am sure) 1971 is the year I was born.

YOU ARE THE HERO - 6 Hours to go!

It's 9.00am GMT which means we've only got 6 hours to go until the YOU ARE THE HERO Kickstarter comes to an end.

We've also taken the bold move of announcing a second stretch goal of £23,000 and if we achieve it in time, every physical copy of YOU ARE THE HERO will be a hardback rather than a softback.

So please do all you can to push this project to the last, and help make YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks - the magical artefact all of us want it to be!

Thank you.

Read about YOU ARE THE HERO on the Forbidden Planet International blog.

YOU ARE THE HERO on The Trollish Delver.

YOU ARE THE HERO on Kicktraq.

YOU ARE THE HERO on the Fighting Fantasy Project.

YOU ARE THE HERO on Titan - The Fighting Fantazine Blog.

YOU ARE THE HERO on RPG Kickstarters.

YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks - UPDATE!

YOU ARE THE HERO is now past the two-thirds mark and with ten days left to run is heading towards fully funding on 6 January.

Progress is going well, but we still need to raise on average £500 a day to make our £15,000 target.

So if you've not backed the project yet, but you've been meaning to, click this link and pledge your support today.

If you have already pledged, thank you - but please check that you've added the correct amount of postage. And then blog about it, post on Facebook and Tweet all your friends.

With YOUR support a copy of YOU ARE THE HERO could be in your hands by this time next year!

Thank you.

The Next Big Thing -Time's Arrow

Last week, both Steven Savile and Sarah Pinborough tagged me on blog posts of theirs as part of an ongoing chain of book/author recommendations called The Next Big Thing. So today it's my turn to answer the ten questions originated by Paul Magrs, then pass the reins on to five other writers who will be doing the same on their own blogs in a week's time. So, here goes...


1) What is the working title of your next book?

Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow, my eighth steampunk novel set within that particular universe.


2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

A combination of things really, as is the case with any book. There's a bit of King Kong in there, but Donkey Kong too, and Van Helsing, as well as the Hunchback of Notre Dame... But the driving force behind the plot for this book was the need to get the hero Ulysses Quicksilver back to Blighty having been away for the best part of three books!

I originally intended to go further, tying up elements that first appeared as far back as book 6, Dark Side, but then I realised I was trying too hard and decided to focus on telling a simpler story well, rather than a more complex one badly.


3) What genre does your book fall under?

Mostly definitely Steampunk. That said, anyone who's heard me speak on the subject before will know that I consider Steampunk a flavour as much as a genre, so you could also say that Time's Arrow is a sci-fi-crime-thriller-action-adventure story, with added French people.


4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Hmm... Tricky...

In my mind, Ulysses Quicksilver looks like Ulysses Quicksilver, and nobody else. That said, I could see someone like Julian Rhind-Tutt or Paul Bettany playing him on the big screen - or at least I could hear one of them playing him.

Maybe a young Sophie Marceau for the part of Cadence Bettencourt, or perhaps Louise Bourgoin.


5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Arriving at a murder scene, having travelled forward in time from the past, Ulysses Quicksilver is forced to go on the run through Paris, so that he might track down the real killer, clear his name, and save the woman he's loves from a most ill-advised trip to the moon - all befoer a terrorist known only as 'Le Papillon' brings the city to its knees.

(That's quite a long sentence, isn't it?)


6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It's published by Abaddon Books, who have published all my other Pax Britannia novels to date.


7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Now that's a hard one! The book was written in three distinct parts at three distinct times, over the course of about a year. But I suppose in total it took three months to write, which is pretty much how long any novel takes me to write.


8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

My other Pax Britannia books. ;-)

But seriously, I don't read particularly widely within the Steampunk genre for fear of subconsciously copying someone else's ideas. I've read George Mann's The Affinity Bridge, and Lavie Tidhar's The Bookman, but it's nothing like either of those.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Ulysses Quicksilver and his ongoing adventures, and the fans of the Pax Britannia series who had been so nice about my previous titles.


10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

As far as I am aware it is the first of its kind. Because it was written and published in three parts, after parts one and two became available, in each case fans were able to go online and vote for how they would like the story to continue. Their choices completely influenced the course of the adventure.

The challenge was making such a story seem like it had been written in one go when it was published in novel form. Of course, the only way to judge if I succeeded with this is to read the book yourself.


So that's me done. I'm now had to tag five other authors to take their turn at answering the questions for The Next Big Thing. As a result, next week you can read about the books coming out from John Craven's ghostwriter Cav Scott, literary mercenary Josh Reynolds, master of monsters C L Werner, World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar, and rising Black Library star Sarah Cawkwell.