Friday 20 April 2018

Gamebook Friday: Spellbreaker's 25th Anniversary

This June marks 25 years since my first ever book was published, the Fighting Fantasy adventure gamebook Spellbreaker.

I have many strong memories of the preceding year, during which I wrote the adventure, saw the illustrations coming in, proofed the typeset pages, and the first time I was presented with a copy by commissioning editor Richard Scrivener at Penguin Books' offices in London. I also remember seeing it on the bookshelf in WHSmith in Leamington Spa, and the subsequent parking ticket I received because I got distracted reading my own book in the shop!

Of course, Spellbreaker marking its silver jubilee also means that it's a quarter of century since I became a published author, and I've been published every year since*. The book I am currently writing - NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! - will be my 72nd published book**.

However, six weeks from today***, I will be at the UK Games Expo, selling copies of my ACE Gamebooks - Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland and The Wicked Wizard of Oz - as well as my history of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, YOU ARE THE HERO.


Anyone who buys a book from me at the event will be entered into a prize draw to mark 25 years since the publication of Spellbreaker. I'm not sure what the prize will be yet, but whatever it is, you've got to be in it to win it!

Maybe I'll see you at the UK Games Expo. :-)



* Even if, during a fallow period in the late Ninties to early Noughties, it was only in the form of magazine articles and short stories, written for Games Workshop, rather than actual books.

** Thank the Lord for Moshi Monsters!

*** And not six years, as I originally typed!

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