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Wednesday 22 February 2017

Four of the best


I'm so used to queuing these blog posts up months in advance -- "we'll have a gamebook piece followed by a scenario followed by game design theory..." -- that it's easy to overlook actual news when it happens. Luckily I was reminded by Andy Fletcher recently that the long-awaited new edition of the Dirk Lloyd books has finally arrived. Not only do the books boast new covers by dapper Dan Boultwood, illustrator of the DL strip in The Phoenix, but the original trilogy has now been joined by a fourth title, The Headmaster of Doom.

There's a story behind it, you'll be glad to hear. Jamie and I originally came up with the idea for a new book series called Grimmer Grammar, in which an ordinary boy called Arthur Tooms ends up at a creepy school for the undead. He has to pretend to be a zombie to fit in. The school has houses such as Charnel House, Slaughter House, Mad House, and so on, the kids sleep in "doomitories", and there are characters like Zom Brown, Lucretia Bitely, and Stitches the caretaker.

As you can see, we were aiming for comedy squarely along the lines of Dark Lord because that's what the publishers all seemed to expect, and in the end they turned out to want it in spades (rusty, mould-spotted, gravedigger spades) because they decided not to launch it as a new series but squeeze and pummel it until it fitted into a Dirk Lloyd shaped hole. And that's how come The Headmaster of Doom. All the laughs you would have got with Grimmer Grammar, and with all your favourite characters from the Dark Lord series too. Happiest days of your life (or death), so they say...

12 comments:

  1. For a second there I almost thought I could buy it and get it now... until I noticed that it's only a pre-order since the release date is in July! Well, serves me right for not keeping closer tabs on both you and Jamie for the last 12 months. Gosh, I really haven't visited this blog for THAT long...

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  2. Well, we're glad to have you back. Don't leave it so long next time, huh? I was surprised the US edition isn't available till July, but you can order the UK edition right now from Amazon.co.uk with the advantage that the pound is so weak against the dollar that it'll work out cheaper as well as quicker.

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  3. I'd had a few Singha beers that night, but reassuring to know I didn't miss that. At least John doesn't have to restart his run up...

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  4. You're doing my job for me, Andy. And btw it's been two months since I had a Singha beer or indeed alcohol in any form... my annual self-inflicted 80-day geis. I'm going to enjoy that drink when I get to it.

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  5. That takes some doing, Dave. I've managed 80 hours a few times this year. Any significance to 80 days?

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  6. Significance? Of course, Andy. It's from midnight on New Year's Eve to the spring equinox -- or my birthday, which is near enough the same thing.

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    1. Ah, didn't know that. I also didn't know what geis meant, although oddly Equinoxe by J-M Jarre was produced by Michel Geiss. Parts 4 and 5 are sublime. Your card will be lost in the post by the way!

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    2. What happens if you break your geis early Dave ? Will we all have to come and rescue you utilising Blood Sword book 4 ?

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    3. And I was listening to the latest Oxygène at David J W Bailey's house the other day. How's that for synchronicity? And thanks for the missing card, Andy. It's the thought that counts.

      The geis has never been broken, John, simply because I'm a fanatic by nature. But it does occur to me that to be a geis it really should come with a specified and preferably divine penalty - especially as it often feels like I have Apollo behind one shoulder and Dionysus behind t'other.

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    4. As for me, Dave, my patron is Athene, after a visit to the Parthenon 10 years ago this May (that's another story) though I think she invites Dionysus around quite a lot as I am writing this with a book in my left hand and a beer in my right (or they are what I will immediately be picking up as soon as I put this phone down). Jenny's Irish passport arrived today and I had a quick flick through it to see if there was a page for the noting of geis and consequences ...

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    5. That is a bit spooky, Dave. I'm not an avid fan so didn't know the third album had happened until you mentioned. Any good? Synchronicity? Don't get me started on The Police!

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    6. John, you've reminded me that I need to get on with that passport application. I got the hard part done (my grandad's birth certificate, which required great-grandma's maiden name) and then put it all in a drawer.

      Andy, I didn't even know there was an Oxygène 2, never mind a 3, but I did use to hear the original quite a lot back in the day because several OU AstroSoc members were fans. So it was stargazing in the icy night air followed by coffee, Jaffa cakes, and Jean-Michel Jarre.

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