Not so black and white

I've just done an interview for the Exeter University student newspaper, Exeposé, in which I talk about interactive fiction, games, comics and future projects.

The main focus is my recent reworking of Frankenstein as a (sort of) gamebook. That's still available in the App Store but, if iOS isn't the apple of your eye, it's not long now before we'll be releasing the epub3 and Kindle versions. These have been coded by Spirit Entertainment, the developers of the new FL apps.

Here is the moment when the monster, having spent a whole year hidden in an outhouse adjoining the home of the De Lacy family, tries out the clothing he has made himself in preparation for finally meeting them:

You hang around the border of the woods at daybreak until you see a man with a scythe walking on the far side of the field. He is a long way off. Stepping out from the trees, you raise your hand in greeting. 

And he waves back. He waves. A simple gesture that men make to each other every day. It means more to you than anything you can remember. Your heart is pounding in elation as you turn back into the enveloping comfort of the woods.

So where was I? Oh yes, the interview was conducted by Tom Bond and Emily Lunn, Exeposé's books editors, and you can read it here. Just below the interview, there's also a review of the app (or ebook as we must soon call it) which gives a thumbs up - though here's yet another reviewer with a knee-jerk dislike of Victor Frankenstein. Where are people ingesting this dogma? The story of Frankenstein and his monster is much more interesting than simple good guy/bad guy. Victor is irresponsible, yes, and that's tackled at several points in my version, particularly in the dinner conversation with Professor Waldman. But the monster does murder three innocent people in Mary Shelley's novel - and may or may not murder up to four people in my version, depending on the level of alienation you encourage. The tragedy is that Victor and the monster destroy each other, emotionally, morally and at last literally. You want a simple good versus evil story, read Dracula.

I'm yakking away on pages 23-24, but there's plenty of other good stuff in there worth a look, including an interview with Peter Molyneux about his new company 22Cans. Curious? You will be.

A shark going forward

I'm used to the idea that most visitors to this blog are really only interested in Fabled Lands news, maybe with a side order of 1990s gamebooks - and hey, I'm not knocking it. It's nice to have your work appreciated, even if it is sixteen-year-old work. But I didn't retire or anything, and naturally I think I'm a better writer now than I was back then, so I hope the hardcore gamebook fans will allow me the occasional indulgence of talking about what I'm working on nowadays.

One such project is of course Frankenstein, which came out earlier this year on iPad and iPhone. I'm right now working with Spirit Entertainment (the new FL app developers) on Kindle and EPUB versions of that, which should be published by Profile Books this autumn. And next year there might even be a print edition - which is not easy, because this is an interactive novel rather than a gamebook, so telling the reader about the characters' degree of alienation or trust is not exactly conducive to the literary experience. But I'll see if I can figure something out.

And then there's my ongoing comics epic Mirabilis: Year of Wonders, created with Leo Hartas and Martin McKenna. This is my labour of love. The work that I would still do if I was stranded on a desert island with no one to read it.

Recently Mirabilis was released on the NOOK and in the iBookstore, but the important scoop du jour is that it's just out on Kindle and for this week only the first two issues are discounted down to - oh, absolutely free. Well, how about that. There's never been a better time to try it out. And if you like it, let me know. Writers are more like cats than sharks, you know. We like to be stroked.

Our Valentine's present to you

These Kindle giveaway offers (for Frankenstein's Legions and Abraxas) have been proving popular, and I'm still too snowed under with work on my Frankenstein interactive novel to be blogging regularly, so here's a new free promo. The Kindle book in question this time is The Lost Prince, a fantasy adventure novel for 8-12 year-olds by Jamie Thomson (author of the best-selling Dark Lord: The Teenage Years - as if you needed to be told that).

The Lost Prince is set in the world of Harkuna and closely parallels our Fabled Lands books. You can find it on Amazon UK here and US here, and it's free from Saturday Feb 11 to Wednesday Feb 15 inclusive, starting midnight LA time. Here's an extract:

"Gasping back tears of horror and anger, Varren shimmied his way down the well. In the circle of light above his head three ugly, scarred, war-bitten faces appeared, staring down at him. One of them was readying his crossbow. Varren released his grip and fell straight down into the water. A crossbow quarrel whooshed into the water next to him. He hauled himself out, and into a side tunnel just above the water level. He’d used this way in and out of the castle for years. He hurried off down the tunnel, the sounds of battle fading away behind him."

Other news in brief: I've been reading the first part of Frankenstein on iPad, and a very beautiful piece of work it is by developer/design outfit Inkle Studios, who we're planning to do more with in the very near future. I'm also told by Spirit Entertainment that their version of The War-Torn Kingdom will be out on Android, Kindle and Kindle Fire in a little over a month's time, and there should be more platforms following after that. And Jamie is currently going through the proofs for the US edition of Dark Lord, coming out from Bloomsbury later in the year. They changed cricket to baseball, would you believe? (Dirk's favourite ballgames are head hurling and scythe hockey, so he probably won't mind.)

The shape of the universe

Have a guess what this is. Give up? Okay, it's the flowchart for Fabled Lands book one: The War Torn Kingdom. It was created by Spirit Entertainment, the company who are currently adapting the first six FL books for Android, browsers and (we hope) Kindle. These titles are scheduled for next Easter and, as soon as I can get the nod from Spirit supremo Steve Iles, I'll unveil some of the stupendous artwork his team have been creating. I promise you, you'll be blown away.

While you're waiting, here's something to keep your gamebook muscles exercised. Christmas is upon us and, just like last year, we have a little gift for you. Come back tomorrow and all will be revealed. But don't get too distracted by turkey and mince pies, because it's for a very limited time only. By Boxing Day it'll just be a melted puddle...