The Kickstarter project ran close to the wire. With only two days to go before the all-or-nothing deadline, I had pledges for only 20% of the target. Although both the I Ching and Tarot predicted a favourable outcome, common sense told me it would take a miracle for the remaining funds — several thousand euros — to come in.
The following day, the miracle occurred. A single pledge came in to cover the outstanding amount needed to reach the target.
The funding was backed by the estate of a dear friend of mine who had died a few years earlier. The executors had decided she would have wanted the project to succeed and made a pledge on her behalf. So the spirit of my old friend made it possible for me to lay the ghost of my fictional Pharaoh.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Monday, May 20, 2019
Crowd-funding a Ghost
My latest project - to lay the ghost of an Egyptian Pharaoh who has been haunting me for more than thirty years - is currently active on Kickstarter. It’s a spooky story. The ghost is determined to have his story told and has given me no peace. I've written and re-written the story in various ways.... some almost published before something prevented it. So, in this final rewrite, the pharaoh’s biography runs as a thread through Traveller From An Antique Land, a science fiction novel I'm crowd-funding to publish myself.
Please click on the link below to take a look - and hopefully support, share and pledge - if this interests you. Thank you!
Wednesday, October 01, 2014
The Fire*Wolf Saga
Back in the good old days of the early 1980s when my GrailQuest series of gamebooks was (literally) selling in the millions, I was struck by the sort of revelation that only comes to those who don’t get out enough. As I recall it now, my thought processes went something like this:
Gamebooks generally were all the rage among children at the time, but my fan mail suggested children weren’t the only ones reading them. (I had a couple of letters from university professors.) Was it not possible, I asked myself, that there might be a market for an adult gamebook series? I set my agent -— Murray Pollinger in those distant days -— to finding a publisher who would agree; and he swiftly succeeded.
Having had what might well have been a good idea, I proceeded to change it. Gamebooks, as you know, are almost always written in the second person, present tense. In other words, you are the hero. But I felt this was far too unsophisticated for an adult market and decided my new series would be the world’s first interactive novel, written, like any self-respecting novel, in the third person, past tense.
Thus was born the Sagas of the Demonspawn a traditional sword and sorcery fantasy featuring the barbarian Fire*Wolf, whose asterisk represented a glottal stop in the way his people pronounced his name.
Needless to say, while it was indeed the world’s first interactive novel, the buoyant adult market I expected never actually materialised. To my astonishment, it sold well enough, but to the same young gamers who were buying GrailQuest.
That was the first time Fire*Wolf surprised me. Today is the second. Because today Tin Man officially published The Complete Sagas of Fire*Wolf, which contains all four Demonspawn books in a single app. This is Fire*Wolf in an electronic loincloth and I never thought I’d live to see the day.
Wish me luck and buy the app. There are versions available for download from the iOS App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore for Android. The sagas are also available for PC, Mac, Linux and Android via the Humble Widget on the Gamebook Adventures website: http://gamebookadventures.com/gamebooks/the-complete-sagas-of-firewolf.
Gamebooks generally were all the rage among children at the time, but my fan mail suggested children weren’t the only ones reading them. (I had a couple of letters from university professors.) Was it not possible, I asked myself, that there might be a market for an adult gamebook series? I set my agent -— Murray Pollinger in those distant days -— to finding a publisher who would agree; and he swiftly succeeded.
Having had what might well have been a good idea, I proceeded to change it. Gamebooks, as you know, are almost always written in the second person, present tense. In other words, you are the hero. But I felt this was far too unsophisticated for an adult market and decided my new series would be the world’s first interactive novel, written, like any self-respecting novel, in the third person, past tense.
Thus was born the Sagas of the Demonspawn a traditional sword and sorcery fantasy featuring the barbarian Fire*Wolf, whose asterisk represented a glottal stop in the way his people pronounced his name.
Needless to say, while it was indeed the world’s first interactive novel, the buoyant adult market I expected never actually materialised. To my astonishment, it sold well enough, but to the same young gamers who were buying GrailQuest.
That was the first time Fire*Wolf surprised me. Today is the second. Because today Tin Man officially published The Complete Sagas of Fire*Wolf, which contains all four Demonspawn books in a single app. This is Fire*Wolf in an electronic loincloth and I never thought I’d live to see the day.
Wish me luck and buy the app. There are versions available for download from the iOS App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore for Android. The sagas are also available for PC, Mac, Linux and Android via the Humble Widget on the Gamebook Adventures website: http://gamebookadventures.com/gamebooks/the-complete-sagas-of-firewolf.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
New Emag
There’s a new emag stalking across the plains of cyberspace. It’s called Innovate, I’ve just seen the first copy and I can thoroughly recommend it. (And not just because it’s running an interview with me and a lovely review of Whisperers.)
Rush out (or stay at your computer) and buy your copy now. Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and, I suspect, all good emag outlets.
Rush out (or stay at your computer) and buy your copy now. Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and, I suspect, all good emag outlets.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Whisperers Now OFFICIALLY on Sale in the UK
It’s publication day, hurrah, hurrah and the Duckworth edition of Whisperers: The Secret History of the Spirit World should be available throughout the length and breadth of the British Isles. I urge you to rush out and buy a copy in aid of the Help Make Herbie Rich and Famous project.
Oh, and reader reviews on the internet would be helpful too.
Oh, and reader reviews on the internet would be helpful too.
Saturday, November 09, 2013
Whisperers Now On Sale in U.K.
Early copies of my non-fiction study of spirit influence on human history, Whisperers: the Secret History of the Spirit World are now on sale on Amazon UK. Although the U.K.’s Duckworth edition isn’t scheduled for publication until November 21, Amazon U.K. has it listed as in stock now at more than a pound cheaper than the U.S. edition which is also listed.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Gamebook News
I see the boys at Megara Entertainment in Seattle are predicting a gamebook resurgence. To celebrate, they’re planning a collector’s edition of The Way of the Tiger, a welcome revival of Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson’s hugely popular 1980s gamebook series. Interestingly, the project is being funded through Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1615043334/the-way-of-the-tiger-gamebooks-new-collectors-edit ) with a heap of pledges already in place, which suggests Megara are right about the growing number of game book fans out there, You can get the whole story in their Press release at http://richardhetley.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/tiger-gamebook-press-release.pdf
Meanwhile the launch of my own electronic game book projects (Demonspawn and GrailQuest) with Tin Man in Australia have been delayed until next year to allow their technical team time to develop a new and more sophisticated games engine. It’ll be worth the wait.
Meanwhile the launch of my own electronic game book projects (Demonspawn and GrailQuest) with Tin Man in Australia have been delayed until next year to allow their technical team time to develop a new and more sophisticated games engine. It’ll be worth the wait.
Thursday, August 01, 2013
Whisperers Ebook on Way
For some reason, people have been asking me if an ebook version of Whisperers: The Secret History of the Spirit World was on the cards and in my usual vague way, I didn’t really have a clue. But I do now, thanks to the sterling investigative work of my literary agent, Ms. Sophie Hicks of Ed Victor Ltd. In the U.S. there’s an ebook in production at the moment, scheduled for issue next month (September) with an ebook of the U.K. version to be published in November to coincide with the British hardback.
Meanwhile, sales of and comments on the U.S. hardback, published in June, continue to be lively.
Meanwhile, sales of and comments on the U.S. hardback, published in June, continue to be lively.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Free Read
There’s a piece of mine you can read for free at http://www.smartpopbooks.com/the-war-of-light-and-darkness/ until next Tuesday. It’s up there promoting an anthology on C. S. Lewis I had the honour of editing a little while ago. If you’re interested in an esoteric viewpoint on the Second World War, grab the opportunity to read it now. After Tuesday you’ll only get an extract.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Whisperers: the Secret History of the Spirit World is on sale NOW
The title of this post says it all. It’s available on-line in US and UK, available in good US bookshops. Rush out and buy your copy instantly.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Kirkus on Whisperers
Kirkus Reviews, the premier book evaluation site, has concluded that my ‘deftly corralled, intriguing research (for Whisperers: The Secret History of the Spirit World) translates into unsettling, if academically written, “proof” of the existence of spiritual suggestion.’
The review concludes, ‘Certain hokum for skeptics, but the more open-minded will savor this chillingly convincing testimonial.’
You can read the full review at...
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jh-brennan/whisperers/
The review concludes, ‘Certain hokum for skeptics, but the more open-minded will savor this chillingly convincing testimonial.’
You can read the full review at...
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jh-brennan/whisperers/
Shameless Plug
Whisperers: The Secret History of the Spirit World is published in the States tomorrow, but you can rush to order your copy from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk right now.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Whisperers Reviews
Publishers Weekly, who, I must say, are usually kind to me, broke their usual pattern with a pre-publication review of Whisperers: The Secret History of the Spirit World which they described as ‘dreary’ and ‘unremarkable.’ Lest you find this as off-putting as I do, you might like to balance the opinion against some other pre-publication reviews from a few of my fellow authors...
“Impeccable research, firm grasp of history, and clarity of writing reconfirm J.H. Brennan as the expert in the field of the paranormal.” -—Steve Peek, author of Coyote Dreaming
“J.H. Brennan is an expert storyteller who paints an often terrifying picture of how human destiny has regularly been changed forever by individuals convinced they were in communication with intelligences from beyond. In Whisperers, Brennan has created a unique and timely history of spirit voices that is both brilliant and utterly chilling.” -—Andrew Donkin, coauthor of The Terminal Man
"Highly readable…Here is the history that you didn’t learn about in the classroom…a challenging and thought-provoking book." --Christopher McIntosh, Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Exeter and author of The Rosicrucians
"From the hair-raising to the eyebrow-raising, this is a scintillating account of meetings with spirits through history. Whisperers takes us from an Egyptian guide to summoning Anubis, through a haunted house in ancient Athens, to the black books of the Middle Ages. It chronicles early anthropologists being hoodwinked by shamans, and gives an account of an area where so much has been written, Nazi occultism, that inspires confidence as well as horror. Hats off to J.H. Brennan!" --Jonathan Black, author of The Secret History of the World
“J.H. Brennan is an expert storyteller who paints an often terrifying picture of how human destiny has regularly been changed forever by individuals convinced they were in communication with intelligences from beyond. In Whisperers, Brennan has created a unique and timely history of spirit voices that is both brilliant and utterly chilling.” -—Andrew Donkin, coauthor of The Terminal Man
"Highly readable…Here is the history that you didn’t learn about in the classroom…a challenging and thought-provoking book." --Christopher McIntosh, Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Exeter and author of The Rosicrucians
"From the hair-raising to the eyebrow-raising, this is a scintillating account of meetings with spirits through history. Whisperers takes us from an Egyptian guide to summoning Anubis, through a haunted house in ancient Athens, to the black books of the Middle Ages. It chronicles early anthropologists being hoodwinked by shamans, and gives an account of an area where so much has been written, Nazi occultism, that inspires confidence as well as horror. Hats off to J.H. Brennan!" --Jonathan Black, author of The Secret History of the World
Whisperers will be published in the United States on June 13 and in the U.K. in November.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Whisperers On Sale Soon
I haven’t published any serious non-fiction for more than a decade, but that’s about to change on June 13 when Overlook Hardbacks in New York bring out Whisperers: The Secret History of the Spirit World in the U.S. with a U.K. edition due from Duckworth in London in November. It’s a book I’ve been writing on and off for forty years, presenting what I genuinely believe to be a wholly new and different view of human history.
The seed was sown in the early 1970s while I was researching a book on occult practice in Nazi Germany. One of the things I discovered then was that Heinrich Himmler held seances in the crypt of Quedlinburg Cathedral to seek the advice of the Medieval king Heinrich the Fowler on political matters.
This struck me as chilling. Himmler was head of the SS and Gestapo and the man ultimately in charge of the so-called ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Problem’ a programme of industrialised murder that cost 6 million lives. Could the Reichfuhrer really have based his life and death decisions on the whisperings of a spirit?
He could and he did and he wasn’t the only one. Over the years I gradually unearthed more and more evidence that throughout the course of human history, politicians and popes, messiahs and kings, world leaders of every political and religious persuasion have been guided by voices from the Beyond. Which means that your life and mine have been indirectly influenced by entities we know nothing about and may not even believe in.
Once you reach that conclusion, an obvious question presents itself. What exactly are the Whisperers? There are many answers. Psychologists usually insist they are nothing more than unconscious contents — fantasies and wish-fulfilments — erupting into consciousness as pseudo-personalities. Spiritualists claim they are spirits of the dead. The religiously-minded see them as God, gods, angels or other sacred entities. None of these notions is particularly satisfactory, so I set out to investigate the question for myself.
The result was an intellectual journey with a completely unexpected ending.
It’s all in the book, folks. You can pre-order your copy from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
The seed was sown in the early 1970s while I was researching a book on occult practice in Nazi Germany. One of the things I discovered then was that Heinrich Himmler held seances in the crypt of Quedlinburg Cathedral to seek the advice of the Medieval king Heinrich the Fowler on political matters.
This struck me as chilling. Himmler was head of the SS and Gestapo and the man ultimately in charge of the so-called ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Problem’ a programme of industrialised murder that cost 6 million lives. Could the Reichfuhrer really have based his life and death decisions on the whisperings of a spirit?
He could and he did and he wasn’t the only one. Over the years I gradually unearthed more and more evidence that throughout the course of human history, politicians and popes, messiahs and kings, world leaders of every political and religious persuasion have been guided by voices from the Beyond. Which means that your life and mine have been indirectly influenced by entities we know nothing about and may not even believe in.
Once you reach that conclusion, an obvious question presents itself. What exactly are the Whisperers? There are many answers. Psychologists usually insist they are nothing more than unconscious contents — fantasies and wish-fulfilments — erupting into consciousness as pseudo-personalities. Spiritualists claim they are spirits of the dead. The religiously-minded see them as God, gods, angels or other sacred entities. None of these notions is particularly satisfactory, so I set out to investigate the question for myself.
The result was an intellectual journey with a completely unexpected ending.
It’s all in the book, folks. You can pre-order your copy from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
Sunday, January 06, 2013
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Thursday, December 20, 2012
GrailQuest announcement
It’s happened at last! My GrailQuest game book series from the 1980s is going digital. Here’s the official announcement from Tin Man games...
http://tinmangames.com.au/blog/
http://tinmangames.com.au/blog/
Saturday, December 08, 2012
Fire*Wolf
Tin Man have just made their first announcement about their plans to bring my game books into the 21st Century as some of the most fantastic apps you are ever going to see on your computer, tablet or phone. Here’s the URL so you can read it for yourself:
http://tinmangames.com.au/blog/?p=2762
I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about this. Another announcement due soon.
http://tinmangames.com.au/blog/?p=2762
I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about this. Another announcement due soon.
Thursday, November 08, 2012
Fantastic New Gamebook Project
I’ve a soft spot for game books. I wrote a few of my own back in the 80s. Tin Man will be reissuing them as apps before too long, incidentally. But that’s by the by. The reason I’m posting today is I’ve just got news of a hugely exciting project in this area. An outfit called Megara Entertainment are currently working on a game book called Arcana Agency: The Thief of Memories about a paranormal detective agency.
There’s been a bit of a game book revival recently, so no surprise there. But what makes this one special (apart from a quirky third-person plot line) is that these guys plan to bring the book out in hard back and full colour throughout. That’s a real collector’s item for gamers.
You can preorder your copy and help the whole project come to fruition at http://kck.st/TQX6gr. Check it out now.
There’s been a bit of a game book revival recently, so no surprise there. But what makes this one special (apart from a quirky third-person plot line) is that these guys plan to bring the book out in hard back and full colour throughout. That’s a real collector’s item for gamers.
You can preorder your copy and help the whole project come to fruition at http://kck.st/TQX6gr. Check it out now.
Friday, November 02, 2012
Secret Prophecy Amazon Book of the Month
Just got the news. Amazon has selected The Secret Prophecy as a best book of the month for Middle Grade for
November!
BOM picks receive additional marketing support with month long rotating
ads, carousels, additional quick promo links on the book page &
email blasts to potential readers. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Amazon.
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