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Allen Stroud is a researcher and university lecturer at Coventry University. He is currently leading the Creative Futures project, a funded research partnership between Coventry University and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL). Previously, he was Course Leader for the BA Media (Hons) Top Up and BA (Hons) Media and Communications. Before that, he was the course leader for Film and Television Production and the Creative Writing for Publication degrees at
Bucks New University Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) is a public university in Buckinghamshire, England, with campuses in High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Uxbridge and Great Missenden. The institution dates from 1891, when it was founded as the School of Science and Art, ...
. Up until the end of 2019, he was the editor of the '' British Fantasy Society Journal.'' He also composes instrumental music; however, Stroud is best known for his sci-fi
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
novels and video game writing. He was the 2017 and 2018 chair of Fantasycon, the annual convention of the British Fantasy Society, which hosts the ''
British Fantasy Awards The British Fantasy Awards (BFA) are awarded annually by the British Fantasy Society (BFS), first in 1976. Prior to that they were known as The August Derleth Fantasy Awards (see August Derleth Award). First awarded in 1972 (to ''The Knight of S ...
.'' In 2017, Stroud completed a Ph.D. at the University of Winchester entitled ''An Investigation and Application of Writing Structures and World Development Techniques in Science Fiction and Fantasy.'' In June 2019, Allen Stroud became Chair of the British Science Fiction Association, taking over from Donna Bond.


Video games

Stroud first became known for his video game writing with his work on world-building and novelisation of
Video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s such as '' Elite: Dangerous''. For ''Elite: Dangerous,'' he wrote six guidebooks that inform the fictional narrative within the game and also serve to help other writers with the novelisation of their stories within the game's world. He also became a founding and continuing host of ''Lave Radio,'' a free podcast related to '' Elite: Dangerous'' that started in February 2013. His novelisation of the ''Elite: Dangerous'' game world began after he completed a successful
Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
campaign for the novel, ''Elite: Lave Revolution.'' Stroud is now working on a team which is developing a
role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...
set in the ''Elite: Dangerous'' game world. Stroud's next video game world-building and novelisation work occurred with the development of ''
Chaos Reborn ''Chaos Reborn'' is a turn-based tactical role-playing game developed by Snapshot Games and was part funded through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in April 2014. Following an early access release in December 2014, the full game was released ...
''. For ''Chaos Reborn,'' he worked collaboratively with the game's designer,
Julian Gollop Julian Gollop is a British computer game designer and producer specialising in strategy games, who has founded and led Mythos Games, Codo Technologies and Snapshot Games. He is known best as the "man who gave birth to the '' X-COM'' franchise." ...
, to devise history and lore for the game world. In 2017, Stroud worked with Gollop and Jonas Kyratzes to develop the
dystopia A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...
n world in the game '' Phoenix Point''. Many of Stroud's short stories for ''Phoenix Point'' have been made available to readers for free.


Books and stories

Stroud has written for a variety of different short story anthologies. In 2016, his story "The Last Tank Commander" appeared in ''Crises and Conflicts'' from Newcon Press. Baen Books Editor David Afshariad selected this for the 2017 edition of ''The Year's Best Military & Adventure SF''. Stroud's story "Reader" appears in Alice Macklin's 2017 anthology ''Read This First''. In 2018, Stroud's story "Dancers" was included in ''2001: An Odyssey in Words'' published by Newcon Press. This is an anthology published to commemorate the 100th birthday of the late
Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...
and features work by
Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...
, China Miéville, Peter Hamilton, Stephen Baxter (author), Alastair Reynolds and
Pat Cadigan Patricia Oren Kearney Cadigan (born September 10, 1953) is a British-American science fiction author, whose work is most often identified with the cyberpunk movement. Her novels and short stories often explore the relationship between the human ...
amongst others. In 2020, Grimbold Books published''Forgotten Sidekicks'' which features Stroud's short story, "Saving Simon" - a spiritual successor to John Wagner's 1981 short story "Sinful Simon".


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stroud, Allen 21st-century composers 21st-century British writers Academics of Buckinghamshire New University British fantasy writers British magazine editors British male writers British male composers British science fiction writers Academics of Coventry University Living people People from High Wycombe Video game writers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century British male musicians