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This week, I signed on with my first agent: Christi Cardenas of the Lazear Agency. Christi’s going to help me out with an original series that I’ve been pitching around. I can’t say more about it at the moment, but I’m ecstatic to partner up with her on this project.

The Lazear Agency is a small group with offices in Wisconsin and New York, which fits me fine. It also happens to represent Margaret Weis, Al Franken, and Jane Goodall, among several other notable authors. Many thanks to Margaret, who recommended I contact Christi in the first place.

My eldest son, Marty, turns eight years old today. It seems like he’s been with us forever, and at the same time it just can’t already have been that long. As I told him last night, he’s taught me a great deal about both being a father and being myself, and I’m grateful to have such a wonderful kid in my life.

Happy birthday, Marty!

Fellow Wisconsin son Jim Muraco asked me to put in a plug for his latest film It’s My House. It’s a documentary about strange and cool houses in the Midwest, mostly in Wisconsin and particularly in Milwaukee. Think of it as Cribs: Brewtown. Or not—I haven’t seen the movie yet myself. With luck, it’ll be ready in January, a perfect piece to view while snowed in.

Speaking of which, I spent the morning toting around a sick preschooler and putting a soaking-wet Christmas tree up in the house. It’s been raining here since my stepmother dropped the tree off last night (she and my father supply all the local family members with swank holiday lumber), and normally I’d have waited for the water to let up. However, we have rain forecast all day, followed by thunderstorms and capped off with three to five inches of snow tonight.

Better to move around in the wet than the snow. Wisconsin’s winter will be here soon enough.

The ever-excellent Escapist concentrates on Microsoft in a series of articles this week. Best of all, they interview my friend Jordan Weisman for two of them. The first is about how Jordan sold FASA Interactive to Microsoft and how that worked out. The second paints Jordan’s career with broader strokes, from FASA through to 42 Entertainment. Both are great reads.

Speaking of which, I received a free copy of Cathy’s Book (by Jordan and fellow 42 Entertainment writer Sean Stewart) in the mail the other day, from a marketing company hired to push the book through blogs and other online venues. I haven’t had a chance to dig into it yet, but I’m looking forward to it. (Ironically, I’d ordered the book for myself—and paid for it—when the offer for the free copy came through. Sadly, the extra is already spoken for.) If you’ve had a chance to check it out, let me know what you think!

Back when I worked for Human Head Studios, the company paid for all of the employees to be members of the International Game Developers Association. When I left in 2004, I let my membership lapse, but I recently rejoined again. I just updated my member profile, most of which I lifted generously from my own site, of course.

My pal Robin Laws is collecting Gen Con stories for a book on the con of all cons, to be published by Atlas Games. I’d be sick with jealousy, but this is Robin. Not only is he a friend, but I know he’ll do at least as good a job as I could have hoped to. This way, I can sit back and indulge in the book when it debuts next summer, just in time for the 40th Gen Con.

Robin has already interviewed all sorts of professionals for the book. I chipped in more than a few anecdotes myself—some of which may not be suitable for public consumption. Right now, though, he’s looking for Gen Con accounts from non-professional attendees (fans).

If you have a great memory of Gen Con you think should be shared with the world, here’s your chance. If you have the right story, you’ll not only get to chat with Robin (always a treat to be savored) but get to see him immortalize your tale in print. And then I’ll be able to enjoy it too.

One thing that having kids—especially quadruplets—pounds into my skull is the value of gratitude. There’s so much to be thankful for in my life, no matter what struggles I may have, and the good outshines the bad like the sun outdoes the moon at noon. I’m always at my happiest when I think more on what I have than what I don’t.

I have lost ambitions like anyone else. I’ve had dreams shattered, hearts broken, and illusions smashed. But the failures only serve to highlight the successes and make them jump out that much farther.

Thanksgiving takes on special significance in that light. Here’s hoping that you all have many things to be thankful for in your lives. Even if you may not think you do, putting aside a day—or even a meal—to be thankful for all you do have is worth your time.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Yesterday, I drove up to Madison for the first big meeting of the new local chapter of the IGDA (International Game Developers Association). (That’s computer games, for those keeping score at home.) Alex Seropian (founder of Bungie Software and Wideload Games) gave a great speech about the new business model he and his partners are using for Wideload, which seems strikingly close to how small tabletop game developers have had to work for years. (In a nutshell: Outsource everything you can.)

I also got to catch up with some old friends. This including a good-sized posse from Human Head, including Tim Gerritsen, Chris Rhinehart, Jeff DeWitt, Rowan Attala, and Mike Craddick. Rowan and Jeff recently formed their own studio, Big Rooster, from which I expect great things soon.

All in all, I had a great time, and I got to meet all sorts of new people too. I’ve not done a whole lot with computer games in the past—especially compared to my labors in the tabletop industry—but I suspect that may change in the near future.

I had an amazing weekend, a strange combination of family, politics, football, drama, and even games.
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Late last week, a package showed up from Ace Books with my copies of The Silent Enemy by Richard Knaak. This is the last of the Age of Conan series of novels I edited for Ace and Conan Properties, and it’s a doozy. Richard does a great job with taking the hero from his first two Age of Conan novels in the Aquilonian trilogy right to the edge. If you’re a fan of Hyborian stories, be sure to check it out.

I had a great time working with Ace editor Ginjer Buchanan on these books. With any luck, this won’t be the last time we have the chance to do so, whether on Conan or some other books.

My pal Charles Ryan set up a quiz that answers the question, “What kind of roleplayer are you?” It’s based on Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering by my friend Robin Laws.

I take quizzes like this for fun sometimes, but I rarely publish the results. (After all, do you care which superhero I’m most like?) This time, though, the quiz is on topic enough to make an exception, especially given who’s behind it.

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GamingReport.com is, bar none, the best news site out there for the tabletop gaming industry. (ICv2.com rocks too, but it covers comics and manga as well, and its coverage of games isn’t as broad, mostly because it’s aimed at retailers, not players.) F+W Publications, owners of Scrye and Comics & Games Retailer just bought it.

This makes good sense for F+W because they barely have an online presence. This gives them a strong foothold in the World Wide Web, prebuilt and with a relatively large, passionate audience. Congratulations to James Mishler, Joyce Greenholt, and John Jackson Miller, the people now in charge.

On the other hand, this buyout means the exit of Dan Sivils, the founder of GamingReport.com, who did an amazing job keeping the site rolling for nearly eight years. It seems Dan needed to get out from under the burden of running such a large site—a burden he clearly enjoyed—though, so F+W plays the white knight here, rescuing the site from closure or some other terrible fate.

Good luck, Dan, in wherever life takes you and your wife Jennifer next. And congratulations to James, Joyce, and John. It’s good to see GamingReport.com land in such good hands.

The latest issue (#11) of Games Quarterly Magazine just showed up in my mailbox. This issue features my interview with Anthony Zuiker, the creator of CSI. A Las Vegas latchkey kid, Anthony created over 500 tabletop games as a kid, and his first published effort hit shelves this fall: CSI: Senses. Be sure to check it out.

The Haunted Castle (my adventure for Faery’s Tale) received a kind review on RPGNow.com. The reviewer transformed it into a d20 adventure and loved it. Currently, the slim and inexpensive PDF is the #3 best seller for Ronin Arts via RPGNow.com.