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I just received a copy of Games Quarterly #12 in the mail. Among other wonderful things, it features an interview I conducted with actor Billy Campbell. I really enjoyed talking with Billy, and I think you’ll enjoy reading the results. The magazine also comes with articles by Jeff Tidball, Mike Selinker, and Mur Lafferty, plus an interview with Will Shortz, the puzzle master for the New York Times. Cap that off with short fiction by Ed Greenwood and a Settlers of Catan expansion called Fishermen of Catan, and you’ve got great value for your US $4.95.

My wife, Ann, is a school social worker in Janesville, Wisconsin. She works with grade-school and middle-school kids and supports homeless students throughout the district. Whenever I wonder about how useful what I do is—especially in the face of how screwed up society can be—I take solace that Ann’s out there fighting the good fight for the kids who need it most.

The Janesville Gazette just ran a three-part article about homeless students, and it includes some choice quotes from Ann. The pieces appeared on yesterday’s front page and today’s. If you’re interested in how my better half spends her days—mired in a reality that poses a stark contrast to my fiction—be sure to read the articles from Sunday (1 and 2) and Monday.

You may need to register for a free account to read some of the material. Either way, be sure to scroll down the page on Monday’s article to see a photo of Ann at work!

Recently, I needed to pick up a Nintendo DS Lite for a project I’m working on. It’s a great little machine. The PSP dominates it graphically, but the DS touch screen makes for a fun, innovative interface.

On a similar note, I embarked on a hunt for the Nintendo Wii. After a few days of searching, my pal Jason Blair tipped me off to a page on the Target website that gives in-stock information for stores near you. Using this, I found stock in Rockford, Illinois, only a half-hour drive from my house. Unfortunately, when I called to check on this, the people at the store denied they had any Wiis around.

I little more surfing found a comment that revealed that Target likes to hold on to its Wednesday stock until the evening. I called the same place on Thursday morning and discovered they had 15 units. After taking Patrick to the doctor for a previously scheduled appointment, he and I raced down and picked up one of the last three.

So far, we only have Wii Sports and Wii Play, but the kids just love it. The motion-sensing controllers are every bit as amazing as you might hope. Unfortunately, one of the controllers stopped sensing swings, which made playing baseball a bit one sided.

Fortunately, a Google search saved the day. It turns out the solution for dealing with an obstinate Wii controller is to turn it over and spank it with a sharp smack.

I wondered if this might be a gag to get people to break their remotes, but since ours was already broken, I figured I’d give it a shot. The first time I was too gentle, it seems, so I took a deep breath and whacked it good.

Viola! It worked!

I had a great time at the IGDA meeting in Madison on Wednesday night. The speaker, James Gee, did a fantastic job, with much of his hypotheses about gaming and learning dovetailing nicely with Raph Koster’s A Theory of Fun for Game Design and another project I’m working on. Tim Gerritsen and I sat on a panel with James at an academic seminar a couple years ago, but I left thinking he’d only scratched the surface of what his work is about. At the meeting, I got the full-bore version of it, and loved it.

I also won a new graphics card, courtesy of ATI. Now I can upgrade the old X600 I have to a shiny new Radeon X1300 PRO. To offset my good fortune, though, I got nicked for speeding on the way home.

This evening, I’ll be at the meeting of the Madison chapter of the IGDA. Our speaker is James Gee, a professor at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. If you’re a local member, I hope to see you at the Casbah tonight.

I’ve been authorized to reveal that I’m in the middle of writing The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creating Dungeons & Dragons Characters via IDW Publishing and Alpha Books, a division of Penguin. I hadn’t written any D&D or d20 material for a while, so this is a welcome return.

As a part of this project, I’m collecting a list of online resources and computerized aids that can help with creating D&D characters. I’m also collating a CD full of such things to go along with the book. If you’d like to share your favorites, please post them here—and send this notice far and wide too. Thanks!

I’m told that the deadline for submissions for the Origins Awards has been extended to March 1. See the press release after the cut.
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My next book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Manga Fantasy Creatures Illustrated, is scheduled for a May 1 release. Here’s a shot of the cover by the talented Tomoko Taniguchi (my co-creator on the book) to whet your appetite.

It’s one of the most colorful books I’ve ever worked on, by far. Given my list of credits, that’s stunning—in many ways.

One of the regular commenters around here—Brian Bird—and his friends have set up a writer’s group called the Carpal Tunnel Martyr’s Brigade. They started out as a Google group but now have set up a snazzy new website to promote themselves and their upcoming science-fiction zombies anthology, Dead Space. Stop by and check them out—or join if you’re so inclined. I’ve been checking on the Google group from time to time, and they’re a fun pack of people.

Al Franken declared his candidacy for the US Senate today, as a resident of the great state of Minnesota. Much more interesting—to me, at least—is the fact that my good pal John Nephew of Atlas Games also declared his candidacy for the city council of Maplewood, Minnesota.

It’s always great to see smart, articulate people get involved in the civic arena, and I applaud both John and Al for stepping up to these challenges.

Today, while staying home with three sick kids, I saw the new commercial for R.E.Vs. on Cartoon Network. Every time it came on, Marty used our ReplayTV to stop it and yell for me to come and watch. They look pretty slick and will hopefully help sell truckloads of these toys.

I’d love to help create more toys for the line and come up with more characters and stories for it. I still get a kick out of watching the animated comic that comes on the CD included with each toy, and I want to see more of that soon. In the meantime, MasterCollector.com has a page filled with photos of new Playmates toys due out this year. Scroll down to see some R.E.V.s, including Anarkist, who didn’t make it into the first batch.

My article in Escapist Magazine #83 hits screens today. According to the website’s front page, “A Prayer for Prey” is the issue’s featured article, and it’s available for free right now. Be sure to check it out, then stop back here and let me know what you think.

Mike Bohlmann tells me that he and his wife have started a new gaming website: Gamer Chicks Rule. While it’s aimed at female gamers, they happily accept readers and writers of all genders. Check it out.

Here’s something that we drink in my house that’s apparently only available in the Midwest and (for some reason) parts of Florida: Water Joe. It’s just what it sounds like: bottled water suffused with the writer’s wonder drug of choice, caffeine.

I’ve had some problems with acid reflux over the years, and doctors often advise me to restrict caffeine intake when that happens. Of course, one of the problems with caffeine isn’t the compound itself but what comes along with it. Sodas and coffees come with all sorts of other acids that can irritate your stomach too, so it’s hard to tell what’s actually causing the trouble. Water Joe is just pure, Wisconsin water with caffeine mixed in, and it’s as gentle as can be.

Otherwise, I often turn to coffee for my fix. Other than the occasional sip (or a ridealong with the police in Bell, CA), I didn’t start drinking coffee until a trip to Castellaneta, Italy, a few years back to celebrate my sister Jody’s wedding to her husband Nanni. While there, I did as the Italians did and knocked back enough espresso to kick my jet lag back across the ocean. I liked it, and when I got back home, I picked up a cheap espresso machine.

It sucked. I didn’t want to spend a fortune on a proper one, though, so I took up with regular coffee. I ended up back in Italy (in Bolzano) the next fall, after attending the wedding of my great friend Bill King in Prague. While there, I picked up one of these little aluminum coffee pots I saw in every household I visited in Italy: a Bialetti Moka Express.

Actually, I got a cheaper knock-off. As Jody said, “Would you like the Bialetti or this one, which is identical and 10 euros less?”

I grind my own beans, usually an Italian roast, and use the little machine to make a tasty, homestyle Italian espresso that doesn’t bother my belly a bit. I take it like I take my scotch: with not one other blessed thing.