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Although I worked for a couple years at Human Head Studios and served as the president of Pinnacle Entertainment Group as we developed a Deadlands computer game (that never quite made it), I’ve yet to have my name in the credits of a published computer game. It’s the nature of such things. I have friends who spent years of their lives working on computer games that never shipped.

For me, that changes on May 1 with the US release of ArmA: Combat Operations. The spiritual sequel to the smash hit Operation Flashpoint, ArmA: Combat Operations takes modern combat simulations to its highest level yet. I can’t wait to play it, and I hope you’ll enjoy it too.

I wrote the script for the voiceovers that play during the cutscenes before each mission begins, and I had a ball doing it. Best of all, I had the chance to work with my old friend Henrik Strandberg, formerly of Target Games fame. Henrik and I spent many years in the early ’90s working on games like Mutant Chronices, Warzone, and Doomtrooper. Now he’s a top producer with Atari, which publishes ArmA: Combat Operations among many other excellent games.

At the same time, I’m working on the novelization of the Mutant Chronicles film. Funny how it all seems to come full circle while still pressing on into new frontiers.

I just finished the first draft of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creating Dungeons & Dragons Characters. Whew! Wake me when it hits shelves.

This Saturday, I’ll be at Adepticon down in Schaumburg, Illinois. I don’t know my exact plans yet, but I suspect I’ll end up signing some books and taking part in a seminar or two. If you’re in the area, please stop on by and say hi!

It’s listed on Amazon, so it must be real. As you might guess, The Blood Bowl Omnibus will feature all three of the Blood Bowl trilogy of novels, plus an extra bit or two. Amazon lists the release date at November 27, which should give you enough time to read this monster of a book before the fourth novel arrives.

My pal Aaron Rosenberg reported today that David Honigsberg died this morning. I hadn’t seen David for years, but I commissioned his first professional RPG work from him many years ago, for the Cybertronic supplement for the Mutant Chronicles RPG. I had the pleasure of meeting him at a convention a few years after that, but our paths didn’t cross often enough.

Still, I kept track of David over the years. He was a man of a stunning variety of talents. Besides being an excellent writer, he was a guitarist and composer, both solo and with the Don’t Quit Your Day Job Players. To top it all off, he was a rabbi too. He handled the honors at Aaron’s wedding and at the naming ceremonies of Aaron’s two kids.

David had a heart attack six months ago and seemed to be recovering from it well, as you can see from his blog post about the subject, dated just six days ago. He was only 48. He leaves behind his loving wife Alexandra and a gaping hole in the world.

Farewell, David. We’ll miss you.

Here’s something else I’ve contributed to: Hobby Games: The 100 Best. This anthology, due out this summer from Green Ronin, features essays from scores of top game designers and writers on their favorite tabletop (or hobby) games.

See the full press release after the break.
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If it seems quiet around here, it’s because it’s anything but that in my house. I’m in the final throes of writing The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creating Dungeons & Dragons Characters. I’m about to dive into my fourth Blood Bowl novel. And I have the Mutant Chronicles film novelization on the line, screaming for my attention. In the meantime, I’m creating a series of puzzles and games for a new line of children’s books, and I just finished up two large pieces for my third computer game gig of the year.

Mix that in with school conferences, Marty’s play this weekend, planning for convention trips and summer vacations, and there’s precious little time for anything else. Still, I can’t complain. While my life may be filled to bursting, it’s filled with wonderful stuff.

In the interstitial bits, to keep me sane, I do and read what I can. Marty and I recently finished Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for the Nintendo DS, and we really enjoyed it. If you like mysteries, it works more like interactive manga than a regular computer game, but the story is as strong and compelling as anything in print. I polished off Scott McCloud’s excellent Making Comics, which completes his trifecta of must-read comics on comics. And at the moment Dan Simmons‘ The Crook Factory and James Farr’s Xombie (the new illustrated novel which just shipped!) are stomping through a cage match for my attention.

Whew! So, how you doing?

My son Marty is in a play here in Beloit next weekend (April 23–25) with KFAD (Kids Fun and Drama). It’s at the First Presbyterian Church at 7 PM Friday and Saturday and 1 PM on Sunday. Local acting legend Josh Burton directs the kids through a series of vignettes from selected works of Shakespeare. If you’re in the area, please join us.

I sometimes get notes from people looking for an agent. WritersDigest.com recently posted what looks to be a solid list of agents on the hunt for new authors. If you’re hoping to be hunted, check it out and see what you can do to put yourself in the path of the right agent.

Just a quick reminder that the fine folks at the Black Library have asked me to join them at Adepticon, a convention for Games Workshop fans. It’s held in Schaumburg, Illinois—just northwest of Chicago—from March 30–April 1. I’ll be there on Saturday, March 31, just over two weeks away.

Also, I just noticed that they’ve posted an interview with me on their website’s front page. You can also try a direct link to the PDF too.

My friend Jervis Johnson, creator of Blood Bowl and many other excellent games, will be there too. If you’re in the Midwest and love Games Workshop’s stuff, you can’t go wrong here.

In other news, it seems I’ll be a guest of honor again at this summer’s Gen Con. That’s in Indianpolis, from August 16–19, and I should be there for all four days.

According to Amazon.com, the book I’m writing right now—The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creating Dungeons & Dragons Characters—should hit shelves on December 4. I’m having more fun writing this book than I might have guessed. I have a lot of love for D&D, and it’s great to have a chance to examine the most basic part of the game in such depth.

Pulled an all-nighter on Thursday night, my first this year. I was asked to take part in our school district’s strategic planning session retreat, a two-day affair. Unfortunately, I had a deadline for a draft of a computer game script on Friday morning, so instead of going to bed between the two days of the retreat, I planted myself in front of my computer and wrote until I had to get the kids up to get them ready for school.

Amazingly, I discovered that one of the best ways to stay alert was to take regular breaks for 10-minute sessions on the Wii. There’s something about a quick boxing match on that machine that really wakes you up and gets you going again.

I’d heard that my Marvel Heroes Battle Dice game was doing well in Europe, but I didn’t know for sure what that meant. Malakai at PopDice.com dropped me a recent comment, though, that pointed out that the game is now selling in France. Apparently, there are some extra figures in the European set, which seem to be from Series 2, which was unreleased in North America.

I’m glad to see the game having a second life. Here’s hoping it keeps rolling!

The IAMTW has named the nominees for its inaugural set of Scribe Awards. See the full list after the cut. Sharp-eyed readers may notice that my Prophecy of the Dragon snagged an award for Best Young Adult Novel.

Also, Steve Sullivan, one of my fellow Alliterates, has a novel up for the same award. My pal Jeff Mariotte has novels up for two awards: Best Speculative Fiction Original Novel and Best General Fiction Original Novel. Several of my fellow Black Library authors—Steven Savile, Nathan Long, James Swallow, and Christa Faust—picked up nods too, as did my friend Alice Henderson.

Congratulations to all the nominees! Here’s to learning about the winners at this year’s Comic-Con.

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