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The Diana Jones Award committee is proud to announce this year’s shortlist for the award. Congratulations to all those people and products that made the shortlist!

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This Monday night, July 2, 2007, join me in a live radio show on Geekerati Radio at 7 PM PDT. Geekerati is the brainchild of Christian Johnson, frequent commenter on this website and head wrangler of the excellent and intelligent Cinerati blog as well, where you can find the full details.

While I’m perfectly happy to blather on with Christian for hours and have done so in the past, this will be even more fun if people (that’s you folks) join us for the event. As an incentive, Christian will be giving away a number of free copies of both Blood Bowl and The Road to Death to some of the lucky callers.

So, if you want to chat about books, games, and more, and wouldn’t mind ending up with a free book or two to boot, be sure to mark it on your calendar and then call up to say hi. Hope to hear from you soon!

I’ve finally been given clearance to mention one of my favorite upcoming projects. Earlier this year, I worked with the fine people at High Voltage Software on a brand-new video game based on the hilarious Cartoon Network show Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. It’s slated to be released this fall for both the PS2 and the PSP.

I had an absolute blast working on this game. At the moment, I’m not allowed to say anything that’s not been publicly announced, or I’d be lavishing my talented co-designers with praise and cackling wildly about the incredible actors who will be voicing our dialog. However, as has been reported elsewhere, the game is being published by Capcom, creators of the excellent Phoenix Wright series of courtroom-drama games for the Nintendo DS. It’s going to rock, and I can’t wait to play it.

From reliable sources, I’ve heard that Dan Matheson died last Sunday from a heart attack. Most people in the gaming industry know Dan from his decades as the warehouse manager of Black Hawk Hobby Distributors, located in northern Illinois, just south of my home here in Beloit. That’s where I met him.

Black Hawk was the first game distributor I ever visited, back when I was all of 16 years old, and I had a short-lived fanzine I wanted to flog. I drove out to the barn that used to serve as the company warehouse before a fire took it in 1988, and I met Cliff Wilson, the owner, who told me he couldn’t carry it. Even so, I learned a lot from both Cliff and Dan over the years.

Cliff passed on of a heart attack himself, back in 1997, crashing his car as he tried to drive himself to the hospital. They were both that kind of stubborn and tough, honest men who were always ready to point out when you’d done something wrong and shake your hand when you’d done right.

Dan retired in 2005, but I still saw him at conventions from time to time, and even pulled up next to him at a stop light here in town once or twice. Most of the time I knew him, he had a beard that would have made Gandalf jealous. I only ever saw him without it once, and he had it back almost full in by the time I saw him next, almost as if he’d always worn a false one and I’d just caught him without it once by mistake.

Dan served his country in Vietnam, and I understand he had some health issues related to Agent Orange. He never let any of that slow him down that I ever saw.

From friends in the know, I discovered that Dan actually was the first head of security for TSR back in the days when Gary Gygax still ran the company. I can only imagine he tackled that job as he did everything else, with a fully developed set of senses of honor, duty, and humor.

My condolences to Dan’s family, especially those closest to him: his wife, son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. He was a good man, and we were all blessed to know him.

In one of my earlier posts about the Brave New World RPG film in the works, Reactor 88 Studios producer Darren Orange comments:

We are ahead of the game. Just FYI for everyone out there. We are filming this weekend in Chicago June 30th and the 1st of July. Thanks for all the support. This pilot will be excellent thanks to all the excellent hard working talent involved on the cast and crew sides.

Darren kindly invited me down for the whole shoot, although due to deadline pressures I think I can only make it for one day. Despite that, I can’t wait to see the cast and crew in action. They’ve been fantastic so far, and here’s where it all comes together.

As I’ve mentioned before, John Nephew of Atlas Games is running for city council in the city of Maplewood, Minnesota. While I know next to nothing about Maplewood, I know John, and he’s just the kind of candidate any city needs. I’ve counted John as a good friend for years, and I’d trust him with both my checkbook and my kids, much less helping run a city in which he and his wife Michelle live.

If you’re interested in supporting an honest, smart man with a streak of integrity as wide as the Mississippi, consider donating to his campaign. I was happy to do so myself. We need more people like John getting involved in politics, both local and otherwise, and I’m glad to put my money where my mouth is on that.

[Total Disclosure: I wrote an RPG book for Atlas Games many years back (Seven Cities), and you never know, I might do something like that again. Atlas also sponsored the Diana Jones Award ceremony at this year’s upcoming Gen Con, for which John and Michelle and all the other sponsors have my gratitude.]

The fine folks at GroovyGamers.com interviewed me last fall, and I just stumbled upon the results. It made for a good conversation about my writing and how I go about it. Check it out.

Gamasutra has an excellent interview up with my pal Rich Dansky of Red Storm and Ubisoft fame. Rich is one of the best computer-game writers around, an excellent writer of fiction, and a gentleman and connoisseur of fine scotches to boot.

I also owe Rich for introducing me to Guitar Hero, one of the greatest video games of all time. Having played it at his house, I considered running out and buying a Playstation 2 just so I could have the game at home too. Instead, I waited patiently for the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II to hit stores. My wife and kids rewarded me with a copy of the game (and the X-plorer guitar controller) as my Father’s Day gift, and I’ve been rocking out ever since.

Best moment in the game so far: When you complete the Career mode on Medium difficulty, the game gives you the option of playing “Free Bird” as an encore for your sold-out concert at Stonehenge. It even gives you several chances to back out of tackling this legendary monster if you like. If you accept and manage to strumble (dibs on that word!) your way through the song, the alien mothership that’s been hovering overhead sucks you up in a beam of light and hauls you off into the stars. As the ship becomes just another star in the sky, the constellations rearrange themselves to read “Live and Let Rock.”

Too damn awesome.

Beguiled by the wily suggestions of Rich Dansky, the fine folks over at Storytellers Unplugged asked me to join their hearty crew of professional writers, editors, and other assorted scalawags. In a moment of dumbfounded excitement—which kept me from begging off due to my soul-crushing deadlines—I accepted.

In the ensuing blizzard of e-mails, I realized that I’d been shanghaied into—ah, signed up for—providing a short essay for the website, once a month, on a particular day. Joe Nassise, who’s in charge of the whole shebang, whip-cracked me with the 21st. That starts this month or, as the kids say, today.

So, stop by Storytellers Unplugged and check out my first essay for the crew. While you’re there, be sure to poke around and see what the other press-ganged souls have come up with too.

Just a reminder that this Saturday is Free RPG Day. If you’re interested in learning more about roleplaying games, check the list of participating stores to see if there’s a place near you where you can join in the action.

My apologies for the radio silence. My wife and I just got back from a week’s vacation in Costa Rica. We stayed at Bahía de los Delfines. This beautiful resort sits just outside of Tambor, a tiny town on a sheltered bay on the end of the Nicoya Peninsula, out on the central Pacific coast. We had a wonderful, stunning time, and I’ll be babbling on about it for months, I’m sure.

We won the stay at the resort as part of a fund-raising raffle for Marty’s drama club (Kids Fun and Drama). We didn’t have the time to sell the tickets and instead bought our allotment ourselves. It paid off big in the form of an early celebration for our 15th wedding anniversary.

In Costa Rica, they have a saying: Pura vida. Literally, this means “pure life.” We spent the trip living that life and loving that country. We’re glad to be back, and hopefully we can continue with pura vida now that we’re home too.

In the meantime, a special thanks from us to my mother and the army of able assistants she lined up to help her take care of our children while Ann and I were gone. We couldn’t have left town without you, and our implicit trust in your goodness and kindness and love meant we could let ourselves enjoy the trip without worrying an instant about what might be happening back home. Pura vida to you all!

I just made my hotel reservations for Comic-Con 2007. My plan is to be there from Wednesday through Friday night, July 25–27. It’s a short trip, but I have to be back for the weekend, so I can’t stay the whole time.

I don’t have anything official scheduled yet, but if that changes, I’ll be sure to let you know. I’ll be wandering the floor, catching up with old friends, and looking for new gigs. With luck, I’ll have something related to the show’s original theme (comics!) that I can announce by then. If you’ll be there, I hope to see you too!

Five years ago today, a team of 25 doctors, nurses, and technicians at Rockford Memorial Hospital led by Dr. Susan Hendricks helped us bring four of the most amazing people into the world: Patrick, Nicholas, Kenny, and Helen Forbeck. Born 11 weeks premature (one week better than average for quads) they weighed, respectively 2# 12 oz., 2# 9 oz., 2# 8 oz., and 1# 8 oz. Their perinatologist, Dr. Dosi, gave each of them a 70% chance to live.

Five years on, Ann and I have four healthy, happy, and wonderful kids who are a lasting joy to her, their older brother Marty, and me. They and the people who helped us with them from their birth to this day have taught me much about what it means to be a parent, a citizen, and a better human being. Perhaps because their birth was such a harrowing experience, I know that every day with them and the rest of my family is a blessing for which my gratitude has no bounds.

Happy birthday, Pat, Nick, Ken, and Helen! Here’s to many, many more.

I don’t mean to make this into a blog all about my kids—amazing as they are—but the video below has two purposes. First, it’s hilarious. Sure, it’s of Nick and Helen’s first dance recital, which probably only I and my direct family care much about, but I laughed so hard through much of it I couldn’t keep the camera from shaking.

Second, it’s a chance for me to play with YouTube and see how well it works with WordPress.

So, forgive a father’s pride, and enjoy.