Ten years ago today, I became a father. My son Marty was born down in Radford, Virginia, while I was helping run Pinnacle Entertainment Group as its president. Even before he was born, we knew we wanted to move back to Wisconsin to be closer to family–something I couldn’t have imagined when I was in high school–and within six months …
The Cost of Making Comics
Publishers Weekly just posted an excellent article about what it takes to make money at producing comics. It’s framed in terms of this summer’s notorious debate between Robert Kirkman and Brian Michael Bendis, but feel free to ignore that and just look at the numbers. Making money in comics is far from easy, and this shows you exactly why. Put …
More Forbidden Knowledge Out Now!
My latest book apparently hit shelves before I knew it. More Forbidden Knowledge: 101 New Things Not Everyone Should Know How to Do is now available at bookstores around the US (at least). Amazon still lists it under the name of Michael Powell, the original book‘s author. However, Urban Outfitters (of all places) not only has it under my name …
Lester’s Shadows
My fellow Alliterate and good pal Lester Smith just launched WhenShadowsRise.com, a new website dedicated to the development of a new horror roleplaying game. Among many other gaming gems, Les designed the excellent Dark Conspiracy RPG way back in 1991. Les has been working on this game in his limited spare time for a long time. I’ve heard about it …
No ChiTAG for Me
Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it to the TAGIE Awards tonight or to ChiTAG tomorrow. My wife has come down with the flu, and while my mother will come over to watch most of the kids tonight, my son Marty needs a parent to join him at the opening night of his play (KFAD‘s production of A …
Good Times Too
I’ve posted a lot of gloomy things here lately, so I thought I should give some attention to some of the good ones too. Three new babies have come into the world recently and that’s something to wear a goofy grin about. First, my cousin Michelle Norville gave birth to her fourth child, Lucy Ann. Michelle and her husband Marcus …
Sad Day in Wisconsin
While I was at my step-uncle Richard Lacy’s funeral on Wednesday, I learned of a horrible tragedy that had happened in Madison the day before. Ryan Dutter, formerly of Beloit, shot his disabled 12-year-old son and then killed himself. I didn’t know Ryan personally. I went to school for many years with his older brother Pat, and Ryan was in …
D&D on BBC
The BBC has an excellent piece on the new eTools for use with Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition. The video features short appearances by my friend (and former editor) Rich Baker, and the article has quotes from my pal Charles Ryan. I’m excited to see that the beta for the online character builder is finally up. While 4E is a …
TAGIE and ChiTAG and Dickens This Weekend
As a reminder, tomorrow night I’ll be at the TAGIE Awards dinner. On Saturday, I’ll be at ChiTAG, helping out with the Ask an Expert sessions. If you’ll be there, be sure to stop by and say hi. The rest of the weekend, I’ll be watching my son Marty perform in A Christmas Carol. This is the Kids Fun and …
Women In Games International Benefit Auction Starts Saturday
Women In Games International–an organization dedicated to getting more women professionally involved in creating games–is holding a benefit auction on eBay, starting this Saturday, November 22. They have huge load of very cool and rare video game merchandise up for bid, and the money all goes to a good cause. Be sure to check it out.