The DJA Ceremony Invitations

The Diana Jones Award ceremony is held the Wednesday night before Gen Con, or August 12 this year. It’s held in a bar, which offers a chance for gaming industry professionals to get together for a beer or three after setting up for the show and relax before the tsunami of gamers they hope to see crashing against their booths …

The 2009 Scribe Awards

At Comic-Con, the IAMTW announced the results of its annual Scribe Awards. As you might recall, my novelization of the Mutant Chronicles film was nominated for Speculative Fiction, Best Novel, Adapted. It lost out to Bob Greenberger‘s excellent Hellboy II novelization, but I got to sit between Bob and Jim Rollins on the panel. They both won awards, and basking …

Storytellers and Cons

My latest essay is up at Storytellers Unplugged, and in honor of Comic-Con this week, it’s about “The Season of the Con.” Be sure to check it out, and if you happen to be going out to Comic-Con too, be sure to give me a shout-out. I hope to see you there!

The Marvel Encyclopedia Cover

Earlier today, I spotted the cover for the new edition of The Marvel Encyclopedia, which I spent a few jam-packed months revising earlier this year. As the gorgeous cover states, this version is updated and expanded. There’s likely not a two-page spread of that book that didn’t get some sort of update, and it weighs in with 48 extra pages …

My Star Trek Toy

The Star Trek movie toy set I designed for Playmates Toys is going on sale in August. The Star Trek Interactive Utility Belt comes with a phaser and communicator that allow you to interact with the belt and communicate with Starfleet Command. I designed the game play and wrote the dialog with some help from a couple of excellent TV …

Hobby Games Essayists Assemble!

The esteemed editor Jim Lowder has given a hundred or so people permission to release the list of essayists they’re joining for Family Games: The 100 Best, the follow-up to the award-winning Hobby Games: The 100 Best. I happen to be one of those lucky souls, and here’s that amazing list. We can’t say what we’re writing about yet. The …

Kars for Kids

My friend Clifford Meth recommends this charity–Kars4Kids–which turns your old car into summer camp time for needy kids. It sounds like a great cause and an easy way to support it. Just keep away from that jingle on the site’s front page, which will earworm you in seconds. I donated one of my first post-college junkers to a charity like …

POD Board and Card Games?

The Game Crafter is a new site that promises to bring print on demand (POD) to board and card games. The prices aren’t great for big runs, of course, but they’re perfect for prototypes or for testing out ideas. I mean, $6.28 (plus shipping, I presume) to have a single deck of custom cards printed for a prototype is wonderful. …

20 Years In

While writing a bio for my essay for Hobby Games: The 100 Best, I realized that I’ve been working full-time as an author and game designer since I graduated from college in 1989, twenty years ago. It really doesn’t seem like I’ve been at it that long, but that’s likely because I enjoy doing it so much. In lots of …