Back from Origins

I had a great time at Origins. All of my seminars went well. The attendees asked sharp questions, and my fellow panelists were a joy to work with. I spent a lot of time in the Green Ronin booth, showing people how to play Dracula’s Revenge, the new board game I developed for Human Head Studios.

At the Origins Awards ceremony last Friday night, I got a few thrills. First, I was asked to present the miniatures awards, so I got to be on stage in my tux and hand out some trophies to the some deserving souls.

Second, the Redhurst Academy of Magic picked up both awards for which it had been nominated: Best Roleplaying Game Supplement and Best Graphic Design of a Book. I didn’t win for the Best Game-Related Short Fiction, but my friend and fellow Alliterate Stephen D. Sullivan did.

On Saturday night, I attended the first ever Hall of Fame banquet. I got to dine with Hall-of-Famers Sandy Petersen, Greg Stafford, and Lou Zocchi, along with Steve Kenson, Robin Laws, and Tim Gerritsen. I even got to shake hands with Charles Roberts, who designed Tactics, the first modern wargame. You couldn’t ask for much more from a night.

Lots of Little Things

This week, I managed to take care of a bunch of smaller things. These include:

An entry in Hungry Little Monsters, the next charity jam book from Sean K. Reynolds, my coauthor on Unapproachable East.

A couple of articles for Games Quarterly Magazine.

An essay for the latest edition of Warzone from Excelsior Entertainment. .

An essay for the second edition of Godsend Agenda from Khepera Publishing.

And now I’m off to Origins. Whew!

More Knights

I just signed contracts for two novels in the Knights of the Silver Dragon series, of which Secret of the Spiritkeeper is the first. These won’t see print until the summer of 2006, but they form a two-book story arc that shakes up the setting with a catastrophic event.

Origins Begins

Next week, I’m off to the Origins Game Expo. I’ll be running demos of Dracula’s Revenge at the Green Ronin booth. I’m also helping out with some seminars:

6/24, 10 AM: Freelancing for Beginners.
6/24, 1 PM: Game-Related Fiction.
6/24, 2 PM: Intermediate Level Freelancing.
6/25, 10 AM: Freelance Writing for d20.
6/25, 3 PM: Origin of a Game.
6/27, 2 PM: Freelancing for Beginners.

Because of the show, I won’t have time to post an update next week. The week after that, though, I’ll report on what happened at Origins. Three of my projects are up for Origins Awards—Redhurst for Best RPG Supplement and Best Graphic Design, and “The Price of Freedom” for Best Short Story—so hopefully it’ll be happy news.

Dracula’s Revenge Updates

I added a lot of content to the Dracula’s Revenge site today. This includes some new wallpapers, a new cover shot, and a free PDF of the game’s rules. We’ll have a limited number of copies of the game at the Origins Game Expo next week. If you’re going to be there in Columbus, Ohio, be sure to stop by and pick yours up quick.

Dracula’s Revenge #2 should be in stores next Wednesday, June 23. My friends at IDW Publishing tell me they got reorders on the first issue and hope to sell out soon. Be sure to pick up both if you can. Again, we should have some copies at Origins, but they’ll be even rarer than the board game.

San Diego Seminar

The fine people at Mysterious Galaxy Books in San Diego have asked me to participate in a seminar at Comic-Con International. It’s Sunday, July 25, at 12-1:30, and the topic is “Fantastic Fiction for All Ages – the Young Adult Market.”

Mysterious Galaxy’s own Maryelizabeth Hart moderates me as well as Timothy Zahn, Jeff Mariotte, Emily Drake, and Sherwood Smith. That’s fine company to be in. Afterward, assuming we can get a few early copies, I’ll be signing copies of Secret of the Spiritkeeper as well as just about anything else shoved in front of me.