Lincoln Stollard, who I met at the GAMA Trade Show a few years back, just told me that he’s completed work on a book called The Learning Project. In it, Lincoln interviews dozens of people in different fields to discover different ways in which people learn. It’s aimed at teenagers, to show them that there are all sorts of different ways to become educated about anything, but anyone curious about such things should enjoy it. Lincoln’s looking for a publisher for a dead-tree version of the book, but you can enjoy his work online right now for free.

Lincoln interviewed me as one of the three writers profiled in the book. He caught me on the tail end of an exhausting, fun-filled show (aren’t they all?), and I was probably a bit more scattered and candid than normal. If you’d like to know about me and how I got here, his interview of me is an excellent place to start.

I get to work on all sorts of cool things, but I often have to sit on that news for months—sometimes forever. Last week, I mentioned the Yu-Gi-Oh 5DS Figure Reader that I designed for Playmates Toys. Today, in news from the New York Toy Fair, I see that Mattel has announced another project I worked on: Puppy Tweets.

This is a dog tag that fastens to your dog’s collar and then transmits data via WiFi to your home computer, which tweets updates about what your pet is up to. It’s hilarious. As the LA Times article says, this device isn’t a mind reader. It’s a high-tech toy used for pure fun. I didn’t come up with the idea—I just wrote a bunch of the tweets soon to be plastered all over the Twitterverse—but I can’t wait to see it in action.

I work on lots of different things, but not all of them see the light of day. Some of them die at the idea stage. Others are killed during development. Some have the plug pulled when they’re already in production. Lots of times, I can’t even talk about these because I’ve signed NDAs that prevent me from mentioning them until they’re already public knowledge.

Sometimes, though, they come out in other parts of the world, and I don’t know about them until I stumble across them. Case in point: the Yu-Gi-Oh 5DS Figure Reader from Playmates Toys. I designed the gameplay and user interface for this electronic toy for use with a set of 2.5″ Yu-Gi-Oh 5DS figures sold separately. A general release for these were never made in the US, although you can find a selection of them on Amazon.co.uk.

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Pat Rothfuss, the author of the excellent The Name of the Wind, is running his second annual fundraiser for Heifer International, which he calls Worldbuilders. As part of this, he’s gathered together hundreds of donated items for a lottery for those who donate to the program, plus he’s auctioning off some special items that he and others have donated.

I chipped in a few autographed books for the lottery, including copies of Mutant Chronicles, Rumble in the Jungle, Prophecy of the Dragons, and The Dragons Revealed. (Scroll down.) And those are likely some of the least wonderful things available. There are some stellar things up for grabs.

To date, Pat’s raised over $100,000 already this year. Stop on by the site, check out the loot, and chip in for the good of some people who could really use it. Heifer is an excellent charity and deserves your support.

The always friendly Melanie Jordan interviewed Darren Orange and me recently for her Imagine Magazine. The conversation covers a lot of territory, but there’s a wealth of information about the Brave New World: Revolutions film in the works. Darren, who’s the head of Reactor 88 Studios, even teases with a few new details at the end. Be sure to check it out.

Although I’ve sold 15 novels, several nonfiction books, and countless games, I haven’t worked with an agent for any of those. I’ve considered it a lot over the years—at least for my fiction—but I usually figure that my experience in publishing and negotiating means I don’t especially need one, so I’ve managed to avoid it. (I did sign Christi Cardenas as my agent for an original series of YA fantasy novels a couple years back, but I’ve yet to get around to actually writing the first book. Maybe in 2010.)

Still, people ask me all the time about how to find an agent. For most first-time authors, an agent makes a lot of sense. They serve as middlemen between the author and the editor. They know how to sell your book and how to get the best deal for it, and they can play the bad cop to your good cop. Excellent agents earn every dime of their commission.

The number one rule with agents is this: The money always flows to the author. If an agent asks you for money of any kind, keep your hand on your wallet, back away slowly, and bolt as soon as you get the chance. A good agent collects your money from the publisher, along with a statement, and forwards it on to you, less the agent’s 15%. There should be no other costs to you.

There are a number of fantastic agents out there, but there are plenty of rotten ones too. You’re best to not have an agent at all rather than have a bad one. At worst, a bad agent steals your money, but even at best such an agent wastes your time. If you can’t find a good agent, go without.

To get a good agent, you need to research the field of top agents in your chosen genre. Start at Publisher’s Marketplace and see what comes up. You should also check Preditors & Editors and Writer Beware for warnings about bad agents or other scams. Then send out your queries to the ones that seem like good fits. Aim high and work your way down.

If you can’t find a good agent willing to work with you on your first novel, write your next book and try again. Don’t get stuck on revising that first book forever. Some things aren’t meant to sell, often for reasons beyond your control, and you’re better off trying something fresh rather than stalling out on an earlier effort. Once you sell any of your novels, you can dust the old ones off and try them again.

Keep writing, keep submitting, and be patient and persistent. That’s no guarantee of success, but it will keep you from failing for sure.

Matt James at Loremaster.org asked me to join him in an ongoing interview with him and the members of the site. We just got started, so if you have any burning questions to ask me in front of lots of other people, skip on over to the forum and give it a go!

Last summer, Playmates Toys hired me to design the logic system and write the script for a Star Trek toy based on the latest film. It’s called the Starfleet Command Mission Utility Belt, and it comes with a phaser, a communicator, and a belt that sends the wearer on away-team missions for Starfleet. I just saw it on the shelves of our local Toys-R-Us last week, so apparently it’s available all over the place now.

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While I was at PAX, Allan Sugarbaker of OgreCave.com asked me to sit and chat with him for a bit. He just posted the recording of our conversation in their Gaming News Update section. Stop by and listen to me ramble on about all sorts of things I either worked on or have in the works!

While I was at Gen Con, I saw a preview copy of a book for which I wrote a small bit: Descent: Quest Compendium. This is an all-star jam book of 16 brand-new quests for Descent: Journeys Into the Dark from Fantasy Flight Games. Descent, for those who don’t know it, is a monstrous board game that comes in a massive box and plays like Dungeons & Dragons with all pretensions of roleplaying stripped clean out.

For this book, developer Will Hindmarch gathered together a host of top game designers, including Keith Baker, Monte Cook, Ken Hite, John Kovalic, Chris Pramas, Phil Reed, Mike Selinker, Jeff Tidball, J. D. Wiker, Kevin Wilson, Ray Winninger, Teeuwynn Woodruff, and—ah—me.

My quest is called “Pinball Wizard,” which allowed me to combine my love of the Who and Indiana Jones and blend it into a high-octane cocktail with old-style, “kick down the door, kill the monster, and take its stuff” gaming, garnished with a heaping helping of rolling boulders. I’m looking forward to checking out what everyone else chipped into the book and how they each gave the game their own unique spin too.