It’s Banned Books Week this week, the annual spotlight the American Library Association throws on attempts to have books banned from libraries across the nation. Do us all a favor and read a banned book this week.
Dansky on Game Writing
Over on Storytellers Unplugged, my pal Rich Dansky recently posted “Young Industry My Sweet Patootie, You Goldurn Whippersnappers.” It’s an excellent essay on the challenges of writing for video games and why it continues to be hard to do well even after decades of such games on the market. The excuse, of course, is that video games are a relatively …
Games of All Kinds
My friend Jesse Scoble has an excellent article up at Gameplaywright.com about the “Pixels to Paper” panel held at this past summer’s Gen Con. The panel featured my pals Jack Emmert (of Cryptic Studios) and Ed Stark and Dave Williams (of Red 5 Studios) talking about both video games and tabletop games and what they can learn from each other. …
Citizens of Virtue
Today I stumbled across a website that’s just too damned funny: Citizens of Virtue. At first, it looks like your standard right-wing, evangelical Christian site, but you dig a little deeper and see that it’s actually a finely crafted satire. The add for Passionix–the drug for correcting rampant hormones in teenagers–should be enough of a tip-off for anyone. This is, …
Angry Robot Unleashed
My pal Marc Gascoigne–formerly of the Black Library and Solaris–was just recently named the head of Angry Robot, a new imprint of HarperCollins. For fans (and writers) of genre fiction, this is, of course, excellent news.
Influences
Cinerati asked a number of creatives: “Was there a particular book (or television show, or film) that you read (or watched) as a child that inspired you into your current career?” Check out the responses from Susan Palwick, Richard Scott Nokes, Dale Launer, David Chute, and me.
Moore for Free
Michael Moore’s latest film, Slacker Uprising, debuts today. I’ve yet to see the film so cannot comment on its content. However, the most interesting thing about the film is how it’s been released: online, for free, to anyone living in the US or Canada (or willing to pose as such). Love Moore or hate him, at least now you don’t …
Next IGDA Madison Meeting
The next meeting of the Madison chapter of the IDGA is slated for September 30. Check the site for all the details. I plan to be there, and I hope to see any local game developers there too.
RIP Brian Thomsen
I received a couple notices this evening that Brian Thomsen passed away of a heart attack on Saturday. I knew Brian from his days as the head of the fiction division at TSR, and although I never had the pleasure of working with him, many of my friends did. I just saw Brian at this past Gen Con, only a …
Pitching and Storytellers
My free monthly essay on writing just went up on Storytellers Unplugged today. This time around, I discuss the cyclical nature of freelancing and the “Season of the Pitch.”