My friends at Popcorn Press (fellow Alliterates Rob King, Lester Smith, and Steve Sullivan) have just released Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms, a fiction anthology edited by Steve and my friend Jean Rabe. I haven’t read it yet, but with a line-up of writers that includes Robert E. Vardeman, J. Robert King, Lorelei Shannon, Lester Smith, Marc Tassin, Kathleen Watness, James M. Ward, Paul Genesse, Brandie Tarvin, Steve Winter, Dean Leggett, Jason Mical, Kelly Swails, and Jean Rabe & Stephen D. Sullivan, I’m looking forward to getting to it soon.
Freelance Writing Tips
My friend Monica Valentinelli of Flames Rising fame (among other places and publications) just launched a blog aimed at giving freelance writers some of the tricks of the trade. Freelance Writing Tips is fresh and only now getting started, so stop on by and get in on the ground floor.
Heroes? Time?
In a recent comment, Hegs writes:
It’s unrelated but did you see the Episode 20 of Heroes?
It will please fans of Brave New World! I won’t spoil it…
I’m sad to report I’ve not seen any but a few minutes of Heroes yet. I hear great things about it, and Jeph Loeb, whom I’ve known and respected for years, is behind it, but I’ve not had the time.
It’s wild to see elements of BNW show up in TV and in comics (such as Marvel’s Civil War event), but I can’t claim to have inspired them. We’re all drinking from the same communal trash can of cultural wopatui, and sometimes it gives us similar visions.
It’s been a busy year so far. Outside of The Daily Show and the occasional Colbert Report, I haven’t watched more than a couple hours of TV since Christmas. Episodes of Lost are stacked up and waiting on my ReplayTV, but I haven’t been able to get to them yet. I predict I’ll end up picking up the DVDs of both Lost and Heroes this summer when things slow down.
As a freelancer, it’s always hard to maintain a balance between work and free time, and I often tack over hard to one side or the other. The trouble is that I like being busy, and I have bills to pay. I also have my wife and kids, who top everything else for me, and that doesn’t leave me much time for anything else some days.
No complaints though. If the worst problem I have is that I’m too busy to watch all the great shows on TV or see too many movies in the theater these days, I’m doing all right. Still, I’m going to find some way to see Spider-Man 3 soon. I’m too much of a Spider-Geek to not.
May Day! Manga Guide and ArmA Out!
Yesterday, two things I worked on hit shelves: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Manga Fantasy Creatures Illustrated and ArmA: Combat Operations. I haven’t held copies of either in my hands myself, but they should arrive on my doorstep soon. I hope you get the chance to enjoy them too!
George’s Children
My pal Jim Pinto and his friend Jon Hodgson just released George’s Children, a post-apocalyptic, tabletop roleplaying game set in a world without adults. They created this for the first National Child Safety Day, and all proceeds are going to charity. Be sure to check it out.
Cool Things at GTS
By the third day of any convention, the standard question is, “What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen?” I didn’t make it that far into GTS this year, so I never had a chance to answer that. To make up for it, here’s three cool things I saw at the show. That’s not to say there weren’t tons of other things, but these stuck out at the show and are things I remember even now.
Dust: The Game: Paolo Parente–a pal from the Mutant Chronicles RPG days–is an amazing artist, and he has his own project called Dust. He puts out toys, comics, and models kits irregularly, but they’re always full of sharp and sexy imagery. A stand at GTS showed off an upcoming board game for the setting, a Risk-like game with all sorts of cool components. Paolo’s day job is with Rackham, the French miniatures company that makes incredible things, but I always enjoy seeing what he does on his own.
Titan: Valley Games announced that it’s bringing back all sorts of classic games, including Hannibal and Titan, the all-time classic, plus others from the old Avalon Hill bookshelf line. Can’t wait to see these.
Phoenix Horizons: Damage Control Games showed off a preview of their upcoming starship battles miniatures game, and it looks great. It’s a spiritual successor to Silent Death, of which I’m a longtime fan and had the honor of working on the second edition.
There were many more things, of course, but these surprised me, as I hadn’t heard of any of them before. And now I’m looking forward to them all.
RIP Tom Moldvay
I learned a while back that Tom Moldvay had passed away around April 9 (some reports say March 9) of this year, but I hadn’t been able to verify it independently. I’ve seen enough details now to believe it’s true.
Along with Mark Acres, Tom developed one of my favorite roleplaying games ever: Gangbusters. As a teenager at Gen Con, I made it to the finals of the Gangbusters tournament two years running and absolutely loved it.
Tom also made many substantial contributions to Dungeons & Dragons while working at TSR. My pal Steve Winter, who knew Tom far better than I, sums it up well in his appreciation.
I never met Tom in person, but I had the privilege of talking with him on the phone and working with him on some material for Silent Death: The Next Millennium, back when I developed the line for ICE. That never saw print, as Tom’s poor health prevented him from finishing the work before I left that gig. That was something like 15 years ago, and I’m sad to say we lost touch over the years. Still, I remember being thrilled that I would get the chance to talk games with someone whose work I’d so admired.
Farewell, Tom. Wherever you may be, I hope you’re finally resting easy.
IAMTW Newsletter
The latest issue of the newsletter from the IAMTW features an article I wrote about how I became a game designer and a novelist. Every writer takes a different path to publication. There’s the short version of mine.
Just stop by the newsletter page and click on the link for the April/May 2007 issue. While you’re at it, sign up to subscribe to the bimonthly PDF, edited and produced by the able and wonderful Jean Rabe.
Wofford Shared Worlds
This summer, Wofford College in South Carolina is putting on its first Shared Worlds program. It proposes to teach kids entering grades 8 through 12 all about creating fictional settings for fiction, art, and games. Jeremy Jones, who sometimes comments around these parts, put it all together, and the lineup of teachers and speakers is phenomenal. It makes me wish I was in high school again.
Just among my friends, we find an all-star cast of guest speakers: Edward Bolme, Richard Dansky, Troy Denning, Jeff Mariotte, Jared Sorensen, and John Wick. Plus, Ken Hite and Doug Niles will be teaching all week.
Because of a scheduling conflict, I won’t be able to make it down myself, and it’s killing me. It’s sure to be a wonderful week. If you know of anyone who might be interested in attending, be sure to spread the word and let them know. It’s sure to be something special.