My son Marty is in a play here in Beloit next weekend (April 23—25) with KFAD (Kids Fun and Drama). It’s at the First Presbyterian Church at 7 PM Friday and Saturday and 1 PM on Sunday. Local acting legend Josh Burton directs the kids through a series of vignettes from selected works of Shakespeare. If you’re in the area, please join us.
Not-So-Secret Agents
I sometimes get notes from people looking for an agent. WritersDigest.com recently posted what looks to be a solid list of agents on the hunt for new authors. If you’re hoping to be hunted, check it out and see what you can do to put yourself in the path of the right agent.
Adepticon, Ahoy!
Just a quick reminder that the fine folks at the Black Library have asked me to join them at Adepticon, a convention for Games Workshop fans. It’s held in Schaumburg, Illinois–just northwest of Chicago–from March 30—April 1. I’ll be there on Saturday, March 31, just over two weeks away.
Also, I just noticed that they’ve posted an interview with me on their website’s front page. You can also try a direct link to the PDF too.
My friend Jervis Johnson, creator of Blood Bowl and many other excellent games, will be there too. If you’re in the Midwest and love Games Workshop‘s stuff, you can’t go wrong here.
In other news, it seems I’ll be a guest of honor again at this summer’s Gen Con. That’s in Indianpolis, from August 16—19, and I should be there for all four days.
CIG D&D Release Date
According to Amazon.com, the book I’m writing right now–The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creating Dungeons & Dragons Characters
All Night Long
Pulled an all-nighter on Thursday night, my first this year. I was asked to take part in our school district’s strategic planning session retreat, a two-day affair. Unfortunately, I had a deadline for a draft of a computer game script on Friday morning, so instead of going to bed between the two days of the retreat, I planted myself in front of my computer and wrote until I had to get the kids up to get them ready for school.
Amazingly, I discovered that one of the best ways to stay alert was to take regular breaks for 10-minute sessions on the Wii. There’s something about a quick boxing match on that machine that really wakes you up and gets you going again.
Battle Dice Big in Europe
I’d heard that my Marvel Heroes Battle Dice game was doing well in Europe, but I didn’t know for sure what that meant. Malakai at PopDice.com dropped me a recent comment, though, that pointed out that the game is now selling in France. Apparently, there are some extra figures in the European set, which seem to be from Series 2, which was unreleased in North America.
I’m glad to see the game having a second life. Here’s hoping it keeps rolling!
Scribe Awards Nominees Named
The IAMTW has named the nominees for its inaugural set of Scribe Awards. See the full list after the cut. Sharp-eyed readers may notice that my Prophecy of the Dragon snagged an award for Best Young Adult Novel.
Also, Steve Sullivan, one of my fellow Alliterates, has a novel up for the same award. My pal Jeff Mariotte has novels up for two awards: Best Speculative Fiction Original Novel and Best General Fiction Original Novel. Several of my fellow Black Library authors–Steven Savile, Nathan Long, James Swallow, and Christa Faust–picked up nods too, as did my friend Alice Henderson.
Congratulations to all the nominees! Here’s to learning about the winners at this year’s Comic-Con.
Dragonships, Ahoy!
Via Publishers Lunch:
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman‘s DRAGONSHIPS series, drawn amongst a back drop of Viking-like warriors, three opposing groups of Gods, ships powered by dragons and the ultimate quest for salvation and survival, to Tom Doherty at Tor, with Brian Thompson editing, at auction, by Christi Cardenas of The Lazear Agency (for Weis) and Matt Bialer at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates (world English).
Congratulations to both Margaret and Tracy, and to my agent Christi Cardenas, on this huge sale! (I’m sure Matt Bialer’s a heck of a guy too. I’ve just never met him.)
A Not-So-Secret Project
Someone at KidScreen Magazine finally let spill a wee bit of information about a project I’ve been working on for Playmates Toys. It’s buried in an article about hitting the tween audience with web/toy hybrids. For your convenience, the pertinent text is behind the cut.
And, yeah, that’s all I can say about it–for now.
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No Games Expo for Me
Sadly, I won’t be able to make it to Games Expo 2007, much as I wanted to. A rash of illness running through the house has put me behind on my deadlines, so it’s staying home, shackled to my computer instead. (Thankfully, it’s a laptop.)
It kills me not to be able to join my friends behind Games Quarterly for their inaugural show, but deadlines come first. I still plan to make it to Adepticon at the end of the month and GTS in April though. I hope to see some of you there!