A while back, Jeremy Jones wrote to ask me a few questions about shared-world writing. I thought you might enjoy the results of our conversation, which transpired over a slew of e-mails.
Helping Out
I’m going to be lending a hand at the Democratic HQ here in Beloit on this Saturday and on Election Day for as much as I can. I’ve done this just about every election cycle I’ve been in Wisconsin since I was able to walk, even the year the quads were born.
If anyone in the area would like to join me, I’m sure we’d appreciate it. Just drop me a line for details. Thanks!
Happy Halloween!
A happy All Hallows’ Eve to you all. We’re celebrating tonight with the traditional trick or treating. The quads plan to dress up at Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion. My wife will be the Wicked Witch of the West. Our eldest will be a wizard of a different kind: Harry Potter.
Me, I’ll hand out candy and/or do my best to corral the kids as they swarm from house to house. After spending yesterday afternoon gutting and carving a family full of pumpkins, that’s about all I can manage.
New Dark Conspiracy Fiction
No, I’m not talking about the upcoming elections. Dark Conspiracy is a roleplaying game my fellow Alliterate and long-time pal Lester Smith created for GDW way back in 1991. It’s set in a dark and cynical future in which megacorps and monsters conspire to suck the life (literally and metaphorically) from humanity.
A new company called the Gamers’ Conglomerate landed the license to revise Dark Conspiracy for a new edition, which is planned for 2007. As a part of that, TGC director Marcus Bone (who had much to do with Demonground once upon a time) commissioned an introductory piece of fiction from me. I just turned it in last week, and I had the wonderful experience of creeping myself out as I wrote it–just in time for Halloween.
Cathy’s Book Debuts Well
According to ICv2.com, the ARG (alternate reality game) in hardcover Cathy’s Book hit stores well last month, with orders for 125,000 copies. That’s a fantastic number for this experimental book.
I worked on the Beast (the first big ARG game) with the book’s authors, Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman (and Jordan’s been a friend for years). I’m thrilled to see this doing so well for them, and I wonder if there’s room for something else in the same vein. Hmmm.
Stan!’s Doodles
Besides being a solid game designer, a wonderful writer, and great friend (and fellow Alliterate) Stan! is also a talented cartoonist. He’s just started up a new site called Doodle-a-Day. You can probably guess what it’s all about. Check it out.
No Loyal Knight Rocks
I just finished No Loyal Knight, the debut novel by my pal John Wick (of Wicked Dead Brewing Company fame, among many other feats of game design and narration). I had hoped to buy it at Gen Con, but John had sold out by the time I made it back to his booth late on the last day of the show. I ordered it online and finally got around to reading it.
It’s a fantastic book, in many senses of the word, and a crying shame it didn’t find a home at a large publisher who could seduce John with monstrous advances and hollow promises of fame. Seriously, I skipped sleep to keep reading it, and that’s a precious commodity around my house.
It’s a mix of Pulp Fiction and modern magic, a blend of Tim Powers and Raymond Chandler served neat. That pushes a number of buttons for me, although apparently not with the editors at the large publishing houses to which John’s literary agent submitted the manuscript. After exhausting the big-press options for the book, John decided to publish it himself in both PDF (electronic) and POD (dead tree) formats. Thanks, John!
I’m not entirely sure I grokked the ending, but with all the chaos in my life I can only read in short, stolen bursts. It took me a while to see where everything was going, probably because I wasn’t paying enough attention at first, especially regarding the nonlinear narrative. The book looks like a series of barely connected short stories at first, but they eventually swirl together into a climax that hits like a hurricane. Still, I enjoyed the writing on every page, and I hope to go back and read it through again, something I almost never even think of for any book.
Go and order this book from John. He tried to give me a copy for free, but I insisted on paying for it. It was worth every lucky penny.
Games Day 2006 Photos
Games Workshop has posted coverage of its Games Day Chicago 2006 event. On the Black Library page, you can see a few photos of Mike Lee and I sitting and signing our novels for the attendees.
Of course, Mike spotted the camera and mugged well for it. I, on the other hand, seem to have missed it and have a “You want me to sign what?” look on my face.
Anyhow, I had a great time–especially hanging out with Mike and his lovely wife Janet Young–and hope to be back again for the convention next year.
The Amazon Got Me… Thinking
I just signed up for Amazon.com‘s AmazonConnect, a service that gives authors some space on the Amazon site in which to plug themselves and their wares. This means I now have a page there, plus a plog (a promotional weblog).
I also received a kind letter from Tyler Hill, the AmazonConnect project manager, telling me how happy it made him to see a game designer joining the fold. He’s a gamer himself, and he’d love to have more designers signing up. (That’s an elbow in the ribs to you designers lurking out there.)
Notes like that (and one in recent comments from Tim Kelly) make my day. There’s a large contingent of gamers out there, but we blend into the rest of the world so well it’s impossible to pick each other out unless someone speaks up.
Mike Stackpole has often advocated a logo/symbol/rune/sigil of some sort that gamers could use to identify themselves. Think of the “diver down” stickers you see on the cars of SCUBA fans. The trick is coming up with something that we’d all instantly recognize and be proud to slap on our prized possessions for the public to see.
Mike suggested a chess knight on a hex, but it never seemed to catch fire. Perhaps a d20 would do it, but that leaves out lots of other types of games. It’s hard to collect such a diverse group of hobbies under a single symbol that works intuitively. If anyone out there has a great idea, though, I’d love to hear it.
Back to Origins
I haven’t been to Origins (the second-largest adventure games convention in the USA, after Gen Con) for a while. Two years ago, I had a deadline for a Blood Bowl novel that I couldn’t get around. Last year, I had to choose between Origins and Comic-Con International. I hadn’t been to Comic-Con for a number of years, so San Diego won out.
This year, I’m going back to Columbus.
The kind folks at GAMA asked me to serve as Origins’ Gaming Guest of Honor this year, and I happily accepted the honor. Honestly, I’m flattered silly. So, you can look for me in Columbus, Ohio, from July 5—8, 2007. I hope to see you there!