Next Up: Billy Campbell

Last week, I conducted the third in my series of celebrity gamer interviews for Games Quarterly Magazine. This time around, I talked with Billy Campbell of The Rocketeer, Once & Again, The O.C., and The 4400 fame. He’s a true gentleman and a great fan of games, and he made my job a breeze.

I found out years ago that Billy was a gamer. Back when I developed the second edition of Silent Death, the guys at ICE used to tell me how much he loved Rolemaster. Billy grew up in Charlottesville and once in a while came by to visit ICE’s HQ there.

When I talked with Billy, he hadn’t been home for a year and a half, having spent much of that time on a boat sailing around the world. Despite that, he still made time for a pleasant chat. Look for the article in this winter’s issue of Games Quarterly Magazine.

A Friend in Need

This may not interest most of you, but I know that some folks local to me read this blog too.

One of my stepbrother Dan Schooff’s best friends is Steve Shea, and Steve’s wife Sallie is in serious trouble. You can read the details after the break, but the upshot is that Sallie needs a lung transplant. Dan and his wife Alyssa, along with some of Steve and Sallie’s other friends, are hosting a fundraiser in Milwaukee tomorrow night. Of course, if you can’t make it there, you can always donate directly to the cause instead.

As I said, details are below. After that, we return you to your irregularly scheduled blather.

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Games Expo Site Up

The new games industry trade show, Games Expo, has its website up. It looks like they have a great lineup of exhibitors and speakers already, and the show’s not until March 18—22, 2007. It’s mostly only open to professionals involved in the industry, but I hear they will have some days open for members of National Games Week (which runs November 19—25 this year) who can make the trek to Las Vegas.

I don’t know if I’m going to attend Games Expo, the GAMA Trade Show (which is April 23—26, also in Vegas), or both. I think both shows have great staffs, and I’d love to be able to spend a couple weeks in Vegas this spring, but with all the running around I do with my kids, getting away from home this school year will be tough.

Queen of Death Book Club Starts in October

The fine folks at WorldsofDnD.com have set up a book club for The Queen of Death, the climactic novel in my Eberron trilogy. It should start just as soon as the book hits shelves (October 10, I’m told), but it will go on for the entire month of October.

I’m eager to find out how people like the trilogy now that it’s all wrapped up. If you can, read the book fast and stop on by to chip in your two bits.

John M. Ford Dies

I’ve seen a number of reports today that John M. Ford died yesterday. I never knew John (or Mike, as his friends apparently called him), but I enjoyed his work. While he’s probably better known for his fiction these days, he also did a fair amount of game design, mostly for GURPS. He co-wrote GURPS: Infinite Worlds with Steve Jackson and my pal Ken Hite and also wrote the foreword for Ken’s Suppressed Transmissions 2. I best remember his hilarious The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues for West End Games’ version of Paranoia.

Farewell, Mr. Ford. We’ll miss you.

Missing Summer

Fall officially came crashing in over the weekend, and I’m missing the summer already. I like warm weather, barbecues, having the kids home from school, going to conventions, and all the other hallmarks of the summer months.

One of the best memories I haven’t written much about is the week or so I spent with my wife and kids at my wife’s family cabin up in the U.P. (That’s the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for you Midwestern-challenged folks.) It’s an old, two-room hunting shack, and when I first started going up there with my wife, we had no electricity, no phone, and no running water. It was paradise.

It’s still paradise now, even though we have electricity in now, and our cell phones work if we stand under a pair of trees on the short walk down to the lake. Ann’s uncle even installed a pump to bring wash water up from the lake. And, of course, we now have five young kids joining us–along with two teenage babysitters who make that possible.

Here’s a shot I took of the lake this past August. I use it as the desktop on my computer, and we had it blown up for a framed print on our dining room wall. Until next summer, it’ll have to do.

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