Moving from Gaming to Novels

The other day, my pal Sean Preston over at Reality Blurs asked me about how I moved from writing roleplaying games to writing novels. It’s not the most obvious career path in the world, although I’ve had lots of friends and mentors manage it, and it makes for a fine story. He asked if he could post my answer on his blog as a means of helping promote the release of Amortals, and I happily agreed.

That’s the kind of friends you want, folks. The ones that you not only enjoy hanging out with but who are also bold enough to suggest a way in which you can help each other out. (Speaking of which, if anyone else out there would like me to write a guest post for your blog or website or whatever – or would enjoy interviewing me for the same – I am open to entertaining all request/offers.) It also doesn’t hurt that I can unreservedly recommend Reality Blur’s RPG books as some of the best being produced today. Realms of Cthulhu, for instance, is fantastic pulpy horror wrapped around the excellent Savage Worlds rules.

So, if you’re curious about how I made the jump from writing games to writing full-on fiction, jump on over to Sean’s blog and get reading.

The R.E.V.s Motion Comic

A few years back, Playmates Toys hired me to come up with a complete storyline for its upcoming line of morphable cars. These were toys that were a cross between Transformers and Tinkertoys. They looked like cars at first, but you could unfold them into large robots and then swap out pluggable parts to customize them or even build bigger conglomerated robots out of several of them.

When we started, Playmates had no idea for a story behind the robots or even what to call them. They hired me to provide that. After a bit of back and forth and many tries of getting bits approved by trademark attorneys, I came up up R.E.V.s, Radically Engineered Vehicles, complete with a list of names for the good robots and their robot foes, plus a story that gave them all a good reason to fight a lot and knock pieces off of each other.

Playmates also wanted a comic book, so I hired Max Bertolini to handle the artwork, while I managed the writing and production. Once that was ready, they asked me if I could add animation and voiceovers to it. For that, I hired James Farr (creator of Xombie) to chop up the artwork and manipulate it in Flash. Tim Brown’s bandmate AJ had a sound studio, so I grabbed a bunch of friends and directed the voice recordings too.

Playmates has long since cancelled the line, but they gave me permission to post the PDF of the comic online. I never got around to finding the Flash files for the motion comic and posting them – until today. While going through my office, I stumbled across an old CD with some R.E.V.s files on it, and the Flash file for the comic was on it. I’ve posted the R.E.V.s motion comic now. I hope you have as much fun watching it as I did helping make it happen.

Amortals Launches Today!

My latest book, Amortals, hits shelves in the UK and Australia today, and it’s also been released worldwide as an ebook! You can now purchase it at stores throughout the UK and Australia, including Amazon UK, and you should be able to get it anywhere you are for the Kindle (US) and the Nook. You can also pick up the ebook directly through my publisher, Angry Robot. If you’re in the US or Canada, the print edition is coming soon, on December 28!

Amortals is an action-packed science-fiction thriller in which the world’s oldest man – Secret Service Agent Ronan Dooley – wakes up in his latest clone body to discover that he’s been brutally murdered, and a recording of his killing has become a huge hit on the internet. Worse yet, because he hadn’t bothered to check in for a backup for a while, he can’t remember anything that he did for the past three months – and now he must hunt down his killer and bring him to justice.

Lots of people have already read and loved the book. Check out Amortal‘s reviews and blurbs page for ringing endorsements from Jim Lee, John Rogers, Jordan Weisman, Dan Abnett, Mike Stackpole, Ben Templesmith, Monte Cook, Richard Dansky, Jack Emmert, and Richard Knaak, plus a number of excellent and kind reviewers.

In my wholly biased opinion, this is the best thing I’ve ever written. Give it a try, and I hope you’ll agree. Be sure to read the free 50-page sample or listen to me read the first chapter. If you like it, please go buy it, and then tell your friends and neighbors! Thanks for your support!

Go Joe!

While I was at the World Fantasy Convention, Jeff Conner let me know that I could finally tell people about the novella I wrote for him for a tie-in anthology. A little poking around this week showed that Diamond Book Distributors had already solicited the book, so I can share the cover with you too.

The name of the book is G.I. Joe: Tales from the Cobra Wars. Max Brooks (World War Z) edited it, and it features novellas from Max, Chuck Dixon, Jon McGoran, Jonathan Maberry, John Skipp & Cody Goodfellow, DuaneSwierczynski, Dennis Tafoya, and me. Look for it in stores on March 2, 2011, from IDW Publishing.

I loved the G.I. Joe series from Marvel Comics, and IDW has been busy blowing the doors off that for the past couple years. I’m honored to be part of such an excellent lineup of talent wrapped up in that stunning cover by Gabrielle Dell’Otto. I had a great time concocting my tale for this anthology, and I can’t wait to read the rest of them alongside you.

Buy Amortals Now! – or Soon at Least

You can now buy Amortals in at least two different flavors, depending on where you are. Amazon UK started shipping the book on November 1, and as of this morning at least you can now purchase the ebook at the Angry Robot Bookstore. If you have a Kindle, you can buy the book now, and it will be delivered to your device tomorrow. Same should be true for the Nook.

If you’d like to try before you buy, you can hear me read the first chapter of the book or read the first 50 pages of the book. It’s absolutely free.

Don’t be shy when it’s time to buy. Put your money down, and please tell your friends and neighbors! This is the best book I’ve ever written, and I’d like to have as many people read it as possible. Not just because I like feeding my kids this way, but also because I want to bring you something I hope you’ll enjoy.

Thanks for your support!

Gamers for Pakistan Relief

My pals at DriveThruRPG.com just raised over $65,000 for Doctors Without Borders to help with the efforts to help out the people affected by the horrible floods in Pakistan. Good going to them, the gaming companies that supported them, and all the gamers who bought the special bundle to raise the money. Does my heart good to see that kind of rallying for people in such dire need.

See after the full press release after the break.

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Try Trilobyte

My pal Blaze Miskulin recently set up a new venture called Trilobyte Studios. He aims to develop a number of new properties in several different genres, for games, films, books, and so on, but he needs help. If you’re a creative soul looking to get involved with something cool, stop by and check it out.

World Fantasy 2010 Report

I had a wonderful time at the World Fantasy Convention (WFC) this weekend. It’s a traveling show, roaming from city to city each year, and this time it landed in Columbus, Ohio. I went to the University of Michigan, so I’m likely to be biased against Columbus, as it’s the home of our rivals at Ohio State. However, I’ve been there many times for the Origins Game Fair and loved it.

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