Angry Robot Finds New Home

While I was out last week, my pals at Angry Robot announced that they’d left the HarperCollins family and joined the growing Osprey flock instead. While this has caused some understandable turbulence in their release schedule, I think this is a fine thing. I was happy to be a HarperCollins author, but with the troubles wracking the publishing industry on a weekly basis HC has been trimming a lot of things, like the experimental and innovative HarperStudio.

A novel (in all senses of the word) imprint like Angry Robot, designed to work like an indie publisher within a massive conglomerate, had to look like easy pickings for any bean counter. It was always going to be a challenge to make it fit, and when you’re looking for things to trim the square pegs go first. Fortunately, Osprey had the perfect square hole ready and waiting to slot Angry Robot in.

I’ve been a fan of Osprey’s books ever since I discovered them in college. They do the best illustrated military history books in the world, bar none. I first spotted them by way of Angus McBride, the legendary artist. Angus had been creating covers for Iron Crown Enterprises‘s Middle-earth Role Playing books for years, including some books I’d worked on. When I spotted his gorgeous artwork on Osprey’s books too, I couldn’t help but be drawn in.

Angry Robot may seem like a strange fit for Osprey, but gamers know that the line between military history and genre fiction is thinner than many would like to admit. Dungeons & Dragons – the original fantasy roleplaying game – grew out of Chainmail, a set of historical miniatures rules. Modern games started with and owe a huge debt to war games, going all the way back to H. G. Wells‘s Little Wars.

To top that off, the fact that Osprey is already a long-established indie publisher means that the Angry Robot sensibilities fit better with it than they ever could have with a giant like HarperCollins. This seems like a great match, and I’m thrilled for Marc Gascoigne and Lee Harris, the soul of Angry Robot, as they join up with their new partners in publishing.

Full Ghosts of Ascalon Cover

Earlier today, I spotted the full cover for Ghosts of Ascalon on the official Guild Wars 2 wiki. Speaking of which, if you’re at all interested in learning more about the upcoming Guild Wars 2 MMO, that wiki is a great place to find a solid collection of the bits that have been announced so far. The entry on the novel, for instance, is filled with good stuff.

While you’re at it, be sure to check out the newly launched Guild Wars 2 blog. The game’s actual designers are peeling back all sorts of veils there with every entry.

Anyhow, the cover for the novel looks fantastic, and the image I found includes not only the front cover but the spine and back cover, along with all the teaser text too. I cannot wait to see this thing on shelves and to hold an actual copy in my hands.

Soon. Soon.

Super Slackers

Ever imagine what might happen if Superman and Lex Luthor lost their jobs and wound up having to live together? Well, wonder no longer. DQniel Kaufman just released a pilot for his new web video series Roommates. Besides Dqniel, it features my friends Miranda Horner as Lois Lane and Mike Selinker in a stunningly funny turn as Mr. Mxyzptlk. Be sure to check it out.

Games and Fiction

I just launched into a new series of articles over at The Escapist. The plan is to sit in the crossroads of games and fiction and toss around a few Molotov cocktails to see what bursts into flames. Having written more than a few games, novels, and gaming novels over the decades, I’m curious to find out.

In this month’s column, I cover the history of gaming fiction. It turns out that hobby games and fiction have been rooted together since their very first moments, and we can lay the blame for that squarely at the feet of H. G. Wells himself. I always knew I liked him.

Be sure to check it out, and if you have suggestions for future bits, be sure to let me know.

Quiet Storytellers

I just posted “Quiet, Too Quiet,” my latest piece for Storytellers Unplugged. In it, I talk about why I haven’t been posting too much over there lately, which is the same reason you might see some large gaps in time around here every now and then too. Check it out, and try to be as understanding as you can.

Then maybe I’ll write a con report on C2E2. Short Version: I had a great time. Long Version? Coming soon, I hope.

Producer Too

Looks like my credit as a producer on the Brave New World: Revolutions film finally cropped up on IMDb.com. I spent a good deal of C2E2 hanging around with some of the Reactor 88 Studios guys, and things are coming together.

Speaking of which, it turns out there’s now an embeddable YouTube version of the Brave New World: Revolutions trailer. You can enjoy it right here.

Music from College: Steven Mark and Ronan Lynch

The music of a couple college pals turned musicians cropped up this week. Back in 2006, I revealed that I’d borrowed the name Ronan Lynch – the main hero of Deadlands – from an Irish exchange student I’d met at the University of Michigan. Ronan had worked as a journalist for a while but had moved to Germany to take up singing in a roots reggae band. Recently, he’s helped launch Irie UP, a new magazine dedicated to the international reggae scene. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but Ronan’s always been one of the sharpest, funniest writers I’ve ever known, so check it out if you get the chance.

Better yet, I stumbled across the music of Steven Mark, an alternative folk artist (far too simple a classification, but it fits) out of New York City. That’s him in the photo. Turns out I knew Steve under a different name back at U of M. (Doppelt, for those few out there who might remember living on 4th Tyler-Green in East Quad.)

Steve has released four albums over the past decade, and the tunes bring me right back to listening to him and my old roommate Dan King strumming their acoustic guitars back in the day. I’ve only worked my way through the most recent of the four discs at the moment, but Steve’s come a long way since then and matured into an amazing musician. You can listen to one of his latest tunes for free at his website, or many more on his MySpace page. You can also pick up copies of his music through iTunes, CDBaby, and Amazon.

New Makeshift Prodigy Album Out

Makeshift Prodigy – the band that played a fantastic set at the Brave New World: Revolution teaser trailer debut at last year’s Gen Con – released its second album today: Mathematica. You can listen to the whole album for free online, or you can buy a CD for $5. If you’d rather download it, it’s available in a stunning variety of music-file formats (including MP3, of course), and you can pay whatever you like for it, down to a bare minimum of $4.99.

The album comes with a new version of “Revolution,” which was a big part of the Gen Con show. The band played a number of the other songs at the show which make their recorded debut on Mathematica too.

Anyhow, they’re a great band, and Mathematica is going to be my soundtrack while I polish off the latest draft of the screenplay for Brave New World: Revolution. Check ’em out.