I’ve had to drop out of the Wisconsin Book Festival next weekend for personal reasons. A chance has come up to visit my grandparents instead. At 92 years old, my grandfather’s recently been put into a nursing home. I haven’t seen him or my grandmother for far too long, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do so again. …
No Plan Survives Contact with Reality
“No plan survives contact with the enemy.” – Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke That’s one of my favorite quotes, and I’ve applied it to just about every facet of my life. These days, I’d amend it to “No plan survives contact with reality.” Or, really, any contact at all. Plans rarely work out exactly the way you think they will, …
Good-Bye Bastion Press
Bastion Press, the d20 publisher run by my friend Jim Butler, officially closed down today. That’s always a sad thing, but Jim seems to have taken care of things the right way. Instead of turtling down, he reached out and found some people who were willing to take over parts of the business from him. Greg Dent, creator of the …
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 …
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 …
At the Wisconsin Book Festival
I’ll be at this year’s Wisconsin Book Festival, wandering around beautiful downtown Madison on Friday, October 20. I’ve been scheduled for a short reading and signing as part of the Wisconsin Publishers Showcase. You can find me in the Memorial Library Auditorium from 2:30 to 2:45 PM. I’m happy to sign anything you might bring, although I should have a …
Swallow’s Weird Westerns
While poking around for links on Western Hero, I spotted this tidbit on the website of fellow Black Library author James Swallow. It’s under the notes for his weird western novel Ghost Town, published back in 2001: * Forbeck Pass, one of the towns Doc Harper mentions, is a nod to Matt Forbeck, whose Western Hero was a useful resource …
Open Call at Wizards
Wizards of the Coast just started its annual open call for fiction submissions for its upcoming speculative fiction imprint. You have until January 1, but if you have a manuscript that would fit, I suggest getting on it sooner than later. If they accept your submission, which includes the first three chapters of your book, they’ll want the whole thing …
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
My friends at Raven Software (now a division of Activision) are hard at work on the new Marvel: Ultimate Alliance videogame. I saw a preview of this at Comic-Con, and it’s stunning stuff, up to Raven’s usual high standards. I somehow ended up with a fistful of invitations to the game’s VIP site. If anyone out there is interested in …
Write for the Black Library
For those aspiring authors out there, the Black Library is holding a new short-story competition. Winning entries will be purchased for a new Warhammer anthology based around the theme of invasion. The deadline is October 11, 2006. Unlike many other competitions, you don’t need to submit a full story from the get-go. You only have to come up with a …