Via Publishers Lunch: Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman‘s DRAGONSHIPS series, drawn amongst a back drop of Viking-like warriors, three opposing groups of Gods, ships powered by dragons and the ultimate quest for salvation and survival, to Tom Doherty at Tor, with Brian Thompson editing, at auction, by Christi Cardenas of The Lazear Agency (for Weis) and Matt Bialer at Sanford …

It seems I’m always shopping for a great deal on a new toy, and the internet is the high-powered rifle I use to hunt the big game, like the Wii I picked up last week. One of the coolest sites for picking up great deals is Woot.com. Their gimmick is they only sell one thing each day, at a rock-bottom …

One of the regular commenters around here–Brian Bird–and his friends have set up a writer’s group called the Carpal Tunnel Martyr’s Brigade. They started out as a Google group but now have set up a snazzy new website to promote themselves and their upcoming science-fiction zombies anthology, Dead Space. Stop by and check them out–or join if you’re so inclined. …

Al Franken declared his candidacy for the US Senate today, as a resident of the great state of Minnesota. Much more interesting–to me, at least–is the fact that my good pal John Nephew of Atlas Games also declared his candidacy for the city council of Maplewood, Minnesota. It’s always great to see smart, articulate people get involved in the civic …

Rich Dansky also points out to me (he’s a trove of information) that the Wonder Spot in Lake Delton, Wisconsin, is going to close after 59 years of trapping tourists in its strange and wonderful gravity storms. (There’s a Jimmy Buffett reference in there for those paying attention.) I hit more than one of these strange Mystery Spots during family …

My friend Rich Dakan points me to what may be the coolest H. P. Lovecraft item ever: the Angell Box. It’s a box of printed props straight out of Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu,” lovingly reproduced from the story’s text. It’s far from cheap, but it comes with a resounding recommendation from Greg Stafford that says it all.

On Cinerati, Christian Johnson points out a new online service from SciFi.com: the Sci-Fi Drive-In. Now you can watch online–for free–a fistful of classic, black-and-white genre films. This includes classics like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Metropolis. Be sure to check it out.

I just finished reading A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster. Despite being 256 pages long, it’s a short, easy read. Raph illustrates his ideas with single-drawing cartoons on nearly half the pages, and the layout does not fear whitespace. In short, Raph claims that creatures (including higher-order animals) are wired to play games as practice for …

My friends at Atlas Games have set up a website at GenConHistory.com to collect stories and photos from the Best Four Days in Gaming: Gen Con! Those who share have a chance to snag a free copy of the book and even a four-day pass to Gen Con Indy 2007. This is all to support their upcoming 40 Years of …

The fine people at Reaper Miniatures have allowed a fan to set up a website that features free downloads of the minigames published by Heritage USA back in the early ’80s. The site has eight classic games posted. They require download and some assembly, but they’re a real blast from the past for gamers who had the chance to play …