My GenCon Schedule

This year, for GenCon, I will be working in my capacity as Marketing Director for Steve Jackson Games. We have a giant eye-in-a-pyramid at the top of our booth so you can’t miss us in the Exhibit Hall. If you don’t spot that, we’re listed as Booth #1301 in the program book.

This is my first fan-facing convention for the company and I’m pretty excited about it. I coordinated a Munchkin Apocalypse preview contest on Twitter and the winners will be sitting down with the Munchkin Czar, Andrew Hackard, to play this upcoming release. (Hint: we also have a capsule machine in our booth and the last golden ticket… Er… seat will be won there.) There are also a ton of signings, interviews, and announcements planned.

On Wednesday, I’ll be headed to the Diana Jones Awards and am very anxious to see all my friends. Then, on Friday I’ll be representing our company for the ENnie Awards. Both of our submissions, GURPS Horror Fourth Edition and GURPS Social Engineering, were nominated for a total of four awards. There’s a ton of great games and supplements nominated; I’m sure it was very tough for fans to decide the winners.

And now, I pause for a bit of self-promotional awareness.

My Signings

The first is at the IPR Booth #2120 on Saturday from Noon to 1 pm for Don’t Read This Book, the anthology published by Evil Hat Productions for the Don’t Rest Your Head RPG.

My second signing takes place at the DriveThruRPG Booth from 11:00 to Noon on Sunday, August 19th. I’ve been told there’ll be a ton of publications new and old at their booth including print copies of: Strange, Dead Love for Vampire: the Requiem, Falling Scales Part II, Exquisite Replicas, The Queen of Crows, Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror, Redwing’s Gambit, and quite a few other stories, games, and supplements!

At the same time, Stone Skin Press, the new publishing arm of Pelgrane Press, will have a signing for their new fiction line. I contributed to the New Hero anthology and The Lion and the Aardvark collection of fables.

Truth be told, there was only so much of me to go around this year. There’ll be other 2012 releases I’ve worked on debuting at GenCon, so be sure to review my latest publications or drop back for a post-GenCon update.

See you there!

Cross-Posted to FlamesRising.com

Simplifying Speak Out with your Geek Out

I updated the description for Speak Out With Your Geek Out.

It reads:

    Take a positive stance against baiting nerd rage, geek elitism, negative stereotypes of geeks, and yellow journalism.

    Post about how much you love your geeky hobbies or vocation from Monday, September 10th, 2012 to Friday, September 14th on your blog, website, social media account or in a forum somewhere. Then come here and tell us about it. We’ll have a kick-off post where you can stand and be counted.

    Let’s show the world who we really are — passionate people who love a hobby so much we are willing to share it in a positive way with other people. This week, we will show our best side to remind others of that, too, and will actively avoid negativity and cheer each other on, instead.

Last year was a learning experience because people were fixated on specific words or phrases. Then there were the discussions of “I don’t want to read this.” or “I don’t think there’s a problem.” That’s fine, people. That’s your choice. But there is a problem whenever someone is passionate enough about “X” to want to say or do something about it. We get laughed at. Bullied. Shoved to the side. Embarrassed. On a high level, being more respectful of one another is what accepting geeks boils down to. That is also why I didn’t define what “geek” is, because many people feel ostracized regardless of whether or not they’re typecast as a comics/gaming/knitting/cooking/etc. sort of geek, too. We’re supposed to be about inclusion, not exclusion.

I cannot stress enough how simple this is supposed to be. This is not a corporate thing, a money-making scheme, or a movement to be manipulated. We live in a world of near-constant criticism and, all too often, we are baited into that negativity. All Speak Out With Your Geek Out really is? A week of happy. Of shiny. Of supporting one another and acknowledging that passion. Of not taking the bait and recognizing that sometimes we are the worst offenders because by defending our own interests we wind up putting other people down without realizing it.

Can we be happy for a week? Can we be cheerful on the internet for five days? Can we have a positive impact in spite of so much negativity?

We’ll find out. Guidelines next week.

Sponsor Me for the Clarion Write-a-Thon

Cthulhu Scribe by Drew Pocza

Dear Readers, after reading a ton of books and poring through research, I have decided to up my word count. (Less thinky, more writey.) To do that, I’m going to participate in the Clarion Write-a-Thon. I’m not a Clarion attendee myself, but I know a lot who have graduated, and their experience with it sounded excellent! What’s more, is that The Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshop portion also has a support network, which is where the Write-a-Thon comes into play.

I am a big fan of the idea because I feel that every writer needs a cheering section. It can be tough (speaking from personal experience) when you are new or you don’t have readers giving you feedback. I am all over writing to help out attendees, so I’ve pledged to write 50,000 words in about a month, which is the same word count as NaNoWriMo. For me, it is about a month, because I have about a week-to-two week’s worth of travel for upcoming summer festivals and conventions.

Please consider sponsoring me for the Clarion Write-a-Thon. I am writing 50,000 words and am hoping to raise $250 to support the education of other writers.

Writing begins officially on June 24th and ends on August 4th, which are the same dates as the 2012 Clarion Workshop. I hope to raise $250 for the workshop. I hope you’ll consider sponsoring me on my quest to write on, write on.

Readers! Ask Your Questions about My Vampires for New Hero Launch

The New Hero


I am excited to announce that the New Hero anthology from Stone Skin Press will debut on June 20th.

To celebrate the release of New Hero, edited by Robin Laws, I’ll be participating in a online blog festivale of literary goodness on June 20th. I’ve hinted that my vampires are different from those you might have read about before. You may have also seen an image of him on the New Hero cover illustrated by Gene Ha.

Now, I hand the reins over to you. Help me come up with questions or topics to promote the launch of this anthology! What do you want to know about “Fangs and Formaldehyde?” Me? The writing/editing process?

Back from Balticon

This year, I took the trip to Balticon to promote Redwing’s Gambit on behalf of Galileo Games. My experience with literary conventions has been mixed so I had no idea what to expect.

I don’t want to turn this into a rant, but there were internal glitches that greatly affected my ability to promote myself at this show as an author. So, let me get this business out of the way first. Overall, I felt that the organizer’s attitude was very scattered and in some cases boiled down to: “Well, I don’t know who you are so you’re not as important as our other guests.” E-mail is one thing, but this was reinforced at the show. The organizers admitted there were problems this year, so I don’t hold it against them, as long as it’s fixed. Unfortunately, this was a common theme at this year’s show.

Despite the problems with scheduling, I felt there was a very positive, non-threatening aura at this show toward new guests on the floor. If new media has been suppressed in the past like a shy kid at a dance, here it was the belle of the ball. It’s pretty exciting to see established authors published through traditional media alongside podcasters, podiobook developers, e-book publishers, etc. This, in my mind, is where we can benefit one another as a community.

I was thrilled to run into C.J. Henderson and Keith R. A. DeCandido; both are established authors and have been so supportive and understanding of my work over the years. I really feel like when I connect with authors like these, it’s that little boost that keeps you going. I had the chance to babble incessantly to Brennan R Taylor, my publisher, J.R. Blackwell, my editor and photographer extraordinaire, and author/comic scribe/etc. Jared Axlerod. Many thanks for that, the stories, and the laughter.

New friends, too, were formed out of the clay that is convention hob-nobbing. I’d like to give a special shout-out to Paul Alexander Butler for his great stories and his deep, deep love of games. He’s the store manager over at Games and Stuff and recommended some fun two-player games to try. (I’ll be putting that together in a separate post for all to read.) Secondly, author Simone Caroti who penned The Generation Starship in Science Fiction: A Critical History, 1934-2001, was awesome to chat with, too. The award for friendliest author is split between Guest of Honor (and fellow cat lover, it seems!) Jody Lynne Nye and new media guru Nathan Lowell who made me feel very welcome. There are others who I’m SURE I’m forgetting — such is the way of lost business cards. (Like lost socks, only instead of having a cold foot, I have a missed connection.)

I think the biggest thing for me that came out of this show was a better understanding of where I “fit” within the science fiction and fantasy genres. For me, I’m so heavily focused on story and characters that the details are only important in the service of that tale. Science fiction fans are very well-read and some are hyper-focused on the plausibility of the sciences postured within the context of a tale. I’m more focused on the anthropological aspects because, to me, how a character feels when faced with astronomical wonders, technological feats, and superior explorations into the furthest reaches of space is what shapes a story. If, in the service of a story, I have to sacrifice some scientific particulars? I’ll do that because I feel my job as a storyteller isn’t to relay a precise depiction of “X” — it’s to suspend disbelief. All this means, is that when I write science fiction, I shape my boundaries to hone in on characters and do my absolute due diligence on the subject when required.

That’s not to say the specifics don’t matter at all. I just feel that there’s a certain contingency of fans, in any genre, who get very upset when the details don’t perfectly jive in some beautifully-architected way. Sometimes the lack of detail-jiving is intentional; other times it happens by complete accident. If those bad details break a reader from their love of a tale and stops them from reading that’s one thing, but plots and story arcs and characters are entirely different aliens altogether.

For many reasons, I enjoyed the trip and the experience. I was blown away by scientists like David Allen Batchelor and their seemingly unlimited font of knowledge. I enjoyed being able to talk to people who were way, way, way smarter than me to understand a part of their world. My head is bursting with fresh ideas and optimism. If that doesn’t tell you a small thing about the calibre of the people at this show, then I have failed my job as a wordsmith.

Now, to plan for the next one.

    Mood: YAY! DUCKS!
    Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: I was bad.
    Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Does cat wrestling count?
    In My Ears: Errmm…
    Game Last Played: Battle Nations
    Movie Last Viewed: Indiana Jones as part of a marathon
    Latest Artistic Project: Crystal Cluster bracelet in gold
    Latest Release: “Don’t Ignore Your Dead” included in Don’t Read This Book for the Don’t Rest Your Head RPG
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