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Family Games 100: Essay List Announced

Hey folks, FAMILY GAMES: THE 100 BEST just left the printer and I’m pleased to share with you the full list of authors, games and essays. The game that I talked about was GLOOM, which is one of my favorite card games. How many of these games have you played or can recognize?

Foreword

Introduction

Afterword

Appendix A

Appendix B

List of Family Games and Essayists

10 Days in the USA

1960: The Making of the President

Apples to Apples

The Awful Green Things from Outer Space

Balderdash

Bang!

Battleship

Bausack

Black Box

Blokus

Boggle

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Candy Land

Can’t Stop

Careers

Cat

Cathedral

Clue

Condottiere

Connect Four

Cranium

Crossbows and Catapults

Dark Tower

Dogfight

Dungeon!

Dvonn

Easter Island

Eurorails

Faery’s Tale Deluxe

Family Business

Focus

For Sale

Fortress America

Frank’s Zoo

The Game of Life

A Gamut of Games

Gloom

Go Away Monster!

The Great Dalmuti

Guillotine

Gulo Gulo

Halli Galli

Hare & Tortoise

HeroClix

HeroQuest

HeroScape

Hey! That’s My Fish!

Hive

Hoity Toity

Ingenious

Java

Jungle Speed

Kill Doctor Lucky

Knightmare Chess

Liar’s Dice

Loopin’ Louie

Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation

Lost Cities

Magi-Nation

Master Labyrinth

Mastermind

Memoir ’44

Mille Bornes

Monopoly

Mouse Trap

Mystery Rummy: Murders in the Rue Morgue

The Omega Virus

Othello

Pandemic

Pente

Pictionary

Pieces of Eight

Pit

Pokémon

Prince Valiant

Qwirkle

Ricochet Robots

Risk

Rummikub

Scotland Yard

Scrabble

Set

Small World

Sorry!

Stratego

Strat-O-Matic Baseball

Survive!

Thebes

Time’s Up!

Trade Winds

TransAmerica

Trivial Pursuit

Twixt

Uno

Upwords

Werewolf

Wits & Wagers

Yahtzee

Zendo

Zooloretto

March 14, 2010

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Guest SFWA Blog Post on Website Usability and Design

Hop on over to the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America website to read my latest guest post entitled, Authors! 8 Tips For Your Website’s Usability and Design.

Here’s a quote from the article:

In today’s article, I’d like to share with you some tips to consider when you’re reviewing your current website or when you’re thinking about creating one. Let’s take a look at these tips for your website’s design and usability.

1. Structure Your Theme Around Your Update Frequency – First and foremost, I believe that you have to make a decision, up front, about how often you plan on updating your website. If you’re not going to blog or update very often, you can simply choose a different website theme that’s a little more static than a blog, but still attractive and professional. — SOURCE: Authors! 8 Tips For Your Website’s Usability and Design

Enjoy!

March 3, 2010

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Announcing the Release of THE QUEEN OF CROWS

Centered around a short story entitled “The Queen Of Crows,” I designed a unique, digital product that I think you’ll really enjoy. At a retail price of $4.99, you will receive a magazine-style layout of THE QUEEN OF CROWS, a professional illustration of a character named Mahochepi and more!

This product is the first digital release set in the world of the Violet War and is also the first fiction product published through Flames Rising Press. The short story, which is entitled “The Queen of Crows,” takes place during the 1860s and focuses on the tough decisions that a Navajo elder named “Tse” must make to save his people. Will he summon Mahochepi, the Queen of Crows, without knowing who–or what–she is? Read the story and find out!

Here’s what you can expect to receive when you purchase THE QUEEN OF CROWS:

* The Queen of Crows: A Short Story
* Inspiration
* Original Character Portrait: Mahochepi
* Who Is Mahochepi?
* What Is the Violet War?
* Letter to the Reader
* The Queen of Crows: First Draft
* Printer-friendly black-and-white version and full color version

The product will be initially released in digital format through http://www.drivethruhorror.com, but other formats will be made available. To keep up-to-date with news about his product set in the Violet War, be sure to visit VioletWar.com.

What are you waiting for? Visit THE QUEEN OF CROWS at DriveThruHorror.com today! There, you can preview this unique product before you buy and then download it for yourself!

About the Contributors

MONICA VALENTINELLI is a professional author and game designer. Described as a “force of nature” by her peers, Monica is best known for her work in the horror, dark fantasy and dark science fiction genres and has been published through Abstract Nova Press, Eden Studios, White Wolf Publishing, Apex Magazine and others. Her credits include: a short story titled “Pie” in the award-winning Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas anthology through 12 to Midnight, an original flash fiction piece entitled “Prey,” which placed an honorable mention in a Mirrormask writing competition and “Twin Designs,” a science fiction novella for the Tales of the Seven Dogs Society collection through Abstract Nova Press.

LEANNE BUCKLEY is a professional illustrator with over ten years of experience under her belt and has worked for both the comics and gaming industries. Her clients have included: Image Comics, Mattel, White Wolf, Paizo, Wizards of the Coast and several others. In addition to her freelance illustrations, she was a Senior Artist for four years at Humanhead Studios, a video game design studio. Her work includes: Put the Book Back on the Shelf: A Belle and Sebastian Anthology through Image Comics, Cthulhutech through Catalyst Game Labs, the Exalted line for White Wolf Publishing, and layout as well as concept work for Mattel. For more information about Leanne and her contact information, visit http://leannebuckley.com/.

SHARI HILL is a professional editor, layout artist and writer with over 15 years of experience in non-fiction, gaming, and academic publishing and communications. She is currently a communications coordinator at a private university. As a freelance editor, she contributed to the All Flesh Must Be Eaten line by Eden Studios, and her credits include the Worlds of the Dead setting collection, the Book of Archetypes series and the Eden Studios Presents series. The Queen of Crows features her first credit as a cover artist.

March 1, 2010

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Guest Post: Gender Portrayals and Genres at Apex Book Company

This month, I talk about Gender Portrayals and Genres over at Apex Book Company.

In early science fiction and even horror, gender roles were often idealized according to the culture and the author’s views and experiences at the time the work was written. A good example of that are the few female characters in H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction and his attitudes toward other races and classes. While it may be extremely difficult to read some of his stories now, because they are rife with depictions that we would not deem to be politically-correct, Lovecraft was also a product of his generation. Could the absence of women in Lovecraft’s work be the reason why there are so few mainstream horror female authors today? Hard to say. I think what we can say is that an author’s lifestyle and background often play a subconscious role on the evolution of their characters, too. Whatever Lovecraft believed played a role in not only what he had written, but how he wrote it.–SOURCE: Gender Portrayals and Genres

Stop by and read the post, or check out a preview of THE CHANGED by BJ Burrow, which was published by Apex Book Company. I have several of their titles on my “to read” list, so if you’re into horror and science fiction, you might want to check them out.

February 18, 2010

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New Guest Post on Apex: Discussing Rape, Incest and Abuse in Horror

This week, I offered the folks over at Apex Book Company a blog post entitled, “Why Do Some Horror Authors Write about Rape, Incest and Abuse?“ This was a sensitive topic to write about, and I found out after the article was published that I made a slight oversight in the post.

My goal for this article, was not to provide a definitive “answer” on this subject, but to facilitate discussion and to get people really thinking about writing for “shock” value or how they might address serious issues like rape, incest and abuse.

Let’s take a look at a quote:

Good horror stories can cause a reader to react in a number of different ways. They can jump out of their chair, groan in disgust or feel their skin crawl. Fear, however, isn’t the only emotion a reader can feel. They can also feel empathy for a character, anger because the villain got away, or sadness because a victim died. These reactions occur as a result of the story’s pacing or description; an author’s goal is to help guide the reader through a broad range of reactions so that the reader won’t put their book down.–SOURCE: “Why Do Some Horror Authors Write about Rape, Incest and Abuse?“

If this topic interests you, there’s a lot of comments and interesting discussion on the post that you might want to check out. As I mentioned earlier, I firmly believe that there aren’t definitive answers to my question. I just feel it’s a question worth exploring.

January 22, 2010

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Family Games 100: Essay List Announced

List of Family Games and Essayists

Guest SFWA Blog Post on Website Usability and Design

Announcing the Release of THE QUEEN OF CROWS

About the Contributors

Guest Post: Gender Portrayals and Genres at Apex Book Company

New Guest Post on Apex: Discussing Rape, Incest and Abuse in Horror

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