RPG Blogs

Not enough time!

Interviews

• NPR interviews Neil Gaiman, David Sedaris, and Martin Jarvis (podcast). (via SFF Audio)
• Lomography interviews Neil Gaiman.
  
• Suite101.com interviews Nick Mamatas.
• The Rumpus interviews Richard Kadrey.
• The Agony Column interviews Jeff & Ann VanderMeer (podcast).
• The Literary Project interviews Dan Abnett. (via Angry Robot Books)
  
• The World SF News Blog interviews Vandana Singh.
  

Advice/Articles

• Twelfth Planet on behind the scenes of this indie press.
• A.V. Club on The 10 best short-story collections of the ’00s.
• S. Boyd Taylor on Broken Circles - Returning to the Center.
• Jeff VanderMeer on The Perils of Success for Writers.
• Jesse Burlington on History, Fantasy, and the Blurry Lines of Literature.
• Shawn Speakman on Discovering the Title.
• Booksquare on Trendwatching 2010.
• Mike Brotherton on Adam Lambert and the Sneak Attack of Science Fiction.
• Rachelle Gardner on Agent Query Policies: Stop the Griping!
• Alma Alexander on “This soap box is not big enough for the both of us.”
• Juliette Wade on A different value: choice.
• David Steffen on Technology and Writing.
• Nathan Bransford on How to Respond to a Manuscript Critique/Editorial Letter.
• The Intern on and you thought getting a book deal was hard...
  

News

• Electric Velocipede #20 Table of Contents.
• Shine Anthology competition.

Plug plug plug:
Sky Whales and Other Wonders edited by Vera Nazarian

Belated happy Thanksgiving!

My wife and I spent part of the weekend with my family in Indianapolis, during which we baked the turkey (brining it in a cooler in the back of our car on the drive out), mashed potatoes, and homemade gravy--all of which came out great!

The next day, we made turkey bundles with the leftovers. (Turkey bundles are basically cubed turkey, cream cheese, water chestnuts, and some other things, baked in a croissant shell.) Then we made meat pies, and turkey pot pies with even more leftover turkey. Yummy.

On returning home, we decided to make a mincemeat pie recipe that krenolds heard about on NPR. It took a lot of gathering of ingredients, and it takes a while to reduce the mixture down to the pie filling--but it was mighty tasty pie filling! After about four hours of cooking, we ended up with a dozen cupcake-sized pies--and the photos are below.

The mincemeat simmers.


A finished pie.


The full batch.
We do pretty alright for ourselves, when it comes to cooking. In fact, krenolds makes a pretty kick-ass beef stew--which she made for us last week:
Keri's beef stew, simmering away.

And, yep, that was delicious, too!

JD

So, over this weekend, I started doing a little bit more with Privateer, my game idea basically taking some themes of the Napoleonic War/War of 1812 and placing them out in the stars. This sounds like the sort of thing Flying Mice would be all over, but I've actually been toying with it for a while now.


Why the Napoleonic Wars? I truly think that as horrible and bloody as wars inevitably are, those struggles were played out on such an epic stage with such unforgettable participants. Considering the forgettable ship-to-ship actions of day makes it a good fit for naval or imperial sci-fi. (David Weber evidently thought so as well).

Looking back, I see that I have done notes for several systems, to include Savage Worlds, FATE, and Iridium Lite, one of HinterWelt Enterprises's in-house systems. FATE and Iridium Lite are probably less well-known than Savage Worlds, but both are open-source, something that's always nice to work with. For right now, I think I'm going to work on tweaking and trimming Iridium Lite--I have the most experience with it (Squirrel Attack!), and I think it will be a little more forgiving of my mistakes.

So, we'll see how this goes. Like a lot of people in our hobby, I get projectitis, so I won't commit to anything. But there are a few common-sense design benchmarks I want to follow:

-Clear, unconfusing layout, complete with character generation checklist.

-Everything needed to play in a single book.

-That book's rules should be only around 20 pages with starship rules and examples included, and should be separate from the setting material (the latter point being a key point of HinterWelt's products, too). Look, if an RPG needs more than that these days, I get discouraged. I'm after simple but robust.

-An introductory scenario or adventure should be included.

-A good table of contents and a good index to round things out.

-Character sheet included.

So, we'll see what comes of it. If it takes off, expect some blurbs here and there as I get things underway.

On a Deadhead board recently, I read a post detailing what kind of erm, chemical help, the band was availing themselves of during the recording sessions for each album. Not sure how true it was, but it was funny as hell. Similarly, I've always wondered about rpgs...what kind of drugs were the designers doing when they wrote that stuff? Here are my tongue-in-cheek guesses:

OD&D - Coffee, beer & red wine, nicotine
1e AD&D - Sensimilla, coffee, nicotine, fruit wine
2e AD&D - coffee, nicotine, wine coolers
3e AD&D - Starbucks coffee, microbrews
4e AD&D - AA badges
OSRIC/LL/S&W - Viagra, coffee, nitroglycerin
Empire of the Petal Throne - Nepalese temple-balls, Persian H, mescaline, chai
Runequest - shrooms, sensimilla, herbal tea
WFRP 1e - blow, Lebanese black hash, Newcastle brown
CoC - pcp, nitrous, opium
Sorceror - Red Bull, paint stripper
RIFTS - roids, Gatorade
T&T - coffee, sensi, beer
Gamma World - acid, sensi, mescaline
d20 Gamma World - Xanax, diet pills
Traveller - coffee, truckstop speed, tequila
Vampire: The Masquerade - Xanax, ritalin
Talislanta - more of everything with a needle & a spoon
GURPS - valium, coffee
Forward to Adventure! - pipe tobacco, coffee
Exalted - fruit juice masquerading as a 'smart drug'

And feel free to add you own favorite hopped-up games to the list.

RIP Robert Holdstock (1948-2009).

This month's International Research in Children's Literature has an article by Anna Katrina Gutierrez on Mga Kwento ni Lola Basyang: A Tradition of Reconfiguring the Filipino Child (PDF). And here's a new blog on children's and young adult books set in Asia and/or with Asian characters: Asia in the Heart.

Interviews

• NPR interviews Jeff & Ann VanderMeer (podcast).
• Confessions of an Aca/Fan interviews Interfiction 2 Contributors.
• Innsmouth Free Press interviews Daniel Heath Justice.
• Locus Magazine interviews Jack Skillingstead.
• The Dragon Page interviews J.C. Hutchins (podcast).
  

Advice/Articles

• The Washington Post on The unheroic genius behind the adventures of Tintin and Jeff VanderMeer and the trouble with truffles.
  
• SciFi Scanner on Ten Fantasy Meals Mary Robinette Kowal Would Rather Eat Than Thanksgiving Leftovers.
• Odyssey Workshop on Finding Reputable Literary Agents.
• Rachel Aaron on Middling.
• Charlie Stross on The myth of the starship.
• Justine Larbalestier on Blogging & Teaching.
• Jim Rubart on Marketing Principles: Part 3 of 3.
• Richard Dansky on The Ritual of Fine-Tuning My Writing.
  

News

• Steampunk Reloaded: Volume 2 Open to Reprint Submissions December 15.
• Dedalus Books needs help. (via KJ Bishop)
• No more Sofanauts.

Robert Holdstock Obituaries

• James A. Owen
• Ellen Datlow
• JP Langan
• Elizabeth Hand
• Richard Parks
• SFWA
• Graham Sleight
• Teresa Nielsen Hayden
• Jim Van Pelt
• Laura Anne Gilman
  

From Night Shade Books:
Rules of '48 by Jack Cady

Every Monday, I'll be doing bite-sized book/magazine reviews.

Disclosure: The author sent a review copy for the purposes of this review.

The fad for the past few years has been the urban fantasy genre. With the exception of Jim Butcher, the rest of the field seems to be dominated by female protagonists, and sometimes crosses the line into the paranormal romance genre. Child of Fire by Harry Connolly is one of those rarities which features a male main character, although the rest is expected formula: a mystery to be solved, a secret organization/conspiracy, and lots of inevitable action. Connolly tries to be different by using the Walking Tall archetype as our hero enters a frontier town and cleans up the corruption present there (which happens to be supernatural in nature).

So how does the entire novel fare? I'm honestly unimpressed. Which doesn't make it a bad book but it's not one that's compelling enough. Connolly gets it right by starting in the middle of the action, in this case a reformed thief coerced into serving the mysterious organization known as the Twelve Palaces. Necessary background information is fleshed out via flashback and there's always something new popping up to keep our protagonist preoccupied. Even the deus-ex-machina tool of our hero, a magical knife-that-isn't-a-knife, is pretty cool and sees much usage. Unfortunately, it's the other areas that falter.

While the pace is relatively fast, it's not as compact or tight, at least compared to a Harry Dresden novel: while I am curious about the plot, it's not one that you can't put down. The city and the action scenes could also use more fleshing out. There are points where I doubt the veracity of the hero's exploits, such as the lack of recoil when firing uzis. The characterization is competent enough, except for the parts where Connolly resorts to telling us his hero is tempted by the magic of his handler. It's the only out of character detail, or at least not backed up by descriptive scenes.

At the end of the day, Child of Fire is a decent book, but there are areas that need polishing. I can see how Del Rey picked up this series, but right now, it lacks that extra effort which would make it stand out from the other urban fantasy novels out there. Which is a waste because the book does have something different to offer, but as it is, it's simply good instead of being outstanding. Perhaps die-hard urban fantasy fans will bite into this but as for me, I'll read it but it's not a must-buy.

Every Monday, I'll be doing bite-sized book/magazine reviews.

Disclosure: The publisher sent a review copy for the purposes of this review.

I'm one of the people who've bought into the hype of podcast authors (who've been published in print) like Mur Lafferty, Scott Siggler, Matt Wallace, and yes, J.C. Hutchins. I've heard of his name, and parts of his plot in various interviews, even before I got to actually read his book. And because of that, I'm wary: is Hutchins' writing as good as his marketing? Thankfully, in the first few pages, it's clear to readers that Hutchins can write. A criticism that might be levied upon podcast authors is that they self-publish, but in this case, the author backs it up with actual skill. I can see why St. Martin's Press picked up this novel as it feels right at home with what's being released by traditional publishers.

7th Son: Descent is best described as a thriller infused with science fiction elements. When it comes to the former, it's formula in the sense that it contains techniques and beats that are the lifeblood of authors like Brad Meltzer: it starts out with a strong beginning, features a conspiracy of some sort, and constantly baits you with cliffhangers and mysteries. Hutchins isn't original in that sense, but one must admit, he can write a compelling thriller, and is sure to please anyone who loves that genre.

The other aspect I'd like to highlight is the science fiction. At first, the premise of clones isn't unique. In fact, cloning to a certain extent has stopped being science fiction. The "secret sauce" present in the story, so to speak, deals with memory and psychology. With the first, how can clones--identical as they are--have the same childhood memories? This science is not hand-waved but tackled extensively in the book; perhaps not as in-depth by hard science fiction standards but it is given some thought. The second aspect, psychology, is probably what'll catch science fiction readers' attention. As can be surmised from the title, there are seven clones in the story. Each one has identical genes but they look and act different. On one end, you have a fit man who entered the military. On the other, you have this anti-social hacker who's overweight and plagued with voices in his head. It's the nature vs. nurture argument exaggerated in a way only science fiction can. Admittedly, there is some oversimplification here, as the clones are more like aspects of the main test subject, with certain personality traits becoming more dominant.

The real struggle for Hutchins as a writer is the fact that his narrative has seven protagonists. Not a lot of authors can work well with that many characters. And in fact, the lowest point in the book is probably the beginning, as seven random kidnappings culminate to the revelation of the top-secret project. I'll be honest: I'm not good with names and with all the generic names of the clones, I didn't really track all of them. Instead, I relied on Hutchin's conceit, which is describing the characters by their profession: soldier, priest, geneticist, etc. It might be an inelegant technique but it works.

The other problem is that as much as Hutchins tries to share the limelight on all the clones, one can only do so much with the limited page count. Some of the characters do get the shaft in terms of characterization, but that's not so bad when you look at it from the perspective of a series (well, Hutchins better be planning to write a sequel!). It also falls prey to the first-book-in-a-series syndrome in the sense that most of the novel is spent setting up the dilemma and providing exposition. 7th Son: Descent answers all of your questions before diving right into the action, and that takes some time. Hopefully it'll be non-stop action in the succeeding novels, but as for this book, it ensnares you not because of the actual developments, but because it's preparing you for the coup de grace.

7th Son: Descent is fun and engaging for what it is. There's material here to satiate both thriller and science fiction readers, and Hutchins has a firm grounding in both.

(This post covers my last two D&D 4e games)

Last Friday we concluded our longest D&D 4e campaign yet, clocking it somewhere between 16 and 20 game sessions (almost one year).

In order to make posts length easier to manage, here’s the ultra condensed story.

Campaign Finale: Redux

Using a mysterious 4 part key collected all over the city, the heroes entered the Castle by some sort of hidden escape tunnel.  They found themselves in an ancient Drow defensive vault where they discovered traces of the history of the Drow’s escape from this Castle 1000 years ago.

Usul the Elven Invoker found and released a ‘pocket’ of stored divine energies’ and used part of it to restore his whole group to a fully rested state.  While doing so, he accidentally re-opened a divine channel between the Castle and the exiled Spider Queen Goddess.  Her interest for Usul was great and he wisely let go of the power source until he needed it again.

The party proceeded to reach the Castle’s throne room.  On the way, they met the Overmind, the Castle’s  fragmented and quasi incoherent persona, speaking to the party in multiple voices wherever they went.  In the throne room, they saw the Mind Flayer they thought to be the Overmind only to find its head hooked to some strange arcane machine that controlled it and amplified its power tremendously.  The Overmind started using it to blast all players with psychic energy.

As soon as the fight started, Fangs, the Shifter Warden, exploded in a burst of gore and arcane glyphs, revealing a portal from which a Shifter Lich stepped out.  He introduced himself as the Master and revealed that Fangs had always been a clone of him, acting as a sleeper agent in the party. he said that now was the time to negotiate a triple truce to destroy the Dungeon once and for all.

The Lich went to fight the guards rushing to help the Overmind while the party dealt with the Illithid and the machine.  Eventually, Corwin the Halfling Sorcerer teleported the Mind Flayer out of the machine, putting an end to the fight.

The Lich, the Flayer and the heroes had a short council and agreed:

• Heroes would destroy the Castle’s Energy Focus, one of the Dungeons’ neuralgic points of consciousness, blinding it in a specific reagion.
• The Lich would bring an army of ’stolen’ monsters to invade this blind region
• The Mind Flayer would provide all the Brainwashed troops it had stockpiled and hidden from the Dungeon over the years
• The Heroes would convince the City Within to raise an army and walk with the other 2 armies
• Once the Primordial’s Prison was reached, the Lich would use his portal Lore to power a massive teleporter to send the Primordial back into the elemental Chaos (Screw the Gods’ plans.  This is OUR world!)

(end of session 1)

The heroes proceeded to the area where the High Energy Focus lay, the tomb of the Spider Queen.  There they met an Avatar of the Dungeon (a gigantic Stone Titan) surrounded by Stone and Frost giants.  The Dungeon’s incomprehension for the heroes’ obsession in spoiling its escape plans is evident in the first few exchanges.  A fight erupts and grinds most adventures down to their last resources… except Corwin who manages to never get hit.

Throughout the fight, various heroes’ experience short “mind-encounters” with either the Dungeon or, in Usul’s case, his god Kord. Throught those meetings, they learn of the Dungeon’s wish to become a God by turning the world into his new body, they are mandated by Kord to muster the recently freed Overmind monsters into a divine army and Corwin learns that he is the Dungeon’s Scion, its plan B for survival should he be beaten.

As the party vanquishes the Dungeon’s Avatar, paving the way for a full victory against this global threat, Corwin, crying defiantly “I’m no one’s pawn!” and discharges one of his remaining powers through his brain.  The Heroes, their elation cut short,  stand around their fallen comrade in abject incomprehension…

(End of Campaign)

I have to say… I never saw that one coming… and as the shock of the last development wears off (and the feeling of annoyance caused by a 4 hour-long fight) , I can’t help but think that it was an awesomely heroic finale.

Up next in part 2: The DMing highlights of both sessions.

This landmark exhibition traces the discourse between the high art of painting and the low media of komiks and graphic design in the works of Botong Francisco and Francisco Coching. It offers an intelligent account of the complex and often ambivalent relationship between art and popular culture, which signaled the emergence of Philippine modernity.

From the hectic postwar years to the advent of Martial Law, Botong Francisco and Francisco Coching articulated the visual ­sensibility of their era. Botong transformed sly notebook caricatures and ­design sketches into sprawling murals. Coching delved into abstruse ­historical sources and the widely circulated Tagalog novels of his time to create stirring narratives of Filipino heroism and nationhood in his komiks. Together they forged an iconography of the folk and the popular, the mass and the national, in kindred registers.

Telling Modern Time: The Life and Art of Botong Francisco ­Coching, on view at the National Museum of the Filipino People from 11 December 2009 to 11 January 2010 and curated by Patrick D. Flores, will feature approximately 100 works by ­Botong and Coching, spanning a fascinating range of material, ­including komiks excerpts, murals, prints, sketches, and memorabilia.

The exhibition is accompanied by a limited-edition numbered box set, available only at the opening night. The box set includes the exhibit catalogue of Telling Modern Time as well as the hardbound editions of the books The Life and Art of Botong Francisco and The Life and Art of Francisco Coching, both edited by Patrick D. Flores.

While many folks were getting up in a frenzy at 4am this morning to fight the crowds for Black Friday Christmas shopping, I noticed that Fantasy Flight Games is selling all 2e Warhammer Fantasy books for only $5. And unlike a normal Black Friday deal, you don't even have to bludgeon crazed, desperate moms in the toy aisle with a Tonka truck to partake.

Happy Thanksgiving to the folks in the US.

Interviews

• Eric Rosenfield interviews Jeff VanderMeer.
• Command Line Podcast interviews Cory Doctorow.
  

Advice/Articles

• Twelfth Planet Press On publicity and promotion.
• Rochita Loenen-Ruiz on Five months later, I’m still thinking of Clarion West.
• New Scientist on How Our Brains Learned to Read. (via Booksquare)
• The Guardian on Why does Mandelson favour the Analogue Economy over the Digital?
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Freelancer’s Survival Guide: Postponing Your Dreams.
  

News

• Black Matrix Publishing open to submissions. (via Locus)

And this just came out:
Total Oblivion by Alan DeNiro

Happy thanksgiving to all my American readers!  Deep friend Turbaconducken anyone?

I tend to have a one track mind, so while I’m done teaching my MS-Outlook/Time Management class, it’s still very much on my mind.

Just so you know, things went so well that the College’s director offered me to teach another course right after he got the participant’s evaluation of my mad teaching skillz.  I now get to teach 5 courses!  Yay!

Earlier this week, I posted about 3 categories of skills that GMs, teachers and managers had in common.  Today I want to discuss specific skills and tricks I use while I DM that came in handy during my 2 day course.  It’s surprising how abilities you mastered in other disciplines help you out when you’re faced with the unexpected.

Establishing Credibility and Trust

My DMing experience has shown me that the average gamer sitting at your table for the first time will give you about an hour to win them over.  During that hour, you can do whatever you want with little fear of revolt/comments/sabotage.  However, that period of time is the optimal one to establish credibility and trust with the players.

Teaching adults (and probably teenagers) is the same thing.  Your first impression is crucial and will set the tone for the rest of the course/session.  In my course, I established who I was and what my qualifications were (but not too much).  I stressed out that I was a working guy like them and that the material I was going to teach them was actually usable and practical, because I had no tolerance for Ivory Tower theories.

By the end of the 1st hour, I had 6 out of 8 students in my pocket. My nervousness was fading and I started focusing on winning the last 2 to my side.

Expectation Management

When I start a new campaign, I write a pitch for it and I present that pitch to my players.  At that point, I ask them to add elements or suggest things to add to the campaign so that their expectations are met.  Gone is the time where I would trust my skills and my DMing telepathy to divine what they wanted to play.  At the point we are in our lives, I want to make sure that all my players get what they seek in our campaigns.  So I manage expectations by checking before and during a campaign that players periodically get what they seek.

During that 1st hour of the course, I put up the course’s outline, listing all the subject that we would tackle.  I told them that I would emphasis some items more (I put them in bold) and others I would cover lightly of skip altogether. I asked the class if there were subjects they wanted to see.  I told them that each of them had, knowingly or not, a ‘I must learn this’ and that if they didn’t tell me about it, they took the risk of not getting what they are looking for.  As expected, they chimed up and told me specific things they wanted (sharing calendars in Outlook, backup of emails, creating new calendars, etc).

I carefully noted down each request and integrated them in my course outline as soon as I got a few minutes.  It worked great as all participants told me they got what they expected.

Reading the group

During a RPG session, I try to monitor the level of excitement, fun and frustration of players.  Over the years, I’ve developed tricks to read other people.  Body language tells a lot about a players’ state of mind.  By doing regular reviews of how the energy level is, I try to make small course correction.  I don’t always manage this because, like all RPG geeks, I tend to become engrossed in the activity and rules of the game at the expense of the human factor.  However, when I start hearing exclamations of frustrations because a player can’t roll over 4-5, 6 rounds in a row, I start paying attention and I try to find ways to help him out.

In my course yesterday, at the end of the 2nd hours (the break) I had one student who was sitting back on his chair, arms crossed. I knew he wasn’t buying what I was saying about productivity and the importance of organization.  I later learned that he had driven 3 hours to come to the class and he wanted Outlook material, which I hadn’t gotten into yet at that point (apart Outlook basics).

During the break I asked him about it and he told me what I just related.  I told him that I would get into the nitty gritty Outlook stuff soon.  I also told him that if I did just that, the course would be a hell of a lot drier.  Finally I asked him to remind me of the stuff he needed during the class and that I would cover it.

One hour later, at lunch, he said “Hey that productivity stuff is interesting!”

Say Yes

A common heard declaration in Roleplaying games is ‘Say Yes” which is a mantra-like declaration to prevent  GMs from reacting defensively to player input by saying “no you can’t” or “no that won’t work”.  A very good description of this concept appears in Vincent Baker’s Dogs in the Vineyards:

Every moment of play, roll dice or say yes. If nothing’s at stake, say yes to the players, whatever they’re doing. Just plain go along with them. If they ask for information, give it to them. If they have their characters go somewhere, they’re there. If they want it, it’s theirs. Sooner or later— sooner, because your town’s pregnant with crisis— they’ll have their characters do something that someone else won’t like. Bang! Something’s at stake. Launch the conflict and roll the dice. Roll dice or say yes. Roll dice or say yes. Roll dice or say yes.”

In the last year, I’ve pushed myself past my ingrained resistances and I’ve tried really hard to become a “Say Yes” DM.  I think I have achieved that.  In fact I’m sure of it because it bled in my courses!

During the course, while I was describing an aspect of Outlook, some of the attendees would chime in and ask something that I didn’t plan (or didn’t think) to teach.  Every time, I stopped and fought my reflexes to keep with my plan.  I would then pause the course for 10-20 seconds, reorganize my thoughts, and start explaining what was asked.  This ended making the course more organic and better targeted to the needs of the class.  After I was done with the required subject, I just picked my outline up, looked where I was and returned to the Plan.

So you see… I owe a lot to DMing and it’s really fun to see how all the hours I invested at the gaming table are actually helping me re-orient my career! I love teaching and I may have finally answered one of my true callings.

Okay, I’m done with teaching for now.  Tomorrow I get to conclude my Primal/Within Campaign.  A game report will be forthcoming!

I read Game Informer as it is one of the best video game magazine out there. This last issue they made a christmas wish list. In that list under fantasy section of the wish list the number 1 item listed was the Pathfidner Roleplaying Game. The following is the write up that they put with the caption.

"This huge role-playing book includes all the info you need to get started and have a blast with your friends. A smarter skill system, improved classes, and streamlines combat systems highlight the list of gameplay to explore. Gorgeous art and smart, revised design ideas fill the pages, but everything is compatible with the old D&D 3.5 edition rules through only minor alterations. If you're ready for something new, don't miss out on 4th edition D&D. but if dramatic changes to your role-playing hobby terrify you. Pathfinder should be right up your alley."

I know that there is a pretty good following to Pathfinder and this should help the cause. I also wanted to mention Savage Worlds just released the fantasy companion to the Savage Worlds rule set. I am looking forward to checking that out in the coming weeks.Subscribe

Without getting too saccharine, I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving too all my readers that I am oh so thankful for. You guys keep the site going, after all.

Today, we talk about the social dynamics over the table, specifically when it comes to player leadership and character leadership.

While still busy at work, last night I got a genuine Last Drink Bird Head as well as contracts for my short story. Yay!

Also, this Sunday, two of my favorite guys, Rick Kleffel and Jeff VanderMeer (and Ann VanderMeer and Jacob Weisman), will be on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, in the 5-10 AM slot on KQED. Do try to check them out.

Interviews

• Editors Unleashed interviews Literary Agent Ginger Clark.
• The Interstitial Arts Foundation interviews Alaya Dawn Johnson.
• The Agony Column interviews Scott "SG" Browne (podcast).
• Frightening Journeys interviews Lauren Beukes.
  

Advice/Articles

• SF Signal Mind Meld: The Pros and Cons of eBooks.
  
• Video of Barry Malzberg on Astounding.
• Publisher's Weekly on Making Contacts and Money at Philcon.
• Sarah Monette on A rose by any other name...
• Anil Menon on The Raw and The Cooked.
• NextRead on Reviews, what are they good for? (via OF Blog of the Fallen)
• Newser on Books Are Bad for You. (via Booksquare)
• TechDirt on Publishers Getting The Wrong Message Over eBook Piracy. (via Booksquare)
• Madeleine E. Robins on How to Escape from the Slushpile.
• Lynne Patrick on A two-way process.
• Juno Books on E-Galleys and Zombies.
• Jim Rubart on Marketing Principles: Part 2 of 3.
• Steve Boyett on Books to Die For (1, 2).
• Nicola Morgan on Books Save Lives.
• Jason Sanford on Where to shove your self-published crap.
  

News

• Fantasy theme park plans unveiled.
• Boneshaker is on the PNBA Book Awards Shortlist 2010.
• New Name for Harlequin Horizons: DellArte Press.

This just arrived in the mail:
Child of Fire by Harry Connolly

I haven't done one of these articles for a while, so my apologies to folks who seem to really like them. Today, we're going to look at what was being pimped in November of 1984, with Dragon Magazine #91!


It sort of looks like the game didn't quite make it over the wall, like it just sort of got tired and took a rest partway through. Still the best Supers game ever (with apologies to Truth & Justice).



Who needs a Virtual Tabletop?



Why would I even accept the original?



Prediction: No one who wore this T-Shirt got laid, ever. "From the ancient, mist-shrouded lands of Guadalupe Street, located in the heart of the Garment District!" Also, only up to XXL? The hobby has grown, I guess!



Limited.



(Sorry--HU was always a distant third or fourth to me as far as Palladium lines went).

Now this advert knows exactly what it's doing in including that crown. We secretly all wanted our characters to rule at least a small kingdom, if not a plane of existence. Kickass.



By 1984, players unable to find a game in their local area due to noisome personal habits, chronic anti-social tendencies, or a complete and clinical disregard for the niceties of basic human civility and interaction already had another recourse.



Well, that wraps up this edition of Vintage Dragon Magazine Adverts! I held back from the Traveller and Rolemaster ads this time around, as I know I usually tend to favor those...

Philippine Speculative Fiction V
edited by Nikki Alfar & Vincent Michael Simbulan
Kestrel, 2010 (Feb release date)

‘A Game of Quam’ by Andrew Drilon

‘A New Hospital’ by Raymond G. Falgui

‘A Yellow Brick Road Valentine’ by Charles Tan

‘Carbon’ by Paolo Gabriel V. Chikiamco

‘Death and Noy’ by Fidelis Angela C. Tan

‘Embedding’ by Aileen Familara

‘Eyes as Wide as the Sky’ by Gabriela Lee

‘Heart in the Flesh’ by Mia Tijam

‘If We Catch Fire’ by Marla Cabanban

‘Just Man’ by Rica Bolipata-Santos

‘Keeper of My Sky’ by Timothy James Dimacali

‘Leg Men’ by Dominique Gerald Cimafranca

‘Monsters’ by Eliza Victoria

‘New Toy’ by Joseph Anthony Montecillo

‘Rogelio Batle and the Curse of the Crimson Court’ by Alexander Osias

‘Sink’ by Isabel Yap

‘Strange Weather’ by Dean Francis Alfar

‘The Autochthonic War’ by Joseph F. Nacino

‘The Creature’ by Christine V. Lao

‘The Goodlyf’ by Kate Aton-Osias

‘The Left-Behind Girl’ by Veronica Montes

‘The Sparrows of Climaco Avenue’ by Kenneth Yu

‘There’s a Waterfall in Your Rainbow’ by Ejay Domingo

‘Three Stories’ by Angelo R. Lacuesta

‘Very Short Fairy Tales’ by Apol Lejano-Massebieau

shortlist:

‘A Novel Escape’ by Celine Roque

‘Bio Notes’ by Monique Francisco

‘Beyond Flight’ by Kristine Draei Dimalanta

‘Carnivale’ by Sarah Catherine Ureta

‘Moving Houses’ by Oscar Bryan Alvarez

‘Robots, Eyeballs, and a Slice of Pizza’ by Raydon L. Reyes

‘The Beloved Servant’ by Elyss Punsalan

‘The Void’ by Spencer Simbulan

‘Under a Mound of Earth’ by Celestine Trinidad

‘Upstaged’ by Gerard dela Cruz

‘Watchmen and Puppetmaster’ by Erica Gonzales

‘Wolf Man’ by John Philip Corpuz

Every Wednesday, I have an essay or feature article on any topic that catches my fancy!

Last week's controversy revolves around Harlequin's soon-to-be-renamed imprint Harlequin Horizons. Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, and Science Fiction Writers of America have issued statements on the matter. There's also a couple of opinions being thrown around. Kat Meyer, for example, asks whether aspiring authors and readers are truly at risk. Victoria Strauss also asks why the big fuss over Harlequin Horizons, and not with West Bow Press (which provides something similar minus the brand name).

Before I begin, let me state my background. I'm an author in the Philippines who's been published by both traditional publishers and self-publishers (books like the Philippine Speculative Fiction series are products of self-publishers). Personally, I've even self-published the Philippine Speculative Fiction Sampler, albeit not in print. And before we continue, while the terms self-publishing and vanity publishing tend to be interchanged, they don't mean the same thing in this particular context: Jennifer Jackson clears up some definitions. For a quick breakdown, self-publishing entails the author publishing his or her book, while vanity publishing entails the author paying someone else to publish their book.

Traditionally, self-publishing has been frowned upon. The most common complaint is "why didn't a regular publisher agree to publish your work?" It also entails a lot of work on the part of the author, who has now taken on the role of publisher: getting quotations from printers, working on marketing, arranging for distribution, and collecting sales. In the past decade, through a combination of the Internet and cheaper technology (i.e. print-on-demand), self-publishing is slowly becoming a more viable business model, not in the sense of getting rich quick (haha!), but in terms of getting your work out there. A couple of indie publications are self-published, and the reasons why some authors and editors self-publish is because the bigger publishers don't see a large enough market to produce them in sufficient quantities. And sometimes, yes, it's the rejected manuscript which is rejected because it's crap. There are a couple of success stories, but bear in mind, these are the exceptions. Reviewers such as myself are wary of authors who self-publish: while there is a chance that the said work is genuinely good (or at least "publishable"), it's also likely that they are horrible (in the sense of having atrocious spelling, erroneous grammar, or an awful plot). I've personally encountered both. (For a different look at things, you can read Josh Jasper's Self-Publishing Done Right.)

Vanity publishing, on the other hand, is loathsome to professional authors because of the adage "manage flows to the author". There is an acceptable loss of cash flow in self-publishing because the author takes on the role of the publisher, and one hopes that they will recoup the expenses eventually (unfortunately, there's no sure thing in business, much less publishing). In Vanity publishing, the author is clearly not the publisher. And from the finances of the vanity publisher, whether the author sold one copy of his or her book or ten thousand, they've already made a profit.

From my perspective, if you're just going to use a vanity press, why not just become a self-publisher? It's going to be more time consuming, but you have more control over your work and it's arguably cheaper, as well as you not sharing your profits with someone else. Does that mean I'll never recommend vanity publishing as a possible route? No. I see rare circumstances when working with a vanity publisher could be helpful to an aspiring author. For example, if you're a talented, aspiring author who doesn't want to do the legwork, and happens to have a lot of cash available on hand, then this might be the route to take (but let's face it, when was the last time you heard of an aspiring writer having lots of money available?). The issue here is picking the right vanity publisher, and being objectively confident that your book will actually sell. (Unfortunately, there is truly no "objective confidence"--most people enter the self-publishing and vanity publishing arena [or even traditional publishing] thinking that their work is the best in the world and everybody will buy it, even when a professional doesn't think that's the case.)

Now let's begin to tackle the scenario with Harlequin. Here are the complaints based on the statements of the various author organizations:

Romance Writers of America (RWA)

• Disqualification in RWA-provided conference resources because Harlequin is now a subsidy/vanity publisher. This isn't an attack on self-publishers (which, again, is different from subsidy/vanity publishers), but a binary policy of the group against vanity publishers (either you qualify or you don't). Perhaps room for argument here is that Harlequins Horizons is an imprint of Harlequin as opposed to its main business model, thus enabling certain imprints to qualify.

Mystery Writers of America (MWA)

• Declining membership with the MWA and ineligibility to qualify for the Edgar Awards. Honestly, the stance of the MWA is more of an ethics issue.
• The ethics issue here is the inclusion of the Harlequin Horizons program and the eHarlequin Manuscript Critique Service which is embedded in the manuscript submission guidelines for all its imprints. There is a conflict of interest here as Harlequin is recommending its imprint to all of its prospective authors (i.e. if you can't get published traditionally, try our vanity press!).
• This isn't an attack on vanity publishers in general, but more along the lines of a traditional publisher advertising its vanity press to all of its clients.
  

Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA)

• Ineligibility to qualify for membership. The SFWA has three complaints.
• One is arguably faulty advertising (no distribution on brick-and-mortar stores, no editor so the author's skills doesn't actually improve).
• The second complaint is brand dilution of the authors involved (what's not elaborated is that low sales can impact whether bookstores will stock your books in the future or not, hence why some authors take up new pen names).
  
• The third is the income stream, the adage "money flows to the author" adage.

There are other concerns of course, which I want to bring up:

• A lot of the complaints stem from the assumption that prospective participants in the program are ignorant and unaware of the risks, hence Harlequin is seen as predatory (it doesn't help that the imprint shares the brand name of Harlequin--at least before Harlequin comes up with a new name). Whether this is true or not is best left for readers to decide. I just want to remind people though at how many writers don't read the fine print, or even follow basic submission guidelines.
• Dilution of the house brand. In attaching the Harlequin name, it certainly boosts the reputation of the imprint (especially compared to other vanity publishers). On the other hand, it also *possibly* (this is best left for customers to decide) diminishes the main brand (along with all the authors involved) as it associates itself with vanity publishing.
• A lot are also assuming that the practice that would follow from such an endeavor is that rejected slush pile manuscripts will apply for the program in the hopes of not only getting published, but catch the eye of traditional publishers. At least as far as Harlequin's marketing spiel is concerned, there's a conundrum between "we respectfully reject your manuscript" and "sign up with us now!". It is possible however that the latter is not exclusive to the former, and that the latter's target audience is very different.

Some people are interpreting this incident as traditional publishers (and everyone under them) acting defensively against the not-so-new trend that is vanity publishing (and other alternative methods such as self-publishing). Unfortunately, several of the responses, such as statements from Stacey Cochran, feel more like knee-jerk reactions rather than actually reading and deliberating on the stances of the various people involved. The reason I outlined the stances of the three writing organizations above is to highlight that they have different stances on the matter, and it's not a scenario of "traditional publishers and their ilk are out to attack self-publishers" (and even that is a misnomer as it's not the self-publishers that the RWA has a policy against but vanity publishers). For example, Michael Hyatt (of Thomas Nelson) has a blog entry Why Agents May Be Opposed to Self-Publishing, in response to the recent fiasco. He cites three reasons, but as far as the three writing organizations are concerned (yes, I know, he was originally addressing it to agent complaints--but which agents, I wonder since that's not what I'm reading from other agents), only his third argument, "Self-publishing rips off the authors," is valid (the other two aren't brought up at all). And even then, it doesn't properly address the ethics issue brought up by the MWA or SFWA (Lee Goldberg has more on that particular issue).

I'd also like to stress that the reaction is also due to Harlequin's specific circumstance. Dear Author, for example, points out that Random House has a partnership with Xlibris, and there was no public outcry then (or at least not as loud as this one). And Victoria Strauss asks why industry people commend West Bow Press but not Harlequin Horizons? Is it just the brand name? (Personally, I see it as me being vested in fiction as opposed to nonfiction, hence me paying more attention to this incident.)

Some people are using this a segue-way to go into a traditional publishers vs. self-publishing argument when that's not necessarily the case here, at least as far as the three writing groups are concerned. (Individuals, whether authors, agents, bloggers, etc. will obviously have their own opinions.) Is it too much to ask from fellow readers to actually read what's actually being discussed, instead of reacting to what they think is being argued against? I know it doesn't help that jargon is being thrown around, especially since a lot of people (myself included) don't understand the differences between self-publishing and vanity publishing. I'm not saying that the three writing groups is completely in the right, but it would be more helpful if the critics actually addressed the issues brought up. For example, the change in imprint name might satiate the RWA but not the MWA or the SFWA. Changing policies and the copy writing might alleviate MWA concerns but not the RWA.

Lots of work to do, not enough time...

From Chris Barzak, he points out this article on Does an Anti-Gay Character Make (Gay Author) Bennett Madison's Teen Book Homophobic?

Interviews

• Confessions of an Aca/Fan interviews Delia Sherman.
• Big Hollywood profiles Harlan Ellison.
• ActuSF interviews Kevin J. Anderson.
• Marshall Payne interviews John Kessel.
• Pat's Fantasy Hotlist interviews Mark Charan Newton.
• Robert Freeman Wexler interviews Alan DeNiro and Daryl Gregory.
• John Scalzi profiles Jeff Carlson.
  

Advice/Articles

• Suvudu on Suvudu is Thankful for...
• Ditchwalk on GeoCities, Scribd and Your Content. (via Booksquare)
• Writer's Digest on Harlequin's Self-Publishing Venture: Is It the Future of Publishing? (via Booksquare)
• Editorial Ass on Writer Question: When Should I Take Revision Advice, and When Should I Listen to My Gut?
• Mike Brotherton on False Dichotomies and Science/Science Fiction.
• Nathan Bransford on The Economics of Publishing.
  

News

• Odyssey Writing Workshop Announces Its 15th Summer Session.
• The Year’s Best SF and Fantasy, Honorable Mentions, Part 1.
• Amazon Extends Battery Life of Newest Kindle by 85 Percent and Adds Native PDF Reader.

Happy release day!
Devil's Alphabet by Daryl Gregory