AMAZING NEWS: 10/25/15

SPECIAL NOTE: What could be more AMAZING than the fact that Amazing Stories, the 1985 Spielberg anthology television show, is making a return? I’ll tell you: they’re licensing the name from The Experimenter Publishing Company, owner of Amazing Stories (me)! This means (presuming the show gets green lit, which it apparently has) a new licensing revenue stream for the magazine, and one that looks to be enough for us to be able to start purchasing stories (at pro rates) on a regular basis. More information will be forth coming as it becomes available. (We’ll be doing happy dances!)

PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS (Full text below)

Kevin J. Anderson; RPG Newsletter #26

SOCIAL

Sexual Harassment in the Science Community and Sexism in Science and Sci Fi

Intersex:  No Longer Invisible

Trans Teen Elected Home Coming Queen:  Accusations of Voter Fraud Follow

Aslan Is Pro-Choice!  (Well, Liam Neeson Voice Aslan and a Pro-Choice Ad and some people are upset)

Come on People:  Donate to Lunacon!

ENTERTAINMENT

The SW Trailer You’ve Been Waiting For (or maybe not)

Continue to Trust No One:  X-Files Poster

First Ever Multi-Channel SF Network to Debut

Corgi Discovers That it is Batman (via K. Davidson)

Netflix Adds & Subtracts for November

Team Robot (via SF Signal)

Canada & US Go Trek

Greg Benford Shills The MOTA Reader (1970’s best of fanzines collection)

Tolkein Annotated Middle Earth Map On Auction

INDUSTRY

Her Universe Launches Imprint (via SF Signal)

Joanne Harris Calls for Respect for Authors

Kolchak Is Coming Back

Facebook Will Inform You If The Gov. Is Spying On You (via Gary Farber)

Better Communications for VATMOSS Issues

SCIENCE

Mammatus Clouds Over Saskatchewan (and I thought it was a story about Nick….)

Cassini Begins Flybys

George Mueller Dies (Apollo Rocket Scientist)

Dog Becomes Dog, 15,000 Years Ago in Asia (maybe)

Beluga Whale Having Fun with Kids (and we’re the only intelligent creatures on the planet?) (via K. Davidson)

Thomas Jefferson’s Secret Lab Discovered (can you say The Declaration of Independence and Zombies?)

Get Your Daily Dose of Earth Shots

SETI Search of ‘Alien Megastructre’ Star Begins

Working Hoverboards

The Future is Not Humans OR Machines, It’s Humans + Machines

PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS

Hi , Do you have a few minutes to catch up on what I’m doing? Sometimes I have to snatch writing time wherever I can get it, so I drafted this newsletter in the front seat of our SUV while Rebecca took a shift driving home from Salt Lake Comic Con. SLCC is one of the biggest comic cons anywhere (~130,000 attendees on Saturday), and it was hands down our most successful show ever. This time, with support from Tor Books and Baen Books, we had a large booth featuring a super guest-star lineup that included Jim Butcher, Terry Brooks, R.A. Salvatore, Larry Correia, Charles E. Gannon, Tracy Hickman, David Farland, Peter Orullian, as well as me and Rebecca, along with WordFire authors Julie Frost, Dan Willis, Peter J. Wacks, Josh Vogt, Quincy J. Allen, and RJ Terrell. I was afraid we’d get a citation for having too much awesomeness in one area! We signed over 10,000 autographs that weekend. Left to right, Terry Brooks, Jim Butcher, Kevin J. Anderson, Larry Correia Clockwork Lives My other big news is the release of Clockwork Lives, a new book in the same universe asClockwork Angels. Yes, I love to write and tell stories, and it probably seems like I alwayshave some new novel out. This one is special. Of my 130 books so far, I think Clockwork Lives is one of my very best. All the pieces fit together just perfectly. I’m really proud of it. Tracy Mangum created an absolutely wonderful book trailer for Clockwork Lives. You can see it at Clockwork Lives Trailer. Clockwork Lives is sort of a steampunkCanterbury Tales, cowritten with Neil Peart, the drummer and lyricist from Rush. In Clockwork Angels Neil and I created the colorful universe of Albion, the Watchmaker, the Anarchist, the Seven Cities of Gold, Poseidon City, and we wanted to explore the people and places more. It’s some of my most heart-wrenching and heart-warming writing ever. The physical book is a work of art, as too. ECW Press released the hardcover with a red leatherette cover complete with embossed designs and gold stamping, marbled end-papers, color printing, and 13 exquisite illustrations by Nick Robles (the artist who did Clockwork Angels: The Graphic Novel). I hope you’ll get a chance to read it. The audiobook just released by Recorded Books has different readers for the different Tales (including me, reading The Wrecker’s Tale). Clockwork Lives is available at your local or online book retailer. You can also order a copy autographed by me from WordFire Shop. Seven Suns Switching universes to the Saga of Seven Suns. I just finished my first edit on the manuscript ofEternity’s Mind, the grand finale of the Saga of Shadows trilogy. Even more exciting, BushiGo Games has released the first “appisode” of an animated adaptation of the Seven Suns prequel, Veiled Alliances. It’s free, and if there’s enough interest, BushiGo will develop the rest of the appisodes and expand the play to be more interactive.  Available for Android and iOS. To download your free copy, search forVeiled Alliances in your app store. A Dozen Monsters! A new book bundle has launched, a full dozen books about monsters of all shapes, sizes, and appetites: zombies, vampires, serial killers, supernatural cleaners, werewolves, mammoths, resurrected dinosaurs, and many others. Monsters Unleashed! is only available for three weeks. You can get all twelve books in any eBook format for a minimum bid of $15 at Storybundle Books by Kevin J. Anderson, Gregory Benford, Jeffrey J. Mariotte, Jean Rabe & Donald J. Bingle, David Sakmyster & Rick Chesler, Julie Frost, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Aaron Rosenburg & Steven Savile, Josh Vogt, Douglas Smith, Matt Forbeck, and Mike Baron. Upcoming Appearances Come see us next at Stan Lee’s Comikaze in LA on Halloween weekend! Our booth will have me, Rebecca Moesta, Jody Lynn Nye, David Farland, Bryan Thomas Schmidt, Neo Edmund, Peter J. Wacks, Quincy J. Allen, and more. Hope to see you sometime soon. As always, keep reading! KJA Facebook Twitter Website

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RPGnet Newsletter #26
October 20, 2015

Introduction

First off, thanks very much to Shannon for keeping things going last week with a fantastic edition of the Newsletter. It’ll be a tough act to follow.

Next, it’s worth a few words to remark that we’ve now hit the half-year mark of the Newsletter. It’s been a lot of fun putting this together every week (well, ok, almost every week), and, even though he’s been bumming around the site for over a dozen years now, it has taught yr. humble editor quite a lot about all the great content produced by RPGnet.

The Newsletter crew loves feedback on their efforts, so please PM me (Iustum) with any critiques, comments, or suggetions. Also, we’re always looking for new features or content to add to the newsletter, so send in anything from developed proposals to wild-eyed dreams of things you’d like to see here.

Without further ado, let’s get back to your usual weekly newsletter.

New Columns

Last Tuesday, Antonios S finished off his fantastic look at Essen Spiel in “The Day After: What’s Next?”. Many thanks to Antonios S for his great coverage of this gaming event!

Christopher Cecil also gave us Issue #102 of his Fuzzy Thinking comic: “Paladin Ranks.”

Finally, R. Donald James Gauvreau finished off his very interesting look at a fusion of Lovecraftian Mythos and Norse mythology in “Norse Mythos, Part Three.” Be sure to check out the first and second parts before diving in to this one!

New Reviews

RPGnet added four new reviews last week.

• Matthew McFarland’s review of “Fortune’s Fool” (Indie Fantasy RPG)
• silverfoxdmt73’s review of “Lone Wolf Adventure Game” (Fantasy RPG)
• Edward Kabara’s review of “Pathfinder Adventure Card Game – Skull & Shackles Adventure Deck 6: From Hell’s Heart” (Pathfinder ACG supplement)
• Shannon Appelcline’s review of “Catan: Seafarers” (Board/tactical game)

Threads You Might Have Missed

Teaching can be the best way to learn. “How to get into RPGs as a complete beginner?” over in TRO is a great demonstration of that concept, and a look at how helpful and friendly your fellow RPGnetters can be.

Yr. humble editor has rarely agreed with the premise of the thread as much as he does with this one: “I Hate When a Game Asks Me to Judge People’s Roleplaying.” This thread also features some great commentary on how and why to award XP and even some higher-level game design thinking about why XP as a mechanic exists in the first place.

The thread title here says it all: “What do you get when you cross Power Rangers, Cthulhu & the Breakfast Club?”

There are few things that can cause a hilarious disaster around a gaming table quite like “Playing yourself.” Check out the thread, share your stories, and maybe even learn how to make this concept into a successful game.

Sign Off

Have a good week, everyone, and please do send in your comments.

RPGnet Newsletter Staff:

• Tectrix
  Actual Play Spotlight Columnist
• Iustum
  Newsletter Editor