Does your Crew have what it takes to fly the Good Shepherd’s Run?
I am pleased to announce a brand new release for the Firefly RPG. The Smuggler’s Guide to the Rim is a supplement designed for both players and GMs. It introduces Reputation rules for Crewmembers, 12 new archetypes, the Good Shepherd’s Run, more Chinese translations, more rules, new in game aids, a pair of Episodes, and more!
The Smuggler’s Guide to the Rim was just released on digital, and will be available in print soon.
I am pleased to announce that Doubting Souls, our Hunter: the Vigil chapter covering 1690 to 1695 in Salem Town, Salem Village, and Boston is part of the next stretch goal for the Dark Eras Kickstarter.
You can vote for Hunter: the Vigil per this latest update, and any additional wordcount will be devoted to Native Americans.
There’s been quite a few questions about how we might expand that text, and we’re mulling over different options that are related to this Era and its overall plot should we win the vote. We did present some Native American material in the existing chapter that puts this Era in historical context, and you can read the entire chapter through the Kickstarter page.
Should you vote for Hunter, we will take the same, special care we did with the rest of the material to present new material for Native American tribes in context for this chapter. While this is alternate history, specifically designed for the World of Darkness, this topic in particular means a lot to both my developer and myself. We take it very seriously, and we feel it’s our duty to do the best job we possibly can for you, the fans, but also because we feel it’s our responsibility as writers, too.
Good luck to our fellow writers and developers on this neat stretch goal!
Apex Publications is pleased to announce the addition of a new anthology to its 2015 release schedule. Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling is an anthology of short stories and poems that will highlight the long-standing tradition of writers who identify tropes in science fiction, fantasy, and horror and twist them into something new and interesting.
Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling will include original contributions from Maurice Broaddus, Shanna Germain, Laura Anne Gilman, Sara Harvey, John Hornor Jacobs, Rahul Kanakia, Haralambi Markov, Sunil Patel, Kat Richardson, Nisi Shawl, Lucien Soulban, Wrath James White, Alyssa Wong, and many others.
“I am excited to be working with two fantastic, smart, and gifted editors like Jaym Gates and Monica Valentinelli,” says Jason Sizemore, the publisher of Apex Book Company. “They should only enhance the Apex reputation as one of the genre’s leading anthology publishers with the release of Upside Down.”
Edited by Jaym Gates (War Stories) and Monica Valentinelli (Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horrors), the anthology will debut in Fall/Winter 2015 in both digital and print. The anthology will be Gates’s second collection with Apex Book Company and Valentinelli’s first. A Kickstarter and open submissions period are also planned for this fall.
To find out more about Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling, be sure to watch for milestone-related updates from the editors posted on the Apex Book Company website.
Popping in briefly to mention that we’ve reached a new milestone on the Dark Eras Kickstarter–over 1,000 backers! We’re now enhancing this World of Darkness supplement with expanded content that fans can vote on.
Hunter: the Vigil is featured in the next two stretch goals, with a “Doubting Souls” chapter expansion written by yours truly as the second one. Matt, my developer, and I have been talking about careful ways to enhance our chapter to incorporate relevant tribes from the period and surrounding areas should fans vote for that option.
Up next, you can vote on one of three options for our $77,500 stretch goal:
Hunter: the Vigil – The Book of Judges (the Middle East, ~11th century BCE)
Werewolf: the Forsaken – Forsaken by Rome (the Roman Frontier, 1st century CE)
Demon: the Descent – After the Fall of Constantinople (1453 CE)
After that, at $82,500, is your chance to decide on expansion for one of three existing chapters. Requiem for Regina adds new monsters, while Into the Cold and Doubting Souls add new peoples. These additions will be 10k each, slightly under half as long as the chapter they extend.
Vampire: the Requiem – Requiem for Regina: The Changeling Courts of London
Demon: the Descent – Into the Cold: America’s stigmatic spies
Hunter: the Vigil – Doubting Souls: Native American hunters
Thanks for your support!
Sitting here with Enya blasting through Pandora nursing a “Oh ye stars… Why does my diet go to hell on deadline again?” stomach. As it is now 2015, a new set of squees is now needed. Woo!
1.) I organized my beads and chainmaille links. This is VERY IMPORTANT, as I have designs I bought beads for but couldn’t remember where all the pieces went.
2.) Medieval pet names. How cool.
3.) The holidays are over and my house is back to normal. Yay!
4.) Trying to set up recurring evenings of beadness and have a few months scheduled already. Forced social human interaction you say? Yikes! Er… Good!
5.) Have planned my convention appearances for 2015. I’ll be doing more of them.
6.) 13 Essential Summer Reads in 1852 gives a historical look during the time period. I believe that reading history is important, even if it makes me uncomfortable.
7.) Fire Mountain Gems, a bead supplier, posted an article about the eras of jewelry. From a designer’s perspective, this is really awesome.
8.) Pen PR0N!!! The seven-year pen from Seltzer. Yes, it writes very smooth.
9.) Four words: homemade chocolate chip cookies.
10.) Learning that yes, using a spatula to stir cookie dough is way better than a wooden spoon. Rock. Star.
11.) Re-obfuscating my hair. This makes me happy.
12.) Prepping for a writer’s retreat. Very excited!
13.) LEGO Doctor Who. Need I say more?
14.) I never get sick of watching The Avengers. So impressed with the connected plots that weave in and out of the movies and the S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show.
15.) Put in an order from JetPens.com for this calligraphy pen. Here’s the awesome part about this pen: the colors BLEND.
16.) Managed to clean our place before we left for California, so came back to a fresh pad. After one load of laundry, I’m totally caught up on maintenance-type crap. Woo!
17.) Starting to get some reviews for my latest project. Geist: Ready Made Characters. Glad fans are digging them!
18.) Two unannounced projects are moving forward, I’m getting caught up on other projects, and I’m making progress on my own stuff, too.
19.) Combat boots have been acquired. I’ve been looking for over a year, ever since my old ones got irreparably damaged on a trip. Opted to go with a convertible pair of Doc Marten’s and I’m really anxious to break them in.
20.) I mentioned earlier that I was starting to Couch to 5K program. Due to the pressure on my joints, I wasn’t ready for the speeds I was aiming for. I’ve since modified the program, but I’m keeping up with it despite my achilles tendon acting up. Really anxious to build some endurance and continue on the health train. It feels great to get my heart pumping again!
21.) A squee for Phil Reed and Sam Mitschke from Steve Jackson Games. They’ve been promoted!!! YAY!!! Well-deserved.
22.) Another squee for discovering Joseph Bruchac, a Native American author. Really powerful stuff.
23.) Happy that Constantine is getting some rave reviews. It’s a GREAT show and I’m thrilled for the cast and the team that put this together.
24.) Threw a holiday party to see some friends I haven’t seen for a while. Pretty excited about that! And, we’re keeping the good times going. Huzzah!
25.) Made my New Year’s Resolutions and am diving into the pile. So grateful for my co-writers and editors to be able to do what I do. Thanks for seeing 2014 through and cheers for a BIG 2015!
26.) We funded the Dark Eras Kickstarter in one day! I have a chapter in this supplement called “Doubting Souls” for Hunter: the Vigil.
27.) Fans are great. Fan feedback is what keeps me going! There’s been loads of it lately, and that’s keep me going.
28.) I don’t know if you’ve seen that Creative Process illustration that’s been floating around, but I managed to track down the artist who’s selling a print of it. Neat!
29.) I love it when art and history come together. This prize-winning animation lets you fly through 17th London. SO COOL!
30.) I’m ALMOST through Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. Yay!
31.) Yes, I do have a room for GenCon. In fact, I’m coming back to the Writer’s Symposium! Huzzah!
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