As fellow Alliterate writer Jeff Grubb notes, he and Jim Ward and Ed Greenwood have a new book out, just in time for the holidays: We Three Dragons. This anthology features three novellas about dragons and Christmas. I have yet to read it myself, but it’s now on my Christmas list.
Mayfair’s High-Ticket Settlers Sells Out
According to ICv2.com, Mayfair Games has essentially sold out of its super-deluxe 3D edition of its best-selling Settlers of Catan board game. That’s 5,000 copies of a game that sells for $380 in a store, or $1.9 million in retail sales. Wow.
Congratulations to all my friends at Mayfair!
A Very Alliterative Booklist
The Alliterates (of which I’m a proud member) has posted a list of recommended works of science-fiction and fantasy. If you’re looking for something as a holiday gift or just to read, this is a fine place to start.
Blood Bowl a Bestseller!
My novel Blood Bowl squeaked on to this month’s bestsellers list for gaming-related fiction in Locus Magazine. It comes in at the final spot, behind three R.A. Salvatore Forgotten Realms novels and fellow Alliterate Jess Lebow’s Forgotten Realms novel Master of Chains. Another Alliterate, Troy Denning, made the media-related list with his latest Star Wars novel The Joiner King. That’s some fine company to be thrown in with on any day.
Edit: After poking around, it seems the asterisk next to Blood Bowl‘s entry on the list means it tied for fourth place with R.A. Salvatore’s Paths of Darkness, a collection of four of his NY Times bestselling Drizzt novels. Cool.
Road to Death in the House
I just got a FedEx box from Wizards of the Coast, a kind of early Christmas present for me: my author’s copies of The Road to Death. This is the second in The Lost Mark trilogy, which started with Marked for Death, and it should be on shelves nationwide and beyond in January if not earlier.
As you may have heard me say before, there’s nothing like holding a product in your hand to make it real. It’s easy to get jaded about being published, I suppose, but getting in the first copy of a game or a book always puts a big, goofy grin on my face. Woot!
Battle Dice Gallery
If you want to good look at the figures for the Marvel Heroes Battle Dice game, stop by Action-Figure.com and browse their gallery. They’ve posted over 100 photos of the game. These include shots of the figures, the carrying case, the two dice chuckers (the Hulk and the Thing), and the battle arena.
Wow. I haven’t seen most of the figures before now, and I’m impressed. This is going to be amazing.
Battle Dice Summary
I was going to post a short summary of just how Marvel Heroes Battle Dice works. Managing this sort of thing is tricky because I’m under an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) with the game’s publisher, Playmates Toys. Roughly speaking, I’ve agreed not to say anything about the game without their permission–unless it’s already public knowledge.
Fortunately, the people at Action-Figure.com have already covered a lot of this. Once you finish reading the text, be sure to check out the photos at the bottom of the page.
Hobby Hearse Ready to Ride
My pal and fellow Alliterate Lester Smith (game designer par excellence, formerly of Fast Forward, TSR, and GDW) just launched HobbyHearse.com, a store for used games. He’s already got some dandies up there, and I’m planning to hand over about a pallet of stuff to him, too, so look for more gently used classics for sale in the near future.
Mutant Chronicles Movie Moving Ahead
Check out director Simon Hunter’s website for some details about the upcoming Mutant Chronicles movie from Pressman Films. He’s created a teaser for the film, which is being shown around Hollywood, and he hopes to post it online soon.
Too cool.
More Knights
Just moments ago, I delivered The Dragons Revealed, the second of two novels I’ve written this fall for the Knights of the Silver Dragon YA fantasy series I created for Wizards of the Coast last year. These are #13 and #14 in the series, and they form a major, two-part turning point in the ongoing story of Kellach, Moyra, and Driskoll. Amazon.com lists #13 (Prophecy of the Dragons) as a June 13, 2006, release and #14 as showing up on August 8, 2006. It’s going to be a great summer!