Fractal Spire series premiere tonight!

Tonight Speculate! (the actual play show I co-host with Brandon O’Brien and Gregory A. Wilson) is kicking off a new series called “Fractal Spire”, playing Girl by Moonlight, a Forged in the Dark RPG forthcoming from Evil Hat Productions.

In Fractal Spire, a group of dream travelers in a dystopian world fight both the State and a sentient dream conspiracy. After losing their leader and the person that bound their group together, the remaining four must find a way to patch up their wounded hearts and fight on, together.

Watch the series premiere of “Fractal Spire” Sunday, Feb 6th at 7pm EST at Twitch.tv/ArvanEleron.

If you can’t make the live broadcast, the video will show up at Youtube.com/Arvaneleron 24 hours later. Each episode will be available in this YouTube playlist, and will come to the Speculate! podcast feed later on in smaller chunks.

The Genrenauts Challenge: Round One!

Dear all,

We’re just two weeks away from the release of The Absconded Ambassador: Genrenauts Episode 2!

The Absconded Ambassador

 

And to help build excitement for the series, I’m kicking off a set of competitions.

Before Genrenauts launched, I recorded a series of videos with the fine folks at Tor.com about the series, including some videos inviting the viewer to step into the role of Genrenauts and create endings for broken stories.

 

First, watch the video:

Then go to the YouTube page for the video and post your proposed story fix. This doesn’t have to be fully written out, it can be a summary of how you would manipulate the existing story to create a new, satisfying ending.

Comment with your story patch by Monday, February 22nd, and you could win a set of signed and personalized Genrenauts paperbacks as well as a letter of welcome to the Genrenauts team, signed by team leader Angstrom King himself.

If you have any questions about the contest, comment below. DO NOT post your story patches here. They need to go on the YouTube page for the Sci-Fi challenge.

There will be other challenges later on, if this scenario doesn’t catch your interest. Stay tuned!

The Shootout Solution Promonado Round-up – Week 1

We’re a mere four days until the release of The Shootout Solution, and my Promonado has reached Category IV (Category V projected for next week)

First, I’ll recap the Genrenauts series intro video we recorded at Macmillan, to get you in the mood:

 

At Tor.com, I talked about writing a post-modern Western, including shout-outs to Blazing Saddles.

I solicited ideas for panels at a hypothetical ProCon – focused on professional development for SF/F authors. I also talk a bit about the Nebula Awards Weekend, which I’ve learned does much of this work already and is trying to do more.

Apex has put out an open call for Upside Down, an anthology of trope-inverting short stories. I have a story in the anthology, re-imagining the trope of The Super Soldier. Upside Down will be Kickstarted early next year. Maybe you could be in the TOC with me!

My first episode as a co-host on Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers, and Fans posted, focusing on The Builders by Daniel Polansky. The novella is basically “Grimdark Redwall,” and it’s really quite impressive. And be sure to subscribe to the Speculate! feed for more podcast-y goodness!

I announced a pre-order contest for signed & personalized galleys of The Absconded Ambassador (Genrenauts Episode 2).

My Bookish Ways had me on to talk about Citing My Sources for the series.

And we revealed the second video – the Sci-Fi challenge – how would you fix the broken story? – a choose-your-own-adventure-style story challenge.

And just today, I received my first copy of the print edition of The Shootout Solution, and recorded an unboxing:

 

4 days until The Shootout Solution! Wheee!!

Return of Promonado

We’re just 8 days from The Shootout Solution‘s release, and my Promonado has already begun. Here’s a quick round-up of reviews and appearances so far.

Reviews:

“The Shootout Solution is Genre blending fun.”
Fangirl Nation

“Snappy dialogue, twisting plot turns, and efficiently written action scenes combine with a strongly realized protagonist that reminds me of a old friend from my art school days, not a cardboard cut-out of the “strong female character” trope.”
Polychromantium

Podcasts:

Talking Genre with Daniel Benson on The Kingdoms of Evil.

Q&A at GenCon with James L. Sutter and Kameron Hurley for Writing Excuses.

 

And just in this very hour – the first of several videos we shot at Macmillan HQ about Genrenauts. This one is an introduction to the world and concept:

Sword & Laser Hangout

I had the marvelous chance to appear on the Sword & Laser podcast for one of their Google+ Hangouts! We did the interview live on Hangouts on Air, and now the video is archived on YouTube:

I’ve been a Sword & Laser listener and sometimes participant on Goodreads for a few years now, so it was very cool and somewhat surreal to be a guest on the show.

Big thanks to Veronica and Tom for having me on!

Gamer Girl/Country Boy — Geek and Sundry music video

One of this week’s offerings from the Geek and Sundry YouTube channel is a music video for a song called “Gamer Girl, Country Boy” by Felicia Day and Jason Charles Miller.

Watching the video, in addition to being amused, I found myself thinking that this would probably become a theme for the GEEKOMANCY readers who ship Ree and Eastwood (of which I know there are more than one).