Halloween

Does anyone carve pumpkins anymore? Other than on TV? Well, I suppose the Bronx isn't the best place to gauge current American trends.

In any case, let it never be said that a LaSala (specifically, myself and my wife) does not find some way to celebrate Halloween. It will eternally be both a holiday and an anniversary for us. In this case, two years.

Eberron, At Last

So I’ve got an announcement to make. If you’d rather skip my self-indulgent, long-winded build-up (it's more for me than you), just scroll down the bottom of the post.

The story goes like this:

- 2002: Wizards of the Coast (WotC) held an open call to create a new campaign setting for them to develop...i.e. a new fantasy world for the D&D game that would lead to new sourcebooks, novels, comics, and even computer games. My brother and I pitched an idea—one of the 11,000, apparently—but nothing came of that. The winner for that contest was Keith Baker, who introduced to the fantasy genre the new setting of Eberron. I was skeptical at first, but I've since joined the fold. It's an excellent world.

- 2003: Wizards of the Coast held an open call to write a Forgotten Realms novel that would be called Maiden of Pain. Even though hundreds were denied, many were kindled to write again, and I was among them. I'd known since I was a kid what I wanted to be when I grew up —even if I couldn’t make a career of it, which very few can—but I only dabbled and procrastinated for so many years. This contest kicked me into motion. Thanks, Wizards!
The message board discussions that resulted from this contest introduced me to some good friends. Ed Gentry I met on the WotC boards due to a Rush lyric in his signature. (How appropriate.) Soon enough—although I probably exchanged posts with him prior to this—Ed introduced me to Harley Stroh. In the wake of the Maiden contest, both Ed and Harley landed short stories in the book Realms of the Dragons II. I didn’t make even the “short list” on that one. Kameron Franklin was the winner of the Maiden of Pain contest. That book has now been out for a while. Through Ed and Harley and their many online acquaintances I have since come to a few other wordwrights, such as Marcy Rockwell. And through these acquaintances a fair amount more.

- 2004: Wizards of the Coast hosted another open call, this time for a novel set within the world of Eberron. I joined in along with approximately 500 others, but this time I did make the “short list.” I pursued that course for more than a year when, and, well, it took me long enough, but I finally succeeded.

The announcement, then:

I have signed a contract for an Eberron novel, what will be book #4 in the upcoming stand-alone series The Inquisitives. The first three will be authored by Ed Bolme, Paul Crilley, and the aforementioned Marcy Rockwell, respectively. I'm truly happy to be given this opportunity—owing many thanks to many people—and honored to be among such company.

Details about the book may trickle down in time, but this is all I can say about it for now.

Witch Hunt

Three things:

1. Visited Salem over the weekend and had great fun. The fellow on the left was only one of many decorations. The best part about that town is that just about every day in October in Salem is more festive than Halloween anywhere else. Halloween is too watered down these days, largely the result of fearful parents (perhaps rightly so). Salem is also a great historical site, and the numerous tours and museums there really paint a good picture of life in the late 1600s in colonial America. Good stuff.

2. Josh Wentz is putting out a Sidedown monograph that compliments his site and showcases a number of artists (literary, visual, and even musical). It's a big deal, and you can read more about it here.

3. A big announcement is coming soon.

Dungeon Master and the Lord of Blades

Dragon magazine issue #349, page 13, contains an ad for the DCC gazetteer. Harley, Mike, and I are all named, sharing page space with an ad for the soon to be released DVD of the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon and miniatures of a pit fiend and Eberron's Lord of Blades.

As a longtime geek and longtime reader of Dragon, this is thrilling.

(If anyone wants to see who doesn't have the magazine, let me know; I'll send you a scan.)

October

I certainly can't complain about the uneventfulness of my life. When I look back on the majority of my 20s (I'm now 29) and I'm more than a little disappointed in my lack of writing during that time. I spent too much time dreaming and too little time doing, spending more effort on my own long-running D&D campaign than on my would-be writing career. All of that changed between 2002 and 2003 thanks to WotC and its open calls. More about that another time—but for now it suffices to say that I'm not wanting for more projects; I'm fully enmeshed in a few and very happy for it.

On the non-writing front, Marisa and I have been taking some much-needed weekend trips recently. Last week we visited Amish country in the town of Paradise, Bird-in-Hand, and Intercourse in Pennsylvania (returning the day before the horrifying shooting). It isn't just farms and produce down there—we also played miniature golf (hadn't done that since I lived in California about half my life ago) and went to a local Halloween festival.

This coming weekend we've got plans to visit Salem, MA, because God forbid you dare to approach that place on Halloween. (You have to book more than a year advance and have tons of cash available to make that worthwhile, fehh!) We're staying at the Salem Waterfront Hotel (lucky on our part, since most of the hotels in the area are full) and taking part in various Halloween and historical events. I like a place that celebrates a non-Christmas holiday for a full month.

But October overall is a favorite month of mine. It means cooler weather (usually) and it culminates with my anniversary (aka Halloween). This year will be our second.