I met John Kovalic last night, he’s a really nice guy and very talented too. For those of you who don’t know him, I recommend you check out Dork Tower and Dr Blink – Superhero psychiatrist. Fantastic stuff.

Thanks for more positive comments. I am actually thinking of ammending the book slightly for the paperback version – pending conversations with my publishers. I think I may have overdone the negative side a little bit and am now enjoying my slow slide back in to the gaming community, so we’ll have to see.

Anyway, children howl, so must away.

Mark

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Thanks again for the kind words of recent posts. They really mean a lot. Great to hear from older D&Ders. I played with a few and I wish I’d played with more. My friend Frank Burrow was 28 or so and a really inspirational and interesting DM. I remember some great games of Bushido with him.

Fantasy novel proceeding apace, have had my hero stabbed, near drowned and hanged so far, so all good. Although not quite sure he is the hero. It’s certainly different to writing romantic comedy, I’ll say that. My problem with comedies is making stuff happen – plot, in short. When I’m reflecting real life, I kind of think it’s a bit unrealistic to have a plot, even though I do strive – for the reader’s sake – to come up with one. In the fantasy world it’s much easier – heroic actions all seem to have consequences. What’s difficult is trying to keep the characters fresh and interesting without breaking the atmosphere of the world. I’m doing an early viking thing, so it would be boring to have the hero very brave, even though that’s how the sagas always portrayed them. THen you have to decide on dialogue – how much humour are you going to allow the characters, how much modern thought. Can they be in love? What does the Viking rather promiscuous moral code do to a love story? It’s good fun working these things out and the solutions sometimes drive the plot.

But here’s a question – does anyone know what a Viking kingdom looked like? How many farms? Anything like a village (I know about Hedby etc but towns were unusual at the beginning of the Viking period) Did the king live on a farm, or did he just have a hall near some farms? How many Jarls in an average kingdom?

These small questions  are really important. It took me a while to find out that Vikings didn’t have oar benches and it was a swine finding out where they would put long things, such as spears, when travelling by ship. 

Also trying to do a really good female character for this book. That would be a first for me, I have to say. I don’t think I’ve got women particularly well in some of my other writing.

Must avoid following stereotypes:

Plucky rogue with heart of gold

Ill-tempered Barbarian who dies for love

Mad wizard (natch)

Comedy short person

Cursed protagonist, who no one understands. I don’t think I’ve avoided that one, actually. Or the ill-tempered barbarian.

Reading Game of Thrones right now, which is great fun. The characters are drawn very big but, hey, that’s high fantasy for you.

Anyway, meeting John Kovalic soon for a drink, so that should be interesting. Unless I’ve managed to mess up the timing, which would not be unheard of.

Deep in New Year fitness blitz. Doubtless it will come to a resounding halt sometime around February when my body breaks down. I’ll look forward to the rest.

Yours from the typeface

Mark

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

For those of you who are interested in hearing my dulcet tones, I’m on NPR’s Only A Game programme talking about D&D.

http://www.onlyagame.org/

As well as:

http://www.wpr.org/book/090111a.cfm

The interviews were a lot of fun and American interviewers, unlike their British counterparts, at least have read the book.

Thanks for your message, Mark. There were a few bits that ended up being cut, which is usual with any book. However, they normally end up in the bin for good reason. Also, some of the stuff I chopped out was for libel reasons – which makes them no more publishable on the net than it does in print! I’ll have a look, though, and see if there’s anything interesting. I’m not sure there really is, though.

Just getting back into physical fitness after three months off with a severely strained level of interest in exercise. Had fitness assessment at gym. They told me I was average.  Average, have you seen average? Back to the grind, I fear.

Currently attempting to build up to 100 press ups – I ask myself the question ‘Am I 14 years old.’ The answer – in many ways ‘yes’.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Thanks Paul.

Well my career as a fantasy novelist will begin in 2010, when Gollancz publish my first book. I dont know if they want me to say what it’s called yet, so I’ll keep that under wraps. Learning some fascinating details, though. Danish viking longships had a shallower keel than their Norwegian cousins, apparently. One day, I will kill someone in a pub quiz with that fact.

If you’re interested in any of my work so far, I’ve written three novels – Girlfriend 44, Infidelity For First Time Fathers and Lucky Dog, all available in the States, in fact all probably available on ebay for around a cent, though I’d recommend going and buying one in a shop, naturally!

Thanks for your comments again.

M

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Glad you enjoyed the book, Nick.

Yes, Billy’s born again status did depress me slightly. Thank God (or God shaped hole) that there is enough of his old personality left that you can tell him you think he’s completely nuts without him taking offence.

He did make me hoot on a couple of occasions – my favourite comment being ‘if I hadn’t taken all that acid I’d just have been more successful and happier, that’s all.’ I think he was joking but I also think there’s a lot of truth in what he said. Acid’s like bungee jumping – everyone should try it once but, if it becomes a hobby, you’re a twat, basically. (I’m talking about you, William Borroughs).

I wondered how that section seemed to US readers – religion being so much more central to American life than it is in Britain. I can remember seeing some American friends in Florida once and they were amazed that we didn’t go to church. They were more amazed when they discovered we didn’t even know anyone who went to church and that doing so would mark you out as a bit odd, certainly in London where I was working at the time.

Actually, having said that, I think that born again Christianity is a better lifestyle choice than ingesting large quantities of home made LSD, though it has the effect of rendering your conversation just as tedious.

Anyway, children call and I have to obey an instruction to ‘eat my porridge!’.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

First – Dennis Sustare (the great druid) has replied to my blog! Wow, someone who is actually mentioned on the title page of Eldritch Wizardry. That’s incredible. I felt like a musician who hears that Elvis likes his work.

I loved Druids and was always trying to think of a way to make Faerie Fire more offensive. The nearest I got was doing it to a cowering, invisible fellow player who had left me to an ogre. That showed him.

Thanks for your response Dennis and I’m glad you enjoyed the book so much.

Thanks to everyone else too.

Sorry you found it shallow, Stephen. I’d be interested in what you meant by that – shallow in terms of the characters depicted (I’m bound to point out that other reviewers have said the reverse, like the tedious git I am) or shallow in terms of game description? (Lots of people have said that).

Not sure that RPGs are that close a fit to reality, Thomas. As I point out in the book, girls and Balrogs need to be approached differently. Just my opinion, you may know different. (cue fiery whip jokes).

Anyway, here’s my confession. It’s on me again – the urge. It started slowly during research for the book. Then I told myself I could just collect early D&D stuff. Then the idea that a little game wouldn’t hurt occurred to me. Now I have signed up to play a game next year, am looking at conventions and – inspired by the fact I’m writing a fantasy novel – I’ve decided to come up with an RPG of my own.

I’d love to do it as a computer thing but, unfortunately, technology is a stranger to me. Hence it’ll be paper and pen and…. Will announce as I do it. I will reveal it is set in the Viking age, features Seid magic, has  a fun combat system (I hope) and will probably never see the light of day.

However, if there are any artists out there who fancy contributing a bit of work then I’d love to hear from them. Playtesting some time in the Autumn, I think (not one to do things by halves, I expect it might be quite detailed).

May you enjoy Psychic Crush with your Ego Whips. (One for the early psionics)

M

Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments »