I've described elsewhere on the site how I managed to end up getting published through the clever strategem of insulting the editing skills and moral choices of Eric Flint in his editing of the James Schmitz reissues. Here, I want to talk about the influence Eric has had on me outside of that specific sequence of events. People who read some of my older postings (in the 90s and before) would likely see, at some point, my mentioning that I wouldn't detail some particular idea because I intended to use it in my [ Continue reading... ]
Under the Influence: The Arduin Grimoires
November 23, 2012 By 12 Comments
Back in the ancient days of roleplaying games, Dungeons and Dragons was pretty much the only game in town, a game consisting of three little booklets: Men & Magic, Monsters and Treasures, and The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures, followed a bit later with the supplements Greyhawk, Blackmoor, and Eldritch Wizardry. But one day, I joined a game with a GM – John Robb – who was using a new book: like the others, it was a staple-bound pamphlet-style book with a sort of buff-colored cover, on which was a warrior [ Continue reading... ]
Under the Influence: Godzilla
November 16, 2012 By 1 Comment
One dull, rainy weekend in the early 1970s, when I was living in Latham, NY, my brother and I were bored, and my father turned on the TV and checked what was on. This didn't take long, since we could receive exactly 4 channels – Channel 13 (CBS), Channel 10 (NBC), Channel 6 (ABC), and Channel 17 (PBS). He stopped at one and settled back in his chair. "I think you'll enjoy this." At first we didn't get it. It was a bunch of Japanese people, occasionally with a guy I recognized as usually playing [ Continue reading... ]
Under the Influence: Computer/Console RPG Thoughts
November 12, 2012 By 4 Comments
I've already reviewed and talked about several videogame RPGs, ranging from the venerable yet still amazing Chrono Trigger to the Elder Scrolls games Oblivion and Skyrim, the Fallout series, and Dragon Age. Undoubtedly I'll review more later; I have quite a few on my shelves from the past many years. Today, however, I want to muse on the things I've liked, the things I don't like or find missing, and what I really would like to see in future CRPGs. To me, the ideal CRPG would be one that allows [ Continue reading... ]
Under the Influence: Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian
November 7, 2012 By 3 Comments
Know, O prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars - Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Dragonball/Dragonball Z
October 29, 2012 By 3 Comments
SAA, NEGAI O IE. DONNA NEGAI MO HITOTSU DAKE KANAETE YAROU. (COME THEN, STATE YOUR WISH. I SHALL GRANT YOU ANY ONE WISH.) When Kathleen and I lived in Pittsburgh, I had made the acquaintance of a gentleman named Michael Collins. Mr. Collins was quite an anime enthusiast, and I often referred to him as our anime "pusher", as he had a fairly large collection and was willing to loan tapes to get us hooked into various shows. People can blame him for my having knowledge of quite a number of shows, including Sailor [ Continue reading... ]
Under the Influence: The Dawn of the Network Age
October 17, 2012 By 7 Comments
I grew up as part of the last generation that can remember computers being something that only Scientists and Universities and Governments had – arcane hunks of metal with das blinkenlights and whirr-whirr-whirr tape drives and big, washing-machine sized magnetic disk drives (which held orders of magnitude less than your USB thumb drive does today). So while ARPANet/the Internet was born when I was considerably younger, I was part of the first generation who had the opportunity to see and operate a computer when we [ Continue reading... ]
Under the Influence: Robert A. Heinlein
October 15, 2012 By 3 Comments
In some ways it seems almost pointless to write this post; what could I possibly write about Robert Anson Heinlein, good or bad, that hasn't been written a thousand times before? Heinlein isn't, like Doc Smith, a forgotten legend; nor is he, like Schmitz, a man who failed to quite get the fame he might have deserved. He is, instead, a titan of the field, one of the few names that dominated the genre for multiple decades and whose fame at least sometimes strayed well outside of the limits of that genre. Reams upon reams have [ Continue reading... ]
Here’s my Albacon Schedule!
October 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Finally have my schedule for Albacon (which is next week!!!)Friday, October 19th:8:00 PM Ice Cream Social: Hey, come visit, eat ice cream. MMM. Ice cream. Room: Cole/Church10:00PM: Anime Films You Should See At Least Once: From the text, it seems that this also includes series. Let's see what people recommend! :) Room: ColeSaturday, October 20th: (a very busy day)10:00AM: Reading (for a full hour!): I'll be reading from Phoenix Rising, and maybe something else. Room: Reading. How apropos!12 Noon: Signing: Come get me to write in your copies of [ Continue reading... ]
Under The Influence: Kathleen Moffre-Spoor
October 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How can I talk about influences without mentioning the greatest influence in my life (in some ways,even more so than my parents), Kathleen? I originally met Kathleen through her best friend, Dana. I had befriended Dana at the local community college and was at the time starting to date her. One of the primary connections between us was our gaming interests – both of us played RPGs of various types. So I ended up running a D&D game for Dana and her friend Kathleen. At the time, I was… not [ Continue reading... ]
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