Announcements

Find Me at GenCon Indy 2014

I’m at GenCon Indy this weekend. I arrived on Tuesday for setup, and don’t fly home until Monday the 18th, and yes, this means the convention is eating a week of buffer. Like a voracious monster with 70,000 mouths…

GenCon2014-1437-ZubTaylerHickman

I’m in Booth 1437 with Jim Zub and Tracy Hickman. We’re pretty much smack-dab in the center of the exhibit hall, facing the Asmodee folks.

Is there convention-exclusive merchandise? Yes, there is!

Exclusive pins

(Note: for those unable to attend GenCon, these exclusives can be purchased during the month of August if you’ve got the “Schlock Troops” level of patronage ($2.50/mo) over on Patreon.)

We’ll have plenty of other goodies, including the sale-priced ten-book bundle, and the latest Schlock Mercenary title, Longshoreman of the Apocalypse, and not only can you get me to sketch in the back of that at no charge, Zub can sign it for you too! He wrote the bonus story (and it is awesome).

Zub will have Skullkickers collections, and will happily tell you all about Wayward, his new project. He’l also be signing comic books galore – Pathfinder, Samurai Jack, Figment, Skullkickers, and more – and maybe, just maybe you’ll be able to coax a commission out of him. (Hint: use money.)

Tracy will be signing books and books and books (thirty years of writing will do that), and will have his Sojourner Tales game! Brand new!

My schedule is pretty packed. If you have to pick just one thing, you should pick my solo presentation at 7pm on Thursday, “Crafting Humor for the Page.”

Here’s my full schedule:

THURSDAY
  • 12pm — Room 245:  Cliches and Stereotypes, with Susan Morris, Erin Evans, David B. Coe, and Brad Beaulieu
  • 1pm-6pm — Booth 1437 (with occasional breaks)
  • 7pm — Room 245: Crafting Humor for the Page, my solo presentation!
FRIDAY
  • 10am-1pm — Booth 1437
  • 2pm — Room 243: Author Networking 101, with Kerrie Hughes, Kameron Hurley, Marc Tassin, and Carrie Harris
  • 3pm-5pm — Booth 1437
  • 6pm – Room 243:  Getting Great Reviews, with Susan Morris, Steve Diamond, and Kelly Swails
SATURDAY
  • 10am-12pm — Booth 1437
  • 1pm — Room 245: Writer’s Life: Tales from the Trenches with Don Bingle, Howard Tayler, Ed Greenwood, Michael Stackpole, and James Sutter
  • 2pm — Westin, Capitol III: XDM – X-treme Dungeon Mastery, with Tracy Hickman (note: I’ll be a little late and a lot out of breath.)
  • 4pm-6pm — Booth 1437
SUNDAY
  • 10am-3pm — Booth 1437 (note that Jim and I will be there, but Tracy will not! If you want to catch up with Mr. Hickman, don’t wait until Sunday to try.)

Lots of folks, including business partners, peers, fans, and fellow gamers, have asked about my evening schedule, or about “catching lunch” at the convention.

Unfortunately, lunch is taken on the run, and my evenings are booked with private meetings or crash time. There is one, and only one free-floating event, and that is the GenCon Indy Schlock Mercenary RPG playtest. I made that sound WAY MORE OFFICIAL than it really is. Alan will be holding a few of these, catch-as-catch can. Find Alan at GenCon!  I will be able to attend (as a player) exactly one of these. I don’t know which one.

If you want to maximize your chances of playing or watching, follow @AlanBahr, @HowardTayler, and/or @Schlocktroops on Twitter.

 

Essays, Faith, Journal

Three Tweets, because Robin Williams

Three tweets from me.
These aren’t my full thoughts on the matter, but for 140-character distillations, they come surprisingly close.

Journal, Reviews

What’s That Music in the Background?

I listen to a lot of music, and sometimes I listen to the same music a lot.

I studied music at BYU (Bachelor’s degree in Music Composition with an emphasis in Sound Recording Technology) and for a long time I thought my career path was a musical one. Turns out I was wrong.

Shattered dreams aside, I love listening to music while I work. This post is a quick run-down of my top five albums for “getting work done.” With just one exception, these are film scores, which seem particularly well-suited for evoking emotion without having a singer tell me what I’m supposed to be feeling.

Counting down to #1, then:

Pacific Rim Soundtrack from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legen5) Pacific Rim Soundtrack from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, by Ramin Djawadi

The movie did not work its magic on me, not the way it did for many of my friends. I guess I had physics on the brain, or something. Fortunately, the album doesn’t require any suspension of disbelief. It’s lively, and does a good job generating a contemporary/futuristic feel using a pretty standard suite of orchestral and electronic instruments.

My first and last track playcounts: 89 and 79.

Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters - Music from the Motion Pic 24) Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters – Music from the Motion Picture by Atli Örvarsson

When I first heard this score I thought that Hans Zimmer was channeling Danny Elfman. As it happens, Atli Örvarsson was under Zimmer’s direction, and they were shooting for “dark and quirky,” so I don’t think I was that far off.

My first and last track playcounts: 101 and 82. This isn’t in the #1 slot because as of this writing it’s feeling just a little played-out. For now, anyway.

Godzilla_ Original Motion Picture Soundtrack3) Godzilla: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, by Alexandre Desplat

I had a physics problem with Pacific Rim, but I let Godzilla get by me? DON’T YOU JUDGE ME.
This score had a long history of Godzilla scores to live up to, and I think it works wonderfully. Like a lot of modern scores it is reminiscent of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (especially Dance of the Adolescents,) and while that heavily dissonant, crunching arrythmia isn’t for everybody, I think it’s great for the big guy. Also, great for writing to.

This is the newest addition to the list, but it’s been a real go-to album for me lately. My first and last track playcounts: 25 and 25.

Pirates of the Caribbean_ On Stranger Tides (Soundtrack fro2) Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture), by Hans Zimmer, featuring Rodrigo y Gabriela

I’m a sucker for Zimmer’s work. Say what you want about his stuff all sounding the same,  I think he’s incredibly versatile, and the way he worked Rodrigo y Gabriela’s virtuousity into the score is brilliant and delightful. The remixed tracks at the end of the album are huge fun and very punchy.

My first and last track playcounts: 38 and 25. I use this one “sparingly,” but have been coming back to it a lot in recent weeks.

Random Friday1) Random Friday, by Solar Fields

It’s not a soundtrack. It’s a through-composed electronic-atmospheric dance album, and there’s a super-cool feature to it: The 86-minute collection of 10 tracks has been concatenated into a “Continuous Mix” track that is 78 minutes long.

This album is perfect for a long work session, especially penciling or inking. It starts nice and easy, then picks up the pace, and then tapers off right at the end… and then does it again, with 8 minutes of padding shaved off. It is a two-hour-and-forty-four minute workbeat to which a lot of Schlock has been written and illustrated.

The continuous track has 82 playcounts. First and last of the other tracks are 49 and 56, because I will sometimes start in the middle of the “regular” track list in order to build a playlist that is exactly as long as I have time for.

These are just my current top five, mind you. Of course, while I was writing the list I was listening to Jablonsky’s score for Ender’s Game, which is far, far better than that film was.

Also note that while I’ve linked all of these to their Amazon pages (which is where I’m buying most of my music lately) they’re available on iTunes, and probably lots of other places.

Funnies

Hire Me To Write Horoscopes

I have always wanted to write horoscopes.

  • AQUARIUS – Don’t read the comments today. Or ever, really. But if you have been reading comments, today is the day you should stop.
  • PISCES – Double-check that. You did the math wrong, I think.
  • ARES – If working from home is an option, take it. If not, maybe call in sick. If you DO decide to go in, don’t wear those shoes.
  • TAURUS – Are you carrying change? Today might be a good day for a roll of quarters.
  • GERMINATE – I know this is going to sound kind of specific, and it probably only applies to a very few of you, but under NO circumstances should you attempt to put that tuba on your head.
  • CANCER – The cat hates it when you do that. Do you hear that noise she’s making? Pay attention. Also, we’re going to re-name your sign, because cancer’s getting a lot of hate lately. How do you feel about “FARTJACK?”
  • LEO – Are you the one who keeps adjusting the thermostat? Be extra sneaky about it today. Like, wipe your fingerprints off the box. And the claw-hammer, just in case.
  • VIRGO – Don’t answer the phone before noon today. Exception: if you’re working in the 9-1-1 call center, answer the phone on the first ring. Oh, and use Taurus’s horoscope today, because the drink machine won’t take bills.
  • LIBRA – How long has it been since you saw the dentist?
  • SCORPIO – It’s probably not a blood-pressure problem, but you also probably shouldn’t be consulting me for medical advice.
  • SAGITTARIUS – Check the food-truck schedule before going out. If you drive a food-truck, use Pisces’ horoscope today.
  • CAPRICORN – If a Sagittarius drives your favorite food truck, the truck is going to run out of your favorite thing by noon-thirty, because Sagittarius didn’t think I was serious about playing Pisces for a day.

Writer, Illustrator, Consumer