Category Archives: Announcements

Hey, there’s something coming up that I want to tell you about!

Announcements, Crossposted

Shopping Schlock Mercenary for the Holidays

From time to time people ask us: “what’s the best way to support Schlock Mercenary?” Here are some answers!

Shop at Amazon with the Schlock Link

Just click on this link before beginning your Amazon.com shopping trip, and we’ll get a small portion of what you spend.

Shop With Us Directly

We’ve got plenty of merchandise for your consideration:

70momem-adv-pristine-onwetproofs2Pre-Order Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries and/or the Planet Mercenary RPG

This link will take you to Backerkit, where you can pre-order Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries in defaced and/or pristine versions², as well as the Planet Mercenary tabletop role-playing game.

Share the comic with a friend

Do you know people who might enjoy reading Schlock Mercenary? The archives are oppressively deep, but there are good starting points³ at the beginning of books 10, 11, and 12. You might even start them at book 15. If they decide they want to go back to the beginning, they totally can.

¹Sandra wrote two children’s books, which were illustrated by Angela Call. They’re beautiful, and make great gifts.

²The pristine version has scholarly annotations under the maxims, and lots of white space. The non-pristine version has handwritten notes from both Tagons, Murtaugh, and Schlock in the margins. The pristine version is pictured atop the wet proofs for pages from the non-pristine version.

³Seriously, don’t start people at the beginning. Just don’t.

Announcements, Crossposted

Pre-Orders for Maxim 70 Coins

You may now pre-order the Maxim 70 coin. We expect to be able to ship these out during the second week of November.

m70-coinproof
“Maxim 70: Failure is not an option. It is mandatory. The option is whether or not to let failure be the last thing you do.”

They are $10.00 each, and should make excellent gifts. Award one to someone¹ whose persistence you admire, or to someone who needs a leg up over a recent failure. Or perhaps you might carry one in your own pocket as a tactile reminder of your own passion for standing back up after having been knocked down.

Our first run of these is limited to 500. The Schlock Patreon supporters got a head-start, and we’re down to 250 as of this writing. We’ll order another 500 if it looks like we’re going to sell out, and if that happens this week we should take delivery of the second order in plenty of time to ship everything in time for Christmas. There’s no difference between the two runs, and we’re not numbering the coins.

¹The practice of awarding a coin to someone who has performed a service, or has otherwise acted in a notable manner, is about 75 years old. We’ve chronicled a bit of that in this free PDF: An Unofficial Anecdotal History of Challenge Coins, which was funded by our Kickstarter backers in 2013.

 

Announcements, Crossposted

Coin Pre-orders Opening Soon

We’ve been wanting to make some new challenge coins for a while now. Our hope is to have at least two designs done, die-struck, and delivered in time for Christmas.

This is the first one. It’ll be simple struck brass, with an antique gold finish. No colors, no resin domes, just metal.

m70-coinproof

I love all the coins we’ve made, but this design really speaks to me. I look forward to having this in my pocket, serving as a reminder that I’m allowed to make mistakes.

The second coin we’ve planned is the Bristlecone ship coin, similar in design to the previous ship coins we’ve done. It’s not done yet, so no pictures.

Watch this space. Pre-orders will open soon, perhaps as early as next week. The coins will be $10 each, plus shipping.

 

Announcements, Crossposted

WXR16: On the Way Home

sept22-oasiswakeSandra and I are on our way home from Sint Maarten, dieseling across the eastern Caribbean with 180 fellow Writing Excuses Retreat delegates.

The event has been delightful. We still have a full day at sea tomorrow, so it’s not over, but Oasis of the Seas is not stopping again until Ft Lauderdale. That wake behind us is going to be a constant feature for the next 36 hours.

This largest-ship-in-the-world class of vessel is amazing, but I think I like my gargantunormous floating resorts a bit smaller. And the plan, as of this writing, is for next year’s Writing Excuses Retreat (#WXR17) to be held on a smaller ship on a different patch of ocean. We’re still finalizing the details (and getting the best prices we can) but I’m authorized to tell you that we’re going to Europe, and that the cruise will be timed to let delegates debark in time for a quick flight to Helsinki, for the World Science Fiction Convention.

I’ll post full details here and at writingexcuses.com in advance of registration opening. The plan (again, as of this writing) is to open registration on January 1st of 2017.

You probably want a full convention report before considering attending. I’ll make sure to post links to reports from attendees. Their voices carry more weight than mine, so it’s better for you (and easiest for me!) if I simply amplify.